Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been an interesting year for all of us who are used to focussing and working towards race goals, because nearly all races from March onwards in North America were cancelled. As a result, athletes have had to come up with other goals to motivate them and keep them working towards longer term goals. Some of us have been creating our own solo races or fitness challenges. One of these that a few of us did is running 100km over a 24 hour period! Five of us (Al, Cindy, Vik, Mark, Jeff) did this a couple of weekends ago, running 4.2km’s at the start of every hour, for 24 straight hours, starting on Friday at 8:00pm and ending on Saturday at 8:00pm. We hung out in the backyard beside a campfire in between runs, focussing on hydrating, eating and staying warm. Some of us grabbed a few minutes of sleep in between runs while others felt better staying awake. At some point during the 24 hours each of us had strong and weak points – but as a team we got each other through it and overall we all did it with a positive attitude and a strong body!
A few things that we learned and/or were reminded of through doing this event:
- Hydration is KEY to performance and recovery. We were able to hydrate with a LOT of electrolyte drink in between runs due to having a 30-35 minute break in between runs. This made a HUGE difference to how well we were able to run for all of the 24 x 4.2km runs. We will all try and find ways to significantly increase the amount of fluid we are taking in for any long run or event moving forward.
- Homemade sports drink and real food can fuel an ultra event like this. I did not consume ANY commercially made sports drink or sports nutrition this event. All of my personal hydration came from a homemade version of electrolyte drink made up of a combination of coconut water, fresh juice, maple syrup and sea salt. All of my nutrition came from real foods such as potatoes, bananas and banana bread. At no time did I feel like I didn’t have enough nutrition or was lacking anything vital to keeping me going.
- It’s normal for your brain to go through cycles of positivity and negativity during any event this long. Embrace the positive and when the negative comes, remind yourself that it’s to be expected – recognize it, work through it, and it’s likely to turn around within 10-30 minutes if you just keep going. That said, sometimes negative spots come from low blood sugar – in which cases taking in some nutrition can help!
- It helps to have friends around who do the same crazy things as you do! As I said above, it’s normal to have periods of time during long endurance events where you don’t feel awesome and are not in an awesome headspace. Having friends and other participants around helps a lot with getting through these times, as typically everyone is not going through these feelings and thoughts at the same time. It’s great to be able to motivate each other through the good and the bad.
What have you done in 2020 to challenge yourself physically? It’s not too late to come up with something if you haven’t already. There are some live events happening locally this fall that are small and covid-friendly. You might choose to participate in one of them or you may choose to come up with someone yourself. Whatever it may be, keep striving to better yourself, next season will be here before you know it!
– Coach Cindy
