David Taylor Gonzales

Elevation Pain

6/13

We have a family reunion in Santa Fe, New Mexico this weekend. Elevation: 7,190 feet. I have never ran at elevation. On Saturday I’m going to give it a shot. I’ll let you know how it goes. I want to run long(ish) and see how my body holds up. Main fears: hydration and heart rate. Gonna try to keep it at a 3-4 RPE.

“People don’t change until the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change” -Tony Robbins -Papa

I spent most of my lift thinking my grandpa made that up but I just googled it and apparently it’s Tony Robbins. It’s a bit convoluted, but I think about that quote a lot.

Okay back from my run. That was brutal. The neighborhood wasn’t ideal for running so we had to loop around a few times and I needed to run by the house to get a quick sip of water twice. 7.21 miles, average pace 9:56/mi, average HR: 140 BPM (peaked at 161 BPM). My VO2 Max estimate dropped from 56 ml/kg/min to 52 ml/kg/min. I knew it would drop but I didn’t expect it to be that drastic. This was a hilariously difficult run. I ran out of breath almost immediately. At one point I was running uphill and my watch showed a current pace of 11:20/mi. I don’t know how some people do it day in and day out but the benefits are obvious. If I trained at that elevation for 2 months and then raced in Springfield I’d PR most distances.

6/16

I only ran 20 miles last week, the perfect way to get back into the swing of things. But I want to talk about our family reunion, more than the training. It’s been on my mind since we got back on Sunday night.

The travel was a pain in the ass, there’s no two ways about it. Traveling with a 2 year old and a 3 month old isn’t for the faint of heart. We had a great time though. The moment we landed in Albuquerque and Joy saw her grandma, she screamed and ran to her arms. It made the whole painstaking process of getting there worth it. I missed our last reunion in 2017 so I hadn’t seen many of these extended family members in 15 years. I got to catch up with Florencia, Isabella and Nicole about running and their experiences running ultra-marathons. I talked with my Dad’s cousin Tim about his videography. I shook Uncle Eloy’s hand while he looked me up and down saying, “shiiit,” and laughed about how long it had been. I got to reacquaint myself with Chris, Reyna, Lucretia, Luanna, and countless others. I’m realizing now as I get older how lucky I am to have a big family. This was a “small” reunion for us and we had 50 people show up! It was cool to see so many different generations celebrating just being together. As Lane and I celebrate 4 years of marriage this month, this reunion was a great reminder of why it’s important to put in the time with family, even if it’s inconvenient.

6/18

This week I’m going to up the mileage to 25 miles. I’ve only run 8.6 so far but I was craving a long Saturday run anyway. I have been working on my cadence to reduce injury risk. My watch tells me I usually run at about 165 steps per minute. I did 5 miles this morning at 182 steps per minute. It required a lot of mental energy to keep that cadence but it felt great and seemed to work different muscles in my legs. I’m curious what recovery will look like if I keep this up.

Keep Going!