Yay for getting to run it!
Prep:
Since I was coming off super-stiffness from the weekend, I needed some time off anyway, but I found out about an all-grass XC race when I was browsing the GTC website. That made me feel better about not being able to run... call it tapering instead ;) So I did the JM dvd on Tuesday and then did an easy 5.5er on Wednesday, just to not get deconditioned. I've been reading an incredibly interesting book... The Runner's Body - highly recommended! And it talks about how with injury, you need time off, but it's a bit of a catch-22, because you also need to keep using those muscles/tendons/ligaments/bones that are injured so that they don't weakened further. Stress makes it stronger, as long as it's not over the breaking point. Going down to less stress than it's accustomed to will make it revert to its less adapted form. All that to say... that's one of the reasons I wanted to get in the 5.5.
I took 2 whole days off after that, to let my body continue to flush out all of the stuff that was making me stiff. My pee... urine... (haha, doesn't look good any way you put it) was darker on the day that things started getting better. I think there's a connection. Those enzymes or whatever were doing their job to break down the weak muscle fibers and whatever else, so that new, stronger ones could be built up in their place. My guess is that all that broken down material had to go somewhere, haha.
Sooo... the night before, I intended to go to bed early (10ish) and wake up at 6:30am so that I could register the day of the race (the only other option was mailing, and since I only found out about it a week earlier, that wasn't an option) as early as I could to try to get a t-shirt. I avoided dairy (heard that it hinders your running in some way, but I don't think I've ever read anything research-based... just some guy giving advice)... mostly because I ran out of milk, though. I didn't really carbo-load. I feel better when I eat a balanced, normal-sized diet. I ate 2 oranges instead of 1, to make sure my body got all the immune-boosting stuff it needed to help my body be able to handle the stress it was coming off of.
Back to the sleep... I listened to The Running Shoe podcast to calm me down as I laid in bed. My mind kept racing, though, and I didn't sleep until midnight. Somehow, the time flew. Not the podcast's fault. I turned that off pretty early on. I just kept thinking about the race. Always happens before big events, like trips and races. So getting sleep the night before the night before is even more critical for me. So I eventually fell asleep, but I ended up waking up again at 4:30. I don't know if it was because my natural alarm clock was on edge and wanting me to get up as to not miss the race. The fact that we just did daylight savings probably didn't help my internal alarm clock, although that would've made it 3:30, so who knows. It could've also been the need to go to the restroom, but I hardly ever or maybe never ever... don't remember... have to get up in the middle of the night for that. But I did... and couldn't calm back down... mind racing again.
The morning of:
So I took advantage of my wakefulness to re-fuel (glyco stores had gone down, so I needed to replenish. I figured that digestion takes a while anyway, so if my muscles wanted it by race-time, I may want to get a head start) and clean my XC spikes. There was still tons of dirt and grass caked/weaved into all the treads from my Pton visit in Nov! It took so long. I went through it with water, a toothbrush, a plastic baby spoon, and a paper towel. I wish I had thought of a paperclip... would've gone by so much faster. The intertwining of grass blades and crusted mud made it so difficult. But eventually, the treads were mostly cleared out. Then, my shoes were a bit wet, so I had to blow-dry them. Didn't want any extra weight!
Then, I showered. I think it's a good way to relax and get blood flowing through your muscles again, without the damaging (yes, damaging, according to many recent studies) that stretching pre-run does to both strength and endurance. I packed many different pairs of socks (different fits, lengths) because I wasn't sure if my OxySox would 1) be good (stay up and fit well on my calves), and 2) fit well in the spikes. 5 pairs, I think I brought. The OxySox ended up being great, though. Much better than my first try. I think it's okay just to have them go up to the largest circumference zone of the calf. I also brought my camera, 2 race belts (shadow pak, in case I wanted to bring keys, and the regular race belt), larabar for pre-run (snacked on it over the course of an hour - filling b/c of the walnuts and energizing from the sweet dates), lots of other food, water, arm compression sleeves (in case it was cold... 45ish at 7am, going up to 53 by 9am), warmups....
