Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Runs...I've Got Them

All my training this year, races included, at least for the first part of the year, is to achieve one goal...to finish my first 100-miler, The San Diego 100-Mile Endurance Run. I probably have no business attempting a run of this distance, especially after being so burned out last year with running and starting this year with about 3 months of no running, or very little time on my feet and another flare up of achilles tendinitis and PF. But I'll give it a shot. I've just now gotten consistent 50-mile weeks with decent hilly runs, but that's also coming at a cost with my first overuse injury, acute ITBS. Mid-week runs aren't happening as often as they should so I've been running one big day per weekend for the past three.

Way Too Cool was my first 50k of the year. With my fitness level not being close to where it was last year at this time, and the achilles issues, I wasn't expecting to PR, but since I had 11 weeks of coaching up to that point, I was hoping to run within 10 minutes of my time of 4:28 last year. I can't say I had a solid run, but I ended up finishing 4:35. I didn't have consistent pacing throughout the race, speeding up drastically to keep up with runners that I'd catch up to who decided that they weren't going to let me pass so easily. Then slowing and even walking most of the hills that I ran up last year. I had a couple mile splits that were 1:00-1:30 slower than last year.

The following week, I headed down to San Diego to do some course recon. The 15-mile section starting from Pine Creek AS (mile 36 of the race) up through Pioneer Mail AS (mile 44) to Sunrise AS (mile 51) is suppose to be the toughest section of the course. I got to Sunrise just as the sun was rising on Friday morning and headed out to the PCT to backtrack down to Pine Creek. I'm not sure if it was the altitude of the course (about a mile up) or the heat, but by the time I got down to Pine Creek, I was 3+ hours into the run, hot, exhausted and about halfway through my 110 ounce of fluids that I had with me. There was one point where I saw a small gray pig charging me but when I bent over to put my arms out to block it, it disappeared. Heat related delusions? Maybe. I've never experienced anything like that before. Well, seven and a half hours later, and texts to Nel to when I had signal to let her know I was struggling but still alive and making my way back, I made it back to the car two 20-oz bottles of Tailwind, 4 ViFuel gels, and 70-oz of water and 7 pounds lighter.

Run #3 was suppose to be a 50k this past Sunday at CTR's Canyon Meadow Train Run. Two 13.1 mile loops followed by a 5-mile loop. It ended up being 25 miles and my first DNF. With the high mileage days and hill runs, my ITB was irritated enough to cause a severe enough pain to make me slow down from mile 19-24 and then finally walking the last mile or so back to the start/finish area. I couldn't take a step on the downhills without numbing pain shooting up my left leg. I'm fine with the DNF. It was just a training run. I felt I had a solid run otherwise.

I think my legs are getting accustomed to the long runs again. I took Monday and Tuesday off. I had an ART/Graston treatment on Tuesday and am pretty much pain free today. Other than feeling some residual heaviness, my legs aren't getting sore after the 25-30 mile runs.

I'm hoping to get in one more 20+ mile day this weekend and ease up next week to get ready for AR50. Hopefully we'll have a string of warmer weather so I can head over to Mt. Diablo to do some hills and heat. I think if I can get in solid distances, hills, and heat, I should be okay for San Diego...as long as my legs and body holds up. It's slow going, but I have another 11 weeks to peak.