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Badwater is one of the best known and toughest ultramarathons. Even though I've done many 100 mile racesincluding the [[2014 Keys 100|Keys 100]], plus [[2013 Pacing Badwater 135| pacing at Badwater last year]], the difficulty of the race still managed to surprise me.

* '''Distance'''. The extra 35 miles beyond the 100 mile distance is more than 35% more difficult because fatigue is cumulative. Consider that at mile 85 in a 100 miler, the end would be in sight, but at Badwater there's still another 50 miles to go. I've run 130-146 miles in 24 hour races a few times, but a 24 hour race generally provides optimal running conditions. * '''Heat'''. The heat causes several problems. There's the critical problem of overheating and getting heat illness, which normally involves the vomiting that compounds the problems. But even if you avoid overheating, the heat means a much slower pace than would be possible in the cool, making the race take much longer. * '''Descents'''. The long descents tear up the muscles, further slowing progress. Even if you're well prepared and take things carefully (which I did), there is some unavoidable damage. I had far more [[Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness| muscle damage]] from Badwater than my previous 100 milers. * '''Multiplication'''. The above factors mean the race takes a lot longer and so sleep deprivation becomes a problem. I didn't find sleepiness too much of a problem, but the deprivation did cause mild hallucinations and intoxication.

* '''Shoes'''. I wore three different types of shoe for the race. I wore the [[Altra One2|Altra One²]] for the first 45 miles, and their light weight was great on the ascent and descent from Horseshoe Meadows. I then swapped to the [[Altra Olympus]] for 45 miles. They worked remarkably well, but at mile 90 my feet were hurting so much that I figured a change might help. I wore the [[Hoka Bondi]] for the next 32 miles, before reverting to the Olympus for the finish. After the race I realized that the heat of Badwater had worn down the Bondi dramatically. I had more wear in 32 miles of Badwater than I'd expect from 300 miles of normal use. The One².had also worn, but not as badly as the Bondi. The Olympus still look new, probably because the Olympus has an outsole over most of its sole.

* '''Sore feet'''. My feet became sore quite early on in the race and by the last third were remarkably painful. It's been suggested that the heat of Badwater cooks the soles of the feet, making the pain of the continual pounding worse. The pain was a little less with the slightly firmer [[Altra Olympus]] than the [[Hoka Bondi]], and massaging the foot seemed to provide some temporary relief.* '''Blisters'''. For the first time in many years I got blisters on my feet. The combination of socks I use has generally [[Blister Prevention| eliminated the problem in the pastblisters]], which made me a little blasé. I should have changed socks far more often, cleaning and checking my feet at the same time. * '''Chaffing'''. I had a problem with chafing, as even with the low humidity, some parts of the body remain constantly wet. This is combined with the fine dust and sand that acts as a skin abrasive. Smothering the area in Desitin helped a little. * '''Checklist.''' I didn't have a checklist for the ascent up Cerro Gordo, and I'd have avoided several mistakes if I used one. I didn't take enough calories up the mountain, I forgot the Pulse Oximeter and my headlight batteries were dead. Luckily the race directory happened to be coming down the mountain and bailed me out with some fresh AAAs! * '''Morton Stretch'''. I didn't try to do a [[Morton Stretch]] until around mile 110, which was way too late. By the time I tried, I could not get my quads to stretch properly.

* '''Less racing'''. The three 100 milers I did in the months prior to Badwater impacted my training more than I'd have liked and I would have been in better shape if I'd have raced less.* '''More Downhill'''. I should have done more [[Downhill Running]] and less [[Heat Acclimation Training]]. The downhill seems to be the most valuable aspect of my training, and I think more would be better. =Basis Monitoring=I wore the [[Basis Activity Tracker]] during Badwater to see what it would record. As you can see below, my skin temperature stayed reasonably cool for most of the race, a reflection of the effectiveness of my cooling approach. I'm not sure how much I trust the perspiration rate as I was being sprayed off with water regularly, which may have confused things. You'll notice that the Basis detected my nap around 3 AM which is pretty cool.[[File:BadwaterBasis.jpg|none|thumb|800px| This is the data that the [[Basis Activity Tracker]] recorded during Badwater. The Basis web site only displays one days data at a time, so this is two days stitched together. The orange balls are the number of steps taken, the purple line is skin temperature, and the blue line is perspiration rate. The temperature scale for skin temperature is on the right side of the graph in Fahrenheit.]]=Heart Rate=I also wore my [[Best Running Watch| Suunto Abmit2R]] for the race, and the Heart Rate data is shown below. [[File:BW HR.jpg|none|thumb|800px|Heart Rate against time using an ECG chest strap.]]=Recovery=My legs were a little sore the next day, but were soon fine for short runs and normal use. It took another week or two for the endurance to return, which may be due to [[Glycogen]] depletion. ==Sleep Monitoring with Basis==My biggest problem was insomnia that lasted for nearly a week. It was not until the Sunday following the race that I started to feel sleepy; up to that point I was exhausted, but without the desire to sleep, and I felt like I was not sleeping well. If you look at the sleep report from the [[Basis Activity Tracker| Basis]] you can see that I did not sleep much the night after the race, which is normal for me after an ultra. However, I did not sleep much the Wednesday or the Thursday and my sleep was distinctly interrupted. It was not until Friday that I start sleeping more and I didn't feel the benefit of the increased sleep until Sunday. {| class="wikitable" |- valign="top"|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Tue.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Tuesday, the night after the race finishes. Only 6 hours sleep and 5 major interruptions (4 the Basis identified as interrupted sleep, and one gap where the Basis decided I was actually awake and up.)]]|- valign="top"|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Wed.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Wednesday. Another crappy night's sleep with three major interruptions.]]|- valign="top"|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Thur.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Thursday. Only two interruptions and slightly more sleep, but still not enough. (It says Friday due because I flew home and the Basis did not update the time zone until Friday morning.)]]|- valign="top"|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Fri.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Friday. Far more sleep, but awoke feeling like I'd been up all night. ]]|- valign="top"|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Sat.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Saturday. Again more sleep, but without feeling either rested or sleepy.]]|- valign="top"|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Sun.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Sunday. Things start to return to normal.]]|}==Heart Rate Variability==I've been monitoring my [[Heart Rate Variability]] (HRV) for a while, so I was curious about how Badwater would impact it. HRV is generally believed to reflect training stress, and is a candidate for detecting the dreaded [[Overtraining Syndrome]]. {| class="wikitable" |- valign="top"|[[File:BW HRV ithlete.PNG|none|thumb|x300px| This is the data from the [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ithlete/id331348945?mt=8 ithlete] app, with the daily mileage as the bars, and the rolling average as a blue line. As you can see the individual daily readings have too much noise to be of much use. There is a slight rise in the average after Badwater, suggesting that the recovery from the race went well.]]|- valign="top"|[[File:BW HRV4Training.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|This data comes from the [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hrv4training/id686923970?mt=8 HRV4Training] app, which has been postprocessed using my sports tracks plug-in. The vertical bars are [[TRIMP]] (effort) and the line is the seven day rolling average of HRV/HR. This data suggests the race didn't produce a much protracted stress. (Other data (not shown) indicates that the variation in HRV is not significant.]]|}