One of the benefits of being a government employee is that you are enlightened to the benefits of several holidays you normally wouldn't give a rat's ass about. Like Presidents Day, for example. It's one of those holidays that just seems like it's a federal holiday for the sake of having a holiday. I mean, unless you're in grade school and you get an extra lesson about Washington and Lincoln, does anyone really "celebrate" Presidents Day? I'm not complaining, by an means, as I'll take any excuse for a three day weekend I can get. And being the good government employee that I am, I will also find an excuse to take the previous Friday off and make it a four day weekend. Okay, so I didn't really have an excuse, but I do have annual leave, so a four day weekend it was.
The problem with taking Fridays off, though, is that my wife runs a home daycare and hanging out with a house full of small people bouncing off the walls isn't exactly relaxing. This is where being an ultrarunner comes in handy...you have a built in excuse to escape the house for 4-6 hours. So, Friday morning I was off to Sturgis with the intent of running 25-30 miles on the Centennial trail, depending on the snow situation. Based on my last run on the Centennial, a 24 miler on Super Bowl Sunday, I knew the trail was basically clear for the first 10 miles of the Black Hills 100 course and then the snow got progressively deeper as you delved further into the Hills. We'd had only a light snow and some fairly warm days since then, so I was hoping to be able to push through some deeper snow sections and make it a full 15 miles out and back. As expected, the snow cover was light and basically inconsequential for the first 11 miles or so. After that, as the trail starts ascending a big climb in a shaded drainage, the snow got more and more cumbersome until I was slogging along, post-holing up to my knees and beyond, at about 20:00 pace. I told myself I would stop when I got to 12.5 miles, giving me a nice round 25 for the day, but when I got to that point the snow thinned out considerably so I kept going. Of course, not much further on I was back to post-holing but by that time was getting near the top of the big climb. So, I told myself I would turn around at the top unless things improved again and when I topped out and looked ahead to see knee-deep drifts across the trail as far as I could see, I did just that. Ended up with 26.5 miles for the day in just under 5 hours of running.
With the goal of getting at least 40 miles in every weekend, I set out Saturday morning and bagged another 16 (on roads this time, since I didn't have time to hit trails as I had to be home to coach my son's basketball game at noon). The legs felt great early on and felt good up until about mile 13 before I started feeling the cumulative fatigue of the mileage. I wasn't totally wasted when I got done, I certainly could have run farther, especially if I hadn't been running at 8:00-8:15 pace for much of the way. While that's not a blazing fast pace, it is considerably faster than what I will ever run in an ultra.
So, what to do when Sunday rolls around and you've already gotten in your long runs for the weekend? Run a 5K, of course! My wife had already planned on running the Valentine's 5K in Rapid City on Sunday afternoon and somehow talked me into running too. I had zero expectations heading into it, but was pleasantly surprised by how unsore my legs felt that morning. Just before the race, I ran a couple of miles to warm up and the legs felt remarkably good. So, when the gun sounded I took off near the front, running in a small group (as in a group of 3) with two other guys, Jim and Kip, who are frequently just ahead of me at these local road races (I think I've beaten Kip once, and can't recall ever finishing ahead of Jim). I tucked in behind them early on, but eventually couldn't resist the urge to push ahead. Jim followed and we broke away from Kip for a bit (I think Kip actually dropped back to pace someone else for a little while). I could hear Jim right behind me right up to about the halfway point before he pulled ahead. At that point, I tucked in behind him and basically hung on for the ride. With about a quarter mile to go, it seemed like the pace was slowing a bit so I pushed forward, wondering if Jim was just setting me up for a big finishing move. Turns out he wasn't, as I was able to pull away and finish about 5 seconds ahead of him in 3rd place overall (the first two guys were way ahead of us). My time was 19:15, which would be a 5K PR except my Garmin measured the course at 3 miles exactly. Even accounting for Garmin error, I'm assuming the course was a little short. Still, a much stronger effort than I expected after 42 miles of weekend running. And now I've completed my semi-annual speedwork session.
All in all, not a bad weekend of running at all. Man, I love Presidents Day!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The greatest winter ever?
