I have my first ultra (8 hour timed) coming up this weekend and I feel a little overwhelmed to say the least.  Part of it is that I haven’t been able to prepare to quite the extent I would have liked to.  Sore, tight calves have kept me running about 3 times a week and  rather than the 5 -6 times that I would have liked and have also kept my miles lower than I would have liked.   The other part is the weather.  The race, Howl at the Moon, starts at 7:00 AM and finishes at 3:00 PM.  The weather is supposed to be low of 60 and high of 80 with humidity between  65 – 80.  So while it might be a bit more manageable in the early morning, it’s could get fairly sweaty by noon, and I’d still have three hours to go.

My initial high goal for the race was 41 miles, my target was 35 and my minimum was 32 miles to make it at least an ultra distance.  I think at this point the 41 miles is pretty much out of range.  I still have hope for 35, but am shooting for 32.  I’ve charted out three possible scenarios in the tables below.

Option 1:  This is the minimum.  It allow for a 3:1 run/walk the first half with a conservative pace of 10 min miles for running and 22 min miles walking.  The second half will be 1:1 with the running pace dropping  to 12 min miles.

Option 2: This gets me slightly higher miles.  The first half is the same, but the second half consists of a 40 min run followed by half an hour walk, followed by a 30 minute run and 90 min walk.

Option 3: This gets me the highest miles.  All things stay the same as the other two options except the second half consist of 2:1 run walks.