Saturday morning I had to do another long run - so I thought I had to do 14 miles (which is the longest I have ever run) but in reality I had to do 15 miles (+ 1 if I felt good). As you can imagine I went out with the plan to run 14 miles. I wanted to run on a softer surface to give my leg a fighting chance - the Snoqualmie Valley trail that I ran a 12 mile run in the pouring rain of November - it is all gravel or very compact dirt. My only concern was if something went wrong I would have to walk a ways to get back to the car. Kyle was sweet enough to ride his mountain bike and carry water and he got to play with his new garmen forrunner 305 - so he was also able to give me my mile marks.
We started at the Farm place and since I did not want to go to far out one direction I first went to the right 2 miles and back (for 4 miles). As usual it took me a mile or so to get a rhythm going but by the 2 mile turn around I felt good - no pain - no real tightness to speak of - the hardest thing was not stopping to grab some of the ripe blackberries along the side of the trail. It actually felt like the miles ticked away rather quickly because Kyle and I chatted away about all sorts of thing and when ever I asked he told me my mileage. My first couple miles were at sub 9 min/mile pace but by mile 4 or 5 I got into a good pace of right around 9:05 min/mile pace which I was able to maintain for the next 4-5 miles.
I went out the other direction for 5 miles (or to mile 9) and headed back which was great because the trail gradually climb up and so when I turned around to go back it is all gradually downhill - a really wonderful thing. I felt good - I ate a gel every 4 miles or so, had a salt every 20 min and had some cytomax or water when I felt like it (and of course some with the gel or salt).
My left leg was gradually getting a tad tight and every once and a while my right foot would hurt but I kept going - I only walked when I ate a gel and for no longer than a minute. Even so I felt good and I was able to keep my pace under 10 min/mile. - I was actually right on my usual half marathon pace 13.1 in 2:02ish which I was very content with.
Around mile 13 my left leg started to get pretty tight but not bad enough to walk or anything - actually at 13.5ish I started to gradually pick up the pace and then at 13.75ish I really tried to pick it up so I had Kyle go out in front of me so I could see how far I had to go to hit 14 miles (like a finish line or something). I pushed myself all the way even though my leg got tighter I just ignored it (sort of) or at least kept going. In all it took me 2:09:15 and as soon as I finished my left leg hurt. Once I got home I took an ice bath, did an ice massage before going to a massage and then iced again before going to bed.
This morning I woke up stiff but no pain. We slept in till almost 9:30a (completely unheard of for me) but it was great to get so much sleep. Kyle and I eventually headed out for 70ish mile bike ride up/out to Snoqualmie Ridge. Kyle figured out a good route with lots of hill training. I was very happy that my knee did not hurt at all from the start - though my right foot did. My legs felt really heavy on the first climb up Inglewood hill but they felt better up the next one - Ames Lake Rd Hill. We just kind of cruised along - it was really nice the entire ride Kyle and I stayed mostly together - of course he would climb and descend a bit faster than me but he never had to wait to long. I was able to hold his wheel pretty well - even when we were going over 21 mph. I was actually really surprised at how well I was riding considering I ran long the day before.
We climbed up Snoqualmie Falls hill and then after a short break climbed up to the top of Snoqualmie Ridge - a very long gradual climb straight up. It seemed to go on forever - it reminded me of the Hawaii 70.3 ride. At the top we stopped at Starbucks to grab some water and a chai for Kyle and latte for me. Afterwards we got to go back down both hills and I did not use my brakes - haha.
Rather than doing the stair step climb or going back over the sammamish plateau we headed back into carnation and back towards Ames lake - then took Union hill into Redmond.. It may have been a bit shorter but way more climbing - either up or down. I was surprised at how good I still felt. Once back into Redmond we climbed up Bell-Red Road and back home but we were 2 miles short so we passes the house and actually went down a hill on 164th and had to climb back up... With a final ride time of 4:25.
I think the best part if the entire ride was that Kyle and stuck together - yeah he would pull away from me but I was never very far behind and it never seemed like he had to wait long for me to catch up or anything. I love that I'm strong enough for us to ride together - it is just way more fun to do things together. Now it is more like when we ski together :)
In other news I got my hair cut just long enough to go in a ponytale because as Kyle told me "shorter is fast" lol. I would post a picture but like so many other things (car key, cell phone) right now my camera has gone missing. In any case it is wonderful not having as much hair to deal with :)
And now Col has told me the taper begins.
No comments:
Post a Comment