what a Week..

After a long week of working out of town (sorts).. I was helping another doctor while he was on vacation. His office is a high-volume patient type with everyone getting adjusted which means by the end of the week I had performed 190 adjustments! Yeah, Crazy!! My hands and wrists were sore by Weds and I still have 2 days left. By Friday I was so glad to be done and welcome the paycheck. I actually have 3 more one week schedules with this doctor while he goes hunting, so while I am not to keen on adjusting all that many, I am on receiving the paycheck so I will do what ya gotta do.

With this long work days, actually a full work day there is only 7 hours and a half day is 3 1/2, but the drive is about 70 mins. After working last year I drove back and forth each day so this time I decided I would rent a motel for a couple of days, get a couple of runs in and relax. Well turns out just being that busy didn't leave much time for running as I had planned. I was only able to really run 1 time during the week for a short 4 miles. It was nice though for Dez to come up and stay a night. She needed a break and called in to work, which was good for her b/c she was able to just hang out and relax all by her self and enjoy.

So by Sat I was ready to Run, and run I did. I started off at 5:30am with a nice 8 mile trail run, then met up with Brett and we hiked to the top of Turtle Peak which is about 5 miles out/back but starts at 4400 ft. elevation and peaks at 6500 ft in 2 1/2 miles! There was a couple of sections on this power climb/hike that went pretty aggressively straight up which meant the same for down. After we made the summit, a few minutes relaxing and then headed back down. Towards the bottom we were able to run which made up some of the overall time.

After this I then moved over to WhiteRock loop, fueled up and headed off. By this time it was registering 89* and on this trail there are a couple of sections that get really hot and I knew I would need a little more water and sure enough I did. As I completed the loop I finished at 19 miles but a slow 6 hours.

The upside of the Saturday run was that I had 6 hours of complete moving time on my legs and some of it, I would say was very tough. Tough in grade, and tough in technical of the the trail. Then I would give it a thumbs up due the heat I had. By the time I finished it was 91*. I had been working my nutrition, more on that in a few, and I had ran 13 in my Trail Sensor 4's and the rest in my Cascadia's. I also had some new XL Injinis but I think they were too big and caused some hot spots while running in the Trail Sensor's. My feet also seemed to be a little tender from the rocks when I switched to the Cascadia's but felt relief in doing so along with Lg Injinis.

Now for the new take on nutrition. I have always used S-cap from Succeed but have never tried there drinks, until recently. I ordered a box of Ultra and sample packets of Amino, and Clip-2 drinks. The Ultra will be on the course at Hurt100 and I actually like it. As for the Amino and Clip-2, I actually tried these when pacing at Rio Del Lago but one of them I didn't like the taste immediately (i think it was the clip-2, but can't remember) I also tried the Amino and again recalling that it tasted better. I have not tried either one since then but I am ordering Ultra again this week.

The newest product I have tried is VESPA, which is derived from the Asia Mandarin WaspThis is definitely an interesting product, by Taste and Design. I like the way the product is designed to use the Fat oxidative cycle within our bodies which helps fuel our bodies for long endurance instead of totally relying on the Krebs cycle which is carbs. Now its not a replacement for carbs/food etc but it helps reduce the need for other sources of glucose energy. The taste.... humm.. very interesting! At first it's like blahhh.. then it's like not so bad.. then it's like bitter-sweet. I used it this weekend on my first training. You take this product 45 mins prior to your workout then it's about 2-3 hours later along with some of your regular nutrition mixed in along the way. Also this product does not taste good warm and on the second dose I almost yaked it back up! Overall, I did notice a decrease use of my regular nutrition and felt good. Recovery seemed to be good as stated by the product, although I did my standard ice bath and compression socks. Although the Vespa is $6 a pouch or $60 for 12 which makes them $5 each, which seems expensive but normally using gels over 3 hours I would take in 7-9 at a $1 each, Vespa is actually cheaper. Also carrying that many gels takes up a lot of room in my pack. I will continue to experiment with it and see how it goes.

Sunday morning Dez, Formualic and family and Kathy headed up to Bristlecone to run the 10k loop. It was a good run starting off at 42* and warminh up to the mid-60's by the time we finished. My legs were a little tired at the start of the run but then quickly came alive and I felt good during the entire loop. I also took a Vespa at the start of the run, not 45 mins prior, as I knew we wouldn't be running for about 30 mins. The taste was okay and I didn't feel like puking it up.

rockon'

HFS..!!! 109 days!!