My little recovery miscalculation referred to in report:
As I mentioned in my Tues night race report, I had taken things pretty
easy after RP, but almost all my runs were much crisper, springier than
before RP – new experience for me. In this last bit of the summer
season, I had planned on one Tues night race (1 hr) and Powerline Pass
(4+hr). Since I hadn’t done anything over 2.5 hrs since RP or any big,
steep hills since July, I really felt like I needed something in that
vicinity. I also wanted something with a long, runnable downhill as
prep. I opted for combining part of a gravel road with a trail to summit
that I thought was about 10-11 mi rt, maybe 3000ft, close to 2 hr of
climbing (Arctic Valley). I would have liked to have gotten it in 2-3
wks before the race and maybe changed which Tues night race I did, but
rest of life brought it down to 12 days before or not do it – and I was
more afraid of inadequate prep than I was of over prep in this case
(3000ft climbs in 4 mi take a lot out of me).
The road part went quite nicely, running it fairly crisply, but not
overly hard (so I thought). About 2.2 hr into the run /hike, I realized
I had gone about 5+ mi and almost 3000 ft up – still not to the top and
some light fog blowing in and out. Summit fever (pretty day other than
the fog) vs potentially leaving my race in Arctic Valley. When the fog
lifted enough that I could see how far it was to the other side of the
hill, I decided retreat was the better part of valor. I had to run/walk
the steeper trail, but then ran the bulk of the 1700 ft drop to the car.
By the time I was done, I had logged about 11.5 mi, 3100 ft, 3:37
including about 1.5 hr at high end aerobic or LT and about 1.5 hrs at my
usual easy effort – about 12 days before race. Ooops. Geez, I didn’t
know I could do that – didn’t seem that hard at the time – working, but
not that hard. (I suspect my LT might be a little higher now than in the
past.) For some reason I was sore the next day and felt like toast. Long
story short, I backed way down – all the crispness since RP completely
disappeared, 0 spring in legs, DOMS for several days (more than usual),
and feeling rather toasty for about 9-10 days. I didn’t do any running
or walking Thurs or Fri except maybe a little skipping on Fri – just to
alert legs they might have to work tomorrow. I think Arctic Valley was
the right workout, but needed to be done farther in advance for
recovery. But I couldn’t do it too much farther in advance since I was
still recovering from RP. Anyway, ‘twas a very interesting data point.
It may have hurt my uphill on Powerline but probably did help once I got
to the easy footing on the downs and could start pushing.
I might note that my recovery after the race appears to be going much
better than after the training run.
Anyway, just thought I’d add a comment about this since we’ve discussed
recovery recently. Learning is such fun, complete with surprises.
Dot
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"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I
have of it."
-Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States