When my buddies, Chris and Jack, agreed to do something epic this year, I knew there would be training involved. I had thrown out the choice of taking a month (or two) off and biking the Continental Divide Trail from Canada to Mexico. Or, we could maybe look at running rim to rim at the Grand Canyon. Both seemed challenging with real possibility of injury and/or failure in either training or execution. Jack, looking at the two choices, threw out third option; why not do the Grand Canyon, but run rim to rim to rim? That would entail an out and back with about 10,000 ft of elevation change over a distance between 42 and 46 miles (depending on the trail).
I don't know why, but all three of us loved that option. We began training, Chris and me in Kansas, and Jack in southern California. In January we met and drove to Joshua Tree to get a run in in the high desert. The 16 mile run we chose was an out and back with a solid (read soul-sucking) single track climb that needed to be surmounted outbound and inbound. I had been having serious calf issues, and had only felt semi-confident to tackle something like that a few days before.
But it worked out. The run was challenging and beautiful. When we finished, however, we were confronted with the reality that the Grand Canyon run probably would have similar difficult terrain, but also 3 times as long. That was pretty sobering. From our text and email follow-ups, I know that we were all getting a bit intimidated thinking of the Canyon.
Upon our return to Kansas, I upped my game and began to run 20 miles on trails once a week. I had one bad experience where I hit the wall. . . hard. I have only had that happen once before. This instance really sucked and took me some hours of recovery. Four days later though I was back on the trail knocking out the same 20 miles. And I did it again a couple more times the following week - even reverse-splitting the back half on one of the routes.
I have one short trip planned for Joshua Tree before mid-March when our prep run, the Joshua Tree Traverse - a 37 mile run across the upper part of the park - will take place. The traverse will give us an idea (very roughly) of how we might do in the Grand Canyon in April.
For me, the past several weeks of cranking out long runs have served to boost my confidence. When I hit the wall, I took a pause to really examine what I had been doing that might have caused that to occur. Subsequently, I increased my food intake on the run twofold and added a larger load of electrolytes and trace minerals into my fluids. Those changes have seemed to work well.
For me, the longer distances are not simply a way to build up endurance. They serve to expose weaknesses and issues both with equipment and physiology. While completing long runs is a guarantee-free endeavor, having worked out as many bugs and identified as many potential issues as possible while training can only serve to better one's chances of completing the goal that has been set.
I'll post a bit more once we're closer to the traverse.
