Well, I am supposed to be tapering starting last week and going through this week, which means taking it easy. This morning though, I felt like a puppy that wanted to chase anything that moved. I started out my run at the entrance to Chino Hills State park and saw a mountain biker take off up the hill. In normal training, I make it a point to try and catch mountain bikers up the hills, but right now I supposed to be taking it easy. This morning for some reason, I just couldn't resist. I took off after him. It looked like he was making it a point to stay ahead of me, which made me salivate even more. I finally over-took him and kept on pushing it up the 1/2 mile climb. By the top I had put a good distance between me and him, but knew he would be coming up strong on the down hill. Feeling winded from the effort, I decided that I would take the rest of my 12 mile run easy. I continued down Lower Aliso Canyon and turned around at my halfway point to head back out. Once I reached the main road out, I saw a mountain biker coming down the main trail to head out of the park. I tried to resist, but couldn't. I started the chase up the road. He had a good lead on me with his momentum from the downhill, but I knew he would slow down on the steeper sections. Once the road turned back to dirt again, I began to make up some distance. I could tell he heard me coming because he started looking over his shoulder. Now the chase was really on! He knew I was there and he didn't want me to catch him. The flat sections, he would pull away a bit, but on the hills, I would gain again. The last section was the steepest and about 1/2 mile to the top. He was about 60-75 yards ahead. I knew I needed to kick it up to catch him now. I picked up the pace even more and started to close some serious ground. He looked back and picked it up too. At the top, he got me by about 5 yards. The final 1/2 mile out of the park was all down hill. He slowed down as if to let me catch up, but I wasn't going to push it on the down hill. It felt really good to get my heart rate up, and cadence up. I am really feeling in shape. Still I question; am I fit enough for 100 miles? We'll see.
Saturday's run was much more leisurely. I did about 13 miles with the majority on single-track. I even took some time to stop and take pictures! It was really cool to be back on the trails I used to train on with my mountain bike. The only not-so-leisurely part was the downhills. I took these opportunities to practice my downhill running. Yes, I actually have to practice running down hill. This is my week point, because I just don't like running down hill. For me, I run more on my toes/forefoot. Running downhill like this will cause injuries and pains that can be avoided by running them correctly. I have really had to train my body to lean back some and land towards the heal of my foot. This has given me the ability to run the down hills much, much faster, and with less pain to my lower legs and knees. It has also helped me build stronger quads. In some of my first posts, I had talked about this, and I am finally getting the form down. Saturday's run just really cemented it in.
Everything really seems to be coming together and with less than two weeks to go, I am glad it is!
Speaking of everything coming together, I am still in need of 1 more pacer and 1-2 more crew members. If you are interested, please either send me an email, message me on FB, or post a reply here. I would really appreciate any help and I am sure you will have an interesting and good time.
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