Gravel Ride 6: Gravel is Sexy

Recovery ride with Ramona

Gravel Ride Five: Stayin’ Alive

Ride home from Costco

Gravel Ride Four: More Gravel

Helluva way to start Hell Week! TWENTY-NINE PRs! But more on that later...

Found a pretty busy parking lot at Apex this morning as it was clearly the intent of a lot of Hell Week runners to check this one off ASAP.  I've traditionally never even started Hell Week until Tuesdays a lot of the time, but almost always FINISH with Apex (and sometimes in the dark).

Well, it's the heart of race season and I've got too much on the line, so I took a different approach. Now, morning running is not my thing but it came together pretty well and I really churned it out. While I felt like I was keeping a pretty manageable pace and keeping focused on safe steps and avoiding injury, I also kept reminding myself: "I'm here to compete. I'm here to compete. I'm here to compete."

That really drove me! And so I continued a recent trend of mine of what feels like a slightly slower uphill pace, but without stops. Keep churning. Keep churning...

I was also aided today for a bit of serendipity: last night I couldn't for the life of me find my only remaining running water bottle that fits in my running fanny pack I almost always carry. But when I got to the trailhead this morning, there were merch tables! A blessing!

A nice fellow repping for Nathan's sure did have a small handheld water bottle he'd let me test out. It was a 18-oz soft bottle and I gotta tell you, I loved it. I've long avoided handhelds because I like to fly the downhills and I was convinced it would throw off my balance. But lately, I've taken a step back on downhills (in an effort to avoid injury), and frankly, my hips are killing me, so maybe the fanny pack isn't the best choice right now. What did work for me was the Nathan's handheld nozzle, which releases with just a slight bite, but is an otherwise airtight seal. The ease of bringing it to my mouth and getting a quick sip was much greater than wrestling a bottle from my hip pack and then fumbling it back in.

I could even say I found its presence a bit comforting toward the top when I was straining and my hands naturally made little fists as I exerted myself. The bottle was soft and squishy, like one of those toys my kid plays with for anxiety. Because I didn't need my hip pack for water, I opted not to take my phone, either, which was freeing both mentally and weight-wise.

Anyhow, when I finished I went back to the rep and asked him how much, and he told me $30 retail. I asked if he took Venmo and he said this was on him! 

I'll be carrying this handheld through the remainder of Hell Week and most likely for the OC Trail Runs 50K. 

Oh, did I mention I set dozens of PRs today and ran the fastest Argos/Pick-N-Sledge/Grubstake loop this year? (And the fastest of 9 Hell Week participants so far this morning!) It was a sublime start to the week and I can't wait to get back at it after dropping my kiddo off at school first thing tomorrow!

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Jeremy JJ Johnson

Golden Hell Week #1 - Apex

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Gravel Ride 6: Gravel is Sexy

Recovery ride with Ramona

Gravel Ride Five: Stayin’ Alive

Ride home from Costco

Gravel Ride Four: More Gravel

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