Monday, July 06, 2009

Golden Hawk 12 Mile Run

On Sunday morning at 6am I started the Golden Hawk 6 mile course. This route is 100% road but I ran on the grass when I could. Since it was so early, I saw very few cars. I wish I could stay on the trails but the only ones we are "authorized" to run on are short 2 mile-ish loops. I was not going to loop 6 times on the same path, especially since I did that for my 10 miler (5 loops).

The humidity was choakingly thick. I had started early just to avoid the heat and worried that I'd still be in for a steamer. Oddly though, as the sun came up it seemed to burn away the moisture and cloud cover moved in, keeping the temps down. Every so often I'd feel an almost cool, refreshing breeze move past me! Nice!

My legs and previous weak areas (calves, left knee and heels) felt really great the entire run. I've been using a hand massager on them and working out any knots I feel during the week. I also was back to wearing my Brooks Adrenaline 9 and they felt great on the grass as well as brief trips over asphalt. The major battle I had for this run was nausea - almost the entire time on and off. - - I'm still experimenting with food however, and pretty much stuck to all natural products this run. I'm just wondering if my stomach is going to be my achilles heel, causing issues no matter what I throw down it. In all other areas I seemed fine (ie: no cramping). Towards the 10th mile and then definitely at the 11th, I was running out of energy. And I know why... I simply had not been able to take in enough calories. I'm so freaking slow - especially running in grass and on trail - that in 3 hours, I had probably depleted all I had in me. I tried to eat half a luna moon around the 6th mile and could only get that much down before spitting out the rest, wishing to throw up.

Let's see, about 45 min before running I ate an Almond & Coconut KIND bar, 1/3 of a Sugar-free Red Bull, and some coconut water. I did want to eat the bar a little earlier but I was already waking up at 5am to do that and really, that's going to be the earliest I'm rising. Then, during the run I had a total of 1.5 luna moons, which are the size of 2 gummie bears. Not much. And my Nathan was filled with very, very watered down Clif Luna Sports Drink. Also interesting to note, I filled my 70oz bladder up completely and only drank 30oz. I'm sure I should be drinking more since it took me hours to finish. Then, I finished the coconut water after my run.

So, disappointingly, the nausea that haunted me in the past is still nagging me even though I'm trying to go as natural and easily digestible as possible. I don't know... maybe I still need to go more broken down, more close to the earth. I'm considering honey as my only source of fuel. Or even a honey product like Stinger. At Whole Foods I used to be able to buy raw honey sticks where you bite off the top and stir it into a drink or whatever. I don't have anything like that local but it would be convenient and easily absorbed. So, if I went the honey route, I'd probably want to get into S-caps (sodium and potassium) and then drink plain water from the bladder. Hitting some coconut water (5 electrolytes & 60 calories for energy) whenever I can as well. That would really pair down the amount of work my stomach has to do and maybe, eliminate the nausea.

Anyhow, to rap this up, next weekend I should only go out and do 8. On my last run I kept thinking I needed to re-do this 12 miler. I don't know why.... maybe just to go out and do it stronger before moving up again. I have a little bit of healthy fear about pushing mileage in one run. Things are going good and I want this to last - even if that means backing off.

Goal: I would really like to do the Dogwood Canyon 50k (31 miles) Oct 25, 2009. If I keep going up in mileage every two weeks I can probably hit 26 miles two weeks prior to the race. That should be enough training to go out and try for my first ultramarathon!

Link: Dogwood Canyon Nature Park, Missouri-Arkansas


Note: Update 4/21/10... I now know that most of the products I was eating contain ingredients such as citric acid which are usually made from corn. Corn causes a lot of problems in my body and probably caused a lot of the issues I experienced that day.

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