Building Up & Breaking Down

Lovin’ the weather here in Southwest Germany.  Winter finally arrived last week, smack dab in the middle of my recovery week.  Not just a tease, but a full-on, in your face arrival.

Thursday morning’s very isolated snow-shower pretty much shut down any commute for anyone on the south side of Heidelberg.  But not for me.  Gotta love the bicycle.  I floated through the forest and across the fallow fields on a pillow of fresh snow.  Shaking my head at all the poor folks in their single-file parking lots.  Once I got into town, I dropped the tire pressure to 35 p.s.i. and the studs stuck to the ice.  No issues at all.  My commute was extended by only 2-3 minutes, which would be about the time that it took for me to let the air out of the tires as well as account for some creeping around corners (I haven’t found the edge of control with the studs yet).  For those on four wheels, the commute was extended anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes.

Friday was a bit more of the same in the afternoon, but everyone on four wheels seemed to behave themselves.  Then the cold set in.

Saturday was a bit chilly, dipping down to +4°F (-15°C) and gradually warming up to +12°F (-11°C) by early afternoon.  Luckily there wasn’t much wind, so the run wasn’t bad at all.  Matter of fact, I layered too much and was peeling off layers, caps and gloves just a few miles into the run.

Here it is, Monday, the Winter Solstice, and we still have a fair covering of snow on the ground.  Perfect for jumping in to the next Base period.  But I’m jumping ahead of  myself.

As I said above, last week as a recovery week.  That made it week three of my Base 2 cycle for my next race on January 31st.  Being the “old guy” that I am, following Friel’s protocol of using three week cycles for folks over 40, vice the four week cycles for those under 40, has worked quite well for me.  Especially since I’m not focusing on long-course triathlon right now, but instead basically living the life of a duathlete.

So Base 2 was a good cycle.  Through the second week I pushed my running mileage up to 35.5 miles.  Nothing extravagant, but on top of my 90-miles of commuting each week, the legs are getting abused a bit.  And with another Base cycle, leading into my Build cycle, I’ll be dancing very close to my upper manageable limit of 60 miles per week of running.  That’s not counting the commute.

Besides, if I’m to run more than 60 miles per week, I better be getting paid for it.

The workload wasn’t overwhelming, but for some reason the recovery took a bit longer than normal.  Perhaps all of the holiday parties?  Typically I’m good to go by Wednesday.  Last week it took until Saturday before I felt fresh.  But that’s OK. 

It’s the result of doing good work.  And some good parties.

Today’s run, warmer than this weekend, looked similar to the photo at right, although not as deep.  The nice thing is that it adds a nice bit of strength training to the run.  Although strength training in the middle of 10-mile runs are typically not the best thing for the legs.

But it’s good work.

Since I’ve taken this week off from work, the commute isn’t necessary.  So that leaves my legs fresh for the runs, which will tally up to ~50 miles.  Next week there will be just a few commute days, so bike mileage will remain low, but I’ll have to ramp up the miles through the weekend, seeing how close to 60 miles I can dance without overdoing it.  And then rush headlong into the next recovery week, which includes several days of skiing.  But it’ll be good recovery from running.

What’s interesting is that right now, with a full Base cycle followed and Build cycle still to come, I’m aerobically in better shape than I was going in to last March’s 60K Trail Run and significantly better than when I ran my 40-miler in September, 2008.  That isn’t a subjective feeling, but looking objectively at output from the Training Load plug-in for SportTracks.  So things are looking good.  The trick will be keeping injury free over the next few weeks as I ramp up the miles.

Then crank out an enjoyable 50K in six weeks.

But my challenge right now isn’t with the running.  It’s with eating.  I know that’s a funny thing to say during the holidays, but it is what it is.  With this workload I need to be ingesting approximately 4,000 calories per day on average.  That’s a lot of food, especially since I don’t eat a “normal” western diet, full of processed carbs, fats and salt.  Basically, if I can’t identify it as something that came directly from a plant or animal, I eschew (or would that be “won’t chew”?) it.  Within reason, of course, because life’s too short to be that strict about anything.  And although I could reasonably identify a Whopper as mostly coming from animals and plants, I stay away from that stuff as much as possible.  And the recent results of my blood work tell me that I’m definitely on the right track.

So I’m typically falling short of that 4,000 calorie mark by somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 calories.  That’s a lot to miss.  It does hamper my workout recovery.  And since it’s such a large daily deficit, I’m not losing weight since my metabolism is slowing down to hold on to every calorie I ingest.  Basically, my body is going in to survival mode. 

Someone hand me a cookie!

<DISCLAIMER: Any and all training that I describe works for me and flies in the face of much conventional wisdom.  The reason it works for me is that I have a few decades of activity and fitness under my belt and know that my body can recover quickly from a given workload.  So don’t think that you could, or should, jump from 35 miles of running one week to 50 miles the next.  If you do, you’ll get hurt.>

Building

Gotta love the feeling of a good Build period.  It’s been a while.  Eight months, to be exact. 

Eight months ago was the Build for the Country Music Marathon.  But since finishing that race, training has been very unfocused, occasionally non-existent.  And that’s what works for me.  I’m typically the opposite of everyone else, building and peaking for some great late winter, early spring races.  Summer is not for me.

Basically it boils down to the fact that I generate a lot of heat when I run.  A lot.  When it’s 30°F (-01°C), I’m still in shorts, although I will start out with a long sleeve that typically gets pushed up to the elbows just a few miles in.  Once it reaches 20°F (-07°C), I’ll cover the legs up and start thinking about a full cap.  The range in between 20-30°F will get me to put on different ear coverings and occasionally gloves (that usually don’t last but a mile).

