(Obvious) Lesson Learned
Brazil 135 is now just about eight weeks away and my plans are all in motion. Hotels are reserved, flights are in the process of being booked, I’m thinking seriously about gear and nutrition for the race and training is coming along.
This week I did have a little hiccup in training – one that totally could have been avoided. And hopefully, I learned my lesson.
Last week, Elizabeth and I had plans nearly every night – all really fun stuff, including a movie premiere, my cousin’s Jay Blakesburg’s book release party for his new book, Jam, and seeing David Sedaris live in Pasadena, but I was out late (for me) every night. And, in an effort to still get my miles, I got up for my normal pre-dawn alarm every morning except Friday. (Usually, at least one day during the week, I “sleep in” a little bit, but I skipped that last week.) This meant that I was working on five or less hours of sleep every day. My runs suffered a little bit but I pushed through and was managing.
On Saturday, Elan, Sean (and Arlington), Jim Sullivan and I met in La Canada at 6am (after another night of getting 4 hours of sleep) for a run around Mt. Waterman and the Angeles National Forest.
On top of Mt. Waterman:
It was a great run, but big portions of the run were colder than any of us anticipated or dressed for. I was cold pretty much the entire time. By the time I got home, I was feeling pretty crappy. My goal for Sunday’s run was 22-25 miles, but I wasn’t feeling great and cut the run short after 15 miles.
Anyway, the short of it is that by the time Sunday evening came around, I had a cold. I’m sure that since my defenses were weakened, the chilly Mt. Waterman run did me in. My cold wasn’t too bad, but it was enough to make me feel shitty and skip some training. Sunday and Monday nights I got a ton of sleep and even last night I managed seven hours before getting up at 4:30 to run. I feel much better today but I’m still dragging a little bit and need to be careful for the next few days. And beyond.
The lesson – one that is perfectly common sense and I already know – is that while I can operate on reduced sleep, and I’m going to have to do so in order to fit high mileage around work and life, there is a limit. A few more hours of sleep last week and maybe a few fewer miles of running might have helped my body stop the cold before it came on. I’ve got about six weeks of serious training left before Brazil and I really want to make those weeks count. If that’s going to happen, I’ll need to keep this lesson front of mind.
Back to the fun stuff:
One interesting piece of gear that I’m considering buying is the nifty little Goal Zero Switch 8 Portable Recharger. A friend recently used it to power her Garmin 310 for 30 hours at Chimera 100. From what I’ve read and heard, it sounds like this thing could keep my Garmin going for all (or most) of Brazil 135. While having the GPS watch for the whole isn’t really my biggest concern, it would sure be nice!