I guess under normal circumstances, this past week would have been used to recover from the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon and taper for the upcoming Bighorn 50 mile. But there's nothing normal about ultra training and, in the spirit of using both of those races as training runs for Lean Horse, it ended up being just another week. Well, just another week with a massive head cold. In June. Which sucks. I had been developing a cough prior to Deadwood, but it really only affected me after I ran, when I would start coughing uncontrollably for a few minutes. In fact, right after finishing the marathon last Sunday, I started coughing so hard I was practically dry heaving. The next day, it went from a cough to a full on head cold, with snot-filled sinuses and massive sinus pressure. I swear I must have blown 10 pounds of snot outta my nose last week. Nice visual, huh? Fortunately, the one time during the day when I really felt pretty good was while I was running. I felt pretty miserable the rest of the week, but at least I got all my runs in. And, as it turns out, I paced Deadwood just right, because I was able to jump right back into training without skipping a beat. Definitely my fastest ever recovery from a marathon.
Monday - Rest. Just my regular Monday rest day. My legs felt a little sore, but not too bad. Certainly not on par with what I usually feel like the day after a marathon.
Tuesday - 9 miles. This would be the test. And I passed. Legs felt a little tight when I started out, but loosened up nicely and ran a really solid 9 miles. In fact, my overall pace was faster than my Deadwood pace.
Wednesday - 10 miles. Another solid run.
Thursday - 4.7 miles total, including the 3.7 mile Dino Hill Trail Race. Dino Hill is the 3rd race in the Black Hills Trail Series and is different in that it's held on a weekday evening rather than a weekend morning. The reason for that is the Summer Nights Festival, which is held every Thursday in Rapid City throughout the summer. So, the idea is to run the race on Dino Hill and then head down to Summer Nights for a free beer. Early in the day, I was wondering if the race would even go down since thunderstorms started popping early in the afternoon and running on top of a hill is pretty much the last place I want to be when lightning is in the area. But, the storms tapered off before the race started, so it was just nice and humid. I felt alright during most of the race, although the course was pretty difficult....probably the most difficult trail race so far with almost constant ups and downs, which makes it hard to get into a good rhythm. My legs did feel kind of heavy and I couldn't push as hard as I know I can, but I still ended up with my best placing so far, 8th overall and 4th in my age group. Even though I didn't feel that bad during the race, as soon as it was over I felt horrible. My legs felt like jello and my gut felt like there was an alien inside trying to gnaw its way out. Not pleasant.
Friday - 8 miles. Still felt kinda crappy, both with sinus pressure and the angry stomach. I seriously considered not running at all, but forced myself to at least give it a try and, amazingly, I actually felt much better while running and finished the 8 miles with no problems.
Saturday - 14.1 miles. It's been awhile since I put together back to back longish runs, so I figured I better get back into it. My legs didn't feel all that great to start out, but the further I ran, the better they felt and the last few miles were actually the best.
Sunday - 26.2 miles. Another week, another marathon. Not officially this time, though. I had planned on 25 miles, but if you're gonna go 25, what's another 1.2? I paced this one like I would an ultra run, 10 minutes running with 2 minutes walking and felt pretty fine the entire way. This makes at least a marathon distance long run in 4 of the last 5 weeks (40, 26.2, 20, 26.2 and 26.2) and, with Bighorn coming up this next weekend, I'll practically get two marathons for the price of one.
Total - 72 miles
So, it turned out to be neither a recovery week or a taper week, which is just fine with me. I'll probably take it a little easier this week to get rested up for my 52 mile jaunt through the Bighorns on Saturday, but I'm trying as much as possible to treat Bighorn as a training run, just as I did Deadwood. A really, really long training run.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Deadwood-Mickelson Race Report
The Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon is the closest thing I have to a hometown marathon. I live about 25 miles north of Deadwood, so this is the one and only marathon where I can sleep in my own bed the night before and be home in time for lunch afterward. That alone would probably motivate me to run this race. The fact that it’s a really well organized event on an absolutely spectacular course is just frosting on the cake.
Unfortunately, I missed out on DMTM the first two years I lived here because I had to go back to Montana that same weekend, first to move the rest of my family out here and then for a sister-in-law’s graduation. So, although this is my fifth June in South Dakota, it was only my third year running one of the DMTM events. Two years ago, I ran the full marathon as a training run before my BQ effort in Missoula five weeks later. That training run ended up being a 3:36:55. Last year, I ran the half marathon instead in the hopes of breaking my extremely stale, nearly two-year old PR and going sub-1:30 in the process. That mission was accomplished as I ran a 1:28:17. This year it was back to the full, which would again serve as a training run but this time for the Bighorn 50 coming up in two weeks and, ultimately, for the Lean Horse 100 at the end of August.
My short history of using the full for training runs and the half for a PR effort makes total sense if you’re familiar with the DMTM course. Almost the entire route, save for a little over a mile at the start of the marathon, is on the Mickelson Trail, which is a rails-to-trails project spanning the Black Hills for 109 miles from north to south. This is really a “trail marathon” in name only. The Mickelson is really more of a glorified dirt road with very gentle, but long, grades. There are no single-track, rocks, roots, stream crossings, or near vertical slopes to speak of. It’s a great running venue, but lends itself to faster times than a typical trail marathon might. Having said that, though, the full marathon course isn’t necessarily a fast one. From mile one through about 13.5, it’s an almost constant, albeit gradual, uphill. At times, you can barely even tell you’re going up and at others it’s more noticeable. It’s not enough to grind you into the ground, but it does slow you down some. After topping out, the route heads downhill for the majority of the second half, save for a mile stretch of very gradual uphill from about 19-20. It’s definitely a course begging to be negative split as long as you don’t go too crazy in the first half. The half marathon course, on the other hand, is lightning fast. It starts at the halfway point of the marathon, so after a brief, gentle uphill you drop down for most of the rest of the way.
