Nearing the end of my run today I was literally willing my tired body up the last couple of climbs (will … up the hill …will … up the hill was my mantra, repeated over and over) and I discovered a move that provide a little bit of inertia – but enough to propel me over the crest of little climbs and down the other side. Bobbing my head back and forth just slightly, 10 pounds of inertia is enough for your body to follow.

When I’m on fresh legs I can swing my arms in an almost cartoonish motion that allows me to use my upper body to run uphill faster. I learned it from the guys racing La Luz in Albuquerque (9 mile uphill race).

Today’s run was like this:

• Brown chicken brown cow for 10 miles
• Wheels slowly coming off over the next 5
• Rally for the last 5 and finished strong

http://www.strava.com/activities/159751305

When the wheels come off you have to be really careful with the self talk because it can turn into a death spiral if you let it. “Man I’m an idiot – what are you doing!?” (bad self talk) to “You did a stupid thing, but you’re not stupid.” (better). Best of all is the self talk that tells the doubting you to “STFU! I’m concentrating!” And wow does it take a lot of concentration when the wheels come off.

I think this is my new favorite loop in Forest Park – it has a good mix of singletrack and forest road with good climbing. Singletrack climbing at the start for a few miles to rolling singletrack for about 10 miles, then you drop down onto a forest road and descend to connect with another forest road at about mile 13, then back to singletrack to the finish road at 19 miles. I ran the last mile on the road to get to my Car2Go so I could drive home.

FML moment of the day. There’s my Car2Go home. On the right we have a No Trespassing sign, on the left a fence… that I considered jumping to walk UP the hill so I could go home. I ended up walking back around the fence and then storming the hill. Note: I feel kinda bad for the people who get the Car2Go after I’m back from a long run. Thinking I might just start taking a trash bag with me to sit on.

Nutrition

• Took the 70oz bladder in UD pack. Filled with Tailwind
• 1 20oz bottle filled with Tailwind
• 2 Clif shots (I espresso w/caffeine, 1 vanilla bean)
• 2 Clif blocks (not a pack, just 2 blocks)

I drained the bottle and the hydration bladder around mile 17.

This was my first long run after Beacon Rock 50K and I would have been satisfied to stay home and play with the kids and work on the treehouse I’m building. I started to get excited as I was driving to the trailhead – no expectation, just a little run through the woods.

My motivation has been on a bit low after my disappointing 50K time at Beacon Rock.  And I’ve been super busy at work with 2 trips to SF in the last week, so my sleep schedule has been off.  I think that racing is extremely depleting both mentally and physically – it cores me out at a very elemental level.  But as today’s run shows, even if I don’t feel checked in mentally, the physical bump from racing is still there. I was about 2nd fastest time on the sections of this loop that I’ve run before. That’s a good thing. And the final mile or so I was able to dig deep – mile 20 was my fastest.