The Aftermath

Doing the Spartan 300 Buck Furpee challenge is one thing. Walking the next day, getting up out of a chair, and going down stairs the next day is another thing. I am sore. My back, my shoulders, my abs, my armpits, my quads, etc; all sore. At least I know Burpees work.

This morning my foot finally felt well enough to go for a run. Giggity!! Yes, I am excited as Quagmire getting laid by a hot lady to try out my new Brooks Pure Grits on the trail. They are purdy! And my first pair of minimalist shoes.

Getting to this point was a bit of a journey. In my first OCR, the IN Sprint, I just wore a pair of old gym shoes. I had no idea what to expect or how to prepare. We had never done anything like this, so we figured we'd wear running shoes that we wouldn't mind sacrificing to the Indiana Mud if necessary. Lesson Learned: Traction is muy importante. Mud is slippery. Shoes with good grip will get you up the hilly terrain. At the Sprint, I was climbing up a steep hill in the woods. My shoes were caked in mud with zero traction. About half way up, I realized I wasn't going any further. Behind me was a line of racers. Oi. Only one way back down. I turned and told them to spread 'em. I slid down the muddy hill on my butt going between legs. The other lesson is the importance of drainage. Water logged shoes are no fun and will cause blisters. Luckily, I didn't get any blisters but I did get some chafing.

For my second OCR, the MS Muckruckus, I decided to buy trail shoes. I bought the Brooks Cascadia 7 in lime green. I'm a Brooks girl. I have wide feet, and Brooks are a wider shoe. The shoes performed well on the trail. I tried them on pavement, with no success. The sole is too soft for the the pavement. Best in the woods. They have amazing traction. They were recommended to me from some of my fellow Spartan Chicks. Okay, I thought. These are my OCR racing shoes. Well, nope. Lessons learned: Shoe weight matters. These weigh over 10 ounces, plus they are absorbent. On the course I felt as if I had 5 lbs weights on each foot. On an OCR on a flat farm, there is a lot of running. It was brutal. I had the traction right, but the drainage and weight were wrong.

Now, I shall try my Brooks Pure Grit. They are a minimalist shoe. As a former Basketball player, I have been conditioned to run on the forefront of my foot. In basketball, you are either sprinting or playing defense on the balls of your feet. Minimalist shoes have a heel drop forcing you to strike mid-foot or at the forefront of your foot. Perfect for me. They are also 3 ounces lighter. Yippee!! Also, you can see in the picture, they have drainage holes with a mesh covering to aid in drainage. I'm hoping I won't be bogged down by excess mud and water this time around. They aren't completely flat, so I will have some cushion for longer runs like the Super and the Beast. Plus, there is a good amount of protection over the toes. Other highlights include the knotted laces to help keep them locked. The toe is split to force the big toe to do more work and keep the blood circulating. Oh, and the grip. This morning I did my first run in them. I love them!! Many reviewers mentioned the ability to feel the trail with their feet. This sounded crazy to me. But once I hit the trail, there it was. I felt everything. Man, it was great. I really look forward to running more trails in these shoes and taking them out for their first OCR next Saturday at the Mudathlon.

Oh, and I did fall on my face in the woods. I will blame leg fatigue from the 300 burpees I did last night.

You can see the holes for drainage.

Lumpy laces to keep them locked.

Already dir-tay!

First Trail Race

As I was looking for new parks for trail running, I came across the Dirt Days Trail Series. Its 7 dates with 9 events that are scored with the Dirtiest Dozen receiving awards at the end of the season. I wish I would have found out about this series earlier. Its all trail running, which I love. And the races are about $10 each. That's super cheap for an organized, chip timed event. Three of the events have already passed, and the future races are on weekends I'm already competing or busy. However, this Sunday, I am free!  Its at East Fork Park on Sunday at 9am. There are 2 distances 5.6 and 10.8 miles. I really struggled deciding which race to run. The most I have run is 6.6 miles, which I did last week at French Park. Going from 6.6 miles to 10.8 miles is a really big jump. My concern is injury. Over-exerting my feet, ankles, and knees instead of a more gradual increase. This is especially true with trail runs since you're running over roots and rocks. However, I wanted to do the 10.8 to get a feel for the mileage since the Super is 8-9 miles.This decision would have been much easier if they had an 8 mile option. After a night to sleep on it and input from my fellow Spartan Chicks (an FB group), I decided to race the 5.6 miles. In sports there is a fine line between being tough and being smart. Risking injury is not an option right now. If I have anything left after the 5.6 on Sunday, I figured I can go again on my own to gain the mileage or do some power sets to squeeze out the last little bit. Most importantly, I don't want to needlessly push myself and end up with an injury that hinders my training. Better to run 5.6 this week, and be able to tackle 9 miles at Mt. Airy in the very near future.

The link for the Dirt Trail Series is below. This website also has a schedule of many other local races.

http://www.runningtime.net/Races/Dirt%20Trail/home.htm

My final concern is my outfit. I have my Brooks Cascadia trail shoes, my Nike combat shorts, and my Under Armour Undies. I can't decide if I want to wear my Spartan Chick Tank. My brother screened the dri-fit tank I wore in the IN Spartan Race for me. On the front it says "Spartan Chick". On the back it says, "You got Chicked." With it being my first trail race and going alone, I don't want to be presumptuous. Am I beastly enough to wear it? Last year only about 200 people raced , so I will certainly stick out. But then again, I may need my inner Spartan to tackle the race. Decisions, decisions....