4/16-4/22

I am going to make an effort to better log the details of my daily runs here on a weekly basis. I always log my miles but not always a description of exactly how the run went. Hopefully this will be a place where I will force myself to keep up with doing that which I know will end he end be beneficial to my running.

Monday 4/16/12 - 4.5 miles - Manor area upper parking lot to White Rock.
It was blisteringly hot out today (upper 80's) in a preview of summer. I usually am not a fan of the heat but I enjoyed the warmth today after the unusually chilly temperatures we have experienced here in MD over the past two weeks or so. I haven't ran up to White Rock in a while so my legs were definitely feeling it but I felt good for the duration of the run. I wanted to head to Fishing Creek Rd. but a combination of heat plus not wanting to overdo the foot (which felt perfect) led me to head back down the mountain after a few moments to soak in the view.

Tuesday 4/17/12 - 4 miles - Ran two ARCC out and back laps. Not much time to run between classes, SPARC Festival preparation and other things so I didn't get out until 9PM or so. The warm weather had stuck around from yesterday so it was still quite nice out at this time of night. Did some ~300m strides and it felt good to get the legs moving. Felt great overall.

Wednesday 4/18/12 - 4 miles - Ran two ARCC out and back again. SPARC presentation among other SPARC events and some errands to run made today once again a busy day where I didn't get out until later. Legs still felt good but not quite a snappy as yesterday, just took things easy.

Thursday 4/19/12 - 4.5 miles - Despite a fair amount of activities today I still managed to make it out the Manor Area for a quick trip up to White Rock. I pushed it pretty hard but my legs were up to the challenge and I felt surprisingly good at the top. I'll need to start timing myself again. That might be an effort I feel comfortable exerting in the Catoctin 50K and still have plenty for the remaining 13-14 miles or so. Descent was also very fast.

Friday 4/20/12 - 4 miles - I had to take a trip home to get ready for the Mount 40 tomorrow but had time to do an easy 4 out to Keysville Rd. My foot started to become hurt/tender on the bottom lateral side as I had an issue with several weeks back, and it still hurt a bit after running. I hoped this would be a road only issue with the Mount 40 the next day and I was right.

Saturday 4/21/12 - ~20 miles - Today was the Mount 40, the fourth of four "endurance events" put together by CRUX (the outdoors club) over this school year. The first two events were 10 miles through Catoctin National Park, and 20 miles on the C&O canal into D.C. A few weeks ago was the 30 mile event which consisted of hiking the entirety of the Catoctin blue trail. For the 40 mile version (not it totals up to 100 miles) we were set to hike the Maryland section of the Appalachian Trail. This is typically refereed to as the "Maryland Challenge" and I was excited to get to participate. We camped overnight and started out down near Harper's Ferry at ~4am. My plan as to start out slow and pick it up from there, running as much as was possible.

At the turnoff for the AT from the Canal I briefly thought that most of the group had gotten lost so I spent about half an hour running around thinking some people were lost (when they were not) but helping out a few who had turned off the C&O but missed where the AT intersects with Keep Tryst Rd. In the dark this was probably pretty hard to find if you didn't know where it was. Eventually I got back on track and hiked most of the first section to Gathland State Park where the first aid station was. It was at this point that I realized I was in the back of the pack and that nobody had gotten lost (always a good sign). While this was hardly a race I felt like it was time to start running at this point so that is just what I did. The CRUX leaders at the aid stations were scheduled to arrive if you averaged 4MPH so I knew I didn't want to run from the start lest I beat them...

I spent most of the next ten miles running, save a stop along the way to enjoy a nice overlook. Interestingly enough I knew that a group of four hikers were ahead of me during this whole section and I eagerly tried to catch them, however when I arrived at AS#2 at Dahlgren Chapel I was the first person to come in. Ooops... I guess they missed a turn somewhere. I hung around a little while chatting and eating some snacks and then headed off for the next aid station, still running, with a brief pitstop at the Washington Monument. That aid station would be at the Route 40 trailhead. This was out "lunch aid station" so I was obliged to chug down a gatorade, eat a PB&J sandwich, some cookies, and a Cliff Bar. With a full stomach like that I had no desire to run which was fortunate as the climb up to Annapolis Rocks was a long one. I was luck enough to meet a nice Ridge Runner along the way to chat with until I felt like my lunch was digested.

At that point I did my best to keep running but I was finally starting to get tired. It also did not help that this was one of the most rocky sections of the MD AT, with sections where it was nearly impossibly to run given the rocky nature of the trail. I also started to feel the heat but fortunately after a nice downhill before going into AS#4 at Route 77 helped me get a second wind. I noticed by the cuticle test heading into AS#4 that I was starting to get dehydrated so I chugged down about a liter of water and ate some pretzels. I re-applied Body Glide to my feet and headed out. The next 5 miles to the High Rock aid station were among the toughest. I ran for a while but quickly encountered stomach issues, probably from foolishly chugging all that water. Some serious climbs in this section didn't help either, but after "third and fourth winds" I managed to make it to High Rock.

I was feeling pretty low going into High Rock but the notion that I was only 3 miles away was a big morale boost. I also could see to the west that storms were moving in quickly and I wanted to finish before they dumbed on me. The first mile was mostly rock scrambling but once that was past the trail straightened out and I did some real running. I missed finishing before the rain but it only beat me by about 10 minutes. I ended up finishing around 4PM. In hindsight, if I had ran the stretch to Gathland and not spent half an hour looking for lost hikers that did not exist I would have been done well before 3PM. In peak shape I think I could definitely dip under 10 hours in this direction, hopefully much faster if I were going Southbound. But that is something to consider for another day.

Sunday 4/22/12 - Rest Day - I felt pretty good after yesterday's journey through the woods. Much better than after the Seneca Creek 50K, and really the only muscles that were seriously sore were my hamstrings but they were so sore that if I had gone for a run I probably would have aggravated other muscles by running with such an awkward stride. Rest days every once in a while are nice.

Total: 41 miles.

This was a good week. I was consistent and the weather was nice. It does not seem like we will get the same weather next week but I am hoping I can be relatively consistent and start to get ready for some serious summer training.