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Squaw to Robinson..the Hard Way

May 20, 2013 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Up EARLY to get to Auburn to meet the Curley's. Big breakfast of french toast - tons of carbs, no fucking around.

Took off from Auburn with Tyler and Connor around 730 AM; stopped at a gas station for even more carbs (OJ and pop tarts - chuckled at Connor's comment about eating "four...but not four PACKS" for breakfast in the past). Nice drive up to Squaw, but cool and breezy at the start. Immediately nervous - gotta "defuse" that place before race day...

Started up the hill and immediately fell back - felt like SHIT! But thankfully everyone else did...or at least Tyler. So with BGD and Connor up front, Tyler and I walk-jogged up to high camp, then we all reconvened and walk/hiked through the snow to Escarpment (~1hr/50ish minutes to the AS).

Felt shitty on the descent to Granite Chief then very gradually came around after stopping to work on Tyler's ankle. Trail was pretty rough, but not terrible. Only 3 downed logs.

T&C ran with us 'til just before "silver gate" before they turned around, and it was just me and BGD - 2:05 to that point (with maybe 2:25 of total time).

It was a bit of a death march through Lyon Ridge - neither BGD or I felt good, but the focus was the same: "form-focused, run the flats". Some hiking on the ups, but mostly due to rough tread. Made a decent (:55?) split to Red Star. BGD was already clock-watching, knowing he had to be back in Rocklin by 4:30ish. He wanted to run the road in, but I wanted NO part of that - like 10-13 miles of gravel? UGHZIES.

Red Star Ridge was in good shape and very pretty: it's really spectacular to run on that ridge and see both the north and middle fork canyons at the same time. Trail was in decent shape in the first half, but gradually worsened as we got into the old Star Fire burn.

Didn't take a Zyrtek today and I paid for it: gut rot, then dead legs. Deuced x3 on this run: mid-Lyon, mid-Red Star and beside little Duncan. Felt the shittiest about 2mi out of Duncan AS, but came around on the run up to RF. The trail was so rough going down to Duncan you almost had to walk DOWNhill!

Once again, I was hyper-focused on the flat running and made pretty good time, drawing away slightly from BGD. It's not about pace-pushing (or being a DEHCK); rather, it's about learning how doable it is to run at that speed, and what kind of splits come from it.

The climb out of RF was actually pretty damn good, yet it's pretty frustrating how much of it must be walked: that "straight up" section after the switchbacks and before Little Rob Flat is a pain, but it is all runnable after that.

Total time with no stops was 5:52 (a few minutes up on BGD, but not much). Wasn't sure what the Duncan to RF split was, but we did about 2:25 from Red Star, including deuce stops, etc. Not bad, considering the tread. It was nice to have some heat in Duncan; ran out of water and got thirsty, but nothing terrible. Was on top of calories.

Overall, felt STRONG - starting to develop this "all day" feeling of being able to sustain a certain effort, even on relentless uphill. That's a great feeling.

Cruised down Foresthill Divide road and got back to Auburn in good time. Spent quite a bit of time at Connor's, hanging out with he and Tyler, before T and I went to the Ale House for pickle chips and more convo. Great guys!

Nice to have that run out of the way...and a rest day upcoming!!