A Tale of Two Eights.

Saturday late we went to Cuevas.  Last week I was hoping for 60 and found myself on track, hitting the mile 42 point at the end of my second run Saturday.  All I needed was 18 more Sunday...

When I woke up, I found myself less than inspired to run.  I mustered a couple of times, but something (which I will relate soon) made me feel a bit weird about taking off for a three hour run in Cuevas.

Lunch rolled around and we all ate, and finally I told Nataly, "I'm going to feel bad whether I go for a run or I don't." To which she replied, "Go run."

Deneb was asleep, I had a bit more than an hour...

I went out 4 miles and back the same for 8.  I saw some folks on the road, 3 French guys who were walking to the "Bella Vista" and one of the dudes who helped harvest potatoes in Cuevas last December.  I spoke briefly with all of them, and informed the French guys that their "Bella Vista" was 5 kilometers out (it was actually more like 6, but...).  This was at 3 something in the afternoon and to get to the "Bella Vista" and back to the campground at Cuevas was 10+ miles.  They did have packs and presumably tents so the rain that came in force soon after I left them probably wasn't too big a deal.

Anyway.  I only had time for 6 miles on Sunday, but ran 8.  I ran them pretty hard, and have paid for it.  Brutal delayed onset muscle soreness took me out of action yesterday, which had me considering a second day off today.  Seems it was a good thing I didn't actually try for the 18 I'd planned.  Fortunately, as today wore on I felt more and more like going for a run even though I am still quite sore.

Deneb has started daycare.  His first day was yesterday.  Loved it.  Loved it again today.  He's not sure how to interact with the other kids, but just having them around, playing, seems to get him jazzed.  It's messed with his schedule.  He's been sleeping almost until 8:30 in the morning and now we're asking him to get up at 6:45.  It's a brutal transition for me.

Whatever, I prefer earlier wake ups...

So back to today's run.  It was weird.  Laps of the back yard.  Done them before, but today I kept feeling like I should just keep going.  Ended up running for an hour and 10 minutes, just over 8 miles by my GPS.

There's a neighbor kid.  If he sees me, he asks if he can come over.  It's gotten quite annoying.  Not quite Glenn Close, Michael Douglas annoying, but well downright annoying.

Today I realized I could use that to my advantage, and before I started my run I unlocked the gate, set out some stuff for playing in the sand  pit and then set out trotting in circles.

On my second lap, The Question Was Presented.  I said, "La Reja esta abierta."

A couple more laps and I opened the gate for Franco.  Who quickly went off to play with the dogs and Deneb.  What seemed like some kind of sad, "Where's my Dad?" constant prodding has evolved itself  an ideal situation.  My son is playing happily with an older friend, and I can keep an eye on them.  I look forward to having him over some more.  Maybe he'll run a few laps with me (he did today)...

The Challenge of Balance

So, I’m starting to get a bit nervous about my training. 

Why? I think it very important to keep a balance at home and try to make my running “invisible” to my wife and son.  I typically head out for my run when my son is down for his afternoon nap.  When Nataly is home, she usually goes down for a nap with Deneb so my run ends up being pretty unobtrusive. 

Now though, my miles are starting to build and the training is going to stop being invisible.  One thing which is particularly troublesome is that where I live, it’s mostly flat.  Where I work, I’ve got hills, but I usually only go up there on weekends and that’s the only time Nataly has off.  There are weeks where I go up there for a couple of days without Nataly and Deneb, but I really dislike making that a regular occurrence.  I’m afraid that for me to finish Leadville, I’m going to have to do that.  The question is how do I make it as invisible as possible.

Tough one, to be continued…

In other notes, this past weekend I knocked out a run Sunday morning on the Road to Bella Vista and got some decent shots. 

I ran an 8 mile, modified out and back.  By that I mean:

• I ran 3.25 miles away from the cabin, 
• turned around and ran 1 mile back in the direction I came from, 
• turned around and ran .75 miles back in the direction I was heading when I started.  
• Finally, I turned around one last time and went back home. 

The benefit of that is that I climbed the back side (more challenging) of the first hill on the Road to Bella Vista 1.75 times.  Ended up with 1500 feet of climbing in my 8 mile jaunt. 

The pictures are in chronological order. 

Not 1 mile into the run…

Rocky road, not ideal for Vibram 5 Fingers or MT10s.  It was along here where I suffered the strain and eventual stress fracture that limited my performance in the Blues Cruise 50k.