Summer races?  Forget it.  Unless they also involve a swim and bike.  Then I just deal with the run.

So here I am, in the middle of December, building for my next race.  Mid-December, when most of you are taking a break from the year’s schedule, just thinking about your upcoming Base schedule, hoping not to put on too much weight during the holidays.  Me?  I’m realizing that I’m not eating enough to keep up with the additional 2,000 calories a day that I’m burning above my daily caloric needs to stay alive and function.  Simply put, I need to eat more.  Easier said than done, unless I start eating at Burger King every day (no thanks).  But I’ve got to fuel to race.

My next race?  A 50K (that’s 31 miles for y’all that only use the Imperial system) on January 31st, 2010.  Fifty kilometers is not a huge race for me (after last year’s 41-miler and last March’s 60K (37.2 miler), but something to focus on.  The 50K is just for fun, mainly to see how the Germans run their races.  And to give some focus to my training.

So this weekend was my first 20+ miler weekend of this cycle, getting ready for the race.  That’s when I know I’m building strong.  Instead of single long runs, I function better with “double-long’s”, which are two days in a row of long runs.  That’s every weekend for the next five weeks. 

My first experiences with double-longs are almost two years ago and they’ve served me well.  One thing I’ve learned since then is that I can actually build to 32-mile weekends (22 on Saturday, 10 on Sunday) and recover well.  Much better than if I do a 24-26 miler on Saturday and take Sunday off.  I guess I’m weird that way, since it flies in the face of every training plan put out there by the experts.

So here I am, at the tail end of this first Build cycle.  I’m now entering my “recovery” week, which I definitely need.  Amazing how I can enter this weekend completely knackered, yet still push through comfortably.  Saturday morning it was everything I could do to drag my carcass out of bed.  But I did, had a bit of breakfast and some coffee, then headed out the door.  The first few miles were slow, but that’s OK.  By mid-way through the 13.1 mile run, I was cruising, powering up and over the overpasses (it’s pretty flat around my house, so I find the hills where I can).  I finished strong.

Today, I was hobbling for the first hour or so.  I guess that’s a sign of aging, but I refuse to accept it.  Although it’s inconvenient, it works well with goals of my second long run of the weekend, which is to get the body used to running hard and fast when it’s tired and sore.  So Sunday’s run is always with the goal of running a negative split (i.e. run the second half of the run faster than the first half).  Sounds easy, until you do it with 15-25 miles of running in your legs in the previous 24-30 hours.  It builds a skill that comes in very handy after 20 miles in any race of marathon distance or further. 

So that’s the framework for the weekend now.  This weekend, it was 13.1 miles on Saturday, 8 miles on Sunday (that’s 21.1 miles for the math-challenged amongst you).  Since next week is a recovery week, I’ll back off to 9 miles on Saturday, 6 miles on Sunday.  After that, the next Build begins, so it’ll be 15 on Saturday, 10 on Sunday.  And so on over the next few weeks.  Then to race.

So enjoy the holidays, enjoy the food, enjoy the drink.  Most of all, smile when you drive past that lonely runner out there in the snow and wind.  Because most likely they’re someone just like me, who’s schedule is offset six months from yours. 

2010

The tough part right now is that I honestly don’t know how next year is going to pan out.  So it’s tough to schedule races. 

For all of you that have already entered and paid for their Ironman’s, Half’s, Marathons, Ultra’s, etc., in 2010, I’m truly jealous.  For various reasons, I just can’t plan that far out right now.

But I stumbled across a portion of the 2010 schedule for Germany. 

So for those of you nearby (or willing to travel), who’s game for a 50K (31 miler) on January 30th?

It’s through countryside like this:

RUTS – A Training Run

This isn’t a race report.  A race didn’t happen.

For me, anyway.

A 90-minute drive out to Paducah, packet pickup, scouting out the course (a 1/2-mile horse track) and a bit of futzing around and “GO” was yelled just after 8pm.

Since it was a 10-hour time trial, there wasn’t too much movement at first.  Other than the relay teams, which took off like bats out of hell, the rest of us settled in to somewhere near a 9-10 minute/mile pace.  Early on the hoof marks from the horses gave some of us a concern, especially wondering what they’d be like at 3 am when we were all tired.  Luckily they were flattened out a bit in the first couple of hours.

The first few miles were a bit stiff, which was understandable considering I hadn’t run in three weeks and other than the Country Music Marathon, hadn’t run anything longer than seven miles since April 16th, over six weeks ago.

Since the track was slightly banked, the plan was to run the standard counter-clockwise for the first two hours, then switch to clockwise for two hours, then back to counter-clockwise for two hours, continuing to the end.  That worked well, switching up the scenery a bit every two hours so that you weren’t looking at the exact same turns/straights for ten hours.

I talked to a couple of people in the first couple of hours, mostly because they were interested in my 6-minute run/1-minute walk strategy.  So we talked as long as the run or walk session lasted, then I continued.

The one beauty of this run was that I got to do what I haven’t been able to do since I haven’t been running – think about whatever comes to mind.  Mind you, my brain is usually going a million miles a second on a variety of topics at once.  But when I run, I can actually settle on one topic and think it through.  And that’s how this race became a training run.

