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

Thinking out loud.

My wife may be P.O.d...

Two years ago, I started my running "journey" by undertaking a trail marathon put on by Gemini Adventures (GA) on a Saturday and following that up with another 10 mile jaunt the next day.  GA didn't call it a marathon, but the dang 25 miler measured out at 26.1 with my GPS.  I'll call that sucker a marathon thank you very much.

The 25 miler and 10 miler were 2 races in a four race "Trail Running Festival".  They were run on a weekend where the  "25" mile race and the "50" mile race were run on Saturday and pair of races measuring 10 and 5 miles were run on Sunday.  I thought that running the 10 miler on Sunday after the "25" would be a good way to see if I might not like to try an ultra some day.  Hmmmm....

Right now, my foot is pretty well heeled and I'm looking for something to motivate my training for the next several months.  Hmmmm....

The Trail Running Festival is on April 22 and 23....

Hmmm....

50 and 10...

Hmm...

Thanks for reading and I think I spelled something wrong somewhere...
J

P.S.
My mom took this photo of Deneb and me crossing the finish line together (albeit recreated) at the 25 miler in Fruita - he was just about to turn 1.

Race Report Preamble

I haven't seen my friend Erik since 1987 when I moved to Vermont, but we've done stuff like this before.  From the 1985 Clinton sprint:

I'm trailing and Erik looks like he's going to take the win from my brother Charles.

Today:

I'm the one wearing the squirrel on his face.

Anyway, on to the tale of the weekend.  It started out with something of a bad omen. 

I had a bit of an adventure picking up the rental car.  Turns out that the foreigner with the Colorado drivers license wasn't welcome to rent an automobile with the presented plastic.  The problem sprung from the fact that I didn't bring an actual credit card from Bolivia, just the debit card I used to make the reservation.  I should have thought about that, but hindsight is 20/20 - something which will repeat itself in this report.

Fortunately, my Mom had taken me to the rental location and offered to rent the car herself and loan me her car for the weekend: Problem solved.  Thanks so much, Mom.  Without Mom, none of this could have happened.

Once I was with vehicle I drove to Ithaca, NY where my Dad was waiting to take me out to dinner.  I'd loaded the directions to his house into my phone before I left my Mom's house; that was a good thing too, because I couldn't find WiFi on my route (essentially: Interstates 87S and 88W).  My intention had been to get a sim card for my cell phone with a data plan, but when I asked after it (at a Radio Shack in Fort Lauderdale) I was told that no such "pre-paid" plans existed.  Um, I think somebody ripped me off...

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant in Ithaca named Lucatelli's.  My Dad recommended something called Combination Casserole a la Parmigiana (click through and you'll see the menu).  He said something like, "I ordered it once and it brought me to my knees."  I ordered it then ate some bread, soup, and a salad.  What I was presented with had more cheese than I was expecting total food.  I ate it all.  When she came to clear my plate, the waitress noted that, "I've worked here 6 months and have never seen anyone finish that dish before."  I had a bit of trouble breathing for a half an hour or so, but overall was pleased with the meal - the breathing problem was my own fault (perhaps another instance of foreshadowing).

After the meal, we returned to my Dad's place and I plead tired/full and hit the couch.  I wish I could have had the fortitude to keep myself up, but I was thinking ahead a bit too. 

I slept really well and the next morning Dad, his friend Erik and I went out to a breakfast at a greasy spoon where I enjoyed an artery clogging cheese and bacon omelette, some toast and home fries.  Dad and I then bid Erik adieu and we went to procure a hand bottle for my race and a little wooden airplane for Deneb.  Once that stuff was aboard the good ship Honda CrV, I hit the road for Berk's County, PA.

It rained for much of the drive, but overall it was easy getting there, though it took the better part of 4 hours.  I ate some salty snacks and powered back a bunch of water while driving, but didn't really have a formal lunch - not that I really needed it...

When I got to Erik's house I had to call because I was unsure which was their house, there were 3 stone houses all right in a row and I was unsure which one I had the doorbell I was supposed to ring.  Good thing too, when Erik answered he suggested I turn around - I had been wandering around and looking into the windows of the wrong house...

