Bryan's Running Blog

Bryan,

I've had similar pain but just not as bad. What I'm learning is that it makes a remarkable difference if you catch an on-coming problem early and then slow down the workouts. The speed seems to be more the problem for me than the distance. This last week I've done a lot of slow work outs that have helped. That 25 miles was largely on roads. The first 8 miles were or so were in the dark. I slipped on a very icy dirt road between the Eagle Mt City Center and Fairfield.

It was unusual running with these crazy 100 miler guys. They do things so differently. At the first major pitstop at mile 11 in fairfield they were downing cokes and red bulls, which is something I've always avoided in long-distance runs. It's a whole different world. I was very much impressed with this group of runners I got the chance to associate with.

The cold was impressive but didn't seem too bad until my clothes started to get wet. I had a cotton shirt on between my outer shell jacket and inner layer nylon shirt. After I stopped and got into the crew car, I soon began to shake from the cold. I took off the cotton shirt and immediately began to warm up.

Learned a lot and I believe I would have a much better run with just a bit better equipment. Also, I learned that it is good to stick with people on longer runs. After mile 18 or so, I just got so bored and it began to affect my desire.

I would definitely do it again and I would like to go a little farther next time - perhaps 56 miles but I would have to prepare a little better and take advantage of lessons learned.

I'm optimistic that it will go away soon. Talking to my podiatrist friend, he didn't think I should be too worried. Maybe one of my problems is that I have a hard time running slow. That's kind of a nice thing -- but on yesterday's run I set out to run slow and ran the first mile in 7:30.

Thanks for more info about your long distance run. It seems like it'd be fun to do some year. Maybe next time I'm in Utah over Christmas. Since college, I've done a fair amount of mountain climbing, and the whole no cotton/proper clothing is essential for climbing some of the bigger mountains.