Shez Runs an Ultra

2022 was an interesting year for me and I didn’t write one word about it. I was training for my ‘A” race and excited about writing about it and then didn’t. I plan to do better going forward. 

A quick update on my big race in 2022

I trained for and finished (at my B time) – Javelina Jundred 100k. It took 9 months of training, a few races (that I ran or swept), lots of vert and time on my feet, but I did it. Best thing I’ve ever done. Also, the worst thing I’ve done (I made a number of mistakes on race day that made my time out there longer than it should’ve been), but I persevered and I’m super proud of myself. Would I do it again? Never say never.

Happy New Year to Me

Fast forward to January of this year. I had a fabulous race calendar planned (approved by my coach) and was ready to literally hit the ground running by sweeping my traditional January 1st race (Resolution Run in Auburn). Well, that didn’t happen. Hello, Covid. Yep, I tested positive on January 1st and that literally changed the trajectory of my year.

I was extremely fortunate that I had a very mild case. However, I had a side effect that took months to get over. I had a heart rate (HR) that would spike for no reason. It was demoralizing. I literally could not run without my HR pounding. In speaking with my coach, I found out this was a common side effect that was affecting many runners and that she was fully on my side in getting me back to running – safely. That meant starting at zero and working my way back up. 

At the beginning of February, I got back to it. Sort of. It meant walking for no more than 30 minutes – if I could, on flat land. Kind of tough in Auburn – we really don’t have “flat” anything here. If my HR spiked, I stopped and walked really slow to bring it down. Hoo boy was this frustrating. At this point, I knew I was not going to be able to race in March or April (I had a 50 miler in March, and a trail marathon in April). For the first time ever, I had to bow out of a race. That hurt. I had looked forward to both races at the end of last year, and now I couldn’t do either. About the same time that I realized that I was out of those races, I lost my motivation to run. It wasn’t fun…so I hiked instead. I was literally building up my endurance minutes at a time (no vert) but didn’t want to run. Slowly, I was able to get in a bit of vert and the time on my feet grew. By April, my HR was stabilizing but I still wasn’t running. I was doing longer hikes and adding more vert (still under 1000’). I also started doing Crossfit. I needed to build my strength back up as well as my endurance. I had a few moments of pause when working out but all in all, it was fine. 

My coach approved all of this, by the way. I’ve been working with a training schedule and we’re mindful of where I’ve been and where I am now. Over the past few weeks, I’ve slowly added running intervals back – a little bit here and there. I can’t begin to tell you how hard it was. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I didn’t expect it to be that hard. I’ll get over it though – I just need to be patient. I’m still hiking which is helping.

Light at the end of the tunnel

It seems I have finally made it to the other side of the Covid side effect and can start training again, in earnest – albeit slowly. Last weekend, I hiked 10.5 miles and did just under 2,000’ of vert. My HR did exactly what it was supposed to do – go up on the climbs and come down on the downhills and flats. There were no spikes. I’m lucky…it’s only taken four months to get here.

When I think of where I was with my running base on December 31st and where I am now, well, it’s time to stop looking over my shoulder and move forward.

I don’t have any races on the calendar at the moment. I am however looking at a few ultras for the Fall and early 2024. I need time to build my running base back up and continue building up my strength, endurance, and speed. 

I’ll get there. One step at a time and then one mile at a time.