Fourmidable 35k (February 20, 2016)

Fourmidable 35k

February 20, 2016

Did the Fourmidable 35k race as another build-up/training race.  I wasn't sure how the week was going to go as the week leading up to it had it's own challenges.  I had a pretty busy week at work.  My baby and husband have been sick so that's been tough.  Luckily, baby started sleeping through the night again the days before the race so I've been able to sleep okay.  Though, I've been feeling like I'm starting to come down with the cold.  I felt pretty congested the morning of the race.  And, on top of that, my period started the day before the race (sorry if that's TMI).  Though, having such a busy week, it was easy to keep a relatively light week of training leading up to the race and allowing my legs to recover from a hard run the weekend prior.

But despite having a challenging week leading up to the race, the race went very well for me.  The race was a tough course with a lot of uphills and downhills.  I felt strong on the uphills, especially climbing up K2 (aka Training Hill).  My downhills were okay.  Not very fast but not super slow either.  The weather was perfect!  And, I had fun seeing so many friends at the race either racing or volunteering.

During the race, around mile 7 or so, I met Sarah, who recognized me from the MRTT (Mothers Run This Town) group.  We started chatting and ran the rest of the race together.  Nice having a friend to run with as it makes the miles go by seemingly faster.  Towards the end, when we were getting tired of all the hills, it was nice co-miserating with another.

Overall, race execution went well.  I wasn't sure if I'd be able to maintain a steady pace given the climbs but I did keep it very even throughout.  My last couple miles were a bit slower mainly because there were some tough climbs to the finish line (where I cursed a lot at Paulo, the RD).  I definitely feel like all my training the past couple months are paying off.

I finished in 4:32:44.  3rd in my age group and 8th female overall.  I haven't seen an AG win in years so that was a nice surprise.  The past few years, I've been at the back of the pack.  It's nice to feel like I'm back in the middle of the pack (and towards the front in smaller events).

My friends Roger and Veronica said to me how "Helen's back!"  I definitely feel like I'm almost back to my pre-baby racing self.


Three Favorite Moments:
1.  The K2 Climb.  Most people hate this climb but I know this hill so well now that I've come to love it and during the race, I climbed it well.  I know where to push it and where to ease up.  On the Monday before the race, I hiked up K2 carrying my baby in a baby carrier on my back.  During the race, with 16 lbs less weight, it felt less challenging.  Maybe I should train on hills with the baby more. ;-)  During the race, I felt my strongest climbing up this hill.  I passed a number of racers on the climb.  And, it was my second fastest time up it (fastest is in 2013).

days before the race hiking with the baby up K2

2.  Befriending, running and chatting with Sarah.  One thing I love about running is that you can just make friends in the middle of a run at any time.  And, during this race, I made a great new friend.  Around mile 7, I met Sarah.  She recognized me and introduced herself.  Then, we started chatting while we ran and we ran the rest of the race together.  We had many conversations about our own running, our children, our birth experiences, breastfeeding, training, food, music, beer, etc. . . The miles passed by quickly having her company.  I think we both pushed each other a little bit and may have been a little slower if were just running alone.

Sarah and I after we finished, seconds apart. :) 

3.  Seeing SO many friends out at this race both running the race and volunteering.  I enjoyed seeing my friends from my different running groups.  Every aid station had some familiar faces there.  I felt like I had a fun day hanging with many friends with a little bit of running.

with fellow FTRs before the race

with fellow Circle Cats after the race

Three Things That Went Well:
Think these are the same as my last race.
1.  Kept a steady, consistent pace/effort throughout the race.  Every hour, I looked down at my watch and I consistently hit every hour at about a 5mph pace (12 min/mile).

2.  My uphills.  K2 was my best climb of the race but I felt strong on all the uphills.  I moved up with purpose.  If I wasn't running, I was power hiking well.  I am a little slow going downhill but I felt like I could catch back up to people on the uphill.

3.  Efficient through the aid stations.  Forgot to time myself through the aid stations but I know I didn't waste any time in the aid stations.  I got in and out.

Three Things I Could Do Better: 
1.  Downhill running.  I need to practice more.  I don't think I was as slow downhill as I sometimes am but I know I could be faster.  I watch others pass me on the way down but I generally was able to catch back up once we hit the climbs.  My feet also got a little cramp-ish on the downhills near the end of the race making me dislike the downhills even more.

2.  Post-Run Hydration/Fueling.  I did better with hydration and fueling during the race.  But afterwards, I didn't drink enough water/fluids and eat enough after and it hit me later in the afternoon.

3.  Need to organize the stuff in my pack better and be better about carrying things I need and not carrying things I don't need.  I have a random assortment of crap in my pack and when I needed to get something, I had to fish around for it.  I have bars in there that I never eat that are just taking up space. I should toss them.

Three Things I Learned: 
1.  Carry and consume fuel I know works for me.  I fortunately put enough of the GUs I prefer as there were these other gels at the aid stations that I don't like.  I also carried one bottle of Tailwind.  I think sticking to the fuel I know has been working for me has been helpful in me not getting any GI problems in my races.  I used to just eat and drink whatever was at the aid stations that suited my fancy.  But, I used to have major stomach issues in races at times.  Lately, I haven't had any stomach issues (hopefully it stays that way) as I don't just eat and drink whatever anymore.  I stick with what I know works.

