-The Eagles-

Hiya Folks. Seems like Leslie laid down another very nice weekend of mega- long runs. Nice hairdo as well!

Will wait anxiously for Arla's race results.Hoping the day went well.

Pleasantly numb from a 21.5 er today. IRC down the boardwalk with sunny skies,about 55*, with a slight breeze. Over 80 miles for me in the last 7 days. I think I'll have me a beer or three.

Over 80 miles for me in the last 7 days. I think I'll have me a beer or three.

Holy $hi crap!   . . . . suddenly I don't feel so tired.

Jewels - Not enough hair to hold my head upside down.  Yes!   No longer a slave to the hair dryer and round brush.

Carol - More snow?!?  Good for you for getting out there in it.

Ev - Good job on the 10.  Is all your snow gone now?

I need to go look at the site and see how Arla did.

Got my 16 done.  Took me a lot longer than I wanted, about 3:12.  The last 4 miles I was very pooped and ended up walking quite a bit.  Overall pace was 12:00 with no nausea.  Just pretty much hungry the whole time.  Took me awhile to be able to eat once I got home, but now I can't seem to get full.  Just keep munching here and there.  I'm ready for a nap.

WOW JOE!!   80+ miles!?! Congratulations!  that's very kewl

CONGRATULATIONS  on another fine race Arla!!!  You're my hero - well, one of 'em

Coming right along there, Leslie!  Sure takes a huge time committment for those big mileage races!! I have an ultra runner friend here who trains avg 4 hrs per day! ~ on top of a DH who does the same + 4 kids & she teaches kindergarten!  but then, she's been doing this for years!  & yes, her tiny little body consumes HUGE amts of calories!!!

Nice 11 there Jim!  Think Doug's gonna shoot for 10 or so today...will check in later w/that  

Gonna do another wave of warmer weather, followed by another round of snow this week....we'll see how much we share!  I'm pretty sure Dallas has had enough but, I'm not sure about OK - don't want you to have too dry of a Summer Ev ....  ......  Intended to go for a run yesterday but, ended up spending the day sorting a bunch of old moldy boxes of papers....some of that stuff has been in storage for YEARS!!  ...& the day just completely got away from me....told DH that we need to do that with all of our storage stuff....it's disgusting how much crap we've kept over the years (just shove it in a box & into the garage, basement, attic to deal with later!) & I'm feeling the need to "lighten" up a bit ... so, gonna go run here in a bit  so I get it done 1st & THEN dig back into it! 

Ciao!~

Cindy

mta:  6ish hilly, muddyt, snowy, random miles w/Mairead & the 1st cpl w/Doug - before he went off to run the "big Hill" & we went to meander in the snow of the school athletic fields....that's a bit of a workout!  Beeeoootiful day out there

Hi Kids

Nice 11 er Jim. Can't believe the weather that you ,Ev and Carol are getting out there! More snow for Cindy too?!

Was asked this morning and am a little shocked that I jumped on it so quick,but I signed up for the Chicago Marathon in October. I'll be running as one, but I will be on a charity team raising money for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. My sister has a close friend whose son is afflicted. I often wondered how to mix the running with a good cause, so now I'll find out.

Was suffering from a bit of bravado yesterday gushing about a few beers. I had one and was asleep by 8:30 pm! Guess I was whooped!

Ev and I noticed that Arla posted in last week's thread. So here's the lowdown on the downlow.....

" LA was much harder than I expected, first of all I caught a cold on Friday night, but then the course was honestly tougher than I thought it would be, with several significant ups and downs, and some more sneaky, slow, long climbs that were surprisingly taxing. I also stopped at mi 0.5 when a middle-aged guy just went *splat!* right next to me! He hit his face, hard, on the asphalt, and wasn't moving or responding - someone had a cell phone and fortunately we had the Fire Department there in what seemed like way less than 5 minutes to help. I have no idea what happened but the LA Times only reported one hospitalization for the race (21 year old at mile 18 with cardiac arrest - yikes...21!...) - so I guess the guy I saw did better than he looked. Nonetheless, it was very, very scary and disturbing. I gotta tell you guys, seeing that guy face plant, and hearing about the young guy's cardiac arrest makes me feel pretty grateful to live to run again.

