Canyon run and other Misc. babble

So I had my first training run on the Western States course since last Fall. It was a great day on the course for running. I was able to hook up with the very talented Jon Olsen and friends, John and Hoa for a solid run. The guys went to Last Chance and the base of the Thumb.

I had planned to go to the base of the Thumb, but cut the run short as I descended the Thumb to get home. I sent my wife to Playa Del Carmen Mexico for a week for her 40th birthday. She was leaving a day earlier than planned so I wanted to see her before she left later that night.

Besides a solid training run which told me where I was in my training, I got to see a lot of peeps I hadn’t seen in a while. I also met some new people, which is always nice, (HELLO TO EVERYONE!).

Top of the list of runners out on the trail that day was Kelly Ridgeway. Kelly is an all around cool person and outstanding runner. You can find her blog in my favorites. Kelly did the Costal Challenge this year which should tell you how bad ass she is.

THINGS LEARNED:

First thing learned, Jon Olsen and friends are super nice guys, and they are very fast. I need to train with those cats more often.

Second, this was the first warm/hot run I have done this year. I think I need to find a way to intake more carbs. Food intake is always an issue with me, but I was drinking a ton of CLIP2 and other food during the run. I noticed near the end I had the energy to run, but I was a little zapped. It could have been the heat but CLIP2 has more protein than carbs.

The body held up better than ever, I never red-lined even as I ran/hiked the canyons. I checked my SportTracks log and found it was my fastest ever in the Canyons.

Shoes: My Nike Moto’s did fine as usual. I did notice my feet were taking more abuse than usual. The shoes I was wearing were old, but I have noticed it before on the gnarly trails. Looks like I’ll have to find some trail shoes for The Big Dance in June to be safe. I’ve eyeballed the Cascadia for a long time so maybe it’s time to check it out. I used the Asics Trail Attack in 2007, they just re-did them and they look nice.

This training week I completed 70 miles. The core workouts were a solid tempo 12 miler, 7 miles at ½ marathon pace. The Canyon run (map said 30, GPS said 28) and the 15 miler I did the following day. So far the consistent 60+ miles weeks have worked well. I’m happy to have the mileage and be injury free. The goal for the next few weeks will be to continue this mileage with good quality runs to see what shakes out.

Also if you like to read blogs check out Craig Thornley, Andy Jones Wilkins blogs, they have been writing some good stuff lately.

AB