Less than 4 weeks!

     Well the first two races in my Leadville trifecta are done.  The Leadville Marathon was a great training run since we started at 10,200 ft and went up to 13,200 ft elevation. I didn't know how my body would react but I was fine until the calories just wouldn't go down and I struggled the last 10 miles but still finished a respectable 4:54. I went through the halfway point in 2:30 and was able to negative split the race to finish but thought the race could've been better. The Silver Rush 50 miler was scheduled 2 weeks later and I went into the race wanting to run PR at the 50 mile distance which would be a sub 8:57 time. I knew I was fit and ready to run. Since I started running ultras 8 years ago many things have changed in the ultrarunning community, one being the nutrition and mainly more "on the go" foods. The main one would be gels, if you have never ate one of these things please do and let me know what you think. To me they are hard to eat no matter what time of day but when your stomach feels like shit anyways then trying to force them down its a no go for me. So going into the Silver Rush 50 I went back to my old school nutrition which is drinking 1 bottle of Ensure every hour and eating at the aid stations like they are buffets. My father came out to crew for me and we drove around the day before finding all the crew points. I wrote out a plan of what I thought I needed at the 3 crew points which would keep enough calories in me to keep me rolling and boy did it. I felt good all day long from the climbs which had us going over 12,000 ft 6 times to the last 10 miles of downhill running which I did averaging sub 9 min miles. I finished with a PR of 8:35:05 which is a 23 min under my fastest 50 miler and this was at altitude ranging from 10,400 to 12,000 ft.  The run totaled 9,100 ft elevation gain and loss. I made my nutrition schedule out for the Leadville 100 miler and the old school nutrition remains. I have less then 4 weeks until the race and my confidence is higher than ever. I just need to get up to Leadville a few more times to run the course and be more familiar with when I can push and when I need to relax. It is crazy that a race I have been training for and thinking about since November of last year is less than a month away. I just want to run to my full potential and get the big buckle which is under 25 hours but since I ran 8:35 for 50 miles I feel I have a great chance to do so. I wrote out my game plan and decided a 21:45 finish would be my A goal and that is 13:00 min average. I have two more weeks of training then a nice two week taper and its go time. I can't wait,
Stephen