# Miyakojima 100KM Ultra Marathon !



## MemphisHawk (Sep 13, 2014)

On September 1, I signed up for the Miyakojima 100KM Marathon (62~ miles). I will post up my training week by week perhaps and maybe you guys can give me some boost of spirit to complete this monster. I have completed a marathon before in February, but that is the farthest I ever ran and I only did it one time. I am devoting quite a bit of time to this training, but perhaps not in the way that seems most likely. I will post more later! Also there is a time limit of 14 hours which is something like 4.4MPH average speed. That is my main concern. I know I can walk 100KM without stopping if it is a life or death situation! but averaging a relatively fast speed for a non-ultra marathoner will be interesting. Please feel free to sign up with me as it is a BEAUTIFUL island!

-Here is course map and elevation. The high point in elevation is about 325 feet


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## SD83 (Sep 13, 2014)

I'm just re-reading Stephen King's "The long walk" and this sounds kinda similar, except for the being shot thing  14h of walking, that is insane. In an impressive & cool way. Good luck! How many people take part in that event?


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## ThePhilosopher (Sep 13, 2014)

Good luck, I'm doing my first half marathon next month and first full marathon in February. That is quite some distance to keep up pace - I'm interested in hearing how you're training for your ultra.


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## MikeH (Sep 13, 2014)

That's damn impressive, man. Really interested to see how it goes for you.


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## MemphisHawk (Sep 13, 2014)

SD83 said:


> I'm just re-reading Stephen King's "The long walk" and this sounds kinda similar, except for the being shot thing  14h of walking, that is insane. In an impressive & cool way. Good luck! How many people take part in that event?



Quite a few actually. Here is a video from the start line 2 years ago. I was surprised to see this much participation myself.

[YOUTUBEVID]CRa-VhRiSXA[/YOUTUBEVID] 




ThePhilosopher said:


> Good luck, I'm doing my first half marathon next month and first full marathon in February. That is quite some distance to keep up pace - I'm interested in hearing how you're training for your ultra.



When you run that full marathon, don't get upset at your splits getting way slower in the second half, just keep going! It was really hard for me at around the 20 mile point to find the desire to keep going. 




MikeH said:


> That's damn impressive, man. Really interested to see how it goes for you.



I need to come up with a clean way to post up the log of training I'm doing. 

To give you an idea of how I am tapering up, two months ago I ran 105 miles in 31 days. Last month, I took some time off to give the shins a break and now this month I am aiming to do 200 miles of running/walking/swimming. Biking doesn't count as it covers ground too quickly. I am behind schedule for now, but I am taking the rest of the month off work to play catch up on my training. 

Another active piece of the puzzle is weight loss. I am 6'3" and 231 pounds muscular with a good layer of ramen noodle on top. I am aiming to get as close to 200 pounds as possible before January 11th. I started at 239 two weeks ago. That involves cutting out all dairy and a massive increase in vegetables to stay full with relatively few calories. There's a fine line of going too far that I am trying not cross, so tweaking the diet here and there with cheat foods is bound to happen.


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## MemphisHawk (Sep 14, 2014)

Here's my training from today. It was 18KM run (Half marathon is around 21KM). I walked the last .5KM for a cool down. Then I walked inside a drank 34 ounces of Açaí Juice. 

I want to make 20KM in two hours easy, so that is step one. You know, by 15KM I was only thinking about going home, haha. THe elevation is in feet.


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## MemphisHawk (Sep 16, 2014)

Today was a 20.3KM walk. I was just using 20KM as my goal. Drank 3 liters of water and didn't eat anything the whole time. Also, if I maintain this speed for the entire time limit of 14 hours, I will only make it 80km, so I guess I have to run, lol.

Gettin crazy with the elevation change.