To the race:
Drove out to Sburg, took some wandering in the car on Milliken's campus to find the race start. It's a big campus. Found the tent and other cars, though. I registered, and at first, they said that race-day registrants do not get t-shirts. I was disappointed, but I thought, ok, I'm in it for the opp to run on grass anyway, so it's ok. Then, I sat in the car, prepped my gear (went with the race belt, since I felt I could leave my car unlocked), then went to the bathroom. I was anxious, especially looking out at other runners... intimidating. So I listened to the radio and to the podcast to calm me down, singing and all. Sat around for an hour (a long time!), then went to the bathroom again... this time, with a long line just 15 min b/f race start. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad, and I warmed up with a few strides, some range-of-motion moves (no stretching, and only the slightest amount of dynamic stretching). It was warm now, so I had removed my warmups and arm sleeves - just the singlet and the race belt and shades.
Race time:
It was time to get on the line. They were backing us all up, so I found a spot in the 2nd row, far right of the field. There was a super skinny girl in front of me (who must've had like 3% bf or something, it was crazy), and I figured she'd go out fast but fade some time later, so I positioned myself behind her. The starting siren went off, and we were off. The course was generally marked by a closely cut path in the grass, about 3m wide. Since the entire "park" was grass, not even with concrete or asphalt sidewalk, that was nice. Being off the path just meant running through deeper grass, which could be somewhat uneven. Bad for ankles, but I think if anything, the low-lying spikes make ankle rolls less of a possibility, due to better proprioception. Since the start's always crowded, I had to go on the deeper (therefore slower) grass for a ways before things thinned out enough so that I could get on the close-cut path. We wound around, going at my usual 1st-mi pace, I think. At the first mile marker, my watch read 6:41!!! So I suspected that it wasn't really a mile.
I had seen a map of the course serendipitously when I was on my way to the bathroom, since they made us use the fitness room bathroom (their company campus has its own fitness room!!! so jealous). It was on a wall, so I studied it well, looking at where the mile markers were, identifying the landmarks for the hilly portion of the course, and identifying the point where I should start my final kick. Anyway, I started picking more people off starting from about the first mile marker. It's nice to be the picker. It's sometimes mentally stressful, when you see a girl (aka competition) ahead, knowing that if she stays ahead, that's one place lower for you, which could potentially be the difference between medaling and not. You know it'll mean pain, pushing yourself to catch up. But it's way better this way than getting mental blow after blow from getting beaten by one person after another. Another bad thing about picking people off, sometimes, it's hard to get around people in front of you when they're going slowly and blocking the way if they're two across. Maybe I could've gone faster without having to wait for an opening to appear while going at their slower pace. But maybe it was good to be able to draft and save my energy and stay below the lactate threshhold for the time being? Makes sense.
So the second mile went through the first part of the hilly section, where I was picking people off more. The third mile, I started wondering, are we close? I can't wait for this to be over. I think I passed a total of 3 girls in the last 2 miles. They were spread pretty far apart. I think I got the last of the three about 0.5 mi from the finish, so there was still a big margin. I used the tactic of surging as I passed, to try to convince her that I was still going strong and that she should give up on the idea of trying to keep up or retake the lead. It worked well. I think she was fading, anyway. Getting closer to the finish line, I happened to see my running friend (probably older than my parents) from work.... friend/co-worker who runs is probably more appropriate, since I've never run with him before. Anyway, he was making lots of noises. He was working hard, man! I was breathing hard for about the 2nd half of the race, but not like he was, with groans and stuff. We were now like 0.3 miles from the finish, and like I said, he's probably in his 50's, so the fact that he was up there is incredible. We cheered each other on, and then we turned onto the final stretch, with only like 0.1 miles left. I kicked (perhaps later than I should have), and finished in 21:47. Oh yeah, my 2mi split was 6:58... more reasonable for a mile split for me, and the last 1.1 was 8.02.
HEY!!! ASSUMING THE RACE REALLY WAS 3.1 MI, A 21:42 PACE IS EXACTLY 7:00 PACE!!!
After the race, I staggered through the chute and realized how untracked my rt knee was. I did a few pillow flexor exercises to try to get it to track correctly - it at least helped make it feel better during the exercise, although not 100% better afterwards. It helped a little, though. Then, I decided to cheer on the rest of the finishers. I had started the day thinking, "God, I want this race to be for you." And I wasn't sure how to really do that? Make some new friends while I was there? So when I got over my knee thing, I remembered that it could be great if I cheered others on. Crowd support was slim, since it was a corporate competition race, where most in attendance were racers representing their companies, with minimal family or friends present. So I cheered, clapping continuously for about 20 minutes, haha, and yelling about once every 20s. It was fun, especially when the runners responded with a smile or a thumbs-up. Anyway, I hope it made peoples' race experience better, to be cheered on for their final kicks. In the last race I did (about a year ago!), I was really struck by how the girl who ended up winning first by a wide margin was so others-centered after finishing her run, grabbing me a water bottle and then going to cheer the other finishers on. Anyway, that's my example.
