Two Weeks Out

I think it's funny how the body responds to time off, both good and bad. Last week I did my long run to Bergen Peak, which was a long hard day, then I ran Mt. Falcon the next day and my legs were tired all week. This week, I decided that I needed to stay within myself and only do what I feel is easy on my body. With the Sageburner 50K two weeks from today, I thought it wise to not push it and make sure I was able to toe the line with fresh legs. That said, I still got a good week overall. Here's how it broke down:

Total: 50 miles

Monday: 3 miles, slow recovery with Rachel and Xavier
Tuesday: 17 miles, 13 on the way to work, hilly and consistent, 4 post work on highline with R & X
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 20 miles, Green Mountain and it was a warm beautiful day *NEW SHOES TOO!
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 10 miles @ 7:24 pace, consistent good effort but not really working hard, gives me outside hopes of BQ'ing soon, maybe at Boulder Backroads...
Sunday: Mother's Day, gonna be with the fam all day, might go for a hike!

Running to work on Tuesday I felt sluggish, I had pushed really hard at the end of last week and it was still wearing on me. Regardless, I pushed through it and made it to work in time to take a long hot shower.

Thursday's long run was a tough one. I hadn't planned to go out and do it but I've been trying to make more family decisions and ask Rachel which day works best for her as I head out the door for a few hours. In this case I was a bit under-prepared and I only had 2 GU gels to my name. I decided to take a few bananas and call it good, only one problem with that. As I was leaving early as it was, I decided to fill up my camelback that night and strap the bananas to the cinch tie. In the morning I grabbed my bag, noticed it was a bit wet but didn't think much about it (that was stupid mistake #1). When I got to the trail head I shook out the jitters and threw my pack on and headed out. About 5 miles in I reached around to my pack for a banana and they were gone, I hadn't bothered to check them to see if they were secure before I left (stupid mistake #2) and they were no where in sight. I made a decision to just keep going and ration my GU gels. However, about 9 miles in I noticed that my water supply was gone, the lightness of my pack didn't trigger anything in my head until it was too late (stupid mistake #3). Luckily, I was at one of only 2 places on the trail where you can divert into a neighborhood and I took my chances. As I neared the first house, to my delight there were two people on the deck. I asked them if I could use their hose to fill my water and they said that was fine. It was like a dream, the water came out of the spigot ice cold, and I filled my 70 oz bladder to the brim and took off again. The remaining miles were much better, one hard push to the summit at Green mountain and then a lot of rolling single track back to the car.

When I finished, I downed a liter of Pedialyte and a protein bar while I hopped in an ice bath. I felt great. I think I'll be able to keep up a good pace for Sageburner, and I'm starting to get really antsy. But for now, I'm going to spend all of tomorrow with my 2 biggest fans: