I Soloed an Airplane Today!!

After something like 30 hours, in two planes, with two instructors, over more than a year, I finally flew a plane without anyone else in it! Not only did I not die, I actually had three good landings! Without anyone else to touch the controls it actually flew a little easier than with two people touching the controls.

Woohoo!!! Next up, finish up my private pilot license!

My Shirt Being Cut Apart!

Desert Solstice 2017: Training and Preparation

There are so many things that could go wrong in an ultra, and have gone wrong for me in ultras so I approached this race with a thoroughness and detailed plan beyond what I have ever bothered to put in writing. Back when I was in high school my cross country and track coach would write out the workouts for the whole season and post them outside the locker room. We knew from the beginning what was expected of us. As I got into college, and then coached in college, there are quite a few people that get intimidated by a three month long schedule so workouts were usually shared daily or weekly. Personally that frustrates me to not know the arc of the season, so I like seeing the whole schedule laid out. 

Back in July, I wrote out a schedule for myself to get ready for this race. Here is my training plan:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
9-Jul	long recovery	3x mile at 5:40, 400 in 2:00 rest	short recovery	long recovery	20 min HMP tempo	short recovery	Medium Long Run
16-Jul	long recovery	15x short hills	long recovery	short recovery	15x200 at 34-38 with 200m jog rest	short recovery	Medium Long Run
23-Jul	long recovery	12x400, maybe with Jake	long recovery	10k tempo at MP	long recovery	recovery/ Drive to Colorado	Drive into mountains/ Bierstadt
30-Jul	Yale/ Columbia	Yale/ Columbia	Capitol normal route	black canyon climbing?	Lizard Head Peak	short recovery	Pace Jeremy in Ouray
6-Aug	recovery/ Drive back to KS	short recovery	4x mile at 5:30	long recovery	15x short hills	long recovery	Medium Long Run
13-Aug	long recovery	15x200 at 34-38 with 200m jog rest	long recovery	11k of 1k 4:00/ 1k 3:30	long recovery	long recovery	Medium Long Run
20-Aug	long recovery	off	8 mile tempo at medium pace	short recovery	12x400 in 75, 200 jog rest	long recovery	Long Run
27-Aug	long recovery	long recovery	Medium Long Run	13k of 1k 4:00/ 1k 3:30	long recovery	recovery/ Drive to Colorado?	Colorado?
3-Sep	Colorado?	Colorado?	9 mile tempo at medium pace	long recovery	4x mile in 5:30, 400 jog rest	long recovery	28 mile Elk City Lake trail run
10-Sep	long recovery	15x short hills	long recovery	15k of 1k 3:55/ 1k 3:30	short recovery	long recovery	Long Run 20+ at 6:55 with pace variation
17-Sep	long recovery	off	10 mile tempo at medium pace	long recovery	6k HMP tempo	long recovery	Long Run 20+ at 6:55 with pace variation
24-Sep	Medium Long Run	long recovery	long recovery	15k of 1k 3:45/ 1k 3:30	long recovery	long recovery	FlatRock 50k
1-Oct	short recovery	off	10 mile tempo at medium pace	long recovery	5x mile in 5:30, 400 jog rest	long recovery	Long Run 20+ at 6:45 with pace variation
8-Oct	Medium Long Run	12x400 in 75, 200 jog rest	long recovery	17k of 1k 3:45/ 1k 3:30	long recovery	long recovery	28 mile Elk City Lake trail run
15-Oct	long recovery	off	12 mile tempo at medium pace	long recovery	20x200 at 33-37, 200 jog rest	long recovery	Long Run 20+ at 6:45
22-Oct	18-28 mile Elk City Trail Run	6x mile at 5:30, 400 in 1:45 rest	long recovery	19k of 1k 3:45/ 1k 3:30	long recovery	long recovery	Tulsa Run 15k + Medium Long run
29-Oct	long recovery	off	HM tempo at medium pace	long recovery	8k at HMP tempo	long recovery	Long Run 20+ at 6:45 with pace variation
5-Nov	18-28 mile Elk City Trail Run	Long Run	long recovery	21k of 1k 3:45/ 1k 3:30	long recovery	long recovery	Long Run 20+ at 6:45
12-Nov	long recovery	off	long recovery	6x mile at 5:20 with 400 meter jog	long recovery	long recovery	short recovery
19-Nov	Route 66 Marathon	long recovery	8x400 in 75, 200 jog rest	long recovery	HM tempo at medium pace	long recovery	Long Run 20+ at 6:30 with pace variation or 28 mile trail run
26-Nov	long recovery	off	long recovery	6k HMP tempo	long recovery	long recovery	15 miles at 6:45 with pace variation
3-Dec	long recovery	short recovery	6k tempo at MP	short recovery	short recovery	short recovery	Race!
10-Dec	Race!	off	off	off	off	off	off
	Hard Long Run	20-30 mi; 5:55-6:30			Medium Pace	MP+3-10%
	Moderate LR	20-24 mi; 6:30-59			Marathon Pace (MP)
	Long Run	18+ miles, X<7:30 font="" pace="">			Half Pace (HMP)	MP-3-6%
	Medium LR	14-17 mi or X>100 min			Short Recovery	X<60 font="" minutes="">
					Long Recovery	60