So, when pretty much all, including walkers were finished, I ran back to the tent, where people were getting food. I didn't expect food, since they hadn't even had t-shirts for race-day registrants or race goodies in general earlier. I had an apple and a banana - was hungry, so that was great. And they started giving away t-shirts from no-shows, so I ended up getting a medium-sized tech shirt after all. Pretty cool, besides the width of the shirt and the somewhat heaviness of the material. Then, door prizes... gift certificates for training sessions and huge rugs (very random, but maybe used by the hosting company to test detergents?). Then, pottery awards. With the women, when the 3rd place finisher went up to get her award, I realized that I didn't even see her during the race, so there was no way I placed in the top 3. And it turned out that the really skinny girl got 1st - she's a walk-on for the Clemson team. I was 7th. The top 5 or so were clustered pretty closely way up on the top of the list, so I didn't even have a chance. But I raced pretty well, especially for a grass course. The spikes probably helped. Oh yeah, the race belt rotates, so my number would shift to the back, or the whole belt would go under my shirt, making the number invisible... not good. Rather pin it next time, I think. Something to remember for the next race.
Post-run:
I wanted to catch up on the mileage that I've missed on this off-week, and I also wanted to take pictures and measure the course on the GPS, so I went another time. It was nice getting to enjoy the scenery this time. I was so focused on my footing and passing people before. I'd stop to take pictures. It was fairly fast-paced, and it was hard to tell exactly which paths to take, so I ended up going another route on some parts, so that kind of messed up the GPS plan. And my knee wasn't doing great, and it was hot (getting up to the 70's!), otherwise I'd take advantage of the wonderful grassy course for a third loop. Maybe another time.
So a great race.
Prep:
Since I was coming off super-stiffness from the weekend, I needed some time off anyway, but I found out about an all-grass XC race when I was browsing the GTC website. That made me feel better about not being able to run... call it tapering instead ;) So I did the JM dvd on Tuesday and then did an easy 5.5er on Wednesday, just to not get deconditioned. I've been reading an incredibly interesting book... The Runner's Body - highly recommended! And it talks about how with injury, you need time off, but it's a bit of a catch-22, because you also need to keep using those muscles/tendons/ligaments/bones that are injured so that they don't weakened further. Stress makes it stronger, as long as it's not over the breaking point. Going down to less stress than it's accustomed to will make it revert to its less adapted form. All that to say... that's one of the reasons I wanted to get in the 5.5.
I took 2 whole days off after that, to let my body continue to flush out all of the stuff that was making me stiff. My pee... urine... (haha, doesn't look good any way you put it) was darker on the day that things started getting better. I think there's a connection. Those enzymes or whatever were doing their job to break down the weak muscle fibers and whatever else, so that new, stronger ones could be built up in their place. My guess is that all that broken down material had to go somewhere, haha.
Sooo... the night before, I intended to go to bed early (10ish) and wake up at 6:30am so that I could register the day of the race (the only other option was mailing, and since I only found out about it a week earlier, that wasn't an option) as early as I could to try to get a t-shirt. I avoided dairy (heard that it hinders your running in some way, but I don't think I've ever read anything research-based... just some guy giving advice)... mostly because I ran out of milk, though. I didn't really carbo-load. I feel better when I eat a balanced, normal-sized diet. I ate 2 oranges instead of 1, to make sure my body got all the immune-boosting stuff it needed to help my body be able to handle the stress it was coming off of.
Back to the sleep... I listened to The Running Shoe podcast to calm me down as I laid in bed. My mind kept racing, though, and I didn't sleep until midnight. Somehow, the time flew. Not the podcast's fault. I turned that off pretty early on. I just kept thinking about the race. Always happens before big events, like trips and races. So getting sleep the night before the night before is even more critical for me. So I eventually fell asleep, but I ended up waking up again at 4:30. I don't know if it was because my natural alarm clock was on edge and wanting me to get up as to not miss the race. The fact that we just did daylight savings probably didn't help my internal alarm clock, although that would've made it 3:30, so who knows. It could've also been the need to go to the restroom, but I hardly ever or maybe never ever... don't remember... have to get up in the middle of the night for that. But I did... and couldn't calm back down... mind racing again.
