Sunday, May 19, 2013

Stone Steps Tune Up


I ran the 11-mile Mount Airy trail race last year with Brian. The trails were dry and fast and I ended up 61/63 overall. Even if you “give me” the time lost running down the wrong trail, I was still at 58/61. Not very impressive.

This year was different in two respects. My 2013 training miles are over three times that of 2012, and the course today was muddy. Still not sure if I’m happy with the results, but I ran the hardest my body would handle. My ave heart rate of 158 and max of 168, given my max is 170, tells me I did not leave anything on the trails. Quite the contrary, I took a few pounds of it with me.


Like last year, the “two lappers” started 15 minutes before those running one lap (5.5 miles). I was passed by the top four of the 5.5 mile race at maybe mile 4. The eventual winner flew by as if the mud was not even a factor. It made me think of the motocross days when the answer to a muddy track was holding the throttle wide open and pointing the bike in the general direction of where you wanted to go. (fyi, I did not do well on muddy tracks = no balls; but crashes were spectacular) But still, the first lap was fun and although muddy I averaged under a 12 min pace and ran a 10 min pace in some spots. The descents however were very difficult and were probably slower than the climbs. The second lap was a different story after over 150 people turned the trail into a greasy mess.

The trails, climbs, descents and bridges were now very slippery. I was frankly just happy to get around without getting hurt, as some of the descents were more like skiing than running. The last quarter mile is on road and grass and I was within sight of 5 runners. I ran as hard as I could but fell short by less than 20 seconds. So I finished 36/41 overall and the top of those over 55.

Overall a good test of fitness and I’ll need increased miles to be ready for Stone Steps 50K at Mount Airy in the fall. The Stone Steps race includes two killer climbs that are bypassed on race I did today. If the Stone Steps race has mud, I’m in for a long day.

No finish photo today, just this, whatever it is