Tapering: what to do?

I'm pretty good about not running too much when I'm tapering, but my body does tend to go a little crazy. I always feel fine in the weeks leading up to a race, and then all of a sudden one or two completely bizarre things hurt, seemingly out of nowhere...? Taper week usually means lots of rolling, icing and trying to stay away from googling different word strings that usually end with "pain," or "treatment."

So, now in a period without much running until Sunday, I get to fill my time with other activities. Like:

• A "short and mellow" trail run which really was neither that short, nor that mellow

• Organizing race food

Yes, she DID separate them by brand

• Building the first ever Lego Friends Ultra Aid Station (OK, OK, Lily built it...)

Take note RDs: no tortillas! 

• Listening to the latest Ultrarunnerpodcasts with Stephanie Howe and Nick Clark

• Watching Timmy Olson grunt. No, seriously, see the 5:14 mark

• Breaking in new race-day kicks

Fourth pair of Pearl Izumi Trail N2 shoes

Best of luck to everyone running Saturday and Sunday!

Sweeping at Chuckanut

Yesterday I was introduced to a whole new concept in distance running: total events completed.

Stan Kakashima is in his early 60s. He's been running marathons since 1980 and ultras since the mid '80s. He did Wasatch 100 in 1987. Yesterday, with a bum hamstring, he swept Chuckanut. Again. For the 10th time. It was interesting to hear him speak about the local and national people who hold records for most marathon and ultra event finishes. Stan says he's up to ~375, and wants to get to 400. He also volunteers at many races in the area and I hope to see him again in the future.

He'll be at Greenlake on Saturday; please cheer him on if you're there. As the sweeping coordinator described him to me, "He's a 60+ Asian man who likes 40, and he'll be wearing a windbreaker held together with safety pins."

Anita also swept the whole course while Big Steve and Andy did the first and last 10 miles with us. There are a lot of ultra finishes among that group.

The sweeping itself was promised to be a long day and it didn't disappoint: over nine hours. But the rain didn't come until the last hour and it was good to be on my legs literally all day, even if it was a lot of standing and walking. There were a few drops at various aid stations, but we only had to cut off one runner. It was clear she was not yet ready for a trail 50k, but she made it 21 miles and was doing her best. She cried, but hopefully she'll be back out at another ultra soon.

Early in the day.

Chuckanut Ridge trail; doing the course made me want to race here again.

The wind took out a few aid station pop-up tents.

Looping around toward Chinscraper.

Coming to appreciate flags you can just pull out or well-tied ribbon slipknots.

The week totaled out to 65.2m, just what I was hoping for. Now for a bit of a taper heading into Gorge.

Spring?

Gorgeous outside today. So why did we do this yesterday?

Thanks to Adam for helping me out of a bad patch midway through. I felt like I was in a Snickers commercial, or something, but soup, coke and M&Ms from End of the Line turned it all around to finish off the last ten miles in "mental callousing" weather.

Other stuff:

• Gorge on March 30 means I'm trying to do two good weeks before taking a little taper. This week worked out to 67 miles and I'll shoot for 60-65m this coming week as well, which will include another 50k on Saturday at... 
• ...Chuckanut, where I'll be sweeping. Should be a nice, long time-on-legs day to do a low-impact 50k. Good luck to everyone running, especially "Cousin" Ben! 
• Plain went from 15 entrants to 26 in one week. 
• Tried one of these yesterday and really liked it: PocketFuel. A bit spendy to buy the small ones, but a big 20oz pouch to refill a soft flask seems like a decent idea. Or, make Nutella a bit more viscous?  

February

That was a quick month...

192.5 miles - 24,700'+ gain

North shore in the snow

A snowy day with a little bit of everything and I finally tested out my new Salomon 12L pack for the first time.

Powerline

Lower Skyline

Getting pretty deep at 2800' on Skyline

Time to head down; about 10" of powder

All clogged up, back at the bottom of Skyline

A very quiet day along the Baden Powell

Top of St. George's, looking down

Mountain Highway

Lynn Loop

I'll have mine...Plain

I'm extremely excited to be registered for the Plain 100. Thanks RD Chris!

Diez Vista 50k course

Man. The Diez Vista trail always kicks my ass.

I get used to classifying the north shore as technical, and then I hit those three miles of Diez Vista and I feel like I've never run on a trail before. Granted, running is a generous term for the near-death stumbling I end up doing.

And besides that section, most of the Diez Vista 50k course is very reasonable: quite a few miles of smooth dirt roads, ~13 miles of buffed gravel walking trails and some really fun, slightly-technical single track. I did make one wrong turn, but my mileage and elevation ended up being the same as is officially listed.

On race day I will be marshaling at the junction of the Academy Trail and the Eagle Bluff trail. It's easy, turn left when you go up and turn left when you go down (just think of NASCAR).

Pictures of almost all of the trails the course uses:

Sassamat Lake trail; miles 0-2 and the final mile.

Sassamat Lake, looking toward Sugar Mountain and the Diez Vistas ridge (l).

A rocky section of the Suger Mountain trail toward Diez Vistas; mile 4.

Beginning of the upper Diez Vistas trail; mile 5.

Diez Vistas trail; mile 5.

The down portions are just as steep; mile 5.

Diez Vistas; mile 6.

Diez Vistas; mile 6.

Buntzen Lake trail, pretty much like this on both sides of the lake; miles 7-15.

Academy Trail from Powerhouse Road toward the Eagle Bluff trail; miles 17-18.

Eagle Bluff trail; mile 19

The road from Eagle Bluff trail toward the aid station and turnaround of the out-and-back section; miles 20-25.

South side of Buntzen, miles 12 and 27.

Lower Diez Vista trail back up to the Sugar Mountain trail junction; mile 27.

Down, a little up and then down to Sassamat and the finish; Sugar Mountain trail, mile 28.

Lastly, the classic Diez Vista vista. 

January and new gear

Adding Gorge Waterfalls 100k at the end of March to my schedule maybe was a bit earlier than I anticipated in stepping up to a long run, but there generally seemed like a lack of 50-mile races in the spring for the Pacific Northwest. At least a few good friends also are signed up, which will help make the 4am start less of a zombie march.

Having a race in about seven weeks also means trying to put together some solid weeks of running a month earlier than I originally planned when I was only running Miwok in May.

Here's what I did over the first six weeks of the year:

Adam and I even got in a semi-proper hills workout over the weekend. Both Gorge and Miwok have many more miles of runnable terrain than I'm used to:

And what's a new year without some new gear? I grabbed a pair of Hoka Rapa Nui Trail 2 shoes. They are buttery smooth and very cushioned, but obviously feel quite large upon first wear. At some point I'll do a  thorough review of them, as well as a Salomon S-Lab 12L pack I got that I plan on using for longer adventures in the mountains.

Hoka One One Rapa Nui Trail 2 and my trusty Pearl Izumi Trail N2 

Squamish trails with Adam & Liz

Why wait until August? 

With the dry winter all of the lower Squamish trails are snow free and in great shape. The snow level was around 2,000' and that was only a very light dusting. It was a chilly -3c when we started and only "warmed up" to 1c, but a really fun time out on the trails. 

Alpha Mountain from Debeck's Hill

Descending the road on Debeck's.

Plush trail along Stump Lake.

Climbing up Made in the Shade.

Northside Connector.

Word of Mouth; probably my favorite trail of the day.

Word of Mouth.

Word of Mouth.

Lower Stil'halem Sintl'.

Upper Stil'halem Sintl'; reminded me of the climb to Fawn Ridge at White River (just a lot shorter).

Top of Stil'halem Sintl' just before dropping down Angry Midget and heading back to town.