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## flo (Sep 16, 2014)

Good luck with your project, bro sounds like a monster of a challenge!
I love running, too, my favourite is mountain-running. The furthest I ran so far was 23km, I try to do a more than 20 km run every few weeks in training. Usually do 25-40 km a week. But what you are planning sounds a lot more serious  If I imagine running the 23 km I did four times... help, all I could think of after 16 km was pizza 

What I can recommend is to put cycling into your training! Especially long tours (2 hours+) and sprints. It's easy on your joints, and gives your muscles a little different stimulus, while still training your fat metabolism, endurance and will-power. Also core-training, like push-ups, is important to maintain a good posture during the race, which will help to endure longer and run more efficiently. I think your swimming is excellent, too.


Keep us updated, I'm following this one!


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## Mwoit (Sep 17, 2014)

This is awesome. I am getting in running and it's way harder than I expected.

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## MemphisHawk (Sep 19, 2014)

Don't quit on it. It gets fun when you see the improvement happening to your run times. That said, I think today I am going to take a break.. "Listen to my body" so to speak. I haven't had the most ball busting week but I am happy enough with it.

So in addition to the 11 mile run and 12 mile walk:

Longboarded 3.5 miles
Walked another 6 miles
Swam 5KM. 

I may go out and do something else today but probably not. I want to work on a music video my wife and I are filming.


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## MemphisHawk (Oct 2, 2014)

It says 'sopyretuen' replied to this thread, but when I click on it gives me 'invalid link' Anyway, I'm still training up for this. I did 30km running in the past three days plus some walking. That includes a 5k at 23:08, so I am trying to keep the speed up on the shorter runs. 

I have also dropped to 226 (101~ kilograms) pounds or so from a starting weight of 238, and I can tell just by how I feel when I run. It's literally just getting easier. Can't wait to be below 200.


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## MemphisHawk (Oct 6, 2014)

So it's October 6, and I'm already 27 miles in for the month. Here's my long run I did yesterday. My intention was to run 10 miles. When I got to 10 miles, I figured I would run a half marathon, so I ran opposite the direction of my house for what I believed to be a far enough distance (my watch is in KM for training purposes) When I got to my house I was short and I didn't feel like continuing since I have already passed near my house 2 times. 

The winds were about 30MPH all day, as we had a typhoon was within 200 miles of us, so that was a challenge, but other than that I was not tired at the end of the run. This pace would have put me at just under 2 hours for the Half - Marathon, so that is decent pace. I will keep extending the distance every week or so. It's all about TOF (Time On Feet) for me right now, so really it doesn't matter how far I get yet.


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## MemphisHawk (Oct 7, 2014)

Today was some bench presses and a 5K


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## Ill-Gotten James (Oct 7, 2014)

Hey excuse my ignorance as I have never ran a marathon or a race for that matter in my entire life, but 14 hours of potential running... What do you do if you have to poop? Are there like bathrooms along the way, or do you just have to purge it all out the night before?


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## MemphisHawk (Oct 7, 2014)

i don't know either for this race, but for marathons past they have provided bathroom locations along the route. I have run for 6 hours plus the 3 hours I was awake and hour walk home afterwards witout needing to poop, so that's 9 hours right there. I'll play it by ear, lol.


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## MemphisHawk (Oct 10, 2014)

Went for a 10K today, but that's all I could do, due to this. Training suspended until further notice!


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## ThePhilosopher (Oct 14, 2014)

Stay safe.


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## Bevo (Oct 19, 2014)

Nice run!

I have done a few Ultra runs and there is a a ton of training options but it really comes down to a few things that are really important. I have trained the following way and people I have trained have really responded well to this system and one has gone off to win a 100 mile trail race.

1, I like to call this time on feet, you need to spend as much time in one go walking not the distance but the time you think you will run. Your body gets used to simply walking for a long time and in the race you will find it much easier. Do one long walk a week, start at twice the time of your long run, if your long run is 1 hour walk 2.
2, don't run every day but run consistently, what works is..
Monday off.
Tuesday 3/4 of long run easy pace.
Wednesday shorter tempo run, keep your heart rate high so it's a bit hard to talk and don't change the effort, distance should be 40-50 % of long run.
Thursday 3/4 of long run at an easy pace.
Friday off
Saturday is the long run, 10% longer than the long run the week before at an easy pace. As your distance increases 10% will be huge so go an extra 30 min.
Sunday short easy run of 25% of your long run.

