"You're running 100 miles"------"Yes, Yes I am"

 

        When I came upon the idea of running the 100 mile race at Indiana Trail 100 it was kind of a crazy idea that I wasn't really serious about. I mean...come ON!...100 miles!!  The very idea caused my stomach to clench and my mind to rebel. But then I remembered the amazing feeling I got after my 50. (I also, of course, remember saying I am glad I didn't have to do that again!) 
       But then my thoughts began to creep inexorably towards the fact that only a few years ago I had run my first 5K and how much I had done since then. Against all odds I had done four ultramarathons, 7 marathons, probably 10 or more half marathons and numerous other races none the worse for wear. Oh of course I had some setbacks---an annoying hip injury that kept me out of the Flatrock 50K but it turned around pretty quickly. As long as I keep up with the exercises it is fine. 
     So with my stomach in very serious knots I signed up for the 100 mile at IT100 in late April---April 25 to be exact. 

So I summoned my courage and then did what I always do. I started planning. Got the UltraLadies training schedule and tweaked it a bit to allow for an October marathon, a December 50K and the Land between the lakes 60K which is actually perfect as a training run. 
    I enlisted the aid of my running elders, so to speak, Jeff Yoder and Scott Breeden. They were so patient with me as to going over my training plan, doing a little pinch here and there to make it not only more manegable but also talked me down from some of my more extreme weekend back to back that would probably have landed me back into pysio and more lovely graston. OW!!
    Training plan made I started doing my weekly runs religiously,. my back to back runs on the clock and worked on my other considerations such as nutrition. I tried desperately to capture the magic of Tailwind as all my friends had done but it just didn't work fore me. At some point I needed food, even if that food was just a salted caramel Gu, or I would start to feel this lagging feeling ,my pace would start to suffer and I had to do something about it. Usually hit around mile 10. 
    I also kept up my weight training at the same time. Mondays and Fridays were my rest days. Fridays I took full rest days, especially when it wasn't a cut-back week and I was actually going to be putting in 8-10 hours total during the weekend just running. Mondays are my weight days. I usually focus on upper body---rows, lat pulldowns, assisted pullup machine, pushups, etc.....
   So here it is kind of dwindling down. I know it's technically two months away however between back to backs, cut back weeks, tapering just a very tad for LBL, recovery from LBL,. big runs before 3 week taper before 100 mile my time is actually becoming quite short.

  So here I am at the crux of my life where one way is back to the way I was here before and there is a brand new Heather. One who has conquered 100 miles and, whether or not I can finish or not, has undertaken a massive faith in myself----one that cannot be squashed no matter what life brings me. 

                                              I am Heather Lake, 45 female and I am going to run 100 miles.