Anybody run?

I didn't watch any, but was following the race. Crazy nice running weather made for some awesome finish times.

I'm not sure if it's just the level of the runners aren't there, or if it's something to do with the conditions and technical terrain, but the best time in the race I'm doing is 32ish hours. I see these 15 and 16 hour times and it blows my mind. I mean, it took me over 13 to do the 60k, so....

So late in May I was really having trouble with recovery. I use a calorie/macro tracking app at different times of the year, so I started tracking that for a few weeks.

I'm usually low carb, high protein. I found it just wasn't working, and my legs were heavy every day. My calorie intake was around 2k every day, but only about 40g carbs.

I've bumped that up to 3-400g of carbs per day, and 2700-3k calories. Also using gels to keep up on carbs during my long runs.

Right now, since most of my runs are Z1, and only one long run a week, recovery really hasn't been an issue yet.

The hardest days are the hill sprints and split jump squats. I've pretty much stopped my normal weight training because I just don't have enough time in the week.

 

I'm hoping to keep at it a few more years. My knees might not be able to, but we'll see.

 

From what I've heard, a lot of those folks, elite runners for sure, are putting in 20+ hours a week training, 120+ mile weeks.

Diet for me, I've added in sweet potatoes, brown rice, and whole oats. On the long runs, I'm trying to get 3 gels per hour after the first hour, and they're 25ish grams of carbs each.

I'm kinda off the rails over here. Last Thursday, I was supposed to do a Z1 run. I hit the local trail around the lake. About a mile in, a snake got twisted up in my feet and got my heart rate up.

Well, my heart rate was already up, so I said to heck with it and burned it. I really like running the trails fast (fast is subjective, so fast for me) so I cranked it out. I'm pretty sure about half that run was in Z4. I know for a good while my HR was above 165.

Friday, I ran over to a pretty steep hill down the road. Did some squat jumps, lunges, and split jump squats to warm up, then 2 sets of 6 12 second hill sprints. Then ran home. I could tell this had worked me pretty good just running home.

My long run was Saturday, and being sore from Friday, was slower and harder than I expected.

Short run Sunday morning, long drive, then a walk Sunday evening. Drove all day Monday gettin back home.

I was ridiculously sore Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Just everything lower body hurts. Stretching out hasn't seemed to help either.

I had a bunch of work to do on my truck and trailer the last couple days, including 10 tires. I haven't used those tire changing muscles in so long, so that has had my back all jacked up.

On top of all that dumb stuff, I haven't slept well because I'm hurting so bad, and I'm jot eating enough cause it's too dahmed hot.

Tried to run this morning. Calves and shins were burning like crazy.

I'm gonna try to get a walk in later, and some more stretching. I need to get back after it.

 

Everything was going really well until I did those hill sprints two week ago yesterday. Then the next day did that 18 miles and 4k'ish feet of vert.

I'm not sure how or why, becausr I've been doing these hill sprints every week, but my hamstrings were effed.

I couldn’t run the next M, T, W, and it reall affected my long 18 mile run that next day. I'm really just now starting to be able to stretch my hamstrings without serious pain.

That 4 hr run last Saturday, I bonked hard on that around mile 20. If you look at my paces in Strava you'll see it.

At mile 11, my shoes were getting heavy and sloshing from the sweat. I took in 9 gels on that run, 50 oz of Tailwind mix, and 40 oz of electrolytes. When I got home at 6:15, I took in another 40-50 oz, and about 12 oz every hour, and didn't piss until after noon. I was seriously dehydrated and didn't realize it.

No wonder I bonked. I'm gonna take my 3L bladder and 2 20oz bottles this Saturday, and try to take in 40 oz of Gatorade before I leave the truck

It's crazy how much the heat and humidity affect pacing and HR.

You are putting in some serious miles yourself. Keep after that hydration and fuel, that's whats gonna keep you going at 3+ hours.

Beach run the other day in GA? Pretty nice!

 

I've skipped my 2 days of muscular endurance work last week and this week, and just substituted runs.

I know it's not what I need to be doing, but I don't want to mess up my long run days.

I'll try to ease back into it in the next few weeks.

 

Got some new gels in to try. My hands are so sweaty during my runs right now I can't rip open the top of a regular gel. And, I hate dealing with the trash and getting it all un a zip lock while moving.

I'm hoping to he able to handle one of these every hour. It's basically 3 gels, with a lid. Be much easier to put the lid on and slip it back in the vest and not worry about gel everywhere.


And while it's not much for bear defense, it's a step up from bear spray IMO. Smaller, lighter, and I'm well versed in handguns. Ruger LCP in a 22. It's 12.7oz loaded with a full mag. I've run up on 4 bears so far this year.

While I'm not overly concerned with them, the fact that there were 2 attacks last year that were fatal, and they happened right where I run. More concerning are the type of folks you find on remote national forest roads at 2-3am in the summer.

A little peace of mind