Week ending June 23 (scorched sole report)

 June 18 - June 24 (scorched sole week)

Mon: rest day

Tue: rest day

Wed:

am1: road run up highway 33 to pick up my mountain bike that I'd left at the end of philpott rd; 19.2 km in 103 minutes with 582 metre elev gain

am2: mountain bike back home; 20 km in 46 minutes

pm1: road bike from home to meet up for pace workout; 15.5 km in 37 minutes

pm2: pace workout; little bit of trails and a bit of road hill repeats; 7.5 km, 168 metre elev gain in 46 minutes

pm3: road bike home from pace workout; 15.1 km in 35 minutes

thur: short road run; 5.2 km in 29 minutes

fri: short road bike; 9.1 km in 23 minutes

sat: scorched sole 50 mile trail race: 80 km; 3,275 metre (10,670 feet) elev gain, in 9:48:50

sun: road bike; 26.4 km in 62 minutes

Weekly Totals:
Run: 111.9 km and 4,047 metre elev gain
Bike: 86.1 km
Total time: 16 hours 8 minutes

Scorched sole thoughts:

The race was in an inner city park for the first time; and it was a loop course. Five 16 km loops (each with 655 metre elev gain). I'm not one for loops, but with the race being exactly two weeks before sinister 7 I thought it would make for a well timed last long run and a race day situation to iron out any kinks that may be lingering before the big dance.

Lap times:
1. (1:39:15)
2. (1:44:46)
3. (1:56:13)
4. (2:06:03)
5. (2:22:27)
Finish: (9:48:50)

So, my goal for the race going in truly was to just have a well supported long training run, not pushing hard so I made sure not to over do it before sinister. I went out a little hard, and forgot about this goal for the first lap and a bit, but then slowed down into a better pace that felt right for the day. Someone had registered for the race that I figured to be the race winner, so I was happy with that because then I could know there would be no inclination of trying to shoot for the win, as I am nowhere near as fast as him. But he didn't show up race day. So the race started, and we headed out. I was in front with a couple friends, and a couple out of towners. The one friend had told me she was just going for a long training run, but she's a beast and that means nothing, she's competitive and race day is go time. The five of us were together for the first half lap; then it was just three of us in front. We were hanging together for awhile. the second and third aid station was the same location and coming in to the second time the volunteer asked about the friend that had been behind us coming in the first time, but came through ahead of us the second time, problem was she never passed us. Ha! She missed an out and back section, and then to top that she didn't do a couple km's down to the finish and back at the end of the first loop. Giggles all around, a local that runs the mountain regularly going off course... So she was quite aways ahead (she ended up doing the parts she missed later) but I was quite glad that she passed me without passing me though, because if it had been a normal pass, I may have been tempted to go and try and stick with her. She's a great runner, and I feel like I'm good enough that I could compete with her in a race, but definitely not in a race where my main goal is to not push hard. She ended up finishing an hour ahead of me.

Of the three of us that were left running together, the out of towner pulled ahead halfway through the second lap, but never made it more than 8 minutes ahead of me (but this never concerned me, we were where we were, no real focus on the time) we were usually within site of each other with the two out and back sections of the course. I pulled ahead of the other local friend I was running with halfway through lap three, and then started to reel in the guy in front of me. I caught the guy in front of me during the fourth lap, and pulled ahead after the transition into the last lap. Except, when it came down to 'racing' for the win, my philosophy for the day of taking it easy prevailed, and rather than pushing it and exploiting his tiredness to go hard for the first place male finish, I stopped and waited for the other runner to walk/chat the first ascent of the loop with him, and then at the top of the first ascent stopped and waited again to slow jog the easiest section of the course with him. After the major climb of the lap I had pulled away by a couple minutes, and then at the last aid station I think spent a little too much time chatting it up with the volunteers thanking them for coming out, and he caught me just after the last aid station. We chatted leading up to the last short climb of the course, and then with 3.5 km left I wished him well on his way, it was all downhill from there - he was a good downhill runner - and I didn't feel like pushing, I tried to stay true to my goal of the day, no excessive pushing. But then I was like, oh hell no! I'm gonna chase, so down one of my favouruite descents on the mountain I started to just give it hard. We came off one section of single track that led to some double track, which would then lead to the last descent, I was 15 metres behind him for first male finisher.....

So I stopped to chat with one of the race directors for a couple minutes with 2 km left in the race!!! Nice short chat and a hug and I was back on my way. Ended up finished in 9:48. I`ve only run three 50 mile races (the last three years of this event), different courses every year, I wouldn`t say this was the easiest course, and I got my fastest 50 mile time, without a purposeful effort to hold back. There was good mild rain and overcast skies for most of the race, except for most of the last lap which was a super heavy thunderstorm. I didn`t eat enough the first two laps (too much chatting) and came away with some heavy midsection chafing (didn`t vaseline down there, especially bad on a wet day). Other than that I had a great day. No cramps, no stomach issues. I feel very confident leading up to sinister. Just need to remember to start eating early, before I think I need it, and lube up, as well as the other things I was doing. As always, a good day at the scorched sole.