The legs were feeling real good during miles 7-18, but I had already thought things through.  I wasn’t going to run the full ten hours.  There was still way too much stuff to be done to get us ready to fly to Germany on Tuesday and my taking all night to run ten hours, then sleep most of the day away, would really put us into a bind.  Besides that, Goddess was out there supporting me in every way possible, getting ready to sleep in the truck and then tip-toe around me in the room as I slept all day.  I just couldn’t, and wouldn’t, put her through that.  She’s my Goddess for a reason.

During mile 18, the legs started to protest their longest run (barring the marathon) since late March.  I wasn’t surprised.  But I also knew that no matter how I felt at that moment, it would change.  But my mind was already made up – I’d go four hours or 20 miles, whichever came first.  Turns out that both happened at the same time.

So I pulled off the track, informed Goddess of my decision and turned my chip in.  Being the Goddess that she is, she pressed me really hard to make sure that I was doing what I needed to do and not doing it because it was suddenly becoming more difficult.  I was quite adamant that I was.  So she acquiesced, helping me pull the shoes off and packing stuff away.

We had a pleasant drive home and slept in bed, instead of a truck or grassy field.

And I’m great with that!

 

A couple of moments:

- Watching the high school cross-country relay team get ready for a night of fun by playing Frisbee and goofing around really took me back to my cross country days.  Those were certainly some good times.

- Watching the volunteer who handed out drinks and food for a couple of hours, then run his leg of his relay team, then get back to the table to serve really impressed me.  He said we were the crazy ones, but I shook his hand for his dedication.

- With the truck parked in the infield and the tailgate facing the track, Goddess got to see the full rhythm of the run, from slow to fast, painful to fluid.  And she certainly helped.  For several laps, she held up pages from her “Shape” magazine to let me enjoy the models as I passed.

- At about three hours into the run, they had piping hot Little Caesar’s pizza delivered.  I’m not a fan, but damn it tasted good at that point.

- At about that same time, the stable workers started showing up.  Apparently they didn’t get the word that we would be using the track, so they stood there for a while trying to figure out what they were going to do, conversing on cell phones and with each other.  But mostly they leaned against the fence and enjoyed watching the women jog by.

- I broke out the mp3 player for this one.  It was a completely closed course and there was plenty of room to maneuver, unlike a trail race, so I brought it along.  Goddess suggested that I put them in, so I did.  But the battery was dead since I hadn’t used it in six months or so.  I guess that should have been something to check on the night before.

 

Closing thought:

Steve Durbin and the crew of the West Kentucky Running Club (WKRC) put on yet another great event.  They were the ones that put on the 60K trail race that I ran in March.  Not only did they put on the event and man the timing station and feed table, they ran the race.  If you are ever in the Paducah area, definitely look to see if they’re holding a race.  You WILL NOT be disappointed.

 

And we’re off to Germany.  See you on the other side.

RUTS

Run Under the Stars starts in just 2.5 hours.

Ten hours (8pm-6am) around a 1/2 mile horse track, which is packed limestone.  Should be interesting, should be boring.  Will be fun.

This is a fun run for me.  I have only very loose goals for this one – set a new distance PR of greater than 41.5 miles, or break 50 miles.

Even if I don’t achieve either one, I’ll be happy with it, considering I haven’t run in almost three weeks, we’ve been extremely busy getting the house packed and shipped to Germany, getting the vehicles to Florida and the shippers and setting everything else up.  In other words, it’s been a very hectic May.  So this is the icing on the cake.

Goddess is humoring me on this one.  She had ultimate veto authority over this one, given the timing.  Over the past couple of days she’s even expressed some doubt over fitting this in amongst the last few days here in country.  But she’s sticking it out with me.

And that’s where goal number three comes in, if neither one of the above look feasible.  Goal number three will be crawling into the car and curling up with Goddess for a couple of hours. 

I hope y’all sleep well.

Breathe!

Seriously, I needed to remind myself (and Goddess) to do just that.

Over the past couple of weeks, post-duathlon and post-CMM, we’ve been busy taking care of vehicles and getting the house packed.

Vehicles?  We had to take my ‘64 Chevy truck down to my parent’s house for storage.  It made it about halfway before the transmission went thermo-nuclear.  Seriously, on the side of the freeway that thing was white hot, boiling off all the transmission fluid.  So we drug it the rest of the way.  Then the Subbie made a trip to St Louis so it could be shipped to Germany.

Then the house was packed.

But in the meantime, a good friend made it to Nashville.  So we made a trip, had some drinks, and enjoyed his reminiscing of growing up in that town while seeing (through his eyes) how things have changed.

Then last Saturday was the Elton John/Billy Joel concert.  Three and a half hours of some of my favorite karaoke songs.  We definitely had a great time.

The last of the moves is tomorrow morning. 

And here’s a pic a couple of hours before the concert.  The shirt says it all (after the sign):

Then we finally made it to the local running club’s monthly meeting.  We got to meet Runnermom, as well as the guy who I suspected was drafting during the duathlon.  I recognized him, then when we met he said “Hey, I read your blog”.  It could have been awkward, but it wasn’t.  Good folks all around.

Finally, over the weekend Goddess prevailed and I finally set up a Facebook account.  It has been everything I feared, namely a huge time suck.  But then again, I’ve already talked to people I haven’t seen in over 20 years, so it’s a good thing.

In the meantime, man I’ve really got to get a run or two in.  Next weekend is the 10-hour overnight “Run Under the Stars”.  I haven’t put a single mile in in the past two weeks thanks to all of the other activities.  Hopefully it just means that I’m well-rested.

