Just A Marathon

Shoes too tight...

2012-01-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

This is why you should make sure you have plenty of forefoot room in your shoes.

Yes that's blood.

Kristin wants to wash them, but I like the look of blood stains on my shoes.

Getting Lost

2012-01-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

Scary day running-wise.

I went to Clinton South Shore for another medium-long run (intended to about 7 miles). I'm always a bit more cautious on that side of the lake, as it doesn't have the "easy outs" like the North Shore. On the North Shore I can always get off the trail to a campground or the road, for a shortcut back to my car.

Not so much on the south side. It's just farms and open fields in the area above the trails, and there's no easy way out for water, or to shortcut back to the car.

This morning my goal was to run a quick out and back on the orange trail-the one lowest on the ridge and closest to the lake. The trail was in good condition and I hit my turn around at 3.5 miles in a little over half an hour. I turned to head back-everything was still perfect, and about 1 mile from my end point I started to kick, figuring once I hit 7 miles I'd be back at the main trail connector to head up to my car.

My GPS beeped indicating 7 miles. I stop and look around.. no trail connector in 200 yards either direction. Oddly, I'm in the back of a deep cove, and I know the trail head is on more of a point.

The problem was I couldn't tell if I had overshot my mark or undershot it, so I had no clue which direction to go. I went forward, about another quarter to half a mile. I hit another trail connector, and decided I'd be better off going to the top of the ridge so I could at least look around to see where I was... the meadow I came to looked familiar.. I had gone too far. So I ran backwards on the trail. Finally, to my car.

This wouldn't have seemed so bad, except I didn't have any water on me, and had pushed the pace more than I planned on the last part of my run, so I was feeling that extra mile or so.

What I think happened: after the turn around I got off trail-briefly-but took an accidental shortcut that cut 300ish meters from my return trip. When I was running by my normal stopping point, I had my head down trying to go fast to the point that I just missed all the signs.

Hometown Marathon?

2012-01-13T20:56:00.000-08:00

How did I miss this???

http://www.salinamarathon.com/index.php

Seriously.. if this is an event next year...

Though it might be Flatrock weekend.. which would be a difficult decision.. assuming I'm in shape.

First good run of the year

2012-01-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

So.. I've ran everyday so far this year.. low mileage.. still a tender IT band and trying to build mileage. Anyways, I went to the Clinton South shore trails today. I tend to have good luck on the south side of the lake when I haven't been running well.

I think it is largely due to these trails being more physical/technical than most of the trails I normally run.. which gives me an opportunity to run a really hard workout, without having to run fast miles or actually "run well" from a speed perspective.

The trail conditions were perfect, ran 7 miles, see map below:

View South Clinton 7miler in a larger map

Seriously?

2011-12-13T21:04:00.000-08:00

Only two posts this year? Ok.. now three. Anyways, thought I would just do a quick update with running highlights from 2011.

Bottom line is this: I ran one good race all year, had about 4 months of good running, and fell apart since July. No injuries really, just a lot of work and personal obligations that I had to take care of. My obvious goal for 2012 is to start running serious mileage again (honestly, I've probably averaged in the mid-30's since July).

So... Highlights this year:
1. 5:20 50k pr. Still happy about this one, just wish I could have continued the streak. My only ultra of the year :(.

2. Pacing my buddy Gary through last 33ish miles of the Hawk 100. I had a great time, but he (a much better writer than I) describes it here: link.

3. Doing something smart with my running. OK, this is a weird one. At the end of August I was signed up for a 50k.. a road 50k.. I had signed up because I had a Groupon, it was cheap, and I wanted to break 5 hours for 50k. In late June I was in shape to do so, but by August I wasn't in the shape that would allow me to run my race. So I didn't start. I went to packet pickup, got my race goodies, but didn't show for the start. I consider it a great positive that I didn't go out and get hurt, but it was a difficult choice. The packet pickup was cool though, I got a lot of cool Northface schwag and was able to see/meet some famous ultra runners (notably Michael Wardian, Dean Karnazes was there too though *eye roll*)

Anyways, I'll try to post more, and run more in 2012. We'll see.

An Argument Against Public Transportation...

2011-06-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

Maybe not, but I proved you can cover a lot of ground in Lawrence before 10am on foot. And I think I can make it from my house to anywhere in the city in about 40 minutes.

View Lawrence Loop in a larger map

Rock On 50 K...

2011-05-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

Finally... I run well during an ultra.

I had only run two races in the 12 months prior to Rock On, a 50k last July, and a January 5k. I thought I may be in better shape than for prior races, but it's difficult to tell with no recent racing history to judge my fitness. So... I decided to do this race on a whim... though my training was good averaging 65 miles a week for the month prior to the race.

Race morning, Kristin decided to take a pass on the race, which was cool with me, so I drove to the northwest side of Perry Lake by myself, checked in, and sat in my car for an hour. It gave me just enough time to decide on a shirt.... long sleeve... short sleeve... I was being a bit obsessive but it was probably just nerves. Long sleeve it was. Coolish morning in the upper 40s.

By the time the race started I was feeling positive about the race, but not particularly like getting out fast. When the RD yelled go, I fell into a comfortable pace and by the time we were on single-track, I was trapped behind a slower line of runners. I thought this might benefit me, in that I have a tendency to go out to fast.

After about two miles stuck at a slower pace, I passed the runners in front of me and broke into some open trail running comfortably. For this race I didn't wear a watch or my Garmin, just wanted to run the pace that felt comfortable.

After a mile or two and passing several runners, I caught up to Eric Steele from Wichita, and ended up running with him for most of the first lap. Had a good time talking to Eric about the race he directs Flatrock 50k which I ran a two years ago.

Most of the course was completely runnable, with a few hills on miles 9-13 which were technical and steep. I had learned earlier this year that the common ultra-runner strategy of walking hills was actually causing my legs to tighten up. Instead, during this race, I continued running uphills, just at a lower gear, with super-short strides.

I pulled away from Eric at about 12 miles into the race, and ran alone for the final 18 miles. By the time I came through the halfway point, the aid station workers said my time was 2:36. This meant that if I didn't blow up I could easily break 6 hours for 50k. Also, at this point, I was still feeling really good, no cramps in the legs, not tired at all.