Pretty Green Mountains…

Framed by Trees…

Awesome – pictures really don’t do justice…

Cool Fresh Water – this is the first waterfall in Cuevas.  I met Nataly and Deneb here for a swim and cool down…

Thanks for reading, and I’ll be thinking about how to change that elevation…
J

Testing for Lactate Threshold in Cuevas

Saturday and Sunday were spent in the hills.  They were also the last 2 days of a recovery week for me. This week featured 27 miles of easy running, with the exception of the final workout (being easy that is).

I usually try and schedule a test at the end of each recovery week to confirm the Heart Rate Zones I'm using to guide my training.  That said, this was the first time in quite a while that I've actually undertaken the protocol.  The methodology is relatively simple, but the implementation is anything but.

I've written about this before, but I think it bears repeating.  I try to follow the training philosophies laid out by Joe Friel in his many Training Bible books and more recently his book Total Heart Rate Training.  Back when I was a cyclist, I used the Cyclist's Training Bible to great success.  I can claim a sub 55 minute 40 kilometer time trial and an overall win in a 70 mile road race thanks to the rapid improvements I made while training using his methods.

Today, I'm not as concerned with going fast, nor am I really all that interested in a rigorous structure to my training, but I still believe that proper use of Heart Rate as a guide today is essential to being able to get out and train again tomorrow.

The key to heart rate training is establishing the correct zones.  Joe advocates zones based not on maximum heart rate, rather he suggests using lactate threshold.  What is "lactate threshold"?  From Joe's Blog:

As your body uses carbohydrate to create energy it creates a by-product inside the working muscle cells called lactic acid. As the intensity of a workout increases this liquid begins to seep out of the muscle cell into the surrounding space and blood stream. In so doing it changes its composition by giving off hydrogen ions. It’s now called lactate.

The hydrogen ions interfere with the function of the muscles while lactic acid is actually the fuel muscles need to keep going.

The free hydrogen ions lower the pH of your blood and cause the burning sensation felt during intense exercise.  If the intensity is increased, they will eventually force you to stop.  Lactate threshold then is the point where the decrease in pH is tolerable, and the body is able to neutralize the ions about as fast as they are being produced.  Joe says that a well trained athlete can maintain this level of effort for about an hour before becoming exhausted.

Why base training zones on Lactate Threshold instead of Maximum Heart Rate?  Everyone feels the same kind of crappy at their lactate threshold whether their pace at lactate threshold corresponds to a 9 minute mile or to  a 4 minute 50 second one.

After that bit of dissertation, perhaps you can see where I'm going with my workout.  Saturday I set out thinking I'd get in about 5 miles.  Joe's methodology for a Lactate Threshold test is simply a 30 minute long time trial: run as hard as you can for 30 minutes, press the lap button 10 minutes into the effort and the average heart rate for the final 20 minutes of the time trial represents your Lactate Threshold.

I warmed up by running a lap of the trails in Cuevas.  There we've got 1.2 miles of trail with a couple of moderately challenging hills.  I set out thinking that the day was not good for this test and really wondered how it would go.  By the end of my warm up, I was feeling no more confident about what was about to go down.  I ran the warm up in 13 minutes and 2 seconds.

I left the grounds and headed toward Samaipata.  The road up to El Rancho is really pretty flat and therefore ideal for this kind of test.  I increased my effort to where I was simultaneously comfortable and uncomfortable.  At the end of 10 minutes I punched my lap button: I'd gone 1.5 miles and my average heart rate was 172 with a max (coming less than 30 seconds before the end of the lap) of 177.

I kept going for another 5 minutes toward El Rancho and was really starting to suffer.  I kept looking at my watch, "Is it time to turn around yet?" Then once I made the turn, "How much longer is it until I can stop?" Really questioned whether I'd be able to finish out the effort, but somehow I did.

I was 20 seconds per mile slower on this 20 minute lap - I went out too hard, but I was ended up with an average heart rate of 178 for the lap - precisely the number I've been using for the last 6 months (the last time I really laid down an official test).

Anyway.  It was tremendous to have the hills of Dissertation Ridge looking down on me while I questioned my sanity: they actually provided just enough distraction to keep me going.  Last thought in a long post:  while it's been some time since I've actually executed this precise protocol, I have gone out and run a couple of fast 4 mile loops on the last Saturday of a recovery week.  I never broke 7 minutes per mile.  During this test I ran 4.5something miles in 30 minutes (6:45/mile): Happy.

