Frosted Flake Out

It doesn’t matter if it a low-key race, if you are training through, or if it is a flat course. A marathon is still a marathon, no matter the pace. So as much as I downplayed the Akasia 3-in-1 race, I still ran easy the day before and ate well. I spent Saturday drinking lots of water and avoiding the BBQ and margaritas. I was ready to run a solid marathon on Sunday. The problem was, the race was on Saturday.

I don’t know why I thought it was on Jan. 23rd. Everything I had done to prepare for this race told me it was Sunday. Every conversation I had implied the race was on this day. Why, oh why, was this race Saturday morning? People kept asking me how the race went and I was totally confused. But sure enough, Saturday morning had come and gone, and I missed it. For the first time in my life, I accidentally missed a race.

Bitter about my stupidity, I played some cards with friends and went home, determined to get in a long run in the morning. It was about 10pm. If I were racing I would have been in bed earlier. I would have risen at 4 to drive to the race. I rose at 7. It was pouring rain. I did not want to get out there, wet and miserable, chaffing the whole way. So I waited it out. The rain finally ceased around 830 and off I went, ignoring Sarah’s pleas to take money for drinks. I just left.

By 3 miles, the sun was wide open and toasting me. No, I didn’t bring sunscreen. I was baking. I turned at 10 miles and started to come back, taking in a Gu I had shoved in my shorts. But this route had 3 category 5 hills on it, and soon I started to suffer. When you go to a race, you rest well, hydrate well, wake early, eat smart, get in the mindset, and have thousands of people pulling you along with water stops every 2k. When you flake out, you struggle to get up, eat a bowl of Frosted Flakes, take no water, and begin a death march to the end. I nearly walked on a massive hill at 14 miles. But mile 19 was where I truly gained humility. I hit the wall and it was a miserable crawl to home.

Another crappy result from bonking is the soreness and depleted feeling for days after. I really screwed this up. If I had raced, I would have coasted a nice 3:20 and been running a day later. Now I was hating moving. But I rallied and went to running club on Thursday with an extra day off. Toeing the line in the time trial I was ready to run smart, backing off on the early hills and bringing it home on the 2nd lap. A 31 min effort would have been fine. But I cruised the first lap and found myself easily in front and finished in control for a 29:57 8k. It was my 3rd fastest time for the horribly hard course, yet a relatively ‘easy’ effort. Even some good can come from flaking out.

Consistency is Key

Vacations are never good, for running that is. Let me draw a picture of my typical vacation: A long flight (no sleep, little liquid, massive time zone shift, losing a day to travel), staying up later than normal, getting up later than normal, eating out all the time (big breakfast, pizzas, burgers), drinking more (and we still aren’t talking about water), seeing the sights, justifying a break. Well, not all of that sounds too bad. But what is missing? Oh yes, running. Running on vacation sucks.

Here is what it looks like for me: After a long day getting somewhere, I grab a beer or two. I am already dehydrated. I have eaten crappy food all day and now it is very late. I wake up later than I want to find I am hungry from the lack of good food. It is usually humid/hot out, so rather than run I eat and try to find drinkable water. When I do, I plan the activities I want to do. Of course, by the time those wrap up, I am dehydrated again and it is too hot to go. So I take the day off. But my evening consists of beers, bad food, and staying up late again, of course.

What usually happens is I suffer through a run in hotter weather than usual, run shorter than usual, at a slower pace than usual. I run maybe every other day but it is not unusual to take 2-3 days in a row off. My fitness suffers and it takes weeks to return to a solid schedule. But not this time! I was gone for 12 days and ran 10 of them. I did hour efforts in the sun. I cruised down a trail or along a lagoon and closed in the 5:40s for the last mile several times. It has made all the difference.

The down side is I am tired. I did a 20 miler two weeks ago and I paid for it. Despite the fact that I ran it slow with water, it took a week to feel ok again and I have been tired. I threw down 8x300m on a hill this week and realized I can still turn and burn. Not to mention you are looking at the league champs in sand-beach volleyball! I will run a tune-up marathon nice and easy Sunday morning to set me up for Pietermaritzburg at the end of February. This will be a PR attempt to go into Ultra season on a high.