Bear 100

I have certainly been taking my time in writing this race race report.  Partly because I have started a new job and am working in a new state, but also because I have been trying to decipher my true feelings about this race.  After not being drawn for Western States this year, I decided that I wanted to run a more difficult 100 as my goal race for the year and that race was Bear 100.  I put in more training miles during my primary training block than I have for any of my other races and so I had high expectations of performing well at this race and ideally, finishing in under 24 hours.  I knew the goal was lofty, but I have also not pushed my body and mind to the point of failure yet.  The last couple of weeks prior to the race, I found myself to be pretty tired and fatigued, but injury and pain free.  I decided to dial back the training/maintenance miles and just rest up.  The mental and emotional effort of preparing to leave and start a new job, move and also the pressure I had put on myself for Bear was enough on me without the physical strain of my usual weekly mileage.

Christy and I flew into Boise on the Wednesday before the race to have dinner with my parents for my Dad's birthday and headed down to Logan the next morning.  After packet pickup and a nice dinner with the Boise Trail Runner contingent of Ryan and Michelle Anderson, Emily and John Berriochoa, Sam Collier, and Christine Kollar we headed back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before the race.  Surprisingly, I slept pretty well.  At the race start, I managed to link up with Ryan and we started the race together.  We lined up reasonably close to the start line and held a relatively quick pace through the neighborhood and up to the start of the trail where we would fall into a single file line of the first big climb of the race.  I took point, and kept a steady hike up the climb.  My intent was to keep my effort level low, but make sure that I was working so that I could not only make good progress, but also keep my body temp up.  The weather was around 30 degrees and there were intermittent flurries of snow and rain throughout the first 10 miles or so and when I left Fort Worth a few days prior, the temp was 94 degrees.  A pretty big swing for me, which effectively made my heat training over the summer precisely worthless.  Ryan and I started the descent and switched places and we really cruised down through some pretty awesome trail.  This was my second favorite section of the race.  There were a couple of times here that I thought I might be working too hard here, but I just stuck with Ryan until the first major aid station.  I quickly reloaded with gels and headed out after Ryan and after one mile, I decided that I needed to back off and let Ryan do his own thing.  I also started to have some cramping in my right hamstring that I just couldn't seem to beat.  At the next aid, I checked for pickle juice, but no luck. Miles 25 to 45 were really pretty uneventful.  I just kept moving, keeping an easy effort and trying to be as consistent as possible with my usual strategy - Hike the ups, run the downs and be disciplined with a run walk on the flats.  At Temple Fork, Derek Call joined me to run the next 6 miles into Tony Grove.  This section is more or less all uphill and it was quite muddy and slick.  We shared some pretty good conversation just catching up and enjoying the course.  At this point in the race, I was still feeling pretty good, but I was noticing that I had less and less strength to manage the climbs.  Fortunately, I was doing really well on the descents.  Derek and I came into Tony Grove after a pretty good downhill section.  I would be on my own for the next 10 mile section so I wanted to get some food and try to get warmed up before heading out.  I was freezing and having a hard time managing it.  I sat in the aid for quite a bit eating and keeping covered with blankets and jackets until finally I just needed to get going.  The next section was probably my best section of the race.  I managed to pass 17 people and I just felt like I was getting that second (or third) wind.  I came into Franklin Trailhead ready to pick up Derek and get to work.  We took off strong, but about 2 miles into the climb I realized that I was having a very difficult time breathing.  I tried to remain positive, but it only got worse.  It seemed like it took forever to make it to Logan River.  Coming into the aid station, I was very cold and in rough shape.  I ended up laying down in a heated tent to try and stretch out my torso and warm up hoping I might be able to restore my lung capacity.  Many people were dropping who were sitting near me, and I finally just got up and got moving.  The next section was probably my absolute worst, taking an eternity to cover the 7 miles to Beaver Lodge.  Derek and I arrived at about 5am.  Coming into the Lodge, I could see that my family had been pretty worried about me, which was warranted considering I was probably 6 hours behind schedule.  I sat down and I so mentally broken that I nearly dropped.  I found myself looking at the clock and thinking about my goal for the race and how I should be on the final descent at this point but still had 24 miles to go.  I didn't even want to say a word.  Instead, Derek did the talking for me and I laid down and rested for a full hour.  Christy sat with me and I pissed and moaned trying to find a reason for why I was even in the race.  I thought for a bit and ended up deciding that I had 12 hours to cover the remaining 24 miles and I would rather walk it in than DNF.  So, I put on my bravest face stood up and got my gear together.  As soon as I stepped outside, I completely broke down.  Derek helped console me like the good friend that he is while I had my little meltdown.  I then shook that off and reset the rules for the rest of the run. What could I do?  I couldn't run uphill, hell - I couldn't do that all day.  I couldn't run downhill, my quads were shot.  On the flats I might be able run/walk.  Here is what I settled on: 1)Hike all uphills as hard as I possibly could until I passed out 2)At least try to run the downhills 3)Run/walk as much as possible on the flats 4)Check in and out of the aid stations; no more sitting.  Derek agreed, and we got moving.  I'm a bit hazy on the rest of the run, but I remember the following:

