Road Racing and Training Thread Week Ending 23 Oct 2016

Consistency, the effort was similar at the beginning but hard to gauge in the race. There was so much climbing and technical stuff that I was just focused on maintaining 3:3 breathing which is my test for whether I'm aerobic or not. A couple times I backed off when I found myself upping to 2:3 but was good otherwise. I pushed a bit harder on the downhill than maybe I should have, when it felt easy, and in the last 3 miles my legs started to feel dead. I never felt that fatigue in training so I'd like to get there again and work on that. I've run marathons in the past and this was so different because the types of effort varied so much throughout the race depending on where in the race (early, mid, late), the terrain (smooth, rocky, dirt, mowed weeds, boulders), and the slope... I think more fast finish long runs would have helped me. And for the record, I'm very happy about the race and the result. My last race was a 19:15 road 5k back in 2003. I'm far ahead of that right now!

Second time running R2R2R for me, first double crossing was almost exactly 2 years ago to the day. First trip was fairly smooth as I ran with a group that took it extremely easy (well one guy had to drop at the North Rim and catch the shuttle back) and, while I didn't specifically train for it, I was running fairly big ~100 mile weeks leading into it.

I've been wanting to drop back into the ditch again starting two days after that first trip but something always seemed to get in the way. As most people know there's a pretty limited window of time to realistically make it happen, notably October to early November and again in mid April to mid May. About a month ago I decided this fall it needed to happen and two weeks ago I was looking at my calendar and realized this weekend was the only opportunity I'd have this year as I'm booked through end of November. As a result I put word out and a friend that had never made the trip before jumped aboard and we set out for the double cross.

I should add neither of us were very well "trained" for this. I have spent some decent time off due to some injuries and had only been back building volume for the past 4 or 5 weeks (save the stupid comments, I never claimed to be smart) and he, although having ran numerous 50s and 100s, has been pretty limited on training lately due to some new work assignments.

Originally I'd planned to go South Kaibab, North Kaibab, Bright Angel but last minute we decided to just go BA-NK-BA as logistically it's a bit simpler. Stayed in Williams Friday night and made the trip to the South Rim at 4am Saturday morning. Aside from nearly creaming a bull elk at 80mph the drive was pretty uneventful but did see a number of shooting stars from the meteor shower. Kind of cool in such a dark sky area. Hit Bright Angel trailhead at 5:15am and set off. I should also add that I managed to leave my headlamp on the bed of the hotel in Williams so I was relegated to following my friend and using the light on my iPhone, thankfully we only had an hour of dark to navigate.

Trip down BA was fairly straightforward and before we knew it we were at Indian Garden campground, chugging our way towards the river and Phantom Ranch. My friend was still leading the way, which in hindsight wasn't the best idea from a pacing standpoint, and within no time we hit Phantom Ranch. Topped off water and then headed into the Box and eventually hit the climb into the North Rim.

When we got to Pump House I made comment that it was the last availability for water as Supai was shut off but he either didn't hear me or didn't put it all together and we just skipped it, venturing upward. By the time we hit Supai he made mention that he was pretty much dry and that there was no water there which reinforced that he just didn't hear my instruction back at Pump House...I'm a terrible troop leader apparently. Continued slogging our way up and finally, after what always seems like forever, hit the North Rim and thankfully the coldest water in the world. Topped off, spent a few minutes taking photos and eating food, and then set back downward toward the river again.

Trip down was pretty straightforward and we were still feeling pretty decent, especially considering what was already behind us. By the time we got to the Box again our pace was slowing but still clicking along decently. Somehow around 8 miles out from Phantom Ranch I ended up leading and I was feeling really good so I just started clicking off miles without paying much attention. About a mile out from the ranch I got word that my friend was toast, a result of me cruising a bit too fast. Oops.

Stopped at Phantom Ranch for a long rest aided by lemonade (best lemonade ever) and hung out for probably 45 minutes so my friend could recover a bit. Once he was able to get back to his feet we set out to cover the final 10 miles and climb out of that hole via Bright Angel once again. Needless to say it was an absolute crawl over the last 10 miles. I'd like to say I was capable of cruising it still and I probably could have but he was struggling and I wasn't going to argue with taking it easy.

Finally around 6pm we peered back over the rim and called it a day at the trailhead. Skipped the finishing photo and headed over to Maswick Lodge to recover with some pizza, coke, and beers.

Heading back in the spring for SK-NK-SK. :)

CanadianRunnin - Good luck with your regional meet next week.

paleale - Nice week getting your feet back under you. Biggest thing is just not to push it.

Smoove - I feel you on the enjoyment of getting back in shape. Stay healthy

cogs - Nice week, I like the fartleks

Niceguy542007 - Solid week. When does your taper start?

RuppNado - Welcome. Any upcoming goals?

consistency - the foot does appear to be on the mend. Thanks for asking. Enjoy your time of unstructured training

IllinoisRunner - Take it easy this coming week and be mentally prepared to grind at sectionals.

working harder - Wow, R2R2R sounds awesome.

team1 - 30k trail race also sounds like a lot of fun.

Nice trip report! It does seem like these kind of adventures always have a few odd pop ups (light, water, etc.). My own attempt was on a ridiculously hot day in late April. And the final push up the south rim was super long (and involved a couple naps).

But it sounds like it was a fun trip. And maybe a good recon/planning for spring.

Yeah, it was pretty warm this time around too. Start at BA was low 50 and rolling through the box saw low to mid 90s.

Best of luck to Myles Splitz at his marathon in Dublin tomorrow