Recovery from Thanksgiving week

A little time off from blogging.

The family was in town all last week, and I actually took 3 days off from running! My hip flexors are bothering me, so now is the time to heal.

After fixing dinner for over 30 people, I was done.

Have been feeling under the weather this week, but managed a tempo run on Tuesday. Still able to crank out 5 miles at tempo pace in 35:35. The ice on my bandanna was bathersome.

I am hoping to get some kind of workout today, but still feel sick.

In addition to the sports drinks, I have been working on a homemade shot block recipe.

Maybe will hit the trails on Saturday. Afton anyone?

Homemade sports drinks and food

For a couple of months now I have been contemplating creating my own sports drink, gel, and energy bar. I goes hand in hand with my home brew beer and homemade sake (first batch coming this winter).

At the Fat Ass last week, I found others have already ventured into this to some degree. So this is the start of some experimenting with different recipes, and testing them on longer runs. I know Steve has created some stuff and Allan Holtz has created his own concoctions. I will be using this blog as a testing ground for these homemade products. If you want me to try one of your recipes, email me at mattmcpatten@comcast.net

I am brewing my first Belgian Tripel today (2 weeks overdue), and picked up a pound of maltodextrin when buying the ingredients.

It looks like a standard use is Maltodextrin mixed with some Cool-Aid powder plus some sodium.

I am trying to achieve a mix which will minimize or eliminate the need to take sodium caps, plus gel, plus water etc.

By spring, I hope to have a concoction that works for me (I seat a ton, in all weather conditions, and run fast enough to need a steady stream of significant calories for runs longer than 3 hrs).

I am even thinking of getting some funky food coloring to make it look weird to scare other runners. LOL

Let me know any recipes you have tried.

Trying to find something to run for

Tis the season when all the races are over (all the races I like at least) and the challenge becomes not loosing the conditioning. I am not a big 5K fan, and that is mostly what the races are until....Spring. Might do the Securian 1/2 in February, but I always say that and never do.

I have been in "maintaining" mode. At least one LT work out per week, and one hill workout if I don't plan on being on the trails that week.

My LT workout this week was Monday, and quite refreshing. It felt effortless to clip off 7:10 and 7:15 miles, and one came in at 6:40. Wasn't trying but I knew I sped up. Total workout was 1 mile at 8min, 6 at tempo (7:10-7:15) and a 3 cool down at 8:30-8:40. No pain! (even on the next day)

The rest of the week was an 8 mile recovery and off yesterday (4 days and 44 miles, I could feel the strain coming).

I am almost to the point where I am "in training" for Chippewa or Ice Age. I am debating on getting approval to do Psycho Wyco in Feb. Approval being the blessing from my family.

My goal is to get a 20-30 mile trail run in once per month through the dark months. I am not sure if Saturdays run counted as I only went 17.5.

I will find something more interesting to write about soon. Kids b-day party tomorrow... The parents are in all next week.. I guess no trails for me.

MN-DRS November Fat Ass recap

Thanks to all who came and participate in the Fat Ass at Richard T. Anderson (now dubbed the McGiver course for a good time yesterday.

I arrived shortly after 7am to find some runners thinking our 4 hour time was way too short. Phillip and Karen were out doing loops for a few hours already.

Adam Harmer marked the course, and was kind enough to speak in English instead of metric.

We unloaded the goodies shortly the "Gang" arrived. It was great to finally met people who I have emailed over the years.

We started running shortly after 8, to jump right into hill repeats. It seemed to be most of the course, which I enjoy now. A few good log hops. There was a criss cross area which reminded me of a demolition derby video game. I loved the warning signs "cross traffic".

I had the opportunity to run with Keith Krone, Adam Harmer, Allan Holtz, Steve Quick "The Bandit", Bill from Hastings, Carl Gammon, Zach Pierce, Bryan, Tom and a few other names I misplaced with faces. As always with trail running, the funny stories came out.

There were plenty of good eats provided by all of the runners, and the beer went off well (almost drained that keg). I got a kick out Tom (Adams Neighbor), who instead of refilling water at the loop, would sneak a beer and brownie.

Around noon most of stopped. We awarded Steve Quick "The Bandit" with the fastest loop trophy (a 2 liter bottle of beer). I think he ran it in 20 minutes, pretty good for a hilly 4k loop.

A bunch of us hung out afterwards over a make shift fire (turkey fryer) and shared great running stories. It was a good opportunity to discuss next years races.

The only casualty of the day was the woman who lost her key on the course. We all refrained from helping her hot wire her car, as she waited hours for it to be resolved.

Thanks to all who made it a memorable day. Email me pictures mattmcpatten@comcast.net if you took any and I will post them.

Until next time..... keep those trails worn through.

Gearing up for the Fat Ass

Come one come all to the Minnesota Dead Runners Society's Fat Ass run this Saturday 8am at Richard T Anderson reserve in Eden Prarie.

I have secured a boat load of brewed coffee, and am bringing kegged and bottled home brew and root beer.

I have been playing with different intensities this week, and have tried to dial back my recovery days to what feels "easy". Funny thing is, I am up to 31 miles this week already. I am using the treadmill and HR monitor to dial in my LT, so I can do more accurate threshold training, hopefully to stay injured free while building strength.

I hope to get in 20 at the fat ass, but I have never run that course, so I might get spanked.

Treadmill hill workout

Not sure how many of you use a "dreadmill" during the winter, but I started a few years ago and have had some great results. If anything, I get a run in when I might opt out because of many reasons outside.

Here is one I did yesterday. I like the fact that you can track progress and keep conditions static (except for the temperature inside the house). This is a hill workout I started in prep for Ice Age 50. I struggled before the race to complete 6 of these intervals, but was able to do 7 yesterday (and not die on the 7th).

Warm up with 1 mile at 8 minute pace, 2% incline (i always keep at least 2% to simulate actual road running).

Drop the speed to 6 miles per hour (10 min pace) and increase incline to 12% - do that for a half mile.

Recovery interval = reduce incline back to 2% for 1/4 mile.

The first couple of intervals seem easy, but they get tough.

This is almost like a combo workout; Hill; kind of a VO2, kind of a Lactate threshold.

Give it a try. Let me know what your hill work outs look like.