The Road to Ultra

Today's Run: 8.07
Run Time: 1:27:15
Total Miles to Date: 264.3

Thoughts on the Run:

Today's run started after noon. It was fairly clear when I began the run and progressed to cloudy by the time I finished. The temperature was mid-60s so I was expecting a nice, cool run. I threw on some shorts, loaded myself up with 32 oz of water, 1 Succeed! S-cap and 2 packets of Suceed! amino and was on my way.

I set my goal to run 11-minute miles (this was more of a paced run) but secretly wanted to push 10. I turned on the virtual runner for my Garmin and set the distance to 8.0 miles and the pace to 11 minutes. We were off!

I guess I was so excited to be running in warmer weather that I got ahead of myself ... the first mile was 9:03 flat. I knew this was coming out too fast, so I thought I was slowing myself but still belted out the next mile in 9:38 (hey, that's "belting" it out for me!). Here I stopped and drank 8 oz of fluid and realized my heart was pounding, I was sweating like crazy and I probably shouldn't keep pushing so hard.

Instantly I hit some hills and began to feel drained. In fact, for the first time in several weeks of running, I had to stop and walk up the hill. It was fine, though, because my pace "out the gate" kept me ahead of my virtual racing partner and I finished the third mile in a solid 11:07. The fourth mile was in a neighborhood that starts out downhill so I was able to speed up a bit and finish that in 10:23. Mile 5 was a little tough with the hills and I struggled to finish in 11:55. It was at the end of this mile that I popped my S-cap. Mile 6 and 7 were miserable ... I hit the long hill I refer to as "Goliath" and had to resort to running two telephone poles, walking one, running two, walking one, etc. Mile 6 was done in 11:41 and mile 7 in 12:10.

At this point, my virtual runner caught me. I was walking to the top of a hill finishing the rest of my fluids when it "passed" me. I was finishing my drink and not ready to watch as I watched the status read that the virtual partner was ahead by 10 feet ... then 20 ... then 30 ... on up to 300 feet.

At this point I was done drinking and at the top of a hill, so I pushed out hard. I caught the virtual runner and passed it, but then there was a second hill. I was passed again and this time the runner had a 300 ft lead. I was not going to lose the run to my virtual partner so I pushed hard down the backside of the hill. I passed the virtual runner with about a quarter mile to spare and ended up finishing just shy of my 11-minute pace goal. The last mile was in 10:38, for an average of 10:48 throughout the run.

I came in, rested, took a shower, and rehydrated. I seem to be doing better with hydration because despite the heat and the sweat, I only lost 1 pound. I definitely started to feel better after taking the sodium cap so perhaps I should have taken it a bit earlier. Tomorrow's run I'll have CLIP which has 200 mg of sodium per serving, that should help a bit.

Thursday's Nutrition

Succeed Amino for the run
2 omega-3 eggs
1 slice whole wheat toast w/ 1 1/2 tbsp raspberry jam
1 cup Almond Breeze Chocolate milk
4 cups of coffee
8 water crackers
A few cubes of Monterey jack cheese with the crackers
1 serving Pad Thai from the local restaurant
1 spring roll
1 Thai coffee
2 cups of water
1 Clif Bar Toffee Buzz
2 pieces of fried chicken (breast and thigh)
1 Perrier and tangerine juice spritzer
2 glasses red wine
1 Nature Valley Maple Brown Sugar granola bar
1 USANA Healthpak

Calories: 3305
Fat: 112g (20g sat)
Cholesterol: 544mg
Sodium: 3140mg
Potassium: 2180mg
Carbohydrate: 376g (19g fiber/109g sugar)
Protein: 129g
Water: 100oz

Friday's Eats:

1 USANA Healthpak
1 Nature's Path Organic Blueberry toaster pastry
1 Perrier and tangerine juice spritzer
9 cups of coffee!!! (okay so I wrote a LOT of computer code)
2 tbsps half and half (to get extra calories with my breakfast)
2 oz Trader Joe's Whole Grain Salsa Fresca tortilla chips
4 pieces Trader Joe's light string cheese
1 serving Trader Ming's Spicy Kung Pao Chicken
1 1/2 Chick-fil-A Fudge Nut Brownies (a celebration at the office)
1 Clif Bar Cool Mint Chocolate
2 cups water
1 oreo blast from the local ice cream store
1 glass red wine
1 handful Salt and Vinegar chips

Calories: 2918
Fat: 102g (40g sat)
Cholesterol: 225mg
Sodium: 2640mg
Potassium: 2410mg
Carbohydrate: 373g (26g fiber/138g sugar)
Protein: 80g
Water: 96oz

Th-th-that's all folks!

Jeremy