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CLR - Leg 3 (actually 4th leg, but after 2A and 2B)

July 31, 2015 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Cascade Lakes Relay!

Had sort of a clusterfuck morning: up - half hung-over - trying to pack for something I've never done - sit in a van for like 30 hours, intermittently running. Had to be at Phillip's at 6:30, so I was already short on time. Then, I couldn't find my damn GPS+HRM watch! Tore the house upside down looking for it but never found it. Damn.

CA drove me to Phil's. She was also running, but had a work meeting in the AM, so she'd have to meet us a few legs into the run. Dropped me off, I met the crew - which included the mom of South Eugene's best runner for the past 3 years (and a former patient of mine!) - and we took off toward Diamond Lake (where BGD and I camped in '13).

Got to Diamond Lake Resort around 9:30. I was pretty damn tired already: from a long week, the Beer Mile, and not much sleep the past two nights. It was already hot in the sun! Yikes! Right after we got there, the "Sole Brothers" team showed up - the fast fucking guys from Bend, which included Mario Mendoza, Ryan Bak, and EEEEEEEN. Chatted quite a bit with EEEEEEEN, who I'd recently emailed in regards to downhill running for an iRF column. Weirdly, he asked me about dating Kaci. I never found out why he asked, but we talked about the challenges of LDR's - since he LDR's his wife for a few YEARS, apparently! Huh...

Sole Bros were the defending champs and looking to break their CR from last year, which averaged 6:05 pace! Yeesh!

I'm not sure what my goal was, but I wanted to hone the threshold - tempo "grinder gear", and not blow it out too hard, or too soon. But I wanted to run fairly hard, and otherwise buoy our six-person ultra team.

The members

Phillip (48?) - a former patient of time (first for his shoulder, then for running stuff, but I haven't seen him as a patient in maybe 3 years). Real good guy. He was the captain, and who asked me to join the team - first in June, then a couple times in July
Megan Banks (48?) - mom of another South Eug runner (Adrian? Can't really remember her). While older, apparently she won a big regional triathlon a few weeks previous, so offical bad-ass
Danette Bloomer (48?) - mom of Reilly Bloomer, Oregon's 2014 track 3K and cc state champion. Major bad-ass
Jason Tavikovian (48? seriously...they were all like nearly 50) - hand orthopedist at Slocum Center. Runner and cyclist. Didn't seem like much, but holy balls was he fast and tough!
Callie Alice (24- LOLZ) - eye candy - sweetheart of the team, and by far the youngest, but not short on toughness

So we had a good crew! The relay was 216.6 miles - ALL at altitude (4k-7k) and with some good ups and downs. The average distance was about 36 miles per runner, but word was that CA and I would get a little extra....

The race starts with a lap around Diamond Lake - flat but rolling, all bike path. Megan led off and ran close to 8-low pace - solid opening lap, given how many legs we had to run. Jason ran next, which hopped on some dusty, sandy single- and double-track, cutting east and south toward Crater. Not until later did I realize how hard he ran this, which included like 500' of climbing. Then Phil ran a downhill leg on the same sandy shit. All the legs were between 6-8 miles.

Then it was my turn.

It was legitimately hot at the time, but bearable since there were intermittent clouds. But I rolled with an ice bandana, anyway. While waiting in the woods, off a dirt road, ready to roll along the soft, dusty, doubletrack, I got to hear Ryan Bak spew horseshit excuses as to why he dropped from Western:

"Well...I started cramping and the terrain was tough...and I ran past the aid station [Robinson Flat], but I had like 70 miles to go...so I turned back......it was a good learning experience, I learned a lot!"

No mention of him running outrageously fast for 30 miles and otherwise being an idiot...

One of my #1 goals - albeit arbitrary - was to NEVER be passed all day. This could be tough, since the Sole Brothers started 20 minutes behind us and, at some point, would blow past. As it turned out, I was teamed up against EEEN for a 7.x miles. I told him straight up that I'd be "pehssssd" if he passed me, so it was my good fortune that his team came into the exchange about 20-30 seconds before ours! Yeesh! They made up 20 minutes in like...under 20 miles!

When I got the "wristband", I tried to maintain contact with EEEN on the real light, gradual downgrade along a dusty, soft, sandy doubletrack, but he got around a few corners and before I knew it, he was gone. I was using CA's garmin watch and had no idea what my pace was, but I allowed my HR to gradually ramp from 130 to 160 and was happy to see some low-6 splits on the watch, despite the shitty footing the resulting in slaloming between sides of the trail, looking for solid ground.

Passed a handful of folks along the way. The big deal in relay races is "kills": how many people you pass. Well...that's cool, but...it doesn't seem like many people chart "got killed"! For a while, I counted my kills. I got a good 3-4 on the 4+ miles of dirt before the dirt ceded to the straight-shot pavement of OR 138.

I thought the soft dirt sucked. Then I got on the road. TIGHT shoulders with big-ass campers and cars flying by. "And the HEAT, my GOD, the HEAT!". This section was exposed and hot as fuck. I felt slow as shit. EEEEN was long-gone, although the visibility was like a mile ahead. I just focused on awesome form, including:

- compact, strong hips
- quick turnover
- "flick and pull"
- forward trunk
- quick arms

The HR was really starting to spike, and it was hard to keep it under 170! The splits continue to be like low to mid 6s as the road leveled out, but I was feeling the effort. Then, just maybe a quarter mile from the exchange, I "felt" a guy closing in! WTF? So I picked it up a bit. He must've felt my movement because he didn't challenge and stayed maybe 50m behind.

As it turns out, this was by far the closest time - the only time - I'd be challenged the rest of the race. Wasn't even close (that I knew of).

Passed the bracelet off to Danette in 50:04 for 7.71 miles. HR probably was like 165 average.

Post: CA was there, good to see her. Felt pretty damn cooked. Then, it was the start of a routine:

- get some water
- change clothes
- refill the ice bandana
- lay down and rest a bit

One down, "five" to go!

Start: ~1PM