“With self-discipline, all things are possible.”

~Theodore Roosevelt

After my running setback in January, I learned a lot about my personal training.  Don’t over do it! Period. Expand your horizons.  It’s easy to get caught up in wanting to run all the time, but learning to balance your training is key.  After the big dumping of snow we got on Tuesday from Stella2017, we got out to do some snowshoeing in the deep powder up at Ascutney Trails.  Wow!  What a workout….what I like about snowshoeing is you get the intense training, without the pounding on your feet and joints.  I realized even more how much my body needs to heal and recoup after each run.  Below I found a great chart on the calories burned while snowshoeing.  I don’t have the running snowshoes, so I fell into the walking in hilly powder category, but without poles.  I really enjoyed it, if you have snow near you, it’s a great asset to add to your training program.

Running with friends is WAY more fun…so grab a buddy or four and head out….Saturday, we got the chance to meet up at our house and venture out for a 6+ miler with great friends.  I love the chatting, catching up, and hearing about friends upcoming races.  So excited for vttrailgirl, who is heading out for her 100 miler at Umstead in a few weeks….pumped to hear all about it.  After running we shared a yummy breakfast spread, catching up more with each others lives and reminiscing about funny stories of days gone by.  Can’t wait for the next group run, I heard there may be chili!!! 🙂

Brownsville Runners…happy to running again with these great peeps!  Missing a few who hope to join in soon….

Today I finally got my longest run in to date since my injury in January…. 17.4 miles!!!  Feeling like this whole 100 adventure may be back on track. Before our run we used Fully Charged, a pre exercise Ignitor from Hammer Nutrition.  It’s said to help increase energy and endurance, aid in reducing fatigue, promote mental alertness, help alleviate muscle soreness and provide antioxidant support. It had a very mild cherry taste and went down easily.  I felt it would be a great chance to try it on my longer run.  We followed the directions and drank 8 oz of it before we hit the road….  Hubs and I started out from our house en route for a 8.5 mile loop.  It’s great if you have multiple loops from your home, where you can run back to and create a”mock” aid station to start and train your body to eat and rehydrate.  We started out in thicker jackets, it was chilly, but the sun was lovely.  Any direction we start from our house is always uphill, so up we went, chipping away at the miles.  I went through one 17 oz bottle of lemon Tailwind and felt great, no weirdness in my stomach from the Fully Charged, phew!  We descended down into our “aid station”…grabbing our prefilled bottles of Tailwind (this time Mandarin Orange)  and bonk breaker bars and headed back out…only staying for a few minutes.  Our next loop was about 9 miles (we ditched the jackets and ran in long sleeve tech shirts)…more uphill…but we ate our bars as we climbed….leaving an “aid station” is always a little bit of a letdown, but as the bars hit our stomachs, the energy was coming back. I knew I’d burn about 2000 calories, so I was making sure to refuel enough. (hubs had played in a basketball tourney yesterday so he was running on tired legs, he’s such a stud!)

a little smooch mid run…

This is one of the most beautiful roads we run on, with Mt. Ascutney in view…..here we knew we had about 5 miles till home.  A little voice in my head said…”you’d still have about 88 miles to go in the 100″…oh boy…..”shhh miss negative nelly”…”ahhh sunshine and kisses..much better” The last miles ticked by, our legs and body finding our groove….coasting into home.  I couldn’t be happier about how I felt, my ankle felt and my stomach felt on this run.  The next two days will be rest days for me, very important days on the training schedule….remember that.

Overall, great training for the week…a night run, snowshoeing, group run, core and long run…..happy girl….

running down a dream…..

Hubs enjoying the fresh powder…..

heading to mile long field………

I hope your week of training went well.  Happy Spring BTW……Anyone out there going to the Runamuck 50K?  Hope to see ya there, less than 3 weeks!…..happy training..

See ya on the trails…. xoxoxoxoxo

Krista 🙂