2.  It helps to do course-specific training.  I've run all over the course many times but I knew this race was a hilly course so I made sure I did a few K2 hikes in training, including hiking up with my baby on the Monday before the race.  And, a couple weekends ago, knowing the finish to this race had a tough climb, I took the dog and ran from finish location down a couple miles out and hiked back up the steep hill the race finished with.  Even though during the race, I was cursing the RD for throwing such a tough climb at the end, it did help me mentally at the end of the race to be familiar with the climb.  I not only knew going into the last few miles that I was going to be hit with a brutal climb, but I also knew exactly how long I had left to go.  This race has me thinking how I want to do a lot more training in the canyons to prepare myself for Canyons 100k.  This has also got me re-thinking about running Lake Sonoma 50.  While I'd like to run that race, Canyons is my A race and I'm thinking my preparation for Canyons may be better if I run out here (on the course) than at Lake Sonoma.  Still thinking on this though.

3.  Embrace the foam roller.  It's a necessary evil.  Rolling regularly is not something I'm good at doing, even though I know it'll be good for me.  Last week, my legs were feeling a bit fatigued after running the WS training run.  So, I made an effort to roll more this week.  And, it helped a lot.  My calves have been a little tender lately but rolling has helped.  And, during the race, my legs felt pretty good and strong during the race.  I'm going to try to be better about rolling more regularly.

Three Things About Fourmidable and Singletrack Running:
1.  Tough, challenging course but I like Paulo likes putting you on new trails.  And, he marked the course very well!

2.  Great support and swag!  Aid stations were well stocked with excellent volunteers.  There was great energy at all of them.  The finish party was a blast.  I always love the post-run tamales Singeltrack Running has at their events.  Yum!  And, I love the trucker hats instead of the shirts (which I have more than enough of already).

3.  Only complaint I have for the race is get better safety pins!  ;-P

finishing strong (photo credit: Matt Brayton)

American Canyon 25k (February 6, 2016)

American Canyon 25k

February 6, 2016

For the first race of the year, I did the American Canyon 25k.  The race went well and it was nice to get redemption after a DNF I got at the race in 2014.   Two years ago, it rained like crazy.  After slowly trudging through the mud and streams of water all over the trails, I turned around early and called it quits.  That year, it had hardly rained at all that winter so when the rain came, I wasn't used to running in rain.  This year, it rained nearly every weekend in January so I got lots of mud/rain running training.  But, on the day of the race this year, it was a sunny, beautiful day making for a great race!  

This race would be a first of a series of training races leading up to my A race, Canyons 100k, in May.  As a training race, it was a great training run for me.  I finished in 2:58:06 (and 4th in my age group).  I was really happy to have gotten under 3 hours.  I've been starting to feel some of my ol' pre-baby speed and strength starting to come back and definitely felt it during the race.  I felt like all the strength exercises and treadmill running I've been doing the past month was paying off.  I felt really strong out there.  

Three Favorite Moments:

1.  Running down to No Hands Bridge with Jackie and Heather.  We are pretty new friends through Ann's Running Circle so it was nice to get to know them a little better while we ran together.  I really enjoyed their company for the first few miles.

2.  Seeing my husband at the race too.  The past month, we've been doing most of our long runs together (we have a babysitter watch the baby) and that's been a lot of fun.  He did fairly well in this race. And, I had fun seeing him at various spots during the race. He had a few more challenges than me towards the end but he finished well.  And, I'll admit that it's kind of nice to have finished before him. ;-)











3. Hanging out at the finish seeing a number of other friends out at the race.  Even though it was a small race and not too many of the usual suspects were out, it was nice being out in the racing scene again. :)

Three Things I That Went Well:

1.  Paced myself really well.  I ran the first half in about 1:28-1:29.  And, I ran the second half in almost the exact same time.  I was a little surprised I was so even between the two halves.  I felt overall I put a good strong, consistently steady effort throughout the race.  

2.  My uphill running/hiking.  I felt great on all the up hills.  I ran a lot more than I expected to.  I didn't run all the hills but I also didn't just power hike them all either, which is what I was doing for some time.  It was nice to be able to run well on some of the not-too-steep hills. And, on the steeper hills, I felt like I was hiking faster up them than a month or so ago (all those treadmill inclines workouts helped).  The last few miles climbing back to ADO, I was able to really push it up the climb and passed a number of runners.  

3.  I was efficient at the aid stations.  I spent less than a minute overall at the aid stations.  I skipped the first one and hit up the 2nd and 3rd one.  I got it and out really quickly.  In the past, I have lost a lot of time at aid stations.  This time, I used my garmin lap button to time when I got in and out of the aid stations.  I think that was good in keeping me in check and not wasting time at the aid stations.  

Three Things I Need to Do Better:

1.   Running technical downhill.  My downhill running is one of my weaknesses.  I'm getting a little better at the smoother trails but if it's a bit more technical, rocky, I slow down to nearly a crawl.  I sometimes feel like some spots (like the section from Cool down to Highway 49 aid station), I go faster uphill than downhill.   

2.  Need to drink more water/electrolytes. I carried two 20 oz Ultimate Direction bottles of water and I barely drank half of that during the race.  I drank a bit more towards the end realizing I hadn't been drinking too much during the first half.  This didn't end up affecting my performance as I was only running 25k but I think if I had been going longer, it would have been.  After the race, I felt pretty dehydrated the rest of the day.  

3.  Pay attention to the trail.  I rolled my ankle (mildly) on a rock and nearly tripped another time because I was looking back and not looking at the trail.  I've had some bad ankle rolls and falls on the trails in the past so need to remember to pay attention better (especially if I start feeling tired).