A forced taper for Chuckanut

Last week felt pretty good. I hit all of my runs and had a solid 16 miles Sunday on the trails with a good bit of climbing. This week was not quite as fruitful.

Monday: (6.1mi, 56:30, 9:15/min) I just wanted to get out for a recovery run after Sunday's miles. I gave the Cascadia 6's another try rather than the new MT101s, mainly because the trails were muddy after the rain last weekend. I took it easy and even avoided the hills in the Bridle Trails for the most part. My Piriformis felt better than I thought it would after Sunday's run. It was a good start to my taper period for Chuckanut.

Unfortunately I started getting sick on Tuesday. I went to the gym for some light cardio and to lift weights. I felt okay but I knew that a cold was coming on. I could feel it starting to tickle my throat Tuesday morning and by Tuesday night I was coughing and stuffy. I didn't run the rest of the week and I'm using the cold as an excuse to rest, take naps where I can, stay hydrated, and not over-eat. I think I can be over it by the time I line up in Bellingham next Saturday morning. As long as I'm not feeling much worse than I am today I should be able to get through the race before the time cutoffs with enough Sudafed. It's incredibly annoying to get another cold, I'm not sure if the kids are bringing it home from school or if the cleaning people at work are licking my keyboard at night.

I don't expect to get any running in next week but if I kick the cold soon I'll give it a try. Other than that I'll be driving up to Bellingham on Friday after work and facebooking / twittering my results when they're in.

I think realistic goals for the race based on my less-than-stellar training buildup are:

A: 5:59:59
B: 6:29:59
C: Finishing

I can't see doing much better than 6 hours based on the course and my health and training. I'm going to stick with Perpetuem slurry and Heed / CarboPro as my main fuel with a gel here and there if I need more than that. My stomach has been handling the Perpetuem really well lately. Also, now that I'm taking probiotics every night I haven't had the Gingerbread Man problem at all. Look for a write-up next week after the race.