Sunday, February 03, 2008




Great Training Run, Bad Race


Ugh. I realized two things as I was almost at the top of Kings Mountain in Huddart park 1. I definitely needed much more hill training and 2. I wasn't really over my flu. I hoped that the flu would've maybe made me a little bit lighter and thus a bit more hill-worthy. It only made me nauseous as I tried, feebly to attack the hills. T'was a shitty race for me, I came in fully a 1/2 later than I had planned on. But I think that it was a great training run. I learned more of what I need to do, and that's certainly worth something.

I rocked on the descent. It felt like old times when I used to train with Mike Duncan, George Cammorata, Amy Wang and Jake Niebaum. Mike taught me how to hammer the descents. Even with all of these off of the trail circuit I still could pass anyone I saw on the descent and no one passed me. Now if only I can translate this to the uphills....

I still enjoyed myself, the beautiful woods and the lovely, shortlived waterfalls that dotted the trail are soothing to the soul. I even liked all of the mudpuddles. I was very, very cold afterwards though, and had to escape quickly to get home for a hot bath. Also, my hands swelled up like balloons on this run. Very odd. I think it had to do with my swinging them furiously like pendulums to get me uphill. It's happened before at altitude, but nothing has ever come of it so I won't worry. Maybe a salt thing.

Next on the agenda is Skyline. That'll be 23 k. So in the upcomming weeks I'll be pounding it out hard on the hills to get some of that oxygen capacity back.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Sorry that you didn't have the run you'd hoped for, but glad that you enjoyed yourself out on the trails anyway.

My fingers often swell when I run - often it's an electrolyte thing, sometimes altitude, and sometimes I can't really determine the cause.

Take good care of yourself, and we'll see you at Skyline Ridge. Please do say 'hi' and introduce yourself to me - I'd love to put a face with a blog!

Sarah (PCTR)