As my legs - quads specifically - were refusing to work (truth be told they ripped like old jerky about 100 yards into the DOWNHILL run) at the Monticello Tri, and I was quickly starting to doubt even being able to finish the far too far and slightly downhill 10k run, I started trying to figure out what the heck went wrong.  I had run more than ever over the winter, done more speedwork - even done repeat sets of 200's - and even run some 5k time trials, and yet I was running slower than the Late Great Marc Witkes on the 7th day of his 100 miles a day attempt - WTF?   About mile 5, just when I realized I not only was going to hold on to finish but actually win - I realized what I'd done wrong, again.  I say again because as someone who has raced and coached for over 30 years I have made about every mistake known to man and many of them more than once - running really makes you stupid sometimes!  And as a coach and Exercise Physiology degree holder I knew exactly what had gone wrong, yet there I was woddling - not running - down the road at 7:20/mile.  I feel bad for anyone who had to see that!  No pictures please!

So what went wrong?  "Everyman's" training mistake number 1:  In trying to rest for the race, and peak perfectly, I had neglected to run the whole week before the race.  I mean I didn't run a step!  I biked a little, skiied a little, but didn't run at all - no relaxing hollow quarters, no leg stretching 5 k pace workout, not even a easy jog with the dogpack.  What the heck was I thinking?  And hadn't I made this mistake a million times - like last year right before the Expedition race?  Knucklehead! 

What was I thinking?  I was thinking that I had a sore calf/achilles that really needed to rest.  I was thinking that my hamstring was pretty tight and I'd hate to pull it right before the race.  And I was thinking that "fresh is better than fit".  In other words, I was panicking about the race and I gave in to all these bizarre fears!  As the defending Champion I was scared to death that I wouldn't even make it to the starting line.  And because I didn't run all week, my hamstings and calves were not sore, but my quads were so tight that the first downhill step I took afeter riding in the aero position for an hour caused my quads to rip - and every step after that caused them to rip again and again and again!

Don't let this happen to you!  The proper way to prepare for a peak race is to train like normal!!  If you normally run 200's and halves and pace workouts, do it the week of the race too.  Just do it a little bit slower, and do a few less, and stretch a little -not alot as overstretching is another common mistake.  And rest , but by getting more sleep not by sitting on your butt.  As it turns out, I was faster and felt better at OP than I did at teh Tri, and I had trained 14 hours in 4 days going into OP.  So, lessson learned, again, training is better than sitting.

Try that and let me know how it works!  And if anyone out there understands Dave's last post please send me the "code" cause even with my degree I'm too brain dead from Oxygen debt to be able to figure it out.   :)