In awe

Category: health

  • Day475 don’t jink it

    You know when your body crashes, it usually means something is wrong. I had something like that in February after my Covid booster shot. You probably know where I am headed with this.

    In my last post, I mentioned how I slept through the weekend. Now thinking back, that was unusual of me. Also, my heart has been racing and vivid dreams. Not the good kind but the bad one, like a premonition. I had a spooky feeling all week. I have been going through my mental checklist, like what is wrong, where is my anxiety coming from, but everything seems ok. It was the lighter version of what I had back in February. In February, I had a full brown panic attack.

    This Wednesday, after work my mom gave me a call. Actually I have been calling her the whole day because she kept on setting off her emergency alerts, like every 30 minutes. Each time, I had to call to check if she was in a real emergency. You know since after her stroke last October, any phone calls like these get me very nervous.

    The setting on her phone was always there, but somehow, it was enabled that day and she kept on setting it off whenever she turned off her phone or made a call. I believe it was either the 5-second hold or a combination of key press, or the slider thing. For me, how on earth do you set the emergency calling off, but apparently it was very easy. I think too there might have been a bug in a recent update from what I read, that whenever you press the power button, it triggers it.

    During the call, my mom said, you know so and so in our family was just tested positive for Covid19. It did not connect to me at that point in time that I just met the infected person about five days ago, being together in the same room. There was a chance that I was also infected. As of today, a couple other people who had come into contact with the person were themselves infected. No kidding. It confirmed there was an “outbreak” in my family (3 or more people, right?). Luckily, I only came into contact with them that one time.

    So the next day, I called my boss to request to work from home. During my lunch break, I went and tested for Covid at a local drug store since I don’t have one of those at home kits. Yes, I immediately ordered a few. My result came back negative (not detected/infected). I brushed up on the current CDC guidance. I will leave my opinion on this to myself but thankfully they had a calculator to determine whether one should be in isolation and for how many days.

    My big race is coming up, I have been looking forward to it for over a year. I do not want to be kept from it. My race weekend is on Friday the 13th. I know, what the freak! Will it be a full moon too? Luckily, nope. Well the race day is on Saturday morning 5/14, so I am good. Technically, I could drive there after midnight to avoid any bad luck, but ideally on the 13th, I should head to the camp.  The race starts at 4 AM. The pre-race meeting though is around 5 pm on Friday. Details, details.

    While I am cleared to be out of my house again, I am keeping every precaution. Stay away from crowds even from my mom. No, especially my family, until everyone is tested negative. Basically staying at home until the race time to lower the risk of getting infected. Be healthy.

    Happy Mother’s Day!

  • Day473 Impromptu race

    TL:DR; Ended up running in a nameless race overnight last weekend. The race was called 24-hr Adventure Trail Run by Athletic-Equation, but that is a generic name.

    My plan for the weekend was to go to the MMT race course to have one more practice after finishing the Easter Chocolate Bunny night run. But by Wednesday or was it Thursday morning I woke up and saw a post in my running group about a 24 hour race in my local area, with openings for last a minute signup, since there were a few spots made available. 24 hour would be a bit too much for me with this close to my A race (MMT) but they also had a night event for an 8 hour run and that was perfect for me to do.

    To me it was a no brainer to run it. The race was relatively inexpensive, and it was about the same as a tank of gas if I had driven out to the MMT. This race was in the city so, it saved me a trip to the mountain. They provided good aid stations as expected. I wanted to do a long run on the trail this weekend. Rather than me having to drive out to some godforsaken place and running by myself with zero supports, a race was a godsend. At least all the food and safety issues would be taken care of by them.

    A race that promised a night run was all I was looking for to get ready for the 100 mile race. This race was held at the Prince William Forest, where I failed to finish the Devil Dog 100K last December, so I knew the course should be tough enough. I felt this could give me training to the Devil Dog as well. I signed up immediately.

    On my race day, I was pretty busy. I had my usual Saturday morning run (16 miles ish), which I finished around 2 pm. I rested a bit until 4 pm and I got up to get ready for my race. Remember, it’s a night race but I wanted to be there at least an hour before the required time, 8:30, for the director’s briefing, plus I remembered parking being a bear when I did the Devil Dog there. I wanted some buffer room in case things go south. You never know in the DC area, because traffic could occur any time even in the middle of the night. 6:30 was the latest I would leave and still feel safe in making to there.

