Noone really talks about how difficult peak weeks are. Everyone is always like Oh yeah! Peak weeks! Let's go! Wohoooo... But it's definitely not rainbows and unicorns. Maybe the first 2 or so weeks, you are putting in the work, you're excited you finally got to this final stage of training and it should be the best ... but ... it is not. It's fuckin hard. And it gets only harder. Putting in more work than ever before, more longer days, more harder days... it's exhausting! Like how am I even gonna get through 3 more weeks of this? And the next ones supposed to be even worse. Noone prepares you for this. I know, one day at a time. I wish it was more talked about and there was more support I guess? Or is it not normal to feel like this? Is it just me who thinks it's really difficult and have these thoughts? Maybe it is just me.
Yoga and some physio for this tired body on Monday. Nuff said.
I woke up with stomach pain at 3am. Cool. Was thinking about not going for a run but kinda had to. I felt like crap. Also, who the hell gives you 5min intervals as your first run of the week after you just ran 60K trail race with almost 3K of elevation??? Like W-T-actual-F coach!??? Like I already hate running, can I hate it even more?? I guess so! The first 20mins felt terrible, like 7:10 pace felt SO hard. I just kept telling myself that I don't have to run super fast, I just need to run faster than my slow pace. Any effort is good enough. Just bring whatever you have. The first one wasn't actually that bad. Slow-er but I got it done. Second one was definitely harder. One more to go. I started slow, but then I kept "screaming" in my head: YO! You were 5th at that race! Fuckin 5th!!! You ain't no b*tch, you don't give up easily! You gotta keep running fast! How you wanna be 5th and be this slow! There is no way, keep fuckin goiiiiing! ... and so I did. Squeezed what ever I had left. And ran the fastest interval. Whoa. Okay. I can do hard shit.
If I felt tired yesterday than I don't know what I felt today haha. Extra tired? Well, I took it very easy. I also had strength session on my calendar but I needed to take Lucy out so only did about 20mins of my physio and hopefully, I can do some strength tomorrow.
70mins easy and some strides. Definitely felt better than yesterday. I also noticed that lately, my HR stays way longer in zone 1 (based on the Garmin zones). Like more than half way of the run which is a change cause before it would be let's say maybe 1/3 and the rest in zone 2. So I hope that's a good sign haha. I managed to do rest of my physio workouts with mtn legs after the run and then some extra strength in the evening to make up for yesterday, too bad I have another one for tomorrow, yikes haha.
Well, another strength haha. And planning for the weekend. I'm thinking about doing Pharaoh Peak again, finally. The weather looks basically perfect. Warm but no rain. I've been waiting for day like this for the past 2 years and so I think this is it!
Arrived early to beat the heat. It was 5 degrees. So basically freezing hahah. I was planning to take it easy. But...yesterday, someone posted about doing this trail run in very short time. And I've been thinking about it since. I don't think I'm gonna write about it again here tho, if you want, I'm gonna link to the post I made about it on my IG. IG POST
Anyways...It was cold when I started and my hands were actually freezing. I was obviously the only one going up so I was again bit scared. About 20mins in and all of the sudden I hear "branches snappin" to the right...so I pulled my bear spray out, started yelling even more and kept walking fast past that spot. I didn't see anything tho, but heard it again, so more yelling and watching for the bear to come out of the bushes. But nothing haha. Just my HR through the roof. Kept running and looking back. And aaaayoooing. Things were going okay. I met one or two people also going up. And saw frost on flowers. It was cold. Even tho there were basically no wildflowers left at Healy Pass, I finally got the views I didn't have the 2 times I've been here in the past 2 years. No matter what tho, Healy Pass is always so beautiful. Met a couple at the top, turned out they were from Czech too haha. So we chatted for a bit and then I went down, flying down to Egypt lake. This trail is so much fun. My stomach wasn't very happy tho and I was so glad to find a bathroom at the campground. Phew. Now the climb starts and it was getting hot! Made it up and decided to go down to Scarab lake cause I needed to refill my bottles anyways and I haven't been there before. It was worth the little detour. Got water, got soaked to keep me cool and now for the main climb. I still remembered how shitty that climb was even tho I barely did half of it when I tried the first time. It was tough, it was hot and it was steep AF but I was going! I thought about David Roche and if he would be running this if he was here. Probably he would. I finally made it to the col. Now to the actual peak. It took way longer than I imagined. BUT! The views! I had the top all to myself for more than 30mins before the Czech couple arrived. I sat down and chilled. Soaked everything in. I didn't wanna leave. I wasn't in rush anymore. I said F that to the time, I wasn't chasing anything. What a day to be up there. But had to get down anyways so I went. Stopped to filter some more water and then again before I head up to Healy pass. That climb is terrible haha. But I decided to push it a little bit there, cause why not? It was hot! But I was pretty proud of how I was climbing there. And then just the cruisy downhill back to the car. Stopped few times to dip my hat in the water. It was really toasty. Plan was to make it at least under 8hrs and I did, in 7:41. Not bad afterall I think. What a day.
Recovery shuffle in the heat, in the afternoon. Ugh. Was supposed to be only 45mins but I felt kinda good and wanted bit more so I went for over an hour. Yep I did that.
76.6K + some walks / 12:24 TOF
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