Ten minutes before I had to leave for my first race in running 4.0, and my first race in 2 years I was salting a turkey.
You see, I opened the fridge and saw the turkey, and realized that I had forgotten to salt it in the hustle and bustle of prepping food and calculating fueling needs and trying not to forget my shoes the previous night. And me, being the absolute master of predicting where ignoring the small things now will lead to in the future immediately realized that if the turkey did not get salted right then, then the turkey could not be cooked the next day, which would lead to absolute chaos because the turkey had to get cooked this weekend because it had been thawing all week and if throwing away a spoiled-sat-in-the-fridge-too-long-oops free frozen bird from last Thanksgiving isn’t the definition of irresponsible than I don’t even know how we are friends.
I made this calculation faster than it took to read that paragraph and knew immediately what needed to happen.
The turkey needed to be salted. Right. Now.
So I pulled the monster bird out of the fridge and started to de-package it. This will just take a second. I have plenty of time….except the God-blessed neck won’t come out of the cavity and I’m struggling and straining and spraying turkey juices everywhere, and this is not going how I thought it would, but just stay focused and on task and it will be fine….
“WHAT are you doing???”, says my friend, absolutely queen of chaos herself walking into the kitchen.
“Salting the turkey.”
“WHY?????????”
Ummmmmm…..
And that is when I realized that if this isn’t the definition of ADHD, I’m not sure what is.
And this my Dear Reader, is why I’m so proud of myself when I can manage to be on time (usually barely) to anything and also why when people ask me how I “get it all done” I am genuinely confused and want to explain that the trick is just to….salt the turkey at 5:30 in the morning in the middle of your 1/2 marathon race prep.
Running 4.0
Over the decades I’ve come to recognize that are natural chapters to my running. Comparing myself to previous renditions of my self when my lifestyle and circumstances were different is not useful. When I started running again this year after almost 2 years of not doing much, I knew I couldn’t do it in the same way or expect the same solutions to work. Different gear and foods are available now (thank you 200 mile races – I feel like you’ve driven the need for decent long endurance fueling options), my body feels like a stranger after an autoimmune disease, and of course time does it’s own work on everything.
This is chapter 4 of my running.
Running 1.0 was all my running prior to vet school. It was about 10 year period where I did my first set of marathons, was mostly road running, and then associated with horse endurance events. I did a lot of track workouts, and had strict run/walk intervals. I wore singlets, short shorts, and ate GU gels as my fuel. It wasn’t that fun, I had a lot of injuries, and decided I preferred doing miles on horse back.
Running 2.0 was the 4 years of vet school where I started HIIT, trail running, and my first ultras. I finally let go of running to look a certain way, and ran because I loved it. I ate burritos and pizza and whatever else sounded good at aid stations. I ran more days per week than I ever had (thanks the constant breaks of being a college student). I started blogging during running 2.0.
Running 3.0 was running after having Fig, up until Summer 2021. I ran 100 milers, 100ks, 50 milers, and whatever else in between I felt like. I spent hours on the trail thanks to a schedule that gave me consistent week days off. I wore long spandex shorts and bought my favorite running shirt of all time – a long sleeve wool shirt with a collar that is perfect in every way except the price tag. I had decent mobility training worked into my routine and had really started to nail run and race fueling. And then…I started to DNF races because of really really bad generalized pain. And then pain that was focused on my shoulders and hips, but also sometimes my feet hurt so bad I could barely walk. And then it started to affect my hands. Enter autoimmune disease and the cascade of other things associated with it and the end result is 2 years of minimal running – but also minimal mobility training.
Which brings us to Running 4.0. If I’m being honest, running 4.0 isn’t a lot of fun (although it comes with cuter shorts). I’m in the worst shape physically of starting any other running chapter and it’s been a struggle to get my ROM and mobility back to where it needs to be even for these shorter runs. There’s more guidance for fueling endurance activities, but I have more dietary restrictions. Recognizing a new chapter has begun and being able to to close previous chapters prevents (too much) comparison to my past self and prevents some of the inherent discouragements of change for the worst, and helps me focus on the present.
Pictured: Proof of cuter shorts in Running 4.0
Let’s talk about what went well (and what didn’t) for my first Running 4.0 race!
Salmon Falls 1/2 marathon Nailed it Failed it
The good
Pacing: Turns out I can still nail a pace chart. Set up a 3:20 chart, finished in 3:22. Considering the course was 13.9ish and I had planned on a straight 13.1, I’m going to consider that pretty darn close. I had done a 7 mile and a 13 mile long run in prep for this race (and a hand full of 2-3 mile short runs) so I ran the first 10 miles conservatively, and had enough in the tank I ran walk/run uphill to the finish line. I don’t do a lot of 1/2 marathons (I think the last one was That Dam(n) Half Marathon in 2013! Which I finished in 2:41. But that was running 2.0 and I’m definitely not comparing myself….) so it was weird to get to mile 7 and realize I was half way done. I had barely started! When do I start pushing and being uncomfortable? Now? Later? Always? Never? In the end I treated this like a training run that had a little more “oomph” to it and put in the work the last 2 miles to feel uncomfortable and stay there.
