How to Get Strong at the Hard Miles

Last weekend, I ran Tunnel Hill 100.

The course isn’t my comfort zone.

The shape is mentally challenging - you start in the middle of the capital letter “I”, go to the bottom, back to the middle, to the top, back to the middle, and repeat.

You might think a wide, flat, crushed gravel course is an easy break from technical 100s, but it’s not my forte.

It means more running, and lots of the same type of running using the same muscles in the same way over and over again…for 100 miles. 

But I’d signed up and was looking forward to running it.

In the race, I got the early, awkward miles done and at 15 miles, hit a groove I could run in forever.

Or so I thought - I kept slipping out of it and had to focus on my running stride instead of letting my mind wander.

Shortly after, running without the variation of hills, rocks and roots - fewer walk breaks and no reason to vary my stride - became work and started to hurt.

And the I-shaped course meant I could see exactly how not close to an aid station I was.

It was time to face what getting this done would take.

Today it was going to take being uncomfortable - more uncomfortable than I wanted to be - for a long, long way.

There’s the idea of doing it…and the doing of it.

Two totally different things.

Intellectually, we get the idea running 100 miles will be hard.

Seems obvious, right? That’s why you’re doing it - to see if you can.

But we worry about being physically capable of doing the miles, and less on how it’s going to feel doing those miles and whether we’re willing to put up with it.

We avoid focusing on the discomfort until it shows up and we have to.

And even then, it seems like it shouldn’t be happening. Something’s wrong.

We resist it as a normal part of ultras.

The secret is not to. 

Here are three tips how:

1. Invite it in like you would a stranger with nowhere to go on Thanksgiving Day.

It might not be how you planned the day but you’re open to it.

At Tunnel Hill, I knew the course might be hard and now, I accepted it was.

2. Get to know your discomfort. It’s not consistently awful.

I had miles where running felt graceful and better than ever.

And miles where my stride fell apart and everything hurt.

Sometimes it changed.

Sometimes it grew more or less.

3. Be willing to live with it for this period of time.

It might seem like you’re stuck with it forever but worst case, it can only last as long as cutoff.

At Tunnel Hill, staring at the gravel ahead of my feet instead of the long road ahead had worked so far, so I decided to do it for the rest of the 30 hours…to finish.

Decide what you’re willing to endure for the finite time of the race. You’re in control here.

To sum it all up, resisting the hard, uncomfortable miles doesn’t work.

If you’re running ultras, you might as well get comfortable with discomfort.

That makes it easier to get beyond the idea of doing an ultra…into the doing of it.

If you want to get ready for a 100 or race more consistently, no matter what the course, I can help.

Email me and let’s talk how.