Group Practice #12
10 miles on the schedule
Start time: 6:00 AM

We gave our team some serious hill practice this week… hitting up Red Rock Canyon for 10 miles up hills!  But before we got to that we had a little costume contest… thus the reason people are wearing weird stuff in that picture up there.

The first time Team Challenge Las Vegas did the Red Rock loop as when they were training for the Las Vegas Half Marathon in 2009.  Since the Red Rock training is kind of a “special event” training (meaning we only hit that spot once during our training cycle) and that training fell at Halloween, a costume contest was instituted.  Then that tradition has carried through to the summer training, only we call it the “Independence from IBD” costume contest… and most of the costumes revolve around toilets and patriotic stuff.  Nobody ever said we weren’t a creative crew!

We also had a brief discussion from a Master Nutrition Therapist (past Team Challenge participant) about inflammation.  She brought samples of Topricin for the team.  Topricin is a topical anti-inflammatory full of natural ingredients.

The team stripped off any costumes they were wearing and we set out.  Last Napa season when we did this route, it was super hot.  And last season for Vegas it hailed on us.  But this year, it was just about perfect.  Clear skies, nice breeze to help keep us cool and we never got above 85 degrees while out there.

Remembering some of the troubles our team had last year in the heat on this course, I played the role of coach and course mom… packing all kinds of stuff. I wore a SpiBelt and a Nathan hydration belt around my middle.  I had tissues, glucose tabs, Lanacane anti-chafe gel, endurolytes, spare bottle of water, band-aids… and I didn’t need any of it out there.  So I guess that’s the way to make sure you are all safe, carry everything you could possibly need so you don’t need it!

Everybody did really well out there.  Most of the team was tired, but I don’t think any of them felt knock-down beat, they fueled and hydrated themselves in an appropriate manner.  And now they get a step-back week!