Ruth Anderson 100k 50 mile

There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is

1. I didn't hurt myself,
2. I kept the hip flexors under control and
3. I went past 50k finally at Ruth Anderson.

The bad news is I had the familiar drop in pace sometime after 20 miles from 9+ minute miles to 12+ minute miles. I wanted to get past my personal (2 times) 50k barrier at RA so kept going at that point (about 4:59). However, when I was getting close to 50 miles, I had a little chorus of pains singing from my right ankle and knees with a steady background accompaniment of pain from my quads and hip flexors. I was tentative going into the race because of my knees and didn't see much point in going on to complete a 11:30 or worse 100k so I quit at 50 miles.

I think the problem with the drop in pace is lack of conditioning via 30+ mile runs for the ultra distance. That didn't seem to bother me at Helen Klein though and I did have a problem in the past where 40+ practice road runs on consecutive weekends left me exhausted for a few weeks (iron deficiency?). So I'm planning to incorporate a 50k per week (but maybe no more than that for now) and I'm taking iron. My next race is a 6 hour (tentatively) so 50k should be plenty to prepare for that.

Sore Knees

I got overly enthusiastic last weekend and ran 7500' of descent (and the same ascent). At the end of Monday's workout, my knees were pretty sore. Then on Tuesday, I ran a track workout with a 5 mile commute both ways. I was planning to run 20 miles from work to Park and Ride on Wednesday but my cooler head prevailed (I usually keep it locked in an ice chest but every so often it escapes) and I took the bus home. So nothing on Wednesday. Friday's workout got stopped on the last lap because things around my knees were acting up. I iced really well on Friday and iced one sore spot on Saturday. By Sunday, I put in the planned 16 mile (slow) run so I should be back to full workouts this next week.

So for the week

• Mon - 11 miles on trails with 2600' vertical (sore knees)
  
• Tue - 13 miles including 1320 yds (4:39), then 6x440 yds
  
• Wed - 0
  
• Thu - 4 miles in grass
  
• Fri - 13 miles (planned to do 16)
  
• Sat - 4 miles barefoot in grass
  
• Sun - 16 miles
  

Total - 61 miles