Brandon Fuller

Weekly Training Summary (100 Miles)

After the end of the Dakota situation, I decided I needed to figure out a way to refocus myself for the week. Some combination of that event and some blog entries by friends prompted me to raise the bar. All summer my miles have sat steady. It has been OK but I haven’t ever really gotten myself exhausted. Training makes you weak. I needed to get weaker. So I set out to break another barrier that I had never crossed — 100 miles run in one week.

This used to be unfathomable to me. However, 2 years ago I started peaking at 70 miles per week mid-summer. Felt like “I ran all the time” those weeks. What would 100 feel like? Time to find out if the LT100 is going to be a reality next year. The only stupid part of this challenge is that it isn’t smart to jack your miles up week over week like that. You grow steadily. I feel good and I have time before my next event so I threw that advice out the window.

My plan was to run this in 7 outings. 1 per day. It would be easier to split it up into 2 runs a day and do the AM/PM thing. But that wouldn’t get me that long burn I wanted each day. I wanted to finish the runs feeling like I just ran a marathon. I wanted to bonk everyday. So I set out to average around 14.5 per day. Oh, and run it in the middle of the day during probably the hottest week of the summer so far. Hurt me.

My only other rules were no walking and no quitting. I would put myself in the Slow HR pace (as previously discussed) and try and hold it. Never looking at pace really. Just HR. Over the course of the week, I started to feel my HR without looking at my watch. Starting to know when its high and low in a desired range.

I learned about blisters this week. They came back. Haven’t had any for quite a while. But running big days back to back seemed to do it. I basically ran with them. Let them soak then lanced them at night. Then ran on them the next day where they would form a new blister another layer down. I finally started wrapping the bad toes later in the week and that solved the issue.

Given my log says I burnt 12,259 calories, I figured it would be fun to see what my weight did over the week. Oddly, I didn’t eat a heck of a lot more than usual. I was oddly content with smaller meals. I never ate before I ran. Usually took 1 or 2 GUs (100 calories each) with me each time and got them down through the run. Did a single bottle of water on the runs and usually refilled once or twice depending. Upon getting back home, I usually did the tall glass of chocolate milk chased with a 20 oz Gatorade. Then a variety of liquids for the rest of the day. Treated myself to a Diet Pepsi twice when I went out for lunch just because. Zero gut problems the entire week. Post run weight today was 149. Pops back up a few pounds over the course of the day from fluids. Getting where I need it to be this time of the year. Want 145 post run going into Denver.

The Wake Up HR was interesting. On my lowest day prior to this week, I woke up with a 38. That was after a good sleep and an easy run day. Felt rested. This week was always dragging a bit at wake-up time especially mid-week when I was waking at 50. It definitely correlates to your level of “tiredness”. May try and monitor it more to make myself sleep more or plan easy run days.

All in all, I loved and dreaded the week. It was *only* 15 hours of running — spaced over 7 days. If I do the LT100, I plan on being out there for 24+ consecutive so this will be interesting. I wasn’t nearly as fatigued as I thought I would be after the week. Feel quite perky. The only real hard part was that final half-hour of each day when the heat was at its hottest and I just wanted to take a break.

I grew fond of my Lunatrainers over the week. Went to those after the blisters started popping. Might have to get some Lunaracers now too.

Come what(ever) may.