On the second lap I was entirely alone. I just kept ticking off miles, never felt this comfortable after running that many miles. I hit the aid station with 10 miles to go, and they said I was on pace to break 5:30. I laughed a bit, and passed 2 runners at the aid station. They must have miscalculated. A 5:30 50k on tough trails was nowhere within my abilities... my previous PR was 7:20.. and two years ago.

The next 8 miles I continued to run strong, though I started fading a bit on hills, and slowed considerably on technical sections. I fell on rocks a couple of times during this section.. but the idea of a sub-6 kept me moving.

I hit the aid station with 2 miles to go at exactly 5 hours. So.... maybe that 5:30 pace wasn't off. I was still running strongly on those final 2 miles, which were relatively flat and easy to run. Crossed the finish line soon after in 5:21:30, or so. Very happy. I think I smiled that entire day.

I tried to track what I did "right" in this race that I failed in prior races, and came up with the following:

I didn't go out too fast.
I didn't have caffeine-I quit caffeine completely in November.
I didn't overeat-only had 3 gels the entire race and a few S-caps. Still felt energetic at the end.
I ran all the hills slowly and didn't cramp.

That's most of what I came up with for now. Looking forward to racing again... I think I can break 5:00, with better training and continuing to use what I've learned.

Southside Clinton.. cont...

2010-08-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I needed to run an easy 10 miles to see if I could get the pain in my left foot to subside (it didn't, oh well, a week off won't hurt me too much). For the run, I decided to revisit the trails on the southside that I had run earlier this spring. Put in 10 miles total, first I did this 6 miles loop/out and back:

Went out on the yellow marked trail that was about half way down the ridge, and switched over to the blue trail at the top of the ridge at about 2 miles out. Good runnable trail, that was actually getting better the further I went.. until, alas, I decided to turn around and go back to the car.

After going back to the car I forgot to turn back on the GPS watch... so no data. But it was another 4 miles out and back, this time going west instead of east.

Overall it was good runnable trail, but a little rough on the legs.. this should be fixed by winter time when the plants stop growing. Also, it offered a few quick up and downs and technical footing... good preparation for Flatrock, in theory.

Here's a summary of trail conditions:

Happenings

2010-08-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

So... it's been a while since I've written in this thing, but I figured I'd post a quick update and then somehow get in the habbit of writing again... here's some highlights of the last few months:

After the Kansas Marathon my quads were shot.. and I didn't run for almost two weeks.
I started running more trails ... and immediately had poison ivy all over.
I started a new job in early May.. it's a step up, and has left me more relaxed and I seem to have more time to run.
On a whim I decided to run the Psycho Summer 50k only 3 weeks out from the race date.. and no runs over 15 miles between the Kansas Marathon and late June. I was running about 10 miles everyday.. just no real long runs. As you can guess, I had a pretty horrible day, especially my second lap.. but I finished.. and I guess I'll say that's what counts this time.
After Psycho Summer it seems like I spent nearly every weekend for a month out of town for various reasons.
Last weekend I ran a really fun event, my friend Colleen's "Sweaty Ass" run.. good times, I got in 20 miles, running the first 10 with Brad Bishop..though I think I may have re-aggravated an old foot injury.
I've finally started making trips back to the Lake Clinton South Shore trails... just running some new trails and getting good GPS data.

So that's where I am now. Taking a running sabatical this week to make sure my foot is cured. Next stop: probably the Flatrock 50k in late september. I'll see how the foot feel at the end of the week before I make the call.

Kansas Marathon

2010-04-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

Finished. 4:10ish. Splits tell the story better than I can. Might write more later:

Time	Distance	Split time
0:07:33	1	7:33
0:15:55	2	8:22
0:23:25	3	7:30
0:31:05	4	7:39
0:39:18	5	8:13
0:47:31	6	8:13
0:56:12	7	8:40
1:05:16	8	9:03
1:14:12	9	8:56
1:22:56	10	8:43
1:32:07	11	9:11
1:41:27	12	9:19
1:50:30	13	9:03
2:00:13	14	9:42
2:09:37	15	9:24
2:19:29	16	9:52
2:29:12	17	9:42
2:39:28	18	10:16
2:49:43	19	10:14
3:00:00	20	10:17
3:11:17	21	11:16
3:22:50	22	11:33
3:34:19	23	11:28
3:45:59	24	11:40
3:57:22	25	11:23
4:07:51	26	10:28

Sunday Map

2010-04-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

Here's the map from my Sunday run. .ended up doing about 3 miles, mainly to the east of the trail head. A lot of backtracking and making sure I wasn't lost, so it doesn't look quite as long.

Fun run, but really muddy. Both shoes came off at one point.

A Southside Project?

2010-04-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

I've been fairly solitary in my training patterns lately, generally avoiding group runs, preferring to strike out alone on 10-20 mile nightly workouts. I like the flexibility to go hard when I want, go easy when I want, run as far as I would like. I've learned that I can run 10 mile workouts on a nightly basis, and even run a 20-miler on evenings.

On the other hand, I have a marathon in a week, and a bit of achilles tendinitis so we'll see how that goes. It's getting better quickly, but I think it happened in my last week of training before tapering. A lot of time on the bike for the last two weeks.

The flexibility afforded by running alone has given me an opportunity to check out new places to run inside and outside of Lawrence. I read a description of an area on the southside of Clinton Lake boasting 50 miles (FIFTY MILES!) of trails. The trailhead's only about a 12-15 minute drive from my house, so I figured I should at least give the trails a try.

First problem, finding an an adequate trail map. Here's the only one I could find online:

This map shows not much detail, and looked old. I put a call out on twitter for anyone with a better map, and Mike Eglinski who does orienteering in the Lawrence area, hooked me up with a better map. While this one was old too (from 1990) it at least had contour lines and I could get a general idea of what was going on.

Friday afternoon, I set out to scout out hte area on a short run. I put in about 2 miles (see Achilles tendinitis, and "taking it easy"). Looked like there were still three main trails going through the area, one near the top of the ridge, one mid-way down the ridge, and a third trail almost at lake level. Here's my scouting map:

Note, that the main connector that goes from the trailhead, intersecting the three main trails down to the lake, is much steeper than can be shown from the map. It drops off about 150 feet pretty quickly. Also the trails are a little rougher than what we're used to. It reminded me more of the trails at the Flat Rock 50K than at the northshore trails.

