Gad! What the heck has happened to warm weather leading to 100 degree temps of June? We are hard pressed in northern California to wrestle free from winter temps once and for all.
With two weekends left in really hard training then on to sharpen and maintain for June 26, This Saturday's run was meant to be a moderate amount of suffering.
It took me longer to recover from Miwok and the amount of time it took to finish than I had wanted it to be..with the last two weeks work week training being very light...It did not help that most of my real life work was bumping in to my training schedule. But that is what springtime is. I was able to generate a sound proposal for an enterprise system for one of my major agencies I work with. Sorry I rarely talk work..but this took a lot of time and strain on the brain. After I presented the proposal it was well received. So I can still prove my worth on the work front...
One to one more matter..I was at Auburn Running on Friday and picked up a new dvd of someones account of their running Western States...It is called 100miles to 40. It is about a women that ran WS for the first time last year...Lets start with the good...It had a lot of video of runners I know and run with...Erik Skaden, Mark Lantz, Eric Johnson, Stephan Itano...and glimpse's of a lot of local folks...Some nice footage of the course itself...The not so good...Understanding that each persons motivation to run Western States is individual it really was the persons own story. It just was not motivating and lacked some real information on what she did to get to the starting line...No really why do you want to run Western States? It is like she could have run any race and felt good about it...I felt no real passion in her words or experiance of being at the event and all its history. I am sooooo glad the producer had footage about the course etc..She is very different than those that I know who run on the WS trails and aspire to run the event. She kept talking about her limited training and saying she was gonna break 24hours..It seemed so naive and very self absorbed. The kicker was that she started out saying and showing that she is a smoker and is not gonna quite...That just hit me as being so wrong. The worst scene was her sitting in a chair at squaw after getting word that WS was cancelled in 08 due to the fires..she was puffy on her smokes and whining on her cell phone..The positive is I found another very strong motivator for race day is to use this woman's image of completing WS to get me through those tough times. Just my view point..Focus on the side story and watch the other runners in the event and then its a good dvd. Still Race for the Soul is the best dvd, followed by Running Madness....
On to Saturdays run...BITTER COLD! SNOW! I saw a bunch of folks leaving out of Foresthill as I was gonna run out of Michigan Bluff today...I was happy to be running alone today and see how things went with the IT and other minor leg issues. I have been working on those everyday. I ran the whole day without any IT issues, now IT support bands etc..that was major. I ran the downhills faster but still very slow and timid. But I had much more energy than last weeks crater day...I was back! That felt good.
As I started this out...it was sunny when I set out with some fast folks 6miles behind me...I graped my gloves and long sleeve jersey I normally only wear on winter days and I am so happy I did! I was starting to overheat on the way down to El Dorado Canyon and peeled off the clothes but that soon changed. I got cold heading up to Deadwood but on the plus side no tired quads and a steady pace up. It was still and quite out there as I got to deadwood. At the pump my hands got numb filling the bottles and I got out fast.
I was being a wuss heading down Devils Thumb and I thought I am glad that I will not be going down this many more times between now and June..It seems worse for me to go down than up!
I was near the bottom when Mark Murray, Erik Skaden and Mark Lantz caught me. It was warm in the canyon but soon to change...Energy level was very high and I just focused on the climb up Last Chance...Last Chance was very cold...I got to the first gate and was freezing..I saw Monica Moore and Sandra and they where heading back..they said it was snowing up at the water spigot! The temp dropped fast in that short time and they where right..I grabbed some water and food and took off back on my return..I saw Victor Bellastoros and Rob Evens heading up..they looked fresh..Then on run down Pete Defty shirtless he was gonna suffer for that! Then Rory Boscio..running alone...Strong young runner. It took me a long time going down from LC to Swinging Bridge just wanna keep everything in place and not injuring myself...
Got to the bridge and saw Jim Hopkins and a friend of his...I let them go on the climb up the thumb. I wanted to go up alone and practice my race day strategy...It worked well with trying to conserve energy while still making solid progress on the climb. I was thinking what it would be like when we get some real heat..that was the only downside of an otherwise perfect effort up DT.
I did not take much time at the deadwood pump and passed Jim...I wanted to see how I reacted on the downhill to El Dorado canyon..I was going conservative but much faster than in previous weeks..No IT, NO Pain...Pete Korn came blowing by me...it let me know that I was still running slow on the downhill..no worry cause no pain! Now some work...climb up and finish at Michigan Bluff..it was cloudy and cool at the start..
I was amazed at how well I was climbing this first mile..somewhere along the way it just started SNOWING..getting real cold...So the last 30minutes where spent moving as fast as I could running and power walking up...I got to MB in all out downpour of that white stuff...I made a point to get into some warm clothes, start the car and heater and wait for a few runners I knew that started at Foresthill..they most likely would need a ride out and save them from hypothermia. Not far behind came Rory...dang girl your fast...I spoke with her and then a few minutes later came Jim..I got him and saw Stephan Itano come up as well..everyone got into their cars and peeled out as fast as possible...It was COLD!.
A good day of running a long time on feet but about 50minutes faster than last weekend so a positive sign..Into the sauna today and think of one last weekend of training 72miles in two runs then take it to the barn for repair and begin final preparation's for the big dance!
It was weird weather out there for sure! I had to turn around just before the Deadwood Cemetary to make it to a friends wedding, but in Volcano Canyon and running up Bath Road around 11 am it started snowing on me. We had quite a bit of snow over the summit on our way to and from Viginia City, NV that afternoon. So exciting WS is soo close! You will do great and have an amazing day! Definitely a day you will never forget. Thanks for the new movie review... I will have to check it out. See you on the trails!
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