Old Man Still running

OK, the after affects of running 100 miles.   No injuries! It is always a huge victory if you come out without an injury.  Very minor blisters, in the usual spots, hardly noticed them.  The Hokas held up very well.  Zero foot-bottom soreness.  That really is amazing.  The people in Texas hadn't seen them before so I was asked lots of questions about them along the way.  My remaining problem with them are the backs of the heels.  They are too high and after 100 miles leaves my achilies a little swolen.  I guess I will have to alter the shoes again.  I now have 450 miles on those shoes and they feel like they still have plenty more in them.

It is funny how recovering from 100-milers is always a little different.  For most of them, I feel drained, physically ill for a couple days, and don't have an appetite.  But this time in that area, I feel great.  But this time my quads are really sore, especially the left one.  I think how well I feel generally is due to two things, the cool temperature during the race, and my laziness for that last six hours or so.  I can tell that I was lazy and had more I could have given if the crazy stomach would have cooperated.  Oh well.   My left quad is more sore than the right because I think I lead with that leg and sub-consciencely protect my bad right knee.  I'll have to work on that.

Legs still quite sore, but I passed the "jog downstairs without grabbing the handrail" test.   Not bad to pass that test after just two days. The official RR100 standings are being worked on and it looks like I fell to 34th place with 316 starters.  116 runners dropped out along the way.  That is a pretty huge dropout rate, the biggest in years there.  I guess the cold weather really took its toll.

This was my 67th ultra finish.  Taking a look at my performance trend chart in ultras, I finished this race about right on target in the top 11% of starters.  The chart below shows my history.  10% means that I finished in the top 10%, so I want my number to be low.  Last year at Rocky I was in the top 13%.  So even for this race I improved.  Not bad because the top of the leader board was really stacked this year.

It feels like I've bounced back pretty well.   I'll start running again when I'm interested.  I may take a rare break just for kicks.

I wrote up my detailed report for Rocky Raccoon 100.  http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=612

It is fun to be lazy and not feel guilty.

My big decision right now is, Should I really try to run three 100s, each within two weeks of each other this year?  Three is six weeks? Cascade Crest 100 registrations opens and sells out Saturday.  I would really like to run that race, but Wasatch is two weeks after that, and I would really like to ran another race two weeks after that.   If I do this, I would race CC100 and shoot for sub-24, but I would take it easy and have fun at Wasatch.  Then I would try to race Virgil Crest.   Decisions, decisions.  

I didn't get into Hardrock, or even on the wait list, so I did the right thing there and entered Tahoe Rim 100 before it filled up.

Big mileage week, 5 miles.  Did easy treadmill.  The left quad is still tight and sore, unusual, but should be fine in a few more days.  I'll start using it and it should heal faster.

I signed up for Cascade Crest 100 in August.  I've wanted to do that race for several years, it is located in the mountains where I grew up skiing and camping in Washington.  Should be fun to go home.  But, it looks like I'm targeting nine 100-milers this year.