    My friend earlier in the week had asked if I was available to help him move a piano that day, so I promised to help. I asked if he could move up the time from 5 to 4. I don’t mind helping him. The moving project was relatively fast but the place we moved the piano to was about an hour away. It took us about 2.5 hours total. There were 5 of us, but two of the men were elderly in their 70s (my friend’s dad and his dad’s friend) and we did not want them to lift anything, especially a piano. The difficult part was getting the piano from the basement. The stairway was narrow. There was not much room to grab onto the piano except on either end. That thing weighs a ton (not literally) but it was too heavy for just my friend and me to lift, because we are not body builders. We couldn’t move it even with three people. We needed four. I think it must be around 200-300 pounds.

    Originally, I promised to help until 6 pm since I had to be at the race by around sun down. But seeing the lack of helps my friend had, I felt sorry for him. I knew the two old men while helpful were not able to lift. After we loaded the piano onto my friend’s van, I went with him to his house to unload it as well. The unloading process took only 15 minutes. It was pretty fast getting the piano inside his house. By then I was really pressed for time to get to the race site. I knew I would be late. It was already 7:30 and I was an hour later than planned.

    I never felt so rushed to get to a race. It was about an hour to get to the site. By the time I arrived, it was exactly 8:30 pm. However, there was no group briefing, so I was not technically late. Luckily, it was a low key event. I thought there were going to be hundreds of people, but most were already done and left. Parking was not an issue. The start location was the same as the Devil Dog at Happyland (camp #5) so I was familiar in getting there even after sunset. The 24 hour people started 13.5 hours earlier, in the morning. The 50K and 100K people already finished theirs. There maybe only 30 people on the course by the time I arrived. The 8 hour people already started too. Originally, the 8 hour people (the event I signed up for) were supposed to start at 9 pm. The race director gave me my bib number, pointed me to the course and said I could start whenever and run however I wanted. There was a prepared course, but the first few hundred yards or so were unmarked and it ran through the campsite. It would be obvious during the day which way to go, but at night everything was dark. It was going to be a “fun” run, since he knew I signed up to get training time and not for any awards or placement. Off I started. The time was 8:45 pm. I asked if I could skip the portion around road and cabins, he said sure if I want to. I was not going to be DQ. Of course, I didn’t do so, but that was how low key and chill vibe the event was. The director probably did not sleep since the day before and at this point it was just me running this, and who really cares if I followed the actual course. Later, I found out there were 8 of us doing the 8-hour run, but I never once saw them.

    I had a volunteer (Kevin) who wanted to do one loop with me. He was there since early in the morning doing parking lot duty and later served at an aid station. He had finished his shift. He has the same ultra running interests as I am. The director pointed to him saying he is doing what you are doing. He didn’t mean running in this race but about doing ultras in general. We got off well. He shared his race stories. He also injured his hamstring back in February and had a similar experience as I did, having literally pain in the butt and of not being able to train/run the last couple months. His next race is the Old Dominion 100, so he has one extra month than me to train. He showed me the course. He was well familiar with it since he did the 24 hr last year and he had run the Devil Dog 100k many times. I felt I met an angel. If I need any tips regarding the course, this guy knows every turn and bump. He ran at my pace too without complaining. He actually told me to go in front of him but I prefer following him since it was my first loop. I’m a pretty slow runner.

    We ran fast. We had our fastest lap time. After finishing the loop, he went home. I continued on. The night was quiet. We occasionally saw those who ran the 24 hour event. I believe I was the only one running on the course. The rest were just struggling through by walking. The 24 hour people were having a rough time since the day was hot (75-80 F) (or hotter than we normally used to for this time of year). Some had dropped earlier due to the heat. Those that remained were not in any better shape. The night was cooler around 50-60 F.

    I finished my 2nd lap by 12:30 am. It was much slower. Then the third lap by 2:30 and fourth by 4:15 am, I found my groove. My time was up by 5 am, so I did not plan to do a 5th lap. I felt pleased with a pretty strong run, considering I did 26 miles in 9 hours the previous week. Today, 25 miles in 7.5 hours was more than I hoped for. I found the trail was not as tough as I remembered, probably having trained on the MMT course, got me adjusted well to rocky trails. This local trail has become a childplay for me.

