Sandbagging

Sandbagging: defined as being the process in which one intentionally runs a poor race by doing this to make the race harder than it would be had they came into the race properly prepared. If one is to be properly prepared one would do things like; proper taper, easy runs during race week, proper nutrition, proper rest and sleep, no hard activity the days before a race, analyse the race course to plan strategy, attempt some sort of proper nutrition plan. When you sandbag a race you intentionally dont do most or all of these things. Sandbagging at its best is done as part of an enjoyably hard training week.

On a completely related note I ran a 50 mile race this last weekend. I didnt feel too excited about it going in. I had messed up my summer training plan by bombing out of a 50 mile race May 19 via poor strategy and pushing too hard leading to a bit of an injury. Two weeks ago I stayed home from work for three days after hurting my left pectoral muscle (well the part of it that connects to my collarbone) after hyperextending it grabbing onto a tree stopping myself from falling down the side of a ravine. May and June were rather uninspired months and I had fallen off my training plan and was losing a bit of motivation.

Race week I ran monday to wednesday paced runs that were too fast to get leave myself fealing rested. the night before the race I decided to do a fairly hard hike up a peak leaving my quads feeling depleted. I got maybe four hours sleep before race day, ate like shit. And felt like a bag of shit about as soon as the race started; lower mainland humidity plus my asthma equals me feeling like Im carrying a heavy weight in my longs. Any delusions of making this race an actual race were quickly set aside after the group of runners I was with were continually missing turns, I quickly mentally checked further out of the race and decided to run with a group for safetys sake. Also, for nutrition for race day I took in nothing but liquids for the first 52 km, that was rough. There was several sections of the race that had us running on the shoulder of the sea to sky highway, that sucked. My heart for the race was drained pretty low and took awhile to get back into it.

I ran the 50 mile race in 10:12 which is my slowest time of that distance in the last two years. I came in feeling uninspired, still not fully recovered from my little injuries, untapered, tired, poor nutrition pre race and during race. Why do this; to try and start the race feeling like I might feel at the tough point of a longer race, and at the end of the day I can look back at this as a success in that regards. I definitely was mentally low and physically drained. So thats good. I ran the next morning 17 km (with dips in Buntzen lake) and then the next night another 18 km in the heat of home.

And the best success of the day is feeling reinvigorated to train. Which is good as Im only ten weeks out from the next 100 miler.