The Wild Oak Trail…a 27 mile loop with 8000 feet of climbing. My favorite trail to play on.
Scenes from a wet, cold, windy and fun January day.
Magical moss
Winter trail
Little Bald trailhead
Gorgeous sunset – our reward after a foggy, wet and windy day on trail
An early January trail run to Thornton Gap and Shenandoah National Park on the Appalachian Trail.
Snowy trail sunrise
Whipped cream snowdrifts
Winter creek
On the last day of 2013 I was lucky enough to run a favorite mountain trail, with someone I adore, and chase sunset through the mountains. A climb up Buck Hollow to Mary’s Rock with a breathtaking sunset, a champagne toast and a fun, dark descent back to the car to a delicious picnic of ahi tuna and veggies was a spectacular way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Here’s to a fabulous 2014 full of mountains, trails, miles, friends, laughter, adventure, love, happiness and possibility!
Sunset from Mary’s Rock
A 42 mile run in the Massanuttens with the VHTRC on a lovely late December day with temperatures in the 60’s…ahhh. Life is good.
“Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain tops are within reach.” -John Muir
Sunrise in Fort Valley
Early climb to Woodstock Tower
Super clear views as far as the eye could see
Gourmet aid station!
A lovely stretch of trail with many Massanutten rocks
Late afternoon views
The final push through the river trail at Veach Gap
The Virginia Happy Trails Running Club hosts the best Fat Ass events. The annual Magnus Gluteus Maximus 50km was another fabulous event. With a sprinkling of snow at the start and some icy rain at the finish, most of the day was just cold and cloudy. The trails were challenging with a snow and ice layer that turned into mud as the day went on. Aid stations were stocked with the best of ultra fuel – cheese puffs, M&Ms, holiday cookies and bourbon. The after-party at Hemlock was a rollicking good time. And as always, the best part of the day was playing with great friends on the trail. Cheers to another year of happy running in the VHTRC!
The obligatory “groupie” shot at the start
Icy rocks by the river
In the Do Loop
Aid stations in true VHTRC style
An annual Black Friday run – Vicki’s Death March is a VHTRC Fat Ass event – 25ish miles of the “best of” Shenandoah National Park. Starting at the Old Rag parking lot and continuing to White Oak Canyon, Hawksbill, Little Stony Man, Skyland, Corbin Cabin and Nicholson Hollow, and ending up back in the parking lot of Old Rag where post-run beverages and festivities wait! This year there was considerable ice and snow on the trail which prompted several of us to detour from Skyland taking the Old Rag Fire Road back to the parking lot to avoid ice on Corbin Cabin and Nicholson Hollow. We ended up with 22 miles of glorious trail running with friends on a cold winter day. Absolutely the best way to spend Black Friday.
White Oak Canyon
Overlook on the climb up White Oak Canyon
Upper falls – White Oak Canyon
Snowy trail
View from the AT on the way to Skyland
Rosaryville 50K is run on single track mountain bike trails in Maryland. It’s a 3 loop course that is fairly flat, not terribly technical (perfect for getting lazy and falling!), and extremely runnable. The Veteran’s Day race was much better weather-wise, with temps in the 40’s and 50’s as opposed to the over 100 degree temps of the July race. With the help of Tom and Hai – Sara and I both ran a 50K personal best time of 5:25. What a fun, fun day to run with friends.
Rosaryville State Park, Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Finishing with triple PRs – me, Sara and Hai. Thanks to Jon Valentine for this awesome picture!
It was a fabulous fall day to run 50++ miles with 9,000+ feet of climbing in the mountains – on a very tough course. Tight cut-off times made this a bit of a race against the clock, but I had a few minutes to take some photos and finish in 11:32. It was too gorgeous not to capture some of these great memories in photos. What a fun, fun day on trail. Enjoy!
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as the sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” – John Muir
Fabulous fall colors
The mountains were glowing with autumn colors.
A beautiful sunrise on the ridge.
The Lynchburg Reservoir sparkling in the autumn sunlight.
A patchwork quilt of fall colors.
“The mountains reserve their choice gifts for those who stand upon their summits.” Sir Francis Younghusband
The reward at the top of The Loop. Worth it all…
We went back out to The Wild Oak Trail this weekend because the trail had been calling my name for two weeks since I ran four loops of her awesomeness. I just couldn’t stay away. This has quickly become my favorite trail. It’s the perfect mix of challenging climbs, sweet single track, technical descents, pine needle loveliness, spectacular views, did I mention the challenging climbs?, runnable double track and meandering ridges. I have truly fallen in love with the Wild Oak Trail and she did not disappoint this weekend. With temperatures in the lower 20’s, it was a chilly sunrise start but the clear blue sky and endless views made the cold not feel bad at all. The loop is a little over 27 miles, but when one gets too excited that they have managed to stay on trail through the trickiest part to navigate, they just might miss their turn and get 5 bonus miles of ridge running. Oh well, it gave me a sunrise and a sunset on trail (YAY!) and a bit of a darkness run that was a fabulous way to spend a Saturday. Happy running indeed.
Sunrise while climbing Little Bald. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
Little Bald
Near the top of Little Bald
Blue skies, beautiful mountains
Just before the climb to Hankey Mountain
Hankey Mountain – how come the pictures don’t look NEARLY as steep as that climb is?!
