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Lake Sonoma 11.7

April 9, 2016 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: humid, overcast and foggy, but not too cold (HOT while running)

Comments:
Pretty solid day. I slept fantastic, and we got up and out without much trouble. After the usual "uphill warm-up & deuce", CA and I rendezous'd with her mom for crew stuff, then hit the line.

It felt GREAT to have a number on and toeing a line. I almost felt like I could "give it a push!"

But it didn't take long after the start to realize I was NOT ready. I hung in OK with the also-rans as the front end of the field (about 16 guys) pulled away on the road. I muddled around with Karl Melzer and Paul Terranova on the road rollers. Both guys (read: the ENTIRE goddamn field) ran stronger on the ups, but I let go easier on the steep downs, which kept us even.

So 2.5 in, when we hit the trail, I was just behind Paul, and in front of Karl and Jesse Haynes. Look about a minute before Karl was asking to pass. He just FLOATED away. SO efficient! Both he and Paul has super-light cadences, but Karl was masterful on the downs. REALLY impressive.

I did my best to hang with those guys, but I was soon red-lining on the rollers. I fell back at the water stop, where at that point I KNEW it was going to be a short day. The foot was basically fine, but it was like, "What am I DOING?". "WHY run 50?". Yeah, I could gut out a finish, feel terrible, burn (at least one) match, but for what? Worthless.

So I set off to call it at Warm Springs. Good thing, because I had to WORK to stay in front of goddamn KacR and the rest of the trail pack of women. Camille Herron was a GIGANTO-idiot and in the top ten overall, while YiOu Wang (with a messed up R push-off) had pushed past me about six miles in.

I pushed along, see-sawing with Karl, who kept having random issues (iPod, "bug in my eye"), but he'd always float right past me!

So, I pushed and grinded, trying to be form focused:

- knees out ("The BD")
- pelvis left, trunk right
- strong feet
- strong shoulder blades
- "fast triad"

Stride felt good, but I just had NO fitness, and was damn tired.

Got to Warm Springs just behind YiOu in 1:32. A later check revealed that in 2013, I ran there in 1:24:30!! Dear Lord, and "feeling good and running smart", too!

I immediately dropped, touched base with Charlotte, changed...then spent the rest of the day crewing for CA!

Brief summary:
- solid 1:45 through Warm Springs
- SHAKEY (with hip pain) in 4:00 at halfway. Had to work on her hip for 5min at the AS
- slightly better at Madrone 2 (5hr)
- BETTER at Warm Springs 2 (6.5? 7hrs?)
- GREAT at the finish, just over 9hrs.

Post-race: hung out with folks, including our EUG crew. CA was in good shape: no limping or major malaise. She just didn't have the "grind gear" developed yet.

PM: cleaned up at our place, had a nice group at Bear Republic for beers and apps, which included the Curley Bros and the Salomon contingent. ALMOST had a long, awesome convo with Matt Flaherty about his Ultrarunning article comparing Ian Torrance and Koop (it's clear that he was very skeptical of Koop).

We wound up eating at this great BBQ place to wrap up the night, and we finally said goodbye to Hegge, who was road-tripping (roundabout) home to Wisconsin.

Good day. Fun, but once again, annoying to not race and not be ready. But worth noting:

- Flaherty ran VERY mediocre (like around 7) for his ability. I was talking about my status (healthy but out of shape). I asked him, "if you were to go on like a 40-minute tempo, what would you do?"

His response: "5:15 pace".

That's DAMN NEAR what it takes to compete. Except if you have aerobic fitness, efficiency and tactics, you can get away with 5:30-5:45 fitness-- and do really well, actually (as I did in '13). But that's what you need! Gotta be able to grind!!