I turned 34 yesterday. Completely unplanned, I noticed as I was setting my watch that I was starting my run at 10:10 on 10/10. It was a great run and I just realized that it capped off a 34 mile week. All sorts of numerology. 34 miles equals my longest weekly distance from two weeks ago, but this past week had more high-intensity miles and it had more trail miles.
Yesterday’s run was great. I ran pretty much the same loop as I did two months ago. Started out my front door, took a trail down to Barton Creek, continued along Barton Creek to Zilker Park, then refilled my water bottles and head back upstream to the Hill of Life. It was a very different run. The creek was dry last time, this time it was three to four feet. I didn’t even think twice when I crossed it last time. This time the crossings looked different, but I was able to stay on course without much trouble. Crossing the water slowed me down, but my overall time was faster. The weather was much cooler than last time. It was just about perfect mid 50s to low 60s. I wore running shorts and a T-shirt with Nipguards and Glide on my belly button. I usually go shirtless. The nicest thing about wearing the shirt was that I was able to blow my nose into something. I wore my heart rate monitor. I did a much better job pacing myself this time. The first hour was really easy, about 140-145 bpm. Then I really pushed myself on the way back, 155 bpm. My pace was probably pretty constant, 5 MPH.
Everything went great. Minor slips on the rocks while crossing the creek. My timing was near perfect. I hit Zilker right at an hour and a half. I topped the Hill of Life at 3 hours and 2 minutes. That is really amazing to be right on plan for such a long run with so many variables.
At the end of my last creek crossing I had to climb up a steep muddy bank. I reached for a limb and just barely grabbed it before I completely ate it. I felt like I was on the home stretch, three miles of runnable trail to the Hill of Life. But in the next five minutes I stumbled once, then toed a tiny tree stump and ate it hard. Luckily I landed well and nothing was sprained. Even the toes that took the direct impact seemed OK. I was definitely shaken. I went to a slow jog for a bit until I felt clear and confident again.
Chrissy and the kids were at the top of the hill of life with food, water and a change of clothes. We went straight to Costco, and I feasted on all sorts of samples as my post workout meal. Chrissy made me cupcakes and a healthy Tebow led the Gators to victory. All in all a great birthday.
My body definitely held up better this time in the aftermath. The inside of my left ankle is tender, but not completely shot. My stomach was a little off yesterday (may have been the mishmash of food at Costco), but I remember last time being really messed up. I drank much less water this time, sweated much less, and actually peed during the run. I didn’t take any extra salt other than what is in the GU Chomps and Roctane gells. The Roctane does tend to upset my stomach a bit. I really like the Chomps. The normal GU gels don’t seem to cause me any problems. One worry I have is getting protein during the race and on my future long runs. From what I understand, after three hours I need to start taking in some protein. Maybe I’ll try Hammer Perpetuem again.
