With four kids at home, a small business to run, a list of upcoming Ultras to run, and a wife who wants to run just as much as me, it is an understatement to say that finding the time to train properly is difficult. Sure, we own a treadmill, but when was the last time you tried to run 10 miles or more on a treadmill? At 10 O'clock at night? At 5 O'Clock in the morning?
So I end up doing most of my running on the Weekends, the only point during the week I can really get any quality time on the trails, sacrificing quality time with the family unfortunately. And even then, with the company of some willing but begrudging companions, I hit the trails at 5 or 6 am and run as long as my schedule and my tired body will allow me.
Trying to maintain 40+ miles per week primarily on the weekends is exhausting, to say the least. During a typical week I'm lucky if I can get in 20 miles during the work week, and all of that is either short road runs or tedious treadmill workouts after the kids have gone to bed. Never more than 6 miles during a run. So I'm left with a sizable training deficit at the start of every weekend.
A couple of weeks ago I managed to get in a total of 37 miles in two days, split between 5 weekend runs. This Sunday I ran twice, 12 miles the first time and 10 on the second run, all of which were on the technical up and down trails of Candler's Mountain. I'm hoping that these multiple run days are making me stronger, as they are definitely making me tired, but there are also a few other lessons I'm learning along the way.
The most important thing that I have figured out is that the longer I run the more fuel I need, and that the need increases at a seemingly exponential rate. I can run the first two or three hours on the energy provided by a pre-run cup of coffee and a doughnut, but after that if I don't start eating and drinking it going to be ugly. Crash and burn!
The second lesson I have learned is that once I start to crash it's hard, and I mean damn near impossible, to eat or drink enough to recover on the run. Which means stopping. Which I can't do on race day. Which means I have got to start learning to eat preemptively during my running. I'm much better about Hydrating than fueling, and it's easier (for me at least) to notice when my hydration level is falling into dangerous territory. Unfortunately, my body likes to pretend that everything is fine until it completely runs out of gas. At which point I am usually struck with a sudden of wave of extreme exhaustion and lightheadedness. And unfortunately, the workout is all but over.
So I am trying to work on my fueling during a run. Training myself how to eat, if you will, on the run. One of the biggest problems I am faced with is how to carry all of my needed nourishment into the woods with me, and still remain unencumbered enough to run efficiently. One of my running friends fuels exclusively with Gels, and she carries them (up to 15 at a time she says) stuffed into her sports bra. As that is not an option for me, I will be experimenting with different packs, pouches, and pockets over my next few long runs to see what works best for me. I'll let you know how things work out.
-Todd
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