I brought my bag inside and was promptly introduced to Erik's wife Jane and his two great kids, Connor and Maddie.  Maddie was a bit shy at first, and I think Connor was hoping I'd join him for some Lego Star Wars - sorry man, next time.  I hadn't run since my morning jaunt in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday and I was starting to get a bit twitchy. 

It worked out pretty well actually because, for all the cycles being spent on Lego Star Wars, Mr. Connor had a birthday party to go to which happened to be on the way to Blue Marsh Lake, where the race was being held the next day.  Erik and I dropped Connor off and headed over to the most significant obstacle on the Blues Cruise course, "Ski Slope Hill".  

Erik lead out, and we were quickly onto some pretty sweet single track through the trees.  I was wearing my Vibrams and deemed the trail soft enough that I could run in them for the race.  Sure there were some rocks, but there was also lots of leaf litter to help cushion the impact and it seemed an easier surface than the road on my Bella Vista route.

Ski Slope Hill itself was runable in a short race, but I power hiked it with Erik.  It came 11 miles or so into the Blues Cruise, and I knew that I wouldn't be running it on race day, so it would be best to power up it.  Erik and I knocked out a half an hour and then headed back in the direction of the birthday party.

Erik and I picked up Connor, then headed back to his house.  Dinner would be at the Kutztown Tavern with Erik's parents.  What a treat!

Erik's dad coached a softball team for which both Erik and I played.  We were surrounded by girls.  We didn't really know what to make of that.  We played for the Yankees.  Ugh.

Erik back left, me back right and Erik's Dad back dead center.  The Yankees.

Anyway, I enjoyed a good old American Bacon Cheeseburger for dinner with a glass of birch beer to wash down my tasty meal.  Erik's mom chatted my ear off and I answered a bunch of questions about Bolivia, Deneb, Nataly and life in general.  Really good to see them...

After dinner we went back to Erik's house and chatted a bit while the kids got ready for bed.  They were settling down around 9 and I felt my battery was essentially discharged too and suggested I might be ready for a sleep as well.  I don't think it took me more than 10 minutes to fall asleep and I slept like a rock...

Thanks for reading and the real report will come tomorrow.

Jay

Running Sunday

After 2 days of travel I've arrived in VT.  The damage from Irene is really quite remarkable; it's amazing what a flooding stream can move.  I'll put some pictures up next week, but today I'm thinking about the Blues Cruise.

I'm picking up my rental car this afternoon and driving to Ithaca where I'll crash at my Dad's.  I've got to pick up a hand bottle for the race, so I expect I'll hit this store tomorrow.  Afterward, I'll drive down to Reading and start getting into race mode with my old friend Running Moose.

Speaking of race mode, I've been nurturing a "playoff beard" ever since I decided to come up here and run.  I absolutely have no problems growing hair on my head, but the face - that's another thing entirely.  It'll be good to shave.

It looks like the weather for the race will be touch and go.  Temperature wise, perfect, but with a chance of rain on top of already muddy trails.  I'm going to go with short sleeve tech shirt, shorts, buff, gloves, and my Bikilas.  I brought my Trek Sports, but they have a tendency to rub the outside ball of my feet much more than the others and given the wet trail conditions, I'm going to try and minimize my chance for blisters.

The trail conditions will also rather significantly impact my goals for the race.  Priority #1 will be to maintain a positive outward appearance (smile).  After that, well, I'd like to knock over my time goals, but muddy trails with steep hills may make that difficult.  It's a bit weird to write this, but it will probably be good to be near the front in the second half of the race - hopefully that's some place I'll find myself.

Thanks for reading, and don't count all of your chickens before they hatch.
J

Next Post will be from the States.

Sunday, I'll be running in the Blues Cruise 50k.  That's in Pennsylvania.  In the United States.  Where it'll be cool.

The forecast for today in Santa Cruz calls for 97 degrees with sun.  I guess we officially entered Spring sometime in the last week or so, but 97 is a bit out of hand.  The 10 day forecast puts partly cloudy and 58 for the high on race day in Reading PA - that's absolutely perfect weather for running.

Not sure how the race will go.  I put together the image above so that I could compare the elevation profile of a course I know well (Bella Vista in green) with the approximate route of the race (Blues Cruise in blue) on Sunday.  The vertical scales are the same and each segment represents about 15.5 miles.  In the case of the blue lines, the top represents the approximate first half and the bottom the second half.

