Monday, February 22, 2010

Val's Fat Ass.....and 50th Birthday

Unlike the last Fatass(at Blaine's), I actually found this one! I took one wrong turn and that was when I hit the huge frost heave.....yes there was a sign to warn me, but guys never listen (do they). So hitting the darn thing, I was suddenly going down instead of forward....lucky I had a four wheel drive as I almost needed to engage it to climb out of this hole!!

OK...maybe I am embellishing a bit, but I did get air when I crested the other side and that's no exaggeration. I learn pretty quick though and was sure to go very slow on the return.

My plan was to run at least two loops of the 50K which would have been about 12 miles. My garmen measured it a bit short as I ended up with 10.7 for the two loops.I started out a little faster than I planned and the cardio started affecting me at about 2 miles. I was able to keep that pace up for at least three miles because I was running with George A and the great conversation kept my mind off the pain.

My left ankle experienced a shooting pain up the inside, which lasted pretty much the whole first lap, I suspected from the uneven terrain. I opted not to wear my screw shoes and even though there was a few icy spots, I was glad to have less traction on the rough areas.

Somewhere around three miles I slowed a bit and George powered ahead, then suddenly he was gone. I thought for sure he hit some turbo gear but later found out he had so much fun on the powerlines that he added in an extra mile or two. Aha!! I found the key to finish in front of George, just let him run a few extra miles.

The course was actually much better than Val described, though it was quite tough on the ankles. After the first loop, I realized how good I felt. There was no soreness or fatigue at all! Surely the core and ab workouts have done their job. I was pleasantly surprised. My only drawback today was my cardio and the short three hour window I had for running.

I was disappointed after the second lap because it went so much better than the first and I felt I easily had at least one more lap in me. My splits in the last three miles showed I was getting stronger and finally starting to settle in. Problem is, as much as I hate to admit it, there are other things I have to schedule. And I missed all the fun of riding in the helicopter!!

The other problem with leaving early is not catching up with all the trail Monsters after the run and listening to the various descriptions of the course. It seems at times no one perceives it the same.

The course was marked fairly well though I did have some confusing moments....thankfully some smart person put a few cones out there and that was a savior. The orange arrows worked good, though the solid orange line (that Linda wanted) would have been pretty darn cool.....hey they used solid blue lines at the olympics and those guys are proffesionals.

I must say Rick, Val, Linda and Gerry showed us a great time.....The weather was great, the company was great and the run was fantastic......oh and so much food!
Overall....a grand success.

I had planned a 3-5 mile tune down easy run on Sunday to loosen up the muscles but somehow I never got around to it. The day just flew by.... my fault for not getting out first thing instead of procrastinating.

Fatass splits:

10:04.....150-162
11:06.....151-153
11:14.....150-155
12:51.....148-155
11:26.....148-155
11:55.....143-152.......5.3 first loop 58:38(11:03p)
12:42.....142-150
13:09.....142-149
12:15.....144-150
11:42.....147-152
10:54.....149-156.....5.4 second loop 62:59(11:39p)

Total run 2:01:37(11:21p)

2 comments:

Scout said...

Don't encourage Linda on the marking...my fingers were orange enough! Thanks for sharing the day.

Scout said...
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