TRAINING

Another notch on the 'ol gunbelt yesterday.  I finished my 27th 50k in 7:05.  It didn't feel very pretty but not bad considering everything.  Unfortunately yesterday showed that I can still get out and get through a 50k with little or no real training.  I really need to change that.  With a little real training the last 2 months I could easily have run 30-45 minutes faster.  I also wore my hydration vest the entire way with very little training carrying it lately too which slowed me also.

The course was all on jeep roads on the Lighthouse Hill Ranch.  The ranch is north of Blanco and south of Johnson City so it is right in the heart of the beautiful Texas Hill country.  There were gorgeous vistas around every turn.  The course could have been so much more difficult if was truly a trail run.  And what an enormous ranch it was.  A ten mile loop all within a single property!

I've been fighting several little niggling injuries lately so I really thought I'd have to be satisfied with the 20 mile distance.  My left plantar has been bugging me for months.  I got a piece of chicken wire stuck in the ball of my foot a month ago that's also bugging me a bit.  My left knee has been doing great until the last week or so feeling like it needs an adjustment.  With all that said and along with very little mileage (98 miles the last 7 weeks) I really didn't expect to finish the 50k.

Our day started out perfectly until we got to my office and was unable to retrieve the breakfast tacos I'd purchased Friday morning ( I forgot them when I left work Friday afternoon) for the race. The only other thing I brought to eat were a few banana's and a few Clif Bars.  The race site is almost exactly a hour from home so that was a huge bonus but along the way we realize we don't have a chair packed for Misty.  Shit!! What the hell else can go wrong!  We arrive at the race site and the start/ finish line is a half mile walk in the dark on a jeep road.  I'm lugging my big race tool kit and a cooler full of ice and water bottles with my hydration vest on.  Misty keeps insisting on carrying the cooler but I tell her it's easier having something heavy in both hands vs. one.  After we get to the start/finish and get set up we figure that Misty can go into town for a chair and tacos after the race starts.

Sam V and I get started together and go through most of the 1st ten mile loop together.  Old times new times, here me and Sam are again, out there getting it done.  Not nearly in the fashion that either of us is accustomed too or necessarily happy with but nevertheless we're out there.  I take longer than Sam replenishing since he's carrying hand bottles.  I decided a few weeks ago to carry everything I need with the hydration pack.  Misty helps get me fixed up and going and I head back out feeling just okay.  The humidity on the 1st loop was pretty high and I'm totally soaked.  It takes me a couple of miles to catch Sam but we hook up and go a little ways together and all of a sudden I get a good burst of energy and continue on without Sam.  A couple of miles later I come upon David J.  I assume we're going to share some greetings and that I'd continue on alone but we finish out the loop together with some excellent conversation along the way.  I hadn't eaten very much on the 2nd loop so I was super happy that Misty had gone into Johnson City
for tacos.  Boy were they good!!  My out of shape body was telling me to stay in the chair and cash in the last loop but my mind was saying to continue on.   It took me 2:35 to do that last 10+ miles but I got it done. Now it's time for some damn TRAINING!!!