Obviously, my Bella Vista run involves long steady climbing, but the second half of the Blues Cruise course is repeatedly punctuated by short steep climbs.  Many are steeper than anything I've been training on regularly.  Were this race run in the opposite direction, I'd know precisely how to run it, but because the easy miles come first, I have no idea.

Assuming the trails aren't too muddy, I'll suppose I'll run the first few miles on a pace which would set an insignificant marathon PR.  I know I can crack 3:30 at the distance on the road now and expect that 3:15 isn't out of the question.  I logged a bunch of miles this year with the hope of running a low 3 hour marathon in November, I'll call on those miles during the first half of this race.

This is an "All-In" strategy.  I'm hoping to log good miles in the first half of the race and then hang on in the second to get to 4:30.  The problem with this approach is that there is a tremendous opportunity to blow up in the second half and fail to reach my race goals entirely (sub 5 hours, smile, sub 4:30).

We shall see, now it's time to pack.  I'll get a short run in this afternoon in the heat, tomorrow is a day off spent in an airplane then Thursday I'll get out for a quickie on the beach in Ft Lauderdale and hop a plane to Vermont. Looking forward to some foliage, a good race and some quality time with the family.  Hopefully VT will even grant my request and provide a bit of snow while I'm there...

Thanks for reading, and try not to over analyze.
Jay

My hands hurt.

My house has a big yard.  It's got a bunch of trees.  We've got 2 avocado trees, 2 huge mango trees, 8 citrus trees, 1 tamarind tree and something called a chirimoia.  There are also 4 big trees which flower and one small lavender tree.  There used to be more.  Along the west side of the yard, there are 3 large stumps and one smaller one.  Along the back of the house (North) there are 3 more medium sized stumps and the east side has a huge pile of wood.

I'm not a big fan of the stumps.  Nataly and I have been paying a gardener to help bring grass back to our yard, and the stumps aren't a great deal of fun to mow around.  Not to mention they're pretty ugly. So Friday I set about removing a few.  By hand.  With a pickax.

In total I spent something like 5 hours whacking away at 3 different stumps.  One big one which yielded up enough good wood that I'll be cooking some chicken or hamburgers with it.  A smaller one which I believe was once a citrus tree and a new one I created when I cut down a very ill peach tree that we had in back.

I was actually able to extract the root balls of both the peach and the probable citrus trees, but the big one I whacked at until I got it below the ground and then buried it under a mixture of compost, sand and wood chips.

Needless to say, the repeated shock to my hands, arms, and back has me sore even two days later.  And my fingers are particularly stiff.  Why do it then?  Well, like I said: the stumps are ugly and a pain to mow around, but also because of the reading I've been doing about the Paleo diet.

Now, I'm never going to adopt the "Paleo diet".  As a friend of mine on Facebook said:  I tend to stay away from anything with the label diet.  But that said, there's a whole bunch of lifestyle information in these articles too.  Hunter Gatherer lifestyle stuff.  A hunter gatherer was an all around athlete by necessity.  "Cross training" was part of their weekly ritual.

I've never been one to mix up my athletic endeavors;  when I raced bikes, I rode my bike; when I did Kung Fu, I did Kung Fu; when I run; I run.  But here there's all this stuff around the house that is challenging physically, and it's got to get done.  So instead of having the gardener do it, when I get back from the North East, I'll continue my war against the stumps.  That should develop some good core strength.  I've already noticed that just raking leaves is a fair workout and my lawnmower?  It doesn't require gasoline or electricty...

Running wise:  I've logged 7 hours and 49 miles since Monday.  I let the 5 hours of ax swinging count for 30 minutes of running and I will be heading out for 2 hours plus today once Deneb is down for his nap.  Right now it's raining, so I'm hoping it'll stay cool.  It seems that every run this week has been brutally hot, sunny, and windy.  The rain is a welcome change.

Thanks for reading and it seems exercise doesn't have to be a formal undertaking...
J

Thinking about food

One reason I've always led an active lifestyle is it's given me pretty much a blank check to cash in on whatever food and drink I wanted.  That's great because I love to eat and drink.

Recently however, I had been struggling with my weight.  I was well over 220 lbs and often found myself tipping the scale at 230.  I drank a fair amount of high octane beer, and had a diet which seemed reasonable at the time, but I'm not so sure anymore.

