Last Saturday I finally ran a complete 20 miles. I also did it in less than 4 hours which I thought was fantastic considering I was alone and didn’t have anyone to pace me. The temperature was in the 60′s and it was overcast so it was great. My nutrition was dead on I think. I had five peices of Honey Stinger Chews (Pomegranate) every thirty minutes with about a half to one cup of water and then at the ten mile mark I had a Clif Shot espresso gel with double caffeine (100mg) and I think that helped carry me through the last ten miles. I did continue with the Honey Stinger chews and water for the last ten miles also at 30 minute increments.

Before the run I had a Trader Joe’s Multi-grain English Muffin with raw almond butter and some organic blueberry jam with my usual 2-3 cups cold French pressed Dunkin’ Donuts coffee(2 tbl half and half). I finished all of this almost two hours before the run. Post run I had my post workout shake modified from the recipe in book Paleo Diet for Athletes.

Steve’s Recovery Drink

• 18 oz orange Juice
• 6 oz Pom juice
• 5 tbl Glucose (Corn Sugar from CL Health Foods)
• 3 1/2 scoops Protein powder (any powder with 20g-25g protein per scoop)
• 1 tbl Ground Flax seed
• 1 tbl Chia Seeds
• 1/2 cup Mixed Frozen Berries (Costco)

Mix all the ingredients in a blender. Our blender isn’t able to hold it all at once so I usually break it down into 1/2 servings and mix it that way. I have two Shaker cups that can hold it all and I throw those in a cooler with some ice packs in a cooler.

The ice packs are useful for post run pains also. I usually put them on my thighs while I am driving home. Once I got home I took an ice bath for recovery of my legs. Just fill up the bathtub with the coldest water you can, hop in, and then dump a couple bags of ice in the water once you have acclimated to it. Fifteen minutes is the maximum amount of time that you can gain any therapeutic value from it so I hop out well before then. This really lowers your core temp also so you feel a bit of a chill afterwards. These are also great during hot summer days when you just want to stop sweating for a while.

I used both my Garmin 305xt and MapMyRun on my HTC Android phone to track the run. I trusted the Garmin for the mileage and heart-rate, and the phone for the time reminders for nutrition. MapMyRun was very off on the mileage tracking. Anywhere from 5-8 miles off. I listened to the Dick Dale station on Pandora for music. Kind of calm but some good beats to follow too. I ran the whole time at Moraine Hills State Park in McHenry, IL. They have three big loops where you can run each one twice and not go the same direction while getting in the distance you need. They are partially paved with crushed limestone where they aren’t. Beautiful scenery also and very little foot and bike traffic. Not to mention zero cars! No pollution! Now starts the taper and low mileage runs. I will try to post again pre-race to keep everyone up to date.