September 13, 2023 - A Specific Training Outcome

As a part of this High Five By 55 idea, I will be running a series of big mountain ultras over the next 10 years. They'll be of varying difficulty and with different challenges at each. Some more vert. Some more altitude exposure. Some with bigger logistical challenges to even get there. But they'll all help prepare me for the eventual shot at High Five 100. At least, that's what I'm counting on to happen to get me ready.

But I'm truly going to approach each of these races not just as a race, but really as a training opportunity. An opportunity to test something very specific. I will be putting together a list of skills and knowledge I want to learn and earn over the next 10 years, then will pick something off that list to really make the focus of each of these races.

For example, when I was training for my first Ouray 100, I ran the Long Haul 100 in Florida earlier in the year. Now, other than both being about 100 miles, Long Haul and Ouray have about as much in common as does an alligator and a marmot. But even so, I had a specific skill I wanted to practice at Long Haul that I would need at Ouray. At that race, the skill was being able to easily move between running and walking. Ouray 100 demanded excruciatingly steep and slow uphill hikes, followed by downhills that needed to be run to keep the average pace low enough to finish in time, then back to that steep and slow uphill. Dozens of times. The transition from walking and hiking to running and back to walking can be really challenging. So I spent 75 miles of Long Haul 100 transitioning from a fast, hard hike to a gentle jog and then back to the hike. Every kilometer I'd switch from one to the other. Over 100 times.

I'll be similarly be picking a specific skill or bit of knowledge to practice and test over these may years and big mountain ultras I'm planning. Nutrition, that'll be a big one to really work on as I have done nothing but fail at nutrition during big mountain ultras. That's probably something to focus on at High Lonesome 100 where the average altitude will challenge my normal nutritional ideas. Self-sufficiency! I've had the idea to run Hardrock 100 when I finally get there without crew or pacers to practice self-sufficiency in the same mountains as High Five 100 is run. And so on and so forth. 

Each race I run to earn another Hardrock ticket will be about developing and practicing another skill or mindset or technique that will be beneficial for the eventual High Five 100 attempt. Each race will be about finishing the race, but also about doing it in a specific manner meant to elicit a certain bit of learning. And I think that's going to be as exciting as the actual races themselves.