The Evil Alphabet -- The Letter 'L'

If I were to assign an evil training thing to each letter of the alphabet, I would start like this:

A -- Atrophy
B -- Bursitis or Bunyan callous or Bonk
C -- Colitis
D -- Dehydration
E --

You get the idea. When I get to 'L,' there is a clear favorite. LACTIC ACID, and I am feeling it today!

I ran 20 to get ready for a few events coming up and decided to push it a bit. I started at the top of South Fork in Provo Canyon, ran seven miles to Nunn's Park on pavement, changed shoes and run up the trails to do about 13 of the Timp Trail marathon. My splits during the road run were good for me. In fact, I PR'd my 5k and 10k, got second in my 20k and half marathon. It is probably not a good idea to PR when you are supposed to be doing long miles. I think I remember Hal Higdon saying something about that. My splits for the first six were,

1. 8:43
2. 8:57
3. 7:48
4. 8:07
5. 9:42
6. 9:03

Back of the napkin calculation puts that at about an 8:40 pace or so which gets me to an under four hour marathon which would be great. 

It was the last 14 that put a hurt on me. I got home, took an ice bath and tried to replenish the 4000 + calories I burned. On that, I was craving pureed black beans with a little salsa and sour cream mixed in on a corn tortilla with some chunks of rotisserie chicken. Great post run fare. 

Yesterday I was having a hard time moving at all. Standing up from sitting in a church meeting for over an hour was torture. It is a little better today after going on a couple of walks yesterday. 

So what is the rule on training when lactic acid has not been flushed? I asked Brian Beckstead who just completed the Ultra Trail Mount Fuji, a 105 mile ultra race. Talk about lactic acid, right? Brian said, "if you are so sore you can't move without significant pain, don't train. If you are sore and stiff, go on an easy run on a fairly flat trail for a few miles. It will help flush the bad stuff."

So there you have it. I will do a short, easy run today and cross train tomorrow (mountain bike). This week will be a taper week, and next week will be another big miles week.