2023 Badwater 135 Training | Week 1

With Darris at the Cape Fear start!
Week one got off to an awesome, complicated start at the Cape Fear 51.4 mile race on Bald Head Island, where (spoiler alert), I forgot to pee for six hours and when I did, started peeing blood.  Second spoiler alert: yes, I've had a doctor's appointment and I'm fine.

I had hoped to use the big mileage at the race to head into a easy but higher mileage week (80), but personal complications as well as some lingering pain in my right IT band and left anterior tibial tendon cut that off.  My bulkiest mileage is in April and May, so I prioritized recovery to avoid lingering injuries.  I was not thrilled about this and second guessed it a few times - then I would get up to let the dog out, feel the pinch in my IT band, and know it was still the right decision.

Saturday, 3/18:  Cape Fear 51.4 mile race, hosted by AdventureCorps in cooperation with the Bald Head Island Conservancy.  12-ish miles around the island community, followed by 38-ish miles on the beach.  We were greeted with wind and rain, though not nearly the amount of wind and rain that had been predicted.  I used a porta-porty about an hour into the race, and while I was sad to leave the great group of women I was running with, they were out a little hot for my style (I start conservatively) so it was for the best.  While conditions were challenging for the first out and back, I was able to pull tens on the hard sand, felt fantastic, and got to share time with two fantastic women.  The second trip out brought more intense headwinds and softer sand, and I shifted to a diligent 5:1 run/walk ratio. 

About halfway to the turnaround, I realized I hadn't peed in about six hours and immediately went behind a sand dune to try.  When I couldn't, I theorized/hoped/prayed I was having a little stage fright because I still felt exposed.  I pushed the fluids harder (I had been drinking plenty) and stopped to try again about 20 minutes later with no luck.  Finally, at the turnaround, there was an indoor park bathroom.  To my chagrin, I peed, but it was tinged with blood.  I filled my pack with a liter and a half of water, ate some salt, and resigned myself to walking until I was peeing clear.

Started drinking every three minutes.  Peed again an hour later.  Still bloody.  Kept drinking, ate more salt. Peed again in about twenty minutes - mirabile dictu, it was clear!  Transitioned back to an increasing run/walk ratio, but high tide had hit so it was more like stumble/walk through soft sand while dodging the worst of the incoming waves.  My journey through this section of the race was lightened by some wonderful company, although I had about half a pound of sand lodged under a single toenail that caused some outright raw pain.

Thrilled to have broken ten hours for my first ridiculously long run on beach sands, but it looks like I will have to return to see what I can actually do on this course if I, you know, remember to drink and urinate properly.

Sunday, 3/19:  Drove home, drank about four liters of water, ate a box of Samoas.

Monday, 3/20:  Made a doctor's appointment, avoided activity as I was honestly pretty freaked out.  With no symptoms of a UTI or kidney stones, a hematuria (bladder bruising/broken capillaries) was diagnosed.  With a reminder not to run without peeing for six hours again, which I already knew.

Tuesday, 3/21:  3 mile uphill walk @ 10% grade for 1585 feet of gain (how Ohioans get their vert), drive to Akron to visit MIL in rehab for broken leg, 4 mile shakeout upon return.  Legs tired, IT band sore.

Wednesday, 3/22:  Headed out for an easy 8 mile run; by mile 4, the right IT band and left tibial tendon were taking turns screaming at me.  Gutted it out for one more mile before getting the message; walked home cursing sand.

Thursday, 3/23:  Doubted my decision to take a day off and reduce my written weekly mileage until I got up to let the dog out and felt the pinch in my IT band.  Glad it was happening early in the training cycle.

Friday, 3/24:  Easy 5 mile morning run.  Legs still heavy but IT band only whispering and tibial tendon recovered.  Scrapped planned uphill hike in an abundance of caution and to preserve chances of completing Saturday long run.

Weekly wrap up:  65 miles running, 3 uphill hiking miles, 30 minutes strength and core.  

The real work now begins, including my first sauna sessions this week.  Also Ohio, you need to warm up.  Highs in the 50's just aren't going to do it, even with layering.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Second Last of the Mohicans

Very few events have the power to refine our souls. I use the word "soul" because it wasn't my heart, it wasn't my mind, it was literally my entire being. It went beyond the cobwebs in the head and the things we take up in life for no other reason than to complicate it. It went beyond those things that we can't explain but we can't ignore, and how we learn to live within them. This is the story of an event that refined my soul. It started when I landed in Minneapolis, and I knew something was wrong. I had a text from the girls at Mohican, and Dave had slowed considerably. He was still approaching mile 65. He and Steve had reached mile 40 at 1:45 pm, or just shy of nine hours in. Past 8 pm, six hours later, he wasn't yet at Mohican Adventures. I learned that it had hit 90+ degrees in the area and that the field was slowly being decimated. Just as we were about to leave Minneapolis, I got word that he was at mile 65 and "hurting a bit." I told Kati...
Read more

Burning River 2010: Boys, Bees, Bats, Beasts and Toad the Wet Sprocket

Never in a million years could I have guessed that this would be the story. Two weeks ago, after the Buckeye Trail 50K, I told Darris that what I would be doing on July 31 was a mystery to me. I could be running it, running the entire thing with my friend Darrin, or pacing Darrin from mile 65 to the finish. Darris told another friend of mine about the webcast, which I promptly told him not to watch. The thing is, I said, the webcast doesn't necessarily tell the story. It doesn't say if I fell apart, or if he fell apart, or if something's gone really wrong or really right. But in spite of it all, not a crystal ball, not a Shakespearean-era soothsayer, not a message directly from one of my loved ones above could have prepared me for this one. No, never in a million years would I have guessed where this year's story would start. Or stop. Or end. Or begin all over again. Because at 10:30 Saturday night, I found myself sitting on a park bench at Wetmore Road. *** If you read...
Read more

Tell Me Again What "Badwater" Is?

Image
The Badwater 135 is held each year in July, when temperatures in Death Valley are likely to be hottest.   When I say “hottest,” I don’t mean hot in the traditional sense of the work; after all, the hottest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134 degrees.   One should note this also stands as the hottest atmospheric temperature ever recorded on earth.   On earth.   Sure, that was back in 1913, but make no mistake: Death Valley got its name for a reason. The course itself covers 135 paved miles through Death Valley National Park and Inyo County, traveling through the remote towns of Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, Panamint Springs, Darwin, Keeler, and Lone Pine – with a detour, this year, toward Olancha due to flooding.   Starting at 282 feet below sea level and topping out 8,360 feet above sea level at the Whitney Portal, the course was originally conceived to go from the lowest point in the contiguous United States (the Badwater Basin at -282 feet) ...
Read more