Saturday, June 21, 2008

another nice Afton run

I did an early morning 25K Afton loop this morning with friends. My time was 2:45 which was a few minutes slower than last week but that was due to a few extra stops. So really I ran the loop at essentially the same pace as last Sunday. My heart rate averaged 136 vs Sunday's 144. I think the lower HR today was due mostly to running in lower temperature conditions. Today was my last practice loop at Afton before the race on July 5th. I feel really good right now and feel confident about the 50K.

I skipped breakfast before the run today. I wanted to see if that would help reduce intestinal problems. So far so good. My plan now is to have 2 10oz bottles with a 'Sustained Energy' mixture per loop in the race. I will also carry a 22 oz water bottle and refill as necessary. After the first loop I'll swap out the empty fuel bottles for two full ones (assuming there is a drop area I can do that.)

I trained for, and ran, the Fargo marathon with three friends. Two ran with me today. The third, Kim, ran Grandma's marathon this morning. She smoked it and got an 11 minute PR with a finish in 3:21. Awesome job Kim! When I recover from Afton, and Kim recovers from Grandma's, it will be full speed ahead training for the TC marathon.

Oh yeah. I broke 1000 miles for the year this morning. My previous yearly high was 920 (last year.) I should break 2000 by the end of the year.

woodtick watch: Today I used 3M Ultrathon insect repellent lotion on my legs. At our first stop about 60 minutes into the run I found one woodtick and one deertick crawling on my legs. I don't mind the woodticks but I HATE deer ticks. I had lyme disease about 10 years ago, and take my word for it, it's no fun to have. I assume that several more crawled on my during the run but they must have all dropped off after getting a taste of the repellent.

--Mark

3 comments:

keith said...

Nice training run, Mark! I have to really bust ass to run a time like that on the 25K loop at afton...You're going to have a great race!

SteveQ said...

I've been skipping the snowshoe loop at Afton and haven't had a single tick. Of course, that probably means I'll get lost in that section come race day.

Mark H. said...

One of my friends got lost in the Snowshoe loop Saturday morning. :-) We didn't realize he was gone until we heard words similar to these: "Where the ___k are you m_____ ______s?!" :-) We stopped and were able to guide him by voice to us. He wasn't super happy at that point but shouldn't everyone have their first run at Afton be a memorable one? His was. :-)