I’m heading back for my third running of the DD100M this weekend. This will be my third hundred that I’ve started three times or more joining C&O Canal and my beloved Eastern States. While this isn’t my favorite race, it’s relatively convenient (under 3 hour drive) and there’s not a whole lot else going on in December race-wise.
For those that haven’t been following my escapades this year, I’ve been attempting to run an even split 100 mile race. I began at Sri Chinmoy where I started off a little faster than even splits and slowed down less than normal in the second half. This was my proof of concept race, which gave me confidence to attempt running an even paced race at Viaduct to even better results. I got even closer at Wild Goose. Devil Dog has a similar course profile to Wild Goose so I’m going to dust off my pacing plan for that race. DD100 is a couple miles shorter so it’s possible I can go sub-24 hours. [Keep in mind that a one in a hundred chance is also “possible”.]
Experiment of One
I’ve been focusing on running even splits under the theory that an evenly paced race would result in a lower overall race time. My times at Viaduct and Wild Goose were at the quicker end of what I thought I was capable. It’s tough to accurately guess a race time for new races though so I’ve no way to really know whether my pacing strategy was beneficial from an overall performance standpoint. I’m excited about giving it a go this weekend as I’ve got a really nice experiment lined up.
As luck would have it, I started off a little quicker last year than my first running of DD100M, however ended up a little bit slower. This provides me a pretty cool opportunity for an experiment. I’m going to see if starting out with a pace a minute per mile slower will result in a substantially faster overall time. Everyone knows you don’t want to go out too fast in any ultra. The challenge is that there’s no quantitative guidance as to what’s slow enough. By trial and error, I’m coming to the conclusion that 40% slower than my long run pace is the sweet spot. I’m guessing that in 2021 and 2022 I started maybe 25% slower, while I should be closer to 40% with a 14:18 pace.
Fitness and weather are obviously large factors in hundred mile races. I would peg my fitness at similar levels to prior years. Temperatures are also comparable though no rain is currently in the forecast this year versus last year’s race. If my experiment this weekend is successful, I might spend some time trying to quantify the fitness and weather impacts on my race times. Suggestions welcome.
Wildcard
I mean, there’s always a wildcard in ultrarunning, right? Mine for this race is my right knee that I jacked up pretty good three weeks ago. It was sore for the first week, somewhat weak for the second week, and unnoticeable for the past week. After the first couple days, it never impacted my running form and never felt worse as I progressed through a run/walk activity. I’m confident it’ll hold up , but you never know. Even though there have been no issues during a 5-8 mile workout, 80 miles of continuous pounding may cause some problems. The counter argument is that 80 miles of continuous pounding normally causes some problems so it’s not like I’ll be blazing new territory here. I’ll have an old knee sleeve in my drop box at the start/finish if it starts bothering me. Fingers crossed I won’t need it.
Overall, I’m ridiculously excited for the opportunity to run a hundred miles. Let’s go!