I may or may not get a race-report in after that one.  I finish at 6am Sunday morning, run a 5K (Run for Beer) at 5pm Sunday afternoon, then fly to Germany on Tuesday.  So I’ll fit it in when I can.

2009 Clarksville Duathlon

Why couldn’t we have had this weather last weekend.

Overnight there were flood watches and warnings issued.  It pissed down rain pretty much all night.  When we woke up at 5 am, we were drying out, with all of the rain north and south of us.  By the time we left, the hole we were in filled in, so it pissed down rain again.  But no lightning, so all was good.

Transition was set up in the rain.  The pre-race brief was held in the rain.  The start went off in the rain.  And it was 52F.  Perfect.  But it must have scared some folks off.  I don’t know how many registered, but only 24 folks showed up to race – 20 individual competitors and two 2-person teams.

The course was a 2-mile run, a 13.1-mile ride and a 2-mile run.

Mind you, other than four quick 5-mile rides this week to make sure the bike worked properly, this was the first time I had ridden since doing this race a year ago.  I was banking on my running fitness getting me through the bike leg.  Of course, running fitness was highly questionable after last Saturday’s very warm Country Music Marathon.  Typically after a Saturday marathon I’m feeling fine by Tuesday or Wednesday.  Even during a short run yesterday my legs felt like bricks.  So I really had no idea how I’d do today, but that wasn’t a worry.  This is a fun race that is all about going all out.

So the start whistle blew and we were off.  The idea was to get out quickly and then settle down.  Mind you, settle down needed to be right at LTHR.  Actually it ended up a bit higher, with most of the run in Zone 5a:

Run Leg 1, Heart Rate x Distance (with Pace)

Both Goddess and I measured a touch over 2.1 miles for the leg on our Garmin 305’s.

So that was 2.1 miles in 14:59, for an average pace of 7:06/mile and a peak of 5:55/mile,which I used to get ahead of the start line melee.

Arriving at T1, I was fourth overall.  First was way the hell in front, while second and third were about ten seconds ahead.

I forgot how much fun it is to bend over to change shoes while your heart is exploding in your chest.

Out the gate on the bike and I settled in, making sure I didn’t put too much power to the cranks in the opening miles, knowing that this was a rolling 13.1-mile course with a few turns.  Those that pushed hard in the beginning would pay dearly near then end and especially so during the final 2-mile run.

A mile in, a cyclist flew past me like I was standing still, putting me in fifth overall.  He’ll become important later.  Two miles later, I passed the guy in front of me, so I was back in fourth.  By now the rain had stopped, so it was quite pleasant. 

There was a hilarious moment at mile 4.5 as we had to negotiate a hairpin turn onto a new road.  I saw a minivan approaching the stop sign as I was slowing to make the turn.  The lady driver had her window down and was telling the volunteer that he needed to do something about the cyclists, because with the mist in the air we were impossible to see.  Mind you, in my chosen field of meteorology, surface visibility is an important parameter to observe and forecast.  I looked off at the tree line in the distance that I could clearly see, which I estimated to be 1.5-2 miles away.  I couldn’t figure out why I could see those trees, yet she couldn’t see us in the opposite lane.  For the next mile or so I calculated that she must have been traveling in the neighborhood of 750 mph in order to not have the appropriate reaction time.

I want that van!

Anyway, as I said, the course had some rolling hills.  Here’s a shot of the Garmin-calculated grade, with a curve of my speed (blue line) overlaid:

Bike Leg, Grade x Distance (with Speed overlay)

Between miles eight and nine, I was passed, putting me back in fifth.  The much older gentleman that flew by had some speed.  Immediately thereafter, the guy that I passed between miles three and four passed and asked if this was a drafting race.  I found it interesting that he was able to catch and pass me, since he was a couple of hundred yards behind me when I passed the lady with the amazingly fast van and fell ever further behind with each mile after that.  I replied “No, it’s a USAT-rules race”.  He should have known what type of race it was, since they handed out a USAT rule crib sheet with every registration packet.  I passed him a second time about a half-mile later.  I don’t know if he was drafting; only he knows that.  But his bridge up to me was while I was maintaining a 22mph average through that stretch is pretty impressive.

In the last mile, I saw first and second heading out on their last run leg.  Soon after, a woman went flying by too.  Turns out that the guy who flew by me at mile one of the bike leg was part of a team.  So that meant I was fourth overall in the solo division.

And to the right I am on my (archaic by triathlon standards) Softride with old, old-school Spinergy’s as I dismount going into T2. 

I am quite upset that they no longer make those bikes and I can’t have another for my next bike.

Considering that I had only 20 miles in my cycling legs for the past year, I was very, very pleased with my bike leg.  Goddess and I both measured 13.33 on our Garmin’s.  I covered the distance in 40:12, for an average speed of 20.37 mph.  Not too shabby.

I hit T2 in fourth overall and flew through.  The much older gentleman that rolled in to T2 in front of me arrived at least a minute before, but I exited right on his tail and passed him within 100 yards, putting me in third.  Then I settled in to work.  This time I knew I’d be cranking the legs as hard as they’d go.  I focused on my turnover and tried to keep the cadence high.

