Hello!
Happy Monday! 🙂
Hope you had a good weekend!
Mine was pretty good. Did some shopping on Saturday – pet food, cute workout clothes for FitBloggin, groceries, wine, etc. Good times.
Except for the part where I forgot the $5 off coupon for the groceries. #fail
Sunday was laundry, vacuuming, planning my outfits for FitBloggin.
Um, did I mention that I’m going to FitBloggin? IT STARTS ON THURSDAY!!!!!!
So, we FINALLY caught up on season 4 of Ink Master.
Raise your hand if you thought the finale was lame and that the choice for winner was BS.
Seriously.
I’m actually really, really mad. I enjoy(ed) watching that show because of the talented artists that compete and, well, I like tattoos. The drama that goes along with it is to be expected because it IS a reality show and a competition and it’s people stuck together for a long period of time. But, they are totally playing up the drama too much and making the show more about that than the art and the tattoos.
I mean, really. Season 5 is “the rivals.” Oh. Goodie. More drama.
Add to the fact that there was the possibility (BLATANT REALITY) of favoritism by the judges (um, seriously, how can you leave a SPIKE out of the Statue of Liberty’s CROWN and not get eliminated, much less WIN THE WHOLE SHOW?!?!?!) and you’ve got more drama.
Pretty sure I’m done watching that show.  Sorry, had to rant a little. 🙂
And, moving on….
Guess what today is?!
It’s the first day of 50k training! Whoop!
I kicked off my day with mile repeats at the track. I’ll head to CrossFit after work and then, I’m fairly positive that I will fall over and die fall asleep standing up.
So, I had 3×1600 in 7:25 this morning. Except, adrenaline got the better of me and my repeats looked a little more like this:
mile 1 – 6:58
mile 2 – 7:22
mile 3 – 7:26
I don’t know where that 6:58 came from. Oops. #speedygonzalez
The track that I was running on was old, cement, and rife with tons of cracks, grass, and weeds.
The other alternative was to use the indoor track which was super nice, in excellent condition, springy and 15 laps to a mile.
Um, no. Really? 15 laps to a mile?! How depressing!
It was also what surrounded the fitness area in the Y so not only would I be running in a TON of circles, I would be doing it in front of a ton of other people with nothing better to stare at than me going in circles….over and over and over and over.
At least I had the outside to myself. Just me, the birds, the ants, and my pepper spray. Oh yeah, of course it’s not in the bestest part of town. But, the area is fenced and all the gates are locked and the people at the front counter know I’m out there (yes, I DID tell them as I was walking outside. accountability and all that jazz). So, as long as I’m running in the daylight, I think I’ll be okay.
Talk to me: Have you ever run on an indoor track? Have you ever run on a track that’s shorter than a 1/4-mile? Have you ever seen such an adorably lazy dog? 🙂
– jennifer
A Hungry Runner 
Nice work Jen! I think that one of the main things you can do for your 50k is to practice eating and drinking. I think that the run itself will be fine for you, considering your marathon experience. Go get ’em!
I definitely need to do that! I have some tummy issues when I run long and I need to get those worked out. I like the Honey Stinger bars but as far as real food goes, that’s the closest I’ve come. I was thinking of honey packets and jelly beans (maybe). Not sure I could eat a PB&J. What did your buddies that just did the 100-miler eat? Um, they’re bad ass, by the way!
Yeah, those guys are really tough for sure! So cool to watch David finish the 100 miles. His dad didn’t had really bad stomach issues, dropped at 48.
So, what I know about fueling while running is that you need to stay at a pretty easy effort to really put down a good amount of calories. So on your easy runs, practice drinking and eating. My friend David really just fueled with gels the whole time. The main thing was that he kept on top of hydration, kept the effort easy and kept putting in 200+ calories per hour. A 100 miler is different because the effort is dialed back so much, but I think the lesson is the same for the 50k that to be out that long you need to put calories in.
What that can do for you is keep you from bonking. Even if your legs are tired, if your head’s in the game, you can keep going! I ran for 10 hours with David through the night and even though that was WAY past my longest run both in time and distance, the fact that I was putting down 300 calories per hour kept my head in the game way past the time when my legs started to go. By the way, bacon is the other thing we ate. So, gels and bacon!
One of the tough things is to remember that at higher intensities, your stomach shuts down. So keep it easy! Okay, enough rambling!
Aaron
TEN. HOURS?!?! You ran for TEN HOURS?! Holy crap!! I mean, I know that he finished in 27 hours but that was his thing – you were just pacing him for part of it! Crazy!!
Now, I love me some bacon! Did you just pack strips in little ziploc bags or something? Guess I need to start trying things now. I can just see me whipping out a pb&j running through our neighborhoods. Ha!
Funny thing was, the pace was slow enough that I really never felt out of it. The only problems came later when things just started to tighten up and muscles were just starting to give out a bit. But yeah, ten hours was a long time. So the numbers were 10 hours 20 minutes, 34 miles, about 7,000 feet of descent, 5,000 feet of climbing. Oh yeah, started at 11:45pm. The funny thing is that neither of us felt sleepy!
The bacon was at aid stations, so it was hot off the pan! Yum! We have thought that packing bacon in a baggy or a little foil would work pretty well. In the end though, it’s really what you can handle. Gels are best if you can handle them, because they are so simple. Shot blocks are good too because they’re not messy. Yes, messy matters. Sticky is not fun. For a 50k, I would suggest just gels, Clif Shot Vanilla is pretty yummy and GU Salted Carmel goes down well too. Try one every 30 minutes, chased with some water for sure. And remember…DRINK!
Aaron