Again on Sunday I went out for another short run, this time just exploring to the east. Put in about 3 miles total (once again, see "taking it easy"). This time the trails were really muddy, and there appeared to be some missing trail markers (read: I got lost). With some good early summer heat, and less rain the trails should be in good shape by mid June I think.

In short: My summer goal, to run all 50 miles of trails on the Southside of Clinton Lake.. if possible. Send me a message if you want to join me for a few miles. I think it should be a lot of fun!

The quick road to being vegan...

2010-02-02T08:55:00.000-08:00

So a quick update from the last month or so. In an earlier post I had set out racing plans for all of this winter and spring, as well as most of next year beginning with the Topeka to Auburn Half Marathon in late January. That date has come and gone, without me running a race. So what happened? A couple of big news type of things.

In early to mid December I decided I wanted to give vegetarianism another shot for a couple reasons. First, I've had problems controlling my weight while running, and had read that vegetarian diets can help balance out calorie intake, and also leads to higher quality calories (more micro-nutrients per calorie consumed). As a society, our access to meat isn't really idea, most of it coming from corporate outfits at high fat and crappy quality. So since that time I have been a full vegetarian, with two relapses onto meat (both came while visiting family, not wanting to be rude and turn down their food).

In early January, I took time to evaluate my diet, and how everything was going. I was feeling much better, while running and not running. The overall advantage seems to be more high-quality nutrients taken in, and not having heavy foods in my stomach while running. While feeling better generally, I noticed that I was still taking in a lot of unhealthy fats through dairy products. I'm now trying to phase out dairy products which is going well, and I'm again feeling better.

So, what do I eat now? Mainly fresh foods that I make at home. One disadvantage is it's difficult to find foods in restaurants. Here's a quick list of some of my current favorites:

Vegetable stir fry with brown rice.
Black bean burritos with avocado.
Pan-seared brussels sprouts with peantus.
Hummus with habanero sauce on pita.
Cumin lentils with fresh cabbage and lime juice.

In other news, I had an injury at the end of December, which is what prevented me from competing at Topeka to Lawrence, and has put off any current plans till April. The injury appears to be extensor tendinitis in the toes/forefoot of my left foot. This injury can be caused by (among other things) running on icy and snowy surfaces as mentioned here.

So I've been taking it easy for the last few weeks.. even took nearly an entire week off. We'll see what happens. My weekly mileage totals since mid December look like this: 60,61,35,10,4,0,20,34,41. Point is I'm on the upswing of this, and happy to be back to running. I think a conservative strategy, as well as my new diet will keep me healthy.

My next race will be the Kansas Marathon. The starting line is less than a mile from my house, so I guess I can't really skip it in good concious. :) Also I've been tracking my mileage on dailymile. Cool program, my profile can be found here.

Mild Setback

2009-11-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

So last post I mentioned 6 pairs of racing flats for $65, here they are:

Only 4 pictured, but I have duplicates of the pair of Brooks and Adidas in the back. I've now ran in each of the styles, and they are all very runable, light-weight and good shoes.

I made one fairly large mistake however, in trying to run a track 10 miler in the puma's out of the box, sockless. At mile 8, I started feeling some hot spots developing, but ignored them, because I wanted to break 1:17 for 10 miles.. and did with a 1:16:42 at the end of the day.

Unfortunately I could barely walk when I took off the shoes. I had a few large blister on my feet, including one on the back of each of my heels. This has been a trouble spot in the past, and unfortunately this time there was blood. ack.

So.. my running since last wednesday has been limited, averaging about 5 miles a day, but nothing fast, and no weekend long run.

The two runs this weekend were barefoot on a soccer pitch (yeah, hippie, I know). Actually the barefoot runs were quite nice, and I may incorporate a few miles of barefoot training into every week.

Tonight I'll get back into shoes...

Horrible Run and Race Schedule.

2009-10-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

Probably one of the worst runs of my life this morning. Fifteen miles, miles 1 and 2 were rough, I thought I was just sore and warming up. Miles 3-10 were tolerable, but my legs, back, and arms were noticeably sore and tight. The last five miles were at a shuffle pace. Too tight to move fast at all.

I have no clue what was wrong with me this morning. I think part of it was from carrying water to and from an aid station yesterday (up a steep hill) and the rest was from playing basketball Friday night. Hope it gets better soon. I don't really enjoy playing basketball anymore... I think it's time to quit.

But in happy news, I've set a race schedule (at least tentatively) for eary next year:

Rock Creek Trail Series 10K, Half Marathon, 25K, and 50K. (March, May, July, and October)
January 16th Topeka to Auburn Half marathon.
April 18th Kansas Marathon (Lawrence)
Heartland 50 October 2010
A couple of ultras.... Free State? Rockin K? Leadv... no not that one.

Ok so it's not really nailed down, but I'm certain about the two road races, and the trail series. The others I'll just fill in with as I feel appropriate.

Also I ordered 6 pairs of new shoes this week from a website that was clearancing racing flats. Yes... 6 pairs for less than 65 dollars total. I'll post a picture when they all come in. Also free shipping on these!

Mid-Distance

2009-10-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I noticed a few days ago about my training is that I jumped directly from 5k to Marathon distance, and haven't done too many races or quality runs in the 6-12 mile range. Granted I run a lot of 10 milers at Clinton lake, but these are trail runs, and mostly group runs at a slow pace. For my next phase of training I'm going to work on three things:

1. Running longer and faster tempo runs.
2. Running more mid-distance *easy* runs that aren't so easy that I fail to really get a workout.
3. Running a better pace on my long runs.

I've put together a training schedule for winter, listed below. I'm only running hard 3 days a week, with a tempo run on tuesdays, speedwork on Thursdays, and a long run Saturdays.

I think I'm on track on my first goal. Tuesday nights are my tempo night (speed intervals on Thursday). This Tuesday I ran 4 miles in 27:37, which is fairly fast for me. I want to take this out to being a 8ish mile tempo at a little faster pace.

As far as mid distance *easy* runs, I'm running easy on Wednesday nights a 10 miler at about 8:00 pace. Last night I ran 10 on the rec center track (40 laps) in 1:17:12. Would have broken 1:17 if someone wouldn't have interrupted. AHEM.

