Dog Breath

This morning it's raining a light mist and I took the Buffaloes for an hour brisk walk first thing. All the leaves are falling on the ground and the streets are lined with orange and yellow. Perfect fall weather, not too cold to walk in the rain, but cool enough to see dog breath.

Boulder turned out to be fun and a good workout. I wasn't feeling great at first. I only got 6 hours of sleep because for some reason I woke up at 4 am when I could have slept until 6. My stomach wasn't happy for the first few hours either, probably due to drinking Heed.

It took me about 30 miles before I felt warmed up enough to do anything, and having not slept well the night before, I got into that weaving, inefficient zone around midnight and decided to make it through one more out & back before I called it good. I got 70 miles in before I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

The weather was perfect, warm and not windy, which is unusual for Boulder. There wasn't a big turnout for the race, seemed like a smaller crowd than last year. There was plenty of hot food at night, and it never got too cold. I wore shorts until 10 pm.

The other nice thing was I wore Drymax maximum protection running socks and got no blisters, which is good because this course is on the perfect blister surfaces, loose dirt, rocks and gravel with uneven footing, on a dry, dusty, warm day. My feet had very little heat rash, too, which is amazing for me because I usually look like I have some nasty foot disease.

My feet feel different since Badwater. I have this one persistent hot spot in the middle of my left foot, which is where I got my most painful blisters during Badwater. Now I can feel the callus wanting to build up agan. I think the only remedy for that will be taping at Across the Years. It didn't become an issue at Boulder since I wasn't on my feet more than 16 hours.

Drymax sent me some cold weather socks last week. I didn't use them in the race since it was so warm, but I wore them today. Very comfortable, and they'll be great when the snow starts falling, which could be any day. They look like something Santa might wear. Perfect for Christmas.


My only regret about the Boulder run was that I didn't bring my camera on any of the loops, and the sunset was one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. Unfortunately the peak colors hit in the middle of my loop and I was 3.5 miles from my camera! The sky turned hot pink and reflected off the reservoir, and the water was smooth and looked like pink glass.

The other memorable thing that happened on the run for me was coming around a corner and seeing this woman out for a walk with her baby stroller and her dog, a yellow lab. She was sitting down on the edge of the trail, hugging her dog. I love that image of her and the dog sitting there, looking so content.

Dennis came down and did a lap with me and brought me more ice. He did the whole 7 miles with me while I walked. He said it was hard to keep that pace. Since I haven't been walking much in training lately, I needed practice. Once I got back into my powerwalk, I was passing people who were running, and I was getting comments on how fast my walk was. It's my secret weapon.

Walk like you're possessed.

The day was warm and I was using plenty of ice in my bottles. I found that Heed didn't work for me for very long, my stomach didn't like it. It's weird, I used it all last year in racing and training and it never bothered me. Now it upsets my stomach. I had my backup supply of gatorade and I stuck to that, 1/2 gatorade, 1/2 water, ice and a salt stick capsule in every bottle.

After my 9th out & back, I could start to feel my hamstring, in the same place that's been bothering me since Badwater. Not bad to get through 64 miles without feeling it, but once I did, I knew I'd have to be careful.

Today I'm slightly stiff and sore behind my knees, my upper hamstrings and butt, and the front of my ankles. Walking muscles. I needed to do more stretching during the run.

I feel like if I can do a 70 mile training run and bounce back from that, I'm where I need to be for the 48 hour run. One more long training run this fall should be all I need. Ten weeks to Across the Years!