I know I'm flirting with disaster (in the form of a legendary blizzard) by posting this, but what the hell. Life's more fun if you live dangerously, right? So, here goes: this might be the greatest winter EVER.
Of course "greatest winter ever" means different things to different people. For example, if you're a skier or snowmobiler, then you probably think that this winter blows the big one. I've never skied and I'm not a fan of snowmobiling, so I'm of a different opinion. I judge the winter by two main factors: 1) how many times I have to resort to running on the indoor track because it's too dangerously cold to run outside and 2) how accessible the trails are. This winter is scoring high in both categories. I've run on an indoor track exactly one time, and that was an afternoon 4 miler a few weeks ago that I very well could have run outside (it was like 4 degrees, I've run in much colder), but I had a brain fart that morning and failed to properly pack my running gear for the conditions. For the 2nd category, I don't have any stats to back this up, but I'm fairly certain I've gotten in many more trail miles in the first month plus of this year than I have in the previous couple of winters. And not just short 5 or 6 milers covering the entire extent of runable trail, but bonafide long runs.
This weekend was a perfect example of this winter's awesomeness. On Saturday, my son had a basketball game at 9 AM, so I slept in, coached the game and then geared up and ran the 16 miles from our house to Walmart in Spearfish, where I met the family for a ride home. By "gear up" I mean that I put on shorts and a t-shirt. It was in the mid 40s with just the slightest breeze. On Sunday morning, I drove down to Sturgis for a run on the Centennial trail. Although I had to bundle up a little bit for the start (it was 20 degrees when I struck out), it warmed up significantly and was in the upper 40s by the time I finished, just over 4 hours and 24 miles later. I did encounter some snow on the trail about 10 miles in, but it was fairly well settled and frozen, allowing me to run on top of it instead of punching through. For the most part, the trail was totally clear and dry. And I had the whole thing to myself...I encountered exactly one other human (and her dog) during my run, at about mile 22.5.
Of course, as I write this it's grey outside and there's a light dusting of snow, but the forecast is calling for highs of 42 and 46 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. That crazy damn groundhog in Pennsylvania says we've got 6 more weeks of winter coming. If that means 6 more weeks of the winter we've already had, then I say bring it on!
Of course "greatest winter ever" means different things to different people. For example, if you're a skier or snowmobiler, then you probably think that this winter blows the big one. I've never skied and I'm not a fan of snowmobiling, so I'm of a different opinion. I judge the winter by two main factors: 1) how many times I have to resort to running on the indoor track because it's too dangerously cold to run outside and 2) how accessible the trails are. This winter is scoring high in both categories. I've run on an indoor track exactly one time, and that was an afternoon 4 miler a few weeks ago that I very well could have run outside (it was like 4 degrees, I've run in much colder), but I had a brain fart that morning and failed to properly pack my running gear for the conditions. For the 2nd category, I don't have any stats to back this up, but I'm fairly certain I've gotten in many more trail miles in the first month plus of this year than I have in the previous couple of winters. And not just short 5 or 6 milers covering the entire extent of runable trail, but bonafide long runs.
This weekend was a perfect example of this winter's awesomeness. On Saturday, my son had a basketball game at 9 AM, so I slept in, coached the game and then geared up and ran the 16 miles from our house to Walmart in Spearfish, where I met the family for a ride home. By "gear up" I mean that I put on shorts and a t-shirt. It was in the mid 40s with just the slightest breeze. On Sunday morning, I drove down to Sturgis for a run on the Centennial trail. Although I had to bundle up a little bit for the start (it was 20 degrees when I struck out), it warmed up significantly and was in the upper 40s by the time I finished, just over 4 hours and 24 miles later. I did encounter some snow on the trail about 10 miles in, but it was fairly well settled and frozen, allowing me to run on top of it instead of punching through. For the most part, the trail was totally clear and dry. And I had the whole thing to myself...I encountered exactly one other human (and her dog) during my run, at about mile 22.5.
Of course, as I write this it's grey outside and there's a light dusting of snow, but the forecast is calling for highs of 42 and 46 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. That crazy damn groundhog in Pennsylvania says we've got 6 more weeks of winter coming. If that means 6 more weeks of the winter we've already had, then I say bring it on!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
176.2
Geez, what's with all the numbers as post titles? Get original, why dontcha?