Thanks for reading and consider that blood's normal pH is actually slightly basic.
J

Ooof. Wondering how Tomorrow is going to Feel.

Pretty well rocked after my last two runs.  I made the jaunt up to Cuevas Thursday in the late morning. 
We’re having some work done on the main rental cabin.  It’s not hugely off-putting, but while the work is in progress, we can’t really rent the cabin.  It turns out that there are a number of long weekends and a couple of major holidays on the way (Carnival and Mother’s Day) - more than one person wants to spend the night up here.

This weekend represents a long weekend and Nataly rented the cabin we have been using as our base of operations for 3 nights.  That meant I had to get our stuff out of Cabin 2 and into the cabin where the work is ongoing, Cabin 1.  Not a great deal of work, but it had to happen by the end of the day Thursday. 

Once I moved us, I made a couple of peanut butter sandwiches, choked them down, and prepped for my run. 

Regarding the sandwiches…I bought some bread at the supermarket and will never do that again.  It was stale and barely suitable for making croutons.  Yuck.  Make the time to make your own bread, Jay.  Here's the 33% WW Multigrain Nut Bread I made a couple weeks ago...

Thursday’s run once again took me out the Road to Bella Vista.  I set out thinking initially I’d just give the hill a decent effort and cruise for the rest of the outing and that’s just what I did until I got to the 3 mile mark of my 8 mile trot.  There I saw a couple of familiar faces, waved, smiled and looked at my watch and realized I was pretty well flying. 

The 3 mile mark on the road to Bella Vista signifies the start of a mile (plus) long flatter stretch which cuts along a stream channel.  There are several minor crossings to be negotiated, but it’s a really good, fun stretch of track. I ran the mile to my turn around in just over 8 minutes. 

I got to the turn in 35 minutes, maybe a bit under.  I knew I only had 1 mile of climbing left, 1 mile flat, and 2 miles of descending left.  I decided to try for a big negative split and increased my effort for mile 5.  I was actually pretty disappointed when the lap flashed and showed me 1 second slower than I was for the preceding one.  Oh well, I still had those 2 miles of descending.

The road gains a solid 500-600 feet in elevation over the next mile and there are stretches which force me to hike.  They’re short, but this mile ended up being the slowest of my run by more than a minute. 

I made that time back in the first 3 quarters of a mile of the descent back to Cuevas.  At this point, I was running as hard downhill as anytime since my last Imogene Pass Run (I’ll be back in 2014, Imogene).  My last 2 mile splits were 6:53 and 7:03.  That last mile includes a vicious little climb of about 150 feet vertical in a quarter mile, otherwise I may well have been under 6 minutes for that last mile.

This turned out to be a huge PR on the course.  I averaged under 8:30/mile and until now, I haven’t broken 8:50/mile on any length jaunt on the out and back to Bella Vista.  Needless to say, I’m happy with the effort.

Friday’s run was affected by Thursday’s.  I headed out and my legs felt like they had given a solid PR effort the day before.  I stopped a couple of times to chat with the Gatekeeper and Hugo, as well as to try and call Nataly.  As a result, my first mile splits include conversation, but I wasn’t thinking about setting any kind of land speed records on this run. 

I was actually looking forward to taking it easy and snapping some photos.  I was heading out the Road to Palermo.  I haven’t gone that direction since August of last year when the road was a horrible slick mud disaster.  Despite that, I remember it being beautiful. 

About a half mile into the climb, the vistas open up and the mountains pose for you…

Many roads in Bolivia really are tracks at best.  Cars get beat to hell here.
The red dirt, when wet, is as slick as wet soap.  My first “run” on this road was unfortunately under those conditions.  I’d probably have been back sooner were it not for the muck.
My turn around featured a beautiful soccer field and basketball court.  I ran 90 minutes of Futbol and hooped it up for another hour before actually going back.  (um…no.)
Wouldn’t to suck to have this view out of your bedroom window.
My running partners for Friday’s effort, literally jackasses.  One even turned its butt to me and kicked.  Jackass…

Anyway.  After 8 hard miles on Thursday, and 14 difficult miles on Friday.  Saturday is going to be slow.
Thanks for reading and if your running partner shows you their butt, watch out for a good swift kick…
Jay

A long silence.

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  Cuevas was fantastically busy over the holiday weeks and we as a family really needed to spend time up there.

