Warm up Properly for a Race ... Day 2 of the Great Lakes Relay '09

We now had the full 10 person team for Day 2 - You may recall we only had 8 guys for day 1 - yes a challenge, but Chris Glowacki (former Michigan runner of the year and sub 60 minute 10 mile at 50 years old!) and Brad Abendroth (coaches high school cross country in Michigan - an amazing runner) both had to race more than 24 miles in only two days! Thanks for joining us guys!

So, day 2 begins - out the door at 7am promptly to get to the start of our legs on time ... we figured we'd start at about 8:15 ... we had plenty of time ... or so we thought ... went to McDonalds for a quick mocha/coffee run - well, we were in a small town and with several other racers in line it took 20 minutes for them to get us coffee!! The night before it took two hours to get dinner - you get the picture - 88 teams, more than 880 people in a town of about 100 population ... but I won't bore you with those details ...

I usually get up around 6am, have coffee, write in my gratitude journal and start my work day. I like to take a break around 1 or 2pm and run - nice way to break up the day, and my body's warmed up and ready to go, I'm fully hidrated and good to go ... so here we're starting at 8am eastern - 5am pacific!!

We gun the van to where I would start my leg - get there at about 8:07 ... no warm up! ugh. and ... the coffee was working it's magic and I needed to make a serious choice ... more warm up and hold it or head to the woods with TP? ... I knew the consequences of choosing the former - so headed to the woods ... was quite efficient ... but that left me with only 4 minutes to warm up - I was stiff and sore from the first day's races ... jogged easy for a few minutes and then heard my runner was coming in for the handoff! I threw off my sweats and ran as fast as my sore body could go to the start ... boom - the hand-off and I was off and running leg B-4 (day one's legs are A, day 2 - B, day 3 - C) ...

Ugh. The first two miles I felt heavy, sore, tight and slow and was passed by some super fast youngsters ... I also felt like I was in a corset ... never actually been in one, but just guessing and it's a cool analogy - my diaphragm and stomach were tight and it even hurt to breath ... I gutted it out anyways, but it was painful and definitely not "flying on the wings of angels" - got to the trail portion of the run and felt a little better - it usually takes about 15 minutes for my body to get warmed up and have a smoother rhythm. I passed one guy - wow that feels better ... the trail was gorgeous with a view of the river - a nice sandy horse trail - and if you run on the sides of the trail there's pretty good traction ... after 25 minutes I finally warmed up and ran the last two miles strong - didn't want to be passed again! It's interesting racing in the woods - on the hard pack you lengthen your stride and swing your arms, on the sand, it's little power steps and pumping your arms - constant adjustments ... thank god this leg was over!

Here was my lesson - plan ahead, allow time for surprises, and warm up properly - Magdalena Lewy-Boulet 2009 USA half-marathon champ recommends an easy 15 minute jog, drills - high knees, fast feet, active stretching, and a few 100 meter strides ...

So, that's exactly what I did to prepare for my 2nd race of day 2 ... and for both legs on day 3 ... what a difference it makes. On long relays like this where you're racing 25 plus miles over three days ... doing a proper warmup and warm down adds approximately 2 miles per race - that's an additional 12 plus miles! phew - that reinforces the need to train properly and consistently.

Leg # 2 of the day ... it was raining lightly and it felt great on my bare sweaty chest and shoulders ... the whole leg was on the shore to shore trail in the woods ...windy, sandy, up, down, ... ran alone for the first three miles, and then I sensed a visitor coming up from behind ... I was already running about as hard as I could, but a funny thing happens when you don't want to be passed ... I dug deep and ran even harder ... yes, it was a runner from the dreaded team #5 - and I could tell he really wanted to pass me - he had worked hard to catch me ... he caught me with 1.2 miles to go ... I was a bit delusional with oxygen debt, and erroneously thought I had 0.7 miles to go - so hit the gas and took off - I got a good 10-15 yard lead on him ... focusing on my footing so I wouldn't trip on a root or twist my ankle, swing my arms, breath smoothly, lean into the turns, be as efficient as possible ... hey, what's going on here? I've been cranking for 4 minutes and there's no sign of the finish ... aww man - I realized I had another 1/2 mile to go!!

Had to just dig deeper and keep it going - the human mind is a powerful thing - the body can complain all it wants but our brains are stronger ... I hung in there and emerged from the woods at the finish still in the lead ... collapsed to my knees and my lungs heaved, breathing like a freight train ... the team was ecstatic and their energy was awesome - I had a huge smile on my face - that's what it's all about ...

Speaking of great team spirit, later in the day, Tim Becker twisted his ankle three times on a similar trail - unfortunately for him (and several other runners) the windy, sandy trail with 6"burms on the side were covered with huge bushes and ferns - so he couldn't see his footing ... (he iced, wrapped it, and was able to run the next day) so our team superstar Scott Schmick took Tim's second leg of the day for him and kicked some butt - it's noteworthy that Scott was already racing about 30 miles - amazing!

Tune in tomorrow for Day 3 adventures ... have a wonderful day & whatever physical exploit you pursue ... warm up properly :) it's worth it!