For the past two weeks, I ran everyday and totaled over 80 miles. It was
inspired by the runners I know: my friend L who runs 50 miles every week,
Murakami ran six miles a day, and the 2010 WS 100 runners featured in the
UNBREAKABLE film. My own race, 10 weeks from now, was canceled but I still
wanted to see what it felt like to go out and run every single day.
It was not as hard as I feared. Four days of the week, weight-lifting would warm
me up well and running afterward for less than seven miles felt relaxing. On the
other days, I would run longer and on trails. Last Wed, I only needed one break
running up mission peak and running downhill was very enjoyable. So after taking
Sat off, I thought going up MP twice on Sunday would be a piece of cake.
I forgot, however, that I hadn't run in one go more than 10 miles on road or
trail for the past four months.
On Sat, coffee did not have any effect, which was usually a bad sign. My head
was muddled and the left jaw started to swell at the back. I felt slightly sick
when starting in the morning. After the first visit to the summit, I managed to
run down the Horse Heaven Trail. Unlike the others leading to MP, this trail has
three downhills in the middle, raising the total elevation. Four monstrous
slopes gave my quads much more work to do. It was harder to run up the second
time on the Mission Peak Trail as the sun was up and the one bottle of water ran
out. I went up no further than the bathroom and turned back north to the Ohlone
side. I finished in about three hours.
That afternoon, I had two heirloom tomatoes, half a quarter of watermelon, and
lamb, onion, rice, and lots of nuts for dinner. After a sound 10-hour sleep, I
felt much better and the scale showed I lost more than five pounds.
I re-learnt a few things.
- Calf-stretching works. All the pain during the past months is paying off. My right
foot felt much better, both during the run and recovery.
- Hydration is important for both running and off days.
- Total millage from running everyday does not translate automatically into
endurance in a long run. In other words, if I want to ran ultra-marathons on
trails, I have to practice it. There is no short-cut.
