Lebanon Fatass Fun Run

Had a fun run with this group of trail runners. Met up with Pam at 7am and it turns out Robyn, Arika, and Tim were finishing up their first loop and ready for the next loop. The plan was to run 20 miles or 5 hours. This was slightly ambitious as the training plan only called for 18 miles for today. We started out. Weather was about 25 degrees and the sun was out. Trail conditions were excellent. South of Jensen Lake were not awesome but they were definitely runnable. Our first loop was a little over 8 miles and took 2 hours to complete. We made two stops, Dodd Rd and then Schulze Visitor center. We came back to the Jensen Trailhead at 9 am just in time to meet up with this group some of which were just arriving as the official time for the run was 9 am. Snapped this picture and then headed out. Started out with a larger group but I fell behind and Robyn stayed back with me. Eventually we met back up with Arika, Tim and Pam as they let the other runners run on ahead.  We saw many runners on the trail at various spots on the trail.

I wore my Mizuno Wave Ascend 8 trail shoes and had no problems. By the end of the 17 miles the bottoms of my feet were slightly sore but this was my longest run (the week before was 13.1 miles) since the Ice Box 480 50k last November. My hips and pelvic area started to get fatigued around 11 miles or so. This was to be expected as I try to get back into running the longer distances. My total time on the trail was 4:26 hours at 16.86 miles. I called that good as I was not looking to go back out on the trail to make up the 1ish mile needed.  I am feeling good about where I am at in my training and if nothing unforseen happens should be ready for the Chippewa 50k race the end of April.

I tested out the Tailwind endurance drink on the run this morning. I don't feel I was drinking enough to get the needed calories from just the drink but I also ate a Larabar during my first loop and ate a few peanut butter/jelly wedges back at Jensen trailhead before my second loop. I think I might have done better by getting about 200-300 more calories for the total 4 1/2 hour run. I find it difficult to drink enough of the water/Tailwind mix to fuel with just the Tailwind endurance drink. I like to eat real food too much to give up supplementing the endurance drink with eating food. I will be working on fine tuning my fueling for long runs before the Chippewa 50k race.