Wow, it's been four years since I've written a blog post! I thought it would be fun to write a weekly training and race summery post about my training for the Lake Sonoma 50 mile on April 13th. Lake Sonoma is part of the Western States 100 mile Golden Ticket race series. The top two male and female winners receive automatic entry into the Western States 100 mile. If the top two decline the entry, or already have entry, the ticket can roll down to the fifth place finisher. The Western States 100 mile is the most competitive 100 mile in the USA which brings many elite runners out to chase the Golden Tickets at these races. I wanted to run Lake Sonoma for the challenge of the course and the competition. If I really want to take my running to the next level these are the types of events I need to perform at. After a not so stellar 2018 I've had some life changes that have allowed me to refocus my efforts to my family and my passions. The race is 96 days from now so lets get into it.
After some planned down time at the end of October into early November I started to structure some training and build my mileage. This mini cycle included weekly speed work and strength training which has been long overdue. I worked up to two weeks at 70 miles before a slight taper for the Yankee Springs Winter Challenge 25k on January 5th. This is an awesome race put on by Switchback Endurance about thirty miles south of Grand Rapids, MI. As you can guess by the name and time of year, this can be a very snowy run a lot of years. This year on the other hand we had perfect conditions for January, thirty degrees and no snow! The course record for the 25k was 1:44:34 set in 2015. With the fitness indicators I had in training I knew it was possible to run in the 1:42 to 1:44 range.
The Race:
I arrived to Yankee Springs State Recreation Area about fourty-five minutes before the start. I went to the lodge to pick up my bib before my warm up. I ran an easy two miles with a couple strides thrown in on the second mile. I finished my warm up and stretching about five minutes before the start and headed over to get in place. I really like to run my own race early on and not get caught up in the hype of the moment. I wanted to head out the first four miles around a 6:40 pace which would put me under course record and see how I felt from there. As we started one kid took off at a killer pace and I just let him go. I settled into a 6:30-ish pace heading into the woods with Trevor, Kevin and Jamie in a small pack. We ran this way until the first aid station around mile four where Trevor and I started to put a gap on the Kevin and Jamie. The mystery kid was still nowhere in sight but we were told he came flying through not long ago. After this aid station it's pretty runnable for a couple miles before hitting bigger hills again. I slowly started increasing the pace and wanted to see if we could catch him by mile eight. At seven and half miles we caught a glimpse of him as we started to get into the hills again. We caught and pasted him at the next aid station and he put on a big surge to pass us back immediately but he was visibly working hard to do so. Trevor and I hung back and about a mile later the kid(Julian) started to fall apart a bit in the hills and we moved past. I was starting to get a little worried about Trevor just following me for so long, at this point about 11 miles. Sprint finishes are not my favorite thing, I much prefer late race surges and breaking people before the line...when possible. I still felt really strong and noticed I was creating a small gap on the downhills. With about a mile to go I made my move on a down hill and just kept increasing the pace. I crossed the line in 1:40:47 for the win and a new course record. Trevor came in under the old course record nineteen seconds behind me. I'm very happy with how the race played out and it was a good fitness test while I start training for Lake Sonoma.
Race GPS data: https://www.strava.com/activities/2057788965
I'm signed up for the Groundhog Marathon Feb. 2nd, I set the course record two years ago at 2:50:xx. If weather conditions stay good I'm going to try and lower that time :)
I'll post a weekly training update moving forward and separate race recaps as they happen. Thanks for taking the time to read this. If there are any questions or things you'd like me to cover please reach out to me.
Twitter: @Jordanrunsfar
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