Training for the
Ultra Trail 15k
Our guest blogger, Traci Wisz, is a mother of two (ages 2 and 4) who has called Central Wisconsin home for the last 11 years. During breaks between chasing her kiddos, Traci works for IRONBULL and the Woodchucks. Here is her take on preparing for the Ultra Trail 15k.
I recently signed up to run the IRONBULL Ultra Trail 15k race happening on October 2. After 2 years of watching the goings-on of IRONBULL from the sidelines I figured it was time to give it a try myself. It has been over 4 years since I last ran a race and even longer since my last ‘trail’ run back during my high school days when I ran cross country. (I’m not 100% sure if that even counts as trail running...)
Stepping up the distance
Now, how am I going to manage running a 15k (9.3ish miles) when I haven’t done anything nearly that far in a long time and I’ve got a full schedule with work and family commitments? My children are young, and busy, so any training I want to do will have to work around their schedules. I did a quick google search for a 15k training plan, found one that made the task seem doable, and realized that I was already running some of the distances on the calendar. I’ve always enjoyed going running, but normally kept my runs around 3-4 miles since that was what I was used to and I didn’t have any real reason to push further than that, until now.
From my prior experience with racing, I know that cross training and resistance training are also important. Lucky for me we go for many family bike rides and I try to do some weight or resistance training a couple of times a week. Now it is time to be diligent, add in more, and longer runs.
Warming up for a cross country meet in high school.
Many of my training runs have occured while pushing one of my children in the jogging stroller.
Training
So far I’ve been able to get out for one shorter run during the week (typically around 2 miles) and a longer run on one of the weekend days. My longest run so far was the 10K loop at Nine Mile. Most of my runs (about 80%) have occurred while pushing the jogging stroller. The bonus of running that way most of the time is that on the few runs I’ve done without one, I’m noticeably faster! My youngest enjoys my runs more than my oldest. My oldest gets a little bored, or wants to talk the whole time which is hard! My youngest just enjoys going ‘fast’ and watching everything that we pass by.
I know that the Ultra Trail 15k will be much different than running 15k on roads, so I try to get some distance in on a trail. I did the Gaska Gallop 5k free marked trail run twice and the Nine Mile Adventure 5k. The first time I did the Gaska Gallop was at sunrise, and it was a really peaceful and energizing way to start my day! I had to return later to see if I could beat my time, and I did, by five minutes! I’m lucky to live in a development that has a small network of private trails so I’ve begun ending all my runs by doing a little loop on those.
I am hoping to get to one of IRONBULL’s Ultra Trail Training Runs sometime soon. So far my family’s schedule hasn’t worked out in a way that I could make it to one of the training runs, so it’s up to me to motivate myself. Having the race date on my calendar has definintly helped with this as I haven’t ran this consistently since my days in cross country! I was even able to convince some friends to sign up and we’re working on planning some times to run together.
Road (or trail) ahead
Over the next couple of months I want to work up to running a 15k, then my plan is to start adding in some speed and hill workouts, along with trying to get in more trail runs. Having my prior cross country experience has given me some ideas on different speed workouts I can do when I get to that point. I’ve never run on trails much before and I have really enjoyed the days when I am able to take my running there. I do prefer going for runs right out my door, or at least very close to home, so it’s nice to have so many great options around here! Look for an update when we get closer to race day and then I’ll be back to type up how it went.
If you’ve done the IRONBULL Ultra Trail or other trail race, please share your training recommendations below.