Big Week Done! Hello taper.

Tuesday:  Ran 5 miles.  it was great.

Thursday: Ran 5 miles.  it was still pretty great.

Friday:  my X-1 order came in!  Rock and roll!


I got some headphones, goggles, and a watch.  Great waterproof gear!

I'm really grateful to be an X-1 Rider this year.  The entire product line (formerly H2O Audio) is sweatproof, waterproof, and weatherproof.  Since I'm a pretty heavy sweater this comes in really handy.

Saturday: ran 10 miles.  I stuck with the old headphones because I didnt' have time to open up the new gear.  Boy did I pay for it too.  I was clicking along around a 7:30 pace for the first seven or eight miles when my right ear filled up with sweat and shorted out my old headphones.  That happens way too often.

The 10 miler was great.  Fast, comfortable, I felt good the whole time.  Came home and recovered with a nice smoothie.  Felt good saturday night.

They had the Raleigh Christmas Parade this morning.  Really Raleigh?  A Christmas parade before thanksgiving?

Sunday: sang in the church choir, we did two anthems so it was a big week.  I knew the plan was to get 10 miles on Saturday followed by 20 miles on Sunday to make up the biggest weekend in this ultra training plan.  I got out there and got in my 20.

Well, actually I hit up the gym.  Mother nature wasn't exactly being kind to NC, so I decided to play it safe.  That turned out to be a good thing.  First I had to gear up.

Yes in this triathlon off-season I have let the winter coat grow back out, and I actually have hair again.

The cable snakes out of the back, which is perfect when I'm wearing the Nathan bottle holder.

The coolest thing about this headset is that the hard plastic bit holds the earbuds in place, but the earbuds themselves are still loose on wires.  Normally I can't take earbuds because they have to sit all the way in your ear, and I prefer the "over the ear" style that doesn't have to be all jammed in there.  These were really comfortable and stayed in place pretty well.  Quite the pleasant surprise.

I don't mind running long distances on the treadmill on Sunday afternoons, it's actually the easiest way I can watch football in peace.  Music playing and watching the games on the big tv's at the gym?  sure I'll go 20. Piece of cake.

The most frustrating part was some GI distress.  I had to stop 6 times and head to the locker room.  After miles 2, 10, 14, 15.6, 17, and 18.75 miles into the run I was heading off to the locker room.  I also stopped at 5, 10, and 15.6 to take gels and refill the water bottle.  So I know my nutrition was spot on, but the stomach just didn't like it.  I had some leftover tofu stir fry for lunch that I added a little salt to, and since I don't add salt to anything after reading the Paradigm diet I think the system wasn't used to it and revolted.  The last time was particularly disheartening.  I knew I was getting dehydrated and only had 1.25 miles to go.  Even if I had to walk it I could make it another mile and a quarter.  I did actually have to slow down to a walk about 19.6 miles in, but then still finished up ok.

The funniest thing about it, in my opinion, happened while I was in the bathroom 17 miles into the run.  The treadmill I was using was sandwiched in between a really tall stairstepper and a whole bunch of elliptical machines.  While I was in there, four really attractive girls much younger than me got on those machines (3 on ellipticals and one on the stairstepper).  So of course they don't know that I'm already 17 miles in.  They only know that I'm running with a slant now at a really slow pace.  Totally stumbling around Julie Moss at the end of ironman style.  I couldn't even run 3 miles without having to stop and go to the locker room.  Now I certainly don't need to impress anybody in that gym.  But if I'm going to fall down and crap my pants in public, I'd prefer to do it in front of ugly people.

Final: I finished the 20 and was ready to collapse.  Totally dehydrated, I had nothing left.  Those 20 mile runs are exponentially harder when you ran 10 miles the day before.  I finished it though!  Got my 40 mile week in, a personal distance record.  Now it's taper time, and I'm as ready as I'll ever be to tackle running 40 miles in one day.  This ultra is going to be nuts.  After Ironman, it's tough for me to get intimidated by distance work.  But I did not finish this 20 mile run with the "yea, I could turn around and do that again" kind of feeling.  So I'm going into the Pine Mountain 40 with an optimistic outlook and a whole bunch of nerves.  Two weeks of taper and it's ultra time!