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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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==Overview==
The 2010 Umstead 100 was mentally brutal. It was not as painful as I expected, and less painful than my previous 23:50 finish at Umstead. My problem was keeping up the pace against the mounting fatigue. The cumulative damage to the [[Muscle|muscles ]] and the depletion of resources requires a steadily increasing effort to maintain the same pace. The mind rebels against this type of damage by imposing a mounting emotional cost as it battles to protect the body against permanent harm. Training teaches your mind to balance the current damage against the perceived distance that remains, and can give a good sense of impending doom. So while I had some reserves left for the first 75 miles, I knew that I was right on the edge of what I could keep up without a catastrophic slowdown. The result was a surprisingly persistent feeling of fatigue and despair. I’ve had this emotional low before many times in races, but never for so long.
Overall, I’m very pleased with the result, hitting my goal of sub-16. My time for the first 50 miles beats my previous 50 Mile PR (9:20) by 1:36, and even my second 50 miles beats it by 38 minutes.
* Doing lots of [[Downhill Intervals]] protected my quads from the descent and helped me keep up a fast pace when possible.
* Even though the daytime high was only 58, I could feel the difference the heat and sun made. The extra [[Heat Acclimation Training]] helped prepare me. Even so, I felt much better when the sun went down.
* Drinking a carbohydrate/[[Protein]] mix may have helped with the !!Muscle|muscle !! damage, though it’s hard to be sure.
* My [[Modified Nike Free]] [[Shoes]] worked very well. I did get one nasty blister on my heel from a misstep, but I don’t think I would have done better in any of my other [[Shoes]].
* I reduced my [[Walking Breaks]] to a bare minimum. I took a couple on the longer hills that are runnable, keeping the breaks to just 30 seconds or so. I also walked the hills which are generally too steep for me to run them effectively (I can’t run up them as fast as I can walk up them).
