My Saturday and Sunday this week were total opposites. Saturday was very busy and Sunday I did next to nothing. I woke up on Saturday morning fairly early to fuel myself properly for the 22 to 24 mile run I would be doing a couple of hours later. Normally I have toast and jam but recently I have been eating PowerBars mainly because our toaster broke and it’s a pain to grill the toast in the oven. I also have a cupboard full of PowerBar stuff so I need to get through them sometime so the toaster breaking has given me such an opportunity. On the longer days of training, I get through a bottle of some sort of sports drink (usually PowerBar Endurance) along with my coffee. I always know if I am hydrated enough if once I start to run, I need to pee. We usually stop 10 minutes in anyway to relieve ourselves so I'm never too uncomfortable. We met at Woody Mountain Road for the run and put our bottles and gels in Greg's bicycle basket (he's rigged a big basket with bottle holders on the back of his bike so we can just grab the drinks as we need on the run. I felt pretty good once we started as we were going nice and easy and it was good weather outside. Greg was having a tougher time than us as the road had got very bumpy over the past week and that didn't make for an easy cycle. The group split up pretty quickly with Brett, Jordan and myself a little bit in front so Greg was cycling between groups to give them all fluids. Jordan turned around at an hour and Brett and I continued to the 10 mile mark. We had run fairly easily out to the point (66 minutes) so we picked it up on the way back a little which felt good. I had a gel strapped to my bottle but I wasn't sure about taking it as it was caffeinated and I wanted to take a nap once I got back but in the end I decided to wait for the hill and until I was out of breath to take it down so I could practice swallowing it down when I am working hard. Of course I split it right down the side again and lost half of it but I got a couple of mouthfuls and swigged it down with my drink. My hands were really sticky so I ended up running most of the way back open handed as it was annoying when my fingers would stick when I made a fist. We got back to the start in 62 minutes (2.08 for 20 miles) and then I continued on a 5 km road loop around the Gore offices. This brought me to 23.5 miles for the morning and I called it a day. Instead of doing the usual drills, strides and stretches, I had to jump straight into the car and head back to the house as Julie was taking me to my birthday helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. I got out of the car and my hip had already stiffened up from how bumpy the road was. I was hoping I could ease it out in the shower and not be limping all day. I got out of the shower to find Julie had made me a huge spinach omelette, which filled me up for the morning.
We drove out to the canyon and arrived with plenty of time at the heliport. Julie gets travel sickness so she bought a dramamine to help with that and then we climbed into the helicopter. I think I got the worst seat on the helicopter as I was facing backwards and my legs really crammed up. Julie was really lucky and got the front seat beside the pilot. It was all judged on weight where you sit so I should have tried to lose a few pounds to get a better seat! The ride was amazing. I only got a little squeamish when we got to the edge of the canyon as the helicopter started to sway with either a temperature change or an updraft. I was fine for the rest of the ride and it wouldn't have mattered anyway as I would have been too distracted with how amazing the ride was. We flew over to the North Rim, where there was controlled burn going on, and then around a bunch of peaks and then back onto the track we flew into the canyon on. We had such a good time and decided to stop by McDonald's for an ice cream and then headed back to Flagstaff. My hip was feeling really bad but I knew it was just really tight so it wasn't going to lead to anything if I stretched it out. We got back and headed to church with Julie's family and then rushed home so Julie could make a bean dip as we were going to our friends house to hang out.
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