Race Week 1/28/13

Well this is the big week of the Uwharrie 40 miler.  The plan was to run Tues. and Wed. and then take of Thurs. and Fri.
1/29/13 - Ran my normal 6 mile loop. 
My legs really didn't feel good so I decided to take the entire week off leading up to the race.  I stretched and used the "stick" during the week and made sure I stayed hydrated and got adequate sleep in the hopes this would pay off with "fresh" legs on Saturday. 
2/2/13 - Race morning was 18 degrees.  It was Gina and I, the Adcocks, and Dru Sexton that represented Mountain Junkies in the 40 miler.  We got to the shuttle parking area at around 6:15, they bused us to the start at 6:30, and then it was a matter of getting everything together, droping our drop bags, and then staying warm until the start. 
     Except for a tenth of a mile at the start, the course is all trail.  It goes up and down, up and down, forever, over creeks, over rock after rock, and then more up and down until you turn around and to it all again.  It doesn't seem like that hard of a course but these two years of racing it I'm constantly looking at my watch and wondering why it isn't showing a faster pace.  This year the conditions were good but there were a lot of trees to jump and climb over from the recent storms. 
     I hit the turnaround in 10th or 11th place and over the last 20 miles I gradually caught a couple people to end up in 8th at 7:14:22, just one place and 8 minutes faster than last year. 
     On one side I was ecstatic to finish this race in the top 10 without any real trouble during the 7+ hours of running while staying cramp free, but on the other I feel like I am in much better shape than last year, wasn't dealing with an ankle issue, and remembered my handheld bottle this year.  All of which should have had me at a much faster time.  So I'm trying to figure out what it was;  3 ultras in 2 months, not much time off between, something else, or a combination of all these reasons. 
     So Sunday, afterwards and now days later I'm in a funk with no real desire to run, my legs feel beat up, and I think all of this is a great reason to take a break to recover, get my legs back and hopefully look forward to my next run.  I try to be a "listen to your body" kind of guy and up until this point it was saying, go, go, go, and go faster.  Now it's saying take a break, get on your bike, and give your body and mind a break. 
Total for the week; 46.4 miles of running