To keep in balance you must keep moving

Just did 5 on the treadmill, snowy morning!  I hate the treadmill!  trid to do some speed work but I felt pretty slow today.

Did another antelope morning.  I love that place!!  The trails were dry and clear and the temps were perfect.  I felt pretty crappy though.  I had a big dinner (gyro and fries) which may have been a bad idea!  I am not sure if I'm recovered from the Moab race or slow from a week off but I felt heavy and slow today.  The loop took us 3:30 and was harder then I remembered it being, lots of hills.  I was going to do the 50k but now may change my mind.  I think the 50 miler looks easier.  I plan on getting back into some speed work and some weights again this week and hopefully will start feeling motivated and fast again. I hope!!

Bike 40 min. on the trainer, lots of 30 sec. sprints.  a little tired from Sat. needed to just spin.

6.5 maybe 7 with the group.  Didn't wear my Garmin today.  Did some short sprint hill repeats, felt good today!  Weights at the rec. center-upper and lower body. I did lots of lunges and some really hard squats. 

10 early miles w. Becky and alone.  Felt  good this morning!

5 east miles on the golf course then mnt. bikes 20 in St. George, yea!!!

4 outside, avg. pace 8:20, 5 on treadmill with some hill sprints and some speedy sprints.  Felt pretty good.

some with the group, some with becky.  Felt good.  My taper is not really tapering..

Ran in my trail race shoes, felt some tweaks in my right ankle and right hammy.  I hope that goes away soon!  Did mostly flat canal roads tan 8:20-30 pace.  2 miles with my 8 yr. old at the end, he's awesome.  I need to take it easy next week before the Buffalo!

Did an easy 7 with the group today.  Trying hard to take it easy this week.  "Less is more" nothing the week before a race can help, right?  Drinking and eating a lot, now i just need more sleep!

Easy taper run, felt so lame only doing 3 miles.  Went for a pretty hard hilly 22 mile ride yesterday with a big group, I hope it didn't affect me to much.

Well things didn't go exactly as planned but I guess they never do.   I did o.k. but felt terrible!  I don't think a month is enough time between 50k's for me to recover and be ready to run strong again.  I felt strong at Moab and was able to really push hard to the finish and pass people the whole way.  this race was a different story.  

I tried to do a good taper but ended up doing a long hard bike ride on the wed. before the race.  Dumb I know, but it was a memorial ride for a friend who just died and I needed to be there.   I slept great and ate great all week and before the race.  I drank plenty on the run and ate 4 gu's, yuck!!  One every hr.  I had a bite of a pb and j and a couple orange slices and potato chips and that was all.   They lost  my little drop bag so i had no chews and no peanut m and m's which was hard, I hate Gu!   I carried one hand held which worked fine for this race.  Kind of annoying though, I think I like wearing my water vest the best.   My ipod kept shorting out which was also killing me!  It came on the last 3 miles which saved my life!   I need good strong tunes at the end to keep my mind of the pain! 

Onto the run..  I started of with the top 3 women (dumb in retrospect!)  They were all from Montana and they were fast.  I know Niki Kimball (won the last 4 buffalo run's) was one of them.  I did feel awesome running with her but come to find out she was way sick and dropped half way through.  We ran the first loop in 2:20, 40 min. faster then the last time I raced the 25k.  It was not smart!  My quads felt heavy and tired from the first mile on.  The girls all left me in the dust on the first long downhill, not sure why that keeps happening?  How can I be slow running downhill?  Need to fix that.   I caught them on the flats and hills but by the end of lap one they were pretty well gone.  I was in fifth now and held that till the end.  I barely stopped at the aid stations, ran by two of them.  3 quick potty stops-you have to be quick on the island there is no where to hide!!

The top women were really spread out.  1st place was an hr. ahead of me (ouch!) and a 1/2 ahead of second place.  There was no real incentive to push hard at the end, no one to catch or pass in sight, not that I could have. It was also really hot and that hurt me too, not used to that problem yet. I kept wondering the whole time "why am Io doing this" "is this even fun", "I should have gone climbing today, I had a babysitter for 8 hrs., why did I chose to do this" and many other things... I just felt crappy, tired legs, no real pain anywhere, stomach was o.k. just tired.  So what went wrong?  I should have rested up more between Moab and Antelope.  I should not have done the bike ride, well yes I should have.   I should have done the first lap slower, more comfortable then sped it up on the last lap.   My problem is though, would I have had enough juice if I would have waited to catch anyone?  Not sure.  I ended up in fifth overall and 3rd in age group.  Happy because it was a strong field, all of the top 5 ladies  before me have ton of races behind them and most have done 50's and 100's.   I felt good about where I came i but I want to have more fun next time, feel better.  I need to train harder so I can win with better form or just stop trying to "keep up" and place and just race with the goal in mind to finish and have fun.  I was really sore Sun-Tues.  One toenail is gone.  No real injury pains have popped up, just tired and sore.  Went on some walks, did some yoga and a bike ride today and am feeling pretty good.  Grand Canyon double in 5 weeks.  the maybe a little break.  i am suppose to do Pocatello 50 four weeks after the r2r2r but am thinking that may not be a good idea!  

Well I am back at it.  I actually missed running.  I just did three today felt like 10.  I went really slow and it was so nice!  I listened to the birds and watched the sunrise, I really need to slow down more often!  My left ankle and right knee are feeling some pain and quads and hams were still tight and sore.  I may do 6 on sat.  I have done some walks, a yoga class and rode my bike for 35 min. yesterday.