View Workout (Joe Uhan)

Return to Log

Way Too Cool "9 mile"

March 7, 2015 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: beautiful! 40 -> 70F!

Comments:
Woke up around 5:40ish after a decent night's sleep on mini-mattresses in the Curley mancave. Got out the door with CA just past six, getting coffees at Depoe, en route to Cool. Parked in the gravel lot and hung out, suiting up.

Pre-race: hung out a bit at the (unauthorized) Nike Tent. Chatted with A-VarnZ and met Tim Tollefson, and used their tent to stash our stuff. Worked on CA's neck a bit, then did a little shuffle warm-up.

I wore the road N2s on the dry course, with a taped RIGHT foot (not left), but a little achilles brace-strap I picked up at ARC last night. It felt fine, so what the hell.

The idea was to run this easy and see how it went, with hopes that the running would "gently remodel" the stiff achilles.

That was not to be.

Got out EASY, as did CA. She ran alongside me for a while (I was hoping she wouldn't), so I was glad when she took off on the first bit of trail. I hung way back on the doubletrack, before finally settling in behind Kevin Sawchuk on the singletrack.

Felt...NOT great, all 'round. Achilles felt OK, then BAD, then...OK again. Legs felt like SHIT (...bike + pool + hike + blehblehbleh...), and the HR felt high with all the pollen out (gave my HRM to CA). But I hung in there.

It FINALLY, FINALLY occurred to me a huge factor in what's going on: my horrible lateral striking on the left foot. Yeah, there's a push-off problem on the right, but my extreme lateral strike on the left slams down the foot, stressing the medial lower leg, including the achilles, where it's painful. So I worked my ASS off trying to load on the first ray. Unforunately, it's too little, too late.

Hit the 8.x-mile AS around 61 or so, very easy. Spent some time drinking (took no bottles), then kept going...

My ultimate hope was that things would come around and I'd be able to hammer the second half, catch up to CA, and we'd hammer in together. But that wasn't in the cards. I made my way over to the meadow, but the heel got REALLY painful. I stopped, stretched...then bailed.

Day over.

Hiked back to the start and DNF'd.

Post-race: called my mom and sis, walked around, got some sun, then ran into Karl Hoagland, who also dropped. He and I walked back on the course to watch the finishers. CA came up from 49 AS in 7th, and I got excited and tried to run with her, but no dice. Hiked back to the start.

She did awesome: 7th place and 4:09, looking VERY strong and relaxed! Good for her! We hung out for a bit, which included a massage of my lower legs...which seemed to irritate it more! Oops.

PM: went back to the Curley's and hung out + rested, then met up with the rest of the family, then convened with BGD, BISP, Keyes and some other folks at Little Belgium.

Fun times! Really good day!