Roller Coaster

I started off the week fired up to train for North Face, fell into a big funk mid-week, then bounced back and regained my spark by week's end. In hindsight, my big mistake was taking on a fairly challenging treadmill climb on Tuesday. I knew I was still feeling TCM and struggled through the run, but I pushed through anyway. Wednesday and Thursday, I backed it off quite a bit and even considered just shutting down my training completely for a few days. By Friday morning, I had my spark back.

The reality is that it's pretty tough not to really enjoy running right now, with the great weather, fall colors and nice dry trails. Friday morning I ran Hyland with the group, and then went to the ski slope to add on a few miles. Sunday I got in 20 at Afton, running the 25k loop about 5 minutes slower than I did during the 50k race in the summer, but feeling quite comfortable. I'm convinced that if that race were run at a cooler time of year, the course record would be 15+ minutes faster. What a great morning to be out running the trails!

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I'm soliciting advice for my North Face 50 mile training. From my experience last year, I seem to have two big challenges to get figured out:

1) Nutrition. I did a good job with fluids, but had a hard time getting in enough calories. I've gotten better about taking gels, but every longer race I do, I'm tempted to stop eating just because I'm sick of it!

2) Preparing for the downhills. I can climb fine, but I need to be able to run the downhills a lot better, and to do so without trashing my legs. I suspect much of my leg soreness last year was due to damage sustained in the two marathons I had run earlier in the fall, but I also know I'm less efficient than some guys who seem to be able to motor down the trails without doing any damage to their legs. Certainly the trail experience I've accumulated over the last year will be helpful, and I have a few other ideas on how to prepare, but I'm always open to suggestions. Dick Beardsley reportedly hit his quads repeatedly with a hammer in order to toughen them up for the Boston Marathon. I'm not so sure about that one...