First Week of Training-- Ted Williams Trails 8 Miler

Well, the first week of training is over and I cannot exactly call it wonderful. The week started last Saturday with my daughter, Avery (pictured to the right after she finished the SBI Marathon), coming down with a mild version of the stomach flu. While her case was indeed mild, what my wife, Nicole, and I came down with on Monday night was nothing of the sort. I have not been that sick in a very long time. I spent most of the day Tuesday in two places: bathroom and bed. Needless to say, I didn't get much training done that day. I did muster the strength to get back to work on Wednesday, however, I decided to forgo training that day because frankly I didn't have the strength. With a mild relapse of the flu on Thursday, I decided that this simply wasn't my week to get in any runs (don't mind the pun there).

By Saturday morning my sickness had passed and I ventured out with Jason, Jessica (who is training with me for the 50), Nena and Brent to run the trails of Ted Williams for our first official long run of the 50 mile training. (Both Taylor and Noah-- the other two training for the American River 50-- are out of town for this and the next couple of runs). Since this is indeed the first run, I decided to start messing around with food consumption. This morning I kept it light: one English muffin with some Nutella. Nutella, not peanut butter, because I don't care for peanut butter a great deal. I did not consume anything else pre-run.

We left my house around 7:00 am and head out for the two and a half mile climb that starts the actual trail section. On the way up the hill I noticed that I was significantly weaker than usual. I guess the week of sickness was still lingering a bit. I kept the pace slow (around 8:45) on the way up Sabre Spring Parkway and even walked the significant incline near the trailhead. At the top of the hill I did notice a tad bit of nausea; however, I am not sure if it is a result of the stomach flu or the Nutella (I will have to eat it next week I guess to figure it out).

The trails were wonderful. Perfect morning for a run and the group did well. We easily cruised through the first section of single track, dealing with the ruts and the roots quite well. It is always a trip to run through the patches of cold air then to blasted by the heat and moisture of the warm sections. As we completed the first section, we got a nice glimpse of the sun coming up over the hills of Ted Williams. After the first significant climb up the fire roads, we took a quick breather to look out over Poway. No matter how often I run or ride these trails, I still get astounded by the views.

After the break, we headed up another section of single track up to the peek of our run (1,142 feet). Once to the top, we hung out and enjoyed the view for a few minutes and then began the descent back into Poway. The downhill was awesome-- my fellow runner Bob refers to it as the Goat Trail because it very technical-- and we stopped again briefly at Andy's Memorial-- a cross that memorializes Andy-- a father that died mountain biking in that area. We came out of the trail region after a little less than an hour and about 5 miles. Once out of the trails, we hit Poway road for about 3/4 of mile and then went back down to the hard-packed trail/fire roads in the eastern region of PQ canyon. We took the last couple of miles at a very mellow and conversational pace, which was perfect.

All in all, good run. Despite the horrendous week, I ran fairly well. My only concern was the nausea, but I cannot credit that to any one source. I ran with trail shoes, because of the course, and there was no problem with them. In addition, I carried water and I consumed 3/4 of the bottle.

Thank you to Jason, Jessica, Nena, and Brent for coming along for the run.

Final stats for the run:

Distance: 7.66 miles

Time: 1:16 57

Average Pace: 10:02

Elevation Gain: 1191 ft.

Next week: 12 miler. Need to work more on training for a 50 miler. While the pace for the long was indeed slow, 10:00 pace, we didn't practice any of the strategies and techniques that we would utilize in the 50. However, I can blame this on the short distance.

Curro, ergo sum.