Rocky 50

Somehow, with how casually we took the training for Rocky 50, it didn’t hit me that this was going to be the second hardest race ever, second only to the Ironman in 2018.

The lead up consumed my life a lot less than training three sports, but hike/running sunup to sundown definitely was reminiscent of some of the Ironman long days. Just at lower intensity. The recovery from these training sessions and the race itself was so much less (a week later, I’m pretty happy, the Ironman took like SIX WEEKS). However the day of? Very very difficult effort.

Instead of retyping a lot of things I’ve already put words to, I’m going to copy some of my social media posts leading up to and after the race for posterity.

20 miles at Town Lake -> 20 million lbs of cheese.

A while ago, we saw an eatery (right next to our gym, ?) called Deluca, which is a Brazilian Pizza restaurant. Yes, this is what it sounds like – instead of a steakhouse, they just bring around slices of pizza. We were ultra running curious at that point and said when we did our first 20 miler, we’d come here for dinner.

Well, today was the day. We set out around 1030am, and the weather was impeccable, and so was the people-watching. Most memorable was the end, with a guy standing on the railing of one of the bridges (drenched, as if it wasn’t his first illegal jump) and a dude in a toy tesla truck (NOT a little kid). We started with a “run 0.1 miles, walk 0.4” cadence but started increasing this once we gained a little confidence. Both knees and ankles felt cranky at times, but the broken parts rotated throughout my legs, so that means it was nothing serious and while I am generally sore all over, nothing is too bad. For, ya know, doing 20 miles.

Feeling confident (at least more confident) about the 50k in February. I think if I had someone feeding me through the whole day I coulda kept going. 11 more miles? Well, we’ll find out. And I have a few more of these planned to test this theory.

We finished around 430, and headed home to clean up as quickly as we could and then consumed lobster bisque, arugula salad, meatballs, and I think I counted 13ish small slices by the crusts left… about a small pizza’s worth. The Turkish lamb pizza was the best and I’d go back maybe even for the Ala carte if not the full gluttony.

I die now. I have a personal trainer appointment at 10am tomorrow and I know one thing for sure – it ain’t leg day. ?

First 20 miler (Dec 29th)

Been a really super by-the-books build to a 50k. ?

For example, we had 22 miles on the plan because, idk, it was somewhere between 20, which we did last time, and 31.1, which is race distance. We had tentatively planned to do another long run/walk and picked 25 miles because our longest training runs for a marathon are 20 miles, and then you add 10k on race day. Samesies here.

So, because time is an illusion these days, I had our 25 planned for last week in January, which actually ended up to be Feb 1, which was 7 days out from the race. Oopsies. And the next two weekends don’t really have time for stuff like this, so when I asked @jetsers if he could wrap his head around 3 more miles he pretty much did this ?and our counter went from 17 more miles to 20 more miles at mile 5. Glad I have such an adaptable adventure buddy.

My nutrition plan for the race is basically 2x some kid’s school lunch. I ate two chicken salad sandwiches and two bags of chips, maybe a scoop and a half of tailwind, and a few handfuls of candy. I burned about 2800, ate a little over 1k, and felt pretty good the whole time. Definitely need fewer calories to walk/run than just run.

The first 13 miles were awesome. We started the first 3 faster to warm up, running half a mile, and walking half a mile. Then, we took the whole 10 mile Town Lake loop with the camelback after a change of shoes (I’m breaking in new trail shoes so lots of changes today) with about a .2 mile run, .3 mile walk cadence. By the end, Joel had crampy calves, and sadly a pit stop and nutrition didn’t fix it, so miles 14-20 were mentally rough. I can’t walk as quickly as he can without something cramping myself, but I still possessed the power to run, so I just turned on the headphones and let him pass me, then I caught up and got ahead until he caught me over and over.

The next stop was just after 20 miles and I changed shoes again and we agreed on at least 3 more and somehow finished up 5 just as it was getting a little sketchy to see with my sunglasses on.

Pretty fun day overall, and had the best Indian food for dinner. We ordered 3 entrees and an appetizer. Some came home but not as much as you might think.

Bring it on, Rocky 50k! But… um… not right now, thanks.

Impromptu 25 Miler (Jan 12)

Twelve hours from now, we will attempt to go further on foot than we ever have before! ???? ????

After a lovely morning but also stressful morning of work, we shut it down and started to prepare for tomorrow.

50k race prep is something different:
-Get ice, like 50 lbs of it, so we have enough for the camelback twice even if some melts
-Nap. Totally important part of today
-5k walk back and forth to packet pickup and race briefing, and dropped our drop bags off
-Eating alllll the food. My body somehow knows what it’s in for tomorrow, and I think I ate four full meals today
-Race nutrition prep: using an entire half loaf of bread to make chicken salad sandwiches and sunbutter jellies for Joel White as well as all the chips and candy
-Kinda feels weird laying out a tank top and shorts for a Feb 8th race, but here we are with a high of 83 tomorrow. It’s better than 30 and rainy for a trail race!

Everything is now locked and loaded, all the stuff is packed, and only one more sleep until Rocky 50! Woo!

Day Before Rocky 50 (Feb 7)

Rocky 50… ??

I was unprepared for the adventure that was to be. I mean, I trained for it. But I highly underestimated the difference between the trails I trained on vs the Rocky course. It wasn’t the elevation, as this was pretty mild, but… the roots. They mentioned them but I was like, whatever, trails have tree roots. This course has ROOTS.