The long runs will be the challenge. I'm going to try to hit my 20 milers easy, and try to hit about 3 hours even on trails, a little faster when I'm on pavement.

So here's my training schedule for winter at least (all morning workouts are subject to sleep):

Sunday
Morning - 10 easy
Night - 5 easy

Monday

Morning - 2 easy
Night - 6 easy

Tuesday
Morning - 3 easy
Night - 1 warmup 4-8 temp 1 cooldown

Wednesday

Morning - 2 easy
Night - 10 easy

Thursday
Morning - 3 easy
Night - 1 warmup 10X800 1 cooldown

Friday
Morning - 4 easy
Night - 3 easy

Saturday
Morning - 20 miles long
Night - 2 miles easy

Ultra Finish-Finally-Flatrock 50k

2009-09-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

After DNF'ing this summer at Lunar Trek this summer, I waited three months, but I finally have an ultra-finish under my belt. Not as fast or easy as I would have liked, but I did it, and I feel a lot better about running and my future in running ultras.

Pre-Race
Before the race I had a couple of concerns: First, the bruised forefoot from a few weeks ago had never really healed, and was bound to start hurting at some point during the race. Second, while I had a few big mileage weeks, I hadn't completed many runs of 20+ miles, so I wasn't sure if I could hang in at a running pace for a full 31 miles.

Kristin and I made the trip to Independence the night before with Christy Craig and Dave Higgins. Christy was running the race and Dave and Kristin would be our crew. Alarm went off at 6am for the 730 AM start, I was up and ready to go quickly. I wore my New Balance 790s a lightweight shoe that I like, and added some gel cushions to the forefoot to protect my bruise. The gel cushions were the type made to fit in women's high heels, where a lot of pressure is exerted on the toe area. My race would be riding on the success of women's dress shoe accessories.....

7:30 AM start
Normal start with more than 40 runners beginning the race on about a quarter mile of paved road before running into the woods. I maneuvered myself into a mid-pack position, and planned on sitting there for the first part of the race. Once into the woods, the trail soon showed off it's reputation, with a steep climb only a few hundred feet in. The hill was completely covered in slick rocks, wet with rain and dew from last night. We had missed the pre-race briefing, but would later learn the race director added an hour to all the cutoffs, as he knew the course would be in especially rough condition today. The runners in front of me started to walk on the slick rocks, but I went around them and ran on, albeit cautious of the slick course. At this point I just tried to hold on to a reasonable pace, but learned that many of the slopes were not runnable on this course.

4 Mile Aid-9.5 Mile Aid
Between the 4 mile and 9.5 mile aid station I ran with several other runners, one of which was an endurance coach named Jim from Texas who ran nearly the entire 5 miles with me. This section of the course was again wet and slick, so it was good to have some company for the run. I made it into the aid station at a little under 2 hours, where the best crew of the day, Kristin and Dave (thanks guys), hooked me up with some gels, water, and good support, and I was on my way.

9.5 Mile Aid - Turnaround
This section of the course was actually the most difficult in places, but also offered some of the best views. One section was "the waterfall" which was a half circle waterfall tucked into a hill.. unfortunately the trail went through the basin of the waterfall, meaning having to scale more slick rocks. Also there were a lot of heart-rate spiking climbs. Fun stuff. With about two miles left till the turn around my foot started hurting. I had expected pain, but this was a toe pain, different than I expected. I limped into the aid station at the turnaround, glad to be half done a little over 3 hours into the race.

At the aid station I removed my shoe, which showed the women's gel insert had pushed up too far into the toe box and tore my big toe, as well as the fourth toe on my right foot open. I sat down at the aid station, where the volunteers had nothing but duct tape that would adequately fix my foot. I left the aid station, knowing that without the gel inserts, my forefoot problem would keep my pace slow.

Turnaround to 9.5 Aid Station

This section of course was actually quite easy, only because I ran as slow as possible, limping to protect my feet from pain. My foot started hurting here and I would limp for the rest of the race. No one passed me during this section (although several passed me at the aid station while I was fixing my foot). At the aid station Dave and Kristin helped me change shoes into the Adidas Kanadias that I have a love-hate relationship with. I left the aid station with Kristin threatening to tell my mother that I had used duct tape to fix my toe.

9.5 to Finish

For the last 9.5 miles I just did whatever I could, running when I could, which was quite a bit, but also walking quite a bit too. The rocks were torture on my feet, but I kept moving as I could, at one point running an impressive split for 400M, only because I was chased by a wasp.

There was one place on the course that I was dreading because I wasn't sure if I could climb back up through a slit in the rock with 25 miles on my legs. Luckily, this sections wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be and I made it through, largely unscathed. I passed another runner who looked to be in much worse shape than I was, offered him what I could before continuing. I was relieved to finally be see the pavement for the final run into the finish line, time 7:22, in 20th place.

I am extremely happy to have my first ultra out of the way, and I'm ready to start working on speed. I have a few ideas on how to do that, the first of which is trying an easier course! I'll post pictures later, but overall, I have to thank my crew and everyone who helped me through that day!

Flatrock 50K, ready to go

2009-09-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

Kristin and I are ready to leave for flatrock in about an hour. I'm feeling good, weighed in at 211 this morning, which is down again from lunar trek weigh-in, and even further down from Free State trail marathon weigh in (maybe soon i'll actually break 200 :)).

Anyways, I've had a good taper week, about 30 miles so far this week. I'm confident and ready to go... hopefully.

Run Log Sept 18th - 19th

2009-09-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

Taper week, just trying to hold it under 70 miles with no hard runs. Generally had a good week with exception of slightly bruising my forefoot running trails in the dark on Wednesday.

