Capes 2019 - Race and Training Notes

Capes 100: 50KM - Race Day

New Equipment

• I did not train with my hydration pack - got it 2 weeks before race start - it worked reasonably well, but I need to acclimatize myself to the added weight and technicalities with a hydration pack.
• Only ran ~30 km in the Salomon SpeedCross 4 prior to this, so was unaware of some hot-spots related with the shoes. My big toes suffered quite a bit. 

Sticking to the Plan

• Though I had planned on taking a GU GEL at roughly every hour, I only ended up eating one, and forgetting about nutrition altogether after the first aid station. This would not have have flown well with longer races.
• In 100 km or 100 miler, I don't think I could have gotten away with half-filling my water bottles.

Training Preparation

• I really need to sort out this "running on tired legs" bit, because I am bad at end-of-races.

Decisions

• Dropping down to 50 km was the right decision, 100 km would have been a DNF - guaranteed.
• Trust your crew, Katie was right on a few things that I ignored (i.e. hydration, nutrition, dumping equipment)

Capes 100: Training

• Hills - I did not train on hills much. Sackville is a lot of rolling hills, but nothing that prepared me for the 25% grade.
• Accumulated Distance - Having run only ~600 km in 2019 prior to the race, this is not sufficient, and it showed.
• Trails - I ran on some trails around the Beech Hill Park in Sackville - these were more technical than the ATV trails during race day. I tripped a bit on the trails, but they were not too difficult to manage. 
• Community - I was a "lone wolf" this year, and I didn't run with anybody all year. I need to join running communities to keep myself motivated. I think I have reached my limit of what I can achieve solo.
• Long Run - My longest run training up to the race was a 53km road "adventure" from Sackville to Moncton - despite this leaving me in a lot of pain for the following week, it provided me a mental baseline that this distance is achievable.

Failure Points

In any activity, there are many potential failure points. Essentially things that are the highest risks factors leading to not reaching goals.

Examples:

• Weak muscle groups
• Nutrition
• Hydration
• Weather management
• Fitness
• Injury management
• Trail experience

For my part;

Weak muscle groups

• Weak hips/balancing muscles, which caused knee pain - this led to lack of training earlier in the year.
• Weak hips are mostly caused by sitting all day for work, and then also sitting at night playing video games/watching television. 
• Quads - Having stronger quads to control my downhills will trash my legs less, much better for ultra distances
• Back/shoulders, and arms (oddly enough) felt tired at the end of the race. Bad posture likely affected pace.

Injury management

• I put KT tape on the bottom of my foot, to mitigate plantar fasciitis
• TO DO: Stretch calf, tight calves can lead to PF
• Soleus muscle - bend your knee as you're doing a calf stretch
• Taped some of my toes to prevent chaffing
• Lubed up in all the right spots - still had some ass chaffing by the end

Hydration and Nutrition

• These two are not risks that I anticipated, but I feel stupid for digging myself into a hydration/nutrition hole at the end. 

Weather Management

• I did great looking at the weather, and managing my race to reflect the weather. 
• Worked harder during the beginning of the race in cool conditions, and slowed down when the sun/heat came out.