For some reason at the start, my legs weren’t feeling fresh and it never really got better, but sometimes that’s what the day gives you. I have no shortage of training on tired legs so it was what it was. Joel thought we forgot his sandwiches in the camper, so we took a .75 mile detour and found they were in his pack. D’oh for both of us forgetting to check. We kept a nice pace the first loop, enjoying the aid station buffets – normally there’s PBJs and fruit and chips and pickles, but bacon at mile 9 and 15 was a treat. I ate my chicken salad sandwiches as planned and noted some candy when spirits got low. I was a hydration champ and even ran my camelback out between the 6 miles between stops, which is not normal for me but I guess that’s what a random 85 degree day in February does.

I also had my first trail fall around mile 14. My foot caught something invisible and I went down… but thanks to 13 years of gymnastics muscle memory kicked in and I just tucked my head and rolled over my shoulder. It freaked Joel out but I was fine (sorta, have a nice little bruise on my shoulder today but it didn’t even register on the list of hurts yesterday) and we proceeded after I unsuccessfully tried to brush the dirt off.

At the halfway we had a little sit and reapplied sunscreen and used the potties and were off again with just about a 12 min stop. Our pace continued to slow but it was what it was. At 18, we stopped on a bench to eat and I took my socks and shoes off to try to clean out some trail gunk as I felt hot spots starting to form. Wildly unsuccessful but it felt nice. By the 21 mile aid station, I was having a rough go of it. With training, I was done or at least almost there and I still had 10 (actually 12 <>) to go and that’s a lot of miles. This one was the highlightfor me as the had super salty ramen AND mashed potatoes made with chicken broth. Not for Joel though. They accidentally fed him a quesadilla with peanut butter, which was bad news since he is highly allergic. I watched him for the next few miles to make sure we didn’t have to call it. Everything was fine. Ish.

This was the low point if the race for me. 21 miles is a lot, and in training I was either done or almost done. I had 10 (actually 12 ><) to go and that’s also a lot of miles. The time between this aid station and the next at 26.5 was approximately 10 years. However after a sit, a refuel and refill, and rubbing some trigger point on my aching knees and back, I felt better.

We left there at 6pm, which was about our anticipated finish, and still had miles to go, and I was thankful we had packed our headlamps just in case. Unfortunately they were both decade+ old, and mine was dim and Joel’s died quickly. So, he used the flashlight on his phone with me behind, calling out each rock, root, muddy spot, whatever. I spent 2.5 hours looking at the ground directly at my feet. It’s honestly the most monofocused I’ve been able to be in a long time. Root. Root. Rock. Mud. Step down. Step up. Nothing existed beyond the two feet in front of me.

So we plodded. And plodded. Root. Root. Rock. Mud. Step. Step. I made an exception to my complaint rule when the girl that passed us said she thought there was 2.5 miles to go and my watch was already at 30 miles. But nothing to do but plod forward in the dark and quiet. Root. Root. Rock. Mud. Up. Down. And then finally the dark became light and there was the finish chute and medals and cake.

More thoughts about the aftermath and the future later, but I am certain this was the second hardest race I’ve ever done, coming in just after the full Ironman in 2018. It’s nice to be back to doing difficult physical challenges again.

Today is about ice packs, relaxing, and eating and drinking all the things.

ROCKY 50 Day (Feb 8)

50k tales continue!

After the race, we hobbled around to collect our stuff and sadly, the drop bags weren’t there yet (next time we’ll probably skip it… if there is a next time). So I convinced Joel not to just take a lazy shower in the sink but an actual shower. I navigated the camper stairs and grabbed shower stuff – he walked the extra quarter mile to the truck, it was only fair, and oh boy, that was an absolutely wonderful crappy campsite shower. After we got our bags, we made microwave cheese enchiladas and had a few beers to ease the ache in our legs and then slept like the dead.

Sunday was an awesome day of reading and napping and eating and repeating all that again. These long efforts at lower intensity are definitely serious in the moment, but recovering is so much easier than running marathons or Ironman, even halfs. My biggest complaint was the giant blister on my toe (might post in the comments, it’s impressive and two days later HASN’T POPPED YET!), some chafing, and yeah, sore muscles, but I’m not hobbling or anything.

All the wonderful calories I consumed didn’t mix well, and I was up for a few hours feeling icky last night, but I woke up today feeling great! We had a nice, eventful ride home, stopping at a gas station burger shop that was AMAZING (all the beef came from the ranch behind it). And now, we’re unpacked, showered, and having one last hurrah at Pinthouse Pizza before calories matter again tomorrow.

My thoughts on 50ks: I am pretty sure this isn’t a one and done for Ultramarathons, but I’d also like to get stronger on trails first at shorter distances before I try again. Eyeing the half marathon we did in June last year as the next trail race (mostly for the excuse to camp again). Playing on trails for the morning sounds nice. Thirteen hours was a lot. ?

For now, hikes and walks get to go back to being for fun/activity, and after a week or two, I may reintroduce myself to my bike and the pool.

ROCKY 50 After the RAce and day after (FEB 8-9)

And a week later, admittedly a week of just walking and weights, we went on a 12-mile Walko Taco and I’m prepping to return to running tomorrow. All in all, it was a pretty cool experience to push myself that far again. A nice reminder that I can do the difficult stuff physically, even if I may not be in the peak physical condition I was pre-pandemic. I’m looking forward, as I said last post, to establishing more consistency vs the “weekend warrior” type training we did for this race, but it was super fun to go out and spend 4, 6, 8… 13 hours on our feet persistently moving forward to remember that sometimes, it’s just all about being too stubborn to quit.