Let's run long... really long!

Training for my first 100 mile trail run has been a lot of fun, even though it's had some challenging moments and I haven't even started the race yet!

It all started with training for the Athens marathon back in the summer.  The confidence of putting out a decent 26.2 miles was an important first step in getting my mind and my body ready for a 24-hour endurance run.  As soon as that was done, it was back home with a 50k run the next weekend.  Then some maintenance weeks and a double half-marathon weekend, some 50+ mile weeks, and yet another 50k in December followed up with a 30k race the next day.  That was a 74 mile week--my biggest to date.

Miles are the most important thing, but they are not the only thing that matters.  It's also good to get miles on the trail.  On the race course itself is even better and since Huntsville is only an hour north of town, I decided to go get some miles recently.  Last weekend, I ran with my friend and fellow Houston Racing Triathlon Club member Ingrid.  Ingrid has a very similar attitude to me when it comes to training.  Neither of us run a record-setting pace (even though neither of us is particularly slow) but what we want out of triathlon and distance running is the satisfaction of seeing what we're capable of.  For this reason, it was pretty easy to impress her with the idea of running the 100 mile ultramarathon with me and she was in from the start.  She also has some ultra distance plans for the future that I will be taking part in, but more on that in a future post.

Anyway, back to the big run this weekend.  We went up to Huntsville State Park and ran the Rocky Raccoon course.  It's a 20-mile loop that is repeated five times.  We decided to run it twice for 40 miles.  This was an all-day affair and would be great practice for the race itself.  It would also be my longest self-supported run by a large margin.

I got to the park a little late--just after 8AM and I missed Ingrid, who was off on the trails with her friend Lauren who was running the first lap with her.  I figured I'd cross paths with them sooner or later and I ended up running into them about five miles into the run.  After that, we settled into a long day of running the trails, walking the hills, and chatting about whatever would pass the time.  After 20 miles, we were back at the car to top off our water, food, and any clothing change we needed.

The second loop was just the two of us and it was a little tougher.  The hills seemed to get a little higher and the roots seemed to jump up at my feet a bit more than they did the first time around.  Towards the end of the second loop, it began to get dark so I borrowed her headlamp (she was done--I still had an extra three miles to make my 40) and went off on a little side loop alone.

The pace I held was way too fast throughout the day and I really felt it by the end.  I think my nutrition was fine, with gels, some salted potatoes, electrolyte capsules, and and chicken soup w/ rice and butternut squash at the end.  it was cold, but I didn't care.  In the end, it was Mission Accomplished and I managed to run 40 miles just under 8 hours.  For reference, I'll be aiming to run that same distance in about 9 hours and 20 minutes on race day.

7:55:19 total time.  11:52 minutes per mile for 40 miles.

Now I'm going back today.  It's a week later and we're going to be running 20 miles, or a single loop of the course.  The difference this time is that it's all going to be at night by the light of our headlamps.  We're starting just after sundown at 6PM and we hope to be finished some time between 10 and 11PM.  The weather report looks pretty sketchy with cold temperatures and a high chance of rain.  If it was easy, there'd be no challenge, right?  I'll let you know how it goes.

2011: A Year in Review

Today seemed like a good day to post this.  One the one hand, it’s still very early in January so it’s a good time to look back at the year that has ended.  On the other hand, today is one month before the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile trail race, which is what I’ve been preparing for since mid-summer.  It’s right around the corner!

2010 on the whole was a very good year for me, both in running and in triathlon.  The year started with intensity as Alida and I flew to Florida for the Walt Disney World marathon weekend.  Alida ran her first half marathon and I did the Goofy Challenge, consisting of the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday.  What we never expected was that a sub-freezing cold front would hit Florida the weekend we were there.  I was largely unprepared from a clothing standpoint and this was all too obvious on Saturday morning at 4:00AM when I was standing around in the 32 degree sleet wearing a shorts covered by a pair of Tyvek (essentially paper) pants to stop the wind.  Wardrobe challenges aside, it was tremendous fun to get the photos and run with Alida as she finished her first half marathon.

I made the surprising and pleasant discovery that even when you run a marathon, if you spend the rest of the day in compression socks walking around the park, you won’t be very sore the next morning when you get out of bed.  This was a real gem of seemingly-obvious information and I pass it on whenever possible.

Disney was great, but there was no time to waste, as I had the Houston Marathon the very next weekend.  I didn’t really know how that would work, since the taper was basically nonexistent.  Not only did I have the Houston marathon, my friend and coach Brett Blankner was hosting his ZenTriathlon Base Camp the same weekend up in college station.  He had brought in John Hirsch, professional triathlete, Christine Lynch, a nutritionist with a great take on holistic diet, and Rich Roll, an ultra-distance triathlete and all-around interesting guy.  I could only attend half of the camp because of the marathon, but in the little time I was there, I picked up some great tips—mostly regarding the philosophy of training long and seeing the proof that training slow can make you fast.  I was so struck by my experiences there, I decided to go on a full vegan diet, which I planned to keep until my birthday in September.  And I did.

I'm with my dad and a fellow Dynamo supporter after the Houston marathon

The Houston marathon was another really positive experience for me as well.  This was my third time running it and not only did I run it well, setting a new personal record and breaking 3:45:00 for the first time, but I felt really great doing it.  I ran at a good pace and still had enough energy left to pick up the pace for the last 10k.  Two marathons in two weeks felt like a real validation of my training efforts.