Here is my actual training:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
9 Jul	off	off	off - recovering form Bugaboos	33m	33m	32m	1h 29m
16-Jul	53m	25m	48m	50m	57m	33m	48 min, 27 min
23-Jul	10x short hills, total 4.8 miles	31m	8x400 in 81, 400 jog rest total 8.1 miles	1h 4m	off	58m	Bierstadt 7.5 miles
30-Jul	Princeton 12.3 miles	off	Columbia and Harvard 21.5 miles	Mt. Yale 9.2 miles	Mt. Shavano 12.5 miles	Mt Antero 15.5 miles (KOM Strava descent!)	Pace Jeremy in Ouray 50 mile, 6.6 miles in 3:42
6-Aug	off	off	48m	off	51m	1h 9m	15 miles at 7:30
13-Aug	56m	off	15x200 at 36-37 with 200m jog rest total 10.3 miles	49m	7k of 4:00/3:35 total 9.6 miles, 34 min	56m	73 min, 63 min
20-Aug	76 min, 24 min	off	10k progression run in 39:30	57m	1h 18m	47m	15.7 miles at 7:39
27-Aug	off	41m	41m	24m	49m	32m	hiking 2 hours
3-Sep	1h 1m	Korea - off	33m	50m	46m	off	1h 46m
10-Sep	off	off - tired from Korea and India and broken house	31m	5k of 4:00/3:40 total 10.7 miles	1h 5m	48m	20 miles at 7:23
17-Sep	1h 20m	46 min, 39 min	57m	19:43 5k total  9 miles, 30 min pm	56 min, 33 min	1h 10m	22.4 miles including 2.8 mile race in 16:40
24-Sep	1h 7m	36 min, 59 min	35 min, 48 min	28 min, 46 min	off	part of pikes peak 92 min	21 miles at 7:40
1-Oct	1h 35m	1h 6m	52m	24m	57m	1h 18m	20.1 miles at 7:36
8-Oct	1h 44m	10x400 in 76, 45 s walking rest, total 10.7 miles	1h 45m	7k of 3:45/3:30, total 12 miles	26 min, 104 min	1h 34m	20.2 miles at 7:42 pace, 51 min
15-Oct	1h 43m	8k in 29:44 on the track, total 13.2 miles	1h 12m	mile in 5:34, 1200 in 4:05, 800 in 2:40, 400 in 76, 400 jog rest, total 10.5 miles	52m	58 min, 78 min	off, spent the day rock climbing
22-Oct	climbed a 14er in Colorado, 65 min in pm	36 min, 67 min	73 min, 25 min	5x400 in 82 on trails at altitude, 5x160 in 30 total 10.7 miles	off	32m	Tulsa Run 15k in 55 min + injury
29-Oct	off	54m	1h 5m	46m	off	1h 35m	31 min, 94 min
5-Nov	20.4 miles at 6:51 pace, 33 min	1h 47m	1h 36m	65 min, 25 min	21k of 1k 3:54/ 1k 3:38	34 min, 83 min	20.1 miles at 7:10, pm 42 min
12 Nov	1h 46m	off	1h 46m	2x mile at 5:50, 2x800 at 2:54, total 10.6 miles	51m	1h 35m	33 min, 81 min
19-Nov	solo marathon in 2:58, tot 30.6 miles	1h 20m	8x400 in 81, 400 jog rest tot 11 miles, 28 min in morning	48 min, 36 min	51 min, 85 min	43 min, 74 min	56m
26-Nov	1h 4m	off	31m	35m	41m	47m	48m
3-Dec	1h 38m	53m	35m	44m	35m	27m	Race!
10-Dec	Race!	off	off	off	off	off	off

Overall, it went quite well. Between the Bugaboos, my India and Korea trip, and a week in Colorado my training didn't quite go as planned. I had much less speed than I anticipated. I mean, when I expected to be able to click off 5:30 miles, it never really happened. Partly because of the warm weather in southern Kansas, partly because I don't really put in the effort to work on my speed like I used to when I was training for the 10k and shorter. 

I am very excited I had a 100, 112 and 120 mile week, which is a good level, I think over 110 is probably a little much, but mentally it feels so good, and I do recovery quite quickly when I am training at that volume. 

The plan was to do a trail 50k, a marathon and a 15k in the build up, but I ended up only doing the 15k because I didn't really feel fit enough for the other two. 

Unfortunately I did far fewer workouts, like tempos and track workouts, than I planned. For example, on my India and Korea trip I basically went three weeks without a formal workout. I more or less failed at mile repeats. I had quite a few on the schedule and none of them really happened. Ugh, it's a struggle to run 5:30 pace! My favorite workout is alternating kilometers roughly 5s/k faster than marathon pace, and recoveries at 10s/k slower than marathon pace, and because of the heat I only had that workout go really well once, with another time it went okay. Also worth mentioning it was 57F and dark when that workout went well. 

All of my long runs were 7:20+ pace until November, when they finally went more like what I had hoped. Running in Dubuque was a much different challenge than running in Independence, KS. In Dubuque there are maybe six weeks were the temperatures are too hot to do workouts or fast long runs, but where I live now, that's more like three or four months. October still have humid 80F days! I did not realize how much the temperature matters to my running until I tried to run through these last two summers. 

The highlight workouts are November 9th and 19th. Those were clearly my best two workouts. While many of the other workouts weren't that good, doing 20 miles sub 7 pace, or an 8k sub 6 pace is still a solid workout. 

The only thing I would really change would be to add in long medium pace tempos, or at least actually do the ones I planned. I did several 10+ mile tempos at 6:15 pace or so before North Coast 24 in 2014 and because I was tired, lazy, or because of the heat, I didn't do any this time. The longest plain tempo was 10k. There was also essentially no pace variation in my long runs. In other words, no marathon pace or medium pace running the second half of my 20 milers. 

Hopefully this will help others get an idea of what goes into a 24 hour race, and what generally works for me.