the last time i ran this race i had an injury that sidelined me for the 3 weeks prior to the race. this time around i'm definitely more prepared but nursing a different injury altogether that cropped up approximately 3 weeks ago. maybe a bit longer ago but it didn't hurt enough for me to count it as an injury... more of an annoyance.
today i feel ok. it still hurts but not enough for concern. i'm stretching a lot every night and also at crossfit. i've made the conscious decision not to run at all this week. as always... my training is there so the one week of no running prior to the race isn't going to make that much of a difference in my performance. in fact... it might be the thing that helps me perform better... it certainly isn't going to make or break me.
my strategy this time around is to temper my pace, not go out too fast, and try to stay steady for the out and back. it is going to be difficult because i LOVE this section of trail. LOVE IT! i tend to bomb the downhills and this, in turn, fries my quads and wrecks my toes. i need to go moderately effectively saving it for the loops. the loops are deceptively difficult. they're difficult because of the rollers. it's hard to run up and down and up and down and up and down... hard on the body.
right now a friend of mine is running the entire length of the iceage trail in wisconsin. 1,200 miles with the goal of completing it in 19 days. she's on day 8 right now. you can read about her progress here on her boyfriend (and crew support) brian's blog. it's really such an impressive, inspiring, and amazing feat of the human spirit. i will be channeling annie's strength on saturday for sure.
in order to meet one of my goals for this race, i need to maintain a pace of 10:37min/mile. so the strategy is to run the first 13 closer to just under 10 to make up for the ascents. the theory is that at this pace i should feel pretty comfortable on the loops and maybe just maybe i will feel good enough to push the pace on the final loop. we will see. i'm really going to try and keep that strategy.
i suppose that's all i can do now... it's a wait and see.
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