onepinkfuzzy

Ash and Mama do yoga together

I decided to do a long run instead of Wrightson. I figured it'd be more beneficial in my training for Sugar & Spice (which needs more people - come on, women, let's go run trails!!!). Johnny helped me come up with a great plan: head up to and then above Seven Falls in Bear Canyon, come back down to the car and refill/fuel, then head up Sabino Canyon to do the Phoneline Loop, using the Rattlesnake Canyon extension. This would equal 20.1 miles and approximately 3000 vertical feet of elevation. Knowing Tucson was forecast to hit 100 today, I wanted to make sure we woke up early. I've been trying to heat train, but I didn't want to end up with heat exhaustion!

Ash woke up on time this morning, and we got ready and headed out. Of course, we had to stop at Starbucks for Johnny, so he could have coffee and Ash could have his favorite vanilla milk and spring cookie. (Yes, you read that right. Ash ate a cookie for breakfast.) As we approached Sabino, we noticed an usually large amount of traffic on the road - both of the vehicular and running kind. Oops. I forgot about the big 5k/10k race being held there this morning! We parked on the side of the road, outside of the parking lot, thinking there were no spaces inside. Once we made it in, we realized that there were plenty of parking spaces, so Johnny ran back out and brought the car in. Whew, my aid station was in place.

We started at 6:15, about 15 minutes after I wanted to, due to the car/race issues, but I wasn't too worried. Johnny, Ash and I ran the 1.75 miles on the dirt/asphalt roads to the Seven Falls trailhead (well, J and A ran on the road, I ran a trail next to the road, adding about .10 to my overall mileage). Johnny and Ash played at the trailhead while I headed up the trail up to the falls. The weather was gorgeous, the trees were beautiful, the running was great. I could tell I had a great pasta dinner the night before - my legs were ready to go. I made it up the falls, then for the first time ever, headed above them. It took about a mile of trail to get to the top of the falls, and it was the best running trail I've been on in the Catalinas! I really enjoyed the cliffs, grasses and beauty of the trail up there. I made it to the top and turned back around. I flew down the trail to the trailhead where Johnny and I were waiting, and together we started heading back to the car.

While I used the bathroom half-way to the car, Johnny and Ash ran ahead and got my aid station stuff ready. It was so cool to run up to the trailhead and have my food and water ready and waiting for me! Johnny totally crewed me so awesomely. I popped some Tylenol, grabbed an extra water bottle (so I now had two hand-helds and a waist pack bottle) and a zbar, got my cap wet and took off toward Phoneline.

It was 9 a.m. now, and HOT. I was tired, my stomach hurt and my right hamstring was aching from a large rock step I had trouble negotiating up in Bear Canyon. I headed up Phoneline, and I'll keep it short: it was a HOT sludge of a trek up and up and up and up on the Sabino Canyon sidehill. In and out of side drainages - heading in was so hot I could barely breathe, and heading out of each drainage there would be a little breeze. I had to walk most everything, even the runnable and downhill sections. That was a little depressing, but I consoled myself with the fact that I knew I was doing good heat training, and also was catching up to and passing other hikers on the trail. Various aches and pains came and went, and my stomach stayed upset. Cramping, cramping, yucky cramping! I just kept putting one foot in front of the other.

I know that the best way to stay cool in hot weather is to keep putting water on yourself, but I never thought about the fact that there is a key ingredient to making that work: WIND. Without wind, you are merely hot and wet. Yuck.

I finally made it down to the Sabino Road - only 3.7 down the road. I was supposed to do the Rattlesnake Canyon extension (like last week), but I decided to skip it (like last week). It was getting hotter - I knew it had to be over 95 degrees F. I made it down the big hill to Anderson Dam, where Johnny and Ash had spent the almost two hours it took me to run Phoneline. I ran down to them, and proceeded to strip off my shirt and shoes/socks, and dive into the water. Oh, the water was so cold!

We spent almost an hour hanging out in the water before heading back down the road. Johnny and I did the math - in adding the .10 extra I did early in the morning on the trail next to the road, with the .30 round trip to Anderson Dam, I only had an additional .10 to still get 20 miles while skipping the Rattlesnake Extension. Easy fix - get it running across the parking lot to the car. Voila! No worries.

At the end of my physically-draining, 20-mile run, I managed to keep about a 12-minute/mile pace the final 3 miles to the car! I was pretty psyched about that. The stomach cramping I had experienced earlier was back with a vengeance. It was so HOT, and Johnny kept spraying me with his water bottle to cool me off. Whenever the little bit of a breeze died down, it became almost unbearably hot. My right calf was also trying to cramp up. Even with the cramping, I was surprised at how okay I was with the heat. I used to never even hike in weather over 75 degrees F!

I did it! I ran my second-longest run ever, at 20 miles, and finished it in over 95 degree F weather. It capped off the highest-mileage week I've ever had: 35.5. I am looking forward to establishing a base of 30 miles/week after S&S, and prepping for races by upping the mileage to 40 and even 50 miles in a week! I think that is actually doable for me.

I am pleasantly surprised at how well my training is going for S&S - I seem to be stronger, and also faster overall, than when I trained for Pemberton. I was so worried that having ITB issues would weaken what small base fitness I had, so to be doing this well now is so cool.

I am tired and exhausted and sore (the most sore this training cycle yet!). I am looking forward to my Mother's Day gift of sleeping in tomorrow morning!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, and happy running!