pressed for time.  puny little easy run.

ummm.  headwind.  16-22mph.  First 8 it wasn't so bad and then after that it was just comically hard.  Uphill starts about mile 9 and I'm glad I wasn't wearing a watch, because I bet I was rolling over 8 minute miles.  I thought it was a tailwind, until about 5 minutes before gun time Joe(slowjoe), burst my bubble and pointed the right way.  headwind.  oh.  so I will just call this one effort based  haha!  7th overall, looks like the wind slowed down most from 5-7 minutes than a normal time...so maybe I am secretly in sub 1:30 shape.  It was awesome to see Joe again. 

But, the real story of the day,  somewhere in the second half I heard someone yell my name, loud, "Go April!!"...no idea who it could have been.  When I finished and got to my phone, I had an excited message from my dear cousin Adam who I have not seen in over 5 years, we were very close, and have talked on the phone in the last few months, both of us having recently gone through a difficult time.  So he's like, "April!  you are running A2A and you just ran by my AID station!! call!"  What an amazing coincidence.  Long story short, but I got to have lunch and great conversation with Adam, and we were both just thrilled to pieces that I "ran" into him!!  Amazing!!  He was sitting at the aid station, someone said first female was coming through, and he looked up, and was stunned and started yelling,  that's my COUSIN!!

Next confession.  Tomorrow I will go to fight club and run 20--cumulative fatigue training, since I signed up for a 50 mile race on March 23rd.  The ultra bug is eating me alive, and it is my niche, I know this.  So I have a few ultras planned, but after summer Psycho in July I will revert squarely to marathon training, in hopes for a sub-3 in October, but I must scratch this itch.  100K in April.

one hour fight club, immediately followed by a no-fuel 20.  could tell I was running in a tired and depleted state(but that was the point).  8:48 AP

am. one hour fight club

pm.  7 ez, a quick 10 minutes of abs

one hour fight club then 8 brisk but ez.  legs felt good today.

66 degrees and sunny.  glad I dragged outo of bed despite only 4 hours of sleep.  ran happily along, no watch.

one hour fight club, and, having gone 24 hours with no sleep, went to be, so no run today but my mind and body were too tired

was supposed to hit a good hill workout on the dreadmill but modified a lot due to being emotionally and physcially exhausted. 

half mile warm up 8:34,  1.5 up 4% 7:30, one down 6:31, .5 jog at 8:34, .5 up 4% 7:30, 1 down 6:27, half mile jog, then 6 x 1 minute at 5:52 pace, cooldown.

big 30 miler tomorrow morn

Just under 9:00 average pace, started off slow, with Fernando and Ron Micah, and then Ron Micah got this brilliant idea to pick it up at the end, so the last two were 7:30, 7:06.  Cold and very windy on the rails to trails.  All in all not a bad run but I was definitely tired at the end.

Not the least bit sore from yesterday's 30.  Legs feel great.  Decided to take the day off anyway because it just seemed like the right thing to do.

long night at work, crammed morning.  one hour fight club then quick 4.64, will do more if I can't back to sleep, should really sleep more.  Will do better mileage the next few days

60 circles at the Y, no watch, with 4 strides.  tiny bit of abs afterward.  sooo tired this morning after work i skipped fight club but will be there tomorrow

am.  spring break is here, so no fight club for a while, will have to make my own replication.  sooo, downtown Y, 45 minutes intense plyo and core, then 6 ez. 

pm.  6 home dreadmill

75 degrees.  wow.  nice, but hoping it is a bit cooler next weekend.

8:07 pace with Prefontaine.  was gonna hammer the last 4 but i was  tired after work all night and 24 hours with no sleep i decided it was utterly pointless to push it one week away from a 50 mile race

easy.  it will be a pretty chilled out week--taper time.  I have it in my head to show up rested and run this 50 hard.

home dreadmill.  tapering.  already feeling ready to go!!

Tuesday night track with GoRun and company.  did 3 x 1200, kept the pace dialed back, 4:52, 4:38, 4:45.  felt comfortable at that pace.  eager for this weekend! looks like it may be windy and snowy.

very easy, a little light core afterwards.  I guess I'm supposed to do total rest from here until the big day.  I will try, but may have to go jog a few for the sake of my sanity.

Okay, here is the long version, so read on if you dare.  Drove up the night before, was a little worried about the weather, the rain and snow was supposed to start coming down by noon.  I had talked strategy with my friend Fernando, and we decided we would start aggressively around 8:00 pace with the tailwind and good conditions before turning around and dealing with the headwind and impending snow, sleet, and rain.  I had a cup of coffee and a muffin and next thing you know we where all lined up.  It was about 30 degrees but pretty still at this point.  The trail is basically a rails to trails, mostly flat, like running on dirt road, so pretty easy for a first timer.

