Bacon Party!
Leslie - so glad you checked in! I've been wondering about you.
Love the photo and the preview RR.
One of my favorite things has become calling out the Funny Walkers the next day - at hotels, restaurants, airports.
Congratulations on an awesome first 50!!
Liz
pace sera, sera
under a rock
Imminent Catastrophe
"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"
"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain
"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.
√ Javelina Jundred Jalloween 2015
Cruel Jewel 50 mile May 2016
Western States 100 June 2016
Happy
Great job, Leslie! I am so impressed! Congratulations
"Run slowly, run daily, drink in moderation, and don't eat like a pig" Dr. Ernst Van Aaken. Sorry ultrasteve.
Ultrachick
Congrats Leslie!! Nice picture too!
Two winners last weekend...Leslie and my friend, Aliza, who had a great race at Bull Run Run 50.
Taxes are on top of my priority list this week and oh, what do you know....they're due today and I'm only about half way through getting them done! I'm working til 2pm in Stowe, hour ride home and boys have lacrosse tonight from 6-8pm ish-looks like it will be a late night....it's all good.
I'm looking forward to a weekend with no big project like a paper to write or taxes. Running is going OK-had my biggest week last week with 71m and longest run of 24m. I need to come up with a plan to get me to VT100. I have plenty of friends who build up to 100m weeks....hmmmm....could I do that? We'll see-I'm sure I could do the miles it's making the time.
Looking forward to your race report, Leslie!
Kelly
19 miles in the Wiss. I'm surprised how much it beat me up. First 2 hours were fun, last 2 tough. Lots of hiking the big hills, which I haven't done in a while. Maybe that's what did it. 9,000' of gain and loss.
Uh, ya think? Good job, Greg. I just realized yesterday that with my weekends off for the next few weeks, I won't be doing any trail running. Hmm. I may have to change a mid-week 5-miler to a Saturday.
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
Les, can I throw in my two cents? I don't know exactly what you and your coach are planning but don't let all this training go out the window. Sure, take a couple weeks off to recover but after try to maintain some mileage so that way getting ready for next race won't be that much work. I'm thinking like Sunday long trail runs of 12m or so? Not something that's going to take all day to get done but at least 2-3 hours.
I may be getting the wrong impression but reading 'weekends off for the next few weeks' and is 5m going to be your long run over the weekend? If you're not physically hurt then think about maintaining a higher base so your body will adapt to that and before you know it 50m will be nothing and you'll be shooting for your first 100!
Just a thought and I probably don't have the whole picture. Enjoy your break!
MTA Good job Greg! and yes, I think all that climbing beat you up a bit there. You'll be that much stronger for the next big run!
Kelly, that's some good advice. I think I will follow it myself.
Maybe you can help me what to do about toes that feel very sore - probably from hitting the tip and the top of the shoes while going down steep hills. This soreness seems to be of a more stubborn kind than my muscles soreness which is going away fast now and making me feel almost normal again.
Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening next time I go out for an Ultra?
Wrapping the toes? Using what?
Any suggestions that you may have are appreciated. Thanks!!
Karen
(I am Leslie's running partner's name sister}
before you know it 50m will be nothing and you'll be shooting for your first 100!
You are sooo funny!! Re the mileage thing - I was thinking the same thing this morning. I'm starting to worry that if I don't do at least some running on trails, I'll lose what I've built up, even though the break is only 3 weeks. *sigh* I'm just a little tired of running at this point, but I'm thinking I need to at least do 10 miles on Saturdays . . . unfortunately.
Leslie: I like Kelly's advice too. You came this far... keep the training rolling! (Though 3 weeks of active recovery definitely isn't going to hurt you). You'll be thinking "100 miler" soon... it's inevitable... sort of a cross between addiction and mental illness.
flower: Could very well be your toes impacting the fronts/tops of your shoes. The shoes may either be too short, too big, or not laced tight enough to prevent your feet from sliding forward during long downhills. It's a problem I also have. The cheapest solution would be to lace them up a little tighter across the midfoot before your next descent and see if that helps keep the foot from sliding forward. If that doesn't help, you may need a different size.
It's a tough and fine balance though, between lacing them too tight and too loose. Too tight can cause issues like Tib Anterior tendonitis.
Last weekend I did the Desert RATS Trail Running Festival (formerly the Spring Desert Ultra) 50 miler in Fruita, Colorado. It was two 25 mile laps, mostly singletrack, of an absolutely beautiful desert course near the Colorado National Monument. This race tends to be really HOT, so my plan was to run the first lap hard and re-evaluate the temperatures. It was quite hot by the end of lap 1, but I decided to go back out for a little longer... after awhile it became totally unbearable for me (my body doesn't tolerate heat well at all, especially in the early season... I've run on nothing but snow for the last 7 months straight) so I dropped and wound up with 40 miles... about 25 of them good quality miles, the last 15 pretty much a death march waste of time. This week is a huge training week though, so I didn't want to start the week off hammered and recovering from that..
Beautiful course... if you love hot desert temps, it's a fun one.
Along the Colorado river The course had a lot of gain, rolling between the Colorado River and the mesa tops several times per lap. Looking down on part of the course: My friend Darcy, winning the women's 50 miler. One of the advantages of dropping early is watching the winners finish. I normally never see them!