Also work out your core and lower back, planks and crunches really pay off.

Every 4th week take it really light, 25% of the week before but following the same schedule. The next week go right back to the distances of the last long week.

Train for 80% of the total distance, two weeks before the race you should run this then do the 4th week reduced miles then your race the following week.

Also get in the habit of eating and drinking, 2-300 calories an hour, drinks should include salts or electrolytes and stuff some toilet paper in a plastic bag in case well you know lol..

Let me know if you need any other help!


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## flo (Nov 13, 2014)

Bevo said:


> Nice run!
> 
> [...]
> 
> Let me know if you need any other help!



awesome advice!
What I found out for myself is that if you're training for a long run, mental strength is also key. The training to improve it looks like this:
You run for a long distance (for me, more than 20km is long...) in loops (like, from your house to the top of a hill, back, hill, back, hill, back...). Each run is for example 5km. The point is, you've got the_ possibility to give up_ every time you get home, and need to _overcome_ the urge to stop, eat, shower and spend the rest of the day in bed


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## MemphisHawk (Nov 13, 2014)

Still at it. This week so far I ran a half marathon on Tuesday and another half marathon yesterday, both through very hilly locations. Both were over 1000 feet of vertical rise, both under 2 hours. I also walked 2 5Ks. Tomorrow I am thinking about another half marathon and then taking next week to walk some really long walks. Anyway another half will put me at 73KM total for the week!

Generally the only thing that is hard for me at this point is just continuing to do this amount of training. It is very time-intensive and with a full time job and children, sometimes it is the last thing I want to do. Oh well. I signed up for a standard marathon in February now as well. Last year I only managed a 5:58 in this same marathon, so my goal this time is under 5 hours, but under 4:30 would be a really good feeling.


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## Bevo (Nov 14, 2014)

For me it has a lot to do with where I am and who I am with, sometimes its the exact opposite of what worked before. The other day I ran alone and it was just great to watch the sun come up then the next day watching the sun come up I was thinking about a running club.

Be careful on the distance, it does not take to much to get hurt.
Still aim for one long run a week and speed work for less time.

This will also give you less time away from home.

Many long slow runs can be worse for you, intervals or tempo runs make you faster. Try not to do the same speed each run, challenge yourself to beat a previous time for the same run.
Even in ultra runs speed work really can help, after a few weeks of speed work your slow run will be much faster than before even at that easy pace..


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## flo (Jan 23, 2015)

Any updates?


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## MemphisHawk (Jan 24, 2015)

Yes. I am so pissed. I was not allowed to take leave from work to attend. It was 2 weeks ago. I have tried not to think about it because it makes me mad every time. At the same time we ARE undermanned at work and got hit with a heavy schedule. 

In all honesty it had to happen that way, but it sucks being prepped for something and having the wind knocked out of your sails. As a pick up to all that though, I am in the Okinawa Full Marathon on February... 15th? So I guess I will look for another 100KM this year somewhere but it's about to start getting hot in a few months over here.


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## Hollowway (Jan 24, 2015)

Where do you work?


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## MemphisHawk (Jan 24, 2015)

Flying my ass off in airplanes. Some days are good, other days we do 3000 foot dives to avoid other airplanes. It pays the bills though.


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## Bevo (Jan 26, 2015)

That sucks, if you can do it head out fo a long run anyway, it may still hit the spot.

Keep running, it's just a setback so don't lose your training gains..


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## flo (Jan 30, 2015)

So sorry to hear this. 

I really hope that you'll get another chance to run your ultra. I still have huge respect for you, honestly, for even thinking about signing up for an event like this.


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## MemphisHawk (Jan 31, 2015)

I'll find one. The Okinawa Marathon is in 2 weeks from today, so I'm just focusing on that. I guess I'll make a new thread when I get signed up for another ultra!


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