Daily Note

Saddled up for the precamp long run before 8am so that we could hop in the cars and drive up to Fairchild, WI where the Buffalo River State Trail starts. Found this spot online yesterday and it looked like a spitting image of the Gandy Dancer. First three miles were fantastic, but 3-5.5 were awful, especially the last mile of that stretch. Like running through a beach at times it was so sandy. Felt pretty bad for dragging guys there, but the trail afterwards was in good shape. Well forested the first half before transitioning into more farms/grassland that followed along the highway for the second portion. We ended up starting the run at 8:45am when the weather was 54 degrees, cloudy, and not too much wind. Pretty darn chilly, but decided to roll without a shirt as I didn't want to put the nipples through any sort of torture. Big group slowly strung out until it was Primo, Crispy, Nobs, Finn, Reuben, Jeb, Butters, and I. Butters turned at 5.5 (poor guy had to struggle through five straight miles of sand, while Jeb flipped at 7.5. Pretty impressed by the pace he managed today. Good to see. Reuben fell off so it left the tempo four plus Finn at the turnaround. By the time we reached the sand on the return journey, Finn had also fell back due to a quickening pace that really dropped the final four. Primo and Nobs did 17, so it was just Crispy and I for the final mile towards Fairchild. All in all, this was a really fun effort. Went by ridiculously fast, especially when compared with my summer LRs. Just something magical about getting out there with some other guys. Finished and questioned whether I'd actually gone eighteen. On the way out we started pretty easily before slowly working it down to the 6:40 range by mile four. The sand slowed us down, but nothing above seven. After that 6:20ish pace felt very smooth, so clicked along at that until the turn. Following a quick pee break, the pace quickly returned to the where it had been...a little quicker in fact as it was 6:05ish. Stuff majorly slowed down with a 7:20 into 6:35 into 6:25 due to the progressively improving sand. Also didn't notice the uphill on the way out, but there was some of that. This meant that by the time we hit the final three miles we had crushed limestone and downhill ahead of us, resulting in some faster stuff. Felt easy though as conversation continued throughout. 5:40ish average. Super smooth all around with great turnover. Fun seeing the boys who had already finished up while running mile 17. During the last mile I started to get slightly fatigued, but nothing more than the moderate effort I was hoping for. This run reminded me how much more enjoyable a progressive LR is when compared to a more consistent grind. Very thankful I didn't feel the achilles at all and that my legs weren't tired. Didn't even feel that good soreness I mentioned from yesterday morning. Cardio was in a good spot, which reassured me I can still put forth a solid effort in the AM. Per usual, hit the eleven-ish mile mark and was a little worried about how quick the pace was getting, but as Primo said, the sand may have been our saving grace. Probably could've kept up that faster pace, but it may have made the perceived effort a bit too much. Was pretty sweaty afterwards and combined with being shirtless and in the woods, I got a good amount of mosquito bites. Still managed to lightly stretch the achilles before hopping in the car though. Afterwards was calf raises, toe tappers, R8 rolling, stretching, ankle mobility, balancing, ice bath in lake, 50 push-ups, 20 squats, 20x core circuit, MYRTL x 15, & 7min. shoes. Kinvaras @ 107.2 miles.