MAC_32 said:
Good luck to Mac, CCC2 and anybody else racing this holiday weekend!
Thx, I limited myself to five beers last night. Thankfully party number one doesn't have much to tempt me with today, but party number two is full of craft beer drinkers. A lot of will power testing this evening, wish me luck...
I kept it to 3 and a departure time as it was getting dark, pretty cool driving through the city seeing all of the fireworks shows. I was surprisingly alert when the 5 am alarm went off. Changed up the pre race diet to better mirror standards, just having everything about 4 hours earlier than usual. So simple yet for some stupid reason never done it before, never again.Anyway, this race is in the middle of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's a two loop course with a 5 mile option. The first three plus miles are a single track roller coaster while the final two plus are best described as a slow death. Getting ahead of myself, but to put into context the elevations gain on this trek is 1,197 feet. Not bad for NE Ohio. I negative split this last year in 1:28:45. I went out a little tentative since the distance was new and I was still a bit green regarding trail running. I don't fault myself for doing that, but the one mistake I was not going to repeat was getting bottle necked at the beginning again. It was basically a 150 meter downhill side hill sprint to the single track trail and I was buried. Now that I knew what to expect I was determined to get to the woods in the top 10 and not have to deal with that again.
Well, the race director took care of that for us. He added a half mile loop before getting to that part of the woods. I was wondering where he would shorten the course, but I didn't alter my approach much. I run better downhill than uphill and most of this loop is down, so it actually calmed some of my nerves. I was able to cruise the beginning instead of wasting energy to get into position.
Mile 1 - 7:33
Mile 2 - 7:43
Mile 3 - 8:05
The roller coaster went just about to plan - fast start, get into position, attack the downs, and control my heart rate on any climbs. I'm actually surprised my mile 3 split was so close to my mile 2 as we are still going down on mile 2 and the real challenging climb out of the woods is towards the end of mile 3. I remembered some of the tougher turns from last year, but almost made a big mistake on one. I remembered at one point there was a tree in the middle of the path, a cliff to the left, a boulder on the right, and about an 18" opening in between. You basically have to turn and go sideways through it. What I forgot was two steps ahead is a 120 degree turn right, then two steps later a 90 degree turn left followed by a steep downhill staircase. I was able to maintain some footing through the two sharp turns, but I was really off balance when I got to the stairs and almost did a tailbone flop. I adjusted mid air and kinda did a pointed toed squat and got out of there with only an increased heart rate.
Mile 4 - 8:50
Mile 5 - 8:32
The beginning of mile 4 is a three part uphill stair case that is pointless to try to run. You continue to climb afterwards, but you can at least shuffle your feet some. That's followed by the steepest non staircase drop out of the woods. You're welcomed by 400 meters along a swampy lake with zero escape of the sun. This is also your last 'break' before the climb back up to the start. My quads are destroyed and I know what's coming, but I know if I am going to make any time on this stretch I must do it now. There are some rolling hills and a couple of short stair cases and I know I made it through there better than last year. Then I was reminded about how this thing ends. I thought I was better prepared this year, but there really is no preparing for this thing. First is a 1/4 mile climb that is just flat enough to run the whole thing, but are sure to completely demolish your hams. You get about a 2 minute break of soft rollers before the 200' monster completely out in the sun with near knee high grass. It's awful. I ran more of it this year than last year, but I don't think much. Good news, once you get to the top it's steady downhill back to the start line so this is a good opportunity to get your bearings back.
Mile 6 - 7:52
Mile 7 - 7:46
Mile 8 - 8:17
Mile 9 - 9:02
I came through the start line again, saw my time (44:something) and was initially a little disappointed because I thought I ran that a lot better than last year and not just less than a minute. Then it hit me, just as I started the half mile opening loop again...these ####ers didn't adjust the course! They added a half mile, but didn't offset it anywhere. Alright, it's go time. Let's break 1:30. However, I quickly realized that was going to be a tall order. The first time through the roller coaster I only did one extended walk before the two big climbs with 3 or 4 shorter ones mixed in when a shorter hill killed my pace. I had already done three walks before getting even a mile back into the woods. This was going to take a lot of mental toughness and careful use of energy because my leg muscles are dry. I knew when the hills were coming, so I tried building momentum prior to get me up them without walking, but was only mildly successful as my splits show. I got passed by a couple of people and as it turns out this actually helped as I had somebody to pull me along through this part, even though this is my stronger part of the course. I thought we all took it real easy on the climb out of the woods and that is supported by that last split. I think we all knew how this thing ended and didn't want that part of the race to be our undoing. I emerged from the woods ahead of one and on the heels of the other and given where I was mentally 20 minutes ago I call that a win.
Mile 10 - 8:36
Mile 11 - 8:50
Good news, bad news. The energy conservation worked as my times were nearly identical to round one. However, I lost touch with both of them. As I eluded to earlier, my hams were fried. I had just enough to get up part one of the climb, but had nothing left for the monster and knew it before getting there so I took off and spent all of my energy in that break before the climb. I got within a couple of strides of one of the guys, but as he was able to run up most of the hill and I punted the whole thing that was all she wrote. By the time I got to the top they had a good 100 m on me, but knowing it was an easy half mile to the finish and there's a fighters chance at 1:30 I took off. Very happy with the way I finished and my overall plan of attack, but the 1:30 goal fell short - 1:31:05 official, 16th place, 4th in age group. The latter two both better than last year. A lot actually. After I chugged about 40 oz of water and mowed down a power bar my legs emerged out of the danger zone and I started doing some math. They added a mile to the course this year and...I was only 2 1/2 minutes slower than last year...sooo...
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I was excited about this race 10 days ago, but while I have been quiet about it in a 5 day span I strained my neck, developed a bruise on the roof of my left foot, my back has tightened up, and I have some mild tendinitis in both of my heels. I was quietly concerned going into this thing and while my legs are totally cooked right now I am ####### floating. Enjoy your Sunday. I know I will...
Thats what I do.
I need some motivation to drop some weight quick. After a week in Mexico, knee surgery 2 days after my return and laying on my ### for the last week I am approaching doughy territory. I'm sure the long weekend won't help either. Thoughts on a thread Injured Reserve List Biggest Loser Contest post 4th Holiday? I start PT on Monday and need to get back in a competitive mindset and think this may help.
No wonder you've been MIA.
I hate that Strava adds in the cycling mileage - My June running total was 281. I'm thrilled to come out of that hot month stronger than going in; I was definitely worried at times. These next two months are going to be huge. 
