A welcome site after coming off "baking" on this road!

I ran yesterday at Landsford Canal 50K and experienced a new hydration thing for me (fluids not being absorbed and sloshing in my stomach!) I finally figured out how to solve it , but it was perplexing because here i was thirsty and all the fluids I drink only result in me being more thirsty! I've done a lot of races, so I'm usually all over the "right way" to do these things. I may have just been a certain vortex where a number of factors  lined up to keep me from absorbing fluids. I will give this some thought as everyone I speak with has a different idea. Here's the garmin more-information-thancomprehensable-report.clearly see where speed and heart rate decreased as I moved into the Qu'est-ce que c'est? mode thinking about my body.Yesterday, I was running to complete it and not have a remarkably fast run, this being my 2nd 50K race in a week. 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/40802611

I ran the Rattlesnake Trail 50K in Charleston, West Virginia on July 10th. My time was 8:01, which was better than what I had predicted (in the 9 hour range.) Very, very hilly! This being Silence Day (when I maintain silence for 24 hours), my run was quite remarkable. I ran with another runner for about the last 15 miles as we had pretty much the same pace. At one point I just stopped her and explained with hand signals (as best I could) what I was doing… she was fine with that. My silence, doe the day, resulted in one "thank you" to someone who told me that the coffee would be ready in just 1 more minute. One "hey" when a biker came up behind me on a trail and I moved to the side and he said hi first and I automatically responded. One barely audible" Oh God" when I was topping a hill and saw I had a lot more to go. And when I finished, i said to the race director "thank," but no "you" as I caught myself. He laughed and said he had that power (as I had told him the night before that I was observing silence all day. I'm riding back to Jeff's house in Charlotte with him and one of his friends, and they are having some fun with me since I am not talking. Much later at Jeff’s house, when his daughter asked me a computer question, I started answering before I knew what I was doing…my excuse was there was three other conversations and a TV going on around me and I got overwhelmed with input! I love Silence Day! I have always had wonderful experiences and shifts in my perspectives. 

http://www.runningintheusa.com/rattlesnaketrail50K/

What an interesting place to run! Mountains everywhere...none very high, but just up and down. The 50K gave me about 6500 feet of elevation climb with fast, rocky downhills. I finished in 8:01, a pretty good time for me on this course, (I had predicted longer.) The first climb, brought forth all my negative thoughts about what I was doing out there, before I relaxed and enjoyed my running. Race day fell on July 10th, the day I maintain 24 hours of not speaking...silence...which made the race different and gave my day a new perspective. I think I did better than expected because I wasn't whining out loud! Here is some data from my Garmin watch:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39953542 

I'm still thinking this food thing over. I've been recalling everything I ate and it's really scary how little I took in! (Don’t get too weirded out…this is ultra food…everything I ate, I have eaten before and it has been a proven success for me. I just wasn’t eating enough.  I think the first 6 miles were really very hard for me with the 3500 feet elevation climb and I just didn't have much of an appetite after that. I'm usually pretty good taking in the food: I was carrying a lot in my Camelbak pack and had a lot in my drop bags, and brought almost all of it back to SC with me. I just wrote it out and i'm sure you will want to see this!

What I ate on Big Horn Run

1.            PowerAde (weak mixture) in CamelBak (64oz x2, othrwise water)

2.            Handful of jelly beans @ mile 6

3.            ½ PBJ sandwich (without much PBJ) @ mile 8

4.            3-4 small pieces of cantaloupe @ mile 8

6.            6 oz cup of Mountain Dew@ mile 8

5.            Can Boost (360 cal) @ mile 13

6.            Handful cashews @mile 13

7.            3 slices watermelon @ mile 20

8.            6 oz x 2 Pepsi @ mile 20

9.            Snickers candy bar on trail somewhere before mile 20

10.          6 oz Pepsi @ mile 26.5

11.          1 cup chicken noodle soup @ mile 30

12.          6 oz Pepsi @ mile 30

13           ½ baby Ruth Candy bar @ mile 30

14.          1 cup soup @ mile 33.5

15.          6 oz Pepsi @ mile 33.5

16.          1 cup soup @ mile 40 

In my opinion, this is not enough for me for 15 hours of running! When I closely go over all that I ate, I was definitely "off" as far as paying good attention to what I needed to eat!

I had planned and trained a lot for this run, so a different outcome than I expected is...different than I expected! Clearly, good life training! 

Big Horn Wild and Scenic 100 Mile Trail Run

Dayton, WY

June 18-19, 2010 

My muscles decided to take a vacation after about 39 miles and they wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do. Thinking back, I believe it was either glucose or oxygen that my muscles were wanting. Although I don't have proof, I favor the glucose idea. When my friend Bernie said, “What were you eating during the run?” and I didn’t have any clear food pictures, I realized not eating enough was probably my main reason for slowing.

This was a wild and scenic run! I decided about 3AM that 50 miles was going to be all that I would attempt. I was right on target for the cut off time of 5:00AM for the Porcupine Ranger Station and with a lot of effort could have gotten the chance to continue on back down (think easier) until the next cut-off time at 11AM.There were several reasons I opted to stop at the turn-around (mile 48), the main one being I saw the big potential for getting hurt with a fall. My level of stamina, attention, and good balance were low and running on a highly technical, rocky course reminded me of how long my broken ankle took to heal last year. Mud and muck also were a factor, not so much the cold water and the above-the-ankle, shoe-sucking mud, but the slick surfaces of this black, slippery stuff that led to three or for slow falls in this soft stuff. Not dangerous falls, but they could be. Where did this mud come from in dry Wyoming?

Running conditions started out perfect with bight blue western skies with no clouds, sunny weather with strong winds to keep you cool. However, when I get to the canyons where there is still snow, the weather changed. Snow melts lead to lots of rushing water with numerous new creeks and marshes, especially in the last 10 miles to the top. I did think about having to repeat these water traps on the way back down, but I can run with wet shoes/socks without too much of a problem, even with cold feet. The temperatures were well below freezing, official 28F and much of the top ground had refrozen with ice and frost a number of places. I had expected mountain conditions and brought wool hat, gloves, heavy parka, and running tights which kept me warm when running. Almost all the aid stations had huge, warm, roaring fires, which are hard to pass by when they are supplemented with a chair and hot soup. Yeah, I think I took advantage of every one I passed!

The Big Horn was my second attempt at trying a difficult, western 100 mile run, as I have been moderately successful at the “easy” 100 milers in the east. (I had run Big Horn in 2006 but dropped at 50 miles due to an injury.) I had trained hard on hard climbs with big elevation in the mountains around Brevard, but these may have not been enough. How do deal with altitude, I don’t know what to do; the WY run peaks out just shy of 10,000 feet. I doubt that I will attempt this particular run again, but still to close to this one to really mean that I won’t try another “hard run” in the west. If I’m serious about training, I will include some strength work at the gym, more long tempo runs, and a few hard, 24 hour training runs. For all my future long runs, I need to concentrate on eating enough, even when I’m not hungry.

What I’ll remember: the picture of runners on the trail getting smaller as they finally disappear over the horizon, seeing them again as small specks running up the next mountain, bright BLUE skies, millions of lodge pole pines all standing uniformly vertical, the roar of the rivers, the slick black mud, crossing streams on log bridges with slick black mud on my shoes, all the white rocks “in” the trail, and the cheerful volunteers at the aid stations who would get you anything you asked for!