After leaving the stadium there was the first of two tough downhills, and then around miles 4 and 5 two pretty good uphills that were steep but short and kinda fun. The last of the two tough downhills came around the halfway mark and really hammered my quads (in fact I'm more stiff today than I ever have been post-race). I guess other people were feeling it too, because folks started the death march very early in this race. I was kept very busy from miles 16 to 25 dodging the walking wounded! Also, most of the race was pretty warm, due to the late start and a bit of a heat wave. The last 10 miles featured three stations with strapping young LAFD volunteers showering us with cold water - definitely appreciated!! Around mile 21 there was one more short but tough hill, then the last 4 or so was a long, gentle downhill along one of my favorite streets in the area,  toward the beach and, finally, cooler air - nice! The good citizens of the City of Santa Monica really showed up in force those last few miles, which was pretty exciting.

My Garmin said 4:27 and change, about 26.5 mi (the extra must have been all that zig-zagging??) a little off my PR but I was happy with that considering the eventfulness of the day, the warm weather, and the quad-busting (for me) course.

One of the highlights of LA is the big presence of Student Run LA, a program that helps at-risk kids train to complete the LA marathon. The success rate is high, and the high school graduation rate of those that succeed is above average for their communities. It was neat to see the kids working so hard to finish - a lot of determination there.

Probably the low point was the awful shuttle situation. There was a big traffic problem getting to the start. People driving their own cars to the start were actually leaving their cars on the freeway and walking!  The organizers are going to have to shuttle folks much earlier to the start.

Post-race was too much fun - I had booked a hotel right by the finish, so I quickly showered and returned to watch the rest of the field finish, which was wonderful! I think it's among the back of the pack crowd that you really get to see people having a life-changing experience - at any rate, emotions were high.

Hmm...guess that was pretty long...

Going to limp off and go for a walk now...

Arla"

WTG Arla- sounds like some experience! What a way to start too with the guy dropping like that. Downhills are deceptive and I doubt your quads will be the same for a few more days.Great report!

Joe - heh, races are addicting, aren't they? Halfs make great training runs, you can do some warmup miles and then continue along with the race, maybe some cooldown miles and bingo you've got a 20 mile day!

Leslie - WAY TO GO on those back to backs - what did you end up eating? Now you get a step back week, right?

Jim - nice 11 miler! Sounds like the nice weather is bringing some great runs.

Hugely sore today, I'm not used to this. Hoping to run later, might end up being a walk.

Arla

Leslie - Sorry to hear about your dental work, I sympathize completely. Just take some comfort knowing that dental insurance doesn't help all that much. Interesting about cutting too many calories by using sports drinks. I've been too wimpy to do the cold bath thing but might have to change my ways. I'm asking lots of questions because I have some friends trying to sign me up for a trail ultra at Fish Camp.  http://www.bigbaztrailraces.com/

The LA marathon used something called Runpix results, it has lots of fun stats, I hope to see this again

http://www.runpix3.com/laa10/00/finord.php?LastName=hile&lan=&aset=0&dist=42

Arla - Is that trail race in the Sierras there above Fresno?  I'm always looking for new places!  I think you should go for it, although I would strongly advise that, depending on the course, you get some good hill running time in.  And you would have to throw out your whole idea of pace and time.  If you have more questions, you can always email me at fatozzig at yahoo dot com.

The Succeed Ultra (orange flavor) and Amino (raspberry flavor) that I use for my drink is very light flavored and not at all sticky sweet.  I start using the Amino around Mile 18 as it has more protein in it.  If I'm only doing a 50k, I usually stick with the Ultra, but I need the extra protein for this long one and have been using it to help my stomach get used to it.

Usually around Mile 20, I start to get real thirsty and get cotton mouth.  This creates a problem in that I start downing too much of the sports drink, which, when combined with what I'm eating, ends up being too many calories.  For my upcoming race (and depending on the weather), I will probably start carrying plain water and the sports drink around Mile 20 so I can switch back and forth.

With regard to the food, most ultra trail races have a great spread - pretzels, pbj, boiled potatoes, candy, cookies, chips, bananas, oranges, trail mix.  You just need to make sure you try all this stuff on your practice runs.  I get real tired of pretzels and potatoes, especially when I have cotton mouth, and I can't eat pbj or fig bars anymore.  So far the turkey/avo sandwiches and chicken noodle soup are the ticket.  The only reason I'll be able to eat this for my upcoming run is because I'll have a crew there.  Otherwise, I'd be stuck with choking pretzels and potatoes.

Some people who aren't out there as long as I am can just go with GU, I hate that stuff, and I can't imagine taking just that in for 5, 6, 7 hours.  Yuck!