I dug out my 2005 Miwok 100K shirt and wore it my run this morning. The sun is out in Portland, a rarity lately and I was happy to see it today. I decided it's was time for me to start thinking about Miwok 100K which is about a week and half away. This is a pretty important race for me mentally because my outcome at Miwok will have a great impact on me for WS100 this year. The magic formula for determining your WS100M time is: take your Miwok finish time and multiply by 2! Now of course there are always exceptions but if you look historically at experienced runners who have run both races in the same year you will find this phenomenon to be pretty accurate. For me this formula has been so telling it's frightening. In 2005 I ran 11:56 and got lost which cost me about 20 minutes. Following that I ran WS100 in 22:59. If I hadn't gotten lost I would have finished in about 11:35 and 2X11:35 = 23:10.....pretty darn close. In 2006 I ran 12:22 and had what I thought the worst race of my life but at WS100M that year I ran 24:41. If you apply the same formula of 2X12:22 is 24:42.....way to predictable! In 2005 I ran Zane Grey 50M the weekend before Miwok which you would assume would leave me tired going into Miwok. I was a bit sluggish at the beginning but felt really good from the turnaround on in. In 2006 I had a recovery week prior to Miwok so I was rested and focused and wanted to pull a good time but that was not the case for me on that day. I remember being pretty dismayed at my 12:22 when I thought I was in better shape than 2005 and geeezzzz I was rested. Whatever the reasons were for both my finishing times they told the story for my WS100M time.
On my run today I thought about this a lot. I know my time at Miwok will impact my mental state for WS100 and I need to keep that in my mind at all times during Miwok. I know I can do at least an 11:30 on that course and that would give me the confindence and cushion I need for the rest of my training. I can't dismiss the importance of this upcoming event because as much as I would like to say, "it doesn't matter".... I know it will.
From now until Miwok I have a pretty heavy load of training especially this upcoming weekend. How will that impact my Miwok time? Not much according to my history :). 2005 = Zane Grey 50M the weekend before and I was faster than 2006 when I was much more rested before race day. Although I don't think this weekends efforts will have an impact I have decided to cut back on my time out on Sunday from 7 hours to 5 hours. The 5 hour run will be a good quality run with a focused effort and cutting out the 2 hours will help me get more out of the run. In addition, mentally I will know I have no excuses going into Miwok and need to treat this race with the level of importance I know it will carry with ME!
I am going to spend more time preparing for this race than I would have had I not sat down and thought about it's real impact on my mental state. I will plan my fueling better, look at my paces between aid stations and visualize the time I want to see on the clock when I finish. I plan on being armed and dangerous next weekend.....focused and prepared!
5 comments:
This is quite scary to put so much mental power into it:) I think you are capable of much better time then 11:30. I predict you can easily break 11 if you want to. And while you still will be dwelling and multiplying by 2 Miwok for WS, remember - WS is your territory, you got it down to a "t".
Enjoy the CA gang and have a great time!
Thanks Olga, breaking 11 would be quite a feat but as I am running Miwok I will think about how much confidence you have in me and possibly I will run faster you never know :).
Hell, confidence! Of course I do! I ran Miwok in 11:07 in 2005, and I NEVER ran tempo at 6:40 or 1000m under 4 min in my life! Miwok is a very runnable course, people who can actually run (vs hike and scream down) do well there. Every year you are gaining so much hill strength and speed, I begin to hope I am not a lost case yet:)
C'mon, Ronda, kick butt, don't look back, you can do it!
10-4!
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out for you Rhonda.
It seems to me that you are running a lot faster these days. You ran the same 3:30 marathon in your 50 miler that I did ... although I don't do the same speed work that you do. You seem to have a good balance of speed work and long running. Is this the same way you trained for your last 2 Western States races?
And, wait a minute ... what about the heat at WS last year. Had there not been the heat, you would have finished at least an hour faster. Hey, I'm not suer I'm buy this 2 x Mi Wok any more ;-)
Post a Comment