I'm sorry for the delay in reporting in – internet & phone service on the I-395 corridor was hopeless, and I was then getting organized to fly back to NY (where I am now).
It may have been unwise to make another attempt so soon after the 175 miles of my first effort. My muscles and feet felt fully recovered, but of course it's impossible to judge the overall state of your body from superficial sensations.
In any case, I felt strong from the start. I kept to a similar steady pace up Whitney (summit in 3h55). On my first attempt, I had turned my ankle on Whitney, and although it wasn't really serious, it had made me tentative on the descents. Without that concern, I had the confidence to go significantly quicker on the descents. With a target average speed of 3mph, I don't think it's efficient to try to run on the flats – here, a fast hike can achieve 4+ mph with much less fatigue. However, running seems more efficient on suitable downward gradients, where you can almost "fall" forwards into a half-run. Maintaining good forward momentum like this with the more flexed knee of a run seems less jarring on the legs. So, after Whitney, I was gaining a few minutes consistently on every split when compared to my first attempt, but the greatest difference was in the descents, in particular the long descents from Forester and Mather.
I was also much quicker descending from Glen and through the Rae Lakes – although very little of this trail is runnable. Here, the main difference was the lack of rain; and because I reached the summit of Glen earlier, I did over half of the descent in daylight.
Overall, turning into Le Conte I was over 2 hours up on my first attempt, and I did not feel that I had expended any more energy.
However, from the beginning of the second day, my lungs had not felt quite right. Since it was certainly not slowing me down, I resolved to push through it unless I had no choice. But, just as on my first attempt near Red's, this time on the climb of Muir things deteriorated quite quickly – I started to get exactly the same symptoms – wheezing, tightness and pain in my chest. The weather was not helping – a forecast for 30% afternoon showers turned out to mean a major thunderstorm with repeated strikes on the peaks to the east, and sustained rain for several hours (and through much of the following night). However – although it was raining when I stopped, I stopped because I was sick. If I'd stayed healthy, I can't really be sure if the subsequent sustained weather would have been bad enough to force me off the trail.
From discussion with Allen's wife (who is an ER doctor), it does not seem that my problem is respiratory infection as I had thought. It's more likely to be inflammation from immune system dysfunction. The high speed of these attempts means breathing through the mouth the entire time. For me, it seems to be a quantitative effect – I haven't had these symptoms on slightly lesser efforts, but it seems that ingesting dirt and dust for 20 hours a day without respite is just too much. So, I could probably resolve the problem with medication if I tried again – but I'd have to think carefully about whether that's really just taking things too far. I've enjoyed the challenge of working out a strategy for this, but ultimately – well, we're not talking about an Olympic gold medal here; for me it was just a personal challenge.
I'll add a few final thoughts later this evening.
