What do I do with all these calories?

At the beginning of 2013, I joined the Quicksilver Running Club and their Ultra Racing Team and convinced Jill to do the same.  The Quicksilver team is very competitive in the USA Track and Field Pacific Association Ultra Running Grand Prix, and I figured I would run as many of those races as I could:

http://www.pausatf.org/data/2013/mutsched13.html

This is a pretty aggressive schedule, especially for a newb like me.  April and May have some big distances packed pretty tightly together.  There certainly is a chance that my Ruth Anderson experience was due at least in part to the fact that I had run my first fifty-miler only a couple of weeks prior.  That thought makes running Ohlone the weekend after Quicksilver even more intimidating, but no point worrying about that now.  I just need to be smart and careful.  Anyway...

Obviously, this is my first year running like this.  Obviously, this is my first season racing competitively.  I say obviously because not many posts ago I explained that I just started doing races and ultras last Summer.  Well, so far, the most difficult thing about the tightly packed schedule is what to do with all these calories between races.  It may become avoiding injury, but so far it is not feeling fat and out-of-shape while tapering/recovering between races.  I worked my tail off getting into marathon shape and beyond.  But what happens when the recovery from one race, like AR50, runs right into the taper of the next, like RA?  Or what the heck am I going to do the one week between Quicksilver 50M and Ohlone 50K?

The week before and after races I skip a workout or two and easily justify ingesting more and denser calories.  Right now, that is covering pretty much all of April and May.  I can see it happening already in August.  I could easily see it happening some more in the Fall.  Thus the question, what do I do with all these extra calories?

So far, I am happy to report that my weight is hanging in there in that sweet spot from 158 to 163.  We can debate whether or not I should edge closer to 150, as I think maybe I should, but not now.  Nonetheless, there is still considerable anxiety about all the skipped workouts, even if they are to recover, and the extra calories -- fewer out and at the same time more in.  Today, in addition to it being a million dollar day in South San Jose (and assuredly Quicksilver Park), I just want to run for fun and because Jeremy can join us (and I want to show him New Almaden Trail and the park).  Considering the last post, however, today may make a better day off.  Then again, even though I may burn three or even five thousand calories during a big race, there is no replacing Jill and my weekly runs for mental and physical fitness.

And there is the food.  My diet is usually pretty solid.  My weakness has gone from ice cream to frozen yogurt and is properly in moderation.  Mostly.  Loading or replacing race fuel is just too compelling of an excuse to miss, and I seldom do.  It has been used to justify lots of extra frozen yogurt and french fries and desserts.  I guess the punchline is really that I am still in the sweet spot bodyweight wise.  But no.  The punchline is really that I should still be eating clean and practicing good habits.  So all this justified workout skipping and dessert not-skipping is not healthy.  Some is.  Totally.  And some celebratory meals are too, and fit conveniently with the loading or replacing race fuel methodology.  As such, some of the anxiety is warranted.

I wonder what the elites do?  I should ask my teammates, and my superfreaky friends like Coach Coady.  I have access to really cool coaches through Silicon Valley Triathlon Club.  I will ask them too.  I am guessing that I should just eat like normal, only slightly more if doing back-to-backs.  Wow.  What a boring post.  Sometimes when I think aloud (I really prefer outloud, but it apparently is not a word.), it can be pretty entertaining.  This is not one of those times.  My apologies, but this had been bothering me a lot lately.  It might bring me some good suggestions, so it will be worth it to me -- at your expense.