Week 10; ET Phone Home

Sunday:  10 miles @ 9:36 pace; I stretched and stretched and stretched my hamstrings Saturday night (I've decided all my issues are currently arising from tight hammies) and it all really helped to loosen everything up.  I started off pretty slowly since I wasn't sure how everything was going to behave.  My quad did the usual decline in discomfort through the run.  My hip and butt behaved the whole run.  My calf did a strange thing:  twice early on it clicked rather forcefully three times (it sort of scared me since it was almost a pop) but I didn't have to stop and continually stretch it like Friday.  The calf is still pretty sore to the touch from all the tightness on Friday but I'm feeling like it won't give me major ongoing issues.  I picked up the pace at the end and found a couple of MP miles.

Tuesday:  10 miles @ 9:52 pace;  I felt pretty crummy the first 5 miles.  My leg was hurting and I just didn't have any pep.  I almost scrapped the distance but stuck with it.  I was rewarded with a strong 3.5 mile finish as my leg loosened up.  Such a bipolar run.

Wednesday:  4 miles @ 10:04 pace;  I decided to do a short shake-out run to optimize some recovery time before the race Saturday night.  I had originally wanted to knock out another 10 miler but figured at this point it would probably hurt more than help.  I've learned it takes 4-5 miles for my leg to settle down so I was hurting the entire 4 miles.  I also felt horribly sluggy.  Bleh. This was the first run in a month where my average pace was in the 10:00's (and that was a 20 miler). I suppose I could have fought to bring it down, but with all the pain in my leg decided to take whatever naturally came.


And there it is. My next run is the 51K on Saturday night.  I find it sort of amusing I'm off to do an ultra since I feel as if I'm pretty under prepared for even a marathon at this point.  With my skipped 20 miler due to my leg I haven't run 20 miles in a month.

Going 31+ is going to be interesting for the following reasons:

1. It is at altitude.  This will slow me down.  When I ran Bear Lake I felt as if I could have run a 4:40 marathon easy that weekend. I ended up finishing in 5:20+.  So I'm figuring the altitude alone will add about 40 minutes to my marathon time.
2. The first 13.1 miles are all uphill.   Coupled with the altitude I'm sure this will be fun.
3. The race starts at 11:59 pm.  This is past my bedtime.  I've done night runs during relays before but those maxed out at about 5-6 miles.  31+ in the middle of the night?  Umm...
4. It is in Nevada. In August.  The race is located a few hours north of Vegas in Rachel, Nevada.  It is cooler out in Rachel but it is still way warmer than San Francisco.  I'm anticipating the starting temp to be about 70 degrees.  I seriously don't rememer the last time I ran in 70 degree weather.
5. I'm injured.  No way around this one.  Something funky is up with my leg and I haven't been able to figure it out.  I've obviously been able to run on it, but it doesn't make for a zen experience.  I was going to say I have never run a marathon injured, but I remembered Honolulu in 2009.  I tweaked my hamstring after CIM and ran Honolulu a week later.  It hurt the entire race but I managed to make it through.  I figure if I can survive Honolulu injured, in the heat, a week after a PR effort at CIM I can make it through ET.  Right?

So with all the above in mind, I have no doubt I will be out there way past sunrise.  Hopefully they still have breakfast waiting for me at the Little A'le'Inn when I am done.  I am going into this with the attitude of taking my time and enjoying the experience.  A few of my running friends will be out there and I'm super excited to get to see them.  I am pretty much the antithesis of a Vegas person, but I am so looking forward to my weekend there, too.  Hopefully I'll have good news of a finish to report when I get back.

The super awesome Audrey tweeted this today.  So sweet!
More cowbell, ET!