RUN 3hrs 15 mins and just over 15 miles at Greensfelder
Ugh, this was a slog in the end. Here's how it went down.
TV texted Saturday that he was going to work on the house and take advantage of the completely atypical warm weather. With that, I decided to do two loops of my Declue-Dogwood at Greensfelder. For some reason, two loops sounded short. I've done 2.5 and 3 there a year ago training for KM100. So only 2? Manageable!
I woke up and ate too much I think. About 4 oz chicken then a munch-munch of steamed butternut. If I had to find a blame for the gas and cramps, that would be it. Butternut. Too much of it anyway. Why did I eat it? Ugh, dunno. I purposefully ate extra with dinner last night so that I could eat a light pre meal!
I left the house before 8 am as planned, sometimes when I delay too long the run goes bad. So that wasn't it. Yesterday's two-a-day maybe, a run in the morning and ride in the afternoon?
As gorgeous as the weather was, as wonderful as the trail was, I just never felt snappy. There was rain and thunderstorms overnight, so parts of the trail were wet. Most of them were no problem at all, the first 10 miles on Declue were slightly splashy, only somewhat slickery, and at the worst I walked. I ate part of a powerbar right before starting, didn't help my energy levels.
I got lost somehow in the first miles, wrong turn after crossing the road, loop back soon after, come across the same sign again, things not looking familiar....then finally I figure it out. Gawds I'm always getting lost on this trail. What torques me off even more is that when I look at the trail map, I'm still lost! Since I have a poor idea of NSEW when running, don't have a good brain pict of the turns and switchbacks, I just get confused. I convince myself I'm happy with the extra mileage at least. But still not feeling snappy.
The miles crawl by. By 7-8 miles I'm planning a drop out early, telling myself 10 miles will be enough. I cross Allenton and head towards Dogwood. When I reach that road where the trail crosses, I have a great idea -- run that road west and pick up some out n back. When I hit the end, I see the sign for Roundhouse - a 3 mile loop. I figure that puts me around 15 miles, better than 10! So I go for it.
Ugh. Roundhouse was a slop fest. Waaaay too much mud, lots of horse tracks. Walking, walking, walking. But still moving forward and I'm happy with that. Eventually I give up on avoiding mud and just dive in. My right hip is screaming over this.
When I started to walk, my energy dived. When I ran, it felt good. Jekyll and Hyde type of thing. I've often wondered where this peak and valley pattern of energy comes from. It's too fast for nutrition. Not correlated completely with hills. Sometimes I'm good, sometimes I'm not.
Speaking of nutrition, I ate a powerbar in run. That was all, but in addition to extra potatoes last night and extra starches this morning I should have felt better. My stomach was growling at least near the end. Oh and the stomach upset -- cramps and gas all the run. Thankfully the trail was 90% empty!
I keep repeating -- it's early, I rode yesterday, it's only the first 50 miler week and there's weeks to go. Trying to buoy myself up. But when I hit 15 miles at the end of Dogwood, there was no convincing me to go back for 5 more. I thought maybe if I hit 17 at the truck I could talk myself into another 1.5 miles (out, then back, sounds shorter that way) but nope.
I was wiped the rest of the day. This sort of justified cutting short. Apparently I needed the rest! But dang it hitting 50 would have been nice!
Next week is a rest week. Use it.
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