Every Wish That We Put Into Motion.... (comments welcome!)

[The Expert]

But seriously, we just need a place to sleep on Sunday night because our flight doesn't land until around 830pm. Do we stay offsite at the big Marriot "compound" on Vineland for around $100 (includes breakfast), stay at an All-Star (currently $180 with taxes), or borrow DVC points to stay at OKW?

When we come in late, I always look for a deal at an airport hotel with a shuttle. There's a Holiday Inn on TG Lee Blvd that usually comes in at a decent rate (or we use IHG points). We shuttle over, then one of us shuttles back to pick up the rental car the next morning (or we pick it up that night if it doesn't add a day).

 

[Herding_Cats]

I went for a run last night. First one since Saturday, and...



Well it wasn't horrible. My audiobook managed to help turn my brain off for awhile, but my HR was higher than I would have expected.


In the game of "what will the weather be for my race" (T-minus 10 days!) the forecast has gone from "High of 78, low of 61" to "High of 78, low of 59" to my current favorite "High of 73, low of 56." How low can we go?

I don't really put any faith in these numbers this far out, but once we get to 6 or 7 days out, they're usually in the general area for temperatures with the forecast. Rain, on the other hand, is always a toss up with Lake Michigan factoring in.

 

[avondale]

Fingers crossed that the forecast trend continues.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Weather forecast time! (And a training update)
Meteorologists are predicting that some sort of cold front/jet stream change/other weather thingy is going to push cold air down into my part of the state *starting* on Saturday evening. So I feel like I still can't put a lot of faith in the numbers until Thursday or Friday. Buuuuuut. It's still holding strong in the 54 degrees in the morning/70 degrees in the afternoon. (We will not talk about how it's going to be 93% humidity when it's 54 degrees though.) They're talking about upper-40s for Sunday night/Monday morning so I would be OK if it moved in a little sooner than they're expecting.


And training. *sigh* I really thought about it hard this week, and the best thing that I can come up with is that there's a decent chance that my iron levels are just in the toilet. My "normal" is just a couple of points above low, and I was not good about taking my iron this summer, which was dumb because I ran so many more miles than I usually do. Soooo yeah. I started doubling up on my iron supplements at the beginning of the week, and as long as I don't get any GI issues from that, I'll continue it until race weekend. Everything has just gotten feeling really sluggish, and I'm just generally fatigued when I'm not in the part of my cycle that makes me feel that way.

Instead of being depressing and crossing out everything that I was supposed to do (but didn't) this past week, here is what actually happened:

Wednesday: 5mi easy. My HR was higher than I was expecting, and my legs were all uuuuuugh, do we HAVE to? but I did the stupid miles.

Saturday: 10mi easy, with 20min moderate in the middle. I put 3 scoops of tailwind in my vest, 2 packages of nerds in my pocket. 2 slices of pb toast for breakfast. I got down to high 12min pace for my 20min of moderate, and then kind of fizzled out at the end of the mileage, but I got started late and it was so.hot.and.humid. I filled up my ice bandana again, and it had ice in it the entire time (just over 2 hours) but also it dripped down my back the whole time and made my sports bra chafe a little. The drawstring on my leggings (the ones I have been wearing ALL FREAKING SUMMER) chafed the *other* side of my belly button. I was still well under the pace requirement for next weekend, and am still mentally hyping myself up for doing my best to hold my (conservative) goal pace through mile 20 and then walking as much as I need to in to the finish.

Everyone was unexpectedly home on Saturday, so we decided last-minute to head down to Grand Rapids to do a little bit of back-to-school shopping. Our last stop was Sierra and DH and I agreed that it will be our first stop in the future. I found 2 more pairs of injinji socks (for $8/pair!) and could have easily spent a few hundred in the clothing section....they had a lot of smartwool stuff and a couple of other brands that I like. But spending over 4 hours in the car after that run was giving me major RLS on the way home.

Upcoming: I don't have anything longer than 5mi this week, so I'm going to try really hard to get all of the runs in so maybe I can get my legs feeling like they're ready. DH and I will pack the camper on Friday and then drop it off at the camping area near the trailhead Friday night when I pick up my bib and swag bag. Then it's a big XC meet on Saturday morning, dropping kids off at my parents Saturday afternoon, and heading down to the camper Saturday evening to run on Sunday! EEK! I can't believe I'm just a week away at this point!

 

[nancipants]

You got this!!!

 

[avondale]

54 degrees in the morning/70 degrees in the afternoon. (We will not talk about how it's going to be 93% humidity when it's 54 degrees though.)

