Insanity!

Insanity! Thats the only word I can think of to describe how fun my training was last weekend.  Ever since I recovered from Dahlgren (which only took a few days) I have been feeling great!  However this past weekend was particularly notable, just due to the quality and duration of my workouts.

Carbs!

Got things started off with some Never Ending Pasta from Olive Garden, which I took full advantage of.  Its amazing the difference something as simple as carbo-loading makes.  Plenty of people (especially tri-athletes) worry so much about diet, nutrition, and supplements.  While there is some truth to all of this, going out and eating a ton of carbs (in the form of pasta, rice, or potatoes usually for me), along with a decent dose of salty foods will go far in prepping you for a race.

Carbs give you the long lasting energy you need for endurance training and events.  Salty foods help your body retain water.  You do the math!

Long Ride!

Since I was already planning on a long run Sunday, and since the weather was amazing out, I decided to get my running group started off and then head over to a cycling group in Georgetown that rides long Saturday mornings.  This was a very good decision.

The weather was incredible out and I felt great.  I had done a long ride the previous Sunday and felt absolutely terrible.  I ran long the day before, didn't eat much, and had a bad night of sleep before that ride.  Contrast that with my carbo-loading and rest day before Saturday's ride which had me feeling strong, fast, and unfatigueable!

Solid ride, probably my best yet.  72 miles, some sections at over 22 MPH, and a total average of around 18 MPH,
which is great considering all the stops and slows you encounter.  The dry, 70 degree weather helped immensely.

This has me feeling very confident for the Reston Century.  Some friends have pointed out that I was perfectly capable of riding 100 miles weeks ago, but now I feel truly ready - not just to ride 100 miles, but have fun doing it and set a nice benchmark time.  I'm guessing somewhere between 5 and 6 hours depending on how many stops/slows are involved.

I am also going to rest up (sleep wise) the day before the race, and opt for an easy middle distance run (in the 7-8 mile range) rather than a long run (long being at least 11 miles).  With my Iron Mountain 30 mile trail run coming up next weekend there is really no point to do a long run anyway, especially on pavement.

Long Run!

Sunday was also way too much fun.  A couple runner buddies and I headed out to a training run put on by Virginia Happy Trails Running Club - also a good step in getting more involved with a legitimate trail running club.

So we cruised west on I-66 for about an hour for a prompt 7:30am start.  About a dozen of us got started, everyone was serious about trail running and there really was no weak link.  We all circled up at big turns to make sure everyone was headed in the right (or left ;) direction.

Now in [nicely groomed] Sky Meadows State Park we hoof it up several steep climbs.  That's me in my dorky white hat.

I need to keep getting out to these trails if I want to keep up the trail and ultra running, especially the hilly, mountainous trail runs in Virginia.

Plenty of elevation change on this run, great training for ultras.  The cool, wet weather was perfect!

The real mileage was more like 22 miles, this includes the 21 mile course and an extra half mile out and back after taking a wrong turn!  No harm done!  The elevation was intense but runnable in most areas.  This was encouraging to me since the 100 Miler I want to do, Grindstone, is known for its intense elevation change.  It has about 23,000 ft of elevation change over 100 miles - we did about 4,000 ft of change in 22 miles.  Add it up and this is about the same rate.  I know doing that 5 times in a row would be an incredible feat, but at least it helps convince me that staying moving, at a reasonable average pace, is at least possible!

So I'm marching forward - running, cycling, shuffling and walking forward that is.