43 days to Leadville

The excitement is starting to build for Leadville Trail 100. If you are not aware of the significance of this run I want people to know that this is more than just putting yourself through a grueling 100mi event like Leadville. I am proud to be an Ambassador for the Runwell. My ultimate goal has been to raise both funds and awareness for Runwell. In previous posts, you can read about the coaching I have received from Bob Seebohar and the difference it has made.
I strongly encourage you to either make a donate of ANY amount here or join the Runwell team and participate in an event of your choice. You do not have to run across a desert or 100 miles above 10,000 ft. You can choose a local 5k or marathon and discover the benefits that will pay forward to others. I want people to know that it is tremendous to be able to participate in these events knowing that you are being supported and that you are directly benefitting others. I say this because this is the kind of thing that goes through your head at mile 60, 70, 80+ when you are really hurting....you dig a little deeper knowing that you are giving back.

Race Report: Mohican 50 miler

I better get this one down on paper before I begin to remember this race without the details. First of all, I rarely compete in races where I travel overnight; I try to stay local or not race at all so I minimize time from the family.

I had signed up for this race since I needed a 50miler before Leadville and was unable to get the time last year to run it. This was meant to be a training run, no taper, just train straight through…to add to the mix, I have been traveling for work for a few weeks and arrived back in CLE late Thursday night, went to a party, got home by 2am, worked the next day and then drove to Mohican for the night. Dave Wank & I stayed at the extremely posh Mohican River Inn about 5miles from the start. You can sit in the bed and brush your teeth at the same time since the sink is so close. Gotta love it.

So, did breakfast (S-Caps, UCAN, whey protein, chia, coffee, water, & some CLIF mini-mojo bars) then headed over to the race start. I desperately needed the morning bathroom stop which became a theme of the race for half of the race. After a quick photo with Tapatha, Kevin, Gale, Leghorny, & Michael, the race started at 5am and off we went. Dave & I ran together in the dark at what felt like a very easy pace, kicking roots, rocks, and wishing I had brought my headlamp rather than relying on the moonlight and fellow runner’s lights. My goal was simply to run an easy race…..shooting for about 9.5-10hr total time.

The trails at Mohican are gorgeous; there are sections that looked like something you would see in the Pacific Northwest, ferns, moss, & pine needles. We continued to run easy and I found myself directly behind Connie Gardner which for me, was probably a clear sign that I needed to slow down, regardless of how I felt. I thought if I feel this good now and can simply maintain the effort, I would easily make top 10. I ran behind Connie watching her steady pace, conservative, deliberate, & light steps, walking the steeper hills, and slowing just slightly on the lighter hills. I stayed with her through about 13-14miles before I decided that I should slow it down. I had been looking for an opportunity to find a restroom the entire morning and finally about mile 15 I saw a porto, ran in there seeing my friend Keith coming out, ironically. We said a quick hello, and then I tried to shift from running to relieving…something that took a few mins. 

The miles went on, and I plodded along the hills…realizing that these hills were going to put me closer to a 10hr finish time. No worries, it’s just a training run right? By mile 20 I was searching for another trail bathroom, which I eventually found… I hit the end of the first loop (26.2) miles about 4:55 in and had my last bottle of UCAN, changed my shoes/socks and then took off. It was hot, hilly, but I was moving forward and over 50% done. Time to just get it done. The aid stations were awesome and I admit that the buckets of ice water were simply amazing!  I took my time at aid stations, then started to walk after realizing I had been pushing too hard in the heat & hills. About mile 34 I met up with Richard Cook who had a solid pace going….I hopped on the Cook train, chatted, ran, kicked up the pace, and really enjoyed the time spent. At mile 44.2 Richard looked at me and asked if I had a time goal. I told him I had re-evaluated my 9.5 hr goal to be sub 10 hrs, but as I looked at my watch, I was at 9hr 44min with essentially an hour to get in 6mi. Not going to happen…I had lost time going to the bathroom, at aid stations, and walking for way too long during miles 26-34. Lesson learned….I needed to feel more pain and stop relaxing. I looked at Richard & another runner, Kevin who had been with us and said “It’s doable” and after one last bathroom break I decided that I had 60mins to run a 10k. I dug a little bit deeper and dropped the pace. This was my biggest lesson…I had the ability to run 9min miles and didn’t. I kept thinking “it’s just a training run” and with that attitude, I allowed myself to slack. I hit the finish at 10:50, happy to be finished and happy that I wasn’t doing the 100 that day….but realizing that I should have pushed harder. Dave came in about 9:38, which was strong and where I should have been.

Overall, I was happy…happy that I just ran 50 very hard miles without a taper…but still learned that I need to slow the heck down for the first half of the race… Lastly, to take the time to go to the bathroom early and not to let the attitude of a “training” run dictate my effort level.

Recovery was excellent; I left for Texas again very early Monday morning and continued training that evening. I took Sunday off running and got to sleep in for Father’s day. The training in Texas has been brutal with temps well into 110 degrees. I’ll have to write a separate entry on it. 

z

Race Report: Green Jewel 50k

Below is my race report for the 2012 Green Jewel 50k.

We ran that far.

I'm not sure how I got talked into NOT following my training plan from Coach Bob for this weekend. My schedule called for a 16 mile negative split run on Sunday. I think it's that I PR'd at the GJ50k in 2009 and I wanted to see if I could run this as a fun training run and beat my time of 4:56. In 2009, it was a 50k PR of 1hr 24mins as I was very new to ultra running. I was fortunate enough to be offered some "rock star" crew treatment from Mike Nicholson (2011 3rd place) whose brother Greg, was running his first 50k. After waiting for the salamander migration to clear at CVNP, we pulled in the lot and I ran into a number of familiar faces (Kathie Teuschner, Pam Rickard, Brian Morris, and others) before taking off and heading to the start.

I love the atmosphere before an ultra. No one was complaining that the race was not going to start on time, everyone was smiling, excited for what we were about to do, taking photos, sharing stories, adjusting bib numbers, and well-wishing other runners. I finally got to meet Lee Shane in person (rather than facebook), accepted an Elmo (gluten & vegan) cupcake from the Basich's, shed a layer, took a quick wizz and off we went!

Pam Crushing PR

I ran a few miles with Pam who stands 9 feet tall in her Hokas and floats through puddles, whereas I was skimming the ground in Altra zero drop shoes :). Pam & I are fellow Runwell Ambassadors and have been under the same coaching & nutrition expertise from Bob Seebohar (www.Fuel4mance.com).We were both very excited to see how the metabolic efficiency training was going to play out for us. 

Keith Finishing Strong

A few miles in, Pam dropped back (but only by a few seconds) and I met up with Keith Lascelles; we began chatting about running, nutrition, the day's goal, and whatever other stories that came to mind. Our goals were similar, to run about a 4:30-4:45 depending on how the day went. This is one of the best parts of the running community I think. There are races that you end up running solo for hours and races where you play leap-frog with people, and ones like this where I was fortunate enough to run with Keith for pretty much the entire race. We kept saying "we need to slow it down, if we take the pace back, it will pay dividends later, etc..." neither of us would do it, we just kind of went with it. Mile 16 flew by and I thought  maybe I can negative split this thing, so I started a slight pace increase. 

Can you guess where the cramps started!

Lesson learned. 

