COURSING: June, July... DG5, Boilermaker 15K, ADK, Dead Legs

A quick update from June and July...

My plan was originally to calm down in June, then start to ramp back up for Chicago in mid July. However, Sasha and I wound up going to the cabin earlier this year, and the trip coincided with the infamous Boilermaker 15K. I was able to get us late entries into the race, so we had to do it and I didn't want to show up looking like a fool! I mean hell, it's a bucket list race! Thus, my plan delayed some much needed downtime.

Anyway, June had me maintaining base mileage and a few workouts to keep tuned for the 15K. One workout was 8x800 that averaged 2:36.4. I also had a solid 6mi tempo at 5:42 average. I then closed the month with the Downers Grove 5 Miler, which I was trying to treat as another tempo run.

The DG5 was yet another circuit race with nasty conditions though... and I ultimately paid for it. Far too many of these races lately have been overly humid and extremely dehydrating. DG5 was 80+ degrees, 95% humididy (a nasty rain storm stopped just in time for the gun), and to boot, the course was a somewhat hilly for an Illinois suburb. I placed 5th OA and 2nd in my AG with a 28:04. The time wasn't anything special, but I was pleased given the conditions.

The bad thing though was recovering from this race... and this is all too clear in hindsight. On the cool down, my legs felt trashed. Quads especially. My stride was lumbering and painful. It lingered for a few days so I had a massage and went on with my plans for the Boilermaker.

Once we got to the cabin the following week, and I started to hit the hills for a few days, the soreness was coming back. It was strange because I felt drained, like I had just run a race, which I hadn't. By now DG5 should've been out of my legs. My quads were extremely stiff while running and landing my strides felt like crushing blows to my quads. So instead of hammering myself up there like I usually do, I did what I could to get by with the Boilermaker and then threw it into recovery mode.

By the way, the Boilermaker 15K is one hell of an awesome race!! It's run in Utica, which is a small 60K person Central New York city about a 2 hour drive south of the cabin.

Utica is basically a dead industrial city trying to find itself in the new millennium. It's a hilly city right on the edge of the Erie Canal. Maybe back in the day, it might've been more of an up and comer because of the canal, but the last 50 years have been harsh to many of those CNY cities like Syracuse, Rome, Utica, etc. Anyway, as far as I can tell, they have two great things going for them: 1) this race, and 2) the old school Utica Club Brewery, which is now also home to Saranac Beer! Utica Club is basically the Schlitz or Pabst Blue Ribbon of New York, and it's been getting a nice revival in recent years. Saranac is now their child company and a solid microbrew.

SO - I don't need to go into the history of the Boilermaker... let's just say that the race is and always was jacked since the mid 1970s. The organizers pay well for elites and there are dedicated people that run this thing every years. Hell, I saw Bill Rogers warming up for this thing and even wound up having a conversation with him! Awesome. I was extremely excited to run it. Unfortunately, my legs were mush.

The course was point to point. It started out in an industrial complex (where radiators are made, hence "Boilermaker"). It was a climb straight up for the first 4-1/2 miles, then a sharp mile down, followed by rolling hills to the end. The finish line was in the old downtown area, right at the door step of the famous brewery.

In the end, I managed relatively even splits for each 5K... but it involved a lot of different paces. Mile four was 6:05 due to an uphill, followed by a blazing fast mile five in 5:12! Anyway, 5K split was 17:55, 10K at 35:30 (17:35), and 15K at 53:13 (17:44). Nothing fancy since it averaged about 5:45s, but I was happy with the experience. I placed 4th in my AG, with two of the guys in front of me being 45 minute guys!! The shocker though... I was 86th OA!! That's insane. Winner was fucking 43:58!! Seriously, well over 50 of those runners in front of me were East African race horses.

Sasha did great on her own... she ran 1:09:27, which is fantastic for not running much on hills and being early in training for her first marathon. She consistently is running races that point to a mid-3:30s marathon.

Anyway, I can't say enough about the Boilermaker. The crowds were much like a big city race - the entire town came out to watch the thing. The after party was very active and packed with free food and beer, live bands, and even a fly over with World War 2 planes... very cool! Well done to the race directors! Seriously, a world class event and I now know why it's a bucket list race.

OK, so all that being said, after the Boilermaker, my legs were even more trashed, heavy and clunky than before that race. After, they were fucked. It felt like someone took a baseball bat to my thighs. I took several days off right after the race... and not because I wanted to either. It was forced withdrawal. I wound up with minimal miles for the rest of the time at the cabin.

Since then, I've had a couple more massages that haven't helped much. I still feel like I have some sort of dead or heavy legs. I'm not sure if it's knots, some sort of micro-tears, or just trapped lactic acid. All I know is that it hurts to stride on them. It doesn't really hurt doing anything else. No doubt it's due to a culmination of things that include over training, over racing, and no downtime in quite a long time.

I've been forcing miles for the last two weeks and been hating running. After today's crap long run... I'm officially pulling the plug for the next week. I need the rest. If I'm gonna do it and still run the marathon, then I need to do it ASAP. Hopefully I can then string back together two solid months for the marathon.

A few photos from Boilermaker 15K:

Before the race... wet and muggy!