Gonna Be a Beat Down

I love this time of the year. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and it's also the weekend of my favorite race - The Quad Dipsea, 4 crossing of the famous Dipsea Trail. My all time favorite trail and favorite race. At 28.4 miles it's just long enough to be an ultra but at 9200 feet of totally climb it's a total pain in the ass, hamstrings, quads, heck my entire body. This year it will be especially painful and a longer recovery.

You see the last 8 weeks I've been battling two nagging injuries, injuries that has limited my training and hill work. I've recovered enough that I think I can still finish this darn thing under the cut-off but it will be a long day, beautiful no doubt as it always is out there but long. Last weekend I went out for a double and it felt hard and painfully slow but I was able to do it in 3.5 hours. I felt strong enough to go back out for another loop as I paced it as a quad. A 7+ hour quad crossing of the trail is feasible since the cut-off is 8 hours. Had it been another race I may have dropped out already, certainly would be easier, but I'm racing to 10 finishes. On your 10th year you get a jacket and recognized in front of your peers. Kind of cool. This year, if I finish, it will be number 9. When I was toying with the idea of dropping from the race I kept thinking of next year, how I won't have a shot at 10th if I give up now. It doesn't have to be consecutive years but it might as well be for me. I'm close. Still, had it taken me 4+ hours to do a double on the course, I would have bowed out of this years event.

The leg is okay, calf and shin issues, and it should survive. It's just weak and not 100%. After the Quad it will be back to my workouts of shorter easy runs and I need to start hitting the gym again to strengthen them up. Reminds me, I need to rejoin my gym:) Hate the gym but the alternatives like Spin and TRX was costing too much. Prices keep going up and up and I wanted more and more workouts.

My year in running has been like my blogging, quiet. Quad will only be my fourth event of the year. I can't complain though. It was great running in London in April when I visited Masha, we even did a 15k event together, and June was amazing with another finish at San Diego 100 and an incredible pacing experience at Western States. So I just have to finish this year off with my usual closer with the Quad and start thinking how I can be back in form next year. That valley I talked about in my last post, I'm still in it but I'm still climbing.

Until next time...