I put my training to the test this weekend and did the Deception Pass 50K up on Whidbey Island. I was coming off of a business trip to New York and had a proper sore throat leading into the event. I was going to bail on it but then I thought that running under the weather is a good test. I mean, it’s highly likely that I’ll be feeling pretty awful in the Sahara, so learning to run when being a bit trashed made sense to me. So I went for it. The race is pretty beautiful and while I had anticipated some pretty dodgy weather, it didn’t kill my soul.
Possibly because I wasn’t anticipating a great time, I let go of feeling like I need to push super hard. The goal was just to finish. But letting go of the outcome may have helped me. I really just tuned in to how my body was feeling at any given moment. I finished in 5 hours, 41 minutes, a PR for the 50K. What happened?
First, I paid a lot of attention to my nutrition. I didn’t want to get down on calories or hydration so I stayed pretty committed to both. My GI stress is the achilles heel for many of my long runs. I usually end up experiencing distress and can’t keep anything down (aka I puke). I was consuming about 250 calories / hour (via gels and aid station snacks like banana or potato chips). I made sure not to overeat. I think that overeating may be part of the problem. I find that when I get low, I tend to consume too much food that my body can’t process. I didn’t do that yesterday. Second, I was making sure that I consistently drank from my water bottles. I was using one bottle for water and the other for electrolytes. At the aid stations, I would stop and do a heavier hydration consumption. Third, I hit my body with quick energy late in the race. It was a little risky as I hadn’t tried Torq before. That said, I felt a very strong pick me up that ramped my positive vibes and confidence.
First, I paid a lot of attention to my nutrition. I didn’t want to get down on calories or hydration so I stayed pretty committed to both. My GI stress is the achilles heel for many of my long runs. I usually end up experiencing distress and can’t keep anything down (aka I puke). I was consuming about 250 calories / hour (via gels and aid station snacks like banana or potato chips). I made sure not to overeat. I think that overeating may be part of the problem. I find that when I get low, I tend to consume too much food that my body can’t process. I didn’t do that yesterday. Second, I was making sure that I consistently drank from my water bottles. I was using one bottle for water and the other for electrolytes. At the aid stations, I would stop and do a heavier hydration consumption. Third, I hit my body with quick energy late in the race. It was a little risky as I hadn’t tried Torq before. That said, I felt a very strong pick me up that ramped my positive vibes and confidence.
My body felt surprisingly good at the finish. My cold is not in a good situation. I’m feeling pretty under the weather today but happy that I went for it. It’s important that I stress my body a bit and gauge recovery as I armor up for the desert. I have a little time but April will be here soon.
Onward!