Yep, that's right, my little body carried me through over 100 miles of training this week, and my knee is not letting me forget it! Actually it really wasn't too bad and I really did enjoy 90% of it. After all of the training that I did Tues - Thursday I took Friday off and enjoyed a small rest day before working all night. Then Saturday Red and I did another 30 mile ride, which was far less painful than the last ride I participated in, and worked on some nutrition. I started taking gels every 30 minutes as opposed to maybe 1 every other hour, and also added in some GU Brew electrolytes (essentially good tasting salt tabs in water). I was still not the happiest person about hills but I was much improved. The ride went quite well and everything was peachy until I had to go to work #2 and stand on my feet for 4 hours. I didn't enjoy that part of my day, but it's ok. The hard part of the weekend came when we decided to do our long run downtown in the hills in the middle of the afternoon. That part of the plan was not thought through very well.
We went downtown with a 20oz bottle of GU Brew and a 3L hydration pack plus our assortment of gels and chews. That was decidedly not enough fluids for 2 people to run 16 miles up and down hills when it's 80 degrees. When we made this plan we didn't check the weather, all we knew was it wasn't freezing and Red should wear sun screen, but past that we didn't check the temperature. Note to self, check the temperature. About half a mile into the run Red asked me to carry the pack because it was making him too hot, fair enough. The poor guy had buckets of sweat pouring off of him. I made a mental note and had him start taking electrolytes sooner into the run than I originally planned and also made him drink more to try and keep him hydrated. That was a great idea for him but I kind of neglected myself in that plan and ended up bonking hard at about 5 miles. Yep, we still had 11 miles of the run left and I wanted my mommy. I ran about another mile and we were seriously starting to create a mental plan in our heads of a contingency route home in the event that my body simply didn't want to run up and down any more stupid hills. Well we traded the pack back to Red because we were in the shade and I instantly felt better! I apparently had the pack too tight or something, but that didn't solve all of the problems. I was still tired and my legs were still angry. We continued on our original plan and I ended up walking the majority of a really long hill simply because my body was flipping me the patella. Once we got close to campus we decided to top off the hydration pack and continue on our merry little way. We were SO glad that we "topped off" our pack because when we went to fill it, it was empty. The only water that was left was a tiny bit in the very bottom and what was left in the tube. So a couple more good sips and we would have been out. Thankfully campus had a functional drinking fountain outside that I kind of swam in and we filled up our pack again. With a new pack and a cooled off midget we ate more nutrition and migrated on. Within the next 30 minutes I think I took in 300 calories and my body was MUCH happier. The water fountain was around mile 11 and by mile 12 I felt so much better. We traded the pack back to me because we were running down hill, and I also figured out what most of the problem was with me, and we finished our run strong. We ended up doing all 16 miles of our plan and nobody died. When we got to the car I checked our water again and we had downed over half of the water in about 5 miles. I realize that we were drinking more because we knew we didn't have that far to go but in reality we needed about twice as much water. I'm seriously considering buying another hydration pack that way we both have 3L of water. Early Birthday present anyone? :D
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