Finished up 30 miles today (most of it with Brian, which provided a nice chance to catch up and get in some quality social time) . . . ran about 17/18 miles yesterday with a bit more vertical stress . . . and my legs are excited for taper time. I plan to taper for the next two weeks by dropping down to recovery mileage next week (about 60 miles) and then a pretty standard race week countdown -- like 6-5-4 or 5-4-3 . . . I have mentioned this before, but tapering is a stress for me; however, especially coming off of Squaw Peak and then running pretty solid miles all week this week, I know it is time to recuperate before heading to South Dakota.
Anyhow, the main thing I was trying to watch and/or keep track of this week was how well my legs would bounce back from SP50 and whether or not I could pull off a full week of training after running a bit harder than I planned last weekend . . . seems to have gone relatively well. I have had some general exhaustion all week, but was able to not only put in decent mileage but also got some good climbing in yesterday and did a modified tempo workout earlier in the week . . . so hopefully my body will use the next couple of weeks to recharge and my mind will keep from obsessing about racing and just enjoy having a bit of a break before being put to the test once again.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Training Race?! or Race?!
Squaw Peak 50 Race Report . . . my intentions this past Saturday were to take it easy -- perhaps run a minute/mile or so off race pace and simply get some solid time on trail leading up to the Black Hills 100 which is in 3 weeks . . . well things went off plan somewhere on the way to Windy Pass . . .
The race started out fairly conservative for me as I found myself stuck behind a group moving up the climb to Hope Campground that were moving a little slower than I would've preferred be it training or racing. However, I remained patient and simply enjoyed the fact that I wasn't having to work too hard. It was a wonderful moment of single track imposed laziness. Skipping the first aid station, and passing this group without expending any extra energy, I was able to create a little space for myself and could start climbing at my own pace alternating between hiking and slow jogging on the way to the first real summit/pass. The first 7 or 8 miles of Squaw Peak include some of my favorite views anywhere in Utah -- the early morning light, the snowcapped mountains, the green valleys -- and I was able to soak it all in while letting my body slowly warm up. I had run fairly hard over the past few days and it was taking my legs a while to loosen up. And despite the slow pace, I wasn't necessarily in a place of joy early on in the race. In fact, I was actually starting to question my decision to train straight through this race and my legs kept asking me why in the world I had run alternating tempo miles on Wednesday night . . .
During the long descent toward Hobble Creek (once I worked through some GI issues) things started to loosen up and I kept surprising myself by recognizing a lot of familiar faces at aid stations -- it seemed like I would get to the aid stations just as people I expected to be further ahead of me at this point were just heading out of the stations -- guessing about a minute or two ahead of me. Anyhow, I told myself to be patient and simply enjoy the day in the mountains without getting caught up in the notion of racing (at least not this early -- Hobble Creek aid is now only about mile 20 so it was still early). By the time I got off the couple of miles of oven-baked pavement in hobble creek, I knew that once again a "training race" was turning into a race.
I was able to run with B.J. and John for a good chunk of the section leading to Little Valley, which I am certain had to be driving the two of them nuts since I have a tendency to alternate between jogging and walking on climbs more than most people which creates kind of a yo-yo pace. And it was especially necessary for me to jog the mellower sections of each climb because B.J. hikes like a beast and trying to hike that pace for too long would simply have destroyed me. Anyhow it was good to see both of them (last year we had chased one another around the course for a good 10-15 miles) and get a solid bit of social running time in during the middle of the race. Some pretty upbeat group running left me feeling relatively fresh as we reached the beginning of the Windy Pass climb where I accidentally pulled away from the pace everyone else was running. My first pseudo realization of how my race was going in terms of time came part way down the long (7 mile) descent from Windy when somebody told me the clock time -- ironically this made me run faster, because I couldn't figure out the math to make sure I was sub-10 and figured it best to just keep moving.
In either case -- this has definitely become one of those rambles -- I had a really good race (by my standards) and can't really understand why . . . shit, in complete avoidance of any kind of taper, I had actually run 10 miles in the heat of Friday afternoon finishing my run about 12 hours before Squaw Peak would kick off early Saturday morning. I do think that going into the race with no self imposed pressure helped me simply listen to my body and keep the pace totally sane . . . I never really felt taxed until I hit the last couple of miles and even felt like I was moving a little too slow in a couple of earlier sections. Part of it was simply having one of those days where everything worked, but I think a lot of it had to do with racing by not racing. I ate well, drank well, increased my electrolyte intake when it seemed necessary, and kept things pretty well balanced throughout the run. It would be great, if I could maintain the same level of common sense and luck while running in the Black Hills later this month.