1) I was in and out of the next aid station, only waiting long enough to get a cup of hot chocolate.  It was ridiculously cold here.
2) I broke the rules and sat down at Beaver Creek Campground in hopes that my sister would be able to use a roller on my quads.  Unfortunately, we got there before she did.  There was fantastic sausage and pancakes at this aid station
3) I broke the rules again at Ranger Dip, but it was again for my sister to roll out my quads.  It probably did more harm than good.  I had a really hard time getting moving again.  The climb out was miserable and the descent was brutal.

I ended up running an acceptable amount during the last 3 or 4 miles.  I think I passed 3 or 4 runners during this stretch.  It was good to finish the race, and it really meant a lot to have so much of my family there to see the finish.  My time ended up being 33:35:33.  Thinking back on the race, I still feel some disappointment about the result.  Considering how my body feels and how quickly I was feeling mobile after the race, I have to believe that my training was pretty good, all things considered.  I think I ran a very smart race for the first 61 miles and felt good doing it.  My body just didn't manage the altitude when it really mattered.  The only real success of the race is that I set a new PR for longest time running by almost 10 hours. Sometimes you just have to look on the bright side of things.

August 26 - September 1

Monday: Off
I worked a bit late to finish up some things after orientation and when I got home, I just wanted to eat and chill out.

Tuesday: 9.12 Miles - 1:08:15 - Average Pace 7:29/mile
I decided to do hill repeats today.  I was going to go to the gym but I didn't want to waste the nice weather.  I ran the two miles down to Grandbury at an easy pace and then did 5 miles of repeats on the abandoned hill.  The grade isn't very steep, only maxing out at around 5%.  All of those repeats only got be a gain of 528 feet.  I feel ashamed to call this a repeat workout.  Oh well, at least the pace was decent.

Wednesday: 4.10 Miles - 30:01 - Average Pace 7:19/mile
I was supposed to do 10 miles today, but I got started too late.  In the end, I just opted for a run around the block.  Took it really easy.

Thursday: Off
Didn't feel like running today.  Been a pretty shitty week.

Friday: 6.26 Miles - 1:17:19 - Average Pace 12:15/mile
Went to the gym to work on the treadmill.  Fortunately, an incline trainer was open so I jumped on it.  I decided that I would set the max incline to 30% and do a random route that was pre-programmed.  In the end, I ran at 10:00/mile pace all inclines up to 12.5% and hiked anything higher at 15:00/mile pace.  I continued this for an hour until the machine shut off.  My elevation gain was at 3,261 feet, so I hiked a bit longer at 30% incline to get up to 5,000 feet.  Nice workout.

Saturday: 11.59 Miles - 1:32:19 - Average Pace 7:58/mile
Not a lot to say about this run.  It sure seemed to get really hot, really fast.  Overall, I felt really good.

Sunday: Off
I was really tired.  Fell asleep on the couch while doing laundry and didn't wake up until 11:15.

Total Miles: 31:07
Total Time: 4:27:54

A pretty poor week of training, although the treadmill workout was really good.  I felt like I got through it just fine, so my leg strength is definitely there.  I am starting to feel the effects of all the miles I have run during the past few months.  No injuries, but I am just tired.  Especially of running the same damn routes day in and day out.  I figure I will spend the next 2 weeks really trying to get some elevation gain on the treadmill.  I hate that just as badly as the repeated routes.

