Vella Shpringa!

C- 10 miles

Post-running in downpour.  Despite the champion pose,
rain and thunderstorms did cause me to  cut back on my mileage this week

My workday runs this week were fine, albeit shorter than I had intended (see above).  My ten miler today was a bit miserable.  The weather was only in the high seventies, and I ran a lovely course that went around both the mall and tidal basin.  However, I was drenched in sweat about 6 miles, and I just wasn't finding any speed.  In retrospect, I think I should have eaten more before heading out, though today was probably just a random, "off" running day for me.  I felt fine when I stopped, and I hardly feel sore at all now.

I've been reading Scott Jurek's Eat & Run book about his ultrarunning racing career.  I'll start by saying that yes, he is an ultrarunner, so yes, the limits that he pushes himself to are completely crazy.  Having stated the obvious, I still think it's a fascinating book with some interesting ideas.

Jurek is a vegan.  Whether you agree with veganism or not, it is interesting how he explores the connection between his diet and running ability, and it's interesting to read how he's almost more focused on his diet than running.

The best part of the book is simply reading how someone can mentally push themselves to such limits.  I still can't imagine running the BadWater Ultramarathon, or even wanting to, but it is fun to learn what type of person would want to run it, and how they'd go about training for it (let alone winning it!).

I just so happened to look up the Western States 100 today because I was reading Jurek's book and today is raceday!  I've definitely had fun checking in on the Twitter feed covering the event, and I'd love to watch and/or volunteer at one of these events some day.

Also-

I've found another race for the future that I hope to talk D into running someday-The Bird-in-Hand Half Marathon.  The race is in September in PA, so I don't foresee us running it this year.  However, some day I think it'd be wonderful to run with the Amish and learn a little more about the running Amish "Vella Shpringa" attitude (roughly translated "let's run" attitude.)

Runner's World ran a short article about the race and running Amish here.