This was my lucky 13th marathon overall and would be my first since Missoula in July of last year, so I was kind of itching to lace em up and go. Consequently, I was worried about letting the excitement of the moment get the best of me and pushing too hard. Based on my experience at DMTM two years ago, I figured a finish time in the 3:30-3:45 range would be reasonable and would likely allow me to continue on with my ultra training just as I would after any other long run. In the spirit of ultra training, I decided to try and make sure I wouldn’t run too fast at DMTM by logging a solid 10 miler the day before. I then drove down to Deadwood and worked at the marathon expo handing out bibs for 5 hours before going to run the last 2K of the Kids Marathon with my son and then heading back home for my daughter’s 5th birthday party. Exactly the kind of day you would want to avoid at all costs if you were running a goal marathon the next day, but I tried my hardest to think of DMTM as a long run and not a race.
My wife, who ran the half marathon, and I were up bright and early to drive to Deadwood and hop on the buses to our respective start lines. I felt pretty relaxed and my legs felt surprisingly good considering the long day they’d endured on Saturday. We arrived at the start line in Rochford (population 5, give or take) with plenty of time to spare and thankfully, unlike the last two years, it wasn’t totally freezing ass cold outside, so it was actually kind of pleasant hanging out and talking with a few other people I knew who were running the marathon. Just before 8:00 we were herded onto the road and in short time were off for Deadwood.
Since I’m such a totally awesome and thoughtful husband, I gave my Garmin to my wife for the day since she had a more tangible goal in mind. Ironically, the first marathon I ever ran with the Garmin was DMTM two years ago and this would be the first time I had run any race without it since then. To be honest, I felt a little naked and vulnerable not knowing what my pace was at any given time. I mean, I did have my Timex Ironman watch on so I could see where I was at each mile marker, but it didn’t help that the mile markers were almost certainly off in a few places. I’ve been running long enough to know the difference between 7:29 and 9:05 pace, and I can guarantee that I was alternating between the two on consecutive miles. So, take these splits with a grain of salt.
1 – 7:53 Don’t know if this was off or not, but much faster than I want to be going.
2 – 7:29 Almost certainly too short.
3 – 9:05 Yup, it was. Ran briefly with a guy I know, Phil, who was running his first marathon and hoping to
break 4 hours. He ended up with a 3:55. Nice job, Phil!
4 – 8:54 Stopped here to take a leak.
5 – 8:32
6 –9:27 Uh….what? Had to be long, which means the last one must’ve been short.
7 – 8:49 More reasonable. Started running and talking with two other guys. One of them is also
running his first marathon, hoping for sub-4.
8 – 8:48
9 – 8:37
10 – 8:38 Left the two guys behind. The first timer ended up with a 3:49.
11 – 8:10 Seems a little too fast for an uphill mile.
12 – 8:20
13 – 8:31
14 – 8:32
15 – 8:16 On the downhill now and actually expected a faster split.
16 – 8:15
17 – 8:28 Went through a little rough patch for the next few miles.
18 – 8:26
19 – 8:27
20 – 8:39 This mile was mostly uphill again.
21 – 8:08 The uphill is followed by a fairly steep, but short downhill.
22 – 7:51 A more gradual downhill now and I’m starting to feel pretty good.
23 – 8:35 Inexplicably slow.
24 – 7:51 Feeling REALLY good now. Guess I might as well push a little.
25 – 7:25 Effortless. And I’m passing a lot of people.
26 – 7:17 Starting to feel some strain, but my legs feel pretty good, I’m passing people and I’m almost
done.
26.2 – 1:23 (6:55 pace)
Chip time – 3:38:58
1st half split – 1:52:17
2nd half split – 1:46:41
38th out of 326 overall
8th out of 34 in my AG
So, basically, just how I planned it. I really didn’t think I’d have that much energy at the end after all the time I spent on my feet the day before, but it was there so I decided to take advantage of it. It’s not every day you can run the last three miles of a marathon the fastest and still feel good at the finish. A look through the results shows that I passed 20 marathoners in the 2nd half and got passed once, by a guy who blew by me in the final mile, so he must’ve been doing sub-7 pace. And, more importantly, as I sit here the next morning my legs don’t feel any worse off than they typically do after a long run. Mission accomplished. Next up, the Bighorn 50 in 12 short days…
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Racing fool
It just dawned on me that by the time the Bighorn 50 is done in a couple of weeks, I will have run 5 races in a 4 week span:
May 23 - Alkali Cr.
May 30 - Fat Tire
June 6 - Deadwood-Mickelson
June 10 - Dino Hill
June 19 - Bighorn
A grand total of about 93.2 miles of racing. This isn't necessarily problematic, just a higher volume of racing than I think I've ever done before. Of course, it's not like I'm going for a PR at Deadwood and a "fast" time at Bighorn. Both of those are intended to be long training runs (in the case of Bighorn, really long). Now I'm just wondering what the hell I'm going to do between Bighorn and the Missoula Marathon on July 11th....I'm going to feel lost!
May 23 - Alkali Cr.
May 30 - Fat Tire
June 6 - Deadwood-Mickelson
June 10 - Dino Hill
June 19 - Bighorn
A grand total of about 93.2 miles of racing. This isn't necessarily problematic, just a higher volume of racing than I think I've ever done before. Of course, it's not like I'm going for a PR at Deadwood and a "fast" time at Bighorn. Both of those are intended to be long training runs (in the case of Bighorn, really long). Now I'm just wondering what the hell I'm going to do between Bighorn and the Missoula Marathon on July 11th....I'm going to feel lost!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Ups and downs
I guess that title pretty well describes most trail runs. You run up. You run down. Repeat. As I've said before on here, it also describes my running in general. I typically have a couple of weeks where I feel great followed by a couple where I feel not so great. Sometimes, it's a day to day thing too. It's amazing how great you can feel one day and how horrible you can feel the next. Such are the mysteries of running, I guess. In any case, that's kind of how this past week was. More on that later.