    Near the end of my last lap, I passed a runner who seemed to want to follow me, However, I was going too fast for her to keep up. I told her if she wants another lap and needed pacing I will be available at the aid station, which was also our starting and finish line.

    She (Anna) came in around 4:25 and decided to go for another lap. Most runners though already gave up of doing another lap since it was not likely they would make it back by 7:00 to have the lap counted. By then most have an idea how much time needed to finish a lap. Anna told me she has been running 2.5 hour a lap (a lap being 10K). It would be a close call to get her final lap in before 7 am since I could see at that point she was exhausted and would likely be much slower on this final lap.

    At this time, her pace was visibly deteriorating, but she was determined to go back out. I was willing to pace her. She asked if I think she can make it. I said I am her pacer and always believe in my runner (even if I don’t, I wouldn’t discourage them)! We did not spend too much time at the station. She just refilled her bottle and we went out immediately. Since I came in much earlier, I had time to change and ate up and be refreshed. I already changed into my good shoes and warm clothes. The temperature now was maybe around high 40s and dropping but it was cold without a jacket.

    In her struggle, we reached halfway by 5:45 am. It was not bad but not ideal either. The return leg would probably take an hour and fifteen minutes, and likely much longer because she was in pain. At the halfway point, she sat down on the trail. I thought it was done for her. The station manager laid out the options for her. If she wanted to quit, she could stop there and her miles would be counted up to that point. She was trying to clarify if she finished after 7 am would her lap be counted. They radioed in to the race director. Basically she has to finish before 7 for it to count. She was determined to finish. She turned to me pleading, to run (mostly to reaffirm her own conviction). It must have been so painful for her to go into a run since earlier we were only walking and she was struggling. She was counting on me to pace her. I told her, running is not an issue for me because I was still fresh (I felt I could do a good job). So we ran. At first, I was just fast hiking and she was running. Later her pace was too fast for me to be hiking and I had to go into a slow jog. She wanted me up in front. Usually one paces from behind (for trail races). So I tried to keep a pace that was slow enough for her but not too slow. Surprisingly it was easier now with fully lighted (pre-dawn). I could see the trail even without my headlamp. It was easy. Miles flew by. Anna was pretty good. She kept up all the way until the last mile where she needed more frequent walking break. She was able to transition back to a run time and again. We finished with 30 minutes to spare! She crossed the finish line at 6:30 am.

    No other people came in after her. A few went out after the race director informed them that they could get a half lap counted if they reach the halfway aid station before 7. Three or 4 people did. We saw them go out when we were close to the finish. Those were all her friends who came from Mexico to run in this race. She somehow inspired them to do a half lap. Not sure if she actually came from Mexico for this race or she is a resident here with diplomatic ties. It is not strange for our area to have people from all over the world.

    We had breakfast and an award ceremony in the mess hall. There might be only 10 of us out maybe 50 in the race. None of the 8 hr people stay. Many others had left already. I felt close to this small group of runners. I ran with them through the night. I was battling sleepiness and the good food was only putting me to sleep quicker. I slept in my car for a couple hours before driving home.

    This concluded my weekend. My new friend Kevin summarized for me when I first met him at the race. He said so you spent the morning running, the afternoon lifting weight and then still doing an all night run. Ya…this might seem like a lot, but as my 100 mile race is approaching, the body should be able to handle the load. It is reasonable for me to be able to do this. As for my hamstring, I think I am at 100% (recovered) now.

  • Day408 update

    Not much to update. My daily run is a bit better. My legs no longer feel heavy. However, I am still running very slowly. It is breathing problem now. You know, when you think you are out of breath, and have to stop running.

    It has been hard to run fast and far again. My fastest speed currently is around 11-12 min per mile. Most days were much slower (14-15). I used to run around 9-10 min per mile. Yes, I am slow. I remember 4 years ago, 8-9 min were normal.

    I feel like the vintage game Excitebike, if I push myself too fast, I would be ‘overheat’ and have to stop at the side of the road as penalty. I spent most of my run walking to “cool down”. I am not really overheat in the traditional sense, but I feel like my whole body screaming saying stop running. It is frustrating that most of my run is walking. I run every few steps (30 secs), and I would feel I couldn’t run any more and have to slow down to a walk. Then I feel good again and run a few more steps. It takes maybe 6 miles everyday to ‘warm up’ before I could run normally. Then it is a joy to be out.

    This is actually an improvement. I know I am getting back to normal. I am happy to be out there.

    I do wonder though, would it has been better if I take a month or two off before running again. I don’t know. I feel as soon as I get back out the better.

    Sleepwise, I finally reset my schedule. No longer do I go to bed at 8 pm. No longer do my body feel cold by night fall, which makes me want to go to bed.

    Yesterday evening was super warm, 50 F, but all my hands and feet were icy cold. I had on three layers, with a sweater. After a mile, I had to take all those off but the long sleeves.

    Saying this because I think something is wrong with my body. Originally I thought because I am hungry, so I was cold. But lately I started eating dinner at 4 pm, still I get cold around 5 pm.

    Anyway, the cold does not hamper me as it did during the first week back. I am in week 3 now.

    I want to put this somewhere. They say in a long race (50k or longer), to walk uphill and run downhill. I have been doing that. However, in a 100 mile, by doing only that, by the end of it, my muscle was so overused for running downhill. I started to hate every downhill. Need to balance, for those who are thinking doing long races.

    Misc. Also this should go somewhere, but I probably would not have an entire post on it. This week, I learned a late well respected preacher Ravi Zacharias, was found to live a double life (and would possibly have been charged for his sexual misconducts if he was still alive). I was late in learning about it. Most people already commented it on Feb 12, when the investigative report was released. It was a bombshell. It was not just an oopsie but was really bad because he did it over a long period and involved countless of victims and everyone around him was lied to. I then searched on Youtube for responses. I was surprised only mostly the younger crowd (people I never heard before) made some type of reactions. I am still processing it. I was hoping to hear from his peers or family. I guess his conducts were so horrible, there is nothing but condemnations and the older crowds rather kept their silence (there were couple of them now). Everyone was caught off guard because he hid it so well. My two-cent.

    How is the guy affected me? Not much. I listened to his talks before and he was a powerful speaker, but I never a follower of his stuff. It was never really my preference. Still it was a surprise how he set up the whole scheme around the world. Infamous. It is like something I would do – the big brain 😉

  • Day405

    I’m still savoring the run at the Rocky Raccoon. I was disoriented during the race and immediately afterward of putting together much coherent thoughts. Time flies.

    My sleep pattern is out of wack too. I did not get much sleep beforehand. There was no sleep during the race. And I slept a lot afterward when I finished (in the afternoon time). So after I got back to the east coast, for the past few days, I have been going to bed around 8 ish, and woke up a little past midnight. Usually I only need 4-5 hours of sleep. Then stayed awake for the rest of the night. It is out of wack.

    How is my body recovering? It has been better than if from a marathon. I felt slight sore but nothing major. I haven’t run for the past few days not because I couldn’t but because just trying to catch back up with life.

    Also going to bed early was in conflict with my normal night time running.

    Healthwise, I have been taking it easy. I know my body immune system is weaken after a long run so I let it recover on its own. I did not feel in top shape. At night after dark for the past few days, I just couldn’t stand the cold. Going to bed early help.

    There is the concern of catching Covid. I plan to get tested either at the end of this week or early next week. When you are on higher alert every little thing changed to your body spooks you. I don’t feel strong. My muscle aches; I felt cold; my throat kind of hurt; I had slight dizziness. Did I imagine it? Were these the effects from the run or am I getting sick?

    I have been staying low. No running for three days. Trying to find the new normal.

    One thing I found very perculiar during the run is my back hurt. Duh. No I mean my upper back – more like the shoulderblade areas, especially my right side. At first I thought because I run with the pack. Then I don’t have the pack on. I think my muscle there is weak. You can see some runners with their backs hunch over. I felt like that. It takes a lot of strength to keep the body upright. I definitely have to do something about that before the next race.

    What after this? I have to start training for the Laurel Highlands. I think it is harder than Rocky Raccoon because of the elevation. Rocky Raccoon has only 1000-2000 ft gain. Laurel Highlands, I am guessing 10000-20000 ft. Also the trail is not as forgiving as the Rocky Raccoon. I hiked on there and I know.

    oh, counting battle scars, I think from Rocky Raccoon, I had couple minor blisters, not worth mentioning. The strategy of switching shoes every 20 miles worked. My biggest “battle scar” I think is I might lose a toe nail. I kicked a rock or branch early in the race because a pair of shoes has very thin layer up front for toe protection. I think it is a gym/walking shoes. See, I am happy after this long race, I am still relatively well all around. I am more than pleased.

