Diablo 50-Miler number 5
You know what the lamest part about running ultras in extreme heat is? The shower afterward. You spend all day sweating out salt and chafing in as many as four places (anus, thighs, nipples, armpits) and then you hobble your way into in the shower, and the water washes all the salt on you into the open wounds. It's like the Macaulay Culkin aftershave scene in Home Alone, only with more expletives.
I ran the Diablo 50-Miler for the fifth consecutive year yesterday, and managed to take over 50 minutes off my previous best time, finishing in 12:39, despite it being 90 degrees. The race almost immediately goes on singletrack, creating a long singe-file line of people trudging up the steep slope. After climbing straight to the top of Eagle Peak, the single track drops off steeply. Steep technical downhills are my favorite part of running and probably my relative strength, in that I love to bomb down stuff where other people might pick out individual steps. So this year, for the first time, I started near the very front of the pack, in the first 15 runners, so that I would be able to let loose on this section instead of getting caught behind more sensible, cautious people. Only I didn't really slow down after that. I reached Rock City the first time (mile 24.5) in 5 hours. If I'd managed to keep that pace the entire 50 miles, well, I'd be insane and I would've maybe won the race. To make a long story short, I slowed down, puked, didn't really bomb the last 8 mile downhill section like I normally love to do, but still managed to finish before dark for the first time.
Some thoughts and gear and technique and stuff:
I ran the Diablo 50-Miler for the fifth consecutive year yesterday, and managed to take over 50 minutes off my previous best time, finishing in 12:39, despite it being 90 degrees. The race almost immediately goes on singletrack, creating a long singe-file line of people trudging up the steep slope. After climbing straight to the top of Eagle Peak, the single track drops off steeply. Steep technical downhills are my favorite part of running and probably my relative strength, in that I love to bomb down stuff where other people might pick out individual steps. So this year, for the first time, I started near the very front of the pack, in the first 15 runners, so that I would be able to let loose on this section instead of getting caught behind more sensible, cautious people. Only I didn't really slow down after that. I reached Rock City the first time (mile 24.5) in 5 hours. If I'd managed to keep that pace the entire 50 miles, well, I'd be insane and I would've maybe won the race. To make a long story short, I slowed down, puked, didn't really bomb the last 8 mile downhill section like I normally love to do, but still managed to finish before dark for the first time.
Some thoughts and gear and technique and stuff:
- Bottles vs. Hydration Pack
- Electrolytes
- Training Specificity
But it's got Electrolytes? It's what's plants crave!
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Garret. Nice PR.
ReplyDeletevery dark yellow-brown urine after such strenuous activity could quite possibly be due to what is called "march hemoglobinuria", a microangiopathic intravascular hemolysis caused by mechanical stress injury to red blood cells (RBCs) in the capillaries of your feet. Basically, you beat the hell out of your RBCs with all that running, and a bunch of them explode. That releases more heme than normal, which is degraded to biliverdin and then to unconjugated bilirubin. The bilirubin is conjugated in the liver, secreted in bile, converted into urobilinogen by bacteria in the gut, reabsorbed into the bloodstream, and then some of it is filtered by the kidneys and excreted into the urine. Upon exposure to the environment (pissing), the urobilinogen is oxidized to urobilin, which gives the urine a darker yellow-brown color.
ReplyDeleteEither that, or you're just really dehydrated and concentrating your urine like crazy, which would just make it very very very yellow (smaller concertrations of urobilin).
I could never carry a pack during races, even 100's, because it felt weird -- interesting how everyone requires a different approach.
ReplyDeleteAnd very much agree about the specific training -- gotta get used to the thing.