That one run

            Recovery from the Mac went pretty well.  Sunday I took off, Monday and Tuesday I did an easy 6 mile recovery run around the neighborhood.  The Wednesday morning phone interview for a meteorologist position in Petaluma left me with some extra energy for my regular tempo run from the OSU gym to Bald hill.  Ever have one of those runs where everything just feels right?  This was it for me.  An absence of mud definitely helped but I just pushed and pushed.    Easily my best tempo run of the year, I knocked 3 minutes off my PR for this course, and ran it way faster than I used to last year.  Awesome!

Dixon to Bald Hill tempo run for this year.  This weeks effort was way faster than previous efforts. 

            Thursday I went up Dans Trail to Dimple hill and Saturday was my last big quadsmashing workout before States in late June.  McCollough repeats again but with ante upped a bit.  5 times for this go around, maybe 37 miles and 9000 feet of cumulative elevation gain, with almost all of the descent done on logging roads to maintain a good quadkilling tempo.  The Delphiniums and Vanilla Leaf were peaking.  It was a tough workout but I felt strong almost the whole way through.   Plantar issues plagued the last repeat, my feet always seem to hurt on any run over 7 or 8 hours but never on any short runs.  I'm working to address that issue, but so have haven't found any magic bullet.  The other funny thing that happens to me on long runs is nosebleeds.  I think I might farmer blow too much since I've gotten 3 nosebleeds on runs so far this year, all late in the game on runs over 7 hours.  Weird.  I needed to look presentable at the end of this run since I wanted to stop for a burrito on the way back and I hadn't brought a change of clothes.  Since I couldn't just wipe the blood on my shirt I wadded a bunch of Oregon filbert leaves and stuffed them up my nose to stop the nosebleed.  Guess what?  It worked.  MacGuyver style!

McDonald Forest 50km race report

The Mac is not only my favorite race, it was also my first ever.  Literally, the first race of any distance that I have ever done was the Mac in 2006.  7 hours and 20 minutes later, I was hooked.  Scott, Ken and all the volunteers put on an incredible race in the McDonald Forest right outside of Corvallis.  Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I live in Corvallis and have done this one a few times, but this day always seem more part get-together and part celebration than anything else.

Social hour at the Forestry Club Cabin.  Definitely pre-race judging by the smiles.

It’s not until the long slog up the backside of Dimple Hill did Saturday really feel like a race.  They’re not called ‘Ultrawalkathons’.  Having purposefully left my watch at home, only at the Dimple Hill AS did I get a split.  10 minutes up on last years time.  Awesome, time to fly.  I bombed down Dan’s Trail on the double in a desperate attempt to get some post race sore quads, which I rarely seem to get.

A hill around Chip Ross: harbinger of the climb up Horse Trail next. (Photo by Nahorniak)

At the top of Horst trail:  is this an 'ultracrawlathon' or what?   (Photo by Scobel Wiggins)

The climb up Horse once again ate me alive.  Forget running, I felt like I was crawling my way back up to saddle.  Back at the Forestry Club Cabin, I ended knocking 8 minutes off last year’s time, but I can’t say that I’m entirely satisfied with this year’s improvement relative to last.  I’m not quite ready to asymptote yet.  But that’s definitely what this chart seems to imply.          

My finishing time at the Mac for the four years that I've run.

More than anything I’m glad to not have any races in the near future interfering with my training.  Sore calves at the end of long run are fine, but starting every race this year with sore calves, hamstrings and glutes is wrong.  Just wrong.  Given the increase in volume this year it’s no surprise than I’m starting races with achy legs, but every race is in a training week so far this year. Capitol Peak was at the end of my biggest week ever and 3 consecutive 60+ miles weeks (don’t laugh, that’s a lot for me).  I did take a 40 mile week after Capitol Peak, which was nice, but I must sheepishly admit that I’m sort of looking forward to post Western States when I plan to don my cookie pants and put on a few comfort pounds with little other training than couch to fridge repeats.  I’m hoping that a real taper in early June will take care of my posterior chain issues and speaking of which, this little red countdown clock on the Western States website tells me I only have about a month left of training, so I better head out the door for a run.

April at the finish line - 'And then I totally passed this guy going up the hill even though he was wearing spandex ...'