This Saturday, I’ll be towing the line for the Marin Ultra Challenge 50k. First ultra this year, first time ever that I’m doing the same ultra for a second time and first time running as an Inside Trail Ambassador.

We left things on this blog at my SF half training. Well, the race went really well, more details on my Strava post.

In this post, I want to detail my training for MUC, starting after my Javelina DNF and my race mindset for this Saturday!

Let’s dive in.

Training

In my SF Half post I detailed more details about the speedwork I’ve been doing for that race; but overall my training after Javelina looked like this:

  1. November to mid-December: Interrupted speed-block. Had my wisdom teeth removed, which interrupted the block; but I had a few good workouts here.
  2. Mid-December to early January: Hiking break. 2.5 weeks without any running, but plenty of miles and plenty of vert.
  3. January: More speedwork leading up to the SF Half. I finished this with a great PR on the half marathon at 1:38:22.
  4. February: Trail training! More miles on trail, but keeping up with workouts. Wednesday speed on hills, and Saturday long runs occasionally also included some quality work like 5x1mile moderate uphill or 4 miles moderate effort after a 10 mile warmup.

All of this lead to training that looks like the picture below. Averaging 45-50 miles per week since January, and adding in about 6,000-7,000 ft of vert per week after the SF half. Training Overview

On top of the running, I did 2 additional things:

  1. Strength work: I start seeing a PT in January, and we’ve incorporated two strength training sessions per week. Nothing too hard, but a combination of squats, leg press and single-leg exercises like Bulgarian split squat, single leg RDL and single leg squats.
  2. Biking: Goal of the year is to commute more often taking the bike. I’ve been able to do this pretty well in January, but February was more difficult due to travel and bad weather. However, I did supplement with some indoor biking in the gym when I could.

Overall, I’ve been very happy with my training so far. I’ve been injury free, and I’ve been able to handle all the training thrown my way. Let’s hope it translates to a good race on Saturday!

Nutrition and hydration

I DNF’d Javelina due to hydration issues. One of my action items following that was to get a sweat test done. I managed to get that done in February, and it seems I’m a high-sodium sweater at 1,150mg/liter. It’s not off the chart, but it does make sense in the context of Javelina.

I’m using this data to adjust my hydration strategy leading into Canyons 100k, and will test it at Marin this weekend.

Over the years of running, I’ve typically relied on a mix of gels/food and liquid nutrition (drink mixes) to get my carbs/sodium. During this block, I did a test of using just electrolyte drink mixes and gels to separate both; and that didn’t work as well for me. I like to sip on some carbs throughout the run, and I’ll stick with that. Overall, my goal is to get about 750ml of liquid per hour. To get this in, I’ll be using a mix of:

  • Skratch: Aiming to mix this at 50 gram / liter, giving me about 1,000mg sodium/liter. During the race, I plan to finish 1 per hour.
  • Electrolyte tablets: I’ve tried a few, and the Styrkr tabs work well for me. 1 tablet has 1,000mg of sodium, but can easily be split in 2 to use in my 500ml soft flasks. During the race, I plan to drink to thirst with this one.

Carb-wise, I’m aiming for about 90 gram/hour during MUC. Using a variety of products here, Clif Bloks, Carbs Fuel gels, Enervit Cola gel (caffeine) and SIS Beta fuel. I set an alert on my watch that beeps every 30 minutes to remind me to eat, and the strategy for MUC is to alternate between Clif Bloks (~23g carbs) and a high carb gel (50g for Carbs fuel, 40g for Enervit and SIS Beta Fuel). The overall plan looks like this: Nutrition Overview

I’m lucky that Inside Trail serves Skratch hydration, so I can rely on the aid station to get my liquid hydration in. For my gels/bloks, I’ll carry enough at the start, and will then have Kelly be at one of the aid stations (Muir Beach), which we visit twice, to hand me additional items I need.

Race plan

The Marin Ultra Challenge 50k is a fun course. We’ll be treated to 5 aid stations, basically one after each of the 6 hills. If you notice a difference between 5 aid stations and 6 hills, after the 6th hill we’ll be treated to a lot of goodies at the finish line!

MUC profile

Last year, I finished the race in 6:08. This year with all the additional training I would love to get sub 5:45. This is not a strong target, but I think it’s achievable.

To get there, my race plan is to:

  1. Go harder on the uphills.
  2. Take it easy on the downhills, but still let gravity do its work.
  3. Save the legs enough so I can really bomb the final climb and downhill.

With all that, I don’t have particular splits in mind. Just go through the motions of the day, and see where we end up!

In closing

I’m really excited for MUC50k. I’ve done good training, I feel confident in my fueling and hydration and it looks like we’ll have amazing weather.