A Lean and Hungry Look

Easy run around Holladay over lunch break.  Quads and calves have been fairly sore since pacing on Friday night--the crazy descents were much harder on the legs than I remembered--but felt pretty good during the run.  It was a relief to be covering ground at road-running pace instead of ultramarathon pace.  I don't know if I have the patience to be a 100-mile guy--there are times when it just feels so boring to be going 3-4 miles per hour.  Who knows, though--I'm not counting out a Wasatch 100 sometime in the future.

I headed over to Sugarhouse this morning for 15x2-minute intervals.  During my 2-mile warmup, I felt the pain in my left ITB that was bugging me a few weeks ago, only it didn't seem to be getting better as I warmed up.  After 2 miles, I stopped and stretched pretty thoroughly, then tried a few pickups to see how it felt. 

When the pain continued, I stopped and thought about what to do.  I remembered that I had felt pretty significant ITB pain during the first 10 miles or so of pacing at Wasatch 100 on Friday night, particularly on the killer descents.  I forgot to write anything about it on the blog, probably because I didn't blog the run until the next day and was still recovering from the sleep deprivation.  Because this has been a recurring issue over the past couple of months and because the race is so close, I decided that I needed to pay attention to signals my body was sending and that it was more important to get to the starting line as healthy as possible than to get another interval workout in today.  I called the workout and drove home.

I took 3 prednisone tablets and spent the next 90 minutes stretching, massaging, and icing in an effort to zap the problem as quickly as possible.  I'll do more of the same tonight and will see how I feel tomorrow.

I took my scheduled day off instead of trying to make up for yesterday's skipped workout.  Spent more time last night and again this morning stretching, rolling, massaging, and icing the leg.  It's feeling pretty good, so I think I'll return to the normal schedule tomorrow after more therapy tonight.

After spending more time stretching, massaging, and icing the legs last night, I was feeling pretty good this morning, so I did the scheduled easy 10 miles (up to Wasatch, across Parley's and out to Millstream Lane and back).  I felt mild pain in the ITB, but it was clearly better than a couple of days ago.  I took it easy until the final mile, where I opened it up a couple of times with 30-second bursts, just to test how the ITB would respond to some turnover.  It felt fine.

I'll continue with the stretching, massaging, and icing regimen, but I think I should be back on track now.

I got a call from a volunteer for SGM yesterday asking if I'd like to run as an elite.  I immediately responded that I would, and I'm looking forward to the convenience of having my own water bottles available, since I always spill Gatorade in my eyes and struggle to get enough in me when pushing the pace.  My favorite part of the conversation was when she explained about the Ibigawa trip for the winner and how I would need to have an answer ready on race day as to whether I could go or not.  I told her that a lot of people would have to fall down and drop out before that eventuality would ever play out, but she dutifully went through the whole routine anyway.  The elite entry was a very nice surprise.  It will be my first experience running with the elites, and I'm excited for it.

Easy run to keep the legs loose for tomorrow's 10k leg of the Daybreak Tri.  ITB felt good (I did more stretching, massaging, and icing last night), but I felt some pain in my left arch.  I felt it a little yesterday, too, but it felt more like muscle fatigue than anything else.  I'm not sure what to make of that, but hopefully whatever it is will wait a couple of weeks before giving me any real trouble.

Daybreak Tri.  I did the run leg of the Olympic relay.  Warmed up for about 4 miles, including several pullouts/strides to get HR close to race effort (180+).  The swim leg got drastically modified at the last minute due to the presence of roundworm in Oquirrh Lake, so John Karren only got to swim 75m, then run about 1.25 miles to the transition area.  He was first out the pool and second into the transition area.  Elliott Smith smoked everyone on the bike leg, so I took the chip in first place by a significant margin.  I held my HR above 180 throughout the effort, but my splits were slow.  The course was two loops along a path that winds around Oquirrh Lake, and it felt like about 2 miles of each lap were slightly uphill and into a stiff headwind.  I hope that was what slowed me down so much, because I was at least 30-45 seconds per mile off my projected pace.  Splits were as follows:

1: 5:39 (AHR 181)

2: 6:06 (AHR 184)

3: 6:10 (AHR 184)

4: 5:54 (AHR 183)

5: 6:17 (AHR 183)

6: 6:23 (AHR 184)

Last 0.35: 5:45 pace (AHR 186)

We won the relay by a huge margin and beat the first solo guy by about 8 minutes, so it wasn't ever close.  Still, I was very disappointed with my performance.  There is no good reason why my HR should have been up in the clouds at such a pedestrian pace.  Anyway, I'm going to concentrate on the fact that I held my HR above 180 throughout the race and still managed a modest kick instead of focusing on the pitiful splits.

After the race, I cooled down for 6-7 easy miles around Daybreak while we waited for the awards ceremony.

Still feeling some fatigue/tightness in my left arch.  It was present throughout my warmup and cooldown.  Didn't notice it during the race.