"The only good race pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die." (Steve Prefontaine)

 

Welcome to a new month, friends, as we inch our way closer to spring.  Yea!

 

Bought "Born to Run" this weekend and read about half it in the airport and on airplanes yesterday coming back from a conference in San Diego.  Made me itchy for another trail run.  However, the author's description of the American River 50-Mile Endurance Run had me clenching my butt cheeks a bit.  Keeping my fingers crossed he was exaggerating a little bit.

Heck...March already??  Sweet!

 

You'll do fine at the AR50 Leslie!

  Hey everybody!

It sounds like everyone got some good runs in this weekend!

Jen, how did you do at the Mt. Cheaha (sp?)  50K?

I had a blast on the Mt Cheaha 50K! It took a lot longer than the Black Warrior 50K but it was a lot more fun. The elevation profile shows a slow uphill starting about 7 miles from the finish, and then a crazy mile toward the end of near vertical called "Blue Hell". Knowing that, I took it very easy until my friend and awesome crew member, Greg, told me at aid station 5 that I was dangerously close to the cutoff and I needed to pick it up a little. I ended up running almost all of the next part (which was fairly uphill) and still had enough juice to boogie through Blue Hell as fast as one can really get through something where you're half hiking and half bouldering. (Actually, it made me look forward to doing some climbing this spring!) I finally finished in 8:09, 120 out of 150 finishers. I still had a LOT left in the tank when I ran (sprinted!) it in, so for once I actually under-paced it. Some day I will get it right. The good news: I was barely sore the next day!

Sometimes it feels like I am treading water - not getting anywhere. I feel I am making progress and then next thing is I have to take more time off to nurse some kind of problem that came up. Do you experience your training this way?

Yes, sort of.  Knock on wood, I haven't had any injuries really, but I feel that way a lot when I have a training run that doesn't live up to my expectations.  I'm reading Lydiard right now and thinking of formally switching to an actual training plan that isn't make-it-up-as-I-go-along.  Basically though, my plan for winter was to get to a base level where I could run slow pretty much all the time and recover easily from super long runs (like the one last weekend).  Coming soon, though, I'm going to switch to Lydiard's time based approach, start adding in some doubles, formal hill work, etc and I know that my speed will improve.  I feel like a snail right now, but I keep having to remind myself that right now it's not about going fast, it's about base conditioning.  What are your goals right now?

I love how the weather is changing. Even though it is still too cold around here most of the time it is as if you can feel the force of the spring in the earlier dawn, longer nights, the warmth of the sun when it breaks through the cloud cover, the daffodils bursting through the soil and the vivid colors of the hundreds and hundreds of blooming camelias on the shrubs - there is a promise in it. This is a good time to get outside and run or walk on the trails.

Have a good day on the trails today.

I'm having a hard time with the weather right now.  It was beautiful all last weekend.  I took my normal Monday rest day and then Tuesday and Wednesday winter decided to return (it even snowed on Tuesday).  I'm officially boycotting winter at this point.  Looking ahead on Accuweather, I've got 50s and above starting today for a while, so I'm counting on not having to run in the freezing cold ANY MORE for a while.  I'm going to start again today with a hilly run, mostly roads unfortunately, and keep it going for the next 7 days before the Delano 12-hour next weekend.

This weekend is the first of 4 tough running weekends.  24 trail miles today with lots of climbing, 16 "easy" tomorrow.  My 24 today - crappola.  To simulate AR50, I'm running the first X miles as an out and back on the road.  The balance of the miles is up Headwaters Elk River Trail, which is a 1460-foot climb in 11 miles.  It's a 3-mile run to the beginning of all the climbing.  I'm suppose to do the climbing twice.

 

 

 I did 8 on the out and back, and it was around Mile 13 that things started falling apart.  My throat decided it didn't want to swallow anymore pretzels, pita chips, potatoes, or shot bloks, even though I was nauseated and needed to eat.  I finally gave in and forced myself to throw up, even though hardly anything came up.  When I got back to my turnaround point, I was able to get down some chicken noodle soup (I carried in my own "aid station"), so I poured the rest of it - which wasn't near enough - into an empty bottle and carried it in the little pouch in the back of running vest.  I made it to the top again by power walking instead of running, sitting down a few times, even laying down in the middle of the trail one time and yelling out a few curse words at the top.  Coming down isn't too bad since it's mostly down hill, but those 3 miles out sucked, too.  I sat down on the side of the trail at one point and wished someone would come along who I could ask to walk out with.  Didn't happen.  Bummer.

 

So 24 in 6.5 hrs.  My legs are thoroughly exhausted, and I'm having a tough time eating 'cause I'm bloated.  I'm not looking forward to tomorrow.

 

Thanks for letting me blow off some steam.

Thanks, Perfesser.  I just needed to whine a little bit.

Chris - Your run sounds a whole lot more pleasant than mine.   Good going.

 

I got 15.40 of my 16 in today.  Why not the final .60 you ask?  My car was right there and it actually reached out and grabbed me and forced me into itself.   Today when a bit better than yesterday.  I took along another thermos of chicken noodle soup, a turkey and avocado sandwich, and the requisite pretzels, etc.  I used my car as an aid station and made two stops.  The sandwich and soup went down better than anything, so for the last 3 miles, I dumped the rest of it in an empty bottled and took it with  me.  It doesn't stay warm, but the noodles are easy to chew and swallow than pretzels at that point.  These two things may be what will get me through this training.

 

Hope the rest of you are enjoying yourselves -

Good job, Buzzie!  50k on pavement?  Ugh!  You're a strong woman.

Buzzie - are you going to share some of the muddy pig pictures with us?

Chris, Leslie and Buzzie - sounds like you had a very productive and fun week end. Leslie, definitely not slacking - I pale in comparison so we will leave it alone. I want a car like that too  

____

Ran 22 trail miles today - 12 miles on single track, 10 on wider mostly packed dirt trail. I spent 4 hr and 40ish minutes out there today; includes some longer than they should have been stops at the car (had to call my husband a few times to coordinate things). I feel pretty good about today's run. It was near freezing temps when I started but it was sunny and as soon as the sun was above the tree line it warmed up. After the first 10 miles I dropped the long pants and ran in shorts. It was beautiful and a sight to behold. Most of the run I didn't see anybody else - only near the trail head (parking lot) some dog walkers. I enjoyed the peace and the opportunity to see some of the deer in the woods. One very large white tail stood in the middle of the dirt road and stared at me as I came running closer. Then she decided to run into the woods and two other deer were there as well. 

I didn't hit the wall - actually felt reasonably good running at the end. I chose to run rather than stop and walk some - seemed it would be worse to start back running if I took a break. Just tried to keep the flow without tightening up too much.

Leslie, I think you have inspired me to try oatmeal as a trail running food - don't you eat oatmeal out there?

Well, I made a big batch the night before and ate spoonfuls of it every time I got back to the car. In addition I used some shot bloks and s-caps. I think the oatmeal works very well for me. Digestive system was calm during the entire run - perfect!! I had put some cinnamon and sliced banana in the oatmeal.

Today, I ran in my road shoes on the trails. The shoes were fine - I didn't fall or twist an ankle. I think they may be better than my trail shoes in terms of protecting my left achilles, which has been bothering me for some time, especially inflamed in the days following a long-run. With the road shoes on I felt I had more push power going uphill since the achilles didn't hurt all the time. The negative part is that my knees and adductors seem to be more sore than usual. OK, it WAS a long run for me so some soreness is to be expected, I know.