Something about my diet changed when I got to Bolivia.  I don't have a scale, but I can see in the mirror that I've lost quite a bit of weight - my gut has clear left, middle, and right sections and veins are popping out all over the place.  In Colorado, I was soft - for sure.

Again: something about my diet changed when I got to Bolivia.  It's hard to pinpoint what precisely, but I haven't been eating this:

Though I want to be...

The thing is.  The diet here isn't much different than what you see on that plate.  Up there is pork, cheese, potatoes, cheese, onions, chilis, garlic.

I think I may be more restricted in my caloric intake in general.  I've had ice cream like twice, maybe 3 times since moving here in February.  I eat a lot more fruit.  I eat breakfast.  I've swapped out normal beer for microbrew.  I have about a normal human's size portion of food for lunch - today: 1 Chicken Thigh, a good sized helping of potato salad, which included probably 1/2 a tomato, 1/2 a green bell pepper, and 1/2 a carrot.  Last night's dinner was about 2 servings of Lentil Salad.  Breakfast was probably 2 and a half eggs and a peanut butter sandwich with 1/2 a glass of yogurt and 1/2 a glass of milk.

Not having a scale is interesting, and I expect I will have one soon.  I'd really like to measure my sweat rate for one thing (another post for another time) and I'd like to start tracking my weight again.  If I end up actually lining up for 2 one hundred mile races next year, I'll need to stay on top of my nutrition.

That brings me to the whole point of this post in the first place.  Recently I listened to a very interesting podcast which talked about race day fueling and other things nutrition.  Based on that I posed a question to Joe Friel on his recent blog post.  One part of what he had to say in response to my question, I found to be quite provocative (emphasis mine):

Sugar is closely monitored and processed by the body as it is viewed almost as a toxic substance. So the body does unique things with it (e.g., converted to glycogen, glucose or fat very quickly after processing) that it doesn't do with fat or protein.

While running yesterday, I was mulling that statement over and remembered that Joe is an advocate of the so called Paleo Diet. I googled alot about it last night and this morning.

Essentially it is a diet which is centered on lean meats, fruits, nuts and tubers.  The kinds of foods that hunter gatherers would have eaten before we settled down in Mesopotamia.  I'm usually quite skeptical of stuff like this, but a lot of the arguments for a "paleo" diet hit the same "that makes sense" button that the barefoot running advocates I've come to subscribe to tag.  One interesting article is found here:
http://thepaleodiet.com/published-research/cordain-anthropology-of-sport-chapter/
It's a quick read, and worth the time.  If for no other reason than to familiarize oneself with the arguments.

I don't expect I'll ever fully subscribe to a paleo diet, but I may begin to incorporate some of its principles into my daily eating.  I first need to get my brain around what that really means...

Thanks for reading, and try to understand why before actually doing.
J

Diet.

One thing about living in Bolivia is the diet.  Lunch always consists of some sort of major production; it consists of meat, multiple starches and vegetables with lots of fried stuff.  For some reason, Nataly requires that our house hold to this tradition of dinner for lunch.  I'd prefer sandwiches and were it not for our assistant Mary, I'd require them.

Anyway, I bring this up at least in part because of a chart linked to by Scott Jurek about the carbon footprint of food (here's a link to the pdf).  This past weekend, Nataly complained about the amount of meat we were eating, lunch and dinner, 2 big meals with different kinds of meat - chicken then pork, beef then sausage, hamburger then chicken...

I didn't disagree with her.  That put me to cooking other stuff for dinner. Three nights in a row we ate pasta with a variety of vegetable based toppings.  Last night I switched things up a bit and made a quinoa and lentil stew kind of thing.  I'd never made quinoa before and googled around a bit for what to do with it.  Turns out it's a native South American seed with a good nutritional profile.

It's hard to say precisely what I did, I cooked the lentils and quinoa together and them brought them together with the "stewed" ingredients.  Then added things (salt, honey, vinegar, cheese) until I liked the taste.  Turned out pretty good.

I'll be making more quinoa dishes that's for sure and the meatless nights experiment is going to continue that's for sure.

Yesterday, I'd planned a 1 hour and 15 minute long run, but ditched it because of crap in my chest and rainy cold weather.  I'd've gone running were it not for the rain or crud, but the combination forced me to respect the possibilities.

