Your friend, Darcy, is gorgeous - looks like it's a 5K to her  Piece of cake! 

 Sorry about the heat bothering you. You may find that you acclimate fast and the next time you are out it will feel good to you to get warm and soak up the sun. 

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I think your advice from some months back to make the long-run the cornerstone of my training has started to pay off for me in terms of being able to cover more miles. You've also encouraged me to walk when I can't run and said that walking is good cross training. While I ran (and walked) the Woods Ferry Ultra I thought of these words and of how much I have been walking recently; it felt awesome to have become a much better and much more focused walker. The most powerful effect of training this way was perhaps the mental aspect, the fact that I didn't put myself down when I switched from running to walking. It wasn't like "I was failing", on the contrary, I gained energy and my running muscles would recover while walking so I could again run some. Taking advantage of the fact that my body walked very well became a tool that enabled me to cover more miles than ever before. I feel I have made huge strides - I thank you for helping me to understand some of the aspects of my training better and to embrace my strengths.

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I think my shoes are big enough but I may need to reconsider. On the other hand, I did think of lacing the shoes a litter snugger around the midfoot in order to prevent the foot from sliding forward on declines. Funny, but I thought I had tied them rather snug. Yet the toes were speaking loudly to me at the end due to the pressure on the nails (or so it felt). The toes were red, hot, and swollen when I took the shoes off after the race. I am a bit afraid of tyeing them tighter, it may stop blood flow and/or put too much pressure on top of the foot while running. Chris, do you tie the laces in the upper most holes? That may keep the foot placed more firmly near the back of the shoe while descending. I know I don't normally use the upper most holes for the shoe laces because I kind of like them to be a little loose. 

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I think your advice from some months back to make the long-run the cornerstone of my training has started to pay off for me in terms of being able to cover more miles. You've also encouraged me to walk when I can't run and said that walking is good cross training. While I ran (and walked) the Woods Ferry Ultra I thought of these words and of how much I have been walking recently; it felt awesome to have become a much better and much more focused walker. The most powerful effect of training this way was perhaps the mental aspect, the fact that I didn't put myself down when I switched from running to walking. It wasn't like "I was failing", on the contrary, I gained energy and my running muscles would recover while walking so I could again run some. Taking advantage of the fact that my body walked very well became a tool that enabled me to cover more miles than ever before. I feel I have made huge strides - I thank you for helping me to understand some of the aspects of my training better and to embrace my strengths.

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I think my shoes are big enough but I may need to reconsider. On the other hand, I did think of lacing the shoes a litter snugger around the midfoot in order to prevent the foot from sliding forward on declines. Funny, but I thought I had tied them rather snug. Yet the toes were speaking loudly to me at the end due to the pressure on the nails (or so it felt). The toes were red, hot, and swollen when I took the shoes off after the race. I am a bit afraid of tyeing them tighter, it may stop blood flow and/or put too much pressure on top of the foot while running. Chris, do you tie the laces in the upper most holes? That may keep the foot placed more firmly near the back of the shoe while descending. I know I don't normally use the upper most holes for the shoe laces because I kind of like them to be a little loose. 

One of the things I love about Ultra running is that you can walk the hills (or anything else even!), and that most of the runners do either from time to time or as a rule!   I think it's good that you're seeing it as recovery.  I always see it as not burning myself out for when I really need it.  I almost always walk every hill until about the last 1/3 of the race and then if I'm feeling  good, I run it.  Usually I'm not feeling so good, though!

When I first started running trails, it was here at our state park and there's about a 2 mile downhill that you have to cover to get to any major distance.  I messed up my middle toenails almost immediately.  At first, they were very tender to the touch, and then I finally lost one of them.  Now they're both a little thicker but thankfully unnoticeable after a pedicure.  My trail shoes, except for the Cascadias that I nearly tossed into the woods Saturday, all have gigantic toe boxes and I think that helps.  I wear an 8 or 8.5 in dress shoes, and some of my trail shoes are a 9.5 (road shoes are 9s).  They seem huge when I put them on, and I do seem to trip a little more on the little stuff, but my toes no longer hurt.  I do remember stopping after the first downhill on the blue on Saturday and tightening my shoes way down to keep them from sliding because of the steep downhills.  I usually just tighten up near the midfoot as you suggested.  I've done that before at races and ended up bruising the top of my foot though.

Also, I've started wearing the Injinji toe socks.  They creep me out a little, but my toes like them.  I started wearing them more because of blisters but now I wonder if that's helping the toenail pain a little too.

 

Exactly!

