Saturday, December 28, 2019

10 Lessons from 10 Years of Ultrarunning

January 2nd will mark my 10 year anniversary of my first ultra: the Tsali Frosty Foot Fest 50k. I’ve run a few miles and races since then (not much compared to some), but I do feel I have learned some lessons during that time, many of which would have surprised me back in 2010. Of course this is only based on my individual experience, but I hope it is helpful to newcomers and resonates with veterans of the sport!

10. Mornings are where it’s at.
For those of us with a job and a family (most of us), the early mornings are the most protected time for getting runs in. Sometimes this means runs have to happen at 4 AM. But aside from when I’m on call, I’ve never had anything external to myself keep me from running in the wee hours. Later in the day, work inevitably goes longer than expected and any time spent running is time away from family. Night time runs either don’t happen or lead to trouble falling asleep when I try to go to bed soon afterwards. To ensure the run happens, it’s best to get up and go.

9. When in doubt, go uphill.
I’ve had a vast variety of running injuries during the past 10 years. A common, but not universal, theme is that pain improves or resolves when I am running uphill. Many a run has been salvaged by turning to the treadmill and bumping up the incline (slowing down the pace to keep the effort level consistent) until the pain goes away. Similarly, injuries tend to crop up when I am trying to do lots of fast running on flat or even downhill surfaces. Keeping the higher intensity mostly on an uphill lets me get the training stress without setting off injuries.

8. Scenery and aid station fare are totally legit criteria to base race selection on.
I have definitely selected races in the past based on photos of mountains and/or lists of tasty food available. A course designed to highlight natural beauty and aid stations that are going above and beyond are signs that the race organization is taking extra effort to take care of its runners. I have “forever’ memories of flowing singletrack trails with 360 degree mountain views at IMTUF and warm lemon risotto pancakes in the snow at sunrise at Blood Rock. Food and views can carry you through when other things aren’t going well.

7. 10 minute miles are not slow.
Though I should know better, it still makes me cringe a little bit to admit that my true easy pace on hilly roads is in the 10:30 min/mile range. High school cross country training runs were never truly easy and when I was marathon training, I used the “Run less, Run faster,” plan which had ALL of your running at a faster pace. Running slower than a 10 minute mile was a sign that something was wrong, like I had just given blood or was ill. Early in my ultrarunning days, my running friends were often faster than me and I worked hard to keep up with them, then tried to keep my pace similar to what they run on other days as well. Now, I often settle in to a pace above the dreaded double digit mark any time I am running easy, which is most of the time. I may be a little slower than in the past, but I think more than that, I’m smarter. Easy miles are easier to maintain and build on without injury. There’s nothing magical about the 10 min/mile pace separating “runners” from “joggers,” and you can be a very serious runner while running very slowly.

6. Having a crew/pacers is more about creating memories than finishing the race.
Going in to my first 100 mile race, I wrote 2 typed single spaced pages of instructions and tips to my crew. I thought they were invaluable to my success. In reality, they were quite helpful, but they were only necessary because I had made up my mind that they were. Since then, I have done races up to 100 miles uncrewed which have been no more difficult to complete than that first very well supported attempt. Other races have allowed Nathan to join me at the halfway point to run the second half with me. He provides encouragement and makes aid stations more efficient, but really the point is for us to share the experience together, a rare period of hours together without interruption.

5. Infertility, pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding are big deals.
Every year or two, a story comes out about a woman breastfeeding at aid stations on her way to a spectacular performance at an ultra. This led me to believe that this was a requirement to being a “badass” and that women who couldn’t do this simply weren’t as tough. But there are so many factors that need to be “going well” other than raw toughness for this to work. Motherhood has influenced my running more than anything else over the past 10 years:
- Infertility led to psychological distress about the entirely unscientific possibility that skipping a run could increase changes of getting pregnant. It also prevented any long-term running related planning.
- Aside from pregnancy making running physically more challenging, there are similar psychological fears about hurting your baby while running, which were reinforced when I spent the night in a hospital after a hard fall during a trail run at 31 weeks.
-Most women have stories of some sort of complication with delivery. My OB didn’t clear me to run until 8 weeks after delivery and I didn’t feel physically ready any sooner than this.
-Before 6 months age, breastfed babies get all of their calories from their mother. So if you are running and breastfeeding, the number of calories you need to take in is even more than regular running AND you have to time arrival at aid stations with when your baby is hungry. Miscalculating this led me to DNF a 27K I was trying to breastfeed through when Fuller was 4 months old. The “WOW” stories of breastfeeding ultrarunners mostly involve older infants, and I don’t think it is a coincidence that these infants are less strictly dependent on their mothers AND their mothers have had more time to recover from delivery. All of these periods of young motherhood have very direct impacts on running and none of that makes mother runners any less tough.

4. Training matters…
There have been a few races (generally before all of the events in the point above) that I have been well prepared for headed in to them, and it has paid of. At the end of 2010, I ran the North Face 50 Mile in Atlanta, Georgia and was able to work up the pack to ultimately share a podium with Nikki Kimball while she was still in her prime. Okay, she was over 2.5 hours ahead of me, but this was still an incredible achievement for me that wouldn’t have been possible if I had not been physically prepared. In contrast, I tried to run the Iron Mountain 50 this past summer after minimal running for 3-4 months leading up to it because of injury, and while my early DNF was multifactorial, lack of fitness was probably the biggest reason I dropped.

3. ...but training only influences enjoyment so much.
In spite of the experiences above, the finish I take the most pride in to date is my finish at IMTUF. I was coming in to the race on a laughable 25-30 miles per week average for the last few months, mostly organized in an ill-advised alternating 10 miles per week with 40 miles per week fashion. I wasn’t sure if I could finish, and reaching the finish with 16 minutes to spare before the final cut-off took a new level of grit. I doubt better fitness would have made the mountains any more spectacular than they already were. Training is rarely perfect, and even if goals need to be adjusted, going ahead with races with different expectations is almost always worth it.

2. Undertraining is not a character flaw.
Do you ever feel guilty for not meeting your training goals? This is a universal experience of being a serious runner, right? But there are usually good reasons for failing to fulfill your plans: work demands, family obligations, illness, injury. All of these SHOULD take priority over running and that’s okay! Even if the reason for missing runs isn’t so clearly justifiable, that’s still okay, because…

1. I do this for myself.
I hear some ultrarunners claiming that their motivation for running is selfless, for example to inspire their children. They also speak of providing crew the “privilege” of helping them in their races. I don’t doubt they genuinely believe this, but I can’t find ultrarunning to be anything other than a selfish pursuit. I take time from my family to run for my own mental and physical well-being. Especially as a woman, there is some societal pressure that all your actions should be devoted to others’ welfare. But there is nothing inherently “bad” about doing something for yourself, even if it is something that takes a tremendous amount of commitment. We run because we love running, not because we love others. It’s okay to do both!

Do you agree? What are the major lessons you have learned from ultrarunning?

-Jordan

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