Race Report aka One Step Back, Two Steps Forward...

.....a race report or as I have come to describe it ...'the pounding, the pounding' (said like Col Kurtz in Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now). The Foolsrun ended up being one helluva a decent little race considering it's a kinda out of the way.

I went in with some fairly low expectations. I've had some good training (208, 188 kms) the previous two weeks and had a slight down week (more down in some respects, but more up than others) at 147km. The problem with this week was that I was hoping for around four easier days and only ended up with 3. That may not sound like much, but I've found that I don't recover well when I go three high weeks in a row (I work well of one high, one med and one high, one lower though). But I still felt I could run around 1:07:30 pace comfortably (goal pace). But as often happens things didn't work out as planned.

I knew Ryan Day was running beforehand, but knew little of anyone else. I also knew that Day had been training hard and when he’s on a roll he can be very tough. Figured I’d play things by ear as a race plan, as I knew little about the course (until 8-9 on Sat night I actually thought the race started in Sechelt and ended up in Gibsons (it was actually the other way around). I lined up a little late and after about 100m had Jason Louttit roll in behind with some sort of cheerful ‘hello’. I also knew that Jason has been racing much lately and would also be competitive. Day went out pretty hard and I somewhat tucked in but never right behind (more like 5 metres back so no real advantage). I almost knew after about 2 miles that this might be a long day, but it’s ‘training’ right now so I began running my own race as Ryan continually pulled away ( I said to Jason he ‘s either going to blow up or run one helluva race…it sounded as by the end he’d done both). Jason and myself never really ran together as well. He was always just lurking behind me (he was really pushing the downhill and I’d pull away on the uphill), but by around mile 5 I could feel myself struggling with my mechanics (a little like the Fall when I didn’t really hurt, but couldn’t run any faster). I let Jason go thinking I would take a run at him later on….if I’d only known….

The Foolsrun might be net downhill, but with the nasty hills early on I’d say it’s pretty accurate and one tough race if you are in my current state (haven’t trained much on the roads and don’t like downhill). I’ve come to realize that as much as I like fartlek running I have become a rhythm runner. My legs were really feeling the varying terrain over the first half and by the time I hit the point where I normally make a move I was going the other way. I realized I wasn’t going to catch Jason, never mind Ryan, and cruised it in. I figured I lost around a minute to Jason over the last 2 miles. My quads (especially my right one) were in pretty rough shape by the end, along with my right IT Bands (which tells me my mechanics were not good). Ended up at 1:08:41 (I think), which was disappointing but I tend to really learn from all my racing experiences irrelevant of the final outcome. Ryan (106:2? and Jason (1:07 flat) ran great races and they both look as though they will ready for some of their upcoming events

In the context of how much the course beat up my legs it’s was actually a good thing to happen. I tend to learn a lot from racing and analyze many aspects of how things go. It’s not making excuses, but more how I learn what I need to do and fix the problems. I know that in a week when my quads (specifically my right one) recover I will be way ahead of where I thought I should be. If there was any indication of learning it was in my night Sunday run where I altered my mechanics and actually ran pretty decent despite my sore legs. Even on my afternoon Monday run I almost stopped because of my right quads (the left one is fine), but kept on going. I couldn’t really use my right quad much and ‘pulled’ more with my glutes and all of a sudden I was flying without really trying. We’ll see...the last time my legs were this sore was three weeks before I won Canadian XC's (Graeme Fell absolutely destroyed me in a haney to harrison leg)...wishful thinking....I hope more than that...