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S Willamette + Eula Ridge + Hardesty + "detour down" + Goodman Ck Rd

March 17, 2013 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: high 30s - 40s range - snow about 3K

Comments:
Last weekend at my PT course I took some time to plan out this pre-Sonoma "microcycle". I have several points of emphasis, and one area is nutrition. I learned some new things at the course, including:

- The importance to anti-oxidants (blueberries and cherries are huge)
- We need 4g of Omega 3 a day for recovery/repair. And, sadly, by far the best source of it is...yep, Udo's Oil. I'll eat my humble pie, coated with Udo's Oil. Walnuts, good fish (e.g. salmon) are other sources, among others.
- The importance of supplementing with magnesium, which is necessary to convert vitamin D for use in the body.

Meanwhile, I've been doing some reading in the new "Lore of Running"; in it, Noakes makes a strong case for low carb diets - in line with what we were hearing from Jimothy a couple weeks back.

So, as an extension of my previous minimal efforts, I decided today to go "no energy": no breakfast, in addition to no fuel or water on the run. I will admit that I had two TBSP of peanut butter in order to take my Zrytek, but that's it. Oh, and tea with some half and half (I'm also getting off soy!).

My bread and butter medium long run is the triangle of Hardesty (5.5 mi, 3300') to June/Sawtooth (3mi, maybe 500 up and down), then 11.5 total back to the car (though, admittedly it's probably shorter...but I'm sticking to 20 for this run!). That 11.5 has the first 5 on downhill, rolling/winding singletrack, then 3mi of fast gravel road downhill to Goodman Ck trail, which is 3.5 of rolling, mostly downhill to the TH.

But today, to lengthen things, I added "another triangle": rather than go straight up Hardesty, I took the S. Willamette trail - which parallels the highway, then "straight up" to Hardesty, via the Eula Ridge trail. I typically reserve this for late season, since it...sucks. But I wanted to lengthen, and do so "early" in the run.

It's been nice as fuck here all week, and that tricked me today: I wore only shorts, LS and Sonoma jacket, but it wound up being only 38F at the TH. Oh well. The Sonoma jacket is boss, and would keep me warm.

Kept things sups chill in the first hour, mostly spent on the S Willamette trail. This trail would be money IF:

A.) they did any trail trimming. They did...but only the first couple miles. After that, my legs were running into a quadrillion fern leaves.

B.) it didn't end at Eula Ridge!

Eula is steep as shit. Hardesty was built as a fire lookout access, so it's extremely consistent. When they build Eula, they put switches in for about halfway, then said "Fuck it" in the second half, so you're literally going straight up the hill at crazy grades.

Was very form focused from the get-go but a bit conservz. Same for the Eula climb. Felt really good, but at about 3K elevZZ, there was new snow. Wound up hiking for several 30-60s intervals when the trail went straight up and was snow covered.

The Eula trail runs into Hardesty about a K from the top, so I shuffled up there. By then, it was downright cold...like mid 30s? When I got to the top, I began to notice that the "Twig N Berries" were SUPER CHILLED. And chafing in my wet compression shorts! F!

I turned back down and headed along the Sawtooth Cutoff but "The Twig" hurt like hell! F! I had no gloves, or no way to warm except by "holding it!". After about 400m I stopped: I couldn't run like this for another 2hrs. I had to turn back.

So I ran down the Hardesty trail, intent on going to the car to get pants, then going back out to tack on more...

I "cupped the BALLZ" for a good mile+, and then they began to thaw enough to run freely. It was a nice descent back to the trailhead - MUCH better than Wednesday: I think the rain and snow knocked down the pollen.

I thought about how I'd add on: option A is to do the Goodman Ck trail out and back, but that'd be rolling, muddy, and likely populated. So I went with option B: Goodman Ck road, which is a single lane gravel road that winds its way up the ridge. The goal was to run up to where Goodman Ck trail hit it (3.5mi?), then bomb down.

Without breaking stride, I rolled through the TH, 300m on the shoulder of OR58, then left onto Goodman. This is where I really started to hone in one the "Salazar stride". This is another goal of mine: do some big trail running and end with some flat-ish road miles to force an honest, fast and efficient stride.

That plan was solid, but I forgot how much Goodman Ck Rd climbed. Ugh. I'm now nearly 3hr into the fuel-free day and it's pretty rough. It climbs and winds, and climbs and winds. I'm watchless (it broke on Monday!), so I'm clueless about how far along I am. More climbing and winding. Ugh! Finally...I just stop. "F it". I'd been running close to a half hour, uphill. I might've been close, but all I wanted was enough miles to get 20. So I turned back.

The way back went quick. If I was running 8:xx to 9 going up, I was going 6:0x down. REALLY focused on "high and tight" with the push off and recovery, getting that foot directly beneath without any braking. I also worked - as I had all day - on a good "Left pushes Right", and that felt good.

I was hauling pretty good. I thought about how much it felt like the end of a long (100K-100m) ultra: totally depleted but still going. What great practice!

FINALLY hit the road, and cranked it even more. The stride felt...legit. Correct. It didn't hurt, nor did my feet, knees, QWAADZ, or anything else!

GOOD run. Wasn't easy, and I kept wanting to drop, but it was a good one, two weeks post-NVM, and four weeks, pre-Sonoma.

Total run time was 3:30. I figure I did about 5+ on the road. And the loop I did ("The little triangle" - home of the Hardesty Harcore in July), plus the Hardesty summit + the 400m out/back when the NUTZ FROZE...all that equals 21.

Here's a map of the area:

http://eclecticedgeracing.com/uploads/HARDESTY_HARDCORE_COURSE_MAP.pdf

I did that whole triangle, plus a tip of the trail going west/south from Hardesty, then the road.

Four-hours post run? I'm quite depleted, but the body feels GOOD. Remember when we were in college (or for me, in those 2-3 excellent years from 2002-2005) when you'd run (efficiently), and be SUPS tired, but...you still felt like running MORE? I feel like I'm starting to recapture some of that feeling. :)