The Streak Ends

So – everything must come to an end sometime, and my “Execute The Plan” streak came to a screeching halt on Sunday.

But, I do have to report that Saturday was as good a run as I’ve had in a while. Seventeen miles on the plan. Seventeen miles executed on the trails in Aliso-Wood Canyon Regional Park here in Orange County.

A couple of new things really helped spell success on this run:

• Changed my fueling regimen: Up to now, I’ve been relying on gels as my primary source of fuel, and I’ve pretty much ignored fuel on my long runs. Saturday I mixed up an handheld of Ultrafuel (maltodextrin) and tested it on my run. It worked quite well.

• Changed my electrolytes: For a while now I kind of suspected that the cramping and fatigue that I usually suffer is a sodium issue. I sweat. Like buckets. And that means that I’m probably (definitely) losing a lot of sodium in the process. I have been using Endurolytes as my electrolyte replacement, but each tablet only provides 85mg of sodium. After reading a great blog post by Aron, I thought it might be high time to try a different electrolyte replacement tablet. I took two of these guys per hour (at 285 mg of sodium each) and they seemed to do the trick:

 

The bottom line was I finished 17 miles on the trails and felt pretty strong afterwards. It was a real confidence builder for Saturday…

Which brings us to Sunday. On the schedule was an 8 mile easy run. I woke up with a mean case of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). My back was tired. My quads and hips ached. Heck – even my arms were sore. Everything felt so good! But, with a race coming up this Saturday, sore and fatigued muscles, and a BBQ and fireworks to celebrate the 234th birthday of the USA, I sacked the run. Sigh. I remember celebrating the bicentennial in 1976 – a year after graduating High School. Man. I’m an old fart.

So I finished out last week at 34 miles. And finished out June at 4 miles shy of 120. I feel like the cruiser has finally turned the right direction.

This week I’m going to mini taper for Saturday’s race. I was originally going to just treat the race as another training run, but I think I’m going to treat it more like a race (more on that later). So that means this week’s schedule will pan out like this:

• Monday: Rest
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: 8 mile easy
• Thursday: 4 mile easy
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: Harding Hustle 30K (18 - 19 miles)
• Sunday: Rest
• Total for week: 30 miles or thereabouts

Then, once this week is over, it’s back to 40 miles. Per week. Without fail….

A New Toy

I picked up a new toy on Thursday. My old version of this same toy has served me well during my training and racing in the past. But, it had gotten old and decrepit. It once ran out of juice and turned off the middle of a race. The buttons weren’t easy to see or easy to press and had fooled me once thinking that everything was set and  turned on, only to disappoint later. And the quality of the output, while quite good when my toy was new, is now falling short of expectation. In short, it was three year old technology – great at the time it was first purchased, but now old and obsolete.

Yes. Thursday I retired my old Olympus 850 SW Thursday*. In it’s place – this baby:

A Kodak Playsport HD video camera. (Thanks Running Green Girl!) Capable of  1080p HD video. Capable of 5MP still photos. Waterproof to 10 ft. Capable of withstanding a 5 foot drop. All in a package smaller than an iPhone. And all for less than $200!

Come join me for Thursday evening’s run in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park in 720p HD:

ETP Day 18 (Thursday): 7.6 miles in Laguna Wilderness Park. 0.4 miles short of plan. Calorie budget of 1762 BMR plus 1140 exercise allowance. Total consumed 2999 for 97 over budget.

ETP Day 19 (Friday): Scheduled rest day. Slept through my alarm again. Obviously the rest day is needed. Calorie budget of 1762. Calories consumed – 1999 or 237 over budget.

Weekly variance:

• Training budget: 0.9 miles short of plan
• Calorie budget: 427 over budget

On tap today – 17 miles. I’m waiting until a little later in the day to train in the sun. One week until the Harding Hustle (gulp.)

* Don’t worry. My old  camera has been willed to my daughter, and will have a wonderful time in Europe!

I’ve Missed a Day. Or Two…

I noticed today that I missed a day or two of blogging. Ooops! Oh well. That’s what happens when nothing exciting is going on.

ETP Day 15 (Monday): New rest day. Sorely needed. BMR allowance – 2012 calories. Calories inhaled – 2258. 247 calories over budget.

ETP Day 16 (Tuesday): Hill workout with Cal Coast. It has been uncharacteristically cloudy and overcast here in Southern California, and because of that, my Garmin took over 30 minutes to lock onto satellites. As a result, I missed some warm up miles. I ended up putting in 5.5 miles total, 1.4 miles during the 12 minute hard run. Half a mile less than plan. FAIL. I never got my heart rate above 90% of max. I just couldn’t get my legs moving without pain in my quads. DOUBLE FAIL. Calorie wise – this is the first day of my throttled down intake budget – I’m allowed 1762 for BMR plus 814 for exercise. I ate 2143 for a deficit of 434 calories.

ETP Day 17 (Wednesday): Easy four mile run in the late afternoon at Crystal Cove. My legs felt like toast. Nonetheless, I managed an average pace of 9:45 at an average heart rate of 72% of max. Performed my resistance workout. I was allowed my normal BMR of 1762 plus 652 calories for exercise. I ate 1856, which puts me 94 calories over budget.

Variance week to date:

• Training budget: 0.5 miles under budget
• Calorie budget: 93 calories under budget

On a related note – I’ve been incredibly fatigued. Normally I’m up at 5:30 or so, lounge with a cup of coffee, catch up on blogs, etc. This morning? Up at 7:00! Add to it sore quads and sore hip abductors – I need to watch myself the rest of this week so I don’t really screw something up. And with that – I’m off to the hills for 8 miles in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park this evening….