Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

Street Scramble Seattle Ultra, 6hr category. An event reminiscent of the venerable Seattle Night & Day of yesteryear. Usually 10mph is a good baseline for my 3hr Street Scrambles, so for this one I projected I could cover ~55 miles given the expected physicality (hills) and slowness (traffic, stoplights) of the terrain, plus natural degradation in performance - but balanced somewhat by lower density of checkpoints.

I ended up covering 59 miles, though to be fair I was overtime for the final two - so if we knock it down to 57 my projection was nearly bang-on. I could slowly see my pace falling behind 10mph as things progressed:

1st hr: 57:17
2nd: 1:10:04
3rd: 1:03:17
4th: 1:10:40
5th: 1:01:37

However, this occurred mainly due to external factors rather than natural fatigue, which means that either I paced myself well or I am a tremendous machine. The main culprits here were Discovery Park (much walking/carrying of bike on steep and/or non-bike-friendly trails) in Hour 2, and slogging through the morass of downtown Seattle (uphill to boot) plus two time-intensive off-bike forays in Hour 4.

Route: 33 - 58 - 34 - 37 - 93 - 32 - 95 - 57 - 31 - 55 - 83 - 97 - 82 - 91 - 59 - 31 - 102 - 79 - 101 - 64 - 48 - 103 - 42 - 68 - 78 - 77 - 67 - 104 - 47 - 75 - 62 - 66 - 41 - 65 - 44 - 45 - 38 - 105 - 106 - 69 - 76 - 107 - 73 - 71 - 43 - 46 - 61 - 72 - 109 - 49 - 108 - 39 - 51 - 94 - 87 - 99 - 88

I couldn't figure a way to reasonably incorporate 63 and 74, so I basically left them out of the plan (as a possible out-and-back from 92). My fatal mistake was leaving 94 with about 40min to go, and heading toward 87-99-88, when I should have cut those out and instead could have conceivably achieved the 53-96-86-52-85-54-92-84-36-35 grouping in the same timeframe, and without being six minutes overtime. As it happened, I reached 88 with a paltry nine minutes to spare, so I had to do a 4.5-mile sprint down to the BG and back to base, wasting my nine minutes and incurring six penalty minutes. Ironically, my last three miles were my fastest three, and at 2:39 my 59th and final mile was my fastest one.

I provisioned myself thusly:
(1) bottle water w/Nuun added, carried on-bike; flavor Tri-Berry
(1) 20oz Gatorade, carried in mini-pack; flavor Fruit Punch ("Red")
(1) sandwich, carried in mini-pack; flavor peanut butter and raspberry jelly
(1) pack Sport Beans, carried in mini-pack; flavor Lemon Lime
(1) GU Roctane: carried in mini-pack; flavor Sea Salt Chocolate

My provisions were consumed thusly:
Water bottle: various/continuous; strategic replenishment at the Ballard Locks; water supplies exhausted ~4:45
Gatorade: ~2:42
Sandwich: ~2:50
Sport Beans: ~5:30
GU: N/A

I was pleasantly surprised at how well my energy held out, such that I didn't need the GU (nor were the Sport Beans strictly necessary, but they tasted good) and my legs are currently not as tired as expected. The power of a PB&J should always be respected. No doubt the weather accounted for my low rate of fluid loss; the day was ideally cool and mostly overcast with even a small rainshower.

This is definitely NOT any kind of God Mode test-running for any event(s) that may or may not be on Wednesday, and even if it was I would definitely NOT tell anyone anything about it. I would especially NOT tell anyone that I am pleased with the lengthiness, physicality, and technicality of the course(s). I would also NOT tell anyone about how in my own mind I AM a course-setting deity.

#Murica



- First American world title in the steeplechase since 1952
- Coburn took five seconds off her PR
- Frerichs took FIFTEEN seconds off her PR

C • Steeplechase 6

Haven't done much in the past week or so because things have been weird. Last week I was feeling super tired and muscles were achy, so I probably had a minor flu virus or some such. Feeling better now, but the heat is sapping my desire to train, and besides which Seattle's air quality is very poor right now because of smoke from the BC fires. There's an advisory against "prolonged or heavy exertion" and there are lots of very sensational headlines like "Seattle air quality worse than Los Angeles, Beijing, Kolkata." Finally, my calves have been inordinately, regular-walking-is-painful sore for the past three days after running on Saturday.

My next goal race is the Classic Champs in November. Hopefully if I train well as planned I can exert a modicum of pressure on Gregory and keep him from being too comfortable on Day 2 and cakewalking away with it :)

C • #5 2

C • BC Fires 38