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WS Start to Watson Monument

June 22, 2013 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Slept pretty good, hammered some eggs/sausage at Holiday Inn Express, then made the drive to Squaw Valley. LOVE the stretch between K Falls and Susanville - beautiful lava-studded national forest!

Got to SV around 2ish to meet BGD. By design, there wasn't a hint of nerves going into SV - only excitement and confidence. Did a nice, thorough warm-up, going through stretches and drills, then heading up the hill.

The notion was to get some splits - and an idea of what can be done - with heart-rate discipline. Put it at 160bpm ceiling to see what we could do.

The opening switches - as always - are always a shock. The HR went from like 60 to 160 FAST. From there, in that first mile, it was a super-shuffle. Hit the 90 degree "canyon" turn at 11:38, where the road goes R and climbs another couple switches up the N side of the valley. Felt pretty good, but started pow-hiking to get the HR down. Was good to see that the HR could still descend while really strongly hiking!

Kept things chill on the flat-ish road and split 24:00 to the "railroad car bridge" with the creek beneath it. From there, more pow-hiking past the crazy-old tree (and the '11 snow course AS), then more jogging to the high camp.

Jogged all of the trail to the high camp and hit the Escarpment AS in 40:20 (-1:20 off '12 pace?). From there, it was mostly hiking up the STEEP "trail" to the road leading to the Monument.

It was tough to keep the HR at 160 at that point, but I felt STRONG. Hit the top at 47:09.

Felt. AWESOME. Stride felt good and, the most effortless I've felt in an altitude climb. Thought that 40-minute climb was utterly sustainable. If anything, we could probably sneak out a 39:xx and still be pretty well controlled.

Jogged down w/BGD to the high country, then took the gondola down.

Long, crazy drive to SLT, good dinner of mega-burgers, then a few shitty beers at MontBleu Casino. Good talk about the race and "winning mindset".

Wore the NEW, race-day M2s.