Assessing the Fitness

I kicked off my official training on August 25th with a 20 mile run along the fox river with the Fox Valley Marathon training group. During my first official training week, I logged 34 miles of running, an hour on the stair master, and an hour of hill repeats.  Not too bad. 

The start of week two I decided to do a very unscientific assessment of my current fitness level by running the closest thing to HURT one can find around here, the McNaughton, home of the Potawatomi races.  Ten mile loops, 1,600 feet of elevation gain per loop, stream crossings, technical single track, and I think it's always muddy there.  Compared to the HURT 20 mile loop we are short only 1,800 feet of elevation.

The conditions during this run were perfect, and by perfect I mean conditions closely mirroring HURT, not ideal running conditions by any means. 80 degrees, 95% humidity, scattered showers.  BJ came out for loops 1 & 2.  The trails were nice and mostly dry on loop 1 - though our clothes could have been wrung out within 10 minutes. The humidity was a killer, made breathing hard!  Lap 1 done, 2:15.  Eat pb&j, brownie, refill Nathan and head out for loop 2.

Loop 2 was a lot harder!  We had some showers, the cool off was a welcome relief, but the rain turns that course into a slippery mess!  Climbing and descending the hills was quite comical - though there were surprisingly no spills to report for anyone that day.  A couple of close calls, but no men down.  Lap 2 done, 2:30.  Eat pb&j, brownie, refill water, drop BJ, pick up Jack and Spencer.

My legs feel trashed.  My goal was 4 laps and I am already saying no to #4.  I am even considering sitting this one out.  But, I didn't drive all this way to run 20 miles.  Lap 3 was interesting.  Legs heavy in the beginning, the climbing sucked, and the runnable sections and downhills felt like I was on a rollercoaster.  Some were easy to run and felt great...other times I felt slow and weak and just like walking.  It'd be interesting to know just why that happens.  Lap 3 done, 2:28.  This "assessment run" done.  Thank you BJ, Spencer, and Jack for joining me, pushing me, and keeping me company out there.

What did I learn?

I LOVE running with all the deer!  I've never seen so many deer in my life.  Absolutely beautiful!

Never talk about how your feet do not blister and how chafing is a rarity.  You might just end up with blisters and chafing.

VESPA - some sort of running nutrition that helps convert your stored fat to energy.  Great concept.  But it apparently tastes like wasp piss.  Thank you for the honest review BJ.

I am completely directionally challenged in the woods.  Without fail, this happened about 50 times...
BJ:  "Which way do you think we go here"  Me:  "Left"  BJ:  "No, right"  I may have gotten 2 out of 50 correct.  Take away, do not run McNaughton alone.

I have a lot of work to do!  My goal before HURT is to be able to run back to back 40's out at McNaughton and feel good while doing it.

130 days and counting...