Training Log Archive: Gswede

First run back from ultramarathon. Everything feels good except for a nagging pain in my lower back.

So I woke up this morning and things don't feel too bad. I can walk without any difficulty. Also getting up from a sitting position isn't all that tough. It certainly was yesterday. Thank goodness that the human body can recover so quickly.

My 102 kilometer race from Madrid to Segovia. I have lots of reflections on this race and I'm sure that I will be updating this entry a few more times in the future.

Overall I am happy with my race. There were a few things I felt that I could have easily changed to really improve my race. Even so the enormity of what I was doing really didn't hit me until about a marathon into the race. I was climbing a hill and I looked back and saw the four towers of Madrid jutting out of the mist in the distance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuatro_Torres_Busines...

What really shocked me is that we had started there and it was so far away... and I wasn't even halfway done.

We started the race VERY quickly. It felt so easy, which just tells me that I am in very good shape. I tried to control myself and let the lead pack take about a 400-500 meter lead on me. Even so I was averaging about 4:25 per k, about 20 seconds per k faster than what my goal pace was. I wasn't sure if I should have slowed down since the record holder for the course put himself right at the front of the pack. I suppose I was thinking that he might be trying to pick up time in the beginning because he would slow down in the mountains at any rate. Later he dropped out so I think he went out faster than he wanted.

My camelback bladder got a hole somewhere in it about 8k into the race and was losing water quickly. At an aid station at about 30k I told the volunteers and they gave me a 1.5L water bottle. This was a decent solution. I now had a non-leaking container, but a water bottle in my backpack is much less accessible than a camelback tube running to my mouth. This made hydration more difficult.

I also ran with a backpack. Looking back I think this was a mistake, at kilometer 80 I was really wishing I wasn't carrying so much weight. A smaller fuel belt would have been much better. Most of the people running with me had that. Just enough space to carry two 500ml water bottles, some gels, and the required equipment. I was carrying a lot of dead weight and it showed.

I felt reasonably good up to 50k. After 50k is when the race got realllly hard. We had a nice cover of clouds until that point, after 50k the sun let me know it was as strong as ever. It got VERY hot. A difficult thing for me in Spain is to judge how much water I've lost. On the east coast of the US and Canada the humidity makes it easy because I can see sweat coming off of me, it soaks my clothes and makes sure I am aware of water loss. Not in Spain, it's so dry that suddenly I pee and my urine is dark yellow. At that point rehydration is so difficult mid-race that the race is really screwed. Not this race though, that is a point I am very proud about. Despite my camelback breaking and high temperatures I was able to keep myself well-hydrated throughout the whole race.

At about 54k is when the muscle cramps started, and they were bad. At one point I had to stop for about 7-8 minutes to massage out cramps in my thighs and hamstrings. I have never had a cramp hold on so much as the one in my thigh. It just felt like someone had put a rock above my knee. I tried to prevent this with salt intake (I carried a bag of salt with me) and plenty of fluids. I don't believe the cramps I have gotten in my runs are due to loss of sodium though. After reading a bit on the differences between cramps due to muscle fatigue and those due to sodium deficiency, I have decided that my muscle cramps are of the muscle fatigue variety. According to research muscle fatigue cramps relax with stretching and massage and are localized to the muscles that are overloaded with work at that moment, while sodium deficiency cramps respond better to a treatment of liquids and salt intake. My cramps responded when I massaged and stretched them. They didn't respond to high fluid and salt intake. That's enough evidence for me. So what does this mean? My muscles were tired because I had run so far. That's not surprising since every step after 50k was unexplored territory for me. (52k since the race was 102k overall).

I walked a lot more than I would have liked in the second half. But it's about all I had my legs. I felt that I had poorly paced my race (which could have been true), but I actually moved up in places over the course of the race. The only exception was over the last 11k when I was REALLY hurting and couldn't run for more than a k at a time.

