Wow, I would love to go for a run there SLOgoing! I've only ever done a tiny bit of mountain running, being 600mi from the nearest (non-buried) range. Thanks for sharing the gorgeous views.
So, the indoor ultra was...something. When I hear "indoor track" I think warm air & soft surface - what I got was a 10c/50f building and about 0.001% humidity with huge fans blowing even chillier air over the PAINTED CEMENT track. I'm just glad I decided against using a pair of trail shoes since even in road trainers my poor left ankle got pounded into pudding - all my runs over 1hr lately have been on trail so I'm just not used to the hard surface, and the dry air was horrible with the remains of the sinus infection. I certainly wasn't the only one beaten up by the track, despite changing direction at the top of each hour. The change of direction involved a u-turn at the timing mats onto the inner track for half a lap, which was nice and soft...but also cambered at the ends, so you had to run a tight curve on a side slope. After the first couple of changes my ankles and knees said nope, so I'd walk until it flattened out and we moved back to the outer cement track.
(This was heading out for my last lap, which I finished with 32sec left on the clock. Note the sweater on Rebecca behind me - it was chilly in there!)
That said, I managed the full 8 hours, coming in 2nd (out of 3 total; I was the only female) with 282 laps / 65.565km - 18 laps / 4.185km behind the leader. There were also half marathon, marathon, 50k, 6-hour and 12-hour events, with 47 total runners & walkers among all events.
Quads weren't sore at all (bonus of no hills), but hamstrings and glutes were achy and my left ankle is still feeling a bit sore from the abuse. I would maybe have gone out for a short run today, but:
1) My cold got much worse starting Sunday evening, most likely from immune suppression due to the race on Saturday.
2) It's really icy out after a bunch of snow yesterday that turned into freezing rain.
3) I had to have an emergency extraction of my upper & lower left-side wisdom teeth yesterday morning.
So, while I'm back at the office today I don't think I'll be running until at least tomorrow. I spent most of yesterday in a La-Z-Boy chair under a Star Wars quilt watching DVDs and drinking smoothies, so just being back at work today is a big step and I'm feeling pretty awful between the sinusitis and the sore sockets.
I did manage to get out for a nice trail walk on Sunday afternoon before everything went to hell..
__________________________________________________________
ill advised racing inc.
So, the indoor ultra was...something. When I hear "indoor track" I think warm air & soft surface - what I got was a 10c/50f building and about 0.001% humidity with huge fans blowing even chillier air over the PAINTED CEMENT track. I'm just glad I decided against using a pair of trail shoes since even in road trainers my poor left ankle got pounded into pudding - all my runs over 1hr lately have been on trail so I'm just not used to the hard surface, and the dry air was horrible with the remains of the sinus infection. I certainly wasn't the only one beaten up by the track, despite changing direction at the top of each hour. The change of direction involved a u-turn at the timing mats onto the inner track for half a lap, which was nice and soft...but also cambered at the ends, so you had to run a tight curve on a side slope. After the first couple of changes my ankles and knees said nope, so I'd walk until it flattened out and we moved back to the outer cement track.
(This was heading out for my last lap, which I finished with 32sec left on the clock. Note the sweater on Rebecca behind me - it was chilly in there!)
That said, I managed the full 8 hours, coming in 2nd (out of 3 total; I was the only female) with 282 laps / 65.565km - 18 laps / 4.185km behind the leader. There were also half marathon, marathon, 50k, 6-hour and 12-hour events, with 47 total runners & walkers among all events.
Quads weren't sore at all (bonus of no hills), but hamstrings and glutes were achy and my left ankle is still feeling a bit sore from the abuse. I would maybe have gone out for a short run today, but:
1) My cold got much worse starting Sunday evening, most likely from immune suppression due to the race on Saturday.
2) It's really icy out after a bunch of snow yesterday that turned into freezing rain.
3) I had to have an emergency extraction of my upper & lower left-side wisdom teeth yesterday morning.
So, while I'm back at the office today I don't think I'll be running until at least tomorrow. I spent most of yesterday in a La-Z-Boy chair under a Star Wars quilt watching DVDs and drinking smoothies, so just being back at work today is a big step and I'm feeling pretty awful between the sinusitis and the sore sockets.
I did manage to get out for a nice trail walk on Sunday afternoon before everything went to hell..
__________________________________________________________
ill advised racing inc.