Saturday, August 6, 2011

The Hay is in the Barn

It’s been a pretty steady week since Voyageur, and the last week of hard training before tapering for Cascade Crest 100.  I’ve gotten in about 110 miles since the race last Saturday, and just finished it with 40 hill repeats out at Hyland.  Now I’m ready for a break.

I signed up for Cascade Crest way back on February 12, the day before I ran a marathon in New Orleans.  I started training two weeks later. I’ve run 2,510 miles in 23 weeks since -21 of them over 100 miles, 1 at 97, and another at 40 when I was sick in CO.  My biggest mistake as you could probably tell was not taking down weeks to recover, but I guess some lessons in the sport you have to learn the hard way.  There’s no magic recipe to training for ultras.  It’s all one big grand experiment, and you never know where that fine line is in training until you toe it…or go over it a bit.

I’m excited but pretty scared for this 100 miler, but then again I can’t imagine anyone not being a little scared for a race that long.  I have no idea how it will go, but all you can do is work hard in training and find out what you’re capable of on race day.

The team for the race (Tony, the Sollers, and I) have been brushing up on some race knowledge with looking over race reports, old splits, and some pretty good YouTube videos.  Here's one that gives some pretty good views from the course...can't wait to see it in person!



3 comments:

  1. I'd say if you approach Cascade Crest like you did Superior Sawtooth last year, you'll have no problem. Good luck!

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  2. Rock it Brian! Embrace the challenges and HAVE FUN!
    chris

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  3. Brian,
    From a farmer perspective, that is a heck of a lot of hay in the barn!! Taper wisely these last two weeks going into it and you will dominate!! Can't wait to hear how it goes!
    John

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