Sunday
Morning - 18 Miles, race pace.
Evening - Rest
Daily Total - 18 Miles

Monday
Morning - 3 Miles (recovery)
Evening - 6 Miles (trail hawks "beginner" run)
Daily Total - 9 Miles

Tuesday
Morning - Rest
Evening - 7 Miles tempo (1 mile warmup, 5 miles at 7:15, 1 mile cooldown)
Daily Total - 7 Miles

Wednesday
Morning - 3 Miles (recovery)
Evening - 10 Miles (trails) last 3 miles were in the dark. My new New Balance 790's didn't do well in the dark when I didn't see all the rocks. I believe I have a bruised forefoot as a result.
Daily Total - 13 Miles

Thursday
Morning - Rest (needed for taper)
Evening - 5 Miles (1 mile warmup, 3 X 1 Mile repeats at 6:55, 1 mile cooldown)
Daily Total - 5 Miles

Friday
Morning - Rest for taper
Evening - 3 Miles easy (in new Shay XC shoes)
Daily Total - 3 Miles

Saturday
Morning - 12 Miles (trails)
Evening - rest
Daily Total - 12 Miles

Total Miles: 67 Miles

Shoreline Shuffle - Continued

2009-09-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Last week I made a quick post about the shoreline shuffle with information on entry and other brief information regarding the race. On Saturday I ran the race with few fellow Trail Hawks, and had a blast! It's a three mile course, part of which runs along the shoreline of Clinton lake, I'm not sure if there will be a posted course before the race, so I'll try not to divulge too much now.

Bottom line is: I'm upset I won't be able to run this race. This will give new and old runners a good time to really "open up" and go as fast as possible on some fairly technical trails. Here are my general thoughts on the course:

This is NOT a PR course. In fact, I would say if you have a good running day, you'll be about 4 minutes off of your 5K PR.
In some sections you can totally open up and run fast. In fact for one mile of the course, I would expect some times that are within :30 to 1:00 of road race paces.
In other sections, you have to slow down. In another 1 mile section, paces will be considerably slower than road paces. For example, my PR for a road 5k hovers just about 20:00 (6:26 pace). I would expect to run this section at about 8:30 or 9:00 pace on a good day!
There's a surprise at the end. I won't say whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, but from a course design perspective, it's quite cool.
This course provides great views. There will be views of the lake ranging from on a cliff above the lake, to running on the beach along side the lake. In between, you'll be treated to single-track trails through eastern-Kansas forests.

GOOD LUCK!

Run Log Sept 6th - 12th

2009-09-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

This week started out great with a good long day on Sunday, followed by a PR at 4 miles for my tempo run on Tuesday. I've noticed that the work week wears me down considerably, and I'm finding it hard to put up big mileage on Thursday-Saturday.

Sunday
Morning - 16 Miles (on gravel)
Evening - 6.5 Miles(hills, 57 Min)
Daily Total - 22.5Miles

Monday
Morning - 3 Miles (recovery)
Evening - 5 Miles (trail hawks "beginner" run)
Daily Total - 8 Miles

Tuesday
Morning - 3 Miles (recovery)
Evening - 1 Mile warmup, 4 Miles tempo (28:15, picked up pacer for last 1.5), 2 Miles cooldown
Daily Total - 10 Miles

Wednesday
Morning - 2 Miles (recovery)
Evening - 8 Miles (trails)
Daily Total - 10 Miles

Thursday
Morning - Skipped, plumbing emergency
Evening - 1 Mile warmup, 8 X 800M (first 4 at 3:15, after that, bonk)
Daily Total - 5 Miles

Friday
Morning - 4 Miles
Evening - 2 Miles
Daily Total - 6 Miles

Saturday
Morning - 12 Miles (trails
Evening - rest
Daily Total - 12 Miles

Total Miles: 73.5 Miles

Shoreline Shuffle

2009-09-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

I'm generally not much for advertising, especially on my blog, but think I need to for this one:

(Note, I'll be missing this event personally as I will be at Flat Rock 50K)

The first ever Trail Hawks race is on. We are hosting a race at Clinton Lake on Saturday, Sept. 26th at Shelter 4, Clinton Lake State Park.

Cost:$8/$4 for dues-paying Trail Hawks. Race day $10/$5 for dues-paying Trail Hawks.
Race entry DOES NOT include $4.20 per vehicle Kansas State Park entry fee for vehicles without an annual entry permit sticker.
For more information please go here.

Run Log August 30-Sept 5 2009

2009-09-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start keeping my running log online, to make it more of a public accountability log. Ok, just kidding, but this does give me an ability to better track my running. This week my mileage is a little down for a couple of reasons:

First, I focused on splitting all my runs into two, thus going to a two-a-day running.
Second, I ran a race Saturday, and thus have no "long run" for the week. I'll have two next week though, so next week will appear exceptionally high.

Sunday
Morning - 3 Miles recovery
Evening - 4 Miles gym, ab/core work
Daily Total - 7 Miles

Monday
Morning - slacker
Evening - 1 Mile warmup, 2 Mile tempo, bonk. Extremely sleepy. Intended 6 miles.
Daily Total - 3 Miles

Tuesday
Morning - 4 Miles (my pf pain is 10X worse at 6:30 am)
Evening - 4 Miles, light weight lifting
Daily Total - 8 Miles

Wednesday
Morning - 4 Miles
Evening - 6.5
Daily Total -10.5

Thursday
Morning - Tired/Skipped
Evening - 6 Miles (1 mile warmup/cooldown, 4X1 Mile at 7:00 to 7:15 pave)
Daily Total -6

Friday
Morning - Rain (lame)
Evening - 4 Miles
Daily Total -4

Saturday
Morning - 8.5 miles (race)
Evening - rest
Daily Total - 8.5

Total Miles: 47

Break and Two A Days

2009-09-01T14:41:00.001-07:00

I took a short.. ok. .two month break from blogging after DNF'ing my first ultra, Lunar Trek in July. I'll post more details on the DNF, but the short of it is that I dropped out at about mile 21 due to heat and humidity. Hopefully I'll post more regularly now.

Just a quick plug here, but a great article by a guy I run with, Gary Henry.

I have signed up for a "make up" ultra, in the FlatRock 50K later this month. Again, I'll post more on the race later.

My current workouts have been generally ok, with a few instances of cramping or otherwise dying mid-run. I think I just need to sleep more, honestly. Weekly mileages have been generally in the 55-65 mile range with two "speed workouts" a week, a tempo run, and a 800M or 1600M repeats workout. Generally I feel good about things, but want to make a push on my mileage now, and after the 50K.

Starting this morning, I'm trying to run twice a day, with a run before work and one after work. I've never ran before work before, but running puts me in a better mood, and makes me better able to handle the day. This morning I rolled out of bed, put on running shorts and shoes, and was running no more than 5 minutes after waking up. If I can put in these three miles before work everyday, that will increase my base by 15 miles a week, 21 miles if I also run twice on weekends.

Kristin has been challenging me to do a 100 in the next year or so...