8/19 – 8/25

Monday: 8.01 Miles – 56:30 – Average Pace 7:04/mile

Decided to try for a new 8 mile PR and was successful.  As usual, I started with a mile at a stiff, but easy pace and focused on getting to the halfway point at around 30 minutes in and got there in 30:33.  Pretty close, especially when it felt like the effort wasn’t too hard.  I planned to hit all of the remaining miles at sub 7 minute pace, and hopefully leave enough in the tank for a sub 6 minute final mile.  The remaining splits were: 6:41, 6:43, 6:32 and 5:57.  I broke my PR by 30 odd seconds and I am happy with the result.  I only wish that I were able to run that 6:43 faster.  I like running each mile faster than the last, especially in the last half of my run.

Tuesday:  Off

Eh, felt kind of like garbage and didn’t feel like running.

Wednesday: Off

Same thing as yesterday.  Last few days have been rough at work, and I am just worn out.

Thursday: 8.31 Miles – 1:12:06 – Average Pace 8:40/mile

Just a really easy run.  Getting harder and harder for me to force a pace this slow unless I am on trail.

Friday: 4.00 Miles – 56:04 – Average Pace 14:02/mile

Went out to Big Cedar to get some miles in, and I learned really damn fast today that I had no business out on the trails.  It felt incredibly hot and I couldn’t get my shit together.  I was running a little and then walking a lot, over and over.  Live to fight another day, I guess.

Saturday:  12.55 Miles – 1:44:09 - Average Pace 8:18/mile

I haven’t been sleeping for shit lately, so it came as no surprise that I was wide awake at 3am.  I tried for the next hour to sleep, and got tired of tossing and turning so I got up and headed out with no real distance in mind.  I ended up putting in 12.55 at what felt like a very pace.  I actually spaced out a bit for the last 2 ish miles and even now I don’t really remember from that point until I got home. 

Sunday: 8.04 Miles –1:01:09– Average Pace 7:36/Mile

Got out for a few birthday miles after spending the day at Six Flags.  If I wanted to be fitting, I could have done 8.25 miles, or better yet, 32 miles, but that wasn’t happening tonight.  Not much to say.

Total Miles: 40.91

Total Time: 5:49:58

Initially I had planned on getting a 50 mile run in on Friday, but I thought better of it.  I don’t know if it would benefit me or be more of a risk.  I know I can cover the distance.  My only concern at this point is that I am not getting enough time on my feet weekly.  Because my training pace has dropped quite a bit overall, I just finish each week with a shorter amount of training time.  Regardless, it seems that the training is really paying off.  The monthly volume alone is much more than I have put in for any of my races, ever.  Training is about complete.  Time to have a couple of easy weeks and just maintain what I have built over the last 4 months and not get stupid and injured.

8/12 - 8/18

Monday: Off

Had to work late.  No time to run tonight.

Tuesday:  Off

Once again, had to work late, no time to run.  Bummer.

Wednesday: 5 Miles – 54:46 – Average Pace 10:55/mile

Hit the treadmill after work.  Still didn’t have enough time to get a full run in, but I gave it a whirl.  1 mile warm up, 2 miles at 5% incline, 2 miles at 15% incline.  Sweat my ass off, but felt pretty strong otherwise.

Thursday: Off

Travel back to Fort Worth.   

Friday: 4.17 Miles – 33:42 – Average Pace 8:05/mile

Set out with the plan to run 8 miles tonight and was feeling really good until 2 miles in.  I went to make the turn onto Grandbury road and tripped.  As I stumbled to catch myself and stay up, I felt a very sharp pain in my left foot right below my pinky toe.  I hobbled across the road and sat down to get my wits about me.  I took my shoe off to assess the damage and didn’t really find anything too alarming.  I decided to play it safe and headed back to the house early.  Almost to the house, I felt like my foot was fine, but I still played it safe.

Saturday:  7.29 Miles – 1:15:12 - Average Pace 10:19/mile

Spent some time out at Big Cedar to catch up on some trail time.  I was pretty concerned about my foot from the previous night, so I chose to wear the NB 1210’s to protect my foot.  I actually felt really good for the whole run.  I deliberately took it at a slow pace.  I tried to run each of the climbs, but still maintain my run/walk ratio.  Ended up being just over a thousand feet of gain through the run.  I had to cut short once again in order to help with some work stuff, but I really felt good about this run.  I got to run Texas Sunset/Ranger/SxSW/Ranger/S.O.S. which I think is a pretty good trail linkup. 

