Post Race Thoughts, Comment Replys, next Race!

A few things I saw in the comments sections of the recaps.

Gourmet Red Bull's.. haha, nothing more than a regular Red Bull, maybe cold, just became something Antonette nicknamed to make it sound better.

Speed Racer commented about the Euphoric feeling and wonder if a cyclist can enter that zone. I'm not sure a cyclist can get that tired and not fall over so not sure it would be the same but I do think that dazed and confused could be acquired, especially, if your cycling the Furnace Creek 508!

The darkest hours, literally!! It was seriously dark back in that canyon and with 18* all I could see at night was my cold steam breath blowing in front of me. I am super glad I purchased that jacket as it would have been trouble if I had not had it and may have been my demise as I did not have anything that would protect me from the cold/wind/snow.

I wore Injinji toe socks with a thin Balega sock over it, this has always worked for me in the past trail or road and my feet did really well. I did start to feel a little hot spot on the ball of my left foot sometime after 55 miles and stopped to change my socks at this time, (I had only changed shoes earlier) and I added BlisterShield Powder to both socks this time and the hot spot went away. I had used the BlisterShield at HURT back in Jan and it worked great there too. So overall I had no, Zero, Blisters or Hot Spots at the finish! Thank you God.

Nutrition wise I tried to use Gu's for a while but I was just over them in a hurry so I switched to Succeed Ultra and later I switched out with Amino and Clip2. I would rotate with these but mostly used Ultra. I think for Jemez 50k and Wasatch100 I am going to work on taking in more of the Amino and Clip2 as they have the amino acids/proteins and seemed to work good later in the day and night when I did take them. Otherwise, I ate some solid foods, like Pizza!! Bread Sticks!! Cookies!! Chicken Noodle Soup!! Crackers!! Snickers!! some various brownies, chips at the aid stations. Also I took some Red Bull's, one dose of No-Doze and a Mental Performance drink I experimented with called Neuro1 from Nutrition53. I have used this before from Stretch to Win when we were in certification and wow what a focus kick, so I wanted to see how it would hold up under sleep, tired conditions. When I took it about mile 62 it worked good for about 2 hours and I should have taken more but I didn't. I liked the fact of this working with neurotransmitters for the brain and focus instead of just a straight Jolt like effect. It does have caffeine, about 100mg, or 1 cup of coffee but the other ingredients are awesome and hey if Bill Romanowski, founder/ceo thinks its good, I'm in! haha, really more like if my peeps from Stretch to Win are on board then I'm in too!

After thinking back over the whole race what could I have done or will do different:

1. Ran faster! haha.
2. Be more efficient with the Neuro1 to control the sleepiness.
3. Practice staying awake later in the night leading up to the race event. Simple but true, I am usually asleep by 9-9:30pm so preparing my body/mind to stay awake till 12am-1am will I think help the night situation.
4. I am going to try and use two hand held bottles at Jemez 50k with my small waist carrier. I think Big B has validity to the fact that carrying a waist pack over time can upset the lower GI and being as I experienced this early on in this race vs. never in training of 20+ miles I want to try something else.
5. Enjoy the race more. I was so focused on moving that I had head down focus and didn't really stop to enjoy the overall race. I did take a little time when the Sun was going down because there is something about that time of day that I really like when I am out there. I also enjoyed the Sun rise, mostly because I knew it would wake me up.
6. Continue my No Whining Modo! Strong Mind, Strong Body and saving the whining for my running partners during training! ha!!

Recovery: I pretty much have taken off from anything the last 9 days. My feet were swollen the 2-3 days after so I wore my CEP Compression socks on and off, elevated my legs and took ibuprofen. I stretched some but probably not enough! I also used lots of Traumeel on my lower legs and ankles. I did do one Epsom Salt bath, not really sure how much it helped though. I also took the Recovery packets from Succeed for 5 days, I actually took 2x day for the first 2 days, along with extra Emergen-C. I also ate a little more protein than normal the week after but my hunger didn't actually kick in till about 4 days after.

I ran last night, 4 miles!! It was an easy start but about a mile in I could feel my lower legs still sore. I walked a little more than usually on this route but I kept moving and took it easy. I would say I am about 85% recovered but with the lower legs and glutes still sore after the run I still need some time. Which, I don't have too much of because for some crazy ass reason I had signed up for the Jemez50k and it's in 4 weeks, all trail, High Elevation. This will be a good effort come back after the 100 and back to the trails where I will enjoy this race, even through a lack of O2, because its in a great part of the country, Los Alamos, NM and I haven't been back there since I was a kid and my dad took me hunting.

rockon'