I'm optimistic.

<12 hours

2009-07-10T09:21:00.001-07:00

Ok, less than 12 hours till my last ultra. Should have updated this thing sooner, but here we go :)

I'm feeling positive about tonight. I think that my 6:10 goal is definitely attainable, I've been weighing (sometimes literally) the pros and cons about this race, so here we go:

Pros:

Lighter: the morning of Free State I woke up just north of 220 lbs. This morning 213.2 for a net loss of about 7lbs. This should help.
Better prepared: besides having one long race under my belt, I've also ran longer than 20 miles 7 times over the past two months. As a comparison, in the two months leading up to my marathon, no 20 milers.
Better course: Gravel roads can be much faster than trails... and since I'm more of a rhythm runner this could be a huge advantage.
GPS Watch: This time I'm wearing my gps watch to assure more even pacing, and hopefully smarter running.. ha.

Cons:

HEAT: Predicted heat index of 80 at the start. My earlier post dealt with heat, but this could majorly impact my time.
Vague injuries: I've had some various aches and pains in my lower legs, including a sprained right ankle and plantar fasciitis in my left arch. The right ankle doesn't hurt, but the left arch hurts.. it usually loosens up after about 2 miles, if it doesn't I may be in trouble.
Neo-Nazis: Wikipedia on Scandia, KS: "It is now a small rural community, occasionally noted for its Neo-Nazi political chapter." Have a feeling this is potentially blown out of proportion, but it seems like it could hurt my time, somehow.

That's all I have for now. I've actually been thinking a lot about race strategy and pacing. I know what pace I'm going to go out at, and we'll see what happens for now.

Too nervous to say more.

SNAP

2009-06-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Haven't updated in a while, but my report is now "complete" for work, so I have a little bit of time now, so I should be able to run more this week.. just as I should start tapering :). Oh well, I guess that's how it works.

Last week started off well, except it was the first really hot week this year. It reminded me of this table I saw in a Jeff Galloway book, on how much heat can increase running times, here's the table (based on 8:00 miles)

55-60 degrees - 1% - 8:05
60-65 degrees - 3% - 8:15
65-70 degrees - 5% - 8:25
70-75 degrees - 7% - 8:35
75-80 degrees - 12% - 8:58
80-85 degrees - 20% - 9:35
Above 85 degrees - Forget it... run for fun

Odds are that Lunar trek will be at least 75 at start time, and potentially over 80. Fun.

Wednesday of last week was extremely hot, which was complicated by a leak in my hydration pack's bladder. After 5 miles in, found the problem, and fixed the leak (tube wasn't completely screwed in), but I was so far behind on hydration, I only ended up putting in 10 slowish miles.

Saturday was supposed to be my first 30 mile run.. ended up running with Nick, Jim, and Christy. I had no clue what type of pace to run for 30 miles, so Nick lead for most of the run. The pace was slow, but I felt strong.. in many cases I really wanted to run faster, but knew that the other runners knew best.. especially over 30 miles.

Just over 16 miles into our run, I heard a snap.. and the next thing I knew I was on the ground grabbing my ankle... The pain was intense at first.. and at first I told the guys I was with that I thought I had broken it.. and that I was done for the day. Things ran through my head like how I'd have to drop from lunar trek, how much crutches were going to suck, and how much Kristin would be making fun of this... but after about 3 minutes, the pain subsided, and I could put weight on it.... and I realized I could run. I ran the rest of the way back.. we had cut the course before I snapped my ankle to avoid tall grass, so I ended up with 28 for the day.. not too bad, and the first time I had truly ran more than a marathon distance.

The ankle was a little swollen when we arrived back at the trailhead, but no pain at all, so I thought I'd take it easy. I ended up taking my first "off" day in 5 weeks Sunday to rest my ankle. The swelling eased a little, and I was able to squeeze out a hot 10 miles on streets on Monday. Good news. I have avoided trails all week and managed to get in 30 miles so far. Wednesday was a fun night to be out, on the path that runs along k-10 in southwest Lawrence amid a lightening storm. At least the air was cool from all the rain.

Tonight I'm running gravel roads with the Lawrence Trail Hawks, which should be great fun once again. Start at 11, finish sometime in the early morning hours.

The bottom line at this point is, despite an injury scare I think that 6:10 is still my goal, but heat might be a factor. We'll see what happens.

6:10

2009-06-14T16:34:00.001-07:00

As I look back over the past couple of weeks, this may shape up to be a boring blog entry, nothing too exciting really in my running life.

Quick update on my lunar trek preparation over the past few weeks. I've been running 60-70 mile weeks for the past three weeks with at least one 20+ mile run each week, and feeling great doing it. The 60 mile mark seems to be a magic number for me, as when I exceed that number I start dropping pounds and feel my endurance improves dramatically.

Lunar Trek is approaching quickly, and I think I'm in a good position for this run. I've set a conservative goal of 6:10 for 50k, which I think may be conservative based on my recent long runs and results from last year's run. I don't want to set my goal too high though, so I think this is a reasonable mark.

I'm also considering a longer run, the Heartland 50 Miler in October, but I would also like to do a road marathon this fall, possibly the Kansas City Marathon. I'll have to make the decision within the next couple of weeks as Heartland is filling up fast, but I'm torn between turning in a *fast* marathon time and running an even longer ultra. I wish I could wait to see how I'm running in Late September, but unfortunately that's not possible.

Finally, a thanks to Gary Henry for putting on a great run Friday night and Saturday morning. Gary's going to Lunar Trek as well, and knew a training route that is similar to the hilly gravel roads we'll be running in Scandia, KS. The route is a 13 mile out and back for a total of 26 miles. The first 4.5 miles are on the levee in north Lawrence with the rest on somewhat hilly gravel roads. Here's a map of our route from my Garmin:

View 26toLinwood in a larger map

Gary, Brad, Jim, Danny, and I met up at 11pm at the 0 Mile marker of the levee trail, and headed out for our late night marathon. The first 5 miles went easy, as the levee trail is smooth, small gravel, and can be run at a track pace. After that the roads were covered in large gravel and medium sized hills. I underestimated how weird it would be to run that far at night, through miles of empty country. I hydrated properly though, and took plenty of salt and felt good.

