Getting in some Distance

I had a great trail run this morning with Steve. We ran leg #2 of the Colorado trail to the end and back, a total of 22.6 miles. Wow is that a long ways. 19 seems fine, but this being my first longish run in some time, whew, I forgot how long 22+ is. I think I had 8 more in me which is what I will need for the Moab 50K in November. As long as I take it out a little slower than I did today, I should be fine. I get so antsy. Then, by the end of the run, I am dragging tail and wondering how it was that I am barely able to keep the same pace downhill that I was running uphill 4 hours prior. Also very interesting was the phenomenon that seems to happen near the end of the run where you run uphill and you are like "Ouch Ouch Ouch" then you go downhill and your like "Ahhhh, that's nice". But then about 3 minutes of downhill and you are back to "Ouch Ouch Ouch". Then comes more uphill and again you are like "Ahhh"...but only for about 3 minutes. As you keep going the 3 minutes slips to 2, then 1, then it doesn't seem to matter if you are going up or down, it all just hurts. Except for flat...that feels great, but who ever gets any of that when your trail running?

So, this run was also a nutrition test. I had 4 bottles in my fuel belt, each are 8oz. One was water, the other 3 were energy drink. I worked on finishing them off by the turn around where I reloaded them with the goods we stashed the day before. I drank all 4 on the way back. So 6 cups of energy drink, and 2 of water. I started to feel the need for a Goo around mile 19, but we were so close that I didn't take it. I just stuck it out. But for the 50K I will need to start goos in there somewhere.

All in all, this was a great tester run, very successful. I learned a bit about pacing, and got a feel for how my energy levels change throughout the miles. We took lots of little breaks along the way and that was really good as well.