Back into it

Well... we did it!  The quest from running 400m to running 100miles in just about a year.  I'd like to write a longer recap of the race... but never got around to it.  But I think the pictures and videos that are being put together by Michael Shlain will suffice for now.

On the whole, Wasatch was the hardest thing I've ever done... but it wasn't as hard as I expected.  I think because running together, there were times Sarah had to wait for me, and I for her.  Which means neither of us were running at our hardest.

And I think I'm hooked!  I'd like to run two 100 mile races this year.  Definitely the AC100 (Angeles Crest) in LA, and one more (Western States? *fingers crossed* - only 10% chance to get in through the lottery).  But more importantly... my goal this year is to get faster.  I want to push hard and go to the brink.

If I run Western States, I'd like to do sub-24.  If I was to do the Wasatch again, sub-30, perhaps 28-29, would be the goal.  Also I want to get faster to feel even more free on my run.  To feel the wind in my face more often than not.  To have more unbound energy instead of trudging up the hills.  That would be fun!  Oh, and if I'm faster, I can have more of a life while getting my runs in.  Running 30 miles in, say, 6 hours, would be much better than 10.

So to get there, I decided to push hard on my workouts and do more sprints/intervals where I push hard.  Now that I got the base mileage under my belt and my legs can take the punishment, I can focus on going fast.

Today I ran a 45:10 10K, which is by far my best time, though I never tried that hard before.  My previous best time was maybe 49 or 50.  It was HARD.  My legs performed just fine but I couldn't get enough air. Just panting and panting while occasionally able to get a full breath in which felt SO good... for about 10 seconds.

I could have squeezed a bit more out of me, though it was a good workout on the whole.  That's the hard part about running distance is figuring out early on how much to push now vs. how much to leave for the final lap.