The morning of:
So I took advantage of my wakefulness to re-fuel (glyco stores had gone down, so I needed to replenish. I figured that digestion takes a while anyway, so if my muscles wanted it by race-time, I may want to get a head start) and clean my XC spikes. There was still tons of dirt and grass caked/weaved into all the treads from my Pton visit in Nov! It took so long. I went through it with water, a toothbrush, a plastic baby spoon, and a paper towel. I wish I had thought of a paperclip... would've gone by so much faster. The intertwining of grass blades and crusted mud made it so difficult. But eventually, the treads were mostly cleared out. Then, my shoes were a bit wet, so I had to blow-dry them. Didn't want any extra weight!
Then, I showered. I think it's a good way to relax and get blood flowing through your muscles again, without the damaging (yes, damaging, according to many recent studies) that stretching pre-run does to both strength and endurance. I packed many different pairs of socks (different fits, lengths) because I wasn't sure if my OxySox would 1) be good (stay up and fit well on my calves), and 2) fit well in the spikes. 5 pairs, I think I brought. The OxySox ended up being great, though. Much better than my first try. I think it's okay just to have them go up to the largest circumference zone of the calf. I also brought my camera, 2 race belts (shadow pak, in case I wanted to bring keys, and the regular race belt), larabar for pre-run (snacked on it over the course of an hour - filling b/c of the walnuts and energizing from the sweet dates), lots of other food, water, arm compression sleeves (in case it was cold... 45ish at 7am, going up to 53 by 9am), warmups....
To the race:
Drove out to Sburg, took some wandering in the car on Milliken's campus to find the race start. It's a big campus. Found the tent and other cars, though. I registered, and at first, they said that race-day registrants do not get t-shirts. I was disappointed, but I thought, ok, I'm in it for the opp to run on grass anyway, so it's ok. Then, I sat in the car, prepped my gear (went with the race belt, since I felt I could leave my car unlocked), then went to the bathroom. I was anxious, especially looking out at other runners... intimidating. So I listened to the radio and to the podcast to calm me down, singing and all. Sat around for an hour (a long time!), then went to the bathroom again... this time, with a long line just 15 min b/f race start. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad, and I warmed up with a few strides, some range-of-motion moves (no stretching, and only the slightest amount of dynamic stretching). It was warm now, so I had removed my warmups and arm sleeves - just the singlet and the race belt and shades.
Race time:
It was time to get on the line. They were backing us all up, so I found a spot in the 2nd row, far right of the field. There was a super skinny girl in front of me (who must've had like 3% bf or something, it was crazy), and I figured she'd go out fast but fade some time later, so I positioned myself behind her. The starting siren went off, and we were off. The course was generally marked by a closely cut path in the grass, about 3m wide. Since the entire "park" was grass, not even with concrete or asphalt sidewalk, that was nice. Being off the path just meant running through deeper grass, which could be somewhat uneven. Bad for ankles, but I think if anything, the low-lying spikes make ankle rolls less of a possibility, due to better proprioception. Since the start's always crowded, I had to go on the deeper (therefore slower) grass for a ways before things thinned out enough so that I could get on the close-cut path. We wound around, going at my usual 1st-mi pace, I think. At the first mile marker, my watch read 6:41!!! So I suspected that it wasn't really a mile.
I had seen a map of the course serendipitously when I was on my way to the bathroom, since they made us use the fitness room bathroom (their company campus has its own fitness room!!! so jealous). It was on a wall, so I studied it well, looking at where the mile markers were, identifying the landmarks for the hilly portion of the course, and identifying the point where I should start my final kick. Anyway, I started picking more people off starting from about the first mile marker. It's nice to be the picker. It's sometimes mentally stressful, when you see a girl (aka competition) ahead, knowing that if she stays ahead, that's one place lower for you, which could potentially be the difference between medaling and not. You know it'll mean pain, pushing yourself to catch up. But it's way better this way than getting mental blow after blow from getting beaten by one person after another. Another bad thing about picking people off, sometimes, it's hard to get around people in front of you when they're going slowly and blocking the way if they're two across. Maybe I could've gone faster without having to wait for an opening to appear while going at their slower pace. But maybe it was good to be able to draft and save my energy and stay below the lactate threshhold for the time being? Makes sense.
