Things have been rolling along on both the Hardrock 100 training as well as dog training. Let’s see, I had a big week Feb 6-12; I ran 75 miles with 10,600 ft of elevation, mostly on my treadmill, but you have to get it where you can.
That Saturday I ran 30 miles mixed on the TM and outside, 5,500 ft in 15 miles on the treadmill to start, then 10 miles of rolling road and 5 more single track miles with the dog. There was no way I was going to do all 30 on the TM, so I did what I could before I got too bored. Am I the only person, or does everyone feel like running uphill on a treadmill is a little weird in terms of your gait? I feel like outside I want to push where as on the treadmill I almost pull a bit more since the belt comes at me, unlike actual ground outside. I assume the bone spur on my right ankle also contributes to the weird-ness I feel on the treadmill.
The dogs are learning to run in heel, this only works on the roads because the trails are too narrow and winding to have the three of us lined up, especially since they are both herding dogs and its so tempting to herd my feet when they get really close to them.
We also took Mia to the vet for her first-with us-check up, and she had worms. This is good and bad, good because we can treat it and she should stop having her off and on diarrhea, bad because she got it from eating the rabbit poop somewhere in our backyard and it will be hard to break her of that habit!
The following week of Feb was a rest week, which is a good thing because we had a few days where they temps jumped to 80 degrees! It went from 40s and rainy to 80 overnight. Oooof the sun was so nice, but sweat city!
I have continued to strength train, adding in some more hip rotational elements for my cranky left hip. I know I have said it before, but for those of you that don’t know, I was born with a foot turned backwards and my hips don’t match so I have to do lots of maintenance to make sure my gait stays smooth. In 2018/2019 I developed some hip pain that then turned into the beginnings of arthritis, which is mostly because of the birth defect. Focused strength and learning how to relax my pelvic floor has really helped and I can feel that things are going in the right direction in that aspect.
I bought a new pack because I have always gravitated towards smaller packs as I am a smaller person, but I know I need to be able to carry lots of things for Heartbreaker 50 and for Hardrock, so I gave in and bought my first Solomon pack. Its the Solomon skin women’s 12. It has front bottles and space for a bladder in the back and plenty of pockets. This weekend will be its maiden voyage.
Something else I tried last week was testing a carbo load. One of the women I coach is an RD and she had never really tested a carbo load before, so she tried for a 50k training race and she had really great success with it. No stomach issues, no usual bonking or super sore legs. With so much focus given to fat adapting it seems like people have forgotten that a simple carb load is way more helpful than maybe gains you may make from getting better at using fat. Typically a carb load begins 3 days prior to your event. Its 8-10g of carbs per KG you weigh per day. Since I wasn’t racing I upped to about 6-7g/kg a day. I did notice I was pooping a bit more, but I did it during the PMS week of my cycle so that happens anyway. What I did notice is that usually when I am feeling like I need a nap every day of that week, I didn’t need a nap with more carbs and I think I actually slept better. During the high hormone phase of your cycle its not unusual to have lots of interrupted sleep patterns, that week I didn’t have as many as usual.
Trail Wisp(erings) 