weekend run(s)

The long run trend has been for me to take Fridays off and head down to the Laurel Highlands for a long run on those difficult hills the first 8 miles. Then, Saturdays I usually head to Mingo Park for a somewhat shorter run. Unfortunately my schedule had to be juggled around a bit due to other commitments so I was unable to take Friday off.

The Laurel Highlands are nice to run but a 1.5 hour drive, one way, is tough to stomach on a Saturday. Therefore I was limited to running locally this weekend. Saturday I ran at Mingo Park, and was really not having much fun. It just was not clicking for me. After completing a lap of the orange loop in a really slow time, I knew I did not have it in me to do another full lap. Therefore I did sort of an out and back for a total time running of about 4 hours 45 minutes. I usually like to do my training in a somewhat calorie-deficient state in order to force my body to learn how to use fat as fuel, rather than relying on sugar. I think I pushed it a bit too far, because I just was not having any fun whatsoever.

After this year's epic battle at Western States I have been following the training of Anton Krupicka and Geoff Roes pretty closely. In particular Anton has said he usually eats very little during his training to force his body to use fat as fuel. He also said that he does not race this way, he does in fact eat during the race. The drawback to this strategy is that during the actual race, you're doing something you didn't really practice much during training, which is high risk. I think I read somewhere that Geoff tries to eat 100 calories every 20 minutes during a race.

In an effort to experiment a little bit with a race-day eating strategy, I decided to do my long run today while eating a gel (Gu, the local Fleet Feet does not carry Hammer products) every 30 minutes. That is roughly 200 calories an hour. I went back to Mingo Park today, not really knowing what to expect. One thing I did do was to run the first loop in the opposite direction that I usually do it, just to mix it up a bit. It helped, big time, the first loop went by pretty easily. The second loop I did in the usual direction.

I decided to push it a little bit on my second loop, since I was feeling pretty strong. During my long runs I usually walk the hills, since I will walk them during the race. What I have found is that training slow almost always produces a race performance that largely mirrors the pace I have trained at -- slow. I am thoroughly sick of finishing in the middle of the pack, at best. I am as competitive as they come and while I'm happy to finish the distance, I am usually never happy with the time, relative to the rest of the field. I don't like to think of myself as "mid pack" at anything and endurance racing should be no exception. Anyway, on the second lap I decided to push it a bit and tested myself by running hills I would usually walk. An interesting thing happened: as long as I continued to eat every 30 minutes (which I did all day) I was able to pretty much run any and every hill I wanted. It got to the point where I was running the uphills, downhills, and flat parts at pretty much the same speed. Granted the heart rate either reached, or exceeded, 80% when I was running the hills, but in terms of effort, it felt very, very comfortable. I have had dreams before where I was running hilly trails, and was moving very fluidly with the terrain with minimal effort. That is pretty much what it felt like for the last 2 or 3 hours of my run.

I attribute the success of today's outing, first and foremost, to the 200 calories an hour I consumed religiously all day long. The gels did contain caffeine too, which probably also had something to do with the easy effort. I have also been doing hill repeats, coupled with the dreaded Hindu Squats, once a week. I feel that this has produced remarkable results with respect to power running uphills, as well as just getting comfortable with running hills and learning how to do it relaxed.

When I got home and let the dog out, first thing she did was to lick all the salt off my face, and all the mud off my legs. I have said it before, but I love my dog unconditionally. She is without a doubt the greatest friend I've ever had (besides the wife).

In other news, looks like I've finally gotten the trap to stop leaking for the laundry tub in the basement. I've been dumping the dehumidifier contents into it for 2 days now and have not detected any leaks. I've still got to find some way to anchor that thing to the wall or floor (or preferably both) because I can't just leave it free standing. After I do that I can hook up the supply tubing to the new water lines I installed a few weeks back, and can then check that little project off the list.

My wife said she feels the baby moving all around in there, sometimes I can feel it too. The movement is getting stronger and stronger by the day. Yesterday morning I put my hand on her stomach and could feel my daughter in there, kicking ass.

Also, I think I might lose my pinky toenail. I have never lost one before but that one is a little bit tender, and sort of feels like it is becoming somewhat detached near the front of my toe. Kind of cool, at least a milestone anyway. I still have never thrown up during, or after, a race. Can't say I'm looking forward to meeting that particular milestone.