Am I peaking?

I’ve been having pretty good runs lately. On Wednesday I ran to the gym (3.5M), did a quick 15 min upper body weights, hit the spin class, did 15 min on legs and ran back home – I was pressed for time that morning. But then in afternoon I drove from work to Tryon park and had a hard-paced 10 miles on trails. It was a blast. I also had some thoughts to sort through, and running always helps out with it.
Then today I was meeting Gail at her work place for a Forest park run. Gail is great, but has been overwhelmingly busy with her job lately and most of her training besides weekends runs was happening at the gym. I said it looks like she is used to this routine and her body is not getting challenge. So I made her post on a refrigerator my proposed schedule. And kept nagging every day on what’s happening and how she feels. So she made herself to go and run on treadmill last night at 8 pm! Telling you, guilt is good in nice doses. Today we were going for an 8 miler with second half at tempo pace. We had to sit in the car for 10 min waiting for the light to come, and then hit the first climb. It’s a 1M uphill connecting to the main Wildwood, it was good for a warm up and great to think about on the way back. We talked about the latest and exchanged gossips, and as we got to the turn-around, I said – it’s not the pace, it’s the effort – and went on. My legs were quite heavy after yesterday, but I won’t lie to you, way back had been mostly flat with slight declines and only couple of small climbs and a couple of inclines. I kept telling myself I basically only have to work for less than 3 miles and then meet a good downhill home stretch. So I did. There were people walking their dogs by that time, and I stopped for a second twice when dogs (friendly) jumped on me, but other than that I bit my lips and hassled. Since we did the first part in 41 min, I wanted to come under 35, 32 min if possible. Last downhill came, but my quads felt like mush, and I simply tried to maintain instead of picking up. But nevertheless I was excited to see 30 min at the car! I quickly changed before getting chilly and just as was about to walk up, saw gail coming. Woo-hoo, 33 min!!! What I told her, and she said how nice to get an encouraging word from a partner. She did awesome! Gail has 3 major races on her agenda for this year: Peterson Ridge 60k on April 10, Miwok 100k on May 5, Leadville 100M on August 20 (she is a Leadville veteran and it’s her favorite). So those first two are exactly a week later from my goal races, what means we can train together. I predict great times for her this year, yeah! And she’ll pace me at WS100 and may be even at AC100!

I am getting nervous for the Hagg Lake 50k next weekend. Even though it’s a trial race (what means what? Not a training run but not all-out race?), wearing Montrail shirt puts on pressure. How do I approach it? This and a following weeks are my peak mileage/training hard weeks for the Rucky Chucky, so I won’t be rested. Granted, last year when I did this race, I wasn’t racing it either, I was in the midst of my training, having done a double of 50k/marathon on previous weekend and having my compartment syndrome at its’ worse. I am sure Rob remembers how I stopped and walked half of the first loop around the lake and was crying from pain, not talking and not been myself. After this excruciating experience I finally went to John and he started to work on this chronic injury (and made it stay at bay!). I posted 5:19 for this race last year. The course is not bad at all, the biggest climb comes on the first 1.5M road spur, and then it’s all rolling trails, but nothing too serious. In fact, it’s a very runnable course, what is not my strongest part – I usually say I am a great power hiker and a downhiller combo, not a runner. Despite been a local race, it’s very competitive, lots of good runners come, and it’s also the first in Oregon trail ultra series. I am eager to see all I’ve missed though, that’s for sure. Whether running or volunteering, many come to Hagg. Hey, I also get to meet Darcy-Ironayla!

One more easy run for today – 1 hr, like the “relaxed pace” part of it! – and off for tomorrow. I am sleeping in! No alarm till 7 am! Boy, I miss not caring for when to get up, I don’t even remember when did I have it last time – like in high school? But then I had to go to school. So when? I always worked summers…man, I need a vacation on an island with nobody around and nothing to do, for may be whole 2 days (before I get bored). Anybody?