Thanks for reading, and breathe free.
J

Why run?

Because of stuff like this:
Footfeathers: Hardrock 100: The Race Report
Truly freaking epic.  Not sure I've got the fortitude to complete that journey.  I certainly don't have the physical prowess - today - but that can be had with the right investment.  It's the mental toughness I'm not sure I've got.

That's most of the reason I'm attracted to ultrarunning in the first place.  Trying to find that breaking point.  Once I've committed money to a race I usually can train with a singular focus and by the time I get to the start line, it's not finishing that's in question, it's how quickly will I finish.

Run Rabbit Run was the first race where I lined up and didn't know if I would be able to finish.  I was fairly certain, and I trusted my training, but at the start I really had no idea what to expect.  There were times I felt like crap during that effort, but at no point did I consider stopping.  I've said this before, but as I crossed the finish line, I thought to myself:  I can keep going.

My most miserable experience in a race was the 2009 Boulder Marathon.  The race organizers were woefully under-prepared for the conditions on race day and there were multiple aid stations without water and/or Gatorade I considered quitting that race on several occasions, but somehow gutted it out to the finish.  I was pissed and swore I'd never run another race organized by those folks, but the next spring I ran in their half-mary.  Even though it wasn't a pleasant experience, I'm wearing the hat right now - that was my first marathon.

Anyway, racing and running for me aren't about Personal Records.  Many of mine were set when I was young and fit.  I'm never again going to crack 5 minutes in the mile, but I did it once in the opening leg of a 2 mile race when I was in high school.  I ran 3 minutes 30 seconds for a 1200 meter leg in a "distance medley" relay race that same year.  My PR in 5k is just under 17 minutes, I could probably get that if I wanted to suffer through the hideous 400 meter interval training, and I could probably pretty easily best my 10k PR of 41 minutes, but I really don't care about those numbers.

The point is:  I know that I can finish those distances.  I know the training needed to get better in those distances and I don't care to do it.  Intervals suck.  I like LSD.

Frankly, much of the reason I run is also similar to what Goeff noted in the video I posted a couple weeks ago:  I find it a tremendous way to get to know an area.  Once I run out of new terrain to run on, I start relying on the iPod more and more to make my runs more interesting.  That's when running becomes work.

I remember once when I was a kid hiking with my brother the dogs and my parents in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  I think it was Mount Chocorua. There was some long haired hippy dude ripping up and then back down the trail we were on.  He was like 5 or 10 minutes out in front of some much more dapper followers.  Those folks were having a good time.  My brother and I thought it looked pretty cool.  That was when I went for my first trail run - 27-28 years ago probably - the dogs, my brother with me, freaking perfect.

Ever since, I've been searching for that feeling again.  The closest I've come are in the trail races in Colorado:  Fruita, Imogene, Steamboat.  In those races, it's not so much how fast you finish, it's more the process.  There's a camaraderie that's really develops in the shared experience of suffering, that I've never really experienced elsewhere.

Anyway, that's kind of where I'm at.  It's weird here in Bolivia, because I've hardly even seen any one else out running.  There are cyclists, but out where I live I get looks when I'm doing my workouts.  It'd be nice to have somebody else to run with upon occasion, but I guess I'll live vicariously through the blogs of others.

Almost outta here...

That post title sounds a bit cavalier, but not sure what else to put up there for this one.

In less than a week I'm going to be driving out of Colorado and not coming back for the foreseeable future.  I've got incredibly mixed emotions with regard to the undertaking, but the winds of change have been blowing hard the past year and a half.

I have a fantastic job and a really quality boss, but over the last couple of years my productivity has diminished to the point where if I am not actively repairing a computer, solving a network problem or wiping a virus, it's hard to notice that I'm doing anything at all.  In short, I'm tired of what I've been doing for the better part of the last decade and it shows.  Throw on top of that the potential for my wife's career to blossom into something truly meaningful, and a decision is almost made.  The final clincher was the opportunity to be a stay at home dad to my (less than 2 year old) son in a distant warm place (Bolivia)...

Homey is moving with us and is excited to report that he will eventually be moving into a house that has both a Mango Tree and an Avacado Tree in an honest to goodness back yard.  The house is on a dirt road on the periphery of Santa Cruz where I expect we'll be running together quite a bit.