This sounds like pretty much the best you could hope for in late August! Even if it was 54 F with 100% humidity, that would still only be a T+D of 108....so, yeah, that's pretty fantastic. And if there's no rain in the forecast, hopefully the humidity won't rise as much as the temperatures.

And training. *sigh* I really thought about it hard this week, and the best thing that I can come up with is that there's a decent chance that my iron levels are just in the toilet. My "normal" is just a couple of points above low, and I was not good about taking my iron this summer, which was dumb because I ran so many more miles than I usually do. Soooo yeah. I started doubling up on my iron supplements at the beginning of the week, and as long as I don't get any GI issues from that, I'll continue it until race weekend. Everything has just gotten feeling really sluggish, and I'm just generally fatigued when I'm not in the part of my cycle that makes me feel that way.

Maybe this is it....the iron won't hurt for a couple of weeks, but unfortunately it may not be enough time to help, either. It's also possible that your body is just really freaking tired from how hard you've been training and it's taking its time in recovery. That's one reason why ultra tapers are so long.

You're almost there! You've done the work. You will be ready to go.

 

[garneska]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you on that weather.

 

[The Expert]

Ohhh that weather would be awesome! I'm feeling a bit of FOMO knowing I couldn't make it work to be there to cheer in person, but you SO got this!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Let's talk drop-bags. AKA, I want to get my planning in order

There are 10 total aid stations, 5 of which will have portas.

I have the option to have two drop-bags on the course on Sunday. One at mile 9.5 (2.5hrs) and the other just after at mile 24 (idk how long that will be (probably 3-4 hours after the first drop bag.) And then I should have somewhere between 90min and 2 hours until the finish after that drop bag. The final aid station is at mile 28, so I won't be completely self-reliant after that final drop bag.
It's not *supposed* to rain at this point, but there is always a chance. If the forecast/radar shows likely rain on race day, I will absolutely put dry shoes/insoles/socks into the appropriate drop-bag.

I don't want to majorly load down my vest with extra fuel and would prefer to just refill pockets at these drop bag points.

I put about 1L of tailwind (3 scoops) into the back of my vest, and have been foregoing the soft flasks on the front in favor of having more space for fuel and my phone in the front pockets. But I also haven't had any super long runs in about 3 weeks now. Caffeine is going to be super necessary for the 2nd half to last third of the run.

Behold, my aid station chart! I'm not sure if every food listed will be available at every aid station, because that just seems like a lot? My lack of trail/ultra is showing. But this is what is on the website.



Here are my thoughts, and if I'm missing/overlooking/over-or-under-packing things please comment. I feel like I'm going to need to be very efficient with my time at aid stations, and especially with the drop bags.

Option 1:
-Load vest as usual (no soft flasks) with tailwind, 3 nerds, and a stroopwaffle.
-At the 1st drop-bag have ziploc of more tailwind, 3 nerds, 3 gels (caffeinated) and 1 prefilled 250mL soft flask of caffeinated liquids.
-Refill vest bladder with water from aid station and mix in tailwind.
-Bananas and coke at aid stations, other foods as stomach will allow.

-At 2nd drop-bag have new (chilled and prefilled) bladder to put into vest with caffeinated and flavored tailwind, and 1 prefilled 500mL soft flask of something caffeinated. Assortment of fuel options (candy/gel/stroopwaffles) and pick what seems like I might eat it at this point (we are going to be at around the 7hr mark here.)

Option 2:
-Load vest as usual (no soft flasks) with tailwind, 3 nerds, and a stroopwaffle.
-At the 1st drop-bag remove (or don't refill) the bladder in my vest and switch to pre-filled 1 500mL soft flask of tailwind and 1 500mL soft flask of caffeinated liquids. Reload fuel with 3 gels (caffeinated) and 3 nerds. (This will make easily-accessible phone space tight.)
-Bananas and coke at aid stations, other foods as stomach will allow.

-At 2nd drop-bag have new (chilled) bladder to put into vest with caffeinated and flavored tailwind, and 1 250mL soft flask of something caffeinated. Assortment of fuel options (candy/gel/stroopwaffles) and pick what seems like I might eat at this point (we are going to be at around the 7hr mark here.)

Option 3:
Something else?

 

[The Expert]

So here's how I read this...

• Option 1 = Steadier, simpler, consistent bladder use, slower to refill but easier to manage overall.
• Option 2 = More flexible, faster at drop #1, but more juggling with space and switching systems; caffeine hits earlier and stronger.

I'd probably go with option 1 unless you're REALLY worried about speed at those stops or REALLY need that caffeine hit sooner.