Mt Wilson healing run; metabolic efficiency

I got up at 5am this morning to run up Mt. Wilson.  I started up the Sam Merrill trail before dawn and hiked to Echo Mtn, then ran up to the Mt Lowe railway and on up to the summit via Markham Saddle.  I ran down the Toll Road until I hit 13 miles on my gps, then turned around and ran back up to the summit for water and ran down. Total, 25.94 miles, with about 5100 ft of climb (Garmin Connect says 9000 ft and change but that is not possible).

I kept the pace easy as my glutes were still sore from a heavy hip circuit I did on Wednesday.  That, and the fact that the whole set of hip stabilizers on the right is still pretty tender after having been inconsistent with my hip exercise routine over the last few months.  I ended the run feeling better than I started it.  It was a "healing run".

Another promising result is that I was not hungry through the whole run despite having  run on an empty stomach.  I had two bottles with about 4 oz of fruit juice in each diluted with water, about 150 calories total;  the other bottles I drank were either water or water with fizzy tabs.  Ive noticed that early in my training each season I have to eat a lot on my runs but as I get in shape, the need to eat goes away-  I attribute this to a transition to primarily fat-burning, i.e., increased metabolic efficiency.