Sunday: 11 Miles –1:26:14– Average Pace 7:50/Mile

Aside from a little stiffness and burning in my Achilles/calves for the first two miles.  I stopped to stretch for a few minutes, and afterwards really felt solid for the rest of the run, running every step.  I don’t feel like I pushed the effort too hard at all and I think it was a nice end to an otherwise shitty week of training.

Total Miles: 27.46

Total Time: 4:09:54

Work really interfered with training this week, but I suppose it doesn’t necessarily hurt to have a light week right now.  I am a little disappointed that I will not meet my initial mileage goal for the month.  Hopefully I can still close out the month with some solid training.  

August 5 - 11

Monday: 8.04 Miles – 1:00:39 – Average Pace 7:32/mile

Days off from running are quite bittersweet.  I enjoy the rest, but I hate the feeling of getting my legs moving again.  Set out tonight with a temp of 100 degrees with fairly low humidity.  The first mile felt like garbage.  Little by little my legs started loosening up as miles two and three went by.  I tried to push the pace subtly as I finished mile 4.  I stopped for a minute to think, and pay some respects to Grandpa on his birthday.  Easing back into the run, I had to push the effort a little to get up the climb to mile 5.  Nothing special for mile 6, but I started to stretch out and finished mile 7 with a 7:26.  Feeling solid, and after a brief stop at the stop light I decided to give a solid effort for the last mile, and ended up with a 6:03.  The last third of the mile was certainly a higher intensity, but if I had started the “kick” earlier, I would have had no problem dropping into the 5’s.  Good start to the week.  Hopefully I can manage to get some good miles while in Ann Arbor.

Tuesday:  Off

Had to work late in order to get things in order to be gone from work for the next 2 weeks.  Wanted to spend time with Christy more than I wanted to run.

Wednesday: 7 Miles – 1:00:11 – Average Pace 8:34/Miles

After dinner, I tried to do some recon on trails around the hotel, but I couldn’t find anything.  Instead, I opted for some hill work on the treadmill.  I set the speed to ~8:30/mile pace and ran the first mile flat to warm up.  After that, I increased the incline by 1% each mile for the next 6 miles.  By my calculation, that would equal out to approximately 1109 feet of gain.  Kind of cheap, but I felt ok doing it.  The fitness center was really hot.  It would have been better to run outside and enjoy this nice weather.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Thursday: Off

Work seemed to take a lot out of me today.  I just crashed out to get prepped for the hard effort I have planned for the weekend.

Friday: 8.01 Miles – 57:53 – Average Pace 7:14/mile

The plan was to get out and push the effort so that I can fight through some leg fatigue on the first of my long runs this weekend.  I left the hotel and really enjoyed the nice cool weather.  I headed out past REI and just started making turns where ever the traffic lights would allow and found myself on Main Street headed for downtown Ann Arbor.   Once I got there, I immediately changed course because the street was absolutely packed.  I felt very good throughout this entire run, and know that I could have pushed the pace a hell of a lot more.  This time is only about a minute slower than my PR, and I wasn’t having any difficulty.  Time to test that again I suppose.  I don’t know what my splits were, because my watch decided to be a douche and delete the tracks.  I think the last mile was around a 6:25.

Saturday PM 1: 22.01 Miles – 2:58:06 - Average Pace 8:06/mile

Did a little route research before I left the hotel to find a long out and back so that I couldn’t bitch out halfway through.  Bobby suggested getting on Ann Arbor/Saline road and do some weird ass loop thing but I only took half of his advice.  On the way to that turn, I stopped at REI to get some gels, including the new Salty Caramel flavor, which I think is now my favorite.  Dodging traffic for the first three miles was a bitch, but after that, I was treated to a run on a long country road with smells reminiscent of camping in Idaho.  There seems to be a ton of pine trees around, and I think that most people are hanging out by fires in their backyards.  This run was awesome.  I felt really strong the entire time and this really builds my confidence for Bear.

Saturday PM 2: 1 Mile – 20:00– Average Pace 20:00/mile

Got showered and cleaned up after the run and I decided that a recovery walk to get some food would do me some good.  It did.

Sunday AM: 2 Miles – 45:00 – Average Pace 22:13/Mile

Wanted to stretch my legs out a bit to see how I was feeling, and loosen up for my second long run of the week this evening.  Felt really good.

Sunