Sun Mountain DNF, aka how I reaffirmed the idea of following my plan.

This past weekend I went down to winthrop to run in the Sun Mountain 50 mile trail race. I ended up dropping out. I was running good, well I thought I was. Around 20 km or so I started to feel a little odd in my lower right quad, and then a sharp stabbing pain started radiating upwards from my knee. I tried to  test it out, I thought maybe I would be able to shake it. But coming down the first downhill that would have been the first spot to really turn up speed and the pain was excruciating, like my skin was being ripped off my knee. Stopped, swore at the top of my lungs, tried running, hurt something awful some more, stopped and screamed and then started hobbling. There was about two minutes of running where I thought I could get back at it, that thought quickly faded, and then I started walking. As fortune would have it, I was right near the ass end of a loop to start the course, so after walking to the next aid station told them I as DNF'ing, and walked back to the start finish the way I came. I found it rather interesting how 3rd place through about 10th place would stop and ask me what was wrong, rightly assuming that if someone ahead of them was walking something wasn't right. And then as more people passed me, less offered assistence or condolences, By the time the 40th person passed me, nothing was said, as though I was just another person walking. As the first runner back to the start I got to tap the keg. Woot! And I got to have a nice two and a half hour walk filled with suntanning on the way back.

Why? Why did I not make it through the race?

Maybe it was a random thing, landing the wrong way and something went funny. But of course I'll ask of other thoughts anyway. Waiting around after the race chatting with another runner that was running at the front of the pack with me that DNF'd we were talking about 'respecting the distance'. I don't think I respected the distance of the race. In other words I underestimated the difficulty of the race. Perhaps because I felt so good about my achievement at Badger in a longer distance I assumed I could just go out and bang out a 50 mile race like it was nothing.

Last year leading up to Badger it was seven months since my last long race attempt, fat dog in august. after that effort I rested with no running for two weeks, attempted to run, and rested for another two weeks. Then I slowly built up my running volume, peaking a month before the race, then coming to race day well rested, only having done a few really intense long runs. Compare that two going from badger to sun mountain. After badger I was running the next week, and running high volume within two weeks, and then barely tapering for sun mountain. I did not rest enough after the long 100 mile race, and then expected to be able to go back into training for the next one. Also, I never intended sun mountain to be an 'A' effort race, knowing that it was too close to the 100 miler to be ready. But after my goal race for the summer was cancelled I hastily decided to put that effort into this race.

This may not be the only reason, or may not even by part of the reason I hurt myself during the race. But I think it would be wise of me to get back to proper planning. I am not yet strong enough to be putting out A level efforts at races this close together. I got excited and stopped following my plan. I may race before September, but if I do it will be a properly calculated effort to fit into my plan to get to the next 100 mile race.

I am reminded by my body that I am only capable of so much. But I also want to kick ass at certain points. The idea of kicking ass at 100 mile races appeals to me, and even though I would love to be able to race as much as other people I look up to, I think I am limited in what I can attempt, something about slow growth.

this years plan was : 100 mile in March, 100 km in June (cancelled now), and 100 mile in September. I'll readjust my schedule once I feel recovered to run and get back to that. I'm already thinking about next year. I think a schedule like: 50 km in Dec, 100 mile in March, 50 km or 50 mi in June, 100 mile in Sept feels like it should be a good plan.

I won't run again for the rest of May. Maybe starting monday I'll go to the gym and do some sort of exercise though.