The 14,500′ elevation gain doesn’t scare me although it will be a record by 2,000′ in one race. I just have to figure out how to get the hill strength I had back in 2019 when I did the 12,500′ Killington Spartan without any issues at all (doing hills). I’ve been trying to get stronger with crossfit and will definitely do the 2x/week hill training I did consistently then also which I think made a big difference. I was out of breath doing the TMB and think it was a combination of work stress/general beatdown plus lack of consistency in fast hillwork. I had done a lot of elevation training on weekends but think I lacked consistency in the second set of hill intervals (cycling).

The 102 mile distance will be double what I have done before (record now is 52 miles at Hamsterwheel in 2022) and I have to figure out how to reduce foot swelling and do a little more prep for when the wheels start to fall off…..Talk to some folks with more experience than myself in the 100 mile distance. I am not sure the training will be that different.

19:24/mile cutoff times (33 hrs overall) is what scares me the most. I have never been slower. I haven’t been this out of shape since 2018 with weight – must drop about 30 lbs. Average pace in the relatively flat Hamsterwheel was 17:24/mile and I was slowing each 10 miles – need to figure out what to expect for slowdown and minimize that and aid station times. Back in 2019 I could run 7+ miles with 180 cadence as a “slow” run in zone 3 at 11:00/mile. I have really slowed down – not sure if it is due to weight or stress or training (not enough intervals).

Whatever the different factors are, I know consistency is key so am starting on a regular 6 day/week with one real rest day (not a Monday which is a stressful work day) including 4 strength sessions.

The other major change I am implementing is diet moving to primarily vegetarian plus fish which makes for more interesting meals. Harvey Lewis does it pretty successfully!! Limited alcohol on special occasions only.

Sleep must improve – no phones in the bed and a solid 8 hrs. Retiring and reduced work stress, better rounded life should help this a lot.

I plan to work on my ultra community so my long days/training aren’t so alone and I foster those friendships. Good thing is I have a few friends I can learn from locally and train with much more easily once retired. One of my friends who is a beast has already offered to pace me through the night during the Nobiz race! In 2022 I was getting very lonely on the long bikes/runs. Building my local community and better mental health will be key to my success this year – working remotely just doesn’t work for me and I have lost my local communities I really need for support. I spend my days in meetings all day and am still lonely without someone to talk to at work informally. A few months ago I cleaned out my contacts and deleted at least a thousand mostly from work. It felt like cleaning house and getting ready for the next chapter, which is already starting adding my new scuba contacts!

As David Goggins says, fight for each second and I am just going to start by going out for a run with a few intervals in my new shoes back on the old Nashua rail trail where I started this whole thing back in 2018 to reground. I’ll be meal prepping today to get that in order as well! Good thing I ate all the chocolate covered pretzels we got as a Christmas gift yesterday 🙂