On Friday, I posed a comment in the Outrun group "taper schmaper" after a hard week of speed workouts and a brutal 9 mile race pace run on trails on Thursday, 90mins of intense core (TRX, Insanity, and other core work) on Friday. Seemed a good idea at the time, besides it was just a fun run, right??. At mile 19 something under my right rib cage had such a sharp pain that it made me walk. my pace went from ~8min/mile to 9:30 to an 11:00 pace, not cool. I first thought was that it was my food....nope, dummy, it was my overzealous workout the day before. I met and passed Debbie Scheil, who shortly thereafter patted me on the shoulder to get going so she could chase....she continued on strong (to PR!) and not long after I see Keith. We played leap-frog for a while before the abdominal muscle cramp was manageable to run constant. We hit the marathon mark at 3:45 and the rest was just a solid easy effort to the finish. Everytime I picked up the pace, I was reminded to back off by my ab muscle. Lesson learned. With about 2 miles to go, Keith picked it up and ran a really strong finish...gaining about 4 mins on me by the end (4:31). I came in shortly after with a 4:35.

Green Jewel 50k Finish

Happy enough with the effort, but disappointed in myself for not taking heed to taper even a little. That's all a wash though since the experience was such a great one. I ran into Lee Shane, Crystal Basich, & Keith super exited to hear how they did (so impressed). They asked how Pam was and I guessed about 30mins back. I went to change into warm clothes and as I walked back, I saw Pam finishing an astonishing 4:44!

Pam's first question to me: "what did you eat?".....", "2 packets of Chocolate UCAN. that's it."...nod of agreement, this works. Proof is in the pudding (as long as it's a 1:1 carb/protein ratio!).

Final Thoughts

It's been 4 days since the race and I have still not taken a day off. Got in 8 miles Sunday, 8 Monday, and a really hard 6 miles Tuesday. I finally cross trained Wednesday and am back on track for my Leadville 100 training. Next on tap is more training, the O24 and then Mohican 50mi.

Big Thanks

Please remember that none of these races are possible without a LOT of hard work from the Race Directors (Joe Jurczyk & Vince Rucci) Courtney Russell for taking all the finisher photos and all the volunteers who give time and effort to support runners in these events. There is nothing better than seeing familiar faces at aid stations and getting help from people who have such great ultra & running experience and really do know how to help. Again, how can you not be impressed with the ultra running community? We rock.

Running: 2011 in Review

I started this post, deleted it, then started it again. I am pretty sure I could write a few pages on all the things that occurred with running this past year, the gear I tried, the things I learned, the people I met, ran with, were inspired by, and the places I was able to run. 

I'll try to keep it really simple. 

My main running goal last year was to run the Burning River 100. Check. I did it with fellow running friends who all worked hard to accomplish that same goal.

A lot happened as well with the growth of the Outrun group, creation of the ultra team along with Fleet Feet and NUUN as sponsors, and hosting our first official trail race (Believe & Achieve 5k/10k). The snowshoe race was a success. Running was amazing and we found tons of new trails. 

I was very happy to become an ambassador for NUUN early in the year and more recently with Runwell.

In 2012, my main running goal is to continue to promote running in the community, convert some roadies to try the trails, and maybe introduce some folks to running. I have a few races that I am focusing on (Leadville 100 - main one) and we are hosting the first USATF certified 24 hour trail race in Kirtland (O24) in April. 

My quest for the perfect shoe continues. As I have doubled the amount of miles I ran per year just 3 years ago, my feet have also increased in size. I like to think of them as getting big and strong. I have effectively blown out all of my trail shoes, even my last 2 pairs of Adidas xt3's that I was so fond of. 

I am currently starting a rotation between the smoking light and very well updated New Balance 110's (update to the 101) and the high quality, naturally shaped, zero drop Altra Instinct (road) & Lone Peaks (trail)....Let the duel begin. I think in the end, they will serve similar but different purposes. 

One of the most exciting things I have been focusing on is Metabolic Enhanced Training (MET) as the Ambassadors on the Runwell team are coached by Bob Seebohar (fuel4mance.com). I will not go into all of it, but I have been on the journey to MET for the past 6-7 weeks, and the results speak for themselves. Just check out the website. 

Okay, so it was a bit of a ramble but I tried to keep it simple. I'll leave you with this quote from a short article I read the other evening. 


"...They (ultra runners) understand, perhaps better than anyone, that the doors to the spirit will swing open with physical effort."

z