A week of recovery.

Su: 0
Mon: 0
Tue: 0
Wed: 0
Thur: 0
Fri: 0
Sat: 0

Weekly Mileage:  0


Definitely took a couple days after my first 100mi race for the pain to set in.  Had pitting edema in my lower legs for a couple days, and just continuous leg pain, mostly near my shins.  Big toes hurt/tingled too, and still do a little bit but I'm feeling wayyy better today.  Working 4 12 hour shifts last week probably didn't help any... I won't schedule myself like that after my next hundo.

Finally caved in on Friday and started taking some Ibuprofen, I really think it has helped.

Some people might be wondering why I had duct tape over my nips in some of the pictures from the race:

Here's why:

I've had hit and miss luck with lubing up my nips in the past, and I liked the duct tape technique, until it fell off and I used lube around mile 75.

Lessons learned:  

After running 50 miles I felt like had run 50 miles - I was tired and hurting, I thought I was going to feel fresh at this point because I was running those first 50 at any easy pace, Ha!  Right, like I would feel fresh after 50 miles.

Even if you hurt and are feel impending doom, you can keep moving and will likely feel better, or at least enter a realm of delusion which allows you to run again, so don't freak out at mile 52 thinking, "there's no way I can run another 50."

100mi races are really fun to be around.  The worst part was how I felt during the actual race.  Everything else was sweet.  I really want to go to some more races to pace, crew or volunteer, the vibe and energy and all that good stuff is pretty amazing when you're around the kid of nut jobs that get together to run 100 miles in one sitting.

Even though I haven't even run yet since the race I'm thinking about my next hundred... any suggestions on which to run?  I believe that ultra-amnesia is real... you forget about the bad every time.

Here's a video of the gun going of at SD and the fast cats taking off, including but not limited to: Dylan, Rod, Yasssine, Topher, "Buzz", Chrissy and Jenny.

San Diego 100 Race Report

·        Adventure began with a beautiful drive through Julian with pacer/photographer/videographer/crewer extraordinaire Andy Salinger.

·       

·         Toeing the line, let everyone take off at a pace much too fast for all but a couple of the people in this lead pack.  Beautiful meadows, lakes, pine forested rolling hills for the first 10 or so miles

·         cruised down into penny pines, felt good up until this point in the race – mile 23, but didn’t feel very good for the next 77 miles =)

·         Thought I could throw down some fast miles down to the pine creek aid station 7 miles down noble canyon, I was wrong, so wrong.  Trail was fun, but more rocky and technical than I thought and I had to take my sweet time, beautiful trail though.

·         Around the pine creek aid station it started to warm up and we were totally exposed to the sun… and horseflies that kept buzzing around my head and biting me for about 4 miles.  I was using a branch off a bush to swat them away, worked pretty well.  At the top of the only 2 miles of pavement on the whole course a couple volunteers were handing out popsicles, definitely hit the spot THANKS!

·         I was kind of excited when I got close to the Sunrise aid station, because I knew I was slightly more than half way done, but I felt soooooo bad, sick to my stomach and tired.  I really thought that there was absolutely no way I could run another mile or two, let alone 49.  Luckily, this is where I picked up my first pacer Andy, who reminded me that I’ll have up’s and down’s along the way, and that I’ll eventually get better.

·       

Felt better after this

            A couple weeks ago when we ran the training run up and down Stonewall Mtn. I thought to myself, this isn’t that steep, I’ll run this whole section on race day.  Haha.  I hiked the majority of it, then cramped up briefly on the way down on the rocky section.  Made it to Paso Picacho, the coke looked good so I had a gulp, stomach didn’t like it at all.  Put on my headlamp and started walking out of there.  Saw Chrissy Moehl arrive at the aid station when I was leaving, and she quickly caught me. 

Donning the headlamp

·        

      Saw her leaving sweetwater aid station when I arrived.  Was great seeing Aid Station captain Keira Henninger here.  Andy & I were both wearing race shirts from a couple of Keira’s races: Los Pinos and Leona Divide, she was stoked to see that.

·         

      Picked up my 2^nd pacer Jimmy Dean Freeman at Sunrise 2, mile 81.  He was sporting argyle Giants pants, a Buster Posey Jersey and Brian Wilson beard… Hummmm baby.

Pacer #1 Andy Salinger, RD Scott Mills, myself, Pacer #2 Jimmy Dean Freeman

·        

      Jimmy helped keep me motivated, and lied about how well I looked and was running, I needed to hear that.

·         He jumped in front of me to pull me the last 4 miles into the finish.  He said we needed to run 12min miles to finish under 20hrs, so he was going to run 11min miles to play it safe.  He later told me we ran 9min miles, and it felt great.

·         

      My primary goal was always to run sub 20 hours.  Another goal, if I couldn’t obtain the first, was to finish quicker than a pathetic Dodger’s fan who ran the race last year in 20:18.

      No poison oak yet!

·         

            Saw many friends and familiar faces, helped make my first 100M experience a special one.

           6 out of top 10 were from out of state

·       I finished  7^th out of 159 starters with a time of 19:44, 66% finished other third dropped.

·         

      Predictions:

  

      I wasn't too far off.  Yassine and Rod tore it up, as did Dylan.  Guillermo, Josh and Dave didn't show, and Ben dropped.  Chrissy chicked me as predicted... barely!  I'm gunning for you next time girl =)  Jenny Capel and Betsy Nye did well as well.

Taper Tantrums

SD100 is less than a week away, 4 days to be exact.  I have 3 days off from work... perfect opportunity to go explore some new trails, but I have to keep my running to a minimum.  So what do I do instead of run?  Lounge around, work on my abs, lift weights too much - putting on extra weight that I don't need, hang out with my wife more - "letting" her beat me in cribbage.  Good thing the NBA finals are on, that helps distract me a bit... GO HEAT!

I'm heading into this race slightly under trained, but injury free and chomping at the bit to run.

All my drop bags are packed, I've met with both of my awesome pacers, Andy Salinger and Jimmy Dean Freeman.  I went out at 4am and tested my new headlamp out in the drizzly dark this morning.  I've checked the extended weather forecast for race (high of 71, low of 47 on race day).

I've over analyzed logistical minutiae and wish the race was tomorrow so that I would quit worrying about it!  I'm planning on using an iPod during part of the race, never have listened to music while racing, but should be good for keeping the ennui at bay.  Have my wardrobe all figured out too:

Here are the artists on my playlist for race day:  Benny Benassi, The Bloodhound Gang, Kanye West, Fedde Le Grand, Lady Gaga, Lit, Queens of the Stone Age, Red Hot Chili Peppers and last but not least, Rob Zombie.


I've been stretching a little bit more:

Oh, before I forget... I forgot to mention Shawna Tompkins as a top female contender at the race, she's got a lot of solid performances under her legs and has run well recently.

I'm bummed that my buddy Hone is temporarily on the DL, so I'll have to wait to smoke him at some future race... Bear 100 perhaps?

Any sage advice on how to survive tapering?