My legs still had massive amounts of fatigue left in them from Saturday so today's run was a slog. The weather was awesome though. 20's with clear air and the moon shining the way. Loved it.
Received an ultrasound of the abdomen organs today. The doctor wanted to do it to see if I had any blockage in the gallbladder since my bilirubin was twice the normal level. Everything checked out normal and my fears of the ulrasound being a waste of time and money were correct. At least I now have medical proof that I am normal (or at least most of my organs are).
AM: Had a rough night waking up with the kids pretty often and I vaguely remember shutting off the alarm and going back to sleep. I eventually woke up with only enough time for 6 miles. So I ran the Landfill Loop at 7:45 pace.
Easy 8 untimed on the 400W route. Not a bad morning to be out for a run.
Now off to Texas tomorrow with Jon and Paul for Jon's Rocky Raccoon 100 Miler. We will be meeting up with Crockett there too as he is running it as well. Wish them luck.
Bottom Line - I have never had an opportunity to witness firsthand something quite so amazing as a few hundred people skirting the line between death and success. I have seen many great runners and many great races, but I now more fully comprehend the mental fortitude of the few crazy runners who decide to race a 100 miler. Jon and Davy have my complete respect. It was a weekend I will never forget. Well done!
The nitty gritty -
1600 miles by car and airplane on Friday
24 hours of following Jon (and to some extent Davy) around on his 5x's 20 mile loops
1 free breakfast of waffles (2), hard boiled egg, danish, oj, etc, 1/2 pizza, bag of twizzlers (I shared with people I swear), 4 banannas, 1 gallon of gatoraide, bite of grilled cheeze sandwich, a cup of apple pie, handful of m&ms, 0 frosties, 1 wendy's chicken sandwich with cold fries and rootbeer, 2 oz of energy gel, 2 cookies and yes, I still had room for a full IHOP meal for breakfast the next day.
I was fortunate enough to have Paul with me for most of the crewing to keep me company. We had a lot of fun writing down Jon's splits, running on the trails, driving (pretty much idling) back and forth on the state park's road. We met some cool people who were crewing for runners who were leapfrogging Jon. We even made up a game of winning points for doing things right for Jon. We would award points to ourselves if we were able to anticipate things that Jon would need at the next aid and have it ready for him. We got points for being on-time and getting him back on the trail ASAP. We also deducted points every time he asked for something we didn't have handy. Major negative points for things still in the car 1/4 mile away. I made too many trips sprinting to the car. I think I was in the hole by the end of the race. I would think that I won them back though with my awesome pacing skills. But Jon's slowest lap (by far) was the lap he ran with me. More negative points. My stories were putting him to sleep but I was just plain out of material. I got to run some of the course with Paul in the daytime, but all of my lap (20 miles) with Jon was in the dark. I imagine that it was scenic, but I wouldn't know. The weather was perfect for running and much nicer than the 15 degree weather I returned home to. In all, it was a tremendous success for both Jon and Davy as Jon was able to break 20 hours and hit my 19 30 something goal I threw at him. Davy was able to PR by a huge margin and even stay ahead of Jon for a good chunk of the race.
Way too tired from this weekend for a morning run. I did get out right after work when the sun was still setting. My butt muscles are sore, but other than that, things seem to be in order.
Up to Lundstrom Park and back. The goal today was to keep it close to 7 min pace going up and closer to 6:40 pace coming down. I held my own, but had to work really hard to do so. It did feel pretty good though especially since it was only a one pit stop run.
Providence Millville hills short loop. I hit the uphills hard today.
Random Story - As I was running through Providence I got pulled over by a cop. I quickly thought back to what I could've done wrong. Headlamp - check, reflective vest - check, running against traffic and not down the middle of the road - check. Hmmm wonder what he wants. It turns out that a vandal was seen in the area wearing a striped beanie running around possibly jumping into a vehicle. I guess I warranted a closer look. I didn't get arrested so he must have believed I was an innocent runner. No I haven't seen anything matching his description. Phew.
I was by myself today and had a full day ahead of me, so I took off early and hit the TOU course starting at mile 21.5 back until about 15. Things went well and I pused it pretty hard for most of the time. I wanted to average around 7 for the first 8 then hit the gas for the return trip. Things went to plan, all except for the gas part. And I mean gasoline and not gas. I successfully made it an entire long run with no pit stops. Success. Actually, all I care is that another tough week is in the books and the legs definitely agree that it was tough.
Things started out ok today with just a tiny bit of snow to start out in. Things got progressively worse as the snow picked up on my North Logan Loop (short) course. By the time I hit Lundstrom Park, I was blinded by the snow flakes. I will blame my faceplant as I ran down old main hill on the snow as well. I slipped backwards on hidden ice under the snow,but still somehow fell forward onto my face at 6 min pace. My gloves took most of the fall for me. I suppose the snow cushioned it as well. That crash slowed me down considerably for a while. The kicker was the two unscheduled #2 stops even with taking a pill this morning. Not sure if the pill kept to down to two from five or if it just didn't do anything. You just never know.
Horray, I made it through a long run without bonking! Its been a long time since that has happened. It sure feels good. I ran up to mile 13 of the TOU marathon course and back. I made it to the turnaround in 71:30 back in 67:17. I didn't throw in too many fast miles, but kept the average sub 7. That is all for now....
Saturday's run tweaked my foot and it still hurts. I figure it was either some tendon getting stressed or another bruise (I have had my fair share of both). I decided to take it easy and stay close to home and on soft terrain to pull the plug if it got out of hand. Therefore, the treadmill was at my mercy. I made it 8 but it hurt during the run, although I would call it a 3/10.
It was pretty icy out on the roads so this turned into a run involving faster sections and slower slippery sections. Whatever, there was some faster stuff in there. Millville Hills Loop
It has been a crazy 2 weeks capped off with a nasty weekend. (I am writing this the monday after). Crazy work projects are killing me. 11 hour work days during the week then 13 hours on sat and another 14 on sunday gave us the time we needed to pull it off. Things are still hectic as the demo started today and concludes on Wed. I am enjoying a rare moment at home before 8 pm. I don't know how some people can handle 80 hour work weeks. You just never see your family....Anyway, the end is near....
Back to the run. I got up early enough to get in a long run before the long work day began. I decided to head up to the BST trail over to Green Canyon and wander around over there. I took the scenic route through the island and on the Sumac "trail". The shoreline trail was solid ice that early in the morning and was slow but I liked it anyway. I went on a short jaunt up to the start of the singletrack in Green before heading down to 1600 E and taking that north for another mile or so. That gave me 11 miles in 1:23:30. Good enough. Turn around and go home. I decided to push it at the end to get under 2:45. It sure felt good to be home and to get some fluids and food in me. I was famished.
