3 weeks out from Lake Sonoma 50 update, here is the week by the #’s
Miles ran: 65.7
minutes ran: 595
vertical gain: 10069′
shoes used: A mix of Altra Lone Peak 3.5s, 1 run in a pair of Superior 3.5s and 1 run in a pair of Olympus 2.5s
what other #s should I collect?
This week went pretty good, crushed a lot of work and took all my running in stride (hahah, see what I did there?) The big excitement for the week was my long run last Saturday. I participated in the organized, supported run on the Lake Sonoma 50 mile track. We ran 25 miles, point to point, essentially exposing us to the entire route…since it is an out and back with a halfway loop. Thankfully my buddy Jason Benford got a hall pass and joined me for the fun. I decided to drive down Friday afternoon and camp at the Marina. It is a 3.5 to 4 hour drive, so doing that the morning of was not going to happen. Jason rallied from his home late night and met up at the camp ground around 11:30. I was asleep….Van camping is nice. It rained all night and it rained hard. It made me seriously contemplate turning the alarm OFF and blowing off the run. I wasnt super pumped on being soaking wet and freezing for 4 to 5 hours. Eventually I got those thoughts out of my head and fell back to sleep committed to reconnoitering this trail.
Morning came, it was cold…but my set up in the van allows for me to make coffee from the sleeping bag, so sweet. I got my coffee and oatmeal made by 5 after 6 and still had not heard from Wolfman (Jason) so I texted him. I figured he had the same rain laden thoughts that I had all night…he responded to my text with a simple, “I am up”. hahaha
Once we had some food and coffee and I got on my Lone Peak 3.5s on my feet we rallied to get over to the Finish, to drop a car and then get over to the start. we had time in hand, but due to incorrect information on the run invite, we were almost late. I think we were the last guys to the start and the last guys to get out on the trail. It wasnt long before we connected up with groups of runners so no big deal
We ran the first 12 miles pretty chill moving forward through groups at a pretty casual pace. We connected with a local, Kevin I think, for a nice run to the aid station. We stopped, said hey, topped off the bottles and grabbed some GU before heading out for the second half of the route. After a little gravel road section we headed up on single track. I found myself running with a good rhythm and just kept that rolling.
This worked out pretty well in hind sight. Even though it was somewhat unspoken, I figured Wolfman would be taking the 20 mile cutoff (as this was his longest run ever) and I wanted to see the whole 25. It worked out almost perfectly where we ended up back at the finish van at a pretty similar time. Actually, I am not sure how long before me Jason got there, but he had come down to the road crossing to meet me at the end. We pretty much cleaned up and boogied out of there. We both had to drive home still, but Wolfman knew of a great mexican spot in Healdsburg, so we stopped and got some burritos. Hit the spot! The Drive home for me was pretty mellow, some traffic spots, but not too bad, I was just getting tired and oddly both my knees were aching.
What did I learn from getting on the track? Well, I learned I dont know what to expect of myself. The course is sneakily difficult and it is essentially 18 miles longer than I have ever raced. I will be trying to come up with a good strategy in the coming weeks. Until then, I hope to knock out this last week of training build before hitting the taper into race day.
Jason, thanks again for joining me, that made the trip so much better!
cyclists can't run 