Long run

(the final mile of my first hundred -- I was praying for death at the time)

Today's semi-long run ended in disaster. This was supposed to be the breaking in week for my Wasatch training, with a semi-long run today. I have not had a day in the woods this bad in a long, long time.

What worked:
1. Wore the heart monitor and listened to my heart. When my heart sped up, I slowed down (walked if I needed to). When the heart slowed down, I sped up. Kind of takes the guesswork out of what I should be doing, which was cool. Tried to keep it in the range of 65-80%.
2. Took the trekking poles on the second loop, just to see how it feels running with them (carrying them). They are super, super light.
3. Once I started to get it back together (see below for details), ran a nice steady downhill while listening to an awesome "Dancing in the Streets" (Grateful Dead). Pretty enjoyable.
4. Beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and great scenery.
5. Legs fatigued from this week's load, so beneficial to do a long run on somewhat tired legs.

What did not work:
1. Nearly vomited from drinking Perpetuum. I don't know why I continue to try to use this stuff. I get sick literally every single time. It just sounds so good in theory: calories in liquid form, easier for your body to assimilate. Sounds good in theory. In reality, doesn't work for me and led to a serious crash and burn.
2. Probably kept heart rate too high on first loop, as a result it became apparent there was no way in hell I was going to negative split the thing.
3. Wasn't eating frequently enough. I like Honey Stingers and Clif shots enough, but after enough of them, it just tastes like sugar water. I need something to mix it up, I just can't stomach pb&j like I used to. Not sure what to try. Unfortunately nobody reads this stupid thing and therefore probably will not offer suggestions. On a side note, I just LOVE the seasonal, and potent, Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster Imperial Indian Pale Ale. 9% ABV. This stuff will turn you on your ear, with the quickness. Good after a failed long run, while your dog licks your face.
4. For some reason, don't feel like I'm completely on board with this Wasatch thing yet. Hopefully this changes real quickly. I've never gone into a race feeling so-so about my chances of finishing. I have never had illusions that it will be easy, but I have always been willing to hang in there and slug it out to finish. For MMT, which I did not get into, I was extremely confident that 1) if I got in, it would hurt really bad, but 2) never had any doubts about finishing. I will admit that Wasatch scares me. I am starting to get familiar with the course, the different sections, what to expect on each one, what the terrain looks like, etc.... but the big unknown is how I will respond to the drastic change in elevation. I could get out there and find that I am sucking air and can barely make time. I think that once I learn how others usually train for the elevation, I will feel better about it. In the meantime, I'm a little bit tense. My guess is that once the really heavy volume weeks start (next week), I will feel a lot more comfortable about my ability to complete the task. I'm not sure that Eric today could do it, but the objective is to forge a person that can. My secret weapon is to carry a picture of my unborn son/daughter in my pocket every step of the way -- every training step, and every step of the race -- and that should provide motivation to get 'er done. I don't want to think that I failed at something that I was doing in honor of my unborn kid. Now I'm just babbling.......................