R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I think the overarching reason my run yesterday failed was because I was far to casual about going for a very long run. But it's a good exercise to break it down into specifics as this is a learning process, getting into the longer stuff. I had planned this run for a few days but wasn't treating it with the respect it deserved. The weather was heating up, which should have prompted me to make sure I was well hydrated from the outset(well I suppose this is standard for any run), and I should have left early in the morning, I left at 10 AM. Granted it was only around 18 degrees or so, but this is plenty hot for me. I have been keeping up with Alex's Sweat Science blog so I have been trying to subscribe to the idea that the detriment of running in the heat is mostly in your head, so I kept telling myself this as I was running. The problem is the lack of acclimatization, not just from the summer finally starting but from having a foot of black hair on my head this summer as well! The other problem with heat regulation was the fact that I was wearing a shirt, where I would normally go shirtless. The reason for the shirt was because I didn't trust that my backpack wouldn't wear away my skin, I just didn't want to take the chance, so again I was warmer than I am used to.


The other aspect I did not give enough respect to was my body's recovery from work. Over the long weekend I worked 4 night shifts in a row which made my sleep patterns far from normal(particularly with the sunny weather) and took a lot more out of me than I thought. I didn't feel very good from the beginning of the run but expected to improve as things progressed. So in retrospect I should have scheduled the run after another day of rest/normal sleeping patterns, or at the very least paid closer attention to my nutrition since working over-night also wreaks havoc on that.


Those were the two major factors contributing to my abortion of the run after 2 hours and bussing back into the city from Port Moody. Fortunately I brought a change of clothes which mitigated the discomfort of the people around me. Although there ware a few stinky men on there whose smell was probably attributed to me. On a positive note, I ran some new trail on the bottom of Burnaby mountain and found the Trans-Canada Trail link-up to the Inlet Trail to be some pretty decent rolling single track, despite partially skirting the industry along the shore. I have since mapped out a more solid route for the rest of the run and plan to take another crack at this ~45mi loop out to Buntzen/Diez Vistas.


In other news, the fueling experiments continue. I had picked up some E-Load, E-disc electrolyte tablets to try out a few days ago. But once I got them home I compared the Sodium and Potassium levels to that of the FruitSource 'plus Veggie,' fruit leather bars I had picked up and discovered the fruit bar already contains two tabs worth of those elements in each bar! BUT as you would expect, these bars are considerably more dense than the ones without the veggie(which don't have near the amount of Sodium and Potassium).  SO, they appear to be a good source of these elements but after having one I was having issues with burping up my stomach contents.....so perhaps a little less water, or just stick with the non-veggie, and try the E-discs. Incidentally the 'plus Veggie,' is singular for a reason, its literally just Carrot added. The journey continues.