June 8th, 2009
You Guys Are Weird
“You Guys Are Weird.” That’s what a runner friend of mine said when I told him that Eric Strabel and I ran a 3:13 and a 3:18 in training on Crow Pass today. He’s right.
This was by no means a time trial, but we were very interested in a killer workout and scouting the trail so that we don’t miss any turns on the unmarked course on race day. Right now it’s 7:47pm and I’m still up Crow Creek Road running the day through my head while my calf muscles are twitching in three places and I can see my pulse plain as day in both biceps. I’m so tired that it’s hard to nap. Am I questioning what this means for my body? Nope, not any more!
We were running by 9 am on a beautiful morning. Eric likes running the pass a little slower so I experimented toning it down a little, but still trying to run the entire pass. The trail steadily gains a few thousand feet in the first three miles, then has a gentle but technical down 19 miles to the Eagle River nature center.
About 8 miles from the end we ran into a group of six of our friends, and when we started running again I realized how fast we’d been moving before. Eric started pushing the pace, and I also decided to make the individual and “non-competitive” decision to race myself to the finish. After shattering our estimated 3:45, a dip in the pond below the nature center barely saved my legs from cramping and being totally unusable tomorrow.
So I think I’m actually psyched about this race now. I was 9 minutes off my race time from last year, and beat my time from two years ago by 18 minutes. The funny thing is, I don’t think I need to do any more work on cardio fitness. All that’s really left is working on making my running muscles as durable as possible through hours of technical trail running. I’m not sure how to approach this, but I guess I’l’ just focus on as many hours as possible rock hopping and pushing the speed through rocks, mud, and twisty, turny, grass-covered trail.
Meanwhile, pandora plays on my iPhone up Crow Creek Road and I’m all about my Groundation Reggae station. I’m going to get a part-time coffee job in Girdwood somewhere to keep me out of the van cave. Minimum wage, here we come!
June 9th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Weird nah?
Dr. Douglas is known as the “Jacked up old man”.
By the looks of your blog pic and stories, perhaps you should be known as “Wild eyed nature boy” eh?
Trail running and competive mtn racing is the best of the extreme hurt festivals where mind and body goes into another realm. Naturally followed by a lot of cold beer for a post work out/ race hydration.
Ahh yes those were the days, alas I can hardly run anymore the calf muscles are way too seized up from these “best practices” and training methods. I’m not sure if it was the mtn trail race running or banging out 4x 4:40 mile repeats on the track looking at the dang watch every 200 meters to see if I was on pace. (Justin Freeman you are not alone on this.)
My favorite training trail run was up Kings Peak, Utah, a 30 mile round trip run with about 5,000 vertical ft climbing. Torrie Kraftsen (U. of Utah) skier and I started upping the pace long before we should have. The wiser John Aalberg just sat back and watched the carnage unfold.
And now for some “cow poetry”….from Gary Larsen
Oh how I yearn to roam the far distant hills
Oh how I yearn to eat the lush green grass
Damn the electric fence
Damn the electric fence…..