I’ve done several long runs on the mountain bike trail as
well as the Butts Park., Big Butts 50k course. The first time I ran on the Big Butts course was a few weeks
back with Race Director/Owner, John Brower. My goal was 22 miles, approximately 3 ½ loops on the 6 mile
course.
To get the full effect of the heat, we started out at noon
with the temperature around
80.
As I started out on the first loop, I now realize that I
started out too fast. My goal was
to run 12:00/mile to try to finish the event in a little over 6 hrs. After the first two loops, my body was
feeling pretty achy.
That was all John wanted to run for that day because he had just
finished a 100 miler a couple of weeks before and was just then getting back to
running.
So we finished two loops at 12 miles and I was to go on
alone. As I mentioned before, I
could only go for another 6 miles. When I got back to my cooler at the start, I
knew I was done for the day. My
body was feeling kind of sore and my lower legs were tightening up. I was cooked.
Last week, my goal was to run the 4 loops on the Big Butts course
in good form in the afternoon. So
I started out slow. With all the
acclimation, training and work I’ve been doing, it’s beginning to pay off. I kept my pace around 13:00 and finished
the 24 miles in 4:40. That was
better than I expected.
The next time run the BB course is in about a week. I know it will be getting hotter
because I’ll be running not only in June, but in the afternoon in June. I know the acclimation is working
because the heat isn’t bothering me so much. Especially the humidity! I’m just used to it, I guess.
Sprinkled in between these long runs have been my
maintenance runs of 5, 8 and 10 mile runs. The mileage will become longer as the event date approaches. Right now, I’m feeling pretty good.
Gotta run,
Chuck
The Vagabond Runner.
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