All of last week leading up to the weekend, I was so excited about my Saturday morning trail run. Because I didn’t run this trail before with the UltraLadies, it just made the anticipation that much greater. A new trail I haven’t run yet! Oooh nice! Plus, considering how much my total running lagged last month, and my lack of time on the dirt, this run was very much needed. The Bulldog 50K race is coming up quickly, and now more than ever, I need to be more diligent and consistent with my training.
My holiday weekend began on Friday with a nice 6.73 mile run. Thoughts of running that long before my trail run did kind of filter in and out of my mind. Was I running too long the day before my longer run? Should I have taken a rest day? Naaah! I felt great and that morning, the weather was too bee-uuu-tee-ful not to go outside for a run.
Fourth of July morning had me waking up bright and early at 5AM to give me plenty of time to get ready and eat my banana with peanut butter before heading out the door to be at Mulholland Drive before 6:45AM. Having not run this trail the first time with the group, I had no idea how long it would take me to get out there. Despite the rumor it takes 20 minutes to get anywhere in LA, this is rarely the case.
Driving out to the trail, it wasn’t too difficult to notice there were no clouds in sight. Great. Only a sign the sun would be shining brightly and the heat would come early. And it did. It didn’t take long for the warmth to hit. Not even 2 miles in, I was already sweating a storm.
It was also around this time I realize where we were headed. I did run this trail before! I was headed to the same trail where I sprained my ankle last year. Ugh! Nooo!! I purposely tried to avoid this trail at all costs and lets just say, I was none too please.
Alright, Christina, get yourself together. You can do this. You can tackle that trail and move on with it. Go as slow as you need to.
This is what I told myself and I was ready for it.
The first 4 miles or so were mostly climbing. Compared to how much the Bulldog 50K course climbs, I wouldn’t pin these two to be closely comparable. These trails had more moderate climbs as opposed to Bulldog at Malibu Creek, where those make your lungs and quads burn just by looking at them.
For the first half of my 15.03 miles for the day, I ran with my fairly new running pal, Jenny, whom I met about a month ago during my last time on the Bulldog course. She’s also training for the 50K which will be her first ultra. During this portion, we ran most of the way, walked up when the dirt started to aim for the sky, and talked about this upcoming trail I wasn’t too happy about running on. But then, all of a sudden we made a right turn onto the Temescal Ridge Trail, and it is NOT the exact trail I sprained my ankle on a year ago! Woohoo!!
To say I was happy with giddyness would be an understatement. I know there may come a day when I’ll have to face that trail and revisit the scene of the crime, but I really don’t want to. If this day was indeed the day to do that, then so be it, I would’ve, but I’m not going to force myself. Besides I really don’t care for that other trail. It’s a lot of gravelly road and ditches.
Jenny and I carried on to hit Hub Junction where we took the lovely nice downhill of Eagle Springs fire road to Smuschi Musch Trail. It was here where I decided to make the turn back and she carried on towards Trippet Ranch.
Running back up Eagle Springs fire road is where I started to run into a little trouble. No pun intended. Oh yeah, that lovely downhill we had? Well, it was a not so lovely uphill. The sun was really beaming down and the heat was getting stronger. I had plenty of water with me, but the nutrition part is what got me.
In recent weeks, I have had to tweak my diet due to some issues I’m having. And while I won’t go into full detail, I have to lay off certain foods such as gluten, salt, chocolate, coffee (I haven’t had coffee since June 25th), and processed sugar. This hasn’t been easy, and I honestly don’t know if this is permanent (my gawd I hope not), but needless to say, for now, it is what it is.
I honestly didn’t know how I was going to get through this run, but I did take some dates with me. However, I know what happens to me in the heat. I get very nauseous and eating is the last thing I want to do. Salt tablets are out of the question and I gave the one tablet I had with me to Jenny. I knew for sure I couldn’t take it.
Going back up Eagle Springs was exhausting and I kept telling myself it’ll be better once I hit Hub Junction because from there, there’s a lot of downhill with a few climbs back along the Temescal Ridge Trail. Once I got to the Hub, I decided to take a few bites of a date and I just couldn’t stomach it. Seeking refuge in the shade for a few minutes helped a bit, but I knew the longer I waited, the longer the heat will get stronger, so off I went.
By now I was around 9 miles into the run and it just got tougher.
Mentally I kept telling myself to keep moving and it’s just one foot in front of the other. Physically, my energy was diminishing rapidly. Talking to myself kept me going. Yes, when I’m by myself I tend to talk to myself. Out loud. It kind of keeps my mind off the thought of wildlife and critters I hear through the brush.
Finally, I reached the last long climb back to Mulholland. Hallelujah! All would be right again. Because I remembered those 4 miles I climbed up to this point, would all be mostly downhill. Yay!!! Wrong.
At this point in the program I suffered a miscommunication between my mind and body. The miscommunication was, my mind told me to run, and yet my legs did not respond. At all. There would be bursts of short running, but there was a complete disconnect. My energy was gone and I completely hit the wall. I couldn’t even run the downhills. Yes, I was completely out of gas.
The next 4-ish miles dragged on and on. I wanted to be done with this run but I just couldn’t move fast enough. Around 12 miles in I started to have intense cravings for coconut water like nobody’s business. Usually on these long training runs, I crave ice cold Coke, but not this time. It was an ice cold bottle of Harmless Harvest coconut water that kept me moving. It just sounded so refreshing! Well, that and a nice dip in somebody’s pool.
When I got near the end, I was able to pick up some speed and run. And then I started to run by some houses and a street that didn’t look familiar at all. Did I run by these houses this morning? I don’t recall seeing them. Did I make a wrong turn somewhere? The heat was playing with my head and memory.
It was also at this time I realized my Pro-Tec Knee Strap was missing from my left hydration pack pocket. Arrrgh! The heat made me take it off. I wasn’t really thinking too clearly these last few miles. As exhausted as I was, I decided to turn around and walk back up to try and find it. It couldn’t have been more than a half mile or so. But I was disheartened and my energy was completely gone so I turned back around. Guess I’ll be buying a new one. (Side note: my new one arrived on Tuesday. Yay! Thanks Amazon Prime!)
Finally, the dirt ended and I was done.
I would say, the first weekend in July definitely presented a very memorable and tough trail run for me. There are some things I really need to figure out, such as my nutrition for the next month or so (possibly longer), but I was soooo happy to have gotten through this one. The month of June gave me 21 miles on the dirt, and July so far, has me at 15 miles. I think that’s a good start to the month. Plus, I hit 29.43 miles for the week which is almost 50% more than the previous week. Sorry 10% rule.
And, I got my coconut water! Not the Harmless Harvest that I really wanted, but this one just had to do.
Thanks for reading and Happy Running!