All of that happened in January, but February started with a bang as well as I returned to Huntsville for the Rocky Raccoon 50 mile trail run.  I had completed it the year before, but my goal was to break ten hours.  I met some great people along the way and I got to test out the merits of fuelling myself on 100% plant-based foods.  In the end, I ran in the last ten miles with Tammy Massie, who was also shooting to break ten hours and we both met our goals.

With that completed, I turned my attention to triathlon training.  The big race of my early season was the Lone Star Ironman 70.3 race in Galveston in early April.  I had already broken the six hour mark the previous fall and now I wanted to come in under 5:45, maybe even under five and a half hours.  I put in long hours of training under a schedule put together by my friend and coach, Brett Blankner.  Lots of riding, lots of swimming, and lots of running.  It paid off, though, as I was able to finish in 5:37.  I had a little trouble at the end of the run and that cost me a 5:30 finish, but not to worry.  I’m already signed up again for this year and I plan to hit it even harder.

Brett and I celebrating our finish at Lone Star Ironman 70.3

Jeremy in the mighty 114 mile monsoon ride

After the 70.3 race ended, my schedule was open.  Without a goal, I fell into a bit of a training funk.  Luckily, my friend Jeremy was training for his first full Ironman race at the end of June in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.  Part of his training would involve some seriously long bike rides.  I started going out on long training rides with him and really enjoying myself as we rode, 60, 70, 80 miles at a time.  Finally, his schedule called for a century and I wanted to tag along.  Neither of us had ever ridden that far before.  On the day we had the ride planned, a nasty storm blew in, but it wasn’t cold, so we rode it anyway.  It was our triathlon club’s monthly ride and the course was 55 miles so we just doubled it.  We got a little bit lost on the second lap and the weather really got ugly, but in a way it was also kind of fun.  When it was all said and done, we had ridden 114 miles and had a huge sense of accomplishment.

We ended up riding two more century rides before his big triathlon and he had a good race up north.  After that, there really wasn’t much going on.  My motivation was low and I didn’t have any real events until the Athens marathon on Halloween.  As a result, my mileage slipped in the summer and I became more of a spectator.  I turned my attention to volunteering with the triathlon club and spending more time supporting events.  That is extremely rewarding in its own way and I had a very productive summer and met a lot of good people as a result.

In July, I decided enough was enough.  Even though the weather outside never really got below the low 80’s at night, I needed to do something so I started training for the Athens marathon.  At first, it was very slow going and discouraging, too.  My could barely run an hour at a time without taking walk breaks.  My heart rate was through the roof.  Could I really be that out of shape?  Well, yes and no.  In hindsight, I was a little out of shape, but the weather was hugely influential in my struggles.  As July became August, then September, and October, the summer got hotter and then cooler and by the time Athens was only a few weeks away, I was pretty sure I could run the race and produce a time I wasn’t ashamed of.

Another big thing that happened over the summer, even if it doesn’t sound big, was that I made the mental decision to sign up for my first full Ironman race.  Ironman is coming to Houston on May 21, 2011 and I wasn’t about to miss a lifetime goal race in my own backyard.  I was ready at noon on the website when registration came online.  Five minutes and $630 later (OUCH!) I was signed up.  Even as I write this, I’m excited about training for and racing my first full Ironman triathlon.

In August, my father was celebrating his 65th birthday and we decided to do it by climbing Mt. Elbert in Colorado.  Mt. Elbert is the second highest peak in the continental US and the highest peak in the entire Rocky Mountain range.  The hike was long and the air was thin, but we got to the top and grabbed a great view from the top of the Rockies.

Rocky Mountain high indeed

The next weekend, Alida and I flew out to California to take part in the Disneyland half marathon weekend.  This is the second part of the Disney Coast to Coast challenge, which was a lot of fun and got us another cool Disney medal for completing it.

Crossing the finish line in Athens

After months of training, October came around and Alida and I packed our bags for Athens and the 2500^th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon.  What a special time and event for a marathon runner, to be where it all began and on such a huge anniversary.  It was everything I hoped it would be and I did put forth a respectable time of 4 hours and 17 minutes.

No time to rest after Athens, though!  The marathon was just a stepping stone on my way to the 100 mile race in February.  I needed miles and I needed them fast.  The next weekend I had a 50k trail run that I ran with Cathlene Webb, Jeremy’s wife.  She had been training for an ultra and it seemed like a good opportunity to up my mileage.  We both had a good race and a strong finish and I went on to run several other ultras over the course of the year.

Another event of note in November was the Galveston Seawall Half marathon.  As it turns out, this would be my father’s first half marathon.  It was a hot and muggy day, which didn’t help anyone’s race, but we raced it all the same.  I needed extra miles, so I went out at 4:45AM and ran the course in reverse prior to the race starting.  I ended up running the race pacing Gordon and we finished a little over two hours.  My father was also successful in his race and finished a little over three hours using his walk/run method.  Not satisfied with his first race, he’s signed up for another one and he’s looking to break 3:00.  I think he probably will.

The last big excitement of the year for me was being elected to the 2011 board of directors for the Houston Racing Triathlon Club.  I am the director of membership and it’s pretty cool to be part of a small team who runs the biggest triathlon club in the South Midwest region.  Our club has over 800 members and we’ve won the regional points title for the last several years.  I look forward to a great year of service with the board and having a lot of fun as well!

Here are my final numbers for 2010:

Here's to raising the bar yet again in 2011!