It occurred to me early in the week that if I ran a 26.2 mile (or longer) long run this weekend it would make for 4 weeks in a row that I ran at least a marathon (40 miles two weeks ago, 26.2 last week, another 26.2 this week and then Deadwood-Mickelson next weekend). I heavily considered doing it just for shits and giggles, but the running gods conspired against me. More on that later too.
Monday - No running, played basketball and managed not to re-tweak my touchy left calf. Small victories.
Tuesday - 9 miles. Felt absolutely effortless, the awesome cruise control feeling you get that is the reason why I run (it's my definition of the elusive "runner's high"). I felt like I should probably pull back and slow down, but I just couldn't.
Wednesday - 10.2 miles. Not nearly as effortless. No runner's high today. It didn't feel bad, mind you, but I actually had to try (God forbid).
Thursday - 6 miles. HOT. What the hell? Is it summer all of a sudden? It actually wasn't THAT hot, maybe mid-70s, but the humidity was much higher than is typical around here and the combination of the two wasn't cool (no pun intended). I had planned on 8 but settled on just 6 soon after I started but then I actually ended up running into a slight breeze on the way back and probably could've done 8 fairly easily, but whatever.
Friday - 20 miles. Another hot and sticky day, so I headed up into the Hills in the hopes of cooler, dryer conditions and, maybe, a trail marathon. Turns out, it was a little cooler and noticeably less humid in the high country, but the 26.2 miler was not in the cards. I ran three separate trail loops - the Old Baldy, Rimrock and Little Spearfish trails - and right from the beginning, my legs felt horrible. Not painful, just like they were totally sapped of energy. I was able to chug along, running the flats and downhills and hiking the uphills (of which there were many) and eventually arrived back at my car after 20 miles and called it good. Another 6.2 miles did not sound appealing, or seem really necessary, at that point.
Saturday - 9.1 miles. Didn't feet as good as Tuesday, but much better than Friday, so I guess that's something. I actually only planned on running 8 but misjudged my loop and ended up with a bonus mile. Oh well.
Sunday - 5.5 miles total, including the 3.4 mile Fat Tire Trail Challenge. Fat Tire is the 2nd race in the Black Hills Trail Series and is held in conjunction with the Fat Tire Festival of mountain biking in Rapid City. The trail race is held on M Hill in Rapid City, which is spiderwebbed with a series of great running/biking trails. I had no idea how my legs would feel, but it turns out they felt pretty good....similar to last week at Alkali Cr, which was also just a couple of days after a long run. The race itself went uphill for the first 2+ miles before dropping down the other side of the hill. And when I say "dropping" I mean it. The downhill route took us down Dirk's Draw, which is normally closed to runners/hikers and features steep pitches and several jumps that were built into the trail for the crazy ass downhill mountain bikers (you couldn't pay me to ride a bike down that thing). It was a fine line between hammering the downhill and skidding off trail on one of the many tight switchbacks. Heading up the hill, I was outside the top 10 for much of the way but towards the top started picking off a few runners. Just before cresting the ridge, I got passed by one guy who pulled away on the downhill. About halfway down the downhill another guy passed me and I didn't have the downhill skills to keep him in range. I thought I was fairly secure in my position at that point, but as we drew nearer to the bottom, and the finish, I noticed that two other guys were closing in. The last 0.4 or so was as much of a dead sprint as I could manage without wiping out. I could hear people cheering below as others were finishing, but I couldn't see the finish yet and I knew the two behind me were getting closer and closer. Finally, I came around a switchback and saw one final straight stretch to the finish and managed to outsprint my two pursuers and finish 2 seconds ahead of them. If the race would've been much longer, I would've been screwed. Ended up 9th overall and 5th in my division.
Total - 59.8 miles
So, coming up this weekend is the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon, my first marathon since Missoula last July. I've run the full once before, two years ago, and the half last year. My strategy this year will be similar to the other time I ran the full: take it easy and don't kill myself. Last time, the full was a training run before another, ultimately successful, BQ attempt in Missoula. This time, it's a training run for the Bighorn 50 mile, which is in turn a training run for the Lean Horse 100. Since Bighorn is just 13 days after Deadwood, I don't planning on setting any land speed records this weekend. Two years ago I ran a 3:36:55 at Deadwood. That time, or even slower, would work just fine for me this year. If I'm unable to jump right back into training come next Tuesday (after my usual rest day on Monday), then I've effed up. Stay tuned...
It occurred to me early in the week that if I ran a 26.2 mile (or longer) long run this weekend it would make for 4 weeks in a row that I ran at least a marathon (40 miles two weeks ago, 26.2 last week, another 26.2 this week and then Deadwood-Mickelson next weekend). I heavily considered doing it just for shits and giggles, but the running gods conspired against me. More on that later too.
Monday - No running, played basketball and managed not to re-tweak my touchy left calf. Small victories.
Tuesday - 9 miles. Felt absolutely effortless, the awesome cruise control feeling you get that is the reason why I run (it's my definition of the elusive "runner's high"). I felt like I should probably pull back and slow down, but I just couldn't.
Wednesday - 10.2 miles. Not nearly as effortless. No runner's high today. It didn't feel bad, mind you, but I actually had to try (God forbid).
Thursday - 6 miles. HOT. What the hell? Is it summer all of a sudden? It actually wasn't THAT hot, maybe mid-70s, but the humidity was much higher than is typical around here and the combination of the two wasn't cool (no pun intended). I had planned on 8 but settled on just 6 soon after I started but then I actually ended up running into a slight breeze on the way back and probably could've done 8 fairly easily, but whatever.