9 hours 33 minutes for 6th place . . . this is a course PR by roughly a half hour and my best finish place wise by a couple of spots . . . it helped not getting lost (minus one little goof up on Windy - damn elk trails) and having the trail be almost entirely snow free this year. . . it was also my 3rd Top Ten finish at Squaw and continues a pretty nice streak of finishing in the Top Ten at the 50 mile distance . . . it helps of course to find races with only about 11 or 12 runners present . . .
The race started out fairly conservative for me as I found myself stuck behind a group moving up the climb to Hope Campground that were moving a little slower than I would've preferred be it training or racing. However, I remained patient and simply enjoyed the fact that I wasn't having to work too hard. It was a wonderful moment of single track imposed laziness. Skipping the first aid station, and passing this group without expending any extra energy, I was able to create a little space for myself and could start climbing at my own pace alternating between hiking and slow jogging on the way to the first real summit/pass. The first 7 or 8 miles of Squaw Peak include some of my favorite views anywhere in Utah -- the early morning light, the snowcapped mountains, the green valleys -- and I was able to soak it all in while letting my body slowly warm up. I had run fairly hard over the past few days and it was taking my legs a while to loosen up. And despite the slow pace, I wasn't necessarily in a place of joy early on in the race. In fact, I was actually starting to question my decision to train straight through this race and my legs kept asking me why in the world I had run alternating tempo miles on Wednesday night . . .
During the long descent toward Hobble Creek (once I worked through some GI issues) things started to loosen up and I kept surprising myself by recognizing a lot of familiar faces at aid stations -- it seemed like I would get to the aid stations just as people I expected to be further ahead of me at this point were just heading out of the stations -- guessing about a minute or two ahead of me. Anyhow, I told myself to be patient and simply enjoy the day in the mountains without getting caught up in the notion of racing (at least not this early -- Hobble Creek aid is now only about mile 20 so it was still early). By the time I got off the couple of miles of oven-baked pavement in hobble creek, I knew that once again a "training race" was turning into a race.
I was able to run with B.J. and John for a good chunk of the section leading to Little Valley, which I am certain had to be driving the two of them nuts since I have a tendency to alternate between jogging and walking on climbs more than most people which creates kind of a yo-yo pace. And it was especially necessary for me to jog the mellower sections of each climb because B.J. hikes like a beast and trying to hike that pace for too long would simply have destroyed me. Anyhow it was good to see both of them (last year we had chased one another around the course for a good 10-15 miles) and get a solid bit of social running time in during the middle of the race. Some pretty upbeat group running left me feeling relatively fresh as we reached the beginning of the Windy Pass climb where I accidentally pulled away from the pace everyone else was running. My first pseudo realization of how my race was going in terms of time came part way down the long (7 mile) descent from Windy when somebody told me the clock time -- ironically this made me run faster, because I couldn't figure out the math to make sure I was sub-10 and figured it best to just keep moving.
In either case -- this has definitely become one of those rambles -- I had a really good race (by my standards) and can't really understand why . . . shit, in complete avoidance of any kind of taper, I had actually run 10 miles in the heat of Friday afternoon finishing my run about 12 hours before Squaw Peak would kick off early Saturday morning. I do think that going into the race with no self imposed pressure helped me simply listen to my body and keep the pace totally sane . . . I never really felt taxed until I hit the last couple of miles and even felt like I was moving a little too slow in a couple of earlier sections. Part of it was simply having one of those days where everything worked, but I think a lot of it had to do with racing by not racing. I ate well, drank well, increased my electrolyte intake when it seemed necessary, and kept things pretty well balanced throughout the run. It would be great, if I could maintain the same level of common sense and luck while running in the Black Hills later this month.
9 hours 33 minutes for 6th place . . . this is a course PR by roughly a half hour and my best finish place wise by a couple of spots . . . it helped not getting lost (minus one little goof up on Windy - damn elk trails) and having the trail be almost entirely snow free this year. . . it was also my 3rd Top Ten finish at Squaw and continues a pretty nice streak of finishing in the Top Ten at the 50 mile distance . . . it helps of course to find races with only about 11 or 12 runners present . . .
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