Just over a week till the Mt. Hood 50, my 2nd 50. How was my training?

Do you remember this post? I wrote this at the earliest stages in training for my 2nd 50. Yes I feel silly now. I will let you read it and I will see you at the end of this posting.

http://heavenlystrength.blogspot.com/2011/03/hey-did-you-hear-that-im-training-for.html 

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Hey did you hear that I'm training for 50 and afraid to run?

Have you ever heard of a runner who is training for 50 miles that was fearful of running?

This is me.

The pictures are proof that I can run.

Yes, you heard me correct. I have a mental block, I guess, completely afraid to run.

The reason? For a few years now, it has been my goal to run the Mt. Hood 50 miler. I am now signed up for it, the run is scheduled for July 30th, 2011 and it will be my 2nd 50.

A few weeks ago, I pulled my hamstring, 3 days later, it went out again on a walk, well I jogged slowly for about 30 seconds. I pulled out of a difficult race coming up, the McDonald Forest 50K. It is a good decision, I know. But, according to the 50 mile training schedule, training started yesterday, Monday. It only starts out at 2. I walked it. I kept hearing in my head, try to run, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Too afraid.
I came home, complained a little on Facebook, this led to a doctor replying and a friend telling me to go on chat. Well they both helped me through it. I knew that I had to conquer this silly fear or it was going to kill me.
At first I kept walking back and forth in front of my house, pacing. I would limp around or whatever you want to call it, it wasn't running, it was strange. I wondered how many of my neighbors were watching. I then decided to go change so that I could look like a runner, at least. I started off real slowly, I mean really slowly, completely freaked out.

But then I saw 2 pennies. And I remembered an email and movie that I read and saw. The email said that when you find a penny, it means an angel is thinking of you and the movie said pennies are only good luck when they are heads up. They were heads up. I picked them up.

While I only went .78 on Monday, I did go 2 today and yes I was nervous, but not freaked out.

Hey, I'm training for 50 miles. Aren't I making progress?

Posted by Jeannie at 10:12 AM

Well that big race is coming up in just over a week. Looking back at my training, it's been good, hard yes, but good. I realized that when I trained for my first 50, I tweaked it. I ran 31 miles one weekend, then 16, 20. It is supposed to go 31, 24, 26. I had made it easier on me! Plus, I've been training for a trail ultra at altitude.


Having moved to a new city, home of the Redwood Forest. I had to learn to adjust to a new forest. A forest that has bears and cougars or at least the threat of them. It is a forest that was not populated with people...hikers, other runners. There were a lot of runs where I never saw anyone! Scary! And carrying 2 different sizes of pepper spray, a body alarm and a whistle were the norm. Just today, I had to change my running route as I got this in my email inbox;

"Early this morning 2 big mountain lions were seen near the tobacco shop out by HWY 101. They will attack if they are surprised, so be noisy. It is very easy for them to catch and kill an elk as we have carcasses right now at the new resort site."

My elk, I ran by them all the time. Remember when I was about 10 feet from one?

I had a lot of interesting long runs. One 25 miler, I had too many pain killers and ended up throwing up at mile 19 in the Redwood Forest, throwing up for the remainder 6 miles. Sorry caterpillars. No offense! On another long distance run, I had a bad reaction to some over the counter medication and after throwing up for 3 hours in the morning, I still ran the run and finished. In June, I traveled to Mt. Hood for a training run. It was a 28 mile training run. There were just 2 girls. It was a huge eye opening experience. That is one hard trail with some big elevation. I even came home with an ouch!

After I ran 31 miles a few weeks ago, using the Sunriver Marathon, it was hard to recover. The runs that followed, were hard. My legs were mad, but I put in the mileage at the trail. It was tough! I ran the 24 miles in an extremely slow time of 6:25, I was just dragging. The 26 mile was better, but not great. And the hills! They were tough. But, I'm tapering now and I am certain that all my hard work has paid off.

I'll tell you two secrets. 1. That forest was always scary, I always just put on a brave face. I had to. I had to run in the forest. I had to get brave and fast! 2.I am scared to run this race, but that is normal. I will be shaking at the starting line. My friend keeps asking me if I'm excited and the answer of course is NO!!!

I am traveling to Portland next week, with my girls to visit family and run this crazy run, that starts at 5:30 AM. I will be successful! Do or die, right? I got this, piece of cake.

 I will let you know how it goes.