Run Leg 2, Heart Rate x Distance (with Pace overlay)

We were running out one mile, turning around an orange cone and heading back in.  At about 3/4 mile, I heard feet behind me.  Turns out it was the guy that asked about drafting.  He had some wheels on him.  Much more than I had.  We hit the turnaround at the same time and he pulled steadily away after that.  At this point I settled in for a bit, waiting to see if he would tire.  With a half-mile to go, he did slow, so I ratcheted up the pace.  He turned around and saw me coming, so he picked it up and held me off through the finish line.  So I finished fourth overall amongst the solo racers, first in my age group.

For the last leg, since the exit to transition was in a different place than the start line, I measured the advertised 2-mile run at 2.15 miles, covered in 15:52, for a 7:22/mi average.  Not as evenly paced as the first leg, but still not too shabby.  Especially with the 6:17/mi pace as I crossed the finish line (below left).

This was the second edition of the Clarksville Duathlon.  If you read last year’s race report, you’ll recall that they had some issues, which are to be expected with a first-run event.  I can guarantee you that they more than overcame those issues and put on a high class event this year. 

I also have to give the organizers a huge congratulations for picking such a great cause to give all of the proceeds to – Fisher House.  As you may recall, I ran a donation drive for Fisher House last year as I was preparing to run my 40-miler in Baghdad.  And if you come to this post from my blog’s main page, you’ll see that the link to Fisher House remains in the upper left.  I maintain that it’s a great cause to support, so if you’d like to, please click and donate.  I get nothing from it (I already got my t-shirt), so don’t worry, all of your donation goes directly to Fisher House.

So if you are anywhere near the area next May, I highly recommend this event.  The timing, one week after the Country Music Marathon, is perfect.  It forced me to get out on the bike and spin my legs to loosen them up.

—————————————–

Now it’s time to look forward. 

If you stayed awake through my post about planning and Training Load, you’ll recall the segment on Training Influence.  If you didn’t stay awake that long, the gist of it is that based on my personal recovery rate, the training that would have the most influence on my next race would typically be approximately 28-32 days prior to the race.  After that, there’s diminishing influence until the my taper date, which is typically 10-12 days prior to the race.  After the taper date, no amount of training will have a positive influence on the race, so that’s the time to back off and let the body rest.

Anyway, since my next race is on May 30th, my calculated max training effect date was yesterday.  But I clearly didn’t go out and crank out a 20-miler.  No way.  Not after last week’s very warm marathon.  However, the marathon, even though it took a lot out of me, could have a huge positive influence on the outcome of the race at the end of the month.  Much like the 60K I ran in mid-March had a huge positive influence on my ability to survive last weekend’s very warm marathon.

So if you are in the Paducah, KY area at the end of May, meet me for a fun run, otherwise known as RUTS.  Run five, 13, 26, 50 or 60 miles.  Your call.  But having fun is mandatory.

RUTS

Goddess loves me.

She truly, truly loves me.

 

Why else would she tolerate this stuff? 

A bit of cajoling, but no begging.

 

And you’ll notice that there’s a new race listed to the left.

Run Under the Stars, aka RUTS.

 

Now you might think that this is just another race.  Which it might have been, if not for the timing. 

You see, it’s overnight on 30 May.  Smack dab in the middle of some very, very, very busy weeks.

In the two weeks prior to the race, we’ll have our house completely packed up and moved.  Then the house must be cleaned and vacated.  Son graduates and moves on with his life.  So when race day comes, Goddess and I will already be living in a hotel.  And two days after the race is over, we’ll be on a plane to Germany.

So like I said, Goddess truly, truly loves me.

 

You can click on the pic above to go to the race page, put on by the same great folks that put on the 60K Land Between the Lakes Trail Run.  But I’ll save you a bit of time.  Here’s the description of the race course:

“Carson Park Horse Track, Paducah, KY, is a certified 1/2 mile track composed of dirt and finely crushed limestone. It is groomed daily and will be set up with a 1/2 inch cushion to make it easy on your legs. The track drains well and does not get sloppy, even in the event of rain. Every two hours we will change direction to make up for the slight banking of the track. This lighted jewel is flat, and contains no trip hazards.”

Now that’s an exercise in mental toughness.  Ten hours of going around in circles.  Overnight, when I should be asleep. 

Except this one is flat and soft. 

Should be.

Could be.

May be.

A distance PR.

 

And since it will finish Sunday morning, that means something else entirely.  It’s the last Sunday of the month, which means that the local brew-pub puts on a “Run for Beer” 5K in the afternoon.  A hilly 5K, followed by a free pint of beer.  But only after a little nap.

What a great way to end our stay in Kentucky.

(oops, probably should have clued Goddess in to that part of the plan before posting it to the interweb.)

Sof Sole Adapt Footbeds – Review #2

This is an update of my original review here.

That review was written after the first 100 miles of running.  I now have 338 miles on them, spread over 60 runs since January 1, 2009, including my very wet, very muddy 60K just 11 days ago.

The verdict?  Awesome!

They don’t look much different than they did at 100 miles, which was only slightly different from brand new.  The difference?  There’s slight fraying along the outer edge of the upper layer of fabric.  But it’s nothing that I’d get concerned about.  It’s just a function of my shoes. 

I rotate among at least three pair of running shoes so I’m never running in the same pair of shoes for back-to-back runs.  There are several reasons for this.  Mainly, the shoes last longer.  I retire my shoes with just 300 miles on them, so I’d be buying a new pair of running shoes every 6-7 weeks if I had only one pair.  Also, by letting them rest between runs, the cushioning in the sole has a chance to regain its form (and function).  Also, since I’m such a heavy sweater and have absolutely no issues with running in the pouring rain, it gives the shoes to dry naturally.

