I was concerned about attempting to run 30 miles on very technical (aka, dangerous) trails with plenty of opportunities to bust your ass. I didn't know how my, lungs, ribs, shoulder, et al would handle a challenging run. Even on my best day this course is a challenge. With almost 20,000 feet of ascending and descending the whole body was in for a beating.
We hit the trails at 6AM...on a rocky rather flat/rolling trail that brought us to thebase of the flat irons. From there we began climbing the switchbacks to traverse the back side of the mountain. At mile 8 we came upon the park station where we fueled up and reloaded our water packs.
My camel back holds 100oz of water, which I filled to about 70oz. It took us 2 hours to get to the park station where I had probably only drank about 40oz. I filled it back up to 70oz and we headed out on a 14 mile lollipop route. The route provided a lot of shade and we were only exposed for about 1 hour in the direct sun. We ran in and out of it up and down and down and up the trails. The course was nothing short of a challenge. I was very tense for fear of falling and really messing up my ribs/shoulder. As a result I found myself carefully choosing every step and not taking my eyes off of the trail.....which when you stop causes you to become very dizzy.
As far as nutrition, I religiously took 2 amino acids and 3 enduralytes every hour. For breakfast I had 2 cold slices of pizza and a water along with 2 hammer pre race supplements. I managed to consume about 250-300 calories an hour, mostly in the form of gels and shot blocks. At mile 22 when we stopped at the aid station I ate another piece of pizza and about 7-8 chips ahoy cookies. I only had a couple of times that I felt glycogen lows but overall managed my blood sugar well.
My heart rate throughout the day was pretty good. I started the day huffing and puffing and my HR shot up to 170 for the first 15 minutes or so and I could not get enough oxygen. After about 45 minute to an hour I settled into a good rhythm and my breathing and HR normalized. It remained under control for most of the day.
I was pretty pleased with how I felt overall. Upon finishing I sucked down my mix of proteins, L glutamine, glucosamine and recoverite. Before going to bed last night took additional amino acids, antioxidants and tissue rebuilders from hammer. Not too sore, other than both IT bands are really tight and my should/ribs were pretty beat up - but not too badly.
I made it into Leadville last night around 6PM after stopping and picking up some elk jerky which I ate today...all of it. I had dinner at the local italian restaurant where I had the same server as last year, Christy, who paced a runner last year and will do so again this year in the 100 trail run. After loading up on pasta I sucked down a few coors lights at the local watering hole and hit the rack. After tossing and turning from the altitude I noticed that Carla had returned from her girls night out, so I skyped her chatted a while, saw my little pups and then fell fast asleep...till I woke up to an accelerated HR at 6AM due to the altitude.....It was a spectacular day in Leadville today other than my injuries are wearing my ass out right now...I'll blog about it with some awesome pics tomorrow. Going to sleep while my body begins to manufacture the much needed additional red blood cells!
Cheers!
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