Avoiding Trashing My Quads on Tiger Mountain

After two runs on all three of Issaquah Alp peaks, I had DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), the worst of which was in my upper quads, which comes from the punishing downhill. I have since been reading about prevention and treatment, and what I have learned is pretty inconclusive. That being said, I have reached a couple of conclusions for things that I think will help me.

The most common refrain was that you just have to get used to long, steep descents--and lots of them. Based on past experience with building up to a 50K trail race and experiencing occasional soreness, this makes the most sense to me. Going down a steep mountain grade for five miles is something my legs just aren't accustomed to. I thought I would be less sore after the second Issaquah Alps traverse, but that was not the case. Today was the second Saturday in a row where I ran over 20 miles and had 6,800 feet and 6,464 feet of elevation loss on subsequent runs. I feel pretty good right now, but the DOMS don't show up until at least a day later.

Another tactic is to take small steps and lift your feet as soon as possible, hardly letting them touch the ground. This was the second most common thread. When you hear your feet slap and your pack sloshing, you know you're NOT doing it right. Relax, and let gravity take you. Right. Easier said than done, but I did my best to employ this technique today. "Lift your feet! Lift your feet! Relax!" kept going through my head.

Also important is fuel before, during, and after the run. Eating a breakfast with low-glycemic index carbs and some protein is recommended two to three hours prior to running. Since my usual breakfast of a banana, whole wheat toast and almond butter fit the bill, I had that at 4:00 am. Ten minutes prior to my 6:00 am start, I had a Vega pre-workout drink to top off my glycogen levels. You know when your legs shake because they're so tired from going down, down, down? That's your glycogen levels being depleted. Obviously, pre-feuling is an important factor in glycogen levels. I had pasta with vegan meatballs high in protein the night before for dinner.

Equally important is what you consume while you run. You need more than electrolytes in your water; carbs and protein are the best, but I haven't found a vegan drink mix for during exercise with protein, so I just get electrolytes and carbs for now, but I get my protein through Hammer Perpetuem. I took an extra scoop along today. Caffeine also helps diminish your perception of pain while running, but it additionally seems to help with muscle soreness. I used two gels with 100 mg of caffeine today instead of just one.

Finally, the recovery fuel within the first 45 minutes after the run is crucial. Carbs and protein. Sorry to say I went non-vegan here. I used Pacific Health Labs Endurox. One serving is 270 calories! That's a lot of calories from a drink, but I figured my muscles deserved it. There is a vegan recovery drink by Vega which I will use next time. I usually use it in my breakfast smoothies. I don't think it has the right carb to protein ratio, though. That will have to be the subject of a future post! I also ate a baked empanada filled with lentils, olives, raisins, walnuts and spices. I made them for dinner last week and froze the extra--a perfect post-run snack!

My husband always asks me to send him a selfie before I start so he knows what I am wearing--just in case he has to report me missing.

As for my running route, it was wonderful! My first turn I took too early. I was supposed to go all the way to the top of Tiger 3, but I didn't. I explored several trails on the northwest and southwest side of Tiger (some of which I did last weekend) and then took the Middle Tiger Trail down, a trail I'd never been on. I accidentally took the loop on Middle Tiger backwards, which was a good thing because the descent was fairly gradual but the ascent back to the Tiger Mountain Trail was straight up; it would have been a brutal descent. I'll have to start paying closer attention to map contour lines when I plan my routes. No harm done, as I lucked out and did it backwards. I knew I would probably reach the peak of one of the Tiger summits--turned out to be Tiger 2 with the tower. By that time, I had about five miles to go, all down hill. Good time to try out some of the techniques!

It's 7:42 am and I am running in dappled sunlight on the TMT (Tiger Mountain Trail) 5.5 miles in. Birds singing, no one else on the trail, total bliss.

There are these amazing bridges in the middle of nowhere that were helicoptered in. This one was slippery early in the morning, but OK on the way back around 11:00. Part of my route had me repeating a couple miles of trail.

Another beautiful bridge over a substantial creek.

There was this HUGE rock on the TMT. The picture just doesn't do it justice. I tried to put myself in it to give it scale.

The tower on Tiger 2 Summit. As a kid in the 80s, I climbed the fence and the tower. Back then, there was no barbed wire.

About a third of the way down, things got messy. There's a trail closed because the bridge is out, and I couldn't decipher the maps for the reroute posted at the junctions. My written turns, my watch, and the maps at the junctions just didn't seem to agree! I ended up doubling back on the TMT and took the West Tiger Railroad Grade back to West Tiger 3. My watch measured the run longer than Garmin Connect once again, so just to be sure, I ran an extra loop around Lake Tradition when I got down since the railroad grade was shorter. In all, my watch said I did 21.6 miles. (Basecamp says 23.1 miles, and when I uploaded the GPX file to View Ranger, it says 19.1). It was supposed to be 20.

GPX file of my route

Now I'm relaxing in the backyard, stoking the fire in our pizza oven and having a gin and tonic. Relaxing. I feel pretty good! Later, I will spend some time with foam roller, which was another top recommendation for preventing soreness. I'll let ya know how I do in the next few days!

Monday, May 14, 2018 update: No soreness at all! I had a great run Sunday, too. It was my first recovery run on a trail. I don't know which of the things I tried made the difference. I guess I don't really care. I am just glad not to be sore.