Almost all the courses are open, a single day quartet course attempt has already been run by @heathercobb3, and @adamengst is challenging someone to try for 5 courses in a day… I got to thinking… how easy would it be to run all 10 courses over the course of a week? Doesn’t seem too crazy, right? My initial thoughts, taking into account total daily mileage, proximity of certain courses to each other, elevation/trail technicality, and allowing for 1-2 rest days:
East hill, Botanic Gardens, and South hill
Danby and T&H
Pseudo Skunk
BDT and Waterfront trail
Frolic and Hammond Hill (or run these on separate days)
I’m not quite ready to do this week of crazy yet, but when I do I’d love some company!
Whoa—I like it! It would be a full week of running, but definitely doable for someone whose legs are accustomed to 50-70 miles per week. Anyone who manages it will definitely merit some cred from the community.
This piques my interest for sure, Gabrielle! I wish I was fast enough to keep up with you to join you for some miles. You’ll have an absolute blast doing this (and your legs will be blasted, but in the best way).
It was a wet and cold week to be out running doubles, but I’m glad we got it done before other big trail runs this summer. I ended up splitting the runs as follows partly out of necessity because of work, and partly because Sam and I dislike running roads and wanted to have a bit of trail daily:
Friday - moderate effort Frolic with @jullfly and @vedgund in a snow/rain mix, followed by easy effort South Hill in dubiously warmer rain
Saturday - East Hill as a warmup followed by Thom b at a moderate clip in 30F (but no rain!), followed by a 3ish mile leg flush hike with @julie19 and her dog Burdock
Sunday - easy Botanical gardens loop early morning before a 12-hr surgery work day
Monday - moderate effort T&H followed by slooow BDT with lots of stretching and water breaks. 55F and sunny by the time we finished. This was probably the toughest day with cumulative miles and work strain adding up, plus the BDT seems to do a number on my legs - perhaps too much monotony
Tuesday - easy Waterfront trail followed by easy Down and Dirty with @lizhartman in cloudy 45F. Something about all the climbs at Danby made my legs feel amazing, even after Monday.
Wednesday - pseudo Skunk with @lizhartman yet again! Ithaca saved the best weather for last, of course, dumping a snow squall on us during the long windy Ellis Hollow climb! Moderate effort on my part but our finishing times don’t reflect it because of the weather.
And, because that wasn’t enough, I’d already planned a 20 mile run through part of the West Rim trail in PA before the week of crazy came to mind… so that was our “recovery” run on Friday!
Final thoughts: if I do this again, I’ll plan ahead for drier, warmer weather. The miles weren’t what killed my legs, it was really the driving and sitting in the cold between courses. I did all doubles back to back and had at least a clif bar and some Gatorade between each, even if I wasn’t hungry at the time. I did find the week a good exercise in self-control - not blasting down big hills or running too hard on one particular course in order to avoid injury and fatigue to complete the entire week. Of course my dog Sam was completely fine and recovered at least 3x faster than I did. Huge respect for whoever completes the 100k challenge - I agree, it’s most definitely an awful, brilliant idea!!