Friday - 20 miles. Another hot and sticky day, so I headed up into the Hills in the hopes of cooler, dryer conditions and, maybe, a trail marathon. Turns out, it was a little cooler and noticeably less humid in the high country, but the 26.2 miler was not in the cards. I ran three separate trail loops - the Old Baldy, Rimrock and Little Spearfish trails - and right from the beginning, my legs felt horrible. Not painful, just like they were totally sapped of energy. I was able to chug along, running the flats and downhills and hiking the uphills (of which there were many) and eventually arrived back at my car after 20 miles and called it good. Another 6.2 miles did not sound appealing, or seem really necessary, at that point.
Saturday - 9.1 miles. Didn't feet as good as Tuesday, but much better than Friday, so I guess that's something. I actually only planned on running 8 but misjudged my loop and ended up with a bonus mile. Oh well.
Sunday - 5.5 miles total, including the 3.4 mile Fat Tire Trail Challenge. Fat Tire is the 2nd race in the Black Hills Trail Series and is held in conjunction with the Fat Tire Festival of mountain biking in Rapid City. The trail race is held on M Hill in Rapid City, which is spiderwebbed with a series of great running/biking trails. I had no idea how my legs would feel, but it turns out they felt pretty good....similar to last week at Alkali Cr, which was also just a couple of days after a long run. The race itself went uphill for the first 2+ miles before dropping down the other side of the hill. And when I say "dropping" I mean it. The downhill route took us down Dirk's Draw, which is normally closed to runners/hikers and features steep pitches and several jumps that were built into the trail for the crazy ass downhill mountain bikers (you couldn't pay me to ride a bike down that thing). It was a fine line between hammering the downhill and skidding off trail on one of the many tight switchbacks. Heading up the hill, I was outside the top 10 for much of the way but towards the top started picking off a few runners. Just before cresting the ridge, I got passed by one guy who pulled away on the downhill. About halfway down the downhill another guy passed me and I didn't have the downhill skills to keep him in range. I thought I was fairly secure in my position at that point, but as we drew nearer to the bottom, and the finish, I noticed that two other guys were closing in. The last 0.4 or so was as much of a dead sprint as I could manage without wiping out. I could hear people cheering below as others were finishing, but I couldn't see the finish yet and I knew the two behind me were getting closer and closer. Finally, I came around a switchback and saw one final straight stretch to the finish and managed to outsprint my two pursuers and finish 2 seconds ahead of them. If the race would've been much longer, I would've been screwed. Ended up 9th overall and 5th in my division.
Total - 59.8 miles
So, coming up this weekend is the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon, my first marathon since Missoula last July. I've run the full once before, two years ago, and the half last year. My strategy this year will be similar to the other time I ran the full: take it easy and don't kill myself. Last time, the full was a training run before another, ultimately successful, BQ attempt in Missoula. This time, it's a training run for the Bighorn 50 mile, which is in turn a training run for the Lean Horse 100. Since Bighorn is just 13 days after Deadwood, I don't planning on setting any land speed records this weekend. Two years ago I ran a 3:36:55 at Deadwood. That time, or even slower, would work just fine for me this year. If I'm unable to jump right back into training come next Tuesday (after my usual rest day on Monday), then I've effed up. Stay tuned...
Monday, May 24, 2010
Off to the races
Almost as important as completing a 40 mile run last week was finding out how my body would respond this week. I knew I'd probably be a little sore and stiff early in the week, and I was, but I was hoping to bounce back and get a good long run in later in the week AND have some energy left for a strong trail race to close the week out. That seems like asking for a lot, but for the most part it actually worked out.
Monday - Rest. I did play basketball, which may or may not have been a good idea. A few minutes into it, I stopped suddenly to grab a loose ball and felt my left calf pop and big knot form. This happens quite often, almost always in my left calf. It didn't stop me from playing, but it was sore and did slow me down some.
Tuesday - 9 miles. I wasn't sure how this was going to go with the sore left calf from basketball and a lingering soreness/tightness in my right knee from the 40 miler on Sunday. But, it actually went fairly well considering. The soreness was there as background noise, but didn't really affect me. This was also my first run in my brand new Nike LunarFly shoes. They are nice. Real nice. Although, the only color left in my size was black with a red midsole, which makes them look like Air Jordans, but they feel good, so I guess I can live with that.
Wednesday - 6.1 miles in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. I ran my first double in a long time for a couple of reasons. First, I ended up having to drop my son off at school in the morning and my wife was also running in the morning, so I was pinched for time. Second, when I did start my morning run, I was noticeably more sore than I had been the day before, so I decided to take it easy and split the run up.
Thursday - 8.1 miles. Decided to get back in the habit of running on trails on Thursdays, so headed up to the Tinton trail just outside of Spearfish. Got about 1/4 mile up the trail and ran into some loggers cutting timber along the trail and was forced to turn back. Got back in the car, drove back into town and headed to the Lookout Mtn. trails instead and ended up running all the way up to the summit for the first time (I've hiked up there a couple of times, but never run to the top).
Friday - 26.2 miles. Yup, I ran a marathon. Not an official one, just my own personal marathon for the hell of it. I had planned on running 25 miles, so what's another 1.2? I headed back to Deadwood to run on the Mickelson trail, hoping that the snow was gone by now (a few weeks ago I got turned back by knee deep snow across the trail). Although the trail was wet from rain the night before, it was in good shape and the snow was gone. I started my run at the Deadwood trailhead, which is also the finish line for the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon that is coming up in a couple of weeks, and ran up to the half marathon start line and then back down. I say "up" to the start line because it is up, although fairly gradual, pretty much the entire way save for a mile or so stretch of downhill about halfway. Conversely, that means it was almost all downhill on the way back to Deadwood and, as a result, I ended up posting a 9 minute negative split even though I most definitely was not pushing hard....I maintained my run/walk ratio of 10 minutes to 2 minutes the entire way. The 9 minutes difference was purely due to gravity lending a hand.
Saturday - 6 miles. Felt pretty tired and sluggish most of the day and did not really feel like running at all, but I figured I needed to get the blood flowing after the marathon the day before, so I forced myself out the door and it turned out being a fairly good run, which oddly enough is often the case in that situation.