Then, I wanted to make some measurable progress on the visitcuevas.com website, so I spent some time up there alone and without the interruption of a 2.5 year old gymnast leaping on my back every time I sit down.  I was able to get some stuff done.  It still needs some design work and content needs to be created for a couple of pages so I may spend another day or two up there this coming week to try to finish up, perhaps going up Thursday.

There have been a couple of quite notable things in the last couple of weeks.  I've been logging my two longest runs for the week on back to back days.  This is pretty standard operating procedure for folks training for ultra distance events, but it's new to me.  As far as the running muscles go, I haven't had any huge complaints, but I'm also not logging huge miles.  As far as the rest of the body goes, well...

Last week my long runs were 7 (Wednesday) and 10 (Thursday) miles.  I did them in the middle of the day in La Guardia on hot sunny days.  Hot means 97 degrees and by sunny I mean:

I snapped that photo at mile 5 of the 7 mile run on Wednesday.  At the end of that run, I weighed 85.7 Kilos (a loss of 1.8 kilos).  The next day I went out for 10 miles in similar conditions.  Again I dropped about 2 kilos during my run.

I got a headache.

The headache was so bad, in fact, I couldn't sleep.  It stuck with me throughout the day Friday.  I drank lots of water and even added salt to my bottle, but the pain behind my eyes wouldn't go away.  Acetaminophen helped, sending the headache to a more distant place, but it didn't eliminate the problem by any stretch of the imagination.  I spent a lot of time lying on my bed and in general being grumpy.

Sorry Deneb.

Sorry Nataly.

Needless to say, Friday turned into a day off.  I needed it, because when I awoke on Saturday I still had the headache.  It had eased off, but I was no where near a happy camper.  With the help of the Tylenol, I did get out for my run that day, but it was slow and rather uninspired.

I finally got back to normal on Monday, up in Cuevas.  It was cooler and I think I finally got back on top of my hydration and electrolytes.  Somehow through all of this, I've stayed on top of my workouts.  I have yet to miss a scheduled run, and this week I'll be able to offer Nataly the choice of my running days off.  Which is better for her, us and Deneb: Saturday or Sunday?

That's nice.

Anyway, since last I wrote, I've logged something like 99 miles and climbed something like 9000 feet.  Not a bad 3 weeks.  The vast majority of those climbing feet have come on the road to Bella Vista.  This coming week, I think I'll do my long run on the road to Palermo.  I've only hit that once and I was really turned off by the mud, but obviously it's not muddy all of the time.  Not sure why I've never been back...

Thanks for reading and keep your electrolytes up.
jay

Incomplete Week in Review.

Got one more run on tap for this week.  I'll get to that when Deneb is down for his nap this afternoon.  Going to let him have a long one because tonight will go late.  Somewhere, someone is roasting a whole pig for the Ascarrunz Family Christmas.

Anyway.  Somehow I've managed to stay on top of my workouts this week.  There was a brief moment of "despair" as I thought I'd miss a workout on Wednesday thanks to Christmas shopping, dilly-dallying, and eyeglasses, but I doubled up on Thursday and managed to log the miles.

I'm not a big fan of making up workouts in that fashion - I think it tends to lead to injury.  Especially if one hasn't built up to the required mileage and toward the end of my second run on Thursday, I was feeling it in my Achilles tendons.  An almost burning sensation which I've never experienced before.

The same sensation resurfaced yesterday during my short recovery run.  Not psyched about that at all, but I was able to make the pain go away yesterday by focusing on high turnover rate and lifting up rather than pushing off. Going to have to spend more time doing form drills.

The highlight (and lowlight) of the week has to be Monday and Tuesday in Cuevas.  In my previous post I mentioned that I stayed in Cuevas.  I actually wrote that post Monday morning in Cuevas before Hugo and I went out to collect some bench making material...

We set out around 10:30 or 11.  Hugo with a chainsaw over his shoulder and me with an axe, oil, gasoline, DSLR and Jackson.  We hiked up above the second waterfall at Cuevas, took a left and quickly reached the property boundary.  After another quarter mile or so we got to the location where a tree was already felled, deposited our bench making supplies and continued onward.

Hugo wanted to get out and visit with the mountains.  We ended up walking the better part of 5 miles with a fair number of ups and downs.  The highlight of our hike was the pool at the bottom of a tiny waterfall which must have been 400 feet high.  The water came down from above and hit a tree making a sound just like rain. Beautiful.

We eventually made our way back to the chainsaw and tools and Hugo cut the tree trunk to fashion 3 long benches.  Wizard with a chainsaw he, but the chainsaw decided that Monday was a good day to die and it stopped working about 80% of the way finished.  That was that and so we headed back to the cabins.

