After War-X, I didn't do too much training. I needed to catch up on sleep after the 24 hr event and the driving back and forth from Ohio. However, after events, you're processing all of what happened, and reconnecting with people on facebook, so I didn't catch up on sleep in the first couple of days back.
Wednesday, I got in a ruck workout called "Don't. Get. Up." which was pretty interesting... the idea is that you're doing animal movements and other exercises on the ground the whole time, so the goal is that you don't stand up the whole time, all of it with the ruck on your back or getting dragged.
- 5 min plank
- Push-up pyramid from of 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1
- Bear Crawl with 25 touches
- Bear Crawl with 25 touches but dragging ruck
- Crab Walk with 25 touches
- Crab Walk with 25 touches but dragging ruck
- Low Crawl 25 yards - people at my office's gym seeing me probably think I'm even weirder now, than they did before
- Low Crawl 25 yards dragging ruck
- Shoulder Crawl 25 yards with ruck on tummy - first time doing this exercise - it's pretty crazy... must wear out shirts pretty quickly.
- Push-up pyramid from of 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1
- 5 min plank (had to take 2 rests this time)
I finished off the workout with a 4 mile run, since the RW had been all arms and core. It felt good to run, surprisingly, since I hadn't recovered on sleep yet from the weekend. I did some pullups before and after the run, too. It was a perfect combo of some strength and a bit of running before the half.
TRUE TO THE BREW HM
When I drove up to the parking lot, I was the first one
there, and it was super dark. I saw a
volunteer, who directed us to the packet pickup area across a field. I was glad that I had headlamps in the car,
particularly in the porta potty.
More racers arrived, and I found my co-worker, who would be
doing his first race, period that day.
He jumped straight in to the Half, which you don't see often. He's a new runner, but he had run a half on
the treadmill before once, though, to provide remote moral support to his son,
who was doing an ultra.
It was light enough to not need headlamps, by the time of
the start. The organizers did a good job
of offering water, granola bars, bag check, and guidance on lining up according
to speed.
We set off across the grass, and then through a bit of road,
before turning onto a trail. It always
feels high-intensity at first, with people going fast, getting jarred by the
uneven terrain at that pace, and settling into position. It was mostly single-track, with some wider areas
every now and then, but I didn't have any issues with congestion.
I normally take my training trail runs slow and easy, so it
felt different trying to appropriately pace a trail half. Fortunately, the terrain wasn't that
technical, and it was pretty flat at the start.
We had some small climbs, but nothing that bad or long. The biggest one started at mile 5. There was also a lake that we ran by, which
was a nice surprise. There were people
fishing on it, and it was pretty in the morning fog.
A little after that, something seemed to bite my right calf
through my socks, and when I went to brush whatever it was off, it stung my
pinky, too. I still have no idea what it
was, but it burned. I hoped that I
wouldn't be found later on the side of the road if it was something
poisonous. It did give me adrenaline,
which is a plus. But I very much wanted
to finish before succumbing to whatever it was, rather than having run that far
to not finish. It ended up being fine...
itchy, but nothing serious.
Within a couple of miles, I had settled into second, and I
held that for the whole race. It had
felt like a "comfortable" second for a while, but it got closer when
I started being able to hear #3 talking in the distance behind me. We ended up finishing a mile apart. First place was like 15 minutes ahead of me,
and was second overall, which is crazy... a totally different caliber of runner
there.
During the race, there were 4 water stops with a little bit
of gatorade mixed in. They offered
bananas and apples, too, but I didn't want to slow down to take that, so I was
glad that I brought 2 Vanilla Clif Shots.
They were surprisingly delicious, like a creamy vanilla pudding. I usually use bar food for races where speed
isn't as big of a deal, but I think I
had run out of small-sized ones. I
reserve gels for stuff like marathons and halfs, since it's pure sugar.
The terrain was a little different in the last few miles...
there was some vegetation getting cleared, and we also went along a dirt road
by another lake. I had felt good about
my pacing the whole time. I sometimes
push it a bit too hard, but it was good pace here. I felt like I had my foot slightly on the gas
pedal, giving it a bit of a press throughout.
It was hard but manageable.
The end was something interesting. We could see the finish line in the middle of
a field, but we first ran around a dirt horse track on the right, we then went
perpendicular to the finish line to go to another field where we did a loop,
and then we got to actually cross the finish line. It was a bit of a mental game, knowing you're
so close, but you still have to put out more.
POST RUN
After I finished and confirmed my placement, I headed back
out on the trail to find my colleague.
Fortunately, I could cut out the extra loops at the end, which amounted
to about 1/2 mi. Unfortunately, I missed
a turn when I was trying to backtrack on the course. I noticed that I had stopped seeing runners
coming in the other direction, and realized that I must've missed it. I had remembered a series of turns and arrows
when I was running the race, and recalled how it could be easy to miss some of
those turns if you were trying to do it backwards and couldn't see some of the
arrows.
I did move off of the trail when the racers were oncoming. They often wondered what I was doing, and I
told them I was looking for my friend.
The awards ceremony was planned for 10:45am, so I briefly considered
going back for that when I was 30 min in and had about 30 min to get back
before the awards. However, it was more
important that I be there for my friend with his first race. I kept hoping that I hadn't missed him when I
missed the first turn, but I eventually saw him at mile 10.5.
He was doing ok, mostly walking by now, with spurts of
running every now and then. It was nice
doing those last couple of miles with him, talking, and enjoying a jaunt in the
woods. I was proud of how far he had
gotten, and how he was going to finish this thing strong.
After the race, we rode a shuttle back to the parking lot. This was a point-to-point course, which is
rare but very enjoyable. It makes it
feel much more like an adventure, when you know you are going from A to B, with
a full 13.1 miles in between. They also
had Subway sandwiches at the end, which was nice.
Originally, I had thought about doing a 10 mile ruck in the
mountains after the race, but my feet were nice and used after the 13.1 plus
about 2 miles of slow running and 2 miles of walking. I met up with my co-worker and his daughter
at RJ Rockers brewery back in Spartanburg, where we enjoyed beer from the
sponsor. It was a satisfying way to end
the trip.
