Land Between the Lakes 50 Miler and Umstead 100

Its been a few days since the LBL 50 Miler, and I still haven't written a race report! I don't have it wrapped up in my head yet... Over the last few days I've been analyzing the outcome of the race...

My main objective was to run well, but save my energy for my "A" race of the year, the Umstead 100 Miler which is only 3 weeks post LBL.

My time goal in the LBL 50 was to go under 6:22, and I ran out in no mans land in 2nd place the entire race, and ran a 6:25. I say I ran in no mans land because 1st place was running at least 20 minutes ahead and it was nearly an hour and a half back to third place. I pounded out a strong first 3 laps, but then slowed drastically and crashed on the 4th and final lap, running a 1:36 when I ran 1:21, 1:20, 1:28, relative the first three laps...

This leads me to examine my heart rate expenditure the first few laps, and I must admit that I failed to stick to my game plan. My plan, and most importantly, my GOAL, was to run 1:25 each lap. Had I not gone out to fast on that gorgeous sunny day, I would have been able to hold pace, and not fade on the last lap.

Since my ultimate goal is Umstead this year, this is a valuable take-away for the race.

Thanks to always racing while wearing a Garmin, I have been able to examine my HR data for the last 3, 100 mile races I have run, as well as the UROC 100K, and I have seen exactly where I fade and I can see first hand that I am still going out too hard, even though I pride myself on strong finishes. Around mile 40 my heart rate drops and then again at mile 65.

LBL served its purpose in retrospect as a fun weekend in gorgeous country to spend with friends and race, but also to force me to look at sticking to my game plan for Umstead. I ran a 6:25 and came in 2nd, but it was a poor performance to be honest, I could have done much better. These spring races are ones that I love, but with 3 ultras crammed into a 2 month span, every race can't be an "A" race, and this year, Umstead and UROC are my "A" races, so some sacrifice had to happen somewhere.