Just after 1 AM we pulled into Linwood, KS population: 374. The local bar was still open, and Gary had staged an aid station across the street in his truck. We refueled and reloaded, while getting strange looks from bar patrons, and the local cops... come to think of it I can't really blame them. It's probably a reasonable reaction to five guys wearing headlamps running into a small town after midnight. I did enjoy their music which involved an eclectic mix of hip-hop and country.

After refueling, and an incident involving a broken hydration pack, we were back on the road. The miles went by fast on our way home. We ran together for a while, but with about 7 miles to go Jim Beiter and I decided to put in some fast miles at the end. Looking at my Garmin, we averaged between 8:30 and 9:00 for our miles on the way in.. which showed me I had made some major gains. We finished with my garmin reading 4:25 of running time for just under 26 miles, we'll call it 26.2 :) (compared to a 5:03 at Free State Marathon grrrr).

This is the main reason I think 6:10 may be possible and conservative. Five additional miles in an one hour and 45 minutes was definitely doable Friday night, but who knows what early July will be, so I'll be conservative with my goal on my first ultra.

Sidewalks are faster

2009-06-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

Time for an update! The timeframe for my last blog entry ended on April 25 so here's what happened since then:

Two weeks after the marathon, I ran a fun 5k with my wife. It was a small field, and I ran with Kristin for the first couple of blocks, just enjoying a relaxed run again. I ended up taking 5th with a time of 22:45. Slow time, but I had a lot of fun doing it. The course had a short trail section in the second mile, which made me think, "hey I should make move here, I probably have more trail running experience than these guys..." .. 20 feet on the trail, foot catches on a root, face plant. No more getting cocky.

My training was spotty for about 3 weeks after the marathon. I had no long races on the horizon, so I put in miles with friends, went to the gym, and relaxed. A lot of 10 milers, but not too many longer runs. During the third week of May I decided to get serious again, so I picked out a race, Lunar Trek, which will be held on July 10th. I'm running the 50k (31 miles) which will be my first ultra-marathon. To be honest part of this is a testosterone fueled desire to get an "ultra" under my belt, as most of the guys I run with have a few ultras in the books.

Starting with Wednesday of last week I started to feel like my training was good again, and I'm approaching the fitness level I had achieved in December and January, and I'm approaching 60 mile weeks, which seems to be a magic number for me, both from a "feeling good" and weight loss perspective. On Wednesday I skipped the normal trail run with the "Lawrence Trail Hawks" to spend some time with Kristin for our third wedding anniversary. I instead ran a road 10 miler late at night, the longest I had run on pavement since November (I think). I ran strong, and found a hilly route in Lawrence to follow (see map).* In fact, I think this is the strongest I've felt on any individual run in about 5 months... I finished 10 miles in just over an hour and twenty minutes. I think I'll be doing this workout quite a bit in the future when I want to run fast on pavement... it has an extremely (for me) steep hill about 7 miles in, where you have to climb up 13th street to campus.

*Note, I think the function of using Google Maps to plot Garmin data of difficult or interesting workouts should be used more by runners for sharing purposes.... on the condition that it doesn't lead to runners parking in my driveway to begin their workout exactly where the route starts. :)

Thursday through Saturday I put in an easy (but sometimes speedy for me) 5 miles a day, with a little weight lifting and core work thrown in for good measure. On Sunday I went out for a 20 mile long run on trails with friends. This was the longest I had run in over a month, and my longest training run since January. Everything felt good, though it was hot and I managed to drain my hydration pack twice. The guys I ran with are a lot faster, and much more experienced in ultra-running than I, but I kept up with them for the first 15 miles. After 15 my legs were drained and my footwork was starting to get sloppy. I knew this was a good time for an injury to occur, so I backed off of the group, and ran the final 5 miles at my pace (this show of restraint may be my first smart move in slowing down to avoid injury... maybe I'm getting smarter.)

Sunday night I ran my newly found 10 mile route (mapped and mentioned above) on sidewalks, this time on tired and sore legs from my long run. The last two miles were hellish, and I struggled to make my legs turn over in any kind of normal way, I think I averaged 10:30 miles for the last two miles, which is slow for sidewalk running.

And it began.../Free State Race

2009-05-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

"Hey you need to change, that's totally inappropriate."
"Oh, I don't start for another hour, I'm just doing the marathon."

WARNING: THIS IS LONG

An hour before the start of my first marathon, that was the moment that I realized how much I had changed over the past 10 months, but I should probably step back in time about a year.

In June 2008, I realized that I was getting out of shape. I can't remember now if it was while walking up stairs at work, or just working out at the gym that made me realize my health was going down hill. Two years of being married, having a moderately stressful desk job, and various other poor health habits had changed my body significantly. I was finally fed up with feeling unhealthy, and decided to make a change for the positive, I made a plan that I would do the following things (not kidding):

Stop eating Hershey's Cookies and Cream Bars.. not kidding.. I had a serious serious addiction to these things. seriously.
Consume alcohol only once a month, at most.
Workout everyday.
Run at least 2 miles a day, and in a month be able to run 6 miles one day a week. (this killed me)
Eat less generally, and less red meat.
Stop taking life so seriously.

I was pretty sure that I could do these things, I just needed to make sure I could stick to the long term commitment. Starting in January of 2006, I had ran a few 5k's with my wife, and even a 10k at one point in time, but I was never in very good shape for the races, and they were truly "fun runs." During the 10K I actually came down with a case of runner's knee that nearly stopped me running altogether. Combine this with a particularly bad year healthwise, involving a commute to work, less time and desire to workout and quite a bit of stress at work.

So I started in June, at 14 miles a week, then 18 by the end of the month. I continued lengthening my workouts, so that by the end of August I was running about 30 miles a week, and had lost quite a bit of weight.

At the beginning of September, I started a marathon training program. I told Kristin I had no intentions of running a marathon, but this was just to give structure to my workouts and so I would be using a tested program. Two weeks later my opinion changed; I decided to run a marathon. I kind of thought that if I were putting in the work, I might as well try for a marathon.

I continued my training program through the fall, and set my goal first marathon as the Kansas City Marathon, in Fall 2009 (a year later). In the first week of November I finally crossed the 50 miles a week barrier. I had no idea how much I should be running to prepare appropriately for a marathon, and have since learned than many people run marathons on far fewer than 50 a week.

