The 50 miler that probably feels like this blog is totally ignoring

View on the way up on Sunset Drive. Downtown Asheville can be seen on the left.

It feels a little crunch-timey. With 11 weeks to go, I realize I’m about to dwindle down to single digit weeks. My wife, apparently sick of listening to me complain about some knee pain, has decided to get on my ass about not only strength training and stretching but also general body and life maintenance. For example, she washed both my handheld water bottle sleeve and my SpiBelt, something that I had just been neglecting… for a while. Gross, I know.

On the way to work today I called her to what sparked this extra investment lately and she said, “it seems real now, the race being so close. You need to do everything you can to make sure you are ready for this thing. It’s such an insane thing to do.”

The timing of her extra focus is fantastic as I also feel the screws tightening. Week 16 (out of 28), the week prior, was written out to be my cut back week so I should have done three runs during the week totaling around 20ish miles. Instead, my right knee was kind of bugging me, it stormed A LOT and I was going camping with some friends for a few days at the end of the week. I decided to take it easy on myself and have a little complete mental and physical break from running. A big fat zero total miles.

I think it was necessary and it probably was a subconscious decision forced upon me by my tired body.

I have been struggling to fully hit my mileages on the long runs for the past few weeks. I have been anywhere from 3-6 miles short and although I’m pretty close on the total weekly mileage, I’ve been a little disappointed that I’ve tanked out on those long ones. I don’t recall failing to hit my long run numbers… like… ever. All my training research has always harped on the importance of not skimping on these and it’s been three weeks in a row that I’ve had to tap out early. 

So. I think the week break was the perfect reset I needed. I think my body was trying to tell me that I was pushing a little too hard and burning out.

After that little reprieve, I knocked out a hot and moderately grueling 11 miler around my neck of the woods yesterday before work. It was pretty casual, finishing up with about an 11:30 pace and a lot of walking but I did put in about 1,000 feet of gain. I felt pretty strong along the way, and that’s really what matters more than the pace. 

And as for today, I ran 7 miles around North Asheville after work. A pretty bad storm had rumbled through the area only a few hours prior so it was super humid and muggy. But this stretch is always such a beautiful run with the views of downtown Asheville jumping out at you round most turns. It also flew by because I’m listening to my friend Fudge’s new podcast, Overstoked!. He is focused on having conversations with people about what gets them stoked on life and I have been resonating with his guests. Go check it out! His real name is Chris, but Fudge, like Kenny, is such a good nickname that he had to keep it into his later adult life.

Even though the run went well, I was slightly irritated that I had to miss disc golf league in order to get this run knocked out. I had originally intended on getting it done in the morning so I could do both but that just didn’t seem possible as I pathetically laid with the dog in his dog bed on the living room floor at 11 pm after returning home from work last night, fully feeling that 11 mile run through my whole body.

Tomorrow is a 9 mile run and even though I’ve been dying to get back to the trails, running on road for these weekday runs has been much more convenient time wise, so it will probably be a post work jog again. 

I’m looking forward to both my rest day and then my upcoming 18 mile run! I also am planning on cutting out (or at least really limiting) alcohol until the 50 miler run in Oregon in August.

Oh, right, the 50 miler…

So, the Oregon Cascades 50 is coming up even quicker than the 100 and it is about time that it rightfully starts to steal the spotlight a little bit. 

With this race about 7 weeks away, I figure I should try to set a goal. Goal A is, as always, have fun and stay healthy while enjoying running in the Pacific Northwest and then have a good time hanging out with old friends afterwards. Goal B is to finish better than my first 50 miler three years ago, which was 12:12:41. 

That race, The Georgia Jewel in Dalton, Georgia, had about 7,000ft of gain and I’m unsure about the loss but best estimate is about 4000ft. This race, the Oregon Cascades 50, has 4,000ft of gain and 6,500ft of loss, so it definitely is downhill leaning. Hooray! I feel pretty strong on downhills. I passed many racers during the multiple downhill bombs of the Ridge to Rails 50k last year but I also know prolonged downhill can roast some legs. 

I think with the elevation gain being only a little more than half than my previous 50, and my confidence on downhills, I think I might shoot for a sub 11 hour finish. I also understand that I shouldn’t push too hard because this is the “big long run” before the the 100. But I also want to keep that sub 24 hour finish goal for the 100 and feel that trying to shoot for a little less than half of that would be a great goal for this 50.

The next big real challenge is a 50k training run next weekend. I unfortunately couldn’t find any races within a reasonable drive that aligned with the right timeframe and effort for this run so I’m planning on doing a little bit of research to see if there is a runnable course from previous races that I could mimic, with the limitation that I would probably need to somehow circle back to my car to refill/reload my pack. 

Biggest focus this week - drinking water and knee strengthening. Oh, and maybe finishing Yellowjackets.