RUN 30.00 miles in ~6:13, about a 12:20-something pace.
Week total: 53-ish miles running, 56-ish miles biking, 30 miles commute.
Just when you think you know Chubb, it turns out you don't know Chubb.
The goal was 30 miles. In my mind it was 30.00, as in 'not taking another step' once the Garmin beeped 30. This is the first of 2 high mileage weekends, the final tune-ups before the race. After that it's a sharp taper, so now is the time to hammer it all out.
Another gorgeous day. If there's anything to summarize this summer's weather, it's "what summer?". Seriously, it's always 70-some odd degrees and wonderfully cool outside lately. No long sleeved shirts yet, though! We also got clouds for most of the morning, more luck! A few problems, which I'll indicate with this little ^ tick mark. You'll see where this going soon enough.
I'll break it up into segments.
1-11: We decided to walk the uphills, and doing this early on was a huge save for me. It's something hard to do in a race when the gun is just shot off, so practicing it now was needed. Even though neither of us had a starting gun. TV didn't spray me with the usual DEET, and we joked that I'd be the negative control for today. ^ We started at the WT end, so up and over the bluff to start with a little Chingy to warm the legs up. We ventured out accidentally onto my "lost hill" where I slipped on rock--nice bruises! I ate q45 mins, had no issues at all, and enjoyed the new-to-us 3 mile Castlewood Loop (why why I told it's flat and boring? It's a pretty meadow and shaded trees!). We arrived at the water drop side at the end of the Chubb trail still feeling good, excepting I had something in my eye.
11-15: We found some new trails here and wandered a bit. The first trail dead-ended at the highway, and a turn off from that tapered out to a creek bed with no clear trail. The ends of these were rough, bushy, unopened and were probably the local deer commute paths. ^ To our surprise, we found another trail marked with turtle signs, and further exploring landed up at the bird sanctuary. I knew this was in the area, but had no idea it was right there!! Turns out we were on Turtle Bob's trail, it's part of the Sanctuary. This led us back to the Chubb trail (again to our surprise). Seeing our mileage, we knew we had some changes to make to our original Double Chubb plan.
16-24: Back to the start again adding miles at the Castlewood Loop, met up with a mule and a donkey (it's probably their poop I nearly landed in at a few points). Close to the parking lot that long run feeling was starting to settle in, a little bit of trail stare and clumsiness. But being so close to the truck it was easy to manage. We tried the baby food sweet potato--yum! At the truck, we met another runner--a younger guy thinking about 70.3 and RnR26.2. Do it!!! Hope he signs up :)
24-30: Now the pain was setting in, my right ankle did not want to start running again and left me limping up another new trail for the firt 0.25-0.5 miles. This new trail put us at the Chubb shelter, and so back up to the picnic table we went. Once there, we explored again and found a trail that is a detour around the steeper descent to the wall, and adds a few tenths on a narrow singletrack. Back up the hill to the picnic table, then back down the Chubb trail. By this time, I'm alternating between feeling good and feeling dead. Sounds about right. Once the parking lot, we needed another mile. So up and around Chingy, where I turn my right ankle a bit. I only mention it because I was surprise to learn that I was able to control the fear and keep running. (no damage from it later, I just get panicky?). Then another half mile needed. Up and around another side loop, and in this loop I started to crash. I just lost focus, but got it back once I quit walking.
30.00 STOP!
All was well until I peeled off my compression socks! TICKS!!!!!!! HOLY F^CK there were hundred's of them. Most washed off under water with some scrubbing, a few were too stuck and got plucked later. Turns out they were seed or larval ticks. I need to look up how ticks pick pathogens--whether vertical or host transmission. If it's vertical, I joked that I'd been exposed to every tick-borne encephalitis know to science. There was some hope that they were chiggers, but judging by my lack of skin reaction we're going with ticks. Another piece of good news is that they supposedly need 12+ hours to really attach and spread disease. I caught them in less than 8hrs.
Lots of water recovery, very little appetite, but felt surprisingly great!
What to work on next weekend? My current Cascadia's v8.1 are losing their soles, so I need to break in the new ones. I get hungry for something real around the 5hr mark, so maybe a sweet potato? Otherwise, keep it going into next weekend!
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