From the moment my physical therapist told me I can run on trails this weekend I knew I was in for some good times. I had originally scheduled an ugly 20 Mile Road run for Sunday. With this is good news, I changed my plans too dark out onto the ship Trail for a three hour jaunt. As with yesterday I started out the day with a large breakfast and immediately Trail with a full stomach. The temperatures were in mid to upper 50's I only brought 1 water bottle and no other fuel. There are plenty of stream crossings if I got desperate. In the end, while running through one of the neighborhoods, I asked a resident to refill by bottle.
First off, eating a large meal shortly before a long run has proven helpful. For the second day in a row, I was able to go 80+ minutes without any hunger pains or energy depletion. During my extra long Sunday run, normally I would have powered through a Gu pack every 35 minutes and/or used Heed's Perpetuem for calories, along with Heed's Endurolytes to manage my electrolytes balance. Occasionally I'll bring along some of my homemade energy bars/balls (Recipes found in Thrive). Eating before the long run has proven that I can delay starting the in-run nutritional replenishment a couple of hours.
The run was everything I wanted (Garmin Connect). The mid-section of of the Shenipsit Trail (east of Route 2 through Case Mountain) is rolling, with a couple fairly extremely steep sections. On the return track, there are at least two sections where power-hiking is advised for the multi-hour athlete. The trail is almost entirely single track. There were a few loose rock sections, which, on the downhill, I had to walk as I am not confident with my ankle strength yet.
A couple things I learned from this Sunday's effort.
1) Bring a change of socks for the ultra. My feet were extremely soaked. Due to the terrain, and foot padding soreness, I ran with my Salomons. They are gore-tex lined, which doesn't help with water drainage. I believe the New Balance Minimalist will handle this better, but I am very far away from these being my long training run shoe. I was fortunate to not be blessed with any new blisters during this run, but it wouldn't have taken 5 more miles before they started. I could feel the rubbing on the bottoms of my feet.
2) There are rattlesnakes along this trail! After the run, while recovering next to my truck, I was visited by a local Dep of Environmental Protection officer. He informed me this location is a hot spot for Rattlesnake poachers. As I asked my first question of "what would a poacher do with a Rattlesnake" my ADHD kicked in mid-sentence. Before the officer had a chance to inhale and respond to the initial question, I followed up immediately with "what, rattlesnakes?!?!" He informed me they are tame, and that he has had them inches from his feet with no strikes. Oh, and he had 6 captured and in the back of his truck this morning. Well, crap....
Weekly Results
- Time on Feet: 8hr 34min
- Miles: 52
- Minimalist Miles: 15.5
- Elevation Gain: 6860'
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