There’s now a site that will create a pace chart for you called Ultrapacer.com and it’s absolutely amazing. What used to take me hours to perfect and tweak is a click of a button. Check it out.
Shorts: The best part of running 4.0 is definitely the shorts. LOOK!!!!!!
I’m obsessed. My backside has never looked so good. LOOK AT MY SHORTS.
Doing spandex long shorts didn’t eliminate chafing, it just moved it. I’m not saying that tight long shorts won’t make an appearance in running 4.0, it’s just that my wardrobe has expanded back to include itty bitty short shorts, because let’s be honest…..It wasn’t just comfort that drove my short choice, it was also the belief that *people built like me* don’t get to wear the cute short shorts. And actually yes. People with big power thighs that can run up and down hills DO get to wear short shorts.
I had a different pair of Boa’s planned, but then Maya surprised me with matching shorts for her first trail run. It was so much fun to wear matching shorts I’ve decided it’s a must for future races with friends whenever possible.
Now, we just need to make some noise about it so companies like Chicken Legs and BoaUSA aren’t making my size the top size offered in their brands because that’s freaking ridiculous
Overall fueling: Running 3.0 focused on 100-150 calories every 30 minutes and 3-4 hammer electrolyte caps per hour. Running 4.o has refined that to 60 g of carbs/5 g of protein/500+ mg of sodium per hour. It works out to slightly more calories as my old strategy, but the real advantage is that it seems to really level out bonks during the run, and I can tell I’m fueling more appropriately because I’m not getting ravenous post run. Turns out feeding your body during and around running appropriately is really important. Running, especially as I start doing ultra distances again, is not a way to cut calories for me any more. This is approach is probably one of the biggest differences in this chapter of running compared to any other chapters and I’m really excited to see what happens. I’ve listed my fuel/food at the bottom of this post for anyone that’s interested. Overall I hit my carb and sodium targets, and was light on the protein – which I noticed on the run and it definitely would have caused issues in a longer distance. Lots of my tried and true fuels from pre-running 4.0 won’t work because of my diet restrictions now, but I’m figuring it out!
The bad
Strength & mobility: My core is sh*#. My pelvic floor is trashed, probably a combo of lack of core training and riding horses (I’m not kidding, it’s post-pregnancy bad right now). Hip flexor was tight from the beginning of the race, and by the end was causing my groin muscle to be really really tight (an area where I have a previous injury). My auto immune disease made strength and yoga pretty much impossible for the last 2 years but I’m putting in the work to see what I can do. If I don’t see improvement with the pelvic floor in 30 days of consistent focus, I’m going to talk with my doc to see if I can get a referral for PT or similar.
Gear stuff: I need a short sleeve shirt that has a collar like my long sleeve. and let my vests rub my neck. I know they exist, I just need to get one. Also, all my running socks have holes in them. And my shoes are 2 years old with 50 thousand gazillion miles on them. And my digital watch is broke. Maybe it’s time to stop obsessing over shorts and make sure I’m fully clothed….
Didn’t follow my race plan: “Oh cool, there’s the first H2O stop….” Except I didn’t actually fill my bottles, I ran through the station because my friend Cyd didn’t need to fill HER bottles and so I ignored my WRITTEN RACE PLAN and breezed through it. Only to realize less than a quarter mile WHY I had refilling my bottle of water on the plan as I dumped my electrolyte mix into my full bottle and realized that I now had a bottle of electrolyte mix, and approximately 2 teaspoons water to get me through the next hour…..oops. Lesson learned. Even if Race Mel can’t fathom why Prep Mel wrote it down, there was probably a good reason.
The other stuff
How I fueled for 3.33 hours.
- Apple – has been WAY better on the trail than I thought. My dog likes to eat them too.
- GF Honey singer salted Carmel waffle – GF variety is just as good as the originals!
- Skratch lemon lime electrolyte drink – one of the few electrolyte drinks that has been palatable for me. A clear winner that I’ll probably keep using
- Mortal berry electrolyte drink (do not do again) – nope nope nope nope. This was a new fuel for me (I bought a variety pack of different brands and flavors) and this was an absolute no for the future.
- 1/3 c muddy buddies chex
- 1/2 c honey Chex
- Apple sauce – yep, still eating toddler food.
- Mama chia packet – I can’t always find these at my grocery store but I really love these for running!
- Tajin gummy bears – bought on a whim, was predicted to be a disaster by my friends, but I LOVED the palate change that the spicy/sweet/salty brought.
- 3 hammer caps – don’t have to take as many of these now that I’m paying attention to trying to get more sodium and electrolytes in the food.
- 2 no-bake cookies – saved my race. I was really really hungry around 10am and these really hit the spot.
Target 2L of fluid /1750 sodium/16.5 protein/200 carb
Actual consumed: 2L fluid/1750 sodium/12g protein/198 g carb
Congrats to Maya on winning the half marathon, and Cyd for her half marathon PR!
I’m not blogging as much to leave time for other writing activities. But, you can follow my adventures on instagram (more information and links) and occasionally, when I simply have to clear my writing pipes and my book project just won’t satisfy, I’ll be back!
