Sunday, August 21, 2011

The hay is in the barn?

That is the normal saying 3 weeks out from an ultra.

I stand at the door of my barn looking at a minimal stack of hay. I feel a bit like the prodigal son, gone during the key months of hard work. I return just in time to have the Superior Father embrace me, welcoming me to the races.

Problem is, I don't know what damage all of that fun being the prodigal son did to me. We will see.

But..... I managed to get in my first 50k training run of the year! And no stomach problems! I only was a little dehydrated. I finished feeling comfortable and knowing I could have gone a lot longer.

I successfully put the pieces together.

1 - Correct food
[carbs] - Strawberries, grapes, & cherries
[protein] - Hard boiled eggs, beef jerky
[fat] - cashews - Alicia reminded of Coconut oil.. must try that next weekend
all of these in moderate quantities every hour.
2 - Water, no sports drink
[electrolytes from s caps]
3 - Correct slowing of pace when it warmed up

My goal was to be comfortable and not feel sick - Mission Accomplished (wait... that's a bad omen, right)

Fun day with Bill P, Matt B (yes... another Matt... and this guy ran the whole Afton loop in "Barefoot Ted Sandals", Wilson, Alicia, and Joe B.

Bill showed us how it is done with a sub 6 hr training run, Matt and Joe left gas in the tank for loop 3. I brought up the rear with a comfy loop 2 finishing the 50k in about 6.5 hours. Not my fastest, but I can handle that now.

Sawtooth is not a race of speed or strength. It is a race of adaptation, skill, experience, strategy, and a little bit of luck. I know if I can keep what I did on the second loop stable up there, I will be in great shape.

Not time to put the strategy together, and cross the fingers.

Great job to Helen Lavin, Kim Martin, Dale Humphrey (and many others) who not only toed the start at Leadville 100, but earned a buckle. Awesome job.




3 comments:

Helen said...

Looking forward to seeing you at Superior! You know what you are doing at this race and that goes a long way on the SHT. Thought about you and Adam H the night before Leadville - remembering the night before my (all of our?) first 100 in '08. Good times.

Matthew Patten said...

Yes... good times.

Joe Z was there too

Matt Lutz said...

I'm that guy with the sandals. BFT is sending me another pair because of the delamination that occurred with the top and the Vibram. Will they appear at Sawtooth? Maybe, probably, I'm not sure. Good luck, and the coffee was great!