Training Log Archive: JonD

Event: DVOA Fall Orienteering Festival
 

Stone Mill 50M - confirmed

weather cloudy in the 50's. ate a piece of toast before start and no coffee. wore shorts, compression sleeves on shins and arm sleeves w/ a compression t shirt and regular t shirt, camelback w/ 8 gus, winter hat, montrail shoes. the shoes are a bit worn and size 11 would have been better for this race. the start is a high school parking lot at 6Am. total darkness b/c no moon. A little chilly and no inside shelter before start. fortunately is was not raining. "go" called out right at 6, no fanfare. a lot of runners joking and talking w/ each other. one loop around the school and into the woods for 2.5 mile up and back and down muddy branch trail. started at the back of the pack at a super easy pace. talked to a few other runners, one who had an "umstead 100" shirt. he said it was an NC race w/ multiple 12 mile loops and great food. didn't carry a flashlight b/c so many others had them. started out by hiking the uphills and pretty much stuck with that approach. ate and drank at aid stations w/out much thought to what they had. some really nice stream bottom scenery along the way. lots of large boulders also. nice yellows and browns in the leaves. forced the gu each hour at first and then more often as needed when I felt tired or lightheaded. very stiff for first 3 three hours, particularly thigh muscles, but loosened up after 18 miles. tylenol helped here. although I hiked the hills i was often moving fast enough to pass one or two on the uphill. often had the trail to my self after the first few hours too. mile 25 was a great aid station right before the tow path. someone filled my camelback for me. ran the towpath at easy 9 min pace, and stopped for a few walk breaks. at mile 28 there was another great rest stop w/ drop bags. found that i could sit and change my sox and re-tape my feet w/out discomfort on getting up. noticed upon starting up again that the garmin had stopped recording due to auto-stop and missed about 3 miles. restarted it but couldn't figure out how to take that setting off for the moment. remembered it later. for the next several miles I felt great and kept up a steady pace. really didn't feel any fatigue and continued only nose-breathing. at a few spots I felt tired and took another gu and was back w/in minutes.
I was pleased w/ this finish. really enjoyed the day and came in well under the cut off and before dark.
what worked:
- hiking the hills. I am a pretty strong hiker and I was passing people on the hills, but hiking them really conserved energy.
- carrying water in camel back and drinking whenever I felt tired or thirsty;
- 16 gus. didn't eat them all but choked one per hour for first 3 hours and more by feel thereafter - usually 2 or 2.5 average per hour. I also ate a luna bar at mile 13 and at various stops a couple pretzels and several cups of gatorade and a ginger ale.
- taking 2 tylenol at mile 18. I don't like doing this but I was really stiff in the legs for the first 3 hours, and this helped. after that I warmed up significantly and felt like I really wasn't going to get tired.
- taking it easy and not looking at the mileage or the pace, just the time of day
- enjoying the scenery
- all combined I really didn't get tired until about 330 when i had only a few miles to go

C • Way to Go! 2

some leg lifts and presses did more to restore the feeling of energy in my legs than anything else in the last 2 weeks. the key is to keep the weights low enough to avoid muscle soreness or injury.