Okay, so 176.2 is the number of miles worth of racing I've registered for in the last week. That tally includes the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon, the Quad Rock 50 and the Bighorn 100. I won't bother to tally up the $$$ amount for all of those combined.
Just one more "big" race left to register for (that I know of); the Missoula Marathon in July. But Missoula's early registration doesn't end until May and there is little danger of it filling up, so that one can wait awhile.
Okay, so 176.2 is the number of miles worth of racing I've registered for in the last week. That tally includes the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon, the Quad Rock 50 and the Bighorn 100. I won't bother to tally up the $$$ amount for all of those combined.
Just one more "big" race left to register for (that I know of); the Missoula Marathon in July. But Missoula's early registration doesn't end until May and there is little danger of it filling up, so that one can wait awhile.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
20/40/80
Those numbers have nothing at all to do with temperature this time, although 80 degrees in January would be pretty damn impressive (and entirely unwelcome). It's all about miles this time as I try to remind my body what it's like to run for a lot of em. The highlights of the week were back to back 20 milers on Saturday and Sunday, giving me 40 miles for the weekend and 80 (82 and change, actually) for the week.
I hit up Lookout Mtn. a couple of more times during the week, giving me 8 summits so far for January, well beyond the pace necessary to get up there 50 times this year (like almost twice as many). Maybe 50 was a soft goal? After all, I didn't get my first summit last year until March probably, maybe April, so I've got a few months' head start this year. In any case, both runs up there this week were a chore in different ways. The first one was a slog through several inches of untouched snow, so I was breaking trail the whole way. Two days later, the snow had largely melted in some spots, or had gotten packed down and turned to ice in others, so there was either ice or mud to contend with the entire way. These aren't fast runs, by any means, but I'd rather slog slowly up Lookout than pound out a faster run on pavement (last I checked, Bighorn has a noticeable lack of pavement).
Having said that, though, there is also real life to contend with. Which is what led me to pounding out 20 miles, mostly on flat pavement, on Saturday morning. My son's basketball team, which I'm the coach of, had a game on Saturday, making it unrealistic for me to drive to a trail and get in a long run, so I hammered out some windy, cold miles around Belle. I balanced that out on Sunday, though, as Ryan and I ran the first 10 miles of the Black Hills 100 course. The trail was crazy icy in a few spots, especially in the first and last few miles around Fort Meade, but for the most part it was in incredibly decent shape for late January. The ice necessitated a slow pace in those sections, especially since I don't have micro-spikes nor have I made a pair of screw shoes yet this year, but overall the legs felt really good considering this is the first time I've put in 40 miles in a weekend for a very long time.
I registered for Deadwood-Mickelson last week, squeezing in before the price increase. Still need to get signed up for both Quad Rock and Bighorn. You'd think that, as a race director myself now, I'd stop procrastinating about this stuff and sign up for a race early, but I still find myself procrastinating until the last possible moment. Can't teach an old dog new tricks....or an ultrarunner to commit too soon.
I hit up Lookout Mtn. a couple of more times during the week, giving me 8 summits so far for January, well beyond the pace necessary to get up there 50 times this year (like almost twice as many). Maybe 50 was a soft goal? After all, I didn't get my first summit last year until March probably, maybe April, so I've got a few months' head start this year. In any case, both runs up there this week were a chore in different ways. The first one was a slog through several inches of untouched snow, so I was breaking trail the whole way. Two days later, the snow had largely melted in some spots, or had gotten packed down and turned to ice in others, so there was either ice or mud to contend with the entire way. These aren't fast runs, by any means, but I'd rather slog slowly up Lookout than pound out a faster run on pavement (last I checked, Bighorn has a noticeable lack of pavement).
Having said that, though, there is also real life to contend with. Which is what led me to pounding out 20 miles, mostly on flat pavement, on Saturday morning. My son's basketball team, which I'm the coach of, had a game on Saturday, making it unrealistic for me to drive to a trail and get in a long run, so I hammered out some windy, cold miles around Belle. I balanced that out on Sunday, though, as Ryan and I ran the first 10 miles of the Black Hills 100 course. The trail was crazy icy in a few spots, especially in the first and last few miles around Fort Meade, but for the most part it was in incredibly decent shape for late January. The ice necessitated a slow pace in those sections, especially since I don't have micro-spikes nor have I made a pair of screw shoes yet this year, but overall the legs felt really good considering this is the first time I've put in 40 miles in a weekend for a very long time.