Sunday - 9.3 miles total including the 8 mile Alkali Creek trail race. For the 2nd year in a row, the Black Hills Trail Series kicked off on my birthday, although with a different race than last year. The Alkali Creek race is a new one to the series, but I was fairly familiar with the course after running it twice with the race director, Ryan, who is also my occasional Lean Horse training partner. It's an out and back course, 4 miles up the hill (about 1000 ft. elevation gain) and then back down. Based on those two runs, and the fact that I had just run 26.2 miles two days before, I was expecting to finish somewhere in the 1:15 range. As it turns out, my legs actually felt really good when I woke up and the lingering soreness in my calf and knee were magically gone. A birthday present from the running gods?? After a short warmup jog with another local runner, Luke, we lined up for the start and were off up the hill. I was immediately in 8th or 9th place as a group of faster guys took off ahead. Rains the night before had muddied the trail up some, especially in the lower section that didn't have any tree cover, but it wasn't horrible and the creek crossing about 1/2 mile into it allowed us to rinse the mud off. The first mile was a gentler uphill and I covered it at a decent trail pace for me. Miles 2-4 are where the uphill grind really begins as the trail switchbacks up the ridge. Steep, very slow pitches were alternated with more gradual and even flattish sections where I could open up some. My mission was to maintain a sensible pace that allowed me to run the entire way and push it at least a little on the less steep sections. During that uphill stretch I got passed a few times, but also passed a couple of other guys. By the time I reached the turnaround on the ridgeline, I was right behind a local runner, Joe, and had another guy breathing down my neck. As we headed downhill, both Joe and I opened it up and pushed the pace, leaving the other guy behind. I pushed the downhill as much as I dared but no matter what I did, it seemed like Joe was able to maintain the gap between us. I was fairly confident that if I could keep that gap small, I might be able to catch him when the trail flattened out some near the finish, but after a mile and a half or so of pounding the downhill, my legs threw in the white flag and I was forced to back off and watch Joe pull away. When we did hit that flatter section I was able to push the pace again and I think I closed the gap a little on him, but it was too little too late at that point. Final result was 11th overall and 5th in my division with a 1:07:25, a solid 7+ minutes faster than I thought I would run. So basically, I ran faster than I thought I would, but also finished lower in the standings than I expected. You take the good with the bad, I guess. Looks like I'll have my work cut out for me defending my division title from last year, especially with the bulk of my training focusing on endurance more so than speed (excuses, excuses...;) ).
Total - 68.7 miles
Monday - Rest. I did play basketball, which may or may not have been a good idea. A few minutes into it, I stopped suddenly to grab a loose ball and felt my left calf pop and big knot form. This happens quite often, almost always in my left calf. It didn't stop me from playing, but it was sore and did slow me down some.
Tuesday - 9 miles. I wasn't sure how this was going to go with the sore left calf from basketball and a lingering soreness/tightness in my right knee from the 40 miler on Sunday. But, it actually went fairly well considering. The soreness was there as background noise, but didn't really affect me. This was also my first run in my brand new Nike LunarFly shoes. They are nice. Real nice. Although, the only color left in my size was black with a red midsole, which makes them look like Air Jordans, but they feel good, so I guess I can live with that.
Wednesday - 6.1 miles in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. I ran my first double in a long time for a couple of reasons. First, I ended up having to drop my son off at school in the morning and my wife was also running in the morning, so I was pinched for time. Second, when I did start my morning run, I was noticeably more sore than I had been the day before, so I decided to take it easy and split the run up.
Thursday - 8.1 miles. Decided to get back in the habit of running on trails on Thursdays, so headed up to the Tinton trail just outside of Spearfish. Got about 1/4 mile up the trail and ran into some loggers cutting timber along the trail and was forced to turn back. Got back in the car, drove back into town and headed to the Lookout Mtn. trails instead and ended up running all the way up to the summit for the first time (I've hiked up there a couple of times, but never run to the top).
Friday - 26.2 miles. Yup, I ran a marathon. Not an official one, just my own personal marathon for the hell of it. I had planned on running 25 miles, so what's another 1.2? I headed back to Deadwood to run on the Mickelson trail, hoping that the snow was gone by now (a few weeks ago I got turned back by knee deep snow across the trail). Although the trail was wet from rain the night before, it was in good shape and the snow was gone. I started my run at the Deadwood trailhead, which is also the finish line for the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon that is coming up in a couple of weeks, and ran up to the half marathon start line and then back down. I say "up" to the start line because it is up, although fairly gradual, pretty much the entire way save for a mile or so stretch of downhill about halfway. Conversely, that means it was almost all downhill on the way back to Deadwood and, as a result, I ended up posting a 9 minute negative split even though I most definitely was not pushing hard....I maintained my run/walk ratio of 10 minutes to 2 minutes the entire way. The 9 minutes difference was purely due to gravity lending a hand.
Saturday - 6 miles. Felt pretty tired and sluggish most of the day and did not really feel like running at all, but I figured I needed to get the blood flowing after the marathon the day before, so I forced myself out the door and it turned out being a fairly good run, which oddly enough is often the case in that situation.