So I have 3-4 pair of shoes and only one pair of Sof Sole Adapt Footbeds.  That means I’m sliding in/sliding out the foot beds at least once a day, oftentimes twice a day.  But that’s not a bad thing either, especially since it also gives the beds a chance to dry out between runs.  But that also explains the wear that I’m experiencing.

Physically, the changes that I noticed in the first review hold true.  I’ve pretty much quit needing my foam roller and Stick for my legs and my tennis/golf balls for my plantar fasciitis.  Absolutely no issues any longer with the ITB or PF.  And I’m stronger for it.  With the abuse I’ve put my legs through over the past three months, I’m pretty confident now in saying that the foot beds were a significant part of the change.

Would I buy a few more pair to keep in my shoes?  Absolutely.

In addition to the Adapt Footbeds, I was also given a pair of Sof Sole Athlete insoles and Sof Sole Stability insoles.  I’ve had the Athlete insoles in my work boots, which I wear five days a week.  They’ve held up very well and are very comfortable, even getting me comfortably through several long ruck marches with 35+ pounds on my back.  I have yet to try the Stability insoles, mainly because the ones that I have are geared toward those with a low arch and I have a pretty high arch.  They do make the Stability insoles for both medium and high arches.

I’ve also had a chance to try out their Lite performance socks.  These socks are thin and well constructed.  However, on my first run with them, which was just over six miles, I came back and found a hole in the bottom of my right sock.  It had worn through completely.  However, for me this isn’t an issue with the socks, since I’ve seen it with others as well.  The first time I ran in my beloved Injinji’s (which happened to be a marathon), they had a hole wear through them too.  This isn’t a fault of the socks, it’s a function of my shoes.  In both instances, I wore only the thin socks, instead of my standard thin sock liner (Injinji) inside a pair of cushioned Thorlo’s.  In other words, I have plenty of room in my shoe.

So in both cases, wearing just the thin sock allowed my foot to move around much more than normal, which would lead to increased wear and eventually holes.  Having said that, I think that their socks are quite comfortable and very well constructed. 

Lastly, they provided me a pair of Yaktrax.  Unfortunately, winters here in Kentucky/Tennessee are pretty mild.  We only had one day of measurable snow, so I tucked them in my pocket to try out while I was on a run.  But the snow was melting so quickly that there were few areas that I could strap them on and give them a try.  I would have ended up spending more time running on rocks, gravel and pavement than I would have on ice or snow.  I knew that would tear them up quickly and I wouldn’t be able to give them a fair shake.  But I keep them handy just in case we get another cold shot.

Bottom line?  I am convinced that Sof Sole makes quality products.  And no, I am not getting paid to say that.

LBL 60K – A Day of Mud and Fun

(Written in McCarran Int’l Airport, Las Vegas, NV.  Just a hint – try not to cram yourself into a plane the day after running an ultramarathon.  You just might stiffen up).

WARNING:  This is a fairly long race report, with lots of details.  So for those of you pressed for time, here’s the Cliff Note version:  Bang!, straight, turn, up, down, right, left, up, down, left, right, “on your right”, “on your left”, up, up, up, right, down.  Wash, rinse, repeat three times.  After the third time, turn, straight, go fast, finish.  Whoo Hoo!

Now on to the details.

This run was never an “A” race for me.  It’s always been a “B”, with the overall goal of just finishing.  I’ve run this distance before, but never on trail and never with this much elevation gain.  I did have a vague time goal, but that was mostly to give Goddess a guesstimate on when I’d cross the finish line.  Then she could gauge what kind of day that I was having.  If I didn’t show up around that time, she’d know that things were not going as planned.  If I showed up before, well that was just gravy.

So how did it turn out?

In the week leading up to the race, the forecast was bouncing back and forth between raining or not.  So of course it was raining as Goddess and I drove out to the course.  Looking at the radar before we left, it looked like it would rain for the first few hours, then dry out.  Which is exactly what it did.  I wish it had rained the entire time.

Since we had a big ice storm in early February which closed the entire Land Between the Lakes (LBL) park, I never had a chance to go out and preview the course.  It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t, because it would have made me nervous.  Instead, ignorance truly was bliss.  The course was a challenging one, gaining 3,017’ of elevation in the 60K race.  Luckily it wasn’t steady climbing, but constant ups and downs.  The constant change in the trails did a great job of spreading the load over all of my legs, so I never had a significant fatigue issues.

The rain continued through the start, as expected.  Here I am, just moments from the start.  You can see plenty of rain drops in the picture (and some of the sailboats in the background).

Since it was 39 degrees and raining, I definitely had to wear a jacket.  As you can tell in the picture, it’s an lluminite treated jacket.  In plain daylight, the entire jacket is red.  But when the flash of the camera, or more importantly, the headlight beams of a car, hit the jacket, the Illuminite reflective cells bounce the light back in the direction from which it came.  This specific jacket is covered all over the sleeves as well as down the back. 

So if you’re running, riding or walking at night and you aren’t wearing Illuminite, you’re wrong.  Hundreds of square inches of reflective material covering your body can’t be wrong.  I bought my first Illuminite treated cycling vest back in 1997 and have been a huge fan ever since.  And no, I do not work for the company.  Nor do I get any kick back from them.  But if they were to offer…

Anyway, back to the race.

