Rope Mill 1/2 Marathon

 

This was the last race in the Mountain Goat Adventures Trail Run Series.  I almost did not get to run, as I was sidelined the past 10 days with plantar fasciitis in my right foot. How this happened I do not know, but I seem to play a lot of running injury bingo these days.  Fortunately I had no pain after a 5k run the Wednesday before the race.  Unfortunately, I had not been doing any run training the past 3 weeks.

The forecast was looking iffy; a slight chance of some thunderstorms.  It was a sticky 65 degrees at the start.  I did an extensive warm up, working out all my niggles (low back, right hamstring, right hip joint capsule).  The body felt pretty good considering my issues.  This was the largest of the 4 events, with 29 women in the field and 7 in my age group.

Adele was there and we chit-chatted while waiting for go-time, trying to calm the nerves. At 8 am, the gun went off, and I took off mid-pack towards the Mill Trails.  This section was wide and flowy.  I soon decided to pass a handful of women, as the legs were feeling fresh.  Adele was right on my heels as we made our way around them.

The first 2 miles went by quickly and I saw my heart rate in the high 160/low 170 range.  Settle, I told myself, and backed it off, as I knew this was unsustainable.  Not wanting to hold Adele back, as she was gonna try for a 2 hour goal, I let her around me. I was able to let it go on the descents, allowing the momentum to pull me up some of the climbs. 

I finished up the Mills section (4.3 miles) in 39 minutes.  Continuing onto the Explorer Trails, I stopped briefly at the aid station and downed a cup of Heed. Not long afterwards, I caught sight of a woman not too far behind me.  Over the next mile, she appeared to be gaining.  I expected her to pass me at anytime, especially when I stopped at the aid station again.  But the pass never came.  Towards the end of this loop, I lost sight of her.  Had she blown up?  Or was she gonna catch me in the next section?  I finished this loop (3.3 miles) in 35 minutes.

The Avalanche section saw me slowing down, as I began to feel the fatigue, and the slight twinges of soreness in my quads on the descents.  I tried to block out those feelings by focusing on the "carrots" in front of me.  There was a big, tall muscular fella in front of me, with strides twice as long as mine.  But he must have been carrying 100 more pounds than I.  This jerked me out of my "woe is me and my sore quads" mode.

I had made it to the 3rd loop of Avalanche, when the skies began to darken and I heard thunder off in the distance.  I stopped at the aid station and drank some more Heed.  Once I started onto the remaining portion of the 2nd loop, I had 1 1/2 miles to go.  The rumbles of thunder got louder and now the skies were so dark, it was hard to see the roots in the trail.  The rain started, slowly at first.  With about 1 mile to go, the lightning began cracking close enough to me that I forgot all about my trashed quads.  Adrenalin carried me that final mile.  Coming down the embankment, the skies opened up with a torrential downpour.  I made it across the finish line and immediately ran under the scoring tent. My finishing time was 2:12.  The final loop was 5.4 miles in 58 minutes.

I ended up being a handful of runners that completely finished the course.  Due to safety concerns since this weather cell looked brutal on the weather map, Lisa made the executive decision to short course  a good portion of the runners, cutting them off from doing the 3rd loop on Avalanche.

I ended up 1st AG and 3rd O/A.  Adele came close to her goal with a 2:09.

I was happy with my performance, but without being able to run much leading up to this race, my quads were angry for the next 5 days!  You know, sore enough that the process of sitting down on the toilet was painful.

Big Frog Half Marathon

Who da thunk I would skip a mountain bike race on Saturday to run a foot race on Sunday?  Ten years ago, running was not even on my radar.  Today, it is a regular part of my fitness routine, along with lifting heavy sh!t.  Part of that is just wanting to new challenges, and part of it is because of Honcho.

Today was the third race in Mountain Goat Adventures Trail Running Series.  It was held at the Ocoee Whitewater Center. It was drizzling and 46 degrees when I arrived and pretty much stayed that way the entirety of the race.  I was not too enthused, as I have been dealing with a 3 week hamstring injury.  How I got it, I do not know ... at my age now, I probably rolled over wrong in my sleep.  But seriously, it probably has something to do with my ongoing grumpy L4-L5 facet joint, which has been plaguing me on and off for the past 5 years.  

After a 20 minute bundled up warm up, I stripped down to a T-shirt and shorts.  At 8:30 am, Lisa released us and we began with an immediate climb up Bear Paw.  I went by both perceived exertion and heart rate, keeping myself in the low to mid-tempo range.  I stayed conservative, as the trail was wet and the roots and rocks were slick.  The last thing I wanted to happen was to further injure myself and say good-bye to my upcoming races War Daddy and PMBAR.  Today was all about good training and not aggravating my hammy.

I saw Zeke as I turned onto Lower Chestnut.  He was a course marshal and told me that I was second woman and 6th overall at this point.  Still, so many miles to go.  With that initial 1.5 mile climb, I was perfectly comfortable and the body was feeling good.  I did get passed by a group of guys midway through this section; I was just glad  to be by myself at this point, as I had paced them up the mountain.

