Um, why am I so tired? I asked Owen this the other day and we found ourselves temporarily stumped. I'm sleeping well, getting anywhere from 6-9 hours of sleep a night, eating well....what could be the problem? Oh right, we are in the midst of preparations for March 31-April 1st Umstead 100M! That would make sense. That must be why I am eating myself out of the house. I have been making a conscience effort to eat better in between meals and to eat less sugar. It doesn't help when I come home from work and head straight for the fridge to find it unpleasantly empty. Lesson learned, I am stopping at the grocery store on the way home from work now.....
Why I didn't think of that before I'll never know.Since the Ghost 50k in November, things have been going pretty well. I ran Deception Pass 50k in December and I had a pretty good run there. Deception Pass is a new Rainshadow Running Race and it was really a great course. The trails were quite nice and bouncy, the scenery was beautiful, the food was great and the aid stations were packed with great volunteers. My only complaint would be that the 25k-ers and the 50k-ers started at the same time making the lolly pop loops in the first 14-15 miles a bit congested. It was hard to get around people. When I had finally made it to a place where I could run my own pace and I looked at my watch and it was 1hr 58 mins! However, that's part of what happens when you don't sprint to the single track. I'll know for next time. After that, a really cool thing happened a few days later.....Owen and I got engaged!
That is the best news all year! We are very excited!After the exciting evening of getting engaged, soon enough it was the winter break and I had 11 days IN A ROW off from work. I ran every day pretty much and worked out like a mad dog in the gym. Slept, ate, layed around, went skiing, I truly relaxed during that time; in between activity! Now it is 2012 and Umstead 100 is rapidly approaching. I am trying to really put the miles in and still hit the boxing gym 4-5 days a week. This is why I am so tired. Although last week we had a big snow storm here in Seattle and the gym was closed most of those days. What's a person to do? Run more! So Owen and I ran every day in the snow with screws in our shoes to keep from slipping. It's much harder to run in the snow but I do think that it helps with technique. Without really utilizing your core, you will slip and slide, even with the screws. You hardly get a push off so it feels as though it takes more effort to move forward. The snow didn't melt by Saturday, the long run day. So we ran at the local Discovery Park which has a few different loops, the longest being just under 5 miles. So 7 loops we did running the slush, ice slush water, some snow and mud and some pretty intense wind when you hit the path near the water. Without the good friends we saw there, it would have been a long boring day in the slush. But other runners were in the same boat, not being able to make it to the mountains because of all the snow. So glad we were able to still knock out some miles and see some good friends. I had my biggest week in about 3 years, 85 miles! And after 85 miles for the week, I was still temporarily stumped as to why I am so tired and why I cannot stop eating....silly me.
