With Western States a mere 12 days away I figure it is now time to officially start tapering. I'm normally not good at this because I just like to go run even if I'm tired or off.
This past weekend I went down to the Lake Youngs 50k (well 47k) and was going to use that as my last long run for WS100. Sadly it also doubled as my only long run in heat (if you can call low 70s hot). The course is 3 loops around Lake Youngs. It is very runable and has just under 1000 feet of climb per loop. Ran the first loop with Stuart Johnson and we seemed to be feeding well off each other. Came through lap 1 in about 62 minutes. My goal was to run about 3:30-3:40 to make sure I wasn't doing anything too dumb before Western. I had to stop and take a whiz about halfway through the second loop and used that chance to fill up my water bottle at the unmaned station so I did that and let Stuart cruise away. With about 6 miles to go in the race I saw him up ahead and took a time check to see what the gap was. It was about 50 seconds and when I took another one a half mile later it was 22 seconds. I decided to just put the hammer down for a few miles (despite wanting to relax) and managed to put a gap in those miles and I glanced back with a mile to go and all looked clear so just dogged it in. Crossed the line in 3:17 for the "W" and got me some more points in the Trail Runner Trophy Series.
Wore the Montrail Rockridge again for this race. I really love this shoe and have had zero blister issues in the lat 3 ultras and numerous long runs with them. Hope I can keep that streak going at WS!
So what do folks do in time of taper? Its super nice outside and I haven't seen sun in near a month and the trails are calling my name but its time to nap, eat, turn down offers to run etc.
9 days till leaving for Squaw so thankfully this lack of mega miles will stop shortly!
Happy trails!
Ryne
PS. I normally would take the chance to watch the World Cup despite not being a huge soccer fan but (a) the games start at 4:15am local time and (b) those damn vuvuzelas give me a headache just hearing it via TV!