After a quick huddle at the start line, where the race director used a bullhorn to pass on messages, but pretty much everyone chose to ignore and talk to their friends instead, the gun went off.  And the pace was blistering from the start, with those of us towards the back of the pack holding at solid 13:30/mile pace.  No sense in rushing into these things, right?  Besides, just under two miles into the run we’d all jam into a single-track trail, so there really wasn’t going to much room to move.  With a long day ahead, I found a comfortable spot and stuck to it.  This stuck well with my plan of “Start slow.  Then throttle back”.

But the one thing that I did for this race was revisit my friend, the run/walk strategy.  This time was more aggressive than long runs past, with a six minute run, one minute walk.  The other part of this strategy was that I was going to walk any significant hills, regardless of where I was in my run/walk cycle.  It turned out that on the first lap of the trail, I really didn’t have a choice, since everyone else decided to walk the uphill’s too.  And with no room on either side of the single-track to pass folks, I just fell in line.

Here’s the smoothed elevation map, which is two miles short thanks to my Garmin issues (explained below):

Now that’s a sawtooth!

As expected, the single-track was slickery.  Lots of mud and a few water crossings.  Each would become more significant as the day wore on.  What made it even more interesting were the constant tree roots and rocks.  Some visible, some hidden, all slick with mud.  I saw a couple of impressive face plants during the day; luckily no one was hurt.  And luckily I was not one of those people.

So it was muddy, slick and there were landmines (roots and rocks) everywhere.  To make it even more entertaining, most of the turns were off-camber and the switchbacks were steep.  It did make for many interesting moments.  But at no point did my hands touch earth, unlike the ones who went sprawling.

The loop was about 11 miles long, with aid stations set up every 3-4 miles.  The length of an individual runner’s race dictated how many loops – the half-marathon was one loop, the full marathon was two, the 60K was three and the 50-miler was four.  So as the run went on, the trail emptied considerably.  By about mile 8, we had spread out far enough that I could keep an eye on the folks ahead, but they were far enough away that I didn’t have to worry about them.  Same behind.  But we’d all get bunched up again right after the aid stations.  By the end of the first lap, a huge chunk of the runners headed to the finish line.  So the second loop was pretty sparse as far as runners go.  By the third lap, I’d go for 10-15 minutes at a time between seeing another runner.  It was quite tranquil.  I loved it!

Throughout the course the evidence of last month’s ice storm was apparent.  Trees down everywhere, including across the trail.  Over the past month, a bunch of volunteers got out and cleared the trail, cutting down the unsafe trees and cutting a way through the tree fall so that we wouldn’t have to climb over every single one.  Some stretches of trail were still quite treacherous, especially where the root ball had undercut the trail, then the tree fell in the storm, up heaving the trail and leaving a huge hole .  That situation made for an interesting shuffle through the hole, especially in the mud.

But the conditions didn’t slow some folks down.  I was lapped at about the 22 mile mark, so the couple of guys that cruised by me were either running the 36- or 50-miler.  The third passed as I was swapping out for clean socks at the end of my second lap – he was headed for the finish line for the 60K. That means he finished at least 2.5 hours ahead of me.  Talk about humbling, but he was not my race.  My race was totally internal.  At least until the end.

So when I’d come across another runner, I had choice to pace off them for a while or just try and get around.  The toughest part about pacing off of someone was that you didn’t know what race they were doing.  Thanks to my easy pace at the beginning (start slow, throttle back) I did more passing than being passed.

I had only a couple of physical issues during the race.  At about mile 19 I realized that both of my watches were getting really tight.  I wear my Garmin Forerunner 305 on my left wrist and my Timex Ironman on my right to keep my on my run/walk cycle.  Anyway, they were starting to get uncomfortable, so as I went to adjust them I realized that both of them getting tight.  That meant that my extremities were swelling.  That’s a situation that I recognized immediately as a possible early warning sign of hyponatremia.  I had been drinking frequently, probably more than necessary in the low-40’s and wet conditions.  I had been taking my Endurolytes, but not enough to balance out the amount of water I was taking in.  So I made it a point to not drink anything else for the next 3-4 miles, which worked out well.  The swelling subsided and I made it through with no ill effects.  I continued my feed cycle throughout that period, and luckily didn’t have any gastro issues from not drinking with the food, so apparently I had plenty of fluid in my stomach.  So from that point on I made it a point to not drink as frequently as I normally do.

Right around that same time I felt my right foot starting to get a hot spot.  No surprise, since my shoes and socks had been soaked for the past four hours.  So as soon as I hit the drop bags at the end of the second loop, I swapped socks.  I stuck with my standard – Injinji’s as liners, Thorlo’s as outers.  The combination has served me well for a year now and this day was no different.  With the dry socks, I never had any more foot issues.

Those socks managed to stay dry since the rain tapered off during the second lap.  While this was a good sign, it made conditions much more interesting.  A few of the stretches already had thick mud that had tried to pull my shoes off.  On the third lap, most stretches of mud were that way.  Every foot step was a fight against the mud to get it to release my shoes.  It sure wreaked havoc with trying to keep a rhythm.  But the mud didn’t win.

By the last half of the third loop I started passing the walking dead.  Some folks out there were having a rough go of it.  During one of my walk cycles I talked to a guy who was also doing the 60K and he asked how I could be so fresh.  I explained that it had to be my run/walk cycle.  I quickly explained the concept to him, then the watch went off and it was time to run again.  He tried to keep up, but that lasted all of 10-15 steps.  I didn’t see him again until he walked in to the food area after the finish.

