2025 Superior Fall 100 Mile (Part 4)

Tuesday August 26, 2025

Cannot believe I'm now only 10 sleeps away! This suddenly has crept up on me very quickly!

I've been aggressively following my training plan and it's gone quite well overall. I'm really happy with my ability to train through the heat and humidity this year. In the past, this has really been a struggle for me and it's nice to know I can push past the discomfort! I've had little to no stomach issues, even in the extreme heat and humidity. I've been diligent about hydrating and staying on top of my salt pills. I'm careful about the sun and make sure to apply sunscreen so I don't burn (although reapplying is not something I've been good at during longer runs). Now my only goal is to NOT GET INJURED during these last 10 days. Having to help Kylah and Griffin move and Finnley move not once, but twice has not helped haha! I had my last run at Afton along with my last climb at Hyland last week. I have my last "long run" of 10 miles this week and while I had originally planned on going to Afton, now I'm fearful of injuring myself (or falling) so I'm going to head up to the single track near our house instead. 

Instead of directly following my training plan, I'm running every other day over the next 9 days, decreasing my mileage nearly every time (I ran 8m today, will run 10m Thursday, but the last 3 runs will be 6m, 4m and 2m). I'll take the day before the race off as we'll be driving up to the airbnb that day. 

What I really like about the 100m plan I followed:

* PACE: All runs were done at an easy conversational pace with low intensity. I worked really hard on not stressing my hamstrings by not running too fast. I believe this allowed me to prevent injury as I worked toward larger weekly mileage volumes. I improved my ability at running slowly for a long time. 

* HILLS: When I trained for the 50m 8 years ago, I didn't start hillwork until about a month before the race. While I finished the race, my left leg was in rough shape after so I really wanted to work on starting hillwork early this time. We started going to Hyland on Mother's Day in May and ended up going 10x over 16 weeks (we also spent a week in Banff climbing mountains). I climbed between 5-9m, averaging 6.5m or 19-20 repeats. Other than injuring my right calf on the first day we went in May, I had no other issues and was never sore after a climb. 

* LONG RUNS: I did all of my long runs at Afton. Worked hard on distance and not so much on pace. For the two 30m runs I ran a route that had me able to stop back at my car after 20m to use it as an "aid station" where I could drink some coke and have a snack before heading back out again to finish the last 10 miles. 

* BACK TO BACK LONG RUNS: According to my training plan, B2B long runs "are a safer and more efficient way to increase total volume miles for the week, without putting in extreme long distance runs". For me, they gave me the opportunity to run on tired legs. I had my first B2B in early June, running 23+10 at Afton. Starting in the beginning of July, I had 2 more B2B with my biggest B2B in early August running 30+20 at Afton. Later that same week, I took my pacers (Marcus, Jonah, Griffin and Juniper) to Afton for a fast hike to get them used to what my actual pace might be during the race (yes, we hiked too fast, but it was storming out the entire time). This gave the kids a good idea of what they might need for the day of the race (wool socks, food, change of clothes, etc). My last B2B (25+18) was the following week, 3 weeks before race week. 

What I could have been better about: 

* REST DAYS: I liked having 2 rest days most weeks! While I don't live a sedentary lifestyle by nature, it was nice to wake up some mornings knowing I could have a day to do whatever. Back in the spring, I had planned on using these days to cross train with stretching and/or strength training, but that never happened (even though it should have).

* ACTIVE RECOVERY: The other item on my training plan that I ignored was adding in different types of exercise such as biking, swimming, yoga, etc once every 3-4 weeks. Most often, I took these days as extra rest days instead. 

Overall, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling strong and in better shape than I've probably ever been in. Long runs and climbing hills hasn't left me sore or achy even once (although driving 30-45m home and getting out of the car sucks, but I can walk it off really quickly). Over 28 weeks, I'll have run 1102 miles, averaging 25-29m/week for 7 weeks, 31-38m/week for 12 weeks and 40-41m/week for the last 9 weeks. My max mileage peaked in weeks 20-21 with B2B 64+67m weeks. Overall I had 4 60+ mile weeks, 2 50+ mile weeks and 9 40+ mile weeks. Considering over the last 10+ years I'd rarely run more than 40 miles in a single week, this was an incredible feat for me!

Forecasts are starting to predict weather during the race so I'm starting to track it. As of today, it's looking like low 50's to start, warming up to mid 60's on Friday, back to upper 40's/low 50's overnight and only up to 60° on Saturday. The weather this past week has been cooler so it's been nice to train a bit in what might be "race weather". My plan is to wear shorts no matter what - I love my shorts with inner briefs so I don't have to wear underwear (this makes it so much easier to pee/change mid-run). I also mostly stopped wearing sport bras this summer as I found some Under Armour tanks with shelf bras that were really nice and much easier to get on/off while wet. I can easily throw a t-shirt or long-sleeve (or jacket) over the tanks. While I've pulled out clothes (and bought more socks), the actual packing I'll leave until next week. I'm still undecided on how to organize clothing in my gear bag as I don't want my crew to have to lug EVERYTHING to the aid station. I think the plan will be to have them bring just one of everything as I'm having them do with food. 

On that note - my most recent food discovery is Muir gels from REI - the cacao almond is literally brownie batter! So I bought 10 as they're small and easy to tear open. I also plan to make some mochi cake the day before the race. They hold up well in any temp, are easy to chew and high in calories. Also bringing plenty of m&m's, lunabars, trader joe gummies and waffles. For the salty side, I'll have potato chips, grilled cheese, string cheese, bacon, brats, salted nuts and possibly some hard-boiled eggs. 

First aid kit is packed - hoping the more prepared we are, the less likely we'll need it! Although I'm already preparing to lose some toenails, particularly my big left toe as it's given me problems in the past and is currently partly dead already. 

I still need to work on curating my music playlists. I plan on setting up on a podcast queue the night before. I may also listen to Parvati's audiobook. 

Now I'm just trying to ignore all of the aches and pains I'm noticing. My back is sore, my shoulders are sore! I'm trying to stretch out several times a day while also trying to rest (and at the same time, stay active). I actually had a massage last week, but I feel like I need one every day, haha!