Mt. Tammany 10! Race Report and HR100 training
4/8/19
On 3/23/19 I ran the Mt Tammany 10! Race in Delaware Water Gap, NJ. It is a low key classic ass whoopin. It’s a 3.8 mile loop that goes up about 1.3 mile and 1,200 ft, about 1/2m of flat, then about 2 miles down and 1,200 ft decent. You do the loop 10 times. The course has a wide variety of ice, snow, mud, and moss. One thing is consistent though, the boulders. The entire loop is very very technical which makes for a lot of effort and very slow miles. You have a loose cutoff of 10 hours to start your final loop which before the race i never thought about it. I expected to finish the race in 8 - 8 1/2 hours. I started my final loop at 9:20 clock time only 40 minutes ahead of cut off. Oops.
After loop one with fresh legs, i looked down at my watch and it took me 55 minutes. At that point, i knew it was going to be a very long day and breaking 10 hours wasn’t going to happen. My body was off all day. Only a couple hours in, I was fatigued and my stomach was very swollen and painful. I slowed it down and the final 25 miles were slow and steady. I finished the race in about 10 1/2 hours and I enjoyed it overall. I love that type of format and it was a great training run for hardrock. I needed a good wake up call that i need to get my butt in gear.
The weeks prior i had been battling some sinus crap so i went into the race a little tired and off. The next day I felt horrible and ended up with he flu. I’ve never had the flu in my life but writing this 2 weeks later, I finally feel normal again. I don’t think i had the flu during the race but my immune system was definitely compromised and let the flu creep in the days after the race. With my body aching from being sick plus the soreness of 12,000 ft of downhill, i was the most sore i’ve ever been.
Fast forward two weeks to today. This marks the beginning of my actual Hardrock training. I don’t schedule out very specific training since life typically gets in the way. Instead I have some guidelines that I will follow.
1. Get leaner. I have about 15 pounds to lose to get to my ideal race weight.
2. 3 major long runs. At the end of April, May, and June I will get in about a 30-35 miler with about 10-12k feet of gain for a solid training run.
3. Weekly mileage will be between 50-90 for the next 3 months with a solid long run each week.
If i follow those three rules, then I will be ready. I have a solid base and i have mapped out some good routes with plenty of climbs / descents. It is finally spring time here and I am looking forward to spending a lot of time outdoors. I have been reading up on the course and trying to memorize some of the troublesome parts. I may write another post about a month out from the race to document how my main training block went. No more just going through the motions. Time to focus and get serious.