In fact, I've made it a goal to log at minimum 365 runs of at least 30 minutes in 2011.  There will have to be 2-a-days in there to reach that goal, but my hope is that Homey will accompany me on 90% of my efforts (anything less than 2.5 hours for sure).  At one point in time he could knock out 15 miles in the mountains without problem, I hope to see him back in that kind of shape (besides he'll help with Jaguars)...

Since mid-October I've been quite the slacker.  I went for a Thanksgiving day run of almost 12 miles in Vermont, but that was my most significant mileage in the better part of 3 months.  I could make excuses, but if you read Brandon's Blog, I'd come off like a little whiner.  With that hip, finishing Leadville is quite remarkable.  Anyway the truth is:  I was enjoying time down, working on upper body strength 12 oz at a time.

I've started getting back into the swing of things running wise.  Jackson and I have gotten out for runs each of the last 3 days and today I went on what perhaps was my last trail run in Colorado for the foreseeable future.  Homey and I hit the first trail we ran together - Rabbit Mountain.  The trail is a lariat, with magnificent views both North toward Fort Collins and South toward Boulder.  If the trail is dry, it's horribly rocky and not suitable for (me anyway) minimal gear, but with snow on the trail it smoothed out enough that the Treks were in effect.  We actually knocked out the loop in just over 40 minutes which is my second fastest time out there - That's with snow and me not caring about the timing.  Even with a bunch of 12 oz curls in the last several months, I made some real progress on my fitness this year...

Given my impending exodus, it's hard to know what I'll do race-wise this year.  I will train to run a virtual Boston Marathon in April, and then make a decision about coming back to Colorado for the Steamboat 50 in September: is it realistic?  is it financially feasible?  would it be possible to convince family that visiting Colorado in September is a good idea?  Lots of stuff...

Anyway.  I've been dark over here for a bit, but expect that the next few months will provide more than a few things to write about.  I hope that I have the time to scratch some stuff out.
Thanks for reading,
J

T Minus 33 hours (ish)

Steamboat 50 is coming up.

Right.  I've said that already.

Steamboat 50 is coming up.

What did I do?

Um....  Some laundry?  I guess?  Gotta have clean Ijinji socks for the race.

Less than 1 year ago I said, "No way I'll ever do one of those!" and here I am about to "do one of those."  I honestly don't know how I'll finish or if I'll finish, but today I picked up enough "tech food" for two 50's.  That should be enough calories...

This race almost feels "spur of the moment" to me.   Imogene was always target A on my calendar.  I lost sight of it, dreams reminded me of it, and I raced it.  I feel like I might have left a bit on the course, but not alot (just a couple of skin cells)...  Here I am, like last year undertaking something unknown in the wake of something known - I knew Imogene was in the bag last year, just didn't know how fast I could go...

Allrighty then.

Guessing.

Presupposing no injuries, I think I'm going to go under 12 hours.  Not sure of course, but...

Why?  Running today with the Holmes, I felt like I was gliding.  Effortless.  Fast.  We didn't go far, but it felt good.  It was the first day since Imogene I felt fit and good again.  No soreness whatsoever.  Good.

We'll see.  The big challenge in the Steamboat 50 is right up front.  3750 feet in 6ish miles (profile). After that there is less than 5000 feet of climbing left (over 44 miles).  I'll take that first bit easy - at 210 lbs there isn't much choice.  After that, it's going to be a question of fuel.

There's a part of me which thinks that I could hit 10 hours for the course, but then I remind myself of that first bit and readjust my estimate.  This is my first 50.  Modesty matters.  So:

• My first goal for this race is to finish.  
• My second goal is to finish smiling.
• My stretch goal is to come in under 12 hours.  

I really think I can get all three, but I really prefer being able to give the volunteers a grin and will sacrifice #3 in order to say thanks along the way.

I'll write something after the race orientation tomorrow.
Until then...
Thanks for reading,
J

Steamboat Ruminations

All right.  A couple of days removed from Imogene and I'm starting to realize the impending 50.  This is a similar year to last in that one week following "The Race" on my calendar, I scheduled another.  Last year, it was my first marathon.  Boulder.  That race was run on a day which was brutally hot, and the organizers somehow managed to run out of water and Gatorade for the later finishers of the race.  I also seem to remember results taking forever to get posted afterwards.  Googling around afterwards, in part to see if anyone was injured or worse as a result of the organizers rather lax preparations, I stumbled across Brandon's blog, and that really got this ball rolling - You know, if that dude can do this stuff, why can't I?  So...

