Hot, humid, tired.

Well things seem to be moving along. It's been a low mileage week for me. I'm pretty sure I needed it but with the wife out of town and the little one up early sometimes you just can't run. I had been really tired, not sleeping well, etc. which I think I've mentioned recently. I thought I may have been over doing  it a bit but looking at my miles it wasn't that bad. So I tracked my food intake and looks like I've been low on calories yet again. I also have been popping a few 5-HTP supplements before bed which help me crash out faster at night and get 7 plus hours. I've been getting up at 430am now which gives me enough time before the little one gets up to run at least 12 miles which has become my low mileage run. 

Rifle Range

Well, after I realised (friggin' auto correct is set to UK English! RealiZe.) I was only eating 2500 calories I decided it may be the source of my problem. So I am eating more now and seem to feel better. Between trying to feed a 21 month old and having a wife who eats irregularly I seem to forget to feed myself. There is no consistency in meals yet with our family unfortunately. I eat a fairly high fat diet so I rarely feel empty and eating enough slips through the cracks without the empty stomach alarm. Tracking it with Livestrong's MyPlate helps tremendously. I try to underestimate if I'm unsure of quantities and seeing I'm down makes me so much more aware of my intake.

River Severn

Been rolling the hell out of my left calf in an attempt to rid my aching Achilles. It's not bad still but it's there and the calf work seems to be helping out. I rubbed some Tiger Balm on the stiff muscle the other day and it seemed to help more then the rolling. Looks like the house will be stinking this week! 

Above St. Leonard's Church

I got in touch with a guy from Minnesota via his blog about the Superior 100. He had posted his splits which was cool. It's nice to see an estimate of how long between aid stations it can take. He did however get second and finish pretty fast, 22 hours I think, and I need to focus on finishing, not a time. That's tough thinking that way though!  Good to have an idea none the less. He said not to worry about the hills since despite a lot of them none are really long and drawn out enough to destroy your quads. He said mainly the footing was most challenging, roots, rocks, etc, these aren't  the groomed trails of the Western US! I dug around a bit in his training log he has online and it appears he did about the same mileage as I am doing. He did say he did a ton of body weight squats to prepare his quads though which I've been doing now since February so that was nice to hear. 

tracks leading to Coney Green Farm

I always doubt my training. It seems I'll Google online just for some reassurance I'm doing enough and the right stuff. Preparation is key as I'd hate to do too little and be in the pain cave for hours on end fighting just to walk at mile 80. But then I don't want to over do it and get injured or burnt out. Maybe having such a restricted time frame to run will help me out by limiting my time on feet? Just need to be sure to get this 50 miler done and two more 30 mile runs and I think I'll be doing well.

sheep!

So the series of photos are from my regular 12 - 13 mile loop I've been doing and from a couple days ago. It's a hilly-ish loop that finishes on the canal, flat, which is kind of nice to be able to pick up the pace and run fast. A lot of the loop is on the Danny's Dash race course. I won't be running it this year since the Wenlock Olympiad Walk is the day before. 

misty canal

The weather has been hot for here, mid eighties and humid. The little one has had problems getting to bed it's so hot in her room which is a pain. Kind of throwing a wrench in my routine but whatever. I'll deal with it. I really should do some 2 or 3 am workouts just to experience the tiredness but I'm guessing the wife will totally freak out with those! There have been a few assaults lately on the canal (and they are trying to catch a flasher!) so she's always worried about me getting mugged. I worry about it too, that's why I run in the morning, however anytime before 4 am and you see the drunk leftovers out which is unnerving. This place is a shithole. Yesterday at work I proposed the question of "is going shirtless in town socially acceptable" to my co-workers. They laughed and we all agreed it is very low brow. Well, where I live it's common place!  The town I work in I saw zero people wandering around bareback. Kind of says a lot about the quality of people.

Anyway, I'm expecting the rest of the family to wake pretty soon here. The little one woke at 445am today so I have yet to run. The god damn squeaky floor boards here sometimes rouse her I think. The wife tried to calm her and I had yet to leave running so I stepped in to let the wife go back to bed. She needs the rest more than me. She works her ass off all week and I try my best to help her relax if she can. I've always been good at burning the candle on both ends. I'm thinking I'll do a mind bending session on the treadmill this afternoon. Hot. Boring. Incline. Mileage will be really low this week but what can you do.