That hurt

Took Jacob to Mt baker on Saturday for another snowboard lesson, we got there early and decided to attempt the rope tow and then the chair lift. Jacob couldn't get the rope tow down, but did great on the chair lift, a little trouble getting on, but got off great.

Jacob and I did two runs before his lessons started at 11:30. During his lesson I went up and down a couple times. Lots of nice powder. I only snowboard a couple times a year, but each time I 'feel' it after. It seems to use slightly different muscles than I'm used to.

After his lesson we had a bit of food and headed home. I didn't notice any 'new' muscles until dinner time. I wondered if I would attempt my run planned for Sunday morning. Jogged a bit to get the morning newspaper and felt fine, so decided to go and meet the group.

We planned a route that would hopefully get us about 4 hours. We ran south from the Vet clinic and took the connector up to the Lost Lake trail. Once on the Lost Lake trail we were on the 50k course and the plan was to follow the course all the way around Chuckanut Mountain to the bottom of the $2 trail and then skip Cleator and the Ridge.

Towards the middle of the Lost Lake section where it peaks, I got a bit behind the group as I was starting to feel fatigued and achy in my legs, no real pain yet, but needed to walk some of the hilly section back there. At the peak I was able to run just fine down to the start of chinscraper. I didn't stop, I wanted to get up the trail so the group would not have to wait as long at the top. I new I would be walking a lot of chinscraper. My HR was way up even just walking this section. I looked at my GPS data after and parts of chinscraper range from 17-25 percent grade. You feel like your chin could scrape the trail on the way up.

This tough section was working me over today, I got to the top and still had about 6 inches of snow up there, which made a softer/faster descent down Cleator road.

Coming down I was generally able to keep everyone in view until on Fragrance Lake Road and the faster guys got out of view, I was really feeling some tightness in my legs.

We got down to the bottom and then started up Fragrance Lake trail and must say WOW, I've never thought this lower trail was as tough as chinscraper, but it felt like it. My legs just did not want me to run. So I walked most this section. I was surprised to find the group waiting for me. I hoped they didn't wait long and told them to not wait at the next stop (they did - what a great group).

Even in lots of pain, I was able to run most of the $2 trail because it is generally flat to downhill. At the end we just had about 4 miles to get back to the cars, I started to run down Cleator road to the Interurban Trail, but running was pretty much out of the question by now. I had to walk down the road. Once on the flat IU I was able to run for about 5 minutes and then needed to walk. I walked quite a bit, ran some when I started feeling a bit better, but didn't last long, maybe 3-4 minutes max at a time, with at least that much walking.

This was just like the end of the 50k last year where I just couldn't run back. I had a little pain in the same spot as I had in the 50k and am seeing a PT for now, but my calf's were very close to cramping up and my upper legs (I think) were really dead from snowboarding.

I took my electrolytes on a same schedule I had been doing before, 2 about every 30 minutes. I think I may of missed or extended a bit, but think I took enough. Maybe not though, I had salt streaks around my eyes and chin. So maybe a combination of not enough electrolytes and sore muscles from snowboarding.

Next Sunday is a lower intensity run with less time planned as our last 'easy' week before getting into the final 3 week build of runs planned for 4, 4.5 and 5 hour runs.