It's funny to do a large group run with Steph.  She is, consistently, at the very back of the group all day long... going super slow but amazingly consistently.  Then she shows up at a race and beats everyone.  She swears it's the slow training.  I think it's her genes. :-)

 

Right - I train slower than most during group runs and still finish no where near the front ;-)

 

Me too!  I train at the back and finish at the back!  Hey, at least it's consistent. 

 But, I'm more than good enough to walk the whole thing if I have to. It's only 50 miles - and they've given us 29 hours.

Life is good.

Now that's the way to think. Best of luck. 

Me too!  I train at the back and finish at the back!  Hey, at least it's consistent. 

Wait, I took your advise into consideration for a moment.......... 

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OK, so I finally got to get out there and run a long-run today. It's super difficult to find a block of hours to take out of a day to do this; however, I had to get up early so I could start at dawn and get a lot of time on my feet. My husband and I run a business that's open 7 days a week so I had to get back in due time to get to work. It worked out for me today - sort of. I would have liked to spend even more time out there. Next time!

Today, I think I spent 4.5 hours on the trail (I need to check on my Garmin). The time includes my rest/fuel stops at the aid station/my car. I covered 17.5 miles. Wow, that's not much but I kept thinking of Chris's words that time on your feet is the important thing, not the pace. I kind of agree with this. I can run for pace on some of my shorter runs, which I do, and I love it. I ran on challenging terrain today. It was hilly and single track., extremely wet and muddy in places. It had rained all night and still rained and drizzled during my run. There were puddles everywhere. Sometimes the ground was so soft the feet just mushed into the mud and the water entered the shoes. In the beginning I tried to carefully avoid getting wet feet. Well, after the first hour I basically gave up and ran with wet feet from then on. It was warm this morning compared to the freezing temps we've had lately. I didn't need hat or gloves. 

I am not used to trails as difficult as these - lots of roots and some rocky parts. This is a great place to train for my upcoming trail events, very race specific. I think if I can get there often enough my body will be nicely conditioned when the race season starts. First, however, I am going to run another road marathon in February; I registered for it long ago. I will use the marathon as another long-run that will aid in preparation for the ultras.

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During my last hour today I came upon a place where the water was gushing over the trail - it looked like a creek. I thought I had made a wrong turn and gotten away from the trail but it turned out I was on the right track. There has just been so much rain lately and with it raining all night the water was running across the trail right here. I didn't want to turn around so I decided to wade into the water and cross over to the other side. It wasn't deep but I was in water up to the mid calf on both legs and had to take 3-4 steps before I was on dry land on the other side. When I got out I realized the water was quite cold - the shoes were full and my long pants were wet now. After running for a little while the shoes seemed to have emptied themselves relatively well and the water inside of them had turned warm. As long as I kept moving I would be fine. 

- This was the most exciting part of the run today.

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I may be changing my goal for Lynch's Wood. I now think I will aim for 12 hours or 40 miles, whichever comes first. I think my initial goal of 12 hours or 50 miles was/is not realistic (After all my longest distance to date is a 50K, 31 miles in 7.5 hours.)

Leslie, How did your long-runs go this weekend? Better luck with the new fueling adjustments? I saw in the ultrathread that you have gotten some good advise on salt intake etc. I hope all of this is going to help you. I agree with Doug that you should add some non-carbs to the mix of foods in order to get a better balance of nutrients. I know peanutbutter is not your thing. Maybe tree nuts are better? I ate almonds and hazelnuts during my long training run yesterday along with bites of banana. The nuts sit well with me but your system may not agree with nuts?

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I was thinking of you yesterday while I did my own long trail run - you are amazing for being able to run long runs back to back. I was so tired yesterday.

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Shake-out run/walk 5.5 mile today. Long-run has taken a toll on feet, knees and legs - trying to be patient with the recovery process.

I even have a vacation then. At least they have a waiting list and there's a 50k in Colorado for a fallback.

Since I had a pain-free run today (my first one in weeks) I'm feeling more optimistic, maybe I can join Trey for some of the SCUR races!