It’s difficult to describe how much I enjoy true rest days. Waking up in the morning with the beautiful knowledge that I don’t have to put my running shoes on is like waking up to a snow day. Don’t misunderstand me, I do love running and I secretly love the grind, but gaining the free time back for even a day is like a huge relief.

My training plan allows two rest days a week but I work during one of them. And my job usually puts about 10,000 steps onto my Garmin as well as lifting 20 pound objects about 200 times a day. And over the past few weeks, there’s been travel or an event that has eaten up the majority of my rest days. So today, and the Thursday a week prior, with my schedule clear, I have been fully able to embrace the rest. Gen is out of town and I miss her a ton but it’s nice to have 100% control of my schedule… as well as the music/television :) I’m watching so much womens disc golf, she would be so bored.

Today has been everything I have wanted it to be so far. With a focus on carb loading in preparation for tomorrow’s 50k attempt, I indulged on a delightful breakfast this morning that consisted of a homemade Monte Cristo, iced coffee, a hash brown, some maple sausages, scrambled eggs with Trader Joes Crunchy Chili Onion, and a chocolate croissant. I usually just have to cram some overnight oats into my body before a run early in the morning so getting to enjoy this brekky out on my front porch was such a delight.

*Move over Sunny Point, there’s a new best brunch spot in town*

I then took the dog on a short walk around North Asheville, admiring the beautiful large homes lining Kimberly Ave. Luckily, he is an old man and doesn’t need much distance on such a hot day before he starts slowing down so I got to save my legs a little bit. We then popped in to Jus Runnin’, my favorite local running store, to buy a few packets of the electrolyte filled LMNT, which I have recently become addicted to, and to reload on Birthday Cake GUs.

Then it was home to start meal prepping for the week. I decided to try a sushi bowl recipe this time and I’m hoping it tastes as amazing as the presentation looks. I then made myself a little Trader Joes Quinoa Cowboy burger and a watermelon salad for lunch to celebrate the summer time season.

*Veggie burger and watermelon salad paired with a “healthy” Dr. Pepper knock off from the Ninja Thirsti… ahh summertime!*

*Sushi bowl meal prep. There’s some beets and cukes also shoved in there.* *Recipe can be found here.*

And now I’m currently hanging on the porch, typing this out while watching Riggs nap. The rest of the evening will consist of drinking an LMNT and eating the last of my Greek style grain bowl. I also am going to map out my 50k attempt tomorrow, which I am feeling very ready to knock out. This will be the biggest run until the 50 miler in August so I am excited to treat it as a mini race and really push myself to try to make the 13 min/mile pace. It’s a great time to put my nutrition and fluid consumption plan to the test.

What is my plan, you ask? Well, it’s a little informal. It’s mostly that I try to consume a GU every 45 minutes, mostly sticking to the non caffeinated ones unless I feel I need the extra energy boost. I drink coffee daily and enjoy the occasionally soft drink and am not negatively impacted by caffeine so I see it as a safe tool to use during a run.

As for food intake, the general advice is to consume about 200-300 calories per hour, which I struggle with. A GU is 100 calories so I try to supplement the gap with a variety of things. During a race, I force myself to eat something substantial at every aid station, whether it be a quesadilla, pancake, turkey/bean/pb&j roll up, etc. If those items aren’t available, I still eat whatever they have: candy, chips, pickles, etc. I am lucky that I haven’t had an adverse reaction to any of these items so the goal is to just eat SOMETHING. For a training run, I bring candy, such as sour patch kids or TJ’s Scandinavian Swimmers. I also bring dried mandarin orange slices as well as Honey Stingers and PB&J bars from Trader Joes. I carry as much as I can and often swing by my car for a reload about halfway through.

As for fluid intake, I don’t utilize a time based approach. Instead, I drink when I’m thirsty and bump that up a bit when I can feel dehydration symptoms start to kick in. This is very much dependent on weather and elevation gain. Through experience, on a hot day, I know I tend to consume both my 500mL bottle of water and my 500mL bottle of Tailwind by mile 15 at the latest.

I’ve done a lot of research on all of this but it ends up just bringing me anxiety. Instead, I have just tested all these different kinds of foods and liquid consumption during my training runs over the years and found that this seems to work for me.

I got a little off topic from my rest day routine but I guess preparing for this aspect of the run is also something I do during my day off. But back to relaxing and enjoying my evening. I’m in the middle of a good book so I’m debating about setting up the hammock on a shady spot in the yard and chilling. Well, once I get this route planned, of course.

Rest Day Activities and Let’s Talk About Food - 10 weeks to go

The 50 miler that probably feels like this blog is totally ignoring