Tuesday Hugo found some help (who had another chainsaw) and went back to finish up the job from yesterday.  When they left I wasn't quite ready and I took off about 30 minutes behind them.

Somewhere along the way I took a wrong turn and found myself above where they were working.  I cut through the brush, heading to where I could hear the sound of the chainsaw and pissed off a nest of bees.  Suddenly I was crashing through the forest, and breathlessly telling Hugo in my worst Spanish, "Arbeja, Arbeja!" which locally translates to: "Peas, Peas!" (Simply adding an R causes all kind of confusion)...

Now there were 4 of us crashing through the woods (Jackson included - he thought it great fun!).  Eventually the bees settled down and I'd been stung on the order of 20 times, putting an end to my day and sending me to the pharmacy for some antihistamine.

I wasn't entirely sure what kind of bee had hit me and having ancient history of allergy to wasps, I had to be careful not to die.  I was pretty confident that I wouldn't have problems because I was pulling stingers out of my head. But I have never been stung that many times before and Hugo was saying that these bees weren't honey bees so we decided the best course of action would be to head back to Santa Cruz.

So much for the week in review.

Thanks for reading and the pictures below are pretty much in temporal order from our hike Monday.
J

Cuevas–Back in the Hills

The training plan I’ve set up for Leadville grants a day off from running each week, which I usually schedule for Sunday.  Sunday is a day when Nataly typically isn’t working and we often find ourselves splashing in the water at the bottom of the first waterfall at Cuevas.  That gets followed by a couple hour drive in the car and relaxation at home.

This week however I stayed in Cuevas to help Hugo cut down a couple of trees which will become some new benches for the park.   That meant Saturday was a more convenient day off and I went running Sunday evening after Nataly and folks headed home.

My run was just a hard, quick effort from the gate at Cuevas up to the first high point on the road to Bella Vista – total relief 650 feet.  That doesn’t seem like much, but there are a number of small climbs and descents along the way which get pretty steep.  Here's the GPS.

Today (Monday), I’m feeling the effects of 8 weeks off from running in the hills.  Soreness in the hamstrings and quads, and a touch of gimpiness in my left knee.  The run yesterday was my first real running effort in the new Brooks Pure Grit shoe which I bought back in October after injuring my foot, as well. 

I’m not entirely sure what to think of them.  They’re much more shoe than I’ve run in in quite some time.  All of my training for the Blues Cruise was done in Vibram 5 Fingers or NB Minimus Trail.  The Grit represents a step up in terms of cushioning and protection from my last year of running, while still maintaining the offset of the Minimus. 

The Good: I ran with greater confidence on the descents yesterday because I wasn’t afraid of small rocks on the road.  The Bad: That also meant I was landing more heavily on my heels – and I noticed my feet slipping forward and back in the shoe somewhat and possible hotspots developing under my heels.

In my two Imogene Pass Runs, I’ve developed giant blisters on both of my heels.  I ran those races in Brooks Cascadias.  Those blisters made for interesting races the following weeks as well.  My first marathon – the Boulder Marathon 2009 – was colored by the giant blisters on my feet, and I lost 10-20 places when both of my blisters blew on the final descent to the ski resort in the Steamboat 50 in 2010.  I chose to walk it in rather than arrive at the finish a bloody mess unable to appreciate the RD and all of his volunteers. 

One problem I have with all running shoes is that a size 13.5 is impossible to find.  I either have to wear a shoe which is half a size too big or a shoe a half a size too small. 

My sense from my initial trials of the Grit is that it is perhaps slightly longer than the Cascadia at the same size.  Maybe, then, a size 13 will fit me.  I suppose the other thing I could do is to cut a hole in the toe of the shoe like Ed McCaffery used to in his football cleats, but I’ve never been a huge fan of “modding” my shoes…

I wonder if I shouldn’t make my own pair of huaraches.  It would seem to be one of the best solutions for me.  A correctly sized sandal would provide protection from the hazards of the trail, and ignore the idiosyncrasies of my own special brand of foot.  It seems silly I haven’t tried them yet – that’s for sure.

Thanks for reading, and yes, after my run on Sunday I did jump in that pool...
Jay

Quick Update

Those are regular sized apples.

I haven't posted in a while.

