[Dane]

I’m a few cycles into base period training for a 50k next spring which will be my first race ever and I’ve been thinking about the need to practice things like nutrition, aid station strategy, etc and getting used to what it feels like to really push for a few hours of running.

I thought a good way to do this might be to take one long run a month (probably the last long effort before the lower volume week in a 4 week cycle) and structure it close to the race I’ll be doing by making a multi-loop course around a local mountain starting at the parking lot and then using my car as an aid station to store food, clothes, etc and then just going for it on the run. I’m sure there are all sorts of things that can/will go wrong on race day and I figured this would be a good way to get some practice dealing with some of them. I’d rather find out now how early to eat beforehand or that my favorite food gives me GI problems when I’m going at a harder than usual pace.

Is there any reason I wouldn’t want to make a fitness withdraw so to speak once a month or so to practice this stuff? Should I hold back regardless of how I feel or is it OK to go hard as long as the rest of my training is progressing well and I’m feeling good on that day? I’m going to retest in a few weeks but my AeT is getting close to being within 10% of my AnT (143/162 respectively) in case that makes a difference.

Thanks

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on November 12, 2019 at 2:06 pm #31798

In general, it’s a great idea. You want to know what works for you by the time you get to race day.

However, you can test these things without going at race intensity. We all only have a few race days in us, especially for longer events, so I would test this stuff out with shorter and/or less intense sessions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on November 12, 2019 at 2:09 pm #31800

Or better yet, is there another race well before your goal event that you can enter? It doesn’t have to be as long, but a real race will teach you things that training can’t.

I made the mistake early on of not racing enough. I lost lots of time in races out of ignorance. The more you can learn in real races, the better.

[Dane]

Dane on November 13, 2019 at 2:19 pm #31930

Thanks for the advice Scott. I like the idea about trying more smaller races as practice. Maybe not as much as I like the idea of my first ever race being an ultra but I’ll look around and see if anything fits in. I’m looking at a 40 mile race in August so fitting a few local races in between Chuckanut and then would probably be a good idea. I think I’m mostly looking for a chance to turn the alert off my hrm and just enjoy running as fast as I feel like every now and then.

Dane