Just not sure

Post run on Tuesday, I was pretty sure that I was going to give the Leadville 50 a go. It leaves the gate on the 20th of July and I gave myself until mid-June to figure out if I was ready or not. Tuesday, I had a great run around the neighborhood. 10+ miles in under 2 hours. Felt spectacular the whole way, dinked around the woods a little on some new trails I discovered last week, etc. After yesterday’s effort, however, I am not so certain about my 50-mile aspirations this July.

I headed out around 10 for what I was hoping would turn into a 20+ miler. I started up the neighborhood trails and worked my way down to the far end of the Beav’ reaching the highway in just over 6 miles at a strong pace. I actually felt great, smooth, fit. A good start to the day.

I ran down the highway for a bit and then jumped on CR97 which links up to Magnolia. I walked the steeper sections but still felt like things were going as planned. Once I hit Mag, I headed east and then up the Blue Dot trail. Starting to feel a little fatigued and having problems keeping my heartrate down, I backed off a bit once I got on the dots and then just started feeling worse and worse. I ran out of water about 2 hours in with another 20 or so to Ned. Bummer. This wasn’t helping my performance at all.

I found a house with an outside faucet, filled up and guzzelled the fresh water pretty much immediately then stopped in to the grocery store to refill (per plan) and to buy a soda. By this point, I was really sweaty, fatigued and uncertain about my ability to finish the run as planned.

I headed out towards the Highschool trails at a brisk walk with intermittent running but mostly just walking at about a 15-minute pace. Once I got to the trails, I re-evaluated my condition, the amount of time/distance to go and my current effort and decided that the shortest way home with a chance of rescue was the best plan. I was still able to walk at a decent pace and run a little but getting stuck out in the woods just didn’t seem like a terrific plan. I texted in the troops (Rach) and headed back to the Peak to Peak in order to ease a pick up.

She got the message and came down to Ned to pick me up. I was about a mile west of Ned by the time she reached me (not knowing whether or not she received the message) and that ended my day. 16+ miles 3+ hours. Not pretty.

I am really not sure what happened. Perhaps I went out too fast, didn’t eat enough, just wasn’t feeling it… probably a combination of those things. The heat (if you want to call it that) was a bit of a problem for me but I will have to deal with that if I am to do the race so I need to keep training in the mid-day hours. I may give it another shot over the weekend and see if I can manage to keep it together for 25 – 30 miles or not. I feel okay today but slept for a long time last night. We’ll just have to see. Leadville or no, I plan to keep on running as it does make me happy.

Post run, Rach and I headed down to the Bunny Ranch as I wanted to spend some time with her, get a smoothie and some food and she needed to pick up meds from the shelter for Skipper. We came home, whacked down a huge plate of veggie sushi and watched Kurosawa. I had to head to bed about half-way through but enjoyed the film to that point (The Idiot). I’ll have to watch the rest tonight.



So there you have it. Not sure what “it” is, but there you go.