The "Official" Runners thread...

I'm pretty sure it was the "100%" that got me, after thinking about it some, I think it would take several weeks to work safely up to 100% (unless you've already been doing a lot of sprinting)

 

yep, same here. I had not done any 100% running in who knows how long. Im going to take the rest of the week off from any running to heal up and see how it goes next week.

For longer runs are ya'll doing anything for nutrition during the run?
The spartan beast this december is 14 miles with 50 obstacles...

 

For anything under 2 hours I don't hydrate or consume any calories. Anything over 2 hours I try to consume a gel every 30 minutes to help simulate what I'll be doing in a race. I also try to consume about 20oz of liquid an hour which is what I try to drink when racing too. Sometimes its hard to motivate myself to eat, but I know I bonk hard when I don't so its gotta happen or I feel like shit.

Hope you heal up quick!

 

What kind of gels do you use? Ive got some that I like but they are just kinda messy and I dont know what to do with the empty packet other than keep a ziploc in my pack and store them in that.

 

anything over an hour I usually bring calories and water, I use Clif Shotbloks quite a bit, usually every 20 minutes or so (~ 30 calories/block)- if the run is going to be over two hours then I'll usually carry Perpetuem (Hammer product) mixed into a 20 oz bottle (I'll carry two bottles one w/ water, one w/ calories)- the bottle will typically last ~ 2 hours, if the run is longer then I'll have small zip locks w/ pre-measured amounts of Perpetuem for a 20 oz bottle; ie a 6 hour run I'll have one bottle mixed and ready to go and then have two baggies ready to mix on the trail

in addition on 2+ hour runs, I'll carry Hammer bars and eat a 1/2 bar every hour, and then just carry the right amount of bars for the time

anything over 2 hours you definitely need to be taking in calories, you're glycogen stores only last about that long if you're not supplementing along the way- and once you get behind on calories you're pretty much screwed, you need to be on top of it from the start

 

Good info, thank you. I think they said this run is about a 4 hour run. I ordered some drink mix from infinite nutrition after reading lots of good reviews about them. Im going to try it out on longer runs and see how I like it.

 

I like HEED from Hammer nutrition, its good stuff. Really though, it doesn't matter what you drink as long as your using the same stuff in training that you'll be using on race day. The whole point is to acclimate your body to digesting the items while under physical duress. Good luck with your training!

 

I 2nd the clif shot bloks. I like gels as well but they have just used them before long runs (13.1). I've used the extreme jelly beans too and they are About on par with the bloks.

 

I like Gu. The Roctane blueberry pomegranate being my go-to.

 

I've tried several different gels and never found one I liked, they are a little overpowering and messy. they do however pack more punch oz for oz than anything and thus keep a couple in my running pack, but they are relegated for emergency use only

Perpetuem is nice for longer runs (3hrs +) as in addition to complex carbs it also has protein, which is important because your body will very efficiently cannibalize muscle tissue to help aid in fueling if it doesn't have any handy. It also contains a small amount of fat, which evidently aids fueling in longer endeavors

 

I have a trail half a week from Sunday. Any advise on what my regement should be leading up to it?

 

I'd get a get a few runs in the 5 to 6 mile range this week and a decent long run in this coming weekend- probably 10-12-ish, the following week 2-3 runs in the 4-6 range and then nothing Friday/Saturday

that's assuming you've been running regularly up to this point

 

I ran a tempo run this morning. And I'm going to do some track speed work on Saturday. How do you eat the day and night before a race?

 

I try to eat pretty "normal", nothing spicy the night before- usually leaned towards carbs

morning I try to get my regular breakfast- cereal/fruit/toast/coffee- in about 1.5-2 hours before race time

 

finished up the week w/ 32 miles (6/6/6/14)- running is now relegated to early morning hours
sadly had to cancel my Devil's Backbone 25 miler in mid-July, starting a new job, moving, selling and buying a new house- just not in the cards this year

 

Finished the Edmonton Sprint Spartan Race this past weekend. What a crazy crazy time!!!
The entire organization of the Race was a complete gong show. The parking - shuttles to site - lineups - everything!! A total cluster!! We arrived an hour and a half early, only to miss our 10am Heat, and had to run in the 10:30am Heat.
The Race itself......WOW!!!!! What a fricken AWESOME course. It was at a place called 'Rabbit Hill', which is a ski hill in the winter time. To say that the running portion of this Race was grueling, would be putting it lightly. But I loved it!! I think in total, we ascended and descended the ski hill about 6 or 7 times. The obstacles were extremely challenging, as the mud was EVERYWHERE, and super slimy. I can usually do monkey bars with little effort, but there was no way I could traverse them with the mud all over - lol. Same thing went for the rope climb. The mud was nuts - haha.
Overall, I finished 70th place out of 324 males in my age group. 790th place out of 2338 total males. And 1010th place out of 4448 total competitors. I could've done better, but I ran the course with my training partner. I stuck with her, because I do these races for the pure enjoyment. And it ultimately pushed her to finish WAY better than she expected.
Now the training continues for the next Race in Calgary (in August). I did Calgary last year - and if they use the same course, it'll be a cakewalk compared to Edmonton.

 

^ that's a lot of folks participating- congrats!

finished my first 50k (actually 55k), I'm now "officially" an ultra runner

the bloody leg helps the look at the finish line

 

I did my longest run yet 15.5 miles yesterday. Lots of hills, that may not have been the best route to choose for my longest run.(26+ miles for the week) Oh well, feeling good this morning! Gonna do some hiking with the GF.

^Congrats on the 55k bigsky

 

Finished the Harbison trail Half in 2:07 good for top 25%. Pretty thrilled with that considering it was damn hard as heck and i got a bitching blister on both arches around mile 3 and twisted my ankle at my 7.

 

^ good time, congrats!

got 31 miles in this week (6/5/7/13)- was hoping for a longer run this weekend, but busy moving so running was bumped