11 April 2013

Random Acts of Preparation

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. - G.K.Chesterton

The car is packed and I'm ready to head to the Grand Canyon at stupid o'clock tomorrow morning.  It's 11 hours between here and there and once I get to the south end of Colorado Springs, the entire landscape will be new. I'll be heading south and then west through Durango before turning southwest to the Canyon.    
I love road trips and the freedom to move across state lines in a single day. I'm pretty excited to finally be heading out for my second official adventure run of the year (Canyonlands being the first), but a little nervous as well. With the three weeks of sickness I had in March, I wasn't able to prepare as well as I would have liked. This will be twice as hard in elevation and time on feet as my first ultra so there's no illusions of it being easy. 

Naturally, took my mind off of my concerns and painted my nails. See those cute little crooked toes in the snap below?  Did you notice the little gift that I received from my first ultra? Who needs a rad tech shirt when you can have a permanent black toenail to take home? 
My souvenir from the Red Hot 55k 
I didn't even know it was there until I removed the nail polish that I wore for the race. I'm not much of a nail painter, but I like splashes of color. I decided that before all of my races or adventure runs, I'd paint my nails something fun. Now it serves the dual purpose of keeping me in the dark as to how bad the nail damage is until later. Oy.

 This run, I'm matching the blue of my outfit on my little piggies too. I feel much better knowing that my toes are festive and ready for showtime when the run is over.
Let's move to the other digits. I've taken to removing my wedding ring and just wearing my band as I use handhelds a lot and my ring gets in the way.  Since it's a family heirloom (my mother-in-law's ring from 1957), I've been keeping it in the jewelry box for safe keeping. My band is a $50 ebay purchase (my choice, 'cause I don't care about bands) that's boring and I've been keeping an eye out for something a little prettier that I can wear instead.
Well, I found this while trading out my Sodastream Carbonator at the mall. I don't shop at Sundance due to lack of $$, but I've always liked their jewelry.  I just thought I'd see if they had anything $50-ish. This band was less than that and just what I wanted while training/racing. Score! 
Couldn't get rid of the glare...grrr.
Last in my randomness, I'm trying something new on this run. I've been enjoying packets of Justin's Nut Butters on my runs and picked up the jar of Chocolate Almond Butter to smear onto a tortilla. I've got two of these delicious burritos in the car which will be consumed on each of the Kaibab trails... yum!
I have my usual Honey Stinger gels to keep me sugared up, but the other will keep me from feeling hungry for hours on end.  

 That's all for now.  Time to get some ZZZs. Next time I write I will be sore, tired and full of good memories and pictures to share.  'Til next week...  

Happy Trails,

Shelby



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3 comments:

  1. worm3:49 PM

    saw you completed it. interested to see the report. btw have you tried any hammer nutrition products? they are all I use now, as far as energy foods go. perpetuem is my fuel of choice for runs longer than 2 hours. endurolytes fizz for replacement after and recoverite or whey protein for recovery drinks after hard workouts. I do not use the endurolyte capsules for races but use salt stick instead. only other thing I eat on the run is hammer gel, snickers bars, and pb&j's.

    ok, not sure why I went off on that but now you know :P

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  2. Shelby4:59 PM

    Hey Jeremy - been a bit distracted, as you can guess... Eating seems to be the hardest thing to figure out with ultra distances. I was ok during my 7 hr ultra with gels, energy drinks, PB&J, coke and S-tabs.

    I found on this last run that I don't want much sweet after about 8 hours. I'm going to experiment with some real food (like avocado burritos, salted potatoes) and GU plain gels to see if my stomach can tolerate those better.

    I do use whey protein in my recovery smoothie that has bananas, kale, berries and flax in it. I noticed a big difference in my recovery when I started doing that.

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  3. worm3:42 PM

    yeah, recovery is huge.

    in race I don't like sweet almost at all, and the sugars used in most gels are just plain bad. i love hammer products because they use natural ingredients, no preservatives, and they have TONS of science/research behind everything they sell. i also have a hard time with almost all electrolyte replacement drinks and rely on salt stick for salts. you'll figure it out.

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