I've had a bit of a daunting post hanging over my keyboard for a while and I haven't mustered the courage to get on with it.  It has to do with potatoes and Cuevas.  We harvested a couple weeks ago and that was almost as cool and rewarding an experience as the Steamboat 50.  Hopefully I can get around to writing something about it within the next couple of weeks.  In the meantime...

I'm back to regular training.  I'd say the potato harvest marked my official return to regular workouts.  I wore my NB Minimus shoes for that and lugged an uncountable number of 75 lb bags of potatoes out of the field between Monday and Tuesday 2 weeks ago.  My fingers still hurt, but my feet are fine.  There was some complaining from my right foot on Monday, but Tuesday it didn't bother me at all.  If I had to guess, I hiked 10+miles on Monday and 25 more on Tuesday half of those miles with a bag of potatoes slung over my right shoulder.

I took the remainder of that week off, and returned to regular running workouts last week.  6 days in a row I went out and ran the same 4 mile loop.  I alternated days between clockwise and counter-clockwise.  While the loop stayed the same, I varied my effort such that my easiest day took almost 36 minutes to do the loop while my hardest I went under 28:30.  I hope to break 28 minutes this week, but I'll be more tired - we'll see.

My goals now are to build back to regular medium to long distance runs 6 days a week - Sunday is going to always be a day off (marital maintenance).  I am tentatively putting an ultra marathon on my calendar in either April or May.  Something to keep me moving forward - an intermediate goal on my way to my major goal of the Leadville 100.

Nataly was indeed PO'd by my suggestion of the Trail Festival in Fruita, but I hope she changes her mind.  We'll see.

Plan B (and not a terribly bad one at that) is a race I discovered while researching the global versions of The North Face Endurance Challenge(s).  Turns out that TNF has put on an ultra in Salta, Argentina each of the last 2 years.  For some reason, Nataly's more amenable to me taking on an ultra in a country where I need a whole new visa... A number of different distances, but if it comes to it (and the race is on) I'll register for the 80k.

I'm going to tack 3 more miles into my running this week and add a day of official interval training.  That will fall on my medium long day.  This week that means tomorrow.  I'll be doing 6x400 at max effort (whatever that is) with 90 second walking recovery breaks.  I'll repeat the hard effort of last Saturday too.  Friday will be my long day (6 miles-hehe)...

Anyway, thanks for reading and enjoy the snow (or sun wherever you are)...
J

P.S.
Homey's running again too!  Friday last week and today...
Good Dog.
j

Recovery Week

Coming into zero hour.  The Blues Cruise is something like 10 days away and I am feeling as ready as I can be.

On Tuesday I got out for my last long run before the race.  It ended up being 15.5 miles and took 2 hours 28 minutes.  I did it without food and drink and took an long break in the first mile to try and help some poor bastard who was having car trouble.  That first mile took nearly 20 minutes.  I posted the run on Garmin Connect (been doing that with all my GPS files recently).  Once again I ran the rollers out toward Bella Vista.

I've said it before, but I really love that road for training.  In the 15.5 miles I logged, there's 2,250 feet of climbing in 4 discrete chunks.  There are stretches where I have to power hike. That's something which I've never really worked on, but I hear people saying it's an important tool to keep in the proverbial drawer.

Anyway.  I really gave a solid effort.  A race quality effort, I thiiink, less the water and food.

I don't really know the Blues Cruise elevation profile, but what I've seen doesn't scare me as much as the one above.  It's got a couple of hills which gain a couple hundred feet in a short distance. Those I expect will require power hiking, but the rest looks runnable.  We'll see, but right now I'm convincing myself that going sub 4:30 is entirely doable.

Ok, that said.  One consequence of running Tuesday without food and water was that it left me trashed.  I got back to Cuevas and immediately had to run off to Samaipata to pay a bill: the bus was leaving and I had to be on it.  I grabbed a couple of cookies and filled a water bottle and off we went.

I put up a big calorie deficit on Tuesday and really felt it yesterday.  Tried working in the yard moving a sand pile, but I had no energy.  Ended up spending much of the day going back and forth from the computer to playing with Deneb.

Speaking of my little star.  He's discovered Kung Fu thanks to the movie Kung Fu Panda.  Would it surprise you that as far as I'm concerned, that's all good?  He's started working on his horse stance.  He says, "Hor Tance!"  Ahhh. Proud Father here.  Did some frog jumps yesterday too.  My garden will feature some Plum Blossom Posts for us to work on balance...

Thanks for reading, and if you learn the secret, perhaps you too can become the dragon warrior.

