For some reason I was NERVOUS before this run...?! What is my deal? I think it's a few things.
- I have the biggest running race of my life coming up in six days.
- My preparation has been far from ideal with my ankle injury taking me out for two full months.
- My running lately has been somewhat sporadic with long runs to try and ramp up my endurance as fast as my body can tolerate it interspersed with lots of rest and/or cycling so I can do it again later.
Let's just say I had that funny feeling in my stomach driving out to Issaquah and it was kind of freaking me out.
I parked, put on my shoes (and my brand new socks!), told myself to mellow out and started running. I'm still trying to find the optimum shoe/sock combo for Mt Hood and I was hoping that today would be a winner.
As soon as I hit the trail and started to climb my heart rate was pegged. Oops... I was also breathing super hard. This was not very confidence inspiring let me tell you. As I ran my goal for the day kept changing - first I wanted to run the entire climb but then I felt like such crap I figured there was no way I could do that. So I waffled and worried and generally didn't do myself any good. In the end I said, "Fuck it!" and decided to just not have a goal and see what happens. As usual, less stress was the right call.
Other than stopping to pee, to fix my shoe, to eat a gel and to see where the hell I was stepping because the trail was so overgrown I ran all the way to the top. It was slow mind you but I kept it up and that made me happy. I even ran all of the last steep bit of trail and the last steep road pitch. Good for me. My split at the second summit was 1:37:30 I believe.
At the top I had another gel and enjoyed the view for a few seconds. There was a cloud layer that covered up all the cities and valleys and it felt like I was up in an airplane looking down on the clouds. Very cool.
From here I started to feel even better. Half way up the climb my breathing had stabilized and this section of trail is just so much fun that you really need to feel bad for it not be a good time. I bounced down the mountain and again never really stopped except to eat another gel.
I also got a boost from a hiker that said something like, "Wow, jogging! You're hard core."
I passed quite a lot of hikers on my way down, the closer to the car I got, the more there were. Near the top I also saw two women that were running the other direction and moving pretty good! Right on.
As the trail came to and end and then again on the path back to the car I tried to increase my cadence in order to speed up and it worked! What do you know... I wasn't fresh by any means but I was able to pick it up just a little.
This run ended WAY better than it started.
The only bummer was I got a blister on my right foot with my new socks! Argh. Now I don't know what to wear next weekend.
| Sleep | 7 |
| Waking HR | |
| Body Weight | |
| Body Fat | |
| Breakfast | 5:45 AM - apple sauce, banana, 1.5 scoops Perpetuem, Udo's Oil |
| Lunch | |
| Dinner | |
| Workout Food | 2 bottles each w/1 scoop HEED and 1 tablet Nuun, 3 PowerBar Energy Gels |
| Injuries | |
| Therapy | |
| Time of Day | 8:15 AM |
| Workout Type | endurance |
| Weather | upper 50s to 70, sunny, dry |
| Course | Cottage Cheese Ass Tiger Mt loop |
| Results | |
| Time | 2:51:34 |
| Distance | 18 miles |
| Pace | |
| Equipment | Hoka Stinson Evo, Garmin Fenix, |
| Clothing | Brooks Infinity Short III, Drymax Maximum Protection Trail Running Socks |
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