Shaking The Post Race Blues & Mt. Toby Race Report
- Rufus Chaffee
- Oct 30, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Nov 1, 2019
When you put all your energy and effort into accomplishing a goal, such as a 100 mile race, there is an inevitable lull or post race blues that comes in the days and weeks after regardless of success or failure. For months you've been working with a singular focus and now that it's gone it can be replaced with feelings of depression. After my first marathon the post race blues came on and I had no idea what it was and why I felt so down or even depressed. Not knowing what something is can actually be the hardest part because it's difficult to move past what you can't identify.
This past April when I completed my first ultra, a 50 mile road race, I intentionally left my slate blank after. It was my first ultra and I had no idea how my body would handle it plus I wasn't sure what I would want to do next - a marathon, an ultra, retire. What resulted was 6 weeks of difficult runs without motivation, a failed attempt to get back into marathon training, and painful attempts at any run over 10 miles even though I knew my fitness was solid. Early to mid June I signed up for a fall target race and it was like flicking a switch. Immediately every run was easier and I felt energized. I had a purpose again.
Not wanting to go through that again I intentionally put two races on my calendar after the Indiana 100 - a 14 mile trail race two weeks after just to get a sense of where my body was and the Disney Marathon in January. The 50 States has been a side project and January is about the only time I'd actually want to run in the miserably humid Florida. Combining that with planning out my 2020 has definitely proved to be a much better approach to my post race existence.
POST 100 RECOVERY
There's just no way to know how your body's going to react to pushing it further than it's ever gone before. Going in to the Indiana 100 my longest race was 50 miles and a little over seven and a half hours. I'd run a training run well over 6 hours and done a 50k race a month prior but this was a different animal. When my knee went south I now had a new element to take into account and I'd read multiple post race soreness horror stories.
When I woke up Sunday, October 13th at 9am I was prepared for the worst but ended up pleasantly surprised. First off, while my knee was very very stiff there was no pain which was completely unexpected. I'd feared damage with long lasting effects as well as just a miserable day trying to move around and neither happened. Overall while my body was sore it wasn't any more severe than after my long back to backs or hard efforts. The reasons for this are most likely twofold - I didn't go to the bottom of my well in the race having dialed it back on the last loop and with a lot of doubles and back to back long runs in training my body had adapted.
For the next two weeks I had no expectations. First I was going to wait until the knee stiffness entirely subsided before even attempting to get back out there. I'd put in a hard 2019 and had goals for 2020 so getting healthy and recharging mentally had to be first and foremost. I had a race for the 27th but was completely prepared to skip it if I just wasn't there. Tentatively I'd put the beginning of November to begin amping back up again.
Six days completely off for the first time in forever, guilt free with a gluttonous food intake no less, did the trick for my knee and my soul. I'd planned on waiting another day to be safe but on the following Saturday I felt completely in sync and ready to go so I decided to give it a try but reminded myself that my brain was going to run the show on this one.
As much as I dislike the treadmill I needed to be able to stop at any time if I felt off so I slowly rolled out of the pit area and into a power walk. Shaking the cobwebs and soreness I was surprised at how "good" I felt. I was still a bit worn out and my legs were heavy but my knee wasn't hurting and nothing unexpected was popping up (you never know what niggles may rear their ugly head once you start moving). I eased up the pace until I finished the last of the three miles at about 10 minute jogging pace before shutting it down.
I wasn't BACK but I was back.
Sunday saw an easy 7 miler before I took my normal Monday off and missing the trails did a Tuesday hike/trail run during which I then caught my leg at an odd angle and tweaked a hamstring. Nothing too bad but it did force me to cut a run short later in the week and shut it down entirely for Friday and Saturday as I errored on the side of caution. The trail race Sunday was going to be a race day decision as there was no reason to push it if my hamstring was off. Get healthy first and foremost.
MT. TOBY 14 MILE TRAIL RACE REPORT
I woke up Sunday morning feeling ready to race. My hamstring had mild tightness but at an acceptable non injury level, more just letting me know it was there and to keep an eye on it. Experience definitely teaches you how to monitor your body and knowing when it's ok to push and when you need to give yourself more rest. Two consecutive days off had done the trick so I set about my pre race routine.
