Quick and Dirty on Way Too Cool 50k
March 10, 2007 by Bryon Powell · 3 Comments
Ok, so I was not quick nor did I get dirty today at WTC, but this post is both those things. It’s an email I sent to a couple friends who asked about my performance at the race. Quick summary – not too good. The best thing I did regarding the race was predict that it would be Bradley Mongold’s coming out party. It was, as he finished second.
Went out too hard, got off course (2/3 mile total, but enough), bonked, lost water bottle down mountain. Ran bad time, but had a good time. I relearned what NOT to do when racing. Ended up 40 something in 4:29:5?
To give you an idea of how the race went see the following table of AS sections with distance and HR.
Split
Dist HR (bpm)
5.48 177
8.86 170
6.29 170
5.10 166
2.96 161
1.26 161
From the attached HR/elevation chart you get a different picture of the same story. Went out way too hard the first four miles. I settled into my own maybe slightly too hard and very unsteady rhythm from 4 to 10. Ran with a steady eddie pace guy from 10 to 17 (or at least a good chunk of that). Unsteady, but averaging same 170 HR from 17 to 19. After 19 I tried to pick the effort a notch to 172-73 bpm and did so through 22. After that the wheels came off/ I gave up/kinda lame. Today won’t have been a failure if I learned some lessons.
[I appear to have inadvertently stopped my watch going into and maybe coming out of the second dip.]
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Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
Bryon, we are still waiting on full report:) Things happen, you know that, we all know that. You ran Cool, and it’s so cool!! Good job!
Sounds like a tough one man. That is okay, going out and trouncing yourself every now and then is beneficial. Even with all the problems and a subpar performance for you…you were not that far out of it! Will you be running HAT?
Olga, I’ll try and get that full report out soon. :-) At the moment I’m on my first big business trip as an attorney, so it might be a couple days. You’re right – things do happen. You win some and lose some. With my luck that day I’m pretty sure someone forgot to tell me: Ni puha, ni pera. ;-)
Loomy, body and soul were thoroughly trounced! You are totally right about me not being that far out of it. :-) I was practically top 10% at the most competitive 50k in the US and would have finished 9 or 10 places high had I not gone off course. I should be pretty happy when I can do so well even when I’m completely destroyed with 10 miles to go! I should be running HAT… if work doesn’t have me out of town.