Two Solid Efforts and a Day Off

So, this weekend the plan was to run for one hour 45 minutes Friday, three hours Saturday, and another hour 45 on Sunday, in total logging 42 miles.  Well I modified the plan a bit after I saw some red streaking when I took my post run pee.

First the runs workouts (given my recent problems with GI distress "workouts" is a better term, no problems with the gut this weekend):

Friday (link to Garmin Connect).  Went out and immediately noticed I was feeling good.  One of the tenets of many training philosophies is that the closer you get to your targeted race, the more racelike your training efforts need to be.  Considering my general sense of well being, I decided to work the run more like a race.  I pushed it harder than I normally go on the hills and tried to flow on the descents.  I ended up with a pacing PR on the Bella Vista course.

Friday I went 11.94 miles with 1650 feet of elevation gain in 1 hour 41 minutes, VFF.  

Saturday (link to Garmin Connect), I was feeling it in my quads a bit, but I still got out, albeit it a bit later than I would have wanted.  The road to Samaipata climbs steadily for 10 miles - initially it's quite gradual but eventually it gets pretty steep.  I wanted to keep my pace as high as possible on the way out so that I could coast on my return.

One key thing to note re:This Run, I didn't bring any food along.  I ate a peanut butter sandwich before I left, but nothing during the workout itself.  Additionally, I had my CamelBack strapped on and filled with water only.  I had zero calories during my run.  I think that shows up in the final 5 miles of the workout.

Anyway the steeper downhill sections I was able to coast pretty well, but once it flattened out, I started wanting resting breaks.  I took my first extended drink and walk break around mile 15.  Prior to that I stopped for a giant trailer hauling something for Natural Gas production (I think).  There was simply no way to share the road with that monster.  I have no idea how it managed to navigate some parts of the road between Cuevas and Samaipata without disaster, but there it was...

From the start of the run I was sweating profusely.  That's odd because I seem to have gotten used to running in the heat here and haven't really sweated alot on many of my runs recently.  This time however, I was simply soaked in sweat.  I had an awesome salt ring around my crotch and my shirt was so wet that when I took it off and hung it, it left a puddle of sweat on the floor 3 inches in diameter.

I did drink all of my water, but I would absolutely have been served to have some salt tablets along and some food.  That's fine and I ain't dead, so...

Saturday I went 20.05 miles in 3 hours and 15 mintues with 2050 feet of climbing, Minimus.

This brings me to my post run tinkle.  Pee streaked with red.  Given that I had not taken anything other than water, I couldn't blame this on my body rejecting food coloring.  In the past, I've had some fantastically dark colored pee during my runs, most notably last year on an epic self supported, solo 26 mile loop in the Indian Peaks.  I should get something down about that run some day - anyone with an interest in trail running and access to the Indian Peaks should absolutely do it.

That time, I had nearly black urine and I blamed it on the food coloring in my ClifBloks which I was eating for the first time.  The second time I had extraordinarily dark pee was during the Steamboat 50 (I think), another time where I consumed a large number of ClifBloks.  I've googled dark pee and ClifBloks, with no results, but I assumed there was something special about me and the food coloring in the Bloks and left it at that.  Each time I've had this problem, within 12 hours my pee was back to normal so I haven't really worried about it assuming that the food coloring was out of my system.

That said, I've been sufficiently disturbed by the nature of my pee during from those two events that I did end up googling "Blood+Urine+Running".  There's lots of good stuff out there; here's a link to UltRunR.  Essentially the articles suggest that if all returns to normal after a period of inactivity, you were most likely dehydrated and your bladder essentially got bruised or chafed:  SWEET!  Long story short, even though I now know that my food coloring hypothesis can be effectively ruled out, I'm not going to change much about the way I run except pay much closer attention to the way I hydrate.

Anyway, given the shock in the toilet, I decided that going out for even an easy 11 miles on Sunday wouldn't be in my best interest.  I'll get out today instead (scheduled rest day) after having a bunch of water...

Thanks for reading, and perhaps we've got to put a PG13 rating to this post.
Jay

Vein in the top of the foot

I've been able to get out running the last couple of days, albeit gingerly.

Wednesday I knocked out 9 miles in my Minimus trail shoes, though toward the end of the run I was wanting more shoe and yesterday I tacked on 7 more in my trusty old Cascadias.

Last night I noticed that I once again could distinguish the tracing of a vein across the top of my foot.  That of course means that the inflammation is going down.  It's still not gone (need an entire network of veins bulging up there), but it's getting better. The pain is easing off too.

