This year, Matt and I have decided to take on the challenge of running ultra trail marathons. An ultra marathon is a loosely defined as anything beyond the marathon distance (26.2 miles.) Typical ultras are 50k (31 miles), 50 miles, 100k (60 miles), and 100 miles. They are usually held on trails of varying types.
Our first race of the season is coming up in a few weeks - Trail Mix, held at Hyland Park in Bloomington. We are registered for the 50k - our introduction to the world of ultra running. We've done the 25k there 3 times in the last few years. The weather & trail conditions can be good or bad... It is April in Minnesota after all!!
This weekend's training consisted of a long trail run on Saturday. We headed over to Lake Rebecca Park and ran the horse trails for a total of 21.5 miles. It was a cloudy, damp day, but really good for running. The ground was damp, but not muddy, so my feet got soaked fairly quickly. Luckily I came home without any blisters... I'm not sure how running long distances with wet feet is going to work... I think I'll be inquiring to some veteran ultra runners for advice in that department.
Today we headed out on the road bikes - first outdoor ride of the season. It was good to get the legs moving and spinning out some of the soreness from yesterday's run. We waited until the sun broke through the clouds to head out - but the downside to waiting until late afternoon to ride is that the wind is usually stronger... and stronger it was! Heading out I averaged 12 mph... what a grind... but coming home, that was much more fun!! We saw a lot of folks we knew while we were out, so that added to the enjoyment. An hour and 45 minutes on the bike was just enough for today. I can certainly tell that I have lost all my climbing strength on the bike. On more than one occasion I ran out of gears... But overall a nice ride for the first time out this season.
It's been a good weekend of training and I'm excited for our race in a few weeks. Some events we have coming up include:
Trail Mix 50k
Buffalo Olympic distance triathlon
Afton Trail 50k
Voyager Trail 50 miler
Dairyland Dare 100k bike ride.