The same week I ran more than 50 miles, I had my first major setback: a sharp pain in the arch of my right foot. I could still run, in fact the foot felt better after running a mile or two, but it was a problem nonetheless. After some research online I found out about trail running, which was purported to protect joints, reduce injuries, increase leg strength, cure cancer, etc. It also could solve my foot condition, which I now knew as plantar fasciitis. There was even a local group called the KC Trail Nerds that ran on local trails, held events, and had weekly group runs.

Rather than contact the group, I decided to go it alone. I had my first few trail runs on Saturdays throughout November at Clinton Lake. Finally I broke down and showed up for a trail run, the day after Thanksgiving (consequently also when my wife was planning to do some black Friday shopping.. hmmm.. convenient). Only two other runners showed up, Ben and Sophia, but these two were very knowledgeable and helpful, but also enthusiastic about the group and trail running in general.

Throughout the winter I ran with the group, meeting new people, logging more and more weekly miles (up to about 65 miles by this point). I was really enjoying running with other people, having someone to talk to on all of my long runs.

In late January I had another setback. While running a strong 24 miler with a couple of trail nerds (Brad Bishop and Gary Henry to be exact), the outside of my left knee started feeling a bit irritated. Throughout the week it slowly felt worse, but I didn't think much of it until my next scheduled long run the following Saturday.

That day I showed up early, 6:15 am for a quick 4.5 miles with some faster runners, then we would loop back around to pick up some slower runners for the 7:15 am normal run. The first 4.5 miles went fine, but when we returned to the parking lot, I could barely walk. The knee hurt too much, I went home and quickly to the emergency care clinic (Kristin may have pushed me to that :) ). The Dr. asked me to reduce my mileage to 10 miles a week for the next couple of weeks, a prescription for a pain killer, and a diagnosis: ITBS, a common running injury.

I had planned to do a few races throughout the spring, but after the diagnosis and reduced running, I essentially cleared my calender. The next weeks went by fairly quickly, I ran 10-20 miles a week, and gained a little weight (although I was still in much better shape than I was in June of the previous year).

Finally in early-March, I had a single 10 mile run that was successful with only minimal pain. I continued building up throughout the month. By mid March I felt better, but still had to drop out of a 15 mile run once due to pain. I thought I would never be completely better.

On March 21st I went out for 18 miles, no knee pain. I immediately decided to do the next long trail race I could get my hands on, the date was set for the Free State Trail Marathon on April 25th. Over the next few weeks I tried to put in as much running as I could without over stressing my knee. My maximum week was only about 42 miles leading up to the marathon, but I was determined to run, and to finish.

So, after less than a year of serious running, and 6 months before my planned first Marathon date, I showed up an hour early for my first marathon. I spent the hour talking to my wife and my friend Liz, getting nervous, and making sure everything was in my pack... repeatedly.

And finally, the race started. Three miles on grass cross country trails to start the race. I had never really ran on grass before, was nervous, and went out way too fast. I have no idea what I was thinking, although I had told a few people that I thought I wouldn't have the self-restraint to pace myself in the early stages. Stupid.

After the first three miles the trail goes back into some hardcore nature trails full of rocks, roots, hills, streams, etc. Here I slowed down considerably, and also tried to regain my composure. After about mile 5 people started passing me. A lot of people passed me at this point. A LOT. At mile 6 I went for my first energy gel, and totally hurled it all over the grass. The feeling sucked, but I decided to suck everything up and just keep running.

I kept a slow pace and was passed by a few more people, puked up one more attempt at a gel. At this point I was running just to finish. Finally by the "land's end" aid station, about the halfway point, things started to look up. The volunteers refilled my pack, and gave me a pbj sandwich, which did not come back up. After the aid station I actually passed a couple of people. Finally I felt good, but the mud was thick and I lost my shoes a couple of times in the thick, sticky mud. Most of this was my own fault for trying a new lacing solution for my first long race (Doh!).

After 4 more miles, I came to the aid station staffed by the Kansas Ultra-Runners Society. Also staffing this aid station was my wife. I was really glad to see Kristin, and kind of didn't want to leave to finish, only 10 miles to go. I was either delirious or just truly enjoying the day, and really enjoyed just talking to my wife. I probably stayed longer than I should have, but, oh well, it was fun hearing her tell me how good I looked (lying) and taking pictures.

At this point I relaxed, and just enjoyed the rest of the race. I passed a few more people, and no other marathon runners passed me for the final 10 miles... maybe seeing Kristin gave me a confidence boost, or I was just finally feeling good enough to actually run. When I came to the stream crossing with only a few miles to go, the cold water was too tempting to resist, and I laid down in the stream. The water felt really good.. no matter how nasty it actually was. A couple of minutes and I was up and running again, with cooler and cleaner legs.

A few minutes later, I made my way to the final aid station, again feeling light-headed and having what may be described as mild hallucinations. Here I asked one of the volunteers how many salt caps I should be taking, he replied with "about 3 an hour." Ok, quick math (the math wasn't actually quick that day) I've been running 4 hours X 3 caps an hour = 12 I should have taken. Actual number taken at that point: 2. Oh well, not much I could do with only 3.5 miles to go, but this is a long-term problem I should work on. Part of the problem is that I'm not good at swallowing pills, so I end up chewing salt caps; this is just as unpleasant as it sounds. More on this in a future blog entry :).

On my way out of the aid station, I chewed through a couple of salt caps and jogged the last 3.5 miles. I didn't see any other marathon runners at this point, but I did manage to pass a couple of 40 milers, and the front-runner in the 40 miler passed me. I walked a few steps here and there, but for the most part I still felt good enough to run. Then, suddenly the trail out of the woods to the finish, right in front of me. I ran out of the woods up the trail.. final time of 5:03.

Not what I was hoping for, but I was satisfied considering all the knee problems of the past months, and where I was a year ago. Ben and Sophia (Ben was the race director, for which he deserves many thanks) gave me the my medal.. somewhat full circle since I started running trails. Also, Kristin was at the finish cheering me on. Great to see her again. We capped our day with a lunch of mongolian bbq, a final induglence and reward for hard work. I was happy. Finally.

Oh yeah, and what was that nonsense at the beginning about "just a marathon?" Well some of my new friends that were running that day were running races of 40 and 62 miles! Those races started at 7am-I was an hour early.