Sunday - 9.3 miles total including the 8 mile Alkali Creek trail race. For the 2nd year in a row, the Black Hills Trail Series kicked off on my birthday, although with a different race than last year. The Alkali Creek race is a new one to the series, but I was fairly familiar with the course after running it twice with the race director, Ryan, who is also my occasional Lean Horse training partner. It's an out and back course, 4 miles up the hill (about 1000 ft. elevation gain) and then back down. Based on those two runs, and the fact that I had just run 26.2 miles two days before, I was expecting to finish somewhere in the 1:15 range. As it turns out, my legs actually felt really good when I woke up and the lingering soreness in my calf and knee were magically gone. A birthday present from the running gods?? After a short warmup jog with another local runner, Luke, we lined up for the start and were off up the hill. I was immediately in 8th or 9th place as a group of faster guys took off ahead. Rains the night before had muddied the trail up some, especially in the lower section that didn't have any tree cover, but it wasn't horrible and the creek crossing about 1/2 mile into it allowed us to rinse the mud off. The first mile was a gentler uphill and I covered it at a decent trail pace for me. Miles 2-4 are where the uphill grind really begins as the trail switchbacks up the ridge. Steep, very slow pitches were alternated with more gradual and even flattish sections where I could open up some. My mission was to maintain a sensible pace that allowed me to run the entire way and push it at least a little on the less steep sections. During that uphill stretch I got passed a few times, but also passed a couple of other guys. By the time I reached the turnaround on the ridgeline, I was right behind a local runner, Joe, and had another guy breathing down my neck. As we headed downhill, both Joe and I opened it up and pushed the pace, leaving the other guy behind. I pushed the downhill as much as I dared but no matter what I did, it seemed like Joe was able to maintain the gap between us. I was fairly confident that if I could keep that gap small, I might be able to catch him when the trail flattened out some near the finish, but after a mile and a half or so of pounding the downhill, my legs threw in the white flag and I was forced to back off and watch Joe pull away. When we did hit that flatter section I was able to push the pace again and I think I closed the gap a little on him, but it was too little too late at that point. Final result was 11th overall and 5th in my division with a 1:07:25, a solid 7+ minutes faster than I thought I would run. So basically, I ran faster than I thought I would, but also finished lower in the standings than I expected. You take the good with the bad, I guess. Looks like I'll have my work cut out for me defending my division title from last year, especially with the bulk of my training focusing on endurance more so than speed (excuses, excuses...;) ).
Total - 68.7 miles
Monday, May 17, 2010
40 miles of fun
I'm pretty sure I did something this week that I've never done while training. Well, I know for sure I did one thing I've never done during training, which is to run 40 miles in a single run. But I also think this is the first time I've had a single long run exceed my mileage for the rest of the week (40 miles on Sunday vs. 38.8 for the six days prior). It probably happened when I ran the Lean Horse 50 last year, but that wasn't a training run, it was a goal race. Regardless, since I already killed the suspense and mentioned the 40 miler, here's how the rest of the week shook out.
Monday - Rest. Played basketball at lunchtime.
Tuesday - 9 miles. Nothing spectacular, but I did feel pretty good.
Wednesday - 8.6 miles with 8 hill intervals. It was snowing pretty hard, but it was warm enough that it wasn't sticking to the streets. The hill I ran was about 2/10 of a mile long and basically I sprinted up it and then jogged back down for recovery and repeated.
Thursday - 10.1 miles. It was overcast when I started and then about 4 miles in I felt a few rain drops and then it started sleeting.....hard. Sleet hurts. Especially in the eyes.
Friday - 6.1 miles. Recovery.
Saturday - 5 miles. More recovery. Didn't have time for my long run on Saturday (like I would prefer) because of soccer/rugby/grocery shopping. I know the "didn't have time" excuse is a classic when it comes to running, but when your planned run is going to last about 6.5 hours, then it becomes a valid excuse.
Sunday - 40 miles. My goal when I started training for the Lean Horse 100 was to get in at least three runs of 40 miles or more. This was the first of those and, with the Bighorn 50 just a month away, would also serve as my longest long run before that race. As with my other long runs, I implemented a run/walk ratio of 10 minutes to 2 minutes right from the start. I had my hydration pack with 70 oz. of water, a handheld bottle with 22 oz. of Perpetuem, a gel flask filled with Hammer Gel and some S-caps to prevent cramping. I started off with two big loops of just over 10 miles each and ended up back at home after 21 miles so I could refill the Perpetuem bottle and gel flask and top off my water pack. Then I headed out for an 18 mile loop that would bring me within spitting distance of 40 when I got back to town. As might be expected, things started getting a little rough during that last big loop. At around 32 miles, my stomach started expressing some dissatisfaction with the way things were going. Oddly enough, the slight nausea was only noticeable when I was walking. Once I started running again, my stomach felt fine, but of course by that point my legs were also bitching, especially when I was running so it was pretty much damned if I do, damned if I don't. Regardless, I made it back to town, ran an extra mile to get to 40 and was done, 6:26:21 (9:40 pace) after I started. If I had run 10 more miles at that pace, I would've broken my 50 mile PR by 90 minutes.
Two big positives from this run were that my pace was pretty steady throughout. Yeah, it drifted slightly toward the end, but my running pace didn't drift too much....early on I was running at about 9:00 pace and toward the end it was more like 9:10. I think my walking pace is actually where I started to slow down some as I was getting lazy toward the end and not pushing the walking pace as hard as I did early on. The other positive is that I didn't really feel that bad afterward. In fact, after sitting for awhile and watching a couple of periods of the Sharks-Blackhawks game, I got up and mowed the lawn and today my legs don't really feel any worse than they do after a 20 miler.
Total - 78.8 miles
All in all, a really good week. My legs felt great during the weekday runs and I was able to hammer out a solid long run. This is a week where I feel like I made some progress, which is good because a couple of weeks ago that wasn't the case.
Coming up this week is my first big race of the year, the Alkali Creek Trail Run on Sunday (which also happens to be my birthday). Alkali Cr. is the first race in the 2010 Black Hills Trail Series. I'm not really sure what to expect mostly because it's so hard to predict who will show up competition-wise. I could be anywhere from top 3 to barely top 10. One advantage is that I know the course since I've run it twice in the last month and a half. But, I'm still not sure I've got my trail legs going as well as they could be, especially since the winter-like weather kept me off the trails all of last week, so the entirely uphill first half might take its toll. I guess there's only one way to find out...
Monday - Rest. Played basketball at lunchtime.
Tuesday - 9 miles. Nothing spectacular, but I did feel pretty good.