  • Day352 tired

    I am a bit under the weather, with dizziness and just lack of strength.

    I thought I had lyme disease again, but I went hiking and was fine.

    Last August, I had the similar thing and there was a hike called the Devil’s little stairs, and I couldn’t get up to it before fainting.

    This past Labor Day weekend, I attempted the Little Devil Stairs again, I got up on it fine without breaking a sweat. I was up on top before I even knew it and without a break. My team and I went on to hike five or six more miles in the surrounding trails before heading back to our car.

    But probably something is wrong with my body. It has been difficult running. I can only run about half a mile before getting tired. There is no more that natural pace where you could lock in and run forever. I used to be able to do that.

    Now a day, I walk on most of the runs I did. It takes a long time. A two hour half marathon becomes a three hour event. A marathon becomes 7-8 hour thing.

    Not sure what is going on. Have been wondering if I need a break.

    I took a break over the summer too. 6 weeks without running. It got worse instead of better.

    I checked my number though. The three previous years I only ran between 600-700 miles per year. This summer, I ran 1000 miles. I am attempting another 1000-1200 miles before the year ends. Numberwise, this is a lot of mileage.

  • Day344 A second attempt – about to start

    I am a few hours away from starting the run. As of right now I just woke up and still am very comfortable on my bed in the hotel near the airport. By the way, after having been of other city airport hotels, this is one of the best! It is comfortable and inexpensive and you don’t hear the take offs and landing or airplane flying over. How do they do it? I found out they originally were a Motel 6, but they renovated it and upgraded all around. It is on the level of Comfort Suites. It is part of the Quality Inn chain, but the quality I am getting is way higher than all the Quality Inns I stayed at. I just love the hotel and want to sleep in. I paid for four nights, but tonight I won’t be there!

    Ideally I should have started the run yesterday because it was cooler and the chance of encountering rain storms during the run was lower (30% chance only), but today and tomorrow, my chance of running into a storm is around 50%. They are leftovers from Cat 4 Laura that made landfall in the Texas/Lousiana region couple nights ago.

    However, I was not ready yesterday. I had not reviewed the map then and had not decided on the starting time. Since the starting time would determine the ending time, it needed to be chosen carefully.

    Last time, I started in the evening at 6 pm and was aiming to finish at 4 am two days later. I thought of doing so again and maybe moving up the starting time by a few hours.

    I woke up late and had company’s work to do. It was my day off but I didn’t finish those stuff on the day before my trip (computer issue kept me from doing them – it decided to run an update when I tried to do my work before my flight! My frustration level was through the roof). So I spent the morning doing my work. I was not done until 2 pm. I then went for lunch. I knew the run was not happening because I had not packed yet! I got everything laid out, but still did not have my runner pack in a final ready to go condition. 100 mile requires careful consideration of what to take a long.

    Then I decided to go to Walmart to get a watch (you know the cheap one that have a stop watch feature?) but as I got there, I forgot all about getting a watch but instead got a lot of stuff for dinner and food for the run and food to eat after the run! I brought $30 worth of junk food. I probably wouldn’t finish them all – 7 cans of spagetti, lot of fruit cups, oreo cookies, packs of juicy fruit candies, instant cup noodles, package tunas and more. The watch would let me calculate the interval (time of a shorter distance, say 10 or 20 miles) during the run because I don’t want to mess with my main watch since that will track the overall 100 mile distance. Not having a spare watch is not a problem. I could still do it in my head and with paper and pen, it just a lot burdensome.

    When I got back to the hotel, I separated the food that I will take along into 6 ziplock bags. The goal is to eat a bag for every 6 hours (6 bags for 36 hours). I counted up each bag to have around 850 calories. I have six of these. This is much better than my last attempt. Last time, the whole run I only carried about one bag calories of food and ended up only eating about 10% and the rest of my calories came from sugarly drinks and I felt it affected my performance. First not enough, so I was dying halfway. I remembered my heart was racing crazy from the energy drink yet I didn’t have the power to run, and I was drained. I was so scared that I didn’t want another Powerade. It was not fun when your heart was about to explode and the lung was collapsing. Breathing hurt that time. I hope to avoid that mistake.