I registered for Deadwood-Mickelson last week, squeezing in before the price increase. Still need to get signed up for both Quad Rock and Bighorn. You'd think that, as a race director myself now, I'd stop procrastinating about this stuff and sign up for a race early, but I still find myself procrastinating until the last possible moment. Can't teach an old dog new tricks....or an ultrarunner to commit too soon.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
45 degrees in 10 miles?
The plan for Saturday was that I was going to run the backroads from our house in Belle Fourche to Spearfish, where I would meet the rest of the family before heading out to lunch and bowling to celebrate my wife's birthday. Conveniently, it's almost exactly 20 miles from our driveway to my office if I follow the backroads and weave around Spearfish in a specific way. Also convenient is the fact that my office has a shower, so I wouldn't have to stink up the Chinese restaurant or the bowling alley with 20 miles worth of sweat.
Not so convenient was the weather when I woke up. The forecast had called for a high of 45 that day in Belle, but when I woke up it was only 3 degrees. WTF? I quickly checked the current weather conditions in Spearfish and found that it was 48 degrees there. Double WTF?? As the crow flies, Belle and Spearfish are only about 10 miles apart. Was there really a 45 degree difference in those 10 miles? Several times, I've driven to work in the morning to find Spearfish 20 degrees warmer (it's position up against the Black Hills tends to lead to inversions, trapping warm air in), but 45 degrees seemed a bit extreme.
Of course the bigger question was, if it really was that much warmer in Spearfish, what the hell was I supposed to wear for my run? Forty five is shorts and t-shirt weather. Three is, well, not. I ultimately decided on something in between....less clothing than I would wear for a typical 3 degree run, but more than I would for a 45 degree run. As I started running south toward Spearfish, I couldn't really tell if the air temp was rising or if it was just the fact that I was producing heat and keeping warm (having a northerly wind at my back certainly didn't hurt). Then, about 10 miles along my route, just as I was nearing the backside of Lookout Mtn and the outskirts of Spearfish, I felt the wind shift to the southwest and an associated definite, sharp increase in the temperature. I paused to shed a couple of layers of shirts, my gloves and my hat. By the time I finished my run, the bank clocks in town were reading low 50s, although the stiff wind and cloud cover made it feel a little cooler. Still, significantly higher than the 3 degrees I started out in.
It never did really warm up in Belle that day. After lunch and an attempt at bowling (the bowling alley was full, so we couldn't get a lane) we returned home. When we left Spearfish, it was 53, back in Belle it was still 24. That warm air never did make it 10 miles to the north.
An odd occurrence for sure, but at least it worked out the way it did. It would have REALLY sucked to start out in Spearfish in shorts and a t-shirt and end up freezing my arse off in Belle.
Not so convenient was the weather when I woke up. The forecast had called for a high of 45 that day in Belle, but when I woke up it was only 3 degrees. WTF? I quickly checked the current weather conditions in Spearfish and found that it was 48 degrees there. Double WTF?? As the crow flies, Belle and Spearfish are only about 10 miles apart. Was there really a 45 degree difference in those 10 miles? Several times, I've driven to work in the morning to find Spearfish 20 degrees warmer (it's position up against the Black Hills tends to lead to inversions, trapping warm air in), but 45 degrees seemed a bit extreme.
Of course the bigger question was, if it really was that much warmer in Spearfish, what the hell was I supposed to wear for my run? Forty five is shorts and t-shirt weather. Three is, well, not. I ultimately decided on something in between....less clothing than I would wear for a typical 3 degree run, but more than I would for a 45 degree run. As I started running south toward Spearfish, I couldn't really tell if the air temp was rising or if it was just the fact that I was producing heat and keeping warm (having a northerly wind at my back certainly didn't hurt). Then, about 10 miles along my route, just as I was nearing the backside of Lookout Mtn and the outskirts of Spearfish, I felt the wind shift to the southwest and an associated definite, sharp increase in the temperature. I paused to shed a couple of layers of shirts, my gloves and my hat. By the time I finished my run, the bank clocks in town were reading low 50s, although the stiff wind and cloud cover made it feel a little cooler. Still, significantly higher than the 3 degrees I started out in.
It never did really warm up in Belle that day. After lunch and an attempt at bowling (the bowling alley was full, so we couldn't get a lane) we returned home. When we left Spearfish, it was 53, back in Belle it was still 24. That warm air never did make it 10 miles to the north.
An odd occurrence for sure, but at least it worked out the way it did. It would have REALLY sucked to start out in Spearfish in shorts and a t-shirt and end up freezing my arse off in Belle.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Lookout!
Okay, so I follow Anton Krupicka's blog and I know for awhile he was keeping track of how many times he summitted Green Mtn. outside of Boulder in a year. Green Mtn. is a fairly formidable run, featuring a few thousand feet of climbing and, from what I've heard, is more of a powerhike than a run, unless you're name happens to be Anton Krupicka (who may or may not possess mountain goat genes). In any case, I don't have a Green Mtn. Well, there's probably some protrusion somewhere in the Black Hills called Green Mtn., but I'm not sure where it is nor have I ever run it.
What I do have is Lookout Mtn., a much less impressive geographic landform than Anton's Green Mtn., but it's all I've got that's easily accessible for a quick lunchtime trail run (I can see the peak out my office window, less than a mile away). The route I take up Lookout is just over two miles (for a 4.8 mile loop up and back down) and includes about 900 feet of climbing. That's not an incredible amount, but the thing about the Lookout trails is that whoever constructed them back in the day didn't really believe in switchbacks. Those bastards go straight up the slope for a ways, level off when the terrain takes you onto a bench and then straight up again. It's kind of like running hill repeats without having to run up and down the same hill. But they are all runnable, save for the final crazy steep pitch up to the summit, which is a power hiker (for me at least...Anton maybe not so much). To put the elevation gain in perspective, one of the other local trails I run on a regular basis is the Tinton Trail. In order to achieve the same amount of elevation gain on Tinton, I have to run approximately twice as far.
So, where am I going with all this? Well, while thinking of Anton's Green tally, I decided to look back at my 2011 running log and count the number of times I summitted Lookout last year. The number, like the mountain itself, is much less impressive than Anton's, but if nothing else gives me a target for this year. Turns out I topped out on Lookout a total of 31 times. That includes one race (the Thoen Stone Seven in May) and one double summit (i.e., I ran up the west face, down the east side and then turned around and went back over for double the climbing).
I think 50 sounds like a good round number for 2012. And with Bighorn on my plate, several more of those double summits would probably be a good idea.
What I do have is Lookout Mtn., a much less impressive geographic landform than Anton's Green Mtn., but it's all I've got that's easily accessible for a quick lunchtime trail run (I can see the peak out my office window, less than a mile away). The route I take up Lookout is just over two miles (for a 4.8 mile loop up and back down) and includes about 900 feet of climbing. That's not an incredible amount, but the thing about the Lookout trails is that whoever constructed them back in the day didn't really believe in switchbacks. Those bastards go straight up the slope for a ways, level off when the terrain takes you onto a bench and then straight up again. It's kind of like running hill repeats without having to run up and down the same hill. But they are all runnable, save for the final crazy steep pitch up to the summit, which is a power hiker (for me at least...Anton maybe not so much). To put the elevation gain in perspective, one of the other local trails I run on a regular basis is the Tinton Trail. In order to achieve the same amount of elevation gain on Tinton, I have to run approximately twice as far.
So, where am I going with all this? Well, while thinking of Anton's Green tally, I decided to look back at my 2011 running log and count the number of times I summitted Lookout last year. The number, like the mountain itself, is much less impressive than Anton's, but if nothing else gives me a target for this year. Turns out I topped out on Lookout a total of 31 times. That includes one race (the Thoen Stone Seven in May) and one double summit (i.e., I ran up the west face, down the east side and then turned around and went back over for double the climbing).
I think 50 sounds like a good round number for 2012. And with Bighorn on my plate, several more of those double summits would probably be a good idea.
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