short Wasatch workout.

still working on the monster marathon recap blog post... but in the meantime

did a little workout yesterday: mt. Wilson trail to first water and back. Power walk the uphills, run downhills and flats. 3 miles, 1000ft up and down, 13:50 pace


i wanted to do it twice, but had to get to my folks' house. it's the perfect wasatch training. even more hardcore as wasatch mountains are not quite this steep. but i guess this is lower elevation so perhaps that cancels out.

interestingly, my pace on the way up, 17 min miles (which included hiking uphills and running any downhills/flats) is exactly the same as the running speed when i ran up wilson a while ago. yet it's much easier than running the whole time, i never felt short of breath or energy. of course i'm in better shape now and when i tried running it last time back in October or so, i had to take many breaks.

i'll work up to maybe doing this 5 times in a row (or maybe go further up and come back a few times). and maybe change it up with doing the whole wilson and back.

got to try my new Sportiva mountain running shoes which worked out awesome. love the traction.

and i just love being out in the mountains.  it made me really happy to be on a trail

2 days till the race... and i'm not feeling that great

did a 10K yesterday after not running for 4 days.  i ran at marathon pace a bit under 8:30, which is pretty slow for a 10K and it didn't feel good.  just felt slow, stiff, achy.

i haven't been running since saturday due to a weird bruise on my left foot.  actually it feels like a very mild sprain of the "ring toe".  i don't know how i got it, but i was feeling it during the 18 mi trail run on saturday.  so i took 4 days off running, but i guess that wasn't enough as the 10K yesterday exacerbated it.  it doesn't hurt too bad and it's not a muscle or joint, so i can still run on it, but it might get really irritating after 26 miles.  it felt a lot better this morning, so hopefully staying off running today and tomorrow will fix it well enough for the race.

and then i woke up this morning feeling pretty shitty.  just tired, and my stomach feeling funny.  not hurting but not hungry, which is unusual. i had one night with 3-4 hours of sleep on tuesday as we were Billko-hunting, followed by 7+ and 7+, but i imagine i'm still not caught up.

i read somewhere on runner's world another person posting a similar thing where they had a shitty run the week of the race and someone responded that it's not uncommon and doesn't mean anything for race day, so i'm trying to take viewpoint and staying positive.  just have faith that all my training combined with race adrenaline, a downhill course, and a couple of caffeinated gu's should do the trick.

i'm confident that i will finish, but i really want to meet my goal of 3:45.  given some of my training runs, i thought this should be easy, but now i'm mentally preparing myself that it will be difficult, and i just need to push through. the worst thing one can do as a runner is have expectations that something will be easy when it's not, or so I read. so i'll mentally prepare for hard, and if it's easier.. .well, i can get a better time!

mission for tonight: in bed by 11.

i do love sprinting, still

I started running with a running club on the Caltech Track called the Los Feliz flyers.  It's a lot of fun!  There are runners of all levels competing in anything from 5Ks to ultramarathons.  They run every Wednesday.  This past Wednesday we did 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 300 with negative splits.

I still struggle setting the right pace for the longer sprints (1600-800) [Hah, now I call 1 mile a sprint, I really am becoming a long distance runner] - i.e. I run them too slow. I have this fear that I will get tired too soon and will have to run the remaining laps in pain.  I guess I just gotta get over it. But even then, it's way faster than any of my weekend long runs.

And the long runs just don't quite give that awesome feeling of burn to the legs.  Sure, they make the legs feel tired and tingly, but post-sprinting legs sometimes feel similar to going to the gym and doing a bunch of bench press.  It's a feeling of raw Power.  RAWR.  Not to mention running really really fast!

tips from Kristen

[from email to sarah]

here is quick thoughts while they're fresh.  first, she's apparently a pretty badass runner - she has 2 sub-24 finishes and i don't think they were easy races.  she was really nice and balanced.