Early in the year this year, I had proposed to my cousin that we run the Mount Desert Island Marathon.  He used to be a sub 3 hour marathoner, and might well be close to that now if he trained for it, but skiing is his real passion.  I was thinking I'd try for a Boston qualifier at MDI, but wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be wasting a plane ticket, lodging and the sundry assemblage of folks for what might turn out to be an abject failure...  So I put the Steamboat Marathon on my schedule with a time goal of 3:30.  If I could hit 3:30, I'd bust my ass with interval training and miserable hot runs throughout this summer and then try down at sea level to uncork 3:15.  It was a hard cap.

Steamboat went well through the first 22 miles.  I was well under my 3:30 goal, but two factors conspired against me in the last 4 miles.  One, a not insignificant hill got in my way and two, the sun.  The lower stretches of the course were very exposed and the temperature seemed to get very high.  I suffered.  I had opted not to don my "Sun Runner" hat prior to the race and that might have been the difference.  I finished Steamboat in 3:33.  Three minutes off of my goal pace.  No BQ attempt this year, run for fun was the name of the game.  Intervals suck, but running long in the mountains doesn't:  a fifty miler would make it onto my schedule.

At first I thought it would be the North Fork 50.  I've got some roots in Buffalo Creek, and a fundraiser for the volunteer fire department seemed like a tremendous idea.  But, couple the high temps of July 17th with a difficult course I was already very familiar with thanks to my MTB and I decided NF50 would be a no go.  I started thinking that a 50 after Imogene would be sweet.  Ideally something in October, but I wanted something that didn't involve laps.

I ended up deciding that Steamboat would be the race, but I had to hold off on registering until August because of financial timing issues.  When I got around to clicking the link "register now" the race was already over it's 150 runner cap.  I was sad.  I mailed the race director a note, "Are you going to open up more slots?"  and got back, "We're going to try.  Check the site regularly."  Which I dutifully did and lo, more slots opened.  Thanks Montrail.

So, just like last year.  One week after Imogene, I'll be undertaking my first of some crazy distance.  Last year it was a marathon which took almost 5 hours.  This year it'll be my first ultramarathon.  I'd say I have a specific time goal, but I wanted to go under 4 for last year's Boulder Marathon, so I'll just say I won't be breaking 10 hours this year.  Next year - 100?  Um... Doubtful.

Re: today's running.  Quads are still sore from Imogene, but much better than yesterday.  All else is happy.  I ran 3 miles very easy in my VFF with Homey who also got brushed today.  Good day all around.

Thank for reading.
J

Thoughts on training, and birds abound.

This week has been about logging miles, but winding down simultaneously.  One of the most difficult aspects of training is timing your fitness.  The goal of training isn't just to get yourself fit, it is to get yourself fit at the right time.  In his book, Total Heart Rate Training, Joe Friel boils training down to a fairly simple equation which states:  Fitness = Rest - Stress.  He's got a pretty good post about it on his old website.

I've got a bit of a problem with his equation, it implies that fitness decreases with increased stress and that it does so linearly.  I think the equation should be multiplicative (at the very least) because the fitness curve is distinctly non-linear.  Whatever the case, in order to become fit one needs to stress the body enough to fatigue it, then rest it so that adaptation can occur.  There are a total of 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week that can be given to training (Stress and Rest).  The balancing act over the course of weeks and months will produce fitness.

One of the reasons I'm nervous for Steamboat is I've been stressing my body like never before.  Even when I raced bikes, my longest rides were in the 6 hour range.  The Pawnee, Buchanan loop took almost 9.  I don't think I'm as fit as I was back then, but then perhaps my fitness is of a different sort.  Back then, I wouldn't have gone out for a 9 hour ride, that would have been close to 200 miles, but I would do 20 minute long cruise intervals at close to 30 miles per hour.  That'd be like me going out and doing repeats at just under my 5k race pace.  That kind of training is really unpleasant.  Anyway, I hope to find fitness in 2 weeks.