How good was I feeling at this point?  I seriously considered stepping it up to the 50-miler.  They had provisions for racers to step down a distance, but I’m not sure about stepping up a distance.  Plus, Goddess and I already had dinner plans and I still had to pack for this trip, with an early morning flight the next day.  So I stuck to the 60K.  But I’m pretty sure I could have done another lap and kept it under the 11-hour cutoff time.

By the last quarter of the third lap, I was picking up the pace.  Unfortunately, this stretch was also the most technical part of the course, with lots of roots, several drops, a few deep ravines (with some water) and a wall of mud.  I knew that there were other 60K racers in front of me and I made it my mission to hunt each and every one of them down.  They were to be my “victims”.  At this point the race was no longer internal, but totally external.

I hit the end of the third lap, grabbed a quick drink and moved my drop bag to the delivery pile so it would make it back to the finish area.  My first “victim” was dropped right there.  The next was up the road a hundred yards or so and he was dropped quickly.  Over the rise and I saw a string of folks, almost all walking the walk of the dead.  Those that weren’t walking were doing not much better than a shuffle.  Me?  I felt great.  Matter of fact, over the next two miles to the finish line, mostly uphill, I averaged a 7:35/mile pace and pushed my HR right up to my lactate threshold.  And I had a smile on my face the whole way.

I still managed to say a word of encouragement to each and every “victim” as I blew on by.  One guy even exclaimed “Jesus Christ” as I went flying by.  That made me run faster. 

In those last two miles I passed seven runners.  I had my sights on two more, but ran out of distance.  Had we had another quarter mile, I would have got them.  But that’s OK.  I crossed the line grinning from ear to ear.  And that’s the important part.

                                             

On the left is me right after my finish.  I told you I had fun!

On the right are shoes, socks and a Road ID (left ankle).  Really, there’s no need to run in anything else.  And some could argue against the socks and the shoes, but not the Road ID.  If you don’t have one, get one.  Now! 

Race Vignettes:

- All three laps I had to laugh at my reptilian brain.  One single root in the path, at first glance, would trigger the instantaneous “snake” thought deep down, just before my eyes would snap back to it and register it as a root.  The same root.  All three laps.  The shape and color mottling were perfectly boa.  Even though this is definitely the wrong part of the world for a boa.

- At one of the outlying aid stations, I came up upon a women running the 50-miler (I could tell by her race number).  She was having some gastro issues and took advantage of the peanut butter crackers that were offered.  As she ambled off into the woods, she let out one of the loudest belches I have heard.  A few minutes later as I was coming up behind her, another one.  I heard one last one as she faded behind me.  I never did find out if the crackers helped, but she definitely stepped down to the 60K, since Goddess and I saw her in the post-finish food area about 40 minutes after I finished.

- After one of the other outlying aid stations, someone had hung a pair of well-used panties off a tree limb.  Although the sight of them was quite disturbing, it did lend itself to a laugh once each lap.

Official Results:  7:38:31 for 60K.  (here it is Monday evening and the official results aren’t in yet, so I’ll have to wait to post the AG and OA results).

The GBU rundown:

The Good - Everything.  The course, the volunteers, the conditions.  Even my Garmin Foot Pod worked throughout the entire race, even after being dunked in streams over and over again as well as being completely coated in mud.  Run/Walk definitely works for me at these longer distances.  I was fresh, fresh, fresh all the way to the finish.  No bad stretches at all.  And while I’m tired today, I’m not sore.  That’s huge!

The Taper – Thanks to some good tools that I’ve discovered recently, I’ve found that I had been peaking for my races about a week too late, effectively cutting in to my taper and meaning that I was entering my races fatigued.  Along with my modified schedule thanks to this this discovery, my carb and salt load in the days prior were spot on.  Without having a clue as to how I’d do on this course, I finished just eight minutes slower than my guesstimated time that I told Goddess that I’d finish in.  Not too shabby.

A huge hat tip to the several ladies who walked the marathon.  I met the first ones as I finished my second lap.  I passed several more during my third lap.  They were out there for a long day, but each and every one had a smile on her face. 

And an even “huger” hat tip to the volunteers.  Every single one was smiling all day long, even in the cold and pouring rain. 

The Bad – Technical issues with my Garmin.  It turned off a few times; twice my fault, a few more times for some unknown reason.  Also, I lost my HR for a good 2.5 hours in the middle of the race.  I figured that I had pulled a rookie move by not replacing the battery in my HRM strap.  But it came back all of the sudden.  Then dropped out again.  Then back on again.  Then on the rest of the race.  Very strange.  But I’ll change the battery anyway.

To the few that wore their headphones on the single-track and had the volume high enough that they couldn’t hear the calls of “on your left” or “on your right”.  I’m all for using whatever works for you to get through the day, but if you’re gumming up the works because you can’t hear someone calling to pass, you’re wrong!  Full disclosure:  I took my mp3 player along, figuring I might need some motivation during my third lap.  I put the buds in my ear for about three minutes, then took them out.  I hate running with them at any time (except on a dreadmill), so it was more of a distraction than a help.  And at no time during my run with them in was there another runner in sight, either ahead or behind.

The Ugly – Not a single thing.  Well, those panties were, but…

So where does that leave me?  Poised very, very well for my “A” race in just over five weeks – The Country Music Marathon.  Last year’s CMM was a huge PR for me (which I’ve since broke on a much, much hillier course).  This year I’m shooting to beat my PR yet again.