Stack Run # 3 Fail!
It’s called a moon shot for a reason. I wouldn’t say this stack run was an epic fail but a solid reminder that at the end of the day I’m a dairy farmer who likes to run. I’m going to put some context around this run just so I can convince myself that I can still run a 100miler.
First off, every runner has a bad workout here or there. Every runner has had to deal with that feeling of wanting every workout to be the best and believe in an image that we are like rocket ships, always accelerating to new heights. The reality is that rocket ships do crash too. So it’s time to sort through the wreckage of that crash.
Last week was the official end of summer around Van Winkle Dairy as my morning milking crew returned to class at Benjamin Logan High School on Tuesday Sept. 6th. I knew this week was coming, a week that requires early early mornings and an adjustment to my summer norm. Add in some late nights working on the FARMbanks Invitational and the corn! Oh the corn! The corn is ready to chop! By Friday we had gotten all of the corn chopping equipment out and started, and we chopped corn until 11pm the night before the Tiffin Carnival. If you recall I said last week was going to be a bit of a circus, right?
Saturday morning I was up at 4:30am, working on a couple hours sleep and thinking; make feed for cows, go to Tiffin, come back Start Running! Sounds like a plan. I get back to the farm from Tiffin and my cousin tells me that all the flat tires on the silage wagons are fixed and the chopper is ready to go again, and that’s when the reality of dairy farming sets in. I can run in the rain, I can’t chop in the rain and at that moment its not raining. Ok, so start Chopping! I can run on Sunday, in the rain.
There’s a famous saying amongst dairy farmers, have a plan and plan to change. This is my new mindset for the weekend at this point. We chopped corn until 11pm again Saturday night. Then came the morning, it did not rain, the corn wants to be chopped! Have a plan and plan to change, chop corn until it rains or until the chopper breaks! And it did, finally, nothing major but at 2pm Sunday afternoon we shut down chopping. Time to stack run.
I had worked it out in my mind that I could still run 30 miles on Sunday night and 20 miles Monday morning, I would just get up really early and run before milking cows. This should be just like running a 100miler. So we set out to give it a try. Emily had laid out a list of energy gu’s and hydration drinks that would carry me through and for the first 10miles I felt good. I was thinking 30 miles is going to be over quickly but as soon as I got overly confident mile 15-17 hit me hard.
The aid stations for the CC 100 lay out like this, 4.5 miles, 9miles, 10.8 miles, 13.5 miles, 19miles, and stop there. There is something about that 13.5-19mile stretch that has haunted me on these stack runs. I doubt I was bonking, we had implemented a gu plan that required me to eat a gu every hour and Emily had planned out hydration practices that should keep me rolling along, so this stack run was not just a shot in the dark but thought out. I made 1 mistake and that was a change of shoes at mile 10 that I regret, I thought I should try an old pair of shoes with a strong post to give relief to the inside of my ankles, I was going to use them up to 19miles then change out. Once I got to mile 16 it was clear I had to get out of those shoes. We ran back to the house and changed shoes, I was not feeling good, it was time for a gu and I couldn’t stomach it. I thought I just need to keep moving and then……
And then I was reminded that I’m a dairy farmer, the boy’s call from the farm, “the vacuum pump stopped working!”. Hmmmm. I jogged to the farm and pushed the rest button on the pump motor and told the boys, “that’s not good, the pump will probably kick off again”. I put a fan on it to try to cool the motor some more, the thermal overload was turning the motor off, so maybe that would get it by. The boys called me again, same thing, “the pump is off!”. Ok, time to wrestle with the back up pumps. Redundancy plans are important around a dairy farm and of course we have 2 back up vacuum pumps for the milking system that never get used. I was still in my running shoes and shorts, walking to the diesel fuel tank and I said to Emily, “I’m not sure this is a great idea” as I got a gallon of diesel from the tank, and walked back to the vacuum pump room. 1 of the surge alamo veined back up pumps was locked up from sitting too long. I poor that gallon of diesel into the pump and began pushing and pulling on the input pulley, 20 minutes later it was moving enough to fire it up and it did, back in business. The cows got milked and I was done for the night.
It all added up to too many things not enough time, a crash was inevitable.
Running Stats
My overall average pace got messed up because I still had my workout tracker on while I wrestled the vacuum pumps, you can also see that my heart rate goes down over that period of time too. Looking at my paces I was running too fast and pressing myself to get it done. A clear sign that over the past week I’ve been packing it all in and trying to get it all done. Sometimes a break down is just what you need to refocus.
Refocus
Enjoy Spartan week.
Chop more corn.
Try 1 more stack run before bailing on the CC 100.
Monday Morning……
