Old Man Still running

In honor of my friends running Badwater today, I did heat training.   My workout was in the 105 degrees hot tub at the Saratoga Springs pool.   By kicking, I can bring my heart rate up and try to endure the hot temperature with a heart rate above 100. It is brutal and very uncomfortable.  I could only stand 25 minutes of it.  But I think this will help get more used to heat for my race at Tahoe on Saturday.  The afternoon will be rather hot when the course dips down near the lake.

I'll do very little or no running before race day.  I need to heal up a reaccurring internal injury.  Running aggrevates it, so I just need to stop.   Tapering is good.   No running training at this point will help my race on Saturday.   Heal up and I'm good to go.

To follow Badwater splits, see: http://dbase.adventurecorps.com/results.php?bw_eid=51&bwr=Go   They start in three waves.  The most experience Badwater runners are in the third wave that starts 1000 PDT.

More swimming and hot tub.  The pool and hot tub were much cooler today, so hard to get the heart rate up, but still got some heat training.   Will probably get out in the heat this afternoon.   Following Badwater progress today is getting me psyched for some heat on Saturday.

Still in major taper mode.  No running, just resting...some minor exercises to keep the taper pains away.  Doing heat work, driving around without the air conditioning, etc.

Last night went to the Paul McCartney concert.  Wow, it was great.  Brought back lots of memories from the '60s.  He did lots of Beatles stuff.  We had a great time.

At Carson City, NV.  Race checkin is tomorrow afternoon.   It is 103 here today.  Driving down I continued my heat training by driving much of it without air conditioning.  The hot temps don't seem to bother me much, good sign.  Tomorrow morning, I'll checkout the new portion of the course and maybe golf some.

Its been a good day in Carson City, NV.  Got up with the dawn and golfed nine holes.  Had a good round.  Next, I went and powerhiked and ran down some of the new sections of the 100-mile course near the Diamond  Peak ski resort.  The big new climb isn't that bad.  Over  half of it is on snowcat roads that switch back and then the last half mile or so is straight up a ski slope, so that will be interesting.   I then checked out the section that comes down to the ski resort.  It is a beautiful trail shared with bikes, nice and smooth that follows Incline Creek, so it is shady and cool.  Looks like a ton of fun!  The climb up the slopes will be hot, probably with the sun in my face, but I'll just push hard and get it over with.

Next, I checked in. Several people recognized me and I had fun talking with them.  The best news is at the weigh in, I'm about nine pounds lighter than last year.  Wow, that is a nice surprise.

I'll go to the race briefing at 2:15 p.m. to say hi to friends, go to dinner with friends and try to hydrate well and relax.   All systems are go.  I think the course will be about an hour slower than last year due to the course change.  My goal is to at least match my time for last year which was 25:43. I'll need to get up around 3 a.m. for the 5 a.m. start.

Race report at: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=347

Detailed race report later. Tahoe Rim Trail 100 was tough this year.  The weather was hot and the new revised course was tough.  The toughest new feature is a climb right up a ski slope without switchbacks that we had to do twice.  It was about the same as the Windy Pass climb at Squaw Peak.

My strategy was to run fast when it was cool, back off when it was hot, and then run fast again at night.  Worked great except for gut problems and terrible chafing for the last 30 miles.  I believe I was running in 3rd place for the first 15 miles when it was cool.  Once dusk came with cooler temperatures, I had a blast again cranking up the speed 

I had a good race, but not perfect.  Some issues probably cost me two hours.  But still, I finished 15th out of about 110 starters.  I guy in my age group finished in just over 24 hours, so he took the age group championships this year.