In order to keep myself motivated to train, last week I was looking at some potentail local races. Being new to the area, I'm eager to get out there and try some new races and meet new friends. I found the Discrete Peak Series race at Snowbird that looked interesting. Its just 25 minutes away and they have a sweet prize purse and three different categories to enter.
Only problem is, its a MOUNTAIN race with 3,600 ft of climbing in a 8.9 mile loop course.
I am a road runner.
I usually try to avoid any race that ascends or even descends anything more than 1,000 ft throughout the course. My road running body didn't even know how to assess the challenge of racing 3,600 feet elevation change.
So I asked my mountain goat husband, Aaron to take me on a trail run similar to that type of course to assess whether or not I'd want to possibly race a course like that.
Aaron has climbed and descended tens of thounsands of feet in elevation throughout the summer, summiting a 6,000 ft climb to Lone Peak at least five times and regularly exploring the hilly trails in corner canyon for his easy runs.
I've probably climbed and descended a total of 100 feet all summer throughout my pancake flat training runs in Old Draper and I descended a whopping 800 feet in my half marathon race a few weeks ago. Needless to say, my quads were ill-equipped for thousands of feet of descending in one run.
We started at 5:30 a.m. with 4 miles straight up the side of the mountain, gaining 3,800 ft in the first 4 miles. Once my calves warmed up, I was fine and actually enjoyed the climbing. It was a pleasant, slow hike with some jogging in the less steep sections. At our designated 4 mile turn-around point, we stuck our faces in a crystal clear creek for a drink and appreciated the peaceful, still morning.
Then.
The descent.
3,800 ft drop in just 4 miles. It started off fun and rolling. Then it got real steep real fast. After dropping 1,300 feet in one mile my quads were already TOAST. My leg muscles began to tremble with every step and I started to wish I had brought a paraglider along to get me off the side of that mountain.
I told Aaron he'd better go ahead and get back to the kids. 'Cause I might be a while.
I slowed my pace down and ended up hiking some of the really steep sections and cry running the rest. I'm not kidding, it was WAY harder than any road run I've done in YEARS.
I gained a whole new level of respect for all you mountain runners out there who run this kind of descent regularly. It flet like doing alternating single leg squats for a non-stop HOUR while holding 20lb barbells in my hands! Its so anaerobic! My lungs were fine, but my quads were SCREAMING. I guess I found my weakness.
After I got back to the trailhead, since I had told Aaron to go on home to the kids, I still had a 3 mile run back home with another eight-hundred feet of descent, but it felt so much easier compared to the steep, sandy drop I had just completed. My feet finally had grip again! And I could let the breaks off to coast a bit instead of holding back on every step.
It took me 2:40 to run those 11 miles total, and I was SO tired. You'll be happy to know, I will gladly be leaving the mountain races to the mountain runners. This road runner has got some work to do before attempting another mountain run like that!
As I'm writing this, its now two days later. Yep. You guessed it.
DOMS.
I couldn't run yesterday due to major quad soreness. I've been laughing at myself and getting some funny jabs from Aaron as I limp walk down stairs, wimper when I get down on the floor to change the baby's diaper, and have to bend super forward just to get myself into a seat. We'll call it "Old lady Sunday."
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