Last March I did a Whole30 and I have stayed pretty strict Paleo since then – only reintroducing honey and alcohol occasionally. I had such amazing results and felt so incredibly good, it just wasn’t worth it to me to reintroduce any of the foods I got rid of during the Whole30. One of the biggest results I’ve seen is how the Paleo-diet and lifestyle has impacted my running, training and recovery. I’ve run 4 50Ks, a 70 miler, a 100K, a 50 miler, multiple back-to-back races and long training runs, and most recently a 109 mile race, all on a strict Paleo-diet. If you are curious about the science behind all of this, I strongly recommend reading It Starts With Food, The Paleo Diet and Paleo for Athletes. I won’t go into the science here, but what I will share here is what my nutrition looked like for the Hot TWOT – a 109 mile race with 32,000 feet of climbing that took me 43 hours to complete – and how it worked for me. We are all an experiment of one. This is what works for me and I hope it helps others who may be struggling with the nutrition piece of training, like I was before going Paleo.
As I mentioned, my diet is already strict Paleo. This means I eat grass-fed, pastured meats, seafood, eggs, lots of veggies (organic as much as possible), some fruit (again, organic) and a good amount of healthy fats (avocado, olives, nuts, coconut). I do not eat any grains, legumes, dairy, sugar (I read labels very carefully – sugar is hiding everywhere), or processed foods. I occasionally eat honey and drink alcohol but I did another Whole 30 starting on Labor Day, so I didn’t have any alcohol in the month (actually 5 weeks) leading up to the race. The week before the race I made sure to eat a lot of carb dense vegetables and fruits like spaghetti squash, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, bananas and zucchini – Paleo “carb-loading” you could say. I had some of these veggies at every meal in the week before the race. The morning of the race, about 2 1/2 hours before race start, I ate spinach, mushrooms and chicken sausage stir fry, 2 poached eggs on an avocado half and I had a banana about 15 minutes before the race started. I carefully chose my race day food based on what foods I knew were good fuel to sustain my energy, tasted good, had no sugar/dairy/grains/legumes and were easily portable or stored in a cooler. Since this was an unsupported race, I had to plan food that could be in my drop bags, cooler and car. It really wasn’t that hard to do.
During the race I ate the following. I’m really bad at remembering exact amounts, so I will just post my approximate intake. I also provided links, since some of these things can be tricky to find.
-sweet potato gu (my homemade concoction, stored in EZ Squeezees pouches, consisting of 1 cup sweet potato baby food, 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1/4 cup applesauce blended) (approx. 6 – 6 oz pouches)
-GoGo Squeeze fruit pouches (approx. 8)
-Ella’s Kitchen baby food (approx. 4)
-bananas (approx. 8)
-cashew butter (2 pouches)
-Trader Joe’s freeze dried bananas, strawberries and coconut flakes
-Applegate Farms chicken sausage (2 links)
-black olives
-sweet potatoes (3)
-chicken broth (with no sugar – very hard to find – the Imagine brand is the only one I’ve found, small containers will keep in dropbag and you can drink without heating – ideally your own bone broth would be best, but I wanted some to keep in dropbags so the vacuum sealed containers worked well)
-Key West Pink steamed shrimp (cooked beforehand, packed carefully in ice packs in lunch box cooler to keep cold)
-sweet potato chips
-grapes
-tomatoes/sweet peppers/cucumbers and Goddess dip
-V8 (really tasted good late in the race and has good sodium too)
-Epic meat bars (bison and turkey – 2)
-1 hamburger with an avocado (from Jack Brown’s in Harrisonburg, delivered warm by my mom – ahhhhmazing!)
-Kombucha (2 bottles)
-Tazo Awake iced tea (kept in my Hydro Flask bottle with ice)
I had strong, steady energy throughout the 43 hours of running and was hungry and able to eat easily. I stuck with the GoGoSqueeze, sweet potato gu and bananas/cashew butter for the first part of the race until about mile 27, and then added in other things as the race went on. I ate shrimp and olives at mile 93 and they were pure heaven – as was the hamburger after Loop 3 – and the Boulevard Wheat Beer – totally not Paleo – that I had at the finish! I didn’t have any nausea, stomach issues or other common intestinal issues that I’ve had before in a long run. This experience was similar to the other runs I’ve done fueling this way. As I’ve said before, we are all an experiment of one – and this is what truly works for me. In the days after the run I continued to eat carb dense veggies and plenty of protein. I ate when I was hungry (which was quite often in the days after the race!) and made sure to replenish my body. I felt almost 100% recovered body-wise by Tuesday – 3 days after the race finished at 3:30am Sunday – and was able to easily run 6 miles on trails. I was still really tired, but again, following a Paleo lifestyle has helped me see the value and importance of sleep. I took 2-3 hour naps for the five days after the race and went to bed early, making sure I had at least 8 hours of sleep. I listened to my body and gave it what it needed. As a result, my recovery was super fast and I felt completely recovered by the following weekend.
Paleo has worked for me in so many ways. It’s worth a try, especially if you’re struggling with nutrition in your running adventures. I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried this and if you have any other real food ideas to add to the list of food to fuel with. Happy running…and eating!