Wednesday - 8.6 miles with 8 hill intervals. It was snowing pretty hard, but it was warm enough that it wasn't sticking to the streets. The hill I ran was about 2/10 of a mile long and basically I sprinted up it and then jogged back down for recovery and repeated.
Thursday - 10.1 miles. It was overcast when I started and then about 4 miles in I felt a few rain drops and then it started sleeting.....hard. Sleet hurts. Especially in the eyes.
Friday - 6.1 miles. Recovery.
Saturday - 5 miles. More recovery. Didn't have time for my long run on Saturday (like I would prefer) because of soccer/rugby/grocery shopping. I know the "didn't have time" excuse is a classic when it comes to running, but when your planned run is going to last about 6.5 hours, then it becomes a valid excuse.
Sunday - 40 miles. My goal when I started training for the Lean Horse 100 was to get in at least three runs of 40 miles or more. This was the first of those and, with the Bighorn 50 just a month away, would also serve as my longest long run before that race. As with my other long runs, I implemented a run/walk ratio of 10 minutes to 2 minutes right from the start. I had my hydration pack with 70 oz. of water, a handheld bottle with 22 oz. of Perpetuem, a gel flask filled with Hammer Gel and some S-caps to prevent cramping. I started off with two big loops of just over 10 miles each and ended up back at home after 21 miles so I could refill the Perpetuem bottle and gel flask and top off my water pack. Then I headed out for an 18 mile loop that would bring me within spitting distance of 40 when I got back to town. As might be expected, things started getting a little rough during that last big loop. At around 32 miles, my stomach started expressing some dissatisfaction with the way things were going. Oddly enough, the slight nausea was only noticeable when I was walking. Once I started running again, my stomach felt fine, but of course by that point my legs were also bitching, especially when I was running so it was pretty much damned if I do, damned if I don't. Regardless, I made it back to town, ran an extra mile to get to 40 and was done, 6:26:21 (9:40 pace) after I started. If I had run 10 more miles at that pace, I would've broken my 50 mile PR by 90 minutes.
Two big positives from this run were that my pace was pretty steady throughout. Yeah, it drifted slightly toward the end, but my running pace didn't drift too much....early on I was running at about 9:00 pace and toward the end it was more like 9:10. I think my walking pace is actually where I started to slow down some as I was getting lazy toward the end and not pushing the walking pace as hard as I did early on. The other positive is that I didn't really feel that bad afterward. In fact, after sitting for awhile and watching a couple of periods of the Sharks-Blackhawks game, I got up and mowed the lawn and today my legs don't really feel any worse than they do after a 20 miler.
Total - 78.8 miles
All in all, a really good week. My legs felt great during the weekday runs and I was able to hammer out a solid long run. This is a week where I feel like I made some progress, which is good because a couple of weeks ago that wasn't the case.
Coming up this week is my first big race of the year, the Alkali Creek Trail Run on Sunday (which also happens to be my birthday). Alkali Cr. is the first race in the 2010 Black Hills Trail Series. I'm not really sure what to expect mostly because it's so hard to predict who will show up competition-wise. I could be anywhere from top 3 to barely top 10. One advantage is that I know the course since I've run it twice in the last month and a half. But, I'm still not sure I've got my trail legs going as well as they could be, especially since the winter-like weather kept me off the trails all of last week, so the entirely uphill first half might take its toll. I guess there's only one way to find out...
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Better late than never
Holy crap. I'm a little behind here, I guess. Since I totally spaced posting last week, I guess you get a two for one deal this week. The problem with that is that I'll actually have to try and remember what in the hell went on two weeks ago. I've got the mileage written down, but any details about specific runs might be sketchy at best, so I guess I'll just have to make something up. Okay, here goes...
Monday (Apr 26) - Rest. Played some basketball.
Tuesday (Apr 27) - 7.2 miles. Met up with Ryan Hall for a short recovery run. He told me all the super secrets of elite marathoners. Or maybe I just ran around Belle alone in the dark. Can't really remember....
Wednesday (Apr 28) - 10 miles. This one I do remember because it blew chunks. I ran a progression run and while I was able to ratchet the speed up at least 15 seconds every mile, it felt like crap and I didn't go as fast as I normally do for such a run, but the effort felt much harder.
Thursday (Apr 29) - 8.5 miles. If I remember correctly, I headed up Lookout Mtn. and it went fairly well. Much better than the progression run the day before.
Friday (Apr 30) - 6.3 miles. Another run with Ryan Hall. Or by myself. You decide.
Saturday (May 1) - 20 miles. Another one I remember, not so much because I felt like crap (I didn't) but because the weather was crap. Shannon ran a 5K in the morning in Spearfish and I started running immediately afterward while she and the kids went to Walmart and then McDonald's. I ran a huge loop around Spearfish and Lookout Mtn. and for the first 10 miles or so managed to keep the wind at my back or my side. But, the crux of a loop is that eventually you have to go back the direction you came from and when I did the wind almost stopped me in my tracks. I finally made it into Spearfish Canyon, which is sheltered from the wind and finished up my run there.
Sunday (May 2) - 7.7 miles. Met up with my friends Jerry and Ryan and went for a run in the Canyon (the wind was howling yet again). Afterward, we talked some running business. I can't divulge that business just yet, but an announcement is coming in the near future and I'll be writing more about it then. You're on the edge of your seats now, aren't ya?
Total - 59.7 miles
The next week (which is now last week....try and keep up here) was a cutback week, hence the lower mileage (which actually ended up not much lower than the week before, which was supposed to be a moderate week, but whatever...this ain't rocket science).
Monday (May 3) - Rest. Basketball. The standard Monday routine.
