Day two of the Strava Challenge! Thanks to Bradlaugh Robinson I got in exactly half of the required miles yesterday and today I was hoping that Bryan Estes would drag me with him long enough to complete this.
Turns out I did! Yeah for me.
Man was today a chore... I have not felt this empty in ages. But there are bright spots in the potentially miserable run so here they are.
- We passed a Seattle Running Club group and did so with authority. :) You can take Martin and Bryan out of the race but you can't take the race out of Martin and Bryan. Something like that anyway.
- I did not freeze even though it kept getting wetter and wetter. That was a VERY nice surprise.
- Even when I bonked, which was right after I got dropped, I did not totally shut down. I kept moving forward and hiked when I needed to and jogged otherwise. I am slowly getting better at this 'forward momentum' thing.
Things did not start out so bad. I was going really slow at the start but that was to be expected. It's uphill and I was tired and a tad stiff from yesterday. And Bryan did not feel the need to go any faster so I figured I would come around. Early on we saw a bunch of SRC runners headed in the opposite direction and did the extended high five as we passed each other. One guy even recognized me from the Bellingham Trail Marathon! Good memory.
And I did come around. To some extent anyway. After the initial hills I was feeling more relaxed and our pace picked up a tiny bit.
It was then that we saw the same SRC runners up ahead and this time we were going in the same direction. I was in front at the time and I'd be lying if I said I didn't speed up. First it was Glen Mangiantini and his dog but then we caught two more and finally the front group which contained Win Van Pelt and a handful of others.
ASIDE - turns out running is not so different than cycling... when you are a racer anyway.
I think I had increased our speed a little ever since we passed Glen and as we rolled by the lead group Bryan immediately went to the front and upped the tempo again. This time it was race pace and I hung on for half a mile or so but then we got to an incline and by the top I was about 100' behind. Ouch. But mission [Was there one? I guess I missed that memo.] accomplished, no one was in sight behind us.
From here it was a big descent almost all the way down to 900 and then back up the long way. I think I did recover from the acceleration on the descent but on this climb I suddenly ran out of gas. Just my luck that it happened right when we passed three women hikers. Bryan ran past and I had to walk. And darn it, I walked quite a bit from there to the top. I figured Bryan probably had five minutes on my by the summit but he graciously only claimed two.
From this point on my tank was pretty empty. And then we descended to 900 and climbed all the way back up. Nice. And by 'nice' I of course mean not very.
You know those days when for some (stupid) reason you refuse to eat your last gel or drink your last bottle? You're thinking, "I can finish this, this isn't so bad..." But it is! Up to this point I had eaten two gels and drunk most of my bottle but suddenly with about four miles to go I thought what the hell am I doing and went for my last gel. It might have helped. A little. Not enough though.
By now Bryan was dropping me on the descents! Rats. My legs were feeling a bit wobbly and I did not trust myself to let go when the trail tipped down. It was by no means a death march but I was pretty bonked for sure.
At one point with maybe two miles to go I hit the deck. Shoot, I have not fallen in several weeks and this one hurt! There was no cut but I must have hit a rock just perfectly (read: so NOT perfectly) with my knee that I had to just stand there for a bit before I could even walk. Eventually I got rolling again and - luckily - by the end of the run I was fine. Close call for sure.
I think Bryan waited for me three times today but hey, he waited! That was nice. And then we ran the last mile together.
Not sure why I bonked to so hard, and Bryan only had two teeny, tiny Satsuma oranges for breakfast...?! At one point near the end he said, "I feel like I have a second gear today!" Yes you did Bryan. Maybe I'm just tired. Heck, I know I'm tired. I need two easy days so I can bounce back for our C10 Wednesday morning run. Wait, I'm doing stairs Tuesday? I better make the most of Monday then. Resting starts now.
| Sleep | 7 |
| Waking HR | |
| Body Weight | |
| Body Fat | |
| Breakfast | 6:15 AM - banana, almond butter, large bottle w/4 scoops Perpetuem |
| Lunch | |
| Dinner | |
| Workout Food | large bottle w/1 scoop HEED and 1 tablet Nuun, 3 GUs |
| Injuries | Smacked my right knee kinda hard toward the end of the run but was able to walk it off and I think I'll be okay except for a bruise. |
| Therapy | |
| Time of Day | 8:00 AM |
| Workout Type | endurance |
| Weather | upper 40s, calm and dry at the start, some rain and wind at the end |
| Course | |
| Results | |
| Time | |
| Distance | |
| Pace | |
| Equipment | Brooks Cascadia 7, hand-held bottle |
| Clothing | Teko organic SIN3RGI Light Minicrew, Brooks Infinity Short III, Craft long sleeve undershirt, Brooks Podium SS shirt |
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