Hardrock Looms

An easy at home in VA:

Keys were a 10 miler with a mile- 6:36, 800- 3:06, 400-77 at the end for fun
a couple of hilly 8 mile runs
and three 2-4 hour total body work sessions clearing the back lot (raking, bending, cutting,ect)

At least once each day and for all of my runs this week I wet my feet (shoes/socks) with the hose and then worked / ran. I even re-wet by stopping by the river to step in it. The results have been great. I no longer am even bothered by getting my feet wet and the skin on my feet is in great shape.

I feel pretty fit going in to the race although am a bit heavy (for me) and will be starting the run with a 34 day span since my last LONG run (63 miles at Kettle Moraine) It would have been better to get in one more 20 days out, but studies at Northwestern got in the way of that.

I did managed to run down 17 flights of stairs daily during that month however and the great year of long runs to date I think will leave me more than ready.

The big question will be how I am able to handle the altitude as I am not landing in Colorado until 44 hours before the race starts. When I ran Hardrock in 2000 I arrived 5 days prior, and when I did Leadville I arrived 16 hours prior to those races. In both runs I had headaches when I was over 12,500ft. Leadville I got incredible dehydrated and lost 6lbs by 60 miles (from 130lbs). It was pretty miserable. In the hardrock race I had to walk EVERY uphill grade slope and was unable to eat and move at the same time. It is hard to suck air and chew/swallow at the same time. But, it did force me to take the time to sit & relax in the aid stations...eat all I wanted, then leave. Many aid stations I had to walk for a while out of as I was too full to run. I spent 2 hours and 18 minutes in aid stations during the entire 102 miles.

This year I plan to bring straight out of the bag sugar along in my pack to add to my water bottle along the route in order to keep calories flowing in and reduce the amount of REAL food I have to try and take in. mmmmmmmmmmmmm sugar! This is something that worked very well for me at CCC 100, RR 100, and AT 100, that I kind of forgot about.