Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

71F, 80%.  6 @ 8:47 AP.  Legs were a little tired and sore, but felt like I just did a regular long run yesterday, not a race.  Man, I thought I was running tactically smart for the win, but I could've easily taken it if I'd just kept racing the whole thing.  Which leads me to this list...  I'm going to try and add to this as I go for my own reference and hopefully make better decisions.  Obviously a few common themes I can draw...

Wild Hare 50

• Buy and use a handheld water bottle.  No one is going to hand you drinks here.  Wasted 5-10 minutes and ended up dehydrated.
• Don't be afraid to go out with the leader.  You can always decide later to let him go if it gets unmanageable.
• Don't stop racing.  Guy almost took 2nd away from you.

Hells Hills 25k

• You suck at hills.  Fix that.

TnT 20-miler

• You suck at hills.  Fix that.
• Pay better attention to where you're going.  No harm in laying back initially, especially if you don't know where you're going.
• Don't stop racing.  Guy took first that shouldn't have.  When people catch you near the end of the race, it gives them the mental advantage and drive to put you away.
• Plan for the race to be much longer than you think.  This is the only race I've run during which I actually got hungry while running.  Poor hydration again, should've stopped for another refill.

Paleface Marathon

• Underhydrated and underfueled again.  Eat and drink more than you think is necessary 
• Hot races = don't be the rabbit; pack it up with the guys you know are your competition.

Pedernales Falls

• Need more heat training but probably just had stomach virus.

To be continued 

8 @ 8:23

8 @ 8:00

11 @ 7:30 AP.  

On Monday, despite not having felt anything at all around my stress fracture area for weeks, I was WALKING to a meeting and all of a sudden felt something go bad down there in the same spot.  It stopped me in my tracks, but I walked around a bit and it seemed ok.  Ran Tuesday after doing lots of hop tests, and it started feeling a little sore after the run.  I cut this Wednesday run short because the sensation was still increasing, even though it still felt pretty minor.  But 30 minutes later it was not good at all and I was back to favoring the inside of my foot while just walking.

A much much slower onset than the first time...not sure what to think.  No running on Thursday for sure, and we'll see what happens.

4 easy miles in the bigfattrainers on the TM.  I took 2.4g/day of vitamin I starting Wednesday, and it seems to have basically taken care of it.  I popped the last 800mg before bed last night (none since then) and it felt pretty good this morning - before, during and after this run.  I don't know, my guess is I haven't seen the last of this foot thing, but I'm hopeful; there really is nothing right there that can get injured other than the metatarsals and some tendons your toes use.  Weird.