Overdid it! Winter Games and more.

This past weekend I didn't do much, because the weekend before I may have overdone it.  As I wrote in my last post, I was feeling very tired after the Nighthawk race on the 6th.  So I bailed on my workout the morning of the 7th and focused on the Teva Winter Games 10K snowshoe race at Vail, which was on the 8th.

Going in, I figured the course would be "easier" than the 10K I did at Ski Cooper in January.  It would be run completely on groomers.  No trekking thru snow.  No running thru the woods, jumping over logs, being smacked by branches.  However, I didn't know how hard the uphills would be.

Did a few laps at Keystone Friday morning and then headed to Vail.  Race started at 5:30.  So there was still a decent amount of light at the start line.


Start.  I'm in red between guy in blue and gal (918) in gray.

There was a little bit of pushing and shoving at the start, as I was trying not to trip over other people's snowshoes.  Quickly it became apparent who was winning this race.  A group of 3 guys formed a pack that pulled away quickly. Those 3 guys, eventual winner Josiah Middaugh, a multiple XTerra triathlon winner, Jason Delaney, last year's Pike's Peak Ascent winner, and Sage Canaday, winner of the Mt Washington Road Race.  A pretty stout group of guys. Not going to compete with that group.

But another group of 4 or 5 formed and I moved around them into 4th.  On the first climb, I was paced by eventual female winner, Hannah Williams and another guy.  I kept them in sight for the next mile.  The first 1.5 miles of the course weren't too bad.  Then it got interesting.

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The climb up to the Riva catwalk was rough. It was a power hike.  That's when 4th and 5th got away from me and another gal passed me.  The calves were screaming.  I was able to recapture 6th on the downhill along Mill Creek Rd.  Then hit the bear of a climb going up the Bear Tree run.  This went straight up the ski slope.  But I found a good rhythm and power hike this well.  By the turn off of Lindsey's Way onto Lion's Way, I had done a good job of putting distance between myself and 6th place.  I also knew it was mostly downhill from here.  And now it was completely dark. 

The descent down to the Vail Village Catwalk was pretty steep in sections.  It's amazing how a blue intermediate run feels relaxed on skis, but downright frightful on snowshoes.  You are just trying not to catch your front claw on the downhill and go tumbling. 

Along the catwalk, I had a moment to take in Vail Village below me, twinkling in the night.  With no one around, it was very peaceful and quiet.  A slight uphill after the 5 mile mark and then downhill to the finish.  6th overall, 2nd in my age group, with a time of 55:13.  Luckily this wasn't a true 10K, but more like 5.25 miles.  I was glad for the shorter race.

The following two days, I would get in over 60 000 vertical feet of skiing at Beaver Creek.  Which including my day at Ski Cooper put me over 300 000 feet for the season.

This all ended up taking a toll on my body.  The following Monday on my easy run, I felt a bit of tightness in my groin.  A few feet later, that tightness became a pull and my run was done. 

A massage from Jean Pierce on Thursday showed how tight my adductors had gotten.  A trip to Heather North at In Motion Rehabilitation was in order for Friday.  My achilles was starting to get a little sore and tender and I knew would need some work, so figured good time to get that taken care of and get the groin strain worked on.  She really worked the muscle over and then did some dry needling.  Neither was a very pleasant experience.  Then the same thing on the achilles, which is just the most painful thing I have to deal with.

But come Sunday, I felt remarkably better.  A few more days of running are in order to ensure all is well.  Plus have ski trip on tap for Jackson Hole.   So a little downtime from running won't be so bad.