-- practice being out and awake for 24+ hours even if just hiking.  so when we're in utah and the weather permits, we should spend 24+ hours jogging/hiking the wasatch course [This is the most new/interesting point for me.  we should do this at least a couple of times, in Utah or otherwise.  in fact, we should start early morning to simulate the race]

-- she doesn't take any iron pills and doesn't recommend you do unless you do so normally

-- walk uphills!  you can run the downhills, you can rest, you can drink, and you can eat. having to walk or shuffle on easy flats/downhills because you killed yourself on the uphill is one of the most demoralizing things

-- she does 4-5 night 25-30 mile night runs.  (she also gets nauseous from a headlamp so she uses a handheld)

-- don't run things that don't prepare you for the course - i.e. pavement or really flat trails (i think that was referring to long runs/races, not what we do during the week)

-- clif bars are too heavy to eat throughout the race.  use more liquids/gels.  

-- develop an arsenal of foods we each can eat during runs so there is something we can eat no matter how we're feeling.  go to Zombie Runner and buy one of everything they have and just try it on runs.

-- if one of us breaks down and starts crying, the worst thing the other can do (as far as the race is concerned) is to get down and comfort, even though it feels right and natural because that's what we normally would do for each other.  she had that issue when her husband paced her and she finished 4 hours later than she thought she would have with a friend pacer

-- 30 hours on the wasatch is "phenomenal".  we should aim for 33, according to her.  30 hours is a top 35 finish.

-- training for race specific things (i.e. eating, drinking, being out there for a long time, being on the course) is more important than running miles or cramming 50s.

-- once we're do the 50 miler in may, we would have a much better idea of our strong/weak points and can train accordingly.  I think after that point we change focus to night runs, overnight runs/hikes, back to back runs, and doing the Wasatch course

-- being a pacer/crew is stressful! "where is my runner?  is anything wrong?  i have to be positive for them even though they're going slow and look like shit"

-- what keeps her coming back is going to incredible lows and then always somehow getting out of them and it never happens the same way

-- apparently AC100 people organize trail work sessions, so we can do it with them.  and we could try running w/ ken/kristen that weekend.  Kristen is training for the San Diego 100.  we should try and coordinate to do the trail work w/ Ken/Kristen.

-- she's really excited about the Mt. Disappointment race.

getting better!

did a 22 mile trail run w/ sarah on sunday, through the redwoods (not the big ones).  and saw a deer.  two of them.

now that we've written out the Wasatch training schedule, 22 miles seems so short... but it's actually the longest trail run we've done so far.

for the most part it went really well.

great dynamic between the two of us, taking turns leading when the other person was feeling a bit lower.

stop roughly every hour to eat and make new electrolyte drink from fast-dissolve tablets

overall, i had good energy levels most of the time, and while my left quad had early signs of cramping up a bit, it got better as i kept running and drinking electrolyte.  the main downer was the left knee which flared up around mile 5, then subsided for the next 10 miles or so, and then really started bugging me on the last 5.  if i let it cool down, it really acts up, and then, once it warms up, it gets a bit better.  perhaps we should have walking breaks instead of standing breaks to eat.

yeah, food's really important.  at least for me.  some people can do a whole marathon with no food and drink (and win it!), but for me the post-food high and the following low are so palpable, that it's very clear i need to eat  at least every hour and more than just 1 Clif bar.

also, i'll probably be changing my training to focus on long weekend runs and not run that much during the week, to give the knees and muscles chance to recover.  most folks out there seem to do it that way.  on weekdays i can do crosstraining, weights, etc.

oh yeah, and time-wise, we did it in 4:50 or 13 minute miles, which is a great Ultra pace, though not one we can hope to maintain over 100 miles (we're shooting for 18 minute pace).  and much better than we did on our first 20 mile trail race, where we were doing over 15 minute miles.  of course we're in better shape, not sick, and this was about as easy of a trail as it gets - soft, level ground, with only mild climbs and descents.

oh and i'm really excited about my new Camelbak which let me carry over 10 lb of weight (3.5L of water, extra layer, food, flashlight and other items) and still fit snug on my back with zero bounce.

