Almost There!

My view when I woke up in Leadville on Wednesday morning.  It is hard to bitch about having to do a 25 miler when you start your day like this, you know?

Pulled down a solid 100 mile week last week with three long runs in it.  Monday was a 20 miler sort of just around town'ish... Wednesday from the Start in Leadville to Fish Hatchery and the a 27.6 miler round trip on Pikes Peak Friday night. 

This week is shaping up very well also... Monday morning, super early and before the heat I did 20 miler up and down the Peak and then yesterday was a solid 25 miles from the Colorado Trail trail head by Mayqueen all the way into Twin Lakes.  With stops and everything along the way and not going at an all out effort, we managed to get there in just about five hours which is about where I needed it to be.  Once we arrived at Twin, both Lisa and I agreed that it was a good workout but we had a moderate enough of a pace that we were not trashed either.   Sitting at 55 miles for the week right now and I can honestly say that I feel tired but not overly beat up.

The next large outing for this training week will be the Reese's Cup Run this Sunday which will be a fun 30 miler or so in the Lost Creek Wilderness area which is a place that has always been special to me since I arrived in Colorado in 1989.

The "ahem" diet is going well... I have ended the past two weeks with a significant caloric deficit and while the scale is not showing a huge weight loss, I think that I can feel it.  Also, even if I am not losing a whole lot of weight I am at least NOT gaining it.  I have not restricted what I eat by any stretch but I do keep an accurate food log every day of how many calories are taken in vs. the number of calories burned via BMR and with my run for that day.  Yesterday in Leadville for instance I consumed nearly 3800 calories... yet with everything else I did, I ended the day with a  -467 calorie deficit.  This process is easy now with all of the high mileage but I do think it will be more difficult during the taper when I am not running nearly as much and therefore not burning as many calories.  I am determined to stick with it though... every ounce that I shed between now and August 18th translates to thousands of pounds that I won't be lugging around on the course and hopefully that means a faster time.

As a side note, I have taken to running EVERY run with the handhelds regardless of distance.  I need to get used to having them on a run all the time.  It really isn't that big of an issue but just one less thing I want to take care of now and not be mindful of at all come race day.  And besides, I only have to carry my crap for 50 miles... my pacers are gonna be carrying my stuff for me on the inbound. LOL!

So yeah, almost there... between this week now and next week only two long-ish runs left.   Drop down to 65 miles next week with both Monday and Friday as completely off rest days.   It is really to the point that there isn't much else to do which is crazy because shouldn't we have more time, right?