Two days have now passed since I'd signed up for my Ultra Marathon event.
The event that requires super human efforts and determination is scheduled to start at 6.00pm on 29th May 2010. This will give me slight more than 5 months to prepare for my first Ultra Marathon. The biggest questions I had in my mind at this jucture was... would this give me sufficient time to prepare?
I referred to a source of information widely known as the World Wide Web. The tool that helped me filter the trillion upon trillions of information stored in it was Google. My first keyword search was "Ultramarathon Training Program" Most of the open source training guides seem to encourage having at least a minimum of 6 months to 1 year of preparation time. "Oh crap!" I said out loud... ""What have I got myself into?!" I comforted myself by telling myself that I had been continuously running ever since I completed my first marathon, I did not take too long a break. So, with that in mind, I went to the trusty Hal Higdon website. The guy who had helped millions complete their first marathon with his full prove training program and I clicked on the Ultra Marathon category with pride. My first initial expression was me with my jaws wide open... the weekly mileage are insane!
Imagine this, 6 weeks of base training to get the mileage up... running between 5 - 6 times a week which includes cross training. The weekday mileage seems do-able but the weekend mileage is mind boggling. At its peak, I had to run beyond a marathon distance in my weekend long run and put in at about 70 - 80 miles a week combined. That is running about 128 Kilometers worth of mileages a week! (yes, I use miles instead of Kilometers to fool myself because the number seem smaller) Panic struck me as I wonder how I would be able to juggle my 3 lane highway without sacrificing one or the other. I settled with me telling myself to follow as closely to the program as I can and let nature take it's course.
For your information, in my first marathon training - I'd managed to complete it only following about 60% - 70% of the total Hal Higdon (in the picture) program. Hopefully, this is the same. When I my weekend runs were insanely long, instantly I knew I may not have the determination or mental patience to complete such long runs alone. What to do? Not sure who I can train with that is equally as slow as I am in speed. So, there and then I decided that i'll have to slot in as many long distance races as I can in between now and the Ultra Marathon.
I looked at the schedule and I was already almost 5 weeks late, I have been running regularly so I am just going to assume that it would make up for what I didn't do according to the program. I was scheduled for a 18 mile run on week 7, and i'm glad that I had signed myself up for the Pacesetters 30K run on January 17th, 2010. So, one long run solved. What about those marathon distance runs that I have to do?! Searching through the web, I listed down all possible long distance races within reach and eventually I decided and signed up for the following:-
1. New Balance Pacesetters 30K Run 17th January 2010
2. Putrajaya Night Marathon 42.195KM 6th February 2010
3. Koh Samui Inaugural Marathon 42.195KM 28th Febuary 2010
4. Energizer Night Marathon 42.195KM 27th March 2010
5. Adidas Sundown Ultramarathon 84KM 29th May 2010
I had to be a whole new level of mindset now. If running a marathon slightly more than a month ago was the ultimate distance in 2009, I had to make running marathon distances feel like running half marathons! "It's all in the mind... it's all in the mind" I kept repeating to myself. Signing up for races became almost habitual. Now, it's almost as if i'm hungry for marathon distance races.... or at least I had to phsyco myself into believing so. What about the other weeks where there are no races?! I guess i'll think about it when I get to that point...
As the saying "someone" has been constantly repeating to me... "The bar is raised..."
No comments:
Post a Comment