Return of the Back to Back Weekend

I got in a good 30 miles of running this weekend. Hot, steamy, sticky running with good friends.

Saturday morning I met Steve, Clea and Pancake for 12 miles on the greenbelt. I think I'm finally acclimatizing to the humidity because it didn't affect me quite so much. I am just resigned to finishing up runs looking like I've just gotten out of the shower.

Then this morning I had a 2-part run planned. For part 1 I got up super early to do 10 miles of hills around Far West/Ladera Norte. It's a hard course, full of huge hills, but a great workout - it's basically 10 miles of hill repeats. "I knew I would probably pay for it later, but what the hell" I got there a little late and the guys had already left, which turned out to be a great excuse to push myself to catch them. I knew I would probably pay for it later, but what the hell. It took me 7 miles, but I managed to catch them going up Mountainclimb. I said some quick hellos, but by then I was feeling really good so I told them I was going to keep going and took off (I was in a groove, running well, and needed to get downtown for run part 2).

I finished the 10 miles right at 1:30, which is a good 10 minutes faster than I've ever run that route before. Of course, I was also soaked to the skin with all the high humidity. I jumped in the car and headed downtown to meet up with Steve and Clea for part 2 of this morning's run. Turned out to be perfect timing as I got down to Town Lake right at 7am.

We did 8 miles around the Scenic Dr loop, and I started to feel the effects of the earlier hills - I was a lot quieter than usual because I retreated into my head, and by the end of the run I was just about hanging on. Huge thanks to Clea and Steve for slowing down for me, and sorry I wasn't very talkative. It was a tough workout this morning, but one I really needed.

I don't generally use any gels or shot bloks during a training run because I want to train my body to more efficiently use its own resources (plus I get a much bigger hit from using them during races), but I think I need some extra calories during these hot summer runs. A banana or even some animal crackers between runs would have been great - some solid food - but I only had a V8 juice with me (which is nonetheless an incredibly potent ultrarunning weapon). The 10 mile hill loop is a great backbone for my Cactus Rose training, so I'm going to hit it again after my trail run tomorrow evening.

And finally, Pulp were one of my favorite bands of the mid-1990s Britpop era. It's pretty cool to see what their former frontman Jarvis Cocker is up to these days, even if he does now look a little like Charlie Manson.