Today's run was a mere 13 miles.  I had heavy legs.  Felt slow.  Slept terribly last night.  Woke up at 3am and couldn't stop thinking about the Imogene Pass Run.  I was thinking about how I'd go.  Will I beat my time from last year?  How much do I think I can take out of it?  This one is tough.  It's kind of a priority race for me, but I don't want it to mess with Steamboat.  AAAAAARGH!  Run 'em both and damn the consequences.  

Anyway.  The freaking birds were abundant on McIntosh Lake today.  Lots of Pelicans, multiple Great Blue Herons, a raptor of some sort and a boatload of vultures.  The water was down and I think the vultures were out seeing what they could find...

Anyway.  Thank for reading.

J

Weekend Run Plans - Scrapped?

I'd been planning to head out to Aspen this weekend to run the Four Passes Loop with my cousin Dave. Was jazzed, but then the weather forecast started looking crappy in his corner of the world. It's still got a day to turn around, but I'd rather take my chances with a bear than a lightening bolt...

I still have to log some big miles running this weekend though. I've got some options:  One would to head out to Fruita to run the 26.1 mile Fruita 25 course on Saturday and do it again on Sunday.  This has the advantage of getting me into red rock country again which is always good, but it's a damn long drive for a 2 day weekend and Homey would have to stay with a friend.  Earlier today I was pretty pumped about this option, but now I'm not digging it so much.

The other is to stay in Boulder and run some trails around here.  It's not like trails are hard to find in this neck of the woods.  One big loop I've read about, but not done in its entirety is the "Boulder Skyline Traverse."  Depending on where you park it's a 24+ mile loop which bags all 5 summits that make up - surprise - the Boulder skyline.  I suppose I'd do this Saturday early and follow it up Sunday with an out and back which starts at Hall Ranch and heads over to Button Rock Reservoir or down to Heil Ranch.

Possibly the biggest advantage of staying close to home is I know almost to the picosecond where the nearest Chipotle is from the finish line of these efforts.

The weather has one more day to fix itself.  I'd prefer to head out to Aspen.  The Bells are beautiful, but I prefer hot, sweaty and alive to cold, wet and sparkly every day of the week.  If the weather doesn't come around, I expect I'll stay in town for my running this weekend.

Oh right, that yawning sound...  That's me flaking on my run today.  I slept like crap last night.  Nightmares, weird noises outside, the cats freaking out.  Seemed like I looked at the clock every 15 minutes.  Haven't had any energy at all.  Going to knock out 3 with the Holmes and call it good.

Thank for reading.
J

Run Blogging - Everybody does it.

I have tried this before.

Not terribly successfully.

It seems there's either not much to say or there's way too much and the things I want to get said just...just get left, lonely, somewhere in a deep dusty corner of my brain.

Why would I try doing this again?  Well, some people I've met and respect have moved me with their prose and I've got a pretty big event coming up which I kind of want to ruminate about.  Maybe when it's over I'll keep on writing, maybe not.

What's the event?  I'm getting ready to run in something crazy called Run Rabbit Run in Steamboat.  It's a 50 mile trail run and frankly I'm damn nervous about it.  In part because I haven't ever come close to running that far, in part because the week prior I'm doing the Imogene Pass Run, and in part because I feel like I'm probably a bit under prepared.

All right then, why?  I'm largely doing this race because of Brandon Fuller.  A fellow Longmont runner, who is in a class far removed from me:  Leadville 100 finisher, sub 3 hour marathoner...

His blog made me start thinking, "Well maybe I could run a 50."  I've done 3 marathons in the last year after all, and a 4th in the Indian Peaks training for RRR.  The marathon distance isn't really much to worry about anymore.  I know I can.  Hell, if I cared to do focused training with real speedwork, tightly controlled diet and very limited beer intake, I'm sure I could go sub 3 hours in the marathon.

Anyway.  I'm not sure what or when I'll write.  Today's muse came because I had an unexpected reaction to my workout today:  very sore calves after 9 miles in Vibram Five Fingers.  It's been a long time since I had trouble after a VFF workout, but there it is.  I had planned on doing another 6 after work, but I didn't have my "long run" shoes so I just headed home, best not to aggravate when you're 4 weeks out from a big race.

Thanks for reading.
J