Miles 1-9 were pretty relaxed.  two guys shot ahead, me and Fernando stayed together as numbers 3 and 4, stayed right on pace.  I carried my bottle the whole way, switching hands and started with water.  Took a gel at mile 5, hit the first manned station at mile 9 and took down an s-cap and 1/4 of pb and j.

miles 9-25  still fairly relaxed, hit another aid station at about 16.5, took another gel, another 1/4 pb and j, bathroom, refilled my water.  halfway point and turnaround was right at 3:31, (longer than 25 miles though grrr!!). miles 16.5 to the turnaround have a slight incline so it was a mild climb into Garnett.  I had been wearing Nike frees but one of my ankles was barking so I changed shoes here into something more substantial, very glad I did!  took another s-cap, salted potato, 1/4 pb and j, and a gel

miles 25-34 we started to get tired in here.  marathon at 3:41, 50k at 4/22, and then things started to hurt.  my legs were starting to bark.  there was a slow down starting, Fernando felt the same, was pretty relieved to see the aid station.  a few warning flakes started to fall.  Jason filled my bottle with Gatorade, a good thing he did, I took a gel, and we were off.

miles 34-41.  In uncharted mileage territory now, and my legs are barking.  We took off at a plod, I couldn't seem to muster up more because my legs just flat HURT.  My hip flexors, my hamstrings, my back, my shoulders from the water bottle,  I was just flat out in pain. Fernando and I forced ourselves to talk about anything, anything at all to get our minds off the pain.  These were definitely the worst miles for me, I felt like I was completely falling apart and had doubts about finishing because I was in pain like I have never been in before,   the flakes and sleet were starting to swirl and come down as we hit the final manned station at 41, such a good sight it was.  I immediately went to the bathroom, downed a cup of chicken ramen broth, s-cap, gel, potato chips, had my Gatorade bottle filled again.  I was still first female at this point and didn't know how far back number two was.  I told Fernando I felt like I was being chased, and told him I was going out now.  He waved me off, he was having some cramping issues, and I took out into the storm on my own.

miles 41-50.  at this point it was all out blizzard, sleet and snow pelting down, but something had recharged me, and I took off at a strong pace.  I felt 100 times better.  The bad patch was over, thank goodness!   My legs still hurt, but it had become much more tolerable and I felt so much better I was pretty happy at this point!  I downed another gel in mile 45 and pushed on to the finish. I was third out of the entire field, first female. next female came in an hour later, next finisher 19 minutes later.  My friends the Prefontaine family stopped in on their way back from KC and were at the finish!  What an awesome surprise!

Post race was rough, weather conditions rough. Got a shower at the local fire station, and headed for home in the storm, eventually was able to drive out of it as I headed south.  Wish I wasn't driving a stick shift, had to use my left hand to help my left leg off and on the clutch.  getting out of the car was a sick joke.

Today I am so, so sore.  new soreness territory!  took some Tylenol.  I learned a lot from this experience, have a lot of respect for ultra running.    Gotta thank Fernando's wife Karlee and friend Jason for helping at the stations, they really kept me going and filled my bottle and handed me s-caps when my brain and hands quit functioning.  Feel very sorry for the 100 milers who were out there all night in the blizzard, there is a 30 hour time limit and at my last check, as we approach the cutoff, only 6 had managed to finish.  :(  heard they can't see the trail anymore and continue.

update: just got word from my friend with a Garmin:  lenght for the 100 mile as actually about 103 and 51.5 for the 50. I'm just gonna count it as 51.

all soreness is gone!  2.5 easy, all systems a go!  one hour fight club.

at the Y.  2 ez on the track, than 6 ez on the mill but was getting desperately bored so mixed on 10 x 1min on/1 min off at 6:00 pace.  30 minutes core afterward

am:  one hour fight club

afternoon: 58 degrees and sunny!  9.2 easy

came to grips with old way of thinking: abuse is better than being ignored

new way:  anything is better.  there is better out there

am.  fight club

afternoon:  8 in a gorgeous 70 degrees.  legs feel really good.

sleepy

ez zombie run between night shifts.  hate these 3 day weekends, 3 12 hour shifts in a row yuck.  But.  Happy Easter.  and.  GO SHOCKERS YEAH BABEEEE!!