7 minute miles!

4mi in 28:31! except the race was judged not by how fast you are but how close you are to your projected time. i projected 30:00 and Sarah crossed that out and changed it to 27:00. in either case, i was way off!


my knees didn't feel so good on that. didn't bother me enough to slow down, just mild discomfort and mild dull pain, but not happy.  perhaps due to not being used to sustaining such pace or not enough warmup..  

how do you make a marathon as just another training run for a 100 miler?

So over the last few weeks as the "OH SHIT" reality of doing a 100 miler in 6 months is starting to settle in.  We started out just being really giddy and excited.  We knew, logically, that we should also be very serious, but it hasn't started to really hit until the last couple of weeks as we've been talking to experienced people, reading race reports, and seriously working on our training plan.

Kristen Farley, a friend of my co-worker, has been particularly helpful.  Her husband Ken is the chair of the Geology department at Caltech and they run 100 milers.  Here are a few realizations that we've had.

1) THIS IS REALLY EXTREME. Not that we didn't know... but we didn't feel it in our bones until now. See below.  Much more so for only having 6 months to train, with no previous experience running more than 20 miles on trails, and for one of us (me!) only having been a distance runner for 6 months.  Not to mention it being one of the hardest hundred milers in the country at average altitude somewhere around 7,000ft, elevation gain of 27,000ft and all that good stuff.  I'm sure we'll feel it a lot more as we start doing more 50 milers.  Also Kristen recommended volunteering at a mile 80 aid station... to learn what others are doing and just to see what mile 80 looks like.

2) Every run leading up to the race is just another training run.  So how does running the LA Marathon (26 miles on a downhill paved road with support every mile and ten thousand other runners) become a training run?  Well apparently it does... you just have to do a hard trail run before or after the marathon, to practice running on tired legs.  Since I have marathon time ambitions, it'd have to be the day after.  Or maybe the evening of, if I'm feeling really ambitious.  I can do Mt. Wilson if it's passable by then.

3) Kristen recommends we do "at least a few" 50 mile races.  Shit.  She says she thinks of races as just more training runs with your food and water taken care of.  Makes sense.  The idea is not to be a hero, but just put yourself out there for 12 hours at a time to practice nutrition.

4) Even if you do everything right and you're an experienced runner, you can still wind up in the ICU for a week with acute kidney failure.  (See point 1).  That's what happened to Ken after he successfully finished Western States, a popular 100 miler.  He felt good for most of the run except for not having peed since mile 20.  Finished in 27 hours, very respectable.  Went home and was functioning and going to work, though not feeling good (pale, tired, weird pains).  Finally went to ER, and they're like "dude, your kidneys are not working."  So he got IV fluids pumped into him getting him to gain 26 pounds... and then, once the kidneys started working, he lost it all in a few days, peeing a pound every hour.  Apparently other elite ultrarunners have experienced this, though it's still rare - perhaps 1/1000 runners, according to Ken.  What do we say to that?  We won't be trying to run hard (Ken was shooting for 24 hours), we'll watch for signs of not peeing.

5) The mantra used to be "Failure is not an option. Period."  And now that's changing to "Failure is not an option.  But let's have a contingency plan."  Being our first 100 miler and having 75-100 people waiting at the finish line along with our wedding rings, the idea is JUST FINISH.  Don't be a hero, don't try to run fast.  Just finish.  I would be beaming with pride if we can do it in under 30, but I won't push for it.  This is not about feeling good about ourselves for doing it so fast.  It's about completing a ridiculously hard journey together to seal our union for eternity and sharing it with the people we love.  If we don't finish because of a bravado attitude of trying to run fast - not only is it terrible on a personal level (getting married at an aid station or worse at a hospital...???), but also terribly inconsiderate to all the people who love us enough to come out all the way to Utah and sit around waiting for us all day.  So don't be a hero, JUST FINISH.