All this is good.  This afternoon, I'll run 11 miles in Cuevas.  Not sure where, I expect the roads are muddy as there has been a fair bit of rain the last couple of days, but I really want to log 50k between today and tomorrow and then again between tomorrow and Sunday.  That'll essentially cap my "training" for the Blues Cruise and I'll really ramp up the healing process going into the race.

Gear wise, I'll go with my Vibrams today, Minimus tomorrow, and decide between them for Sunday's run.

Thanks for reading, and until Monday then...
J

Five Finger Marathon and More.

Beautiful tree covered in blue flowers
between Cuevas and Samaipata

This past week and weekend were pretty big for me.  My aforementioned change of racing schedule made it so I wanted a fitness checkpoint.  I set out the week with the goal of logging 2 hours running per day, but after registering for the Blues Cruise I decided that I'd switch my runs up a bit and go long Saturday and not so long on Wednesday and Sunday.

I ended up averaging almost 2 hours running per day last week even though I had an unscheduled day off on Thursday.  Unfortunately, Thursday I spent 4 hours in a bus.  First it had a flat.  Then we got to a section of the road to Cuevas which was closed as they try to get a bridge finished before the rainy season comes.  By the time the bus arrived in Cuevas it was getting dark and my back and knees were hurting so bad all I wanted to do was lie down.

Whining aside, the good stuff came during my run on Saturday.  I ran out and back from Cuevas to Samaipata (link on Garmin Connect).  I was hoping to end up with around 4 hours running on Saturday and 25 miles, but my watch time had me at just under 4:30 and as I was pulling back through the gate to the waterfalls, I knew I was only three tenths of a mile short of a full marathon.  If you were on a training run and had .3 miles left for a full marathon, would you stop or run for 3 more minutes?

Saturday's run told me alot of things.  First and foremost:  I can run a marathon in Vibram Five Fingers.  I debated my footwear before heading out for a while, but came down on the side of, "I don't expect to get blisters on the descent back from Samaipata if I wear my Bikilas."  So, I left the Minimus Trail shoes in the cabin.

I seem to have the eating thing down pretty well too since I never really bonked.  I took the last of my tech food and had a gel or half a pack of ClifBloks every 20 minutes.  This seemed to work pretty well, but toward the mid-point of the return I was really wanting a crapper.  Not sure if that was menu choices from the day before, the long descent out of Samaipata, or the half liter of Coke I drank outside of La Estrellita as I took a few minutes in the shade.

Whatever the case, lower GI distress is something that has really slowed me down on some recent runs.  Though were a toilet or secluded knoll to present themselves, the distress would be released in short order.  I'm not a huge fan of dropping trou' right next to a road, and will avoid it at just about any cost.  The cost on this run was a fair number of walking breaks where I may not have needed them.  Oh well.  Hopefully the Blues Cruise has ready access to facilities.

As far as how I feel after logging a full marathon in Vibram 5Fingers, I'm in remarkably good shape.  I seem to have suffered some soft tissue damage in the top of my left foot which made me decide to run yesterday in my old trustworthy Cascadia's and has me taking today off.  Depending how I feel, tomorrow I'll put the Cascadia's on again for my run.  Other than that, I'm not the least sore in muscle or joint and could run another marathon today without too much trouble.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the flowers.
Jay

"Running" above the Falls (this time with a bit of video).

Last week I went up to Cuevas on Thursday.  There's a bus I take which goes by my house in La Guardia around 1 PM.  It's really quite civilized a way to get up there.  I think that the cost of the round trip is actually less than the cost of driving (one person at any rate).

During the bus ride, I listened to some very interesting interviews I downloaded from Ultra Runner Podcast.  An interview with Hal Koerner, a very long one with nutritionist Sunny Blende, another with Goeff Roes - cool resource for sure...

Whatever the case, I got up to the cabins around 3pm.  Wilma and I dealt with some money issues, and then I went "running".  I think I got out around 4:30.

I've been having trouble staying motivated recently (see my last two posts), so this time I plugged myself into the tunes and that really helped.

The trail to the third waterfall has a bit of climbing, but the real hills hit after the third waterfall.

I wandered around above this place a bit trying to find a way around a section I feel is too dangerous to traverse alone up high, but eventually ended up summiting two peaks I always tag when I decide to go off road.  Between the two peaks there's a saddle where I shot some video...


Anyway, thanks for reading, send some positive thoughts to my home state of VT, and now I've got to go chase my son.
Jay