Usually when I’m training for a race, I dream about those
last two weeks of the training schedule, the taper. After hitting a peak of high mileage, those
short runs at the end, and the extra days off seem like a mini-vacation before
the race. But the reality is, I can
never fully enjoy the taper – whether it’s withdrawal, or an irrational fear
that my hard earned fitness is slowly deflating, or like this time around,
anxiety for the unknown that awaits me this weekend, the taper weeks are always
a drag.
My original plan was to run the North Face Endurance
Challenge 50 miler in December, but I waited just a bit too long to commit to
the race and when I went to sign up, it was full. I had already been training for a couple
months, so I found another race, the San Diego 50 Miler in January, and signed
up immediately. This would give me a
chance to see my brother and his girlfriend’s new place in Escondido, take the
family to my old college stomping grounds, and give me an additional month and
a half to train. With five road
marathons under my belt (four in the past year), it felt like it was time to
see if I could go further. Plus, I was
getting a little bored running on pavement, and the idea of exploring the
trails around Mount Diablo sounded intriguing.
Now that the race is just three days away, I know I should
just trust in my training, but there is just so much uncertainty to stay calm
and confident this time around. My
longest training run was the Lake Folsom 50K in November, and I actually came
in third overall. I ran that race like a
marathon though, going out a bit too fast and paying for it through the last
few miles. Even though technically it is
an ultra, I didn’t really feel like that gave me credibility to claim I’ve
completed an ultra.
The bulk of my training took place in the hills around
Concord and Walnut Creek. All of my
medium training runs of at least six miles were either in the hills of Lime
Ridge or Shell Ridge, and all included as many hills as I could get in. I ran the hills as much as I could, and even
though I plan to walk some hills in San Diego, I figured running would give me
a better base of fitness. My long runs
were pretty much exclusively on Mount Diablo, through Castle Rock. It’s about four and a half miles to get to
the entrance of Castle Rock from my house, but there’s something about stepping
out of my door for a run without having to get into a car that I enjoy. The summit of Mount Diablo is twelve miles
away, so I’ve been doing summit runs from my house for a few months now. The summit elevation is 3800 feet, so I feel
like I’m pretty well prepared for the 5500 feet of elevation gain over 50 miles
in San Diego. The peak of my training included
two 28 mile runs (I included the North Summit and a few hundred feet elevation
gain) within six days of each other. I
survived it all, but still, this anxiety won’t quit.
I went out for a two mile run this evening, and began
wondering about that tug in my Achilles, and that ache in the arch of my foot,
and the general sluggishness I feel this week after fighting a cold and going
back to work. I also woke up with a
pinched nerve in my back last week, but that has abated and hopefully won’t
return. It’s not exactly that I doubt
myself because I learned in my training, that when it comes down to it, I’m a
pretty resilient mofo. One of those
Mount Diablo summit runs was done in the morning, and when I left my house in
the 6am darkness in shorts and a long sleeve shirt, it was in the
twenties. Things didn’t improve much
higher up on the mountain with the ice on the trail and the wind kicking
up. But I made it through that run, and
even took an ice bath afterwards.
But I do wonder about everything out of my control, or
forgetting something, or realizing I actually over-trained and am injured. I think it’s all part of the process, but
I’ll feel a lot better when I’m toeing that starting line Saturday morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment