2017 In Review and Training for Orca's Island 100 Mile
Countdown to Orca's Island 100: 9 weeks, 2 days
Mileage Last Week: 50
Races Completed in 2017:
- Marin Ultra Challenge 50 Mile, Sausalito, CA
- Zion 100 Mile, Virgin, UT
- Trail Mix 50k, Rockford, MN
- Chester Woods 50k, Eyota, MN
- Red White and Boom Half Marathon, Mpls, MN
- Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon, Duluth, MN
- Voyageur 50 Mile, Carlton, MN
- Surly Trail Loppet Half Marathon, Mpls, MN
- Hixon 50k, Lacrosse, WI
- Quad Dipsea 28.4m, Mill Valley, CA
2017 Was "My Year." With a new found freedom I had working for myself, and having a mobile work situation, I was able to experience some amazing races and places. With a total of 10 races and eight of those being ultra distance races, I really took full advantage. I also learned a lot about myself, and how to stay healthy and successful in running. There were highs and lows, and lessons learned, but overall, 2017 was a great year.
Biggest Success of 2017:
My biggest success of 2017 was improving my 50k times. I improved my 50k overall personal best by 33 minutes (from 5:15 to 4:42), and managed to cut 45 minutes off my Hixon 50k time from last year (from 5:55 to 5:10, good for 13th overall this year). I think that the major reason I hadn't set a new best in 50k since 2015 was simply because I didn't do any last year. It was great to get a gauge of how much I've improved over the shorter ultra distances. My hope is to bring these improvements to my longer races in the future.
Biggest Lesson Learned in 2017:
I have a pretty decent capacity for work and hard training mentally. This is both a blessing and a curse. The reason it was a curse for some of 2017 was that I definitely reached the point of at least mild overtraining early in the season. Knocking out 90-100 mile weeks while working at a fairly high stress time of year in my business, and for long hours, helped contribute to me burning out early in the summer of 2017. This overtraining was sneaky, as it did not show itself in any obvious ways, but looking back, the signs were there. The best way to describe it is just general exhaustion and fatigue. I was getting slower, I was losing enthusiasm, and my body felt drained. Early this fall, I committed to a fresh focus on taking care of my body and really adapting my training to how I was feeling, and to the total stress load I was under at any given time. I took two solid weeks away from running, and returned to running slowly, intermixing a lot of walking and low intensity activity. Amazingly, I returned to racing at Hixon 50k and had what I would consider one of the best races of my life with very little training under my belt. This taught me that there is tremendous performance value in taking care of your body and showing up to races fresh. This lesson is something that will guide me to better performances in the future, and will free me from strict training programs that don't adapt to the stresses of life and instead add more stress.
Looking Ahead to 2018:
Life is changing in an awesome way for 2018. My wife and I are expecting a baby in May, and that's going to mean a much leaner race schedule for the year. I have just two races on my schedule for the year, Orca's Island 100 mile on 2/9/17, and Hixon 50k at the end of October. Orca's 100 is a bucket list race for me, and will be a return to some of the most beautiful trails I've ever run on (I did the Orca's Island 50 mile this past spring). With 26,000 feet of elevation gain (that's 20.5 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of one another), and a reputation for wet, snowy, and generally adverse weather conditions, this race will certainly be the type of challenge that I love.
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