So the second mile went through the first part of the hilly section, where I was picking people off more. The third mile, I started wondering, are we close? I can't wait for this to be over. I think I passed a total of 3 girls in the last 2 miles. They were spread pretty far apart. I think I got the last of the three about 0.5 mi from the finish, so there was still a big margin. I used the tactic of surging as I passed, to try to convince her that I was still going strong and that she should give up on the idea of trying to keep up or retake the lead. It worked well. I think she was fading, anyway. Getting closer to the finish line, I happened to see my running friend (probably older than my parents) from work.... friend/co-worker who runs is probably more appropriate, since I've never run with him before. Anyway, he was making lots of noises. He was working hard, man! I was breathing hard for about the 2nd half of the race, but not like he was, with groans and stuff. We were now like 0.3 miles from the finish, and like I said, he's probably in his 50's, so the fact that he was up there is incredible. We cheered each other on, and then we turned onto the final stretch, with only like 0.1 miles left. I kicked (perhaps later than I should have), and finished in 21:47. Oh yeah, my 2mi split was 6:58... more reasonable for a mile split for me, and the last 1.1 was 8.02.
HEY!!! ASSUMING THE RACE REALLY WAS 3.1 MI, A 21:42 PACE IS EXACTLY 7:00 PACE!!!
After the race, I staggered through the chute and realized how untracked my rt knee was. I did a few pillow flexor exercises to try to get it to track correctly - it at least helped make it feel better during the exercise, although not 100% better afterwards. It helped a little, though. Then, I decided to cheer on the rest of the finishers. I had started the day thinking, "God, I want this race to be for you." And I wasn't sure how to really do that? Make some new friends while I was there? So when I got over my knee thing, I remembered that it could be great if I cheered others on. Crowd support was slim, since it was a corporate competition race, where most in attendance were racers representing their companies, with minimal family or friends present. So I cheered, clapping continuously for about 20 minutes, haha, and yelling about once every 20s. It was fun, especially when the runners responded with a smile or a thumbs-up. Anyway, I hope it made peoples' race experience better, to be cheered on for their final kicks. In the last race I did (about a year ago!), I was really struck by how the girl who ended up winning first by a wide margin was so others-centered after finishing her run, grabbing me a water bottle and then going to cheer the other finishers on. Anyway, that's my example.
So, when pretty much all, including walkers were finished, I ran back to the tent, where people were getting food. I didn't expect food, since they hadn't even had t-shirts for race-day registrants or race goodies in general earlier. I had an apple and a banana - was hungry, so that was great. And they started giving away t-shirts from no-shows, so I ended up getting a medium-sized tech shirt after all. Pretty cool, besides the width of the shirt and the somewhat heaviness of the material. Then, door prizes... gift certificates for training sessions and huge rugs (very random, but maybe used by the hosting company to test detergents?). Then, pottery awards. With the women, when the 3rd place finisher went up to get her award, I realized that I didn't even see her during the race, so there was no way I placed in the top 3. And it turned out that the really skinny girl got 1st - she's a walk-on for the Clemson team. I was 7th. The top 5 or so were clustered pretty closely way up on the top of the list, so I didn't even have a chance. But I raced pretty well, especially for a grass course. The spikes probably helped. Oh yeah, the race belt rotates, so my number would shift to the back, or the whole belt would go under my shirt, making the number invisible... not good. Rather pin it next time, I think. Something to remember for the next race.
Post-run:
I wanted to catch up on the mileage that I've missed on this off-week, and I also wanted to take pictures and measure the course on the GPS, so I went another time. It was nice getting to enjoy the scenery this time. I was so focused on my footing and passing people before. I'd stop to take pictures. It was fairly fast-paced, and it was hard to tell exactly which paths to take, so I ended up going another route on some parts, so that kind of messed up the GPS plan. And my knee wasn't doing great, and it was hot (getting up to the 70's!), otherwise I'd take advantage of the wonderful grassy course for a third loop. Maybe another time.
So a great race.
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