 

Re the shoes - I wear 1 to 1 1/2 sizes larger than my regular shoe.  And personally, yes, I use up all the lace holes and have an overall snug fit with my shoes.   If your toes are hot, swollen, and inflammed, you definitely need to reasses what's going on.  Oh - and you may lose a toenail or two.

Leslie - looks like I may indeed have to reasses (why does this word look like something it's not? )  what's going on - oh yes, I am going to loose a toenail or two - the swelling is down and the soreness a little less acute, however, there is a new hue of blue on a couple of nails, including one of the big toenails  - and that's right in time for the sandals; its gonna be pretty!

 Here comes the next question: What do I do with these bruised toes and loose toenails when I run my next ultra on May 9? This happens to be a 40 miler as well?! What do you think?

I think I may have to find a way to wrap the already bruised toenails in addition to lacing my shoes tighter and taking advantage of the upper most holes in the shoes. Got to try a longish run in a pair of Mizuno Ascends that I just bought. I ran Woods Ferry in the Brooks Cascadia that actually has a roomy toe box (sideways). I thought the Cascadia overall did very well for me. Only a tiny blister on one heel at the end of the day and I know it was because I started to land harder on the heel in order to save my knee from hurting so bad - compensation. 

LOL... I guess none of us are "normal".    Normal people don't do this stupid stuff to their bodies and minds. 

I have a friend who's lost an obscene amount of toenails over the years (and figured out the problem and has since stopped losing them) to see what she thinks may help. 

Did 8.75 semi-leisurely miles all by my little ole lonesome in the Forest yesterday.  I worked hills and I walked hills.  I wasn't in any particular hurry, and since I'm not training for anything right now, why go all out and destroy yourself?  It felt good.

Then today - I had an entire day's worth of x-training in the yard.  Cripes, my back is done in.  The most important part - The Hub owes me BIG TIME!!!!!  And he knows it. That may be the best part of all.  The Story:  We seriously needed to get some yard work done today.  However, his buddies wanted him to go out to the drag races with him and smoke tri-tips.  What to do, what to do.  He owes me fence around our front yard (which I've been wanting for a long time), I get to do some semi-extensive landscaping in the front yard, and I get to put my flower pots back on the back deck (albeit on those little feet).  He said he felt like he was making a deal with the devil.  Heh, heh, heh.  

I tell you what, though - after about 6 hours of major mowing with a monster of a rental mower, fighting with the frigging weed eater that almost got slung out into the road and run over, pulling weeds, lugging around bags of potting soil, and repotting a bunch of plants, I deserve everything in the bargain and more.  My back is begging for Alleve, but it sure does look better around here, if I do say so myself.

Now it's off to beddy bye time so I can drag my ever increasingly fat butt outta bed and run tomorrow, followed by strength/core training.  Nite!

An ultra kind of takes the desire to do a long-run for fun out of you, doesn't it?

It does.  I'm just ready to be home on the weekends.  But, I also don't want to backslide with on the endurance I've built up over the last few months.  *sigh* It's an evil circle.  It's also had not having a target any closer than July.  Doesn't give me much incentive to get up at the dark early hours of the a.m.

I emailed my coach the link to a 12/24-hr run in SF in October, knowing full well he would not be happy with me.  Me:"I kill you, don't I?"  Him: "YES!  YOU DO!  . . . Are you really interested in this or just looking?"  I'm really interested.  I think participating in a 12-hr run with no real mileage objective/no pressure on myself would be a great venue to work on my subpar fueling habits.  The downside to the one in SF is it's completely flat and I'd rather run something with some hills.  I need to keep looking.  Would like to find one that's only a 4-6 hr drive from me (SF is 6 hrs).

5.5 road miles in a steady rain this a.m.  Bleck!

I had a nice, hard trail run today, up a forest road to Three Forks where the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Benton Mackaye (BMT) intersect the road, ran up the AT to Springer Mountain (that's the Southern end of the AT) and returned via the BMT. I much prefer the BMT, it's longer but much more runnable and I didn't encounter any surly hikers like I did on the AT (people don't come from all over the world to hike the BMT and I like it that way).  It got really cold and windy on Springer Mountain, and started to sleet on the way down, and I was underdressed and got really cold, but it was probably my toughest training run ever. That descent from Springer Mountain on the BMT was all isolated, runnable singletrack, and one of my best runs ever. Total 18.7 miles.

Then when I got back to my car I went down to the Creek and soaked my legs in the cold wat-

er. That was so great. This is why I love trailrunning!

Wow, this sounds like a great day for you!! I don't think I've heard you sound this good for a long long time. The trail you describe must have been a beautiful area; soaking the feet in cold water after the run is a good idea.

How did those races go that you've checked off?