And so it begins...

Leadman race number one, the Leadville Trail Marathon was yesterday.  Missed my A goal by about six minutes but at the same time bested my previous time on the course by 30 minutes so all in all a win.  5:06:01

A great day... perfect execution and I can not really say anything negative or throw in any "I should haves."

Things that worked... Wore the HRM the first ten miles and even though I was running a little hot the first few miles according to my heart rate, my perceived effort was comfortable and reasonable and at the point that I didn't have any fears of the CM50K experience (blowup) repeating itself.

Hokas... enough said.

Fueling/hydration/electrolytes... I ditched the SaltStick caps earlier in the year pretty much altogether and have done very well (meaning I don't puke a lot anymore.. at all) without them so they were NOT part of the plan yesterday.  My Carbopro-Gatorade mix is the shit... I have an orange concoction and Lemon-Lime mix that I have brewed up... works great, tastes great and even warm it is not nasty unlike Heed or Perpetuem.  Also I don't have to worry about any surprises from a rancid batch of Heed anymore. Chocolate and orange Gu gels.. one per hour to keep the calories in addition to the mix again, worked perfectly.  To top it all I used MAP though most the race and then aftewards to help recovery... nice.

Last night did a Power Line to MQ hike with Swamp and Kiki and we had a blast.  It was a great low pressure non-goal-oriented outing with the only purpose of loosening up and experiencing that part of the course at night, and somewhat tired.  And for me who has been so socially isolated training the past few months, anytime I get to hang out with fellow aspiring persons of lead is a real treat for me. 

This next week is all about relaxing and recovering more and working on the bike.  Lisa and I are going to do an easy ride today and then he next few days the rides increase in intensity and duration.  Friday will be the big day, riding from the start of the LT100 MTBR course to Twin Lakes with Kiki in sort of time trial fashion to see what I can do and then we are going to take a break and to a recon ride up to Columbine and down.  It is vacation time.

Coming into the finish.  It was cool to hear the announcer call me by name and throw in that I am doing Leadman.