Friday, July 20, 2007

Aim high

Its been an odd week so far. I came down with some sort of stomach bug on Monday afternoon. Ran my normal six on Tuesday, skipped Wednesday's eight, but went out for Thursday morning's eight. In retrospect, I probably should have skipped Thursday, too, since I ended up not feeling well enough to go to work. And I rarely use my sick days. Today I'm much better but didn't feel like getting up early for my strength training. Oh well, if there was a good week to be sick this one was it. If you had asked me yesterday I would have been 100% not interested in running a 50 mile race. But today I feel like I'm getting my drive back.

This weekend is going to be an easy one. Tomorrow morning we're heading out to Estacada so Marc can run the 15k in the Clackamas River Runoff trail race. There's also an 8k trail race, a duathlon and a triathlon, so the spectating should be fun. Then in the afternoon Sharon and I are heading out somewhere for a 10-12 mile run. I realized that Sunday is the first weekend day all summer that I don't have a long run planned nor does Marc have to work. So it will be a 100% family day. Not sure what we'll do, maybe hike or go berry picking. But there will be no running involved.

Back to the time goals for the 50 miler coming up in one week. I really appreciate all the input I received. You'll notice that I titled that post Time goals and not just Goals. Time will certainly be a major factor, but it's just one part of my experience. I don't want my other goals of enjoying the experience, the beauty of the trail and the company of my fellow runners and volunteers, to be overshadowed by my time. Certainly I want to run the sucker as fast as I can, but I don't want how I end up feeling about the race to be predicated by my time. Make sense?

That said, the best advice I've taken from your comments is to aim high. I can't sell myself short. My training hasn't been perfect, but its been pretty good. I've ran better this year than I ever imagined. So I'm going to revise my time goals a bit. I'm going to move 11:15 from being my dream goal to the realistic goal I think I can hit. Its the time I'm going for. My pie-in-the-sky goal will be sub-11, specifically 10:30. I think that's a reach but not totally out of the question.

For those who were wondering here's the elevation chart for this easy 50 miler.

This is only the first half. Once you reach Timberline (3950 ft elevation gain), you get to turn around and go back for a total of 5150 feet of elevation gain. So it really is relatively easy when compared to other west coast ultras. By comparison, the McDonald Forest 50K had 6600 feet of elevation gain this year.

With that I probably won't write much more about this race or I may make myself too nervous! Happy weekend and best of luck to all the racers out there!

8 comments:

Olga said...

Aha, now we are talking! that's exactly what my plan for you held, I am so glad you came to the same one all by yourself. Wouldn't want to push it on you, you know...well, may be just by giving you "think more" comments:) Awesome plan, Sarah, and I am sure you'll hit right on the spot, somewhere between 2 and 3, just be smart, patient and very tough on the way back. Smile and chat first 10 miles, then focus. You can do it! And yes, time goals never overshadow the rest of life ones, they go side by side perfectly fine. Woohoo, girl! Did I tell you you are fast, strong and fun runner?

Olga said...

Oh, and of course, don't get anymore stomach flu things, ok?

wendy said...

Yay Sarah! You have such a sound approach. I love how you're thinking of enjoying the run, all the aspects of it, with a time goal as a portion of the run.

That said, I'm glad Olga concurs with the A and B plan. You're a strong runner, and didn't I read a few weeks ago how mentally strong you are too?

Get better soon, and enjoy your family day!

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Sarah Said: For those who were wondering here's the elevation chart for this easy 50 miler.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sigh)))) I know Sarah, I seen the comments below (easy-LoL) and I have read a few in the past on several other blogs...

Easy 50 ---
it's just a little ole' 50 miler--
Oh a 50 no problem ---
my favorite so far is from Rick,
" It's just a 50 miler, so NO tearing up at the finish line, save that for the 100's" LOLOL ahhhh

Sarah how did we get mixed up with such Freaks?! umm lucky I guess :-)

Good plan, ur going to do great...

the biggest challenge for my 1st50 I feel because I haven't done any races yet-lol is the Fuel part, make sure I get a good combo of water & electrolytes.

Best wishes hun, enjoy ur week & visualizeeeeeeeee crossing that line, giving the best you had on that day :-)

Joe said...

Taper madness even hits the stomach...oh my. Hope you keep feeling better.

Wow, one week to go, Sarah!!! Enjoy the Sunday with the fam...that's a "goal" too, eh??

Darrell said...

It's been fun reading this little banter between you and Olga. You gotta love her postitive attitude.

I hope Marc enjoyed the race yesterday. Enjoy your week and take care of yourselft so that you can go tackle that "easy" 50 miler.

Stephanie said...

You have been running your ass off - you will have an awesome race:-)

Unknown said...

50 miles is never a gimme. Easy is all relative, but we know you are strong and prepared and will do well.