Welp…guess I am racing this weekend. Jackson County is here. Which means December is here. Which means the new baby is almost here!
With only five weeks between Monumental, big fall goal road marathon, and Jackson County. my second 50 miler, I knew the weeks in between would be tricky. It has been a weird hybrid rest/recover/maintain/specific training/taper thing going on.
Here is what my weeks from a volume standpoint have looked like.
Week 1 (first week post IMM) – 6 runs 30 miles. All easy
Week 2 – 6 runs. 50 miles. Easy but 2 runs in Monroe County to get hill work in.
Week 3 – 7 runs. 65 miles. Small mid week cut down. Felt pretty good. Another long run in Bloomington to get hill work in.
Week 4 – 8 runs. 53 miles. Taperish week. Semi raced the Drumstick Dash as I had Marshall in the stroller for the first two miles. Decent effort. Gave my last “effort” run on Friday. Good strong tempo type hill run around IU.
Week 5 – Jackson County race week. Everything is easy. Probably end up  with 22 miles prior to the race.
Coming off Monumental I had always planned a non-traditional taper for Jackson County so we’ll see how it goes…it will essentially be 8-10 days. Where as for Mohican I took a much more traditional taper cycle as Mohican was the goal and focus.
I’d like to run and place well at Jackson County but I honestly have no idea. The course is supposed to be difficult.
Here is the description from the website: “The course is a 10-mile loop with approximately 1,600 feet of vertical gain per lap (for comparison, about 25% more average elevation gain per mile than Tecumseh Trail Marathon). The trail is a mix of double-track (fire road style) trail and single-track narrow trail.”
It will be similar to Mohican but a more vertical in nature. I think Mohican had about 5,000-5,500. If the website is accurate this will be close to 8,000. Every ultra/trail course is different anyway so who knows anyway. One thing that is different is that it is 5, 10 mile loops. Which I think I might like. Just one loop at a time.
My goal for Mohican was sub 9 hrs. I was able to run basically 8 hours…coming in at 8:07 and snag 6th. So I’ll say my goal for Jackson County is around 8 hrs again. This should place me well and probably realistic for my fitness and mental state…but again you never know. Looking at the start list there are some fast dudes I know so it would be cool to hook with them but too much effort too early could be a disaster. We’ll see what happens. Either way I’ll give a good hard effort and enjoy the trail.Â
I’m sure Lindsey will be tweeting up a storm if you want to follow my race. These ultras aren’t like road races…no real tracking.
She’ll also be responsible for giving me updates on The North Face Endurance Challenge Championship 50 mile race taking place at the same time out in the Marin Headlands of California near San Fransisco. $10,000 is on the line and the field is stacked as usual. Butler alum and ultra running machine Rob Krar won itself dropping the field over the last 15K to win by 10 minutes in what had been competitive race. There will be a strong contingent of Hoosier born, raised and/or living runners competing at the pointy end of the race so I’m excited to hear the updates!
If you want to follow along at home I highly suggest following @irunfar on the twitters. They do a great job and will be all over the men’s and women’s race.
Also of note, assuming I finish race on Saturday that will put me at 2,855 miles for the year. I’ve never been one to keep detailed track of miles and logs but thanks to Strava it does it for me. I have 391 miles pre-Strava so assuming that is right I have got to think that 2,855 is my highest mileage year to date. I don’t set mileage goals but just something cool to track. We’ll see how I feel after the race but I sure would like to crack 3,000 for the year. We’ see. 🙂
Good luck to all those running this weekend both in Jackson County and the Marin Headlands! We may have similar weather.