I am a terrible descender, so Thunder Rock was meh.  I tip-toed across both bridges as they were skating rinks.  At the bottom, I took a cup of water and a gel.  Then began a 2.7 mile climb back up the mountain.  Running back up the mountain felt good.  All body parts were happy; I was happy.  It was good for my soul to be in the forest.

I stopped at the second aid station and repeated.  The Quartz Loop was a little tricky as the single track was tight; half-track in places, which made for focused foot placement.  Once I was on Bypass, there was only a little more climbing to go and then I could "send it" back down to the finish.  Back on Chestnut, I wanted to go fast, but I kept the strides short.  I did not want to trash the quads, fearing this could affect next weekend's race, the War Daddy.  I kept it chill, passed by Zeke, who was walking up and down his posted area, trying to stay warm.

Once on Bear Paw it was about a mile to the finish.  At this point, I opened it up a bit and kept saying out loud, "Pick up your feet."  So close to the finish, I did not want to trip now.  I came through the finish line with a time of 2:24.   Prior to my grumpy hammy, I had hoped to run close to 2:05-2:10.  Yeah, I was a little frustrated at being slow, but I had to keep the long game in the picture.  This running thing is not my primary goal.  I am doing it for funsies.

Adele schooled me today with a time of 2:05 that gave her a 5th overall.  It is going to be an exciting final at Rope Mill next month ... I hope.  I just need to get this ischial tuberosity/hamstring attachment inflammation thingy resolved.

Thanks to Mountain Goat Adventures once again for a fun day.  I am slowly collecting enough Fleet Feet gift cards to buy a new pair of shoes.  And I have a good Ka'Chava stock for my lunch time smoothies.

Garland Mountain Trail Run

Once again, I escaped the wrath of the weather gods.  The morning was a warm 53 degrees, and despite the rain on Friday, the course was in great shape ... hero dirt.  This was the first one in the Mountain Goat Adventures Trail Race Series, 10.5 miles with 1300 feet of elevation gain.  It was nice to have a proper warm up, compared to last year's bitter cold temperatures, where I used the cab of my truck to do some squats, lunges, and other mobility/warm-up exercises.

I opted to just go with a 10 ounce hand held bottle.  I was hoping for a sub 1:45 time.  I had not done much run training leading up to this, hoping my cycling fitness and expedition race would be enough. I was wearing Brooks Caldera's; they had worked great during the Sea to Sea, and felt more comfortable and stable than the Hoka's I had been using.

At 8:30 am, Lisa blew the horn, and I was off.  I entered the single track with the front runners.  My legs felt sparkly and I flew through mile 1.  A woman passed me towards the end of that mile, but I was ok with letting her go.  Seeing my heart rate at 168, I knew I could not hold that for 10 miles, and so I settled a bit.

The first 5 miles came and went without much effort, so it seemed.  I was happy with my heart rate in the upper 150's, pushing into the 160's on the climbs.  I had been having difficulty getting my heart rate up on the bike recently and was concerned (enough to get a referral for a cardiologist in May), but after seeing how well it was doing on the run, I am pretty convinced that I was just carrying a lot of fatigue after the Huracan and Sea To Sea.

Midway through mile 6, I began to see glimpses of the first place woman, about 200 meters ahead.  Now I had a carrot!  My intentions were to just keep her in sight over the next two miles and then, if I was feeling good, I would attempt an attack around mile 8-9.

Miles 7 and 8 my perceived exertion went up.  But when I saw 1st place walking up a hill midway through mile 8, I embraced the pain and began to push harder.  Even though she was still fast on the descents, I slowly reeled her in.  Then I attacked on the next climb.  As I passed, I gave her some words of encouragement and to come with, but she was unable.  

At the top of the climb, I kicked in the afterburners and pushed it hard, all the way to the finish.  I thought I was going to blow a gasket on that final climb to the finish, but I was determined not to slow to a power hike.  I just kept the legs turning over, looking back only once midway up the climb.  Not seeing her, I cruised on into the finish with a time of 1:38.

I won my AG and took the overall as well, finishing 7 minutes faster than my goal.  I was stoked!

The 10 ounces of Skratch I had was just the right amount, finishing it with 1 mile to go.

Back in December I went to Chattanooga Non-Surgical Orthopedics in Chattanooga to see Dr. Jeff Hall.  At that time I had been dealing with a left patellar tendonitis for the past two years, without success.  I had gone through physical therapy as well as doing some comprehensive strength training and mobility exercises, but to no avail.  

I received a series of 4 PRP/HA (platelet rich plasma and hyaluronic acid) injections into my tendon.  Although my knee joint had no issues, I had that injected as well.  This occurred over an 8 week period. Insurance did not cover it, so it was a $1500 out of pocket expense.  I was super nervous about how effective it would, as that's a lot of money!  Well, I am ecstatic to say that IT FUCKING WORKED!  And FUCK YOU, BCBST for not covering a procedure that has minimal to no complications/adverse effects and was 100% effective.  I am sure that all my PCP visits and PT appointments added up to at least twice that amount that I spent.