The whole race was good. It was funny as I ran through places that previously had a completely different meaning for me. Running through Colmenar Viejo where we had the Madrid Sprint Championships the previous December. Manzanares el Real is where I go through on the bus daily and visited with Hannah in the Spring. When I ran through Cercedilla it was shocking how many emotions appeared as the memories surged up of all the trips to my friend Ryan's place there. Past the bus stop where we always waited to get back to Madrid, through the center of town where Spaniards were sitting down having a few drinks or eating lunch. I really felt that I was doing something special as the whole town seemed to cheer for me in the plaza.

That brings up another point. Spaniards are very enthusiastic spectators. Essentially everytime I saw someone during the race they cheered me on, "¡Animo! ¡Vamos, campeon!" That felt great.

My two favorite moments of the race.

The biggest single climb of the race was a 600m uphill from Cercedilla to el Puerto de la Fuenfria (Fuenfria pass) on an old Roman footpath. Cercedilla was already at kilometer 64 and I was considering dropping out at that point. I had more than a marathon left and already felt completely destroyed. Instead I did what I could to mix running and walking as I climbed the 600 meters to the pass. There was an aid station right at the pass with a crowd of about 15-20 people. As I closed in and went to the aid station to get the required stamp they gave me a strong round of applause and a warm welcome, "¡¡Bienvenido a la Fuenfria!!" (Welcome to Fuenfria). It was so hard to get there that the fact of having arrived there overwhelmed me. I almost broke down right there in front of them. They were shocked at how young I was and that this was my first Ultra. I needed some ego inflation after having been humbled by the hill.

The other moment was the last 4k into Segovia and sitting on the bench afterwards. It was a gentle downhill slope into the city and I was surrounded by people cheering me on. It felt like my legs were stuck in mud every time I took a step. But these people had come out to cheer me on and I didn't want to let them down. I felt like a professional athlete as I came down the finish with so many animated spectators, old women whispering and pointing in the back, little kids looking at me with innocent eyes. Perhaps they couldn't fully understand the distance, I couldn't either before I finished. I continued running downhill until I burst into the plaza next to the Roman aqueduct. The spectators directed me to the left and there I crossed the line with a fist pump just as I had envisioned the whole race. The race director put the medal over my head with a smile on my face.

Then I exited the finishing area and went and sat down on a bench only about 20 meters away. I was destroyed. People were walking by and looking at me as if I had started screaming in the middle of the square. I was unconcerned. Some people came up and asked me how long the race was. I told them and they walked away surprised. Some of them saying how crazy we were. Yes we are, just a bit.

But as I sat there and felt the endorphins flowing I started to look around and realize where I was. The emotions took control. I was happy. Very happy. I had done something that seemed so improbable. I had covered a tiny section of the Earth's surface on foot in a relatively short amount of time. I sat on that bench with a silly grin on my face and enjoyed the moment. Then I went and had a Dönner Kebap, which was on the house when I told the guys what place I had finished in. Such nice fellows.

Those are all the reflections for now. But like I said, there will be more to come.

A good solid run with a bit of climb and a 3k pick-up. Nothing serious I just needed to get my legs moving. I also took a good long break to stretch part-way through. That time was a great opportunity to check out some Toros also. Looked like they were the ones getting ready for my town's Running of the Bulls. Will I join in? The week after running 100k? If my legs work I'll give it a try.

Out and back exploring Urb. Fontenebro. Lots of uphill. Also lots of empty streets. Good evidence of the Spanish building craze and then the burst of the Real Estate bubble. It hit (and continues to hit) Spain hard.

A good hilly run around Moralzarzal. I made the mistake again of going without water in the heat of the day. Pretty much everytime I stopped it was at a fountain to drink water. Even with that my urine was turning dark yellow. It just feels so cool in my house. A good reminder to drink early and often in the race.

Even so, I'm surprised with how quickly I did this with all the factors (heat, uphill, solo training session. Good sign.

Less than a week left. Starting to get nervous.

Short easy run while exploring Moralzarzal. I love tapering.

Camino de Capellania just before sunset.

Casa de campo with the Fedoboys. They were commenting on how fit I looked.

Casa de Campo early in the morning. It rained last night. Weirrd.

Casa de Campo alone. A good run.

Easy run in the park. I love this tapering business.