Dress Rehearsal

This weekend it was time to get back to some serious training for the Lean Horse 100. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been running 50-60 miles per week. But I needed to do some “dress rehearsal” training. You know….running on really tired legs, running in the dark, running when you just plain don’t want to. I got up about 5:00AM Saturday morning and packed my “aid station” with ice, water, bandana, pop tarts (the breakfast of champions), gels, body glide, sunglasses, etc. The cooler was just loaded with all kinds of stuff that I might need when running an ultra.
I live in the country, and there are gravel roads nearby. There is a 5 mile loop around the section where I live. The gravel road is very similar to the surface that I will be running at Lean Horse.
The morning session went well, and I completed 23 miles at a 9:30/mile pace. I planned to walk for 1 minute every 2.5 miles and the plan went well. I took an ice bath and fueled up. The rest of the day went well. I took a short nap, sprayed some weeds in some fields, did some crop scouting, and did some much needed repairs on the farm.
For supper, we went out with friends and I had one beer, a Hawaiian pizza all to myself, and many glasses of water.
That night, I went out at 9:00PM for my night run. The first 10 miles went well, but miles 11-15 were a struggle. I was lonely, tired, had a headache, hurt all over, and felt like $hit.
I forced myself to run the last 5 miles, imagining that I was at Lean Horse in the middle of the night. I pretended that I was at mile 95, and I kept running. I forced myself to skip the walk break. Pretty soon I was feeling full of energy, the feeling was amazing.
I finished with over 43 miles for the day, 98 miles for the week.
Sunday, I felt tired but not bad at all. I even went for a 3 mile run with my wife that night.
I plan on running lower miles this week, allowing my body to rebuild and strengthen for August 23.