Another Great Training Run

As many of you already know, we did a track fundraiser last weekend in the heat that proved to be successful for a couple of reasons. The first being we raised nearly $1000 and the second being I found out I could push my body at pretty extreme temps and still be OK. Well Friday night I went a different route. During the course of my "cross Kansas" run, I will be moving for multiple days, meaning a lot of fatigue. So this weekend I got in some fatigue training!
It started Thursday night. I stayed up till midnight and then made sure I was out of bed by 5am and moving. Went into work early, kept moving all day. Once I got off work I packed for the race and then got in my truck and drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma. About a two and a half hour drive. Arrived about 11pm and the 50mile run started at 12:01am. After checking in and getting my gear ready the pre-race brief started and WHAM!!! I started yawning uncontrollably. Usually this would freak me out right before a race, but its what I wanted. The first 20 miles I was moving way to quick as usual, although I was practicing my run/walking, run 20mins walk 1 min. By the end of the 2nd 10 mile loop the people told me I was in like 4th place. This is not what I wanted believe it or not. Running hard and racing is not going to get me to my goal of running across Kansas, I need steady forward motion and not breath taking speed. So I did what most runners at races would NEVER do. I sat down for 5 minutes. The people at the aide station were freaking out at first, telling me how great I was doing and keep pushing. I finally explained my situation to them and what I was training for and they all changed their tune. Most of them being ultrarunning vets understood exactly why I was doing what I was doing and why resting was of the utmost importance.
The final 30 miles I would go all the way down to 5min running and 1min walking. I decided to go to that extreme because I was testing new nutritional items and if i was going to have any adverse effects I could manage 5 mins of running on a bad stomach. To my surprise I had no issues with the new stuff and had a very enjoyable run to say the least. It was actually about a 52 mile race due to not being able to make it an exact 10mile loop. I think my 50 mile time was like 8:35 and my overall time was 8:53.
Throughout this fundraiser and the massive amount of miles I am putting in, my goal is not to get hurt or workout to the point it takes multiple days to recover. This run was perfect, no pain afterwards, no swelling and built a ton of mental toughness. Will possibly run the Summer Psycho 50k this weekend coming up and then ease back into my regular training for a few weeks.My final long training run will be pacing Rick Mayo back 50 miles at Leadville this year. Closing in on two months till the fundraiser run I feel my fitness is where it needs to be and it seems weekly I steadily progress, most of that due to my wife Angel talking sense into me about my speed I am running or when I am pushing myself to hard. Thanks sweetie!
On a money note, we broke $10,000 this week and hopefully as the event gets closer in the next two months the donations flow in!!! Semper Fi