I did 25 miles of trails in Portland's Forest Park on the warmest day of the year. It felt soooo good to have short sleeves on again. I don't like running in lots of clothes, and I don't like having to carry a jacket around in my pack in case I get cold.
The trails were mostly dry, although there are some parts of the Wildwood trail that seem to be perpetually muddy. The bugs were out in force - bees, flies, gnats, skeeters - but they didn't bother me too much while I was running. There are still quite a few trilliums blooming along the trails.
I did a 10k loop with my running group to start - they're a bunch of bozos but I love 'em - and probably paced a little too fast in that part. I had some food when we finished - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups have become my fuel of choice while I run! - and then took off for a solo 19 mile trek heading south on the Wildwood.
I kept my pace pretty reasonable through most of the run. I occasionally checked my heart rate and found I wasn't really getting higher than about 125. I think I should be able to run a little harder than that, but I'm always a little conservative on training runs.
I was stopping about every 6 or 7 miles to eat. They have aid stations at the race in those intervals. I'm planning to use their food and refill my handheld with water at the stations so that I don't have to carry a pack with me. I've found I can safely eat about 220 calories - two Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! - per hour. I can probably push that a little higher since I've had zero GI issues with that amount of food.
Compared to most of my long runs, the elevation gain on this was pretty negligible. I did feel it climbing up to Firelane 1 about 18 miles into the run. I slowed to a crawl there, partially due to the climb and partially due to the muddy spots. My legs were starting to feel tired - trails definitely fatigue you faster!
The last 10K was tough. My calves - they've been persistently problematic this past year - were starting to show warning signs of cramping. I was alternating hiking and running, but my overall pace didn't suffer too much for it.
This was the first time I had trained for a race that required training runs over 20 miles, and those 20+ mile runs are still rough on me. I got the miles in, though, no matter how ugly the last few might have been.
I recovered surprisingly quickly from this run. There's some lingering soreness in the legs, but nothing alarming. I don't feel particularly tired or hungry this morning, and I'm actually planning to get out for a lazy 10K this evening just to shakeout a bit.
I'm feeling a lot better about this 50K after two 20+ mile runs on consecutive weekends. My training was interrupted a few times by work trips, and there were times when I just wasn't feeling it. I don't mind some rain and mud when I run - I like when there's a little mud to soften the trails! - but when you get rained on during every run and have to wade through ankle deep mud all the time, it gets old. That's winter running in the Pacific Northwest!
Smith Rock, here I come!