Day Two

Ws100 training camp day 2

Me and Aliza at the start of day 2

After sleeping for 9 hours I woke up feeling groggy, but better rested than I have been in quite a while.  Unfortunately it was only 42 degrees out at 6:30 in the morning.  After a leisurely coffee at Starbucks we headed over to the start.  I wasn't sure what to wear since the sun was coming out, but it was still so cold I didn't want to be freezing for the first part of the run.  I decided to keep my lightweight raincoat on over my short sleeve shirt.  Of course it wasn't 20 minutes into the run that I had to wrap it around my waist where it stayed for the rest of the day.

Fog burning off

On the schedule today was the 16 miles from the school to the Rucky Chucky river crossing, plus a 3 mile hill climb to the buses where we would be transported back to our car for a total of 19 miles.  The trails were mostly gradual downhill and in the shade, but there were a few steep uphills.

Just in case you thought WS was all downhills

It was an incredibly beautiful course.  A few miles into the day I ended up behind a girl who was running the same pace as me.  Her name was Hannah and we stayed together for most of the day.  I don't usually run with anybody that long.  I really work on running my own pace.  I'm not sure if I was just distracted, but the running felt easy.  I wasn't sore, which was a big surprise after running 30 miles yesterday. By the time we got to the 16 mile aid station I looked at my watch and was pleased to see that I was under a 10 minute per mile pace.

Me and Hannah

At the very start of the 3 mile climb I felt great.  I noticed that Hannah's breathing was a little labored and I realized that I was going at a pace that might have been a little to fast for her.  I felt so good I told her that I would see her at the end and then I set about seeing if I could run the entire climb.  I had no idea how steep it was going to be, but it turned out to be doable and I finished strong in 3:15.

There are lots of trails like this

I felt much better today than yesterday.  Today's run put me at 102 miles for the week, and it is really nice to end the week feeling good.  Tomorrow we go 22 miles.  I really hope that I continue to feel good because after this run I get to start to taper down my weekly mileage in preparation of the first 100.  As of today there are only 4 weeks until the Western States 100.