24 hours of movement

Just thought I would let my favorite forum know my workout plan for the weekend. I am going for a 24 hour run taking me about 80 miles around the east valley of Phoenix. It will be about 95 degrees. I will have a decent pack of food, water and AMK ultralight med kit. Electrolyte replacements. Decent lighting options for the overnight part.

As I've stated in the past I am an endurance athlete, marathoner, Ironman triathlete, hiker and coming out of a 2 year recovery for a near fatal injury. I want to add ultra-runner to the list. Never run more than a marathon, or hiked more than 30 miles at one time. It is as much a mental test for me as physical.

I've got all my safety and communication systems set up. I am also going to use my SPOT2 tracking program. I am going to start around 11am Phoenix time Saturday and finish around 11am Sunday. Try the SHARED ADVENTURES PAGE link. If this works right, every ten minutes my unit will ping the page with a location update. Should be cool.

I will try to post quick note Sunday when done but most likely Monday.

Good luck to you. Stay safe.

GOOD LUCK! THIS IS AWESOME! Yes, all caps.

Wow, that sounds brutal! Have a great time and report be here ASAP to let us know you are alive.

-Blast

dude

Agreed Stay safe.

Lee

Hey Guys. Thanks for the support. I went 15 hours. Not the 24 I wanted but I am not upset about that. I have never had an IT band problem before, thus it become the perfect time to get one. My right knee was pretty miserable and painful the entire time. I ran well for most of it until the heat went over 100 degrees on a desert highway and it sapped a lot out of me.

I recovered fine but my knee tendon did not. I wore regular running shoes and in hindsite a sturdier trail shoe would have done better on the rough gravel, which I am sure did not help. In the preparedness mindset I just told myself these are the situations you can't control, imagine lives depending on you and keep going.

I told myself I would keep going until the IT band started to affect my walking. My med kit had a ACE wrap so I wrapped it tight and kept going. Around 3AM limping along, I finally sat down, the words, "This sucks" slipped out of my mouth and I knew that I just had to stop. This was for training and if I voice, "this sucks' then it stopped becoming fun.

I called a ride and picked up some IHOP take out on the way home. Other than my knee I was hydrated, eating well, digesting well, feet had no blisters but were sore. I felt like mentally I was alert and sane. But when it comes to training, there is no reason to cause long term injury like an IT problem can be.

It was good training. Ended up at 48 miles.

I think you had a great training experience. You were wise to call it when you did!!!

Awesome work!

Comms, amazing. Good show. Glad you didnt seriously injure yourself, and took the smart rough. You almost doubled anything you had run before-HUGE kudos to you on that! Recover, be well-I am amazed at your athletic capabilities here!

Wow, that is damn impressive!
I can't even begin to comprehend what you did.

-Blast

You da man, comms!

Sounds very cool. Details, man! Pack weight, amount of water, etc.

The IT band tends to get problematic on lots of folks, it seems. You can buy big foam "logs" at most big sporting good stores (Chick's, Dick's, etc), that you lie on and slide your body up and down, essentially letting the log stretch your IT band. I suppose having someone use a rolling pin on your leg would do the same thing. My fiance did this when marathon training and it seemed to help a lot.

Congrats! 48 miles is nothing to laugh at. Especially when you consider than in an evac, you might not even drive that far in a day!

Details. Details. Ummm. I used a newer pack for me, the Lafuma Cinetik 11 pro pack. Because I am doing longer unsupported runs and dayhikes I want a pack that carry's more space than the typical Camelbak MULE, which I have mostly used for a decade. (A gear guy never commits to just one pack). I weighed the pack before leaving and fully loaded it was 9.62 lbs.

I carried ~70 oz of water in a reservoir, plus a 16oz water bottle with various carbo mixes (Gatorade, Heed, OJ). I never ran out of water but it got hot quick in the pack which made me desire ice at every stop.

Food. Confession. My plan was to purposefully use junk food and stuff I don't normally eat. I do this in long training b/c its the only way to test my body for 'race' day. For example, if all you train with is vanilla gu and all they have on the race course is double latte gel, you better be used to eating it if its the only calories you can get. So I ate snickers bars. Regular Coke, pop tarts. Sunflower seeds. I also ate various new gels for flavor samplings. I grabbed a turkey and cheese sandwich at a gas station. banana. Nuts. OJ. Perrier. (I love seltzer water). Digestion was great and had no problems. Because I was trying so many new foods while under training conditions, i did not combine sugars in my stomach. Meaning, I did not eat a new gel, washed down with a new carbo drink. I usually waited 20 minutes between food types for digestive purposes.

I carried a 65 lumen Black Diamond Spot headlamp.
I had a bright red blinking LED for the back of my pack.
I had my SPOT2 which worked great for real time tracking. One friend text me and asked why I hadn't moved in a while. I was airing out my feet for the first time in 10 hours.
I had a slightly modified AMK Ultralight med kit.
Battery charger for my iphone, worked great.
Endurolyte tablets (electrolyte replacement)
I had two Buffs and one bandanna.
I had my camera. Took a few minutes of video every couple hours.
Vaseline lip balm. Mandatory EDC for the desert as a friction barrier.
My Polar heart rate monitor that also figures pace and distance.
UL toilet kit. (Dog park bag and 1oz of baby wipes)

There was probably one or two other small items I carried with me that I am forgetting.

I have a foam roller. I use it for my back, neck, calves, hamstrings. I also own "The Stick" (rolling pin) for stretching muscles. I have never had an IT problem before so did not focus on that area. Got a massage tonight which has helped.