    Because I will be carrying so much food (6 meals), I am bringing my big bookbag. They won’t all fit in the smaller pack. It is a daypack from my hiking trip. It is heavy. Very heavy. I don’t like running with such a heavy pack! But I need the food, unless I have someone to carry them for me. This is why I wish I have local support crew (aid stations). Otherwise, I could leave all the food/drinks with my crew and they just have to show up at a given interval and give me the food. Last time I was hoping the stores along the way would be my aid station. However, drinks were easy to come by but not food! They had candies but no real food. Real food were out of the way and I didn’t want to take a detour.

    I think the food I am bringing along will be enough. It still is less than what my body will consume though. Every 6 hours my body will be burning 2000 calories and I am giving back only at most 1000. I plan to buy muscle milk and yogurt along the way, they will add couple hundred of calories. No more sodas this time around. They have to be high caloric drinks. I know I will still shutdown after halfway, but at least I hope it will give me enough to press on.

    I checked the map afterward packing. I am not too worry. I wish still I had memorized the turns. We do what we have to do.

    As for start time. I’m moving it up real early to 9/9:30 AM with the aim of finishing at 7:30 pm on Sat night.

    That was the main reason I couldn’t set off yesterday. I was already behind the start time once I figured I wanted a morning start instead of an afternoon/evening start.

    Having an extra day, physically was a good thing. My poison ivy infection is getting better. My left leg is almost completely healed of the ivy reaction. My right leg started to get worse on my flight to Atlanta and yesterday the bumps (30+) started weeping/oozing, that is good, it means they will be healing soon. It was what I was concerned about that the blisters from the ivy will break during my run and the friction from repetitive foot moment will agitate the wounds and they would get infected. Now they broke while I am still at the hotel. I washed and cleaned them with the poison ivy specialty soap. I should be ready for the run. I believe they will dry out during the run.

    Only last concern is my cardio aerobic performance. It degraded a lot compare to last time. Those who have been following my blog know I was struggling with my runs. My feeling is I can only do 13 miles at most and probably drag it out to 26. I don’t know if I will even reach 50, much less get to 100. That is a realistic assessment. I know it is bad luck to envision failure even before starting.

    I do want to get to the 100. It is a long shot. Even when I was in my peak, that was very hard (in the realm of impossible) thing. Now I am four times worse. Only way to find out is go out and try. I am very nervous.

    food: My main secret to get through the run

  • Day305 recharged

    I felt a bit better after a day of rest. I didn’t want to take a break but I couldn’t squeeze any more out of my body. It just stopped performing.

    Last weekend was the lowest miles I have done since April. Every weekend I want to go out to put up 50-60 miles. The past weekend I only had 14 miles.

    On Sunday I didn’t want to run at all. I did want to but my body was not moving. I tried and after a mile couldn’t pick up any pace I came back home.

    Last night, it felt great to be back out running. I was in my strides much of the run. I felt tired after 13 miles but still I could pull myself together for the last three miles and made it home, that when I know I still have it in me. 16 ish mile is kind of short for a test.

    I have been eating meat like a vampire sucking blood. I would like red meat. Not getting enough from food might be the cause of my low energy. I haven’t had much meat due to higher prices, but I brought a pound of ground pork after my trip and totally devoured it during lunch…yike it was supposed to last for a week! But my run was great last night, that made me feel less guilty.

    The trip to Atlanta is on. I committed. I know I committed after signing up the race, but I have been on the fence on choosing the date to go. Ideally I like to go toward the end of the summer, but I also don’t like the heat. Even now, it is crazy hot down there. I picked the July 4 weekend. The flight is booked and hotel too. My two weeks indecisiveness costed me two hundred dollars more for the trip, because my flight has become more expensive — no it is very expensive. I could fly across the nation at that price; hate it, but I don’t have much time to watch the price with only couple weeks left. It would be too risky. Also I looked at the stops of many cheaper fares requiring a stop to Fort Worth, TX before continue on to Atlanta – that’s crazy. I want to go to Atlanta directly. I guess we don’t have a lot of short hops low budget airlines in the US as in Chile. Enough ranting.