The weather was cold and rainy which was a good opportunity for me to run a trail race in conditions I was yet to experience, something I figured would come in handy in the future. I'd also upgraded my base layer so was interested to test it out. It was a pretty simple and straightforward race - 7 miles to top of Mt. Toby and 7 miles back. Going in I thought my elevation work and increased strength would be an advantage but boy was I wrong.
Unsure of what to expect I started off conservatively as I eased my body into race mode again. I was pleased to find my legs feeling fresh and recovered from the extreme effort of two weeks prior and let go of any concerns about residual effects. The course was basically entirely on fire roads without really any technical sections so it was going to allow for faster paces taking into account about 2000 feet of elevation.
The first four miles had a lot of rolling hills and I clicked them off at about 8:30 pace. I was running the uphills and feeling pretty good but still holding back. My goal for the race was to test out my recovery and just have fun. It was nice to have no pressure to hit a specific target and made for a more enjoyable overall experience which is something I'm going to have to find a way to incorporate more often.
I hit the Mt. Toby trailhead and started the gradually steeper 3 mile climb up Mount Toby which was definitely eye opening to me. In training I'd hiked a lot of uphills to conserve energy and focus on the big picture ultra distance goal. Also as we neared the summit the hills got very steep and to me running just didn't make sense. Taking the supremely talented front runners out of the equation who just blasted from the start and beat me by a good 25 minutes, I was surprised to find myself getting passed by a few runners in my class who ran the entire way to the summit.
As I assessed I realized that my legs were strong and ready to go, but I was hitting an anerobic state where I had to stop running and hike to catch my breath. I wouldn't call it demoralizing because this was a different type of race than I'd trained and I wasn't emotionally invested in the outcome, but it was eye opening for what I need to work on. As I target races with more elevation and seek to improve my overall fitness I needed to figure out how to improve to the point I could do this type of race and run the entire uphill section.
Hitting the summit my last two miles with combined running and hiking came in at roughly 10-11 min pace, I felt strong and ready to go after the miles home. Letting gravity do the work I opened it up and felt fantastic hitting 7:20 pace back down. With the steeper downhill grade I'm still learning how to let go and really hit faster paces but I was surprised to find that I was able to catch the runners who passed me. This was probably twofold - I'm supremely built for recovery and endurance at this point so the uphill didn't drain me as much as them and my comfort level with downhill sections having done quite a bit of trail work over the last few months (being 6'4 with a longer stride didn't hurt either).
The last four miles home started with a longer uphill section and then some rolling hills and now smelling the finish line I was pushing myself. At one point I slowed to hike but another runner encouraged me to keep running the uphill which triggered me to punch back in and work. Trail running is always more about the battle between you and the course and not as much with the other runners so there's a wonderful sense of camaraderie out there and I am thankful to that runner.
As I clicked off miles home and hit the inevitable pain cave there was an interesting development, something I think I'll be able to draw from for a while. While I was hurting I found myself naturally thinking back to that 6+ hour, 20 mile last loop around Chain 'O Lakes Park and specifically the painful last 8 where my knee was unforgiving. "This isn't as bad as that" I told myself repeatedly and that knowledge alleviated any concerns about making it home. Knowing you've survived worse is a powerful motivator.
I closed out with a few mid 7 minute miles and crossed the line in 1:56:16 (8:18/mile). I'd gone out in 1:02:45 (8:58/mile) and come back in 53:31 (7:39/mile) - it's tough to accurately judge pace on each individual mile because with trails my watch doesn't measure distance accurately. I finished 14th while the winner ran 1:31:16 which is unreal, he's also 40 so I couldn't even take solace in them being younger than me. Overall I felt strong and fresh and accomplished my goal of getting a sense of where I am mentally and physically. I'm ready to go again.
The race overall had a great positive attitude and while casual was well organized. There was a nice food spread, including countless burgers for all preferences (carnivore to vegan). It was also well marked with aide stations if needed and while the times at the front of the pack were top notch, there were also a lot of casual runners for anybody less serious and just looking for a good challenge.
Over the coming weeks I need to research how to increase my aerobic threshold on hill climbs for next year and I need to decide if my January Disney Marathon is going to be one that I race or I that I run. If I race it I have to go for a 3:15 finish (7:26 mile) to give myself a realistic shot at getting into Boston. My base fitness and strength is there but having done zero speed work I'll have two months to see what I can do to unlock it again. I also have to plan out my 2020 as many of the big race lotteries are in January.
I'm BACK.
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