I had an awesome time running theRVRR D&R Canal Towpath 'Train"ing run event yesterday. The run is a non-competitive event to celebrate National Trails Day here in the US and get out there and run together. The group of 400 or so runners is broken up into 5 different pace “trains” and are bused to the stop and pace they want to go and everyone is timed to all finish together for an all day BBQ picnic and all the benefit the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. I opted to go the full 35 miles (my 5th time!) with the 10:30 pace group starting in the dark at 4AM and finishing 7 hours later together with all the other runners. It was a BRUTALLY humid day, but we pushed through and got it done.
I’ve picked up many tips over the years and you learn something new every time you tackle something like this, but my training this past year with Athletica has added a TON to my overall fitness success and knowledge. I think sometimes we get a little lost on some smaller details like training plans taking too long to load or workouts not being uploaded to our watches or AI coach losing a little focus on data, or HR zones being tough to interpret between different charts.
Stepping back though, there are HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS of INCREDIBLE info on the podcasts from true industry leaders, as well as, being shared by everyone in the awesome forum community. More of my success in gutting out a 7 hour trail running effort in 95% humidity has much more to do with things like heat acclimation, and conservative easy zone weekly running, and focus on recovery, and HRV awareness, and getting enough sleep, and targeted HIIT workouts that I pivoted to with workout wizard, and fat adaption, and fasted long runs, and not overdoing it with gels and sugar, and not always chasing numbers and endless datapoints, and just overall awareness of my own body and listening to my head and gut… and not get bogged down too much on data alone.
