All the cool kids skin their knees

Sometimes even I think the lengths I'll go to for running are crazy. My day began at 5am, when I woke up, threw on running clothes and sunscreen, and poured a huge mug of coffee. Lily got to my house at 5:30, and we got on the road to head down to Kara's house. It was so weird seeing it in person and feeling like I've already been there after seeing her pictures on her blog!


After a few minutes of oohing and aaahing over how adorable her daughter Faith is, we headed out to the same trail we did our 14 mile run on last month. The plan today was to do three loops of the 7.5 mile trail to train for our 50K ultramarathon which is in LESS THAN A MONTH - wow. That came up fast.

We did the first loop with two runners from Kara's running group, and kept a pretty good pace. As with any most runs, the beginning was fun, went by quick, everybody was nice and chatty, the usual. Kara took a big fall at about mile 3.5, and proved that we secretly related by immediately pausing her Garmin as soon as she could move her hand. I bit it around mile 6. Like hit a tree branch and went down hard. But don't worry, I paused the Garmin too, right away. Here we are, all proud of our dirt and war wounds.

 How cute are we in our bondi bands and camelbaks? Meanwhile I got such bad chafing on my neck from wearing mine for ONE LOOP (7.3 miles) that putting on sunscreen at Kara's house afterwards almost caused me to scream a bad word. Luckily I remembered a child was present.

We stopped at the car for a snack break.


Kara sent me this article last week about doing your first ultra. Since I was viewing this run as a dress rehearsal for the 50K, I wanted to follow all the advice. Here's my favorite part:

"Eat and Drink like a Piggy During the First Half"

Oops, didn't realize it said "the first half" till just now. But you don't have to tell me twice to eat and drink like a pig. I ate my face off at the car. Pretzels, half a banana with PB, and tons of the trail mix from my teacher appreciation goody bag. I was surprised to be craving salty stuff when I usually love the sweet Gus, (plus as the name of my blog indicates, I'm a sweet tooth kinda girl). 

Another reason I LOVE trail running (and Lily) 

 

Definitely never eaten Nutella on the road. 

We headed back to do the second loop going the opposite way. The girl in front set a super fast (for the trails) pace, and we finished two loops in 2:45 (Kara's Garmin had 2:42!), 15 minutes faster than last time! Lily took her fall on this loop. 

 

We stopped at the car again, and I stuffed my face again. I estimate I took in about 600-700 calories. I would probably normally do 4 Gus for 400 calories, so that's a big difference.

I was surprised how good I felt on the last loop. I actually thought to myself, wow, I've never felt this good at mile 22 of a marathon! Oh, wait, I usually don't take 10 minute snack breaks every 7 miles of a marathon. Also, Kara was nice enough to share these with me. 

 

I've never tried salt pills, but I felt great during the run, so I think I'll be purchasing my own. Also I plan on being quite the little piggy at the aid stations of the 50K. It worked out today, and as my bondi band says, "I run so I can eat". 

22.55 miles - my longest training run! We ran longer (time-wise) than it took us to run our marathons. That's some serious time on our feet.

 

My sorest body part was my knees where I fell. Although now I think maybe I should have stretched more. We headed back to Kara's, I took a quick shower, then we got back on the road to drive the 2 hours home. Driving stick shift after running 22.55 miles was fun. 

Lily and I limped into Safeway and bought bags of ice. I talked her through her first ice bath and she thanked me after.  I took my fifth one and I think it helped the bruises on my knees. 

And now, I'm about to make myself a little bowl of Heaven.

Please don't tell me I'm the only one that rewards myself with delicious dessert after a long run....what do you eat after your long runs?