Tuesday (May 4) - 8.15 miles with 6x800m intervals. Yet again, the wind was howling but I decided to throw caution to the wind (bad pun, haha!) and run on the outdoor track. It kind sucked running hard into the wind, but yet the intervals went well overall. This was also a day that will go down in history for local hockey fans as the Rapid City Rush defeated the Allen Americans 4-3 in double overtime to clinch the President's Cup in only their second year in the CHL. We were there and it made for a lllooonnnggg night, but well worth it.
Wednesday (May 5) - 8 miles. After the late night hockey on Tuesday, there was no way I was getting up early on Wednesday to go for a run, so I had to skip out on basketball and do it at lunchtime. And that's all I remember about it. Apparently I ran 8 miles.
Thursday (May 6) - 6.1 miles. Drawing a blank. Probably around Belle. Maybe not. But probably.
Friday (May 7) - 13.9 miles. This one I definitely remember. Jerry, Ryan and I met up again with the initial plan that Ryan and I would run approximately 24 miles of the Centennial Trail with Jerry serving as our crew. Again, I can't discuss the reason for this quite yet, you'll just have to wait until next month. However, Mother Nature intervened with wind, rain and snow. Concerned that one section of trail along our planned route is difficult to follow in good conditions, much less when it's under snow, we decided instead to run a simple out and back on a more familiar section. That out and back featured over 2,000 feet of elevation gain. Fun. Fortunately, the trail running I have been doing seems to be paying off as my quads didn't feel like ground chuck afterwards.
Saturday (May 8) - 16 miles. Since I didn't get in a true long run the day before, I decided to do back to back kinda long runs and ran from Belle to Walmart. Not as much elevation gain as the day before (only 1,000 feet), but a good, hilly run nonetheless.
Sunday (May 9) - 5 miles. Just a recovery run around Belle before the Mother's Day festivities kicked off (which included Shannon running a 5K PR in Spearfish!).
Total - 57.2 miles
So, there you have it, the last two weeks of my life in a nutshell. For my sake, I'll have to try and remember to keep this weekly...trying to remember that far back hurts my head...
Monday (Apr 26) - Rest. Played some basketball.
Tuesday (Apr 27) - 7.2 miles. Met up with Ryan Hall for a short recovery run. He told me all the super secrets of elite marathoners. Or maybe I just ran around Belle alone in the dark. Can't really remember....
Wednesday (Apr 28) - 10 miles. This one I do remember because it blew chunks. I ran a progression run and while I was able to ratchet the speed up at least 15 seconds every mile, it felt like crap and I didn't go as fast as I normally do for such a run, but the effort felt much harder.
Thursday (Apr 29) - 8.5 miles. If I remember correctly, I headed up Lookout Mtn. and it went fairly well. Much better than the progression run the day before.
Friday (Apr 30) - 6.3 miles. Another run with Ryan Hall. Or by myself. You decide.
Saturday (May 1) - 20 miles. Another one I remember, not so much because I felt like crap (I didn't) but because the weather was crap. Shannon ran a 5K in the morning in Spearfish and I started running immediately afterward while she and the kids went to Walmart and then McDonald's. I ran a huge loop around Spearfish and Lookout Mtn. and for the first 10 miles or so managed to keep the wind at my back or my side. But, the crux of a loop is that eventually you have to go back the direction you came from and when I did the wind almost stopped me in my tracks. I finally made it into Spearfish Canyon, which is sheltered from the wind and finished up my run there.
Sunday (May 2) - 7.7 miles. Met up with my friends Jerry and Ryan and went for a run in the Canyon (the wind was howling yet again). Afterward, we talked some running business. I can't divulge that business just yet, but an announcement is coming in the near future and I'll be writing more about it then. You're on the edge of your seats now, aren't ya?
Total - 59.7 miles
The next week (which is now last week....try and keep up here) was a cutback week, hence the lower mileage (which actually ended up not much lower than the week before, which was supposed to be a moderate week, but whatever...this ain't rocket science).
Monday (May 3) - Rest. Basketball. The standard Monday routine.
Tuesday (May 4) - 8.15 miles with 6x800m intervals. Yet again, the wind was howling but I decided to throw caution to the wind (bad pun, haha!) and run on the outdoor track. It kind sucked running hard into the wind, but yet the intervals went well overall. This was also a day that will go down in history for local hockey fans as the Rapid City Rush defeated the Allen Americans 4-3 in double overtime to clinch the President's Cup in only their second year in the CHL. We were there and it made for a lllooonnnggg night, but well worth it.
Wednesday (May 5) - 8 miles. After the late night hockey on Tuesday, there was no way I was getting up early on Wednesday to go for a run, so I had to skip out on basketball and do it at lunchtime. And that's all I remember about it. Apparently I ran 8 miles.
Thursday (May 6) - 6.1 miles. Drawing a blank. Probably around Belle. Maybe not. But probably.
Friday (May 7) - 13.9 miles. This one I definitely remember. Jerry, Ryan and I met up again with the initial plan that Ryan and I would run approximately 24 miles of the Centennial Trail with Jerry serving as our crew. Again, I can't discuss the reason for this quite yet, you'll just have to wait until next month. However, Mother Nature intervened with wind, rain and snow. Concerned that one section of trail along our planned route is difficult to follow in good conditions, much less when it's under snow, we decided instead to run a simple out and back on a more familiar section. That out and back featured over 2,000 feet of elevation gain. Fun. Fortunately, the trail running I have been doing seems to be paying off as my quads didn't feel like ground chuck afterwards.
Saturday (May 8) - 16 miles. Since I didn't get in a true long run the day before, I decided to do back to back kinda long runs and ran from Belle to Walmart. Not as much elevation gain as the day before (only 1,000 feet), but a good, hilly run nonetheless.
Sunday (May 9) - 5 miles. Just a recovery run around Belle before the Mother's Day festivities kicked off (which included Shannon running a 5K PR in Spearfish!).
Total - 57.2 miles
So, there you have it, the last two weeks of my life in a nutshell. For my sake, I'll have to try and remember to keep this weekly...trying to remember that far back hurts my head...
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