    My map is on its way. I will soon study the turn by turn for the race. 34 hours of worth of turns is a lot to commit to memory. The next step after that is choosing the start time. I probably will choose the traditional 5 AM start. I have until 3 pm the next day to finish.

    Also I decided not to upgrade my watch. I would like a watch that can last more than 35 hours on normal gps, but there are not a lot of choices out there. The price tag is just heavy for me at this point. Watch, flight, hotel, my trip is over a grand. So I stick with my current garmin, which could last for around 12 hours with everything but gps turn off. I just have to bring a charger along and charge it midrun.

    Also I hope my body won’t fail on me like last weekend.

    Two more weeks to get my body together.

  • Day301 RnR

    I need some Rest and Recreation time. Couple nights (Monday) ago my body just refused to run.

    I had planned to run about 18-20 miles that evening. I was halfway through at mile 9 and I could feel it, my system shutted down. Usually I could run forever once I started running. You just lock yourself in a pace and the body does it thing and your mind roams and daydream and does it thing.

    But the Monday night run was hard. I told myself, let walk a bit. Actually I didn’t realize I was walking and my mind woke up and said body when did you started walking?

    So I decided to walk a bit. Run and Walk is a good strategy for a long run. I tried to restart running here and there but in the end each time I lasted for maybe a block or two. The last four miles I gave up completely. I walked all the way home, choosing the shortest path possible.

    There was the fear I couldn’t get home at all. When you know it has been easy to run 18-20 miles and now you are stuck at the last few miles and it felt like an eternity.

    In the past three miles was like half hour for me and in term of running time it is fast compare to 4-5 hours of my total running time. It should be like a blink of an eye.

    But my last three miles was a struggle. I was walking and thinking, this can’t happen to me. Will I have to call a uber to pick me up, being only three miles from home?

    The last time something like this was last summer when I had Lyme Desease. I went into the woods last weekend. I checked for ticks afterward. I hope it is not that. Last time though it took a while (over a month) for the symptoms to appear. I hope it is not that. I hoping it is just plain fatigue.

  • Day299 Last day

    Yay! Tomorrow we will begin a new chapter and we kick this crazy corona2020 in the bucket. Kidding. I think we will live with the new normal for a long time.

    Not anything spectacular to write about today except it is the last day for filler. I do have something but they are controversial and I don’t think it is ready for prime time. I watched some Chinese propaganda videos on youtube, how they were exluded from the international space station and another video on why people are missing out on the windfall in investing in Chinese companies. I had some thoughts on those, but I think it is controversial, so I will keep my thoughts to myself at least for now.

    But I found a post that is in my queue, that was written in the beginning of May, when I took on the challenge to virtually run across Tennessee. I wanted to know basically on how my body is handling the high mileage. So here a month in, I am taking a look again.

    I dare not boast too much about it. My body is recovering well every day! It is handling well. I am sore and they are the good sore of general fatique. I am easily tired and feel sleepy…usually very early in the evening. I want to sleep a lot. I guess it is a good thing for the body to recover.

    No significant injury. I battled with shin splint early on but so far they got much better. I don’t think I have what they call hiker legs yet, but it should be getting there. The balls of my heels are hurting a bit. Yes, I am wearing old pair of shoes and they are due for replacement. My heels are taking the pounding, and that can become a new injury, if I am not careful.

    Health check. I should get a real physical when the doctor office is open. I think the doctor is in but everyone is leary of coronavirus – at least still present in my area. My state has been claiming this and that metric is showing we are beating the virus but they always put a star next to the data saying excluding the northern virginia which is where I live. They don’t have a specific regional data for my place because it is splitted into so many “political” juridictions – Maryland, DC, Virginia (Fairfax and Arlington are virtually on top of each other), which made statistics hard to come by. I have been using Maryland data as proxy because they are so much closer to us.

    I have been at it running relatively high mileage for over a month, nothing too bad. I do take days off, but also want to maximize the running time. It is a delicate balance.

    It is hard to tell if I have overdone it, so we will see. Will check back next month. I hope to stay healthy and motivated for at least a month more and evaluate again.

    In long distance like this, I read most people drop off after a few weeks in. If I can tough it out for another month and be careful about it, the summer will be great. My secret ambition is to cross the US continent one of this days, so this is really a baby step toward that goal. One step at a time.