Damn Mac, that's some serious running. Congrats, can't wait to read about your next event and the butt kicking you administer.Sweet & Savory 100k Relay
This race setup is similar to what many of you were supposed to do 2 weeks ago. It's self supported, so it is each team's responsibility to sufficiently fuel and taxi from one location to the next. One major difference though - 2 legs each instead of 3.
Preparation was certainly different than usual. I was banged up after the Memorial Day 5 miler and really haven't done anything of substance since. Some faster runs than others, but I dont think I've ran a single sub 7 minute mile since that last race. Feet/heels were doing okay, but never really got above 90-95% so I approached this as if there would be some sort of break afterwards.
I skipped the neorotism run though. This was intentional. Part because this race being on the back end of vacation I thought rest was more important. And I had a couple nights of deep sleep leading into it. But also because I didnt want to go out too hot on leg 1. Two takeaways I had from the relay two weeks ago were that I would need to grind the second leg regardless and most of those that struggled later all cited doing leg one too fast. But anyway...
Leg 2 - 4.5 miles
The first half of this leg is basically an unnoticeable < 1% grade along an APT with a momentum killing 75' climb followed by more unnoticeable < 1% climbing to the next exchange. My goal for this part was to just get loose and focus on cadence until the bump. I wasnt settled on a pace, but I wanted to stay below 6:30 while also not letting myself get under 6:10. Most importantly, I just wanted to maintain cadence focus without 'forcing' effort.
While skipping neurotism was intentional, skipping any warm up wasnt. Leg one was only a 5k and my stomach upon arriving to leg 2 said another trip to the bathroom took priority. Only one other team started at our time and they came through about a minute and a half in front of ours. Great, a rabbit to chase.
Miles 1 and 2 - 6:28/6:11
As expected, a little stiff to start but loosened up about five minutes in. I first checked my pace at 10 minutes and wasnt surprised about mile 1, but the 6:04 I saw for the beginning of mile 2 grabbed my attention. Despite my efforts to slow the pace I didnt really. Curious how this will go later.
Mile 3 - 6:28
I hit the climb and my pace slowed as expected, but I got to the top feeling just as strong as before so I continued on with the same plan as the first 2 miles.
Miles 4 and 4.5 - 6:13/6:07
I finally spotted my rabbit at the top of the climb and was able to hold back from increasing the pace...until passing him with a half mile to go. Probably just a habit, when you pass someone keep pressing on the gas so they dont try to follow. Hopefully this doesnt come back to bite me.
4.49 miles - 6:18 net pace, 28:22, 198' elevation
Post leg 2
Turkey, roast beef, ham, and cheese with mustard on an everything bagel - yum, but weird at 9:15 in the morning. After only having a banana and coffee in the morning I wanted to refuel quick so I could just get away with water and snacking between now and leg 8. And after I really just got away with water, pretzels, oranges, fruit snacks, and more water. It was a little muggy and my next leg was double the distance, so odds of some sort of blow up were real.
Leg 8 - 9.1 miles
I was happy to see leg 7 start about 5-10 minutes after several teams and none of them looked like they were much faster/slower than her. More rabbits later in my leg the better. It was noticeably warmer though. Instead of low 60's with 50some% humidity it was about 70 with 60some% humidity. No matter how much I hydrated I was still thirsty, so I asked my team to stop about mile 5 and get me a couple swigs.
Leg 7 came through about the same spot as before, about 3-10 minutes behind several teams. So let's go hunting.
Miles 1-3 - 6:03/6:33/6:24
This leg starts with a short incline then a good decline followed by a noticeable incline, but one that shouldn't impact me too much then a rolling 3rd mile. If I could get through this section around 6:20 net pace and not working too hard I'd be happy. 3 kills, nailed the pace, and feeling good. Off to a good start.
Miles 4-6 - 6:23/6:24/6:21
Goal for this section was to start pushing the envelope. Mentally I treated this leg like a 7 mile race. The first 3 miles were essentially rolling hills, but this section represented more of a climbing portion. One of those for every 60' you climb you only come back down 20' before climbing some more. I was running low on fluids, but fueling felt good otherwise so when I rendezvoused with my team I took them up on the 2 swigs of water but passed on the fruit snacks. I quickly felt like that was enough to get me through the climbing, but I was also keenly aware of my feet/heels. They...are not happy. But, press on. And 2 more kills.
Mile 7 - 6:50
After 6 miles of rollers but more up than down this last section was going to make or break me. Can I get through it without slowing down too much? While also having enough ammo left to take advantage of the 2 mile descent that follows? I was confident in part one but had no expectation for part 2. My body would tell me very quickly once we stopped climbing.
Mile 8 - 6:16
Yes! While I labored through the last 20' of climbing or so I got to the top and knew instantly there was still some pop left in my legs. My feet/ankles/and now calves werent happy but the shorter stride on the way up saved energy for the bigger muscles upstream. It took a little bit to rebuild speed, but that followed the flow of the decline too. It starts off rather unnoticeably then slowly increases until the grade really fires into mile 9.
Mile 9 and 9.1 - 5:07!!!/5:17
I actually net a 5:01 mile that probably started around mile 8.9. I had no expectations for a pace on this decline, but that took me by surprise. I was just in attack mode from the top of the hill. At first it was just get faster with each stride and later on it was net more kills as those that started with a 10 minute lead came into focus. I'm sure my feet were yelling at me here but I dont remember and wasnt listening anyway. Just kill everyone. And I was even able to somewhat maintain the speed despite 30-40' of climbing over the last quarter mile once the descent finally ended.
9.1 miles - net 6:15 pace, 57:03, 573' elevation. I think I'm even happier with this than i was the sub 30 five miles last month.
There's a lot to write about the rest of the day, but to briefly summarize - it was a blast and I understand why Gian was so bummed about the necessary format change to the relay 2 weeks ago. We finished 4th of 20 teams in 8 hours 22 minutes - 8:06 pace.
Going forward I will be taking a (short?) break then probably will take some time to ramp up mileage/intensity. The post race massage confirmed what I already knew - inflammation around the achilles. It hurt to touch and led to tightness going both down to my feet/ankles and up to my calf. Ice the achilles/heat the calves - repeat. I will work on strength training only at least early in the week then re-assess in a few days if I need more time or if I'm okay to go again. I dont anticipate a long break, but given what others have gone through here with similar issues and that it isn't much different now than after the memorial day 5 I will be exercising caution. I'll be back soon though.
Have you run a mile for time recently?
for your next event
hello compression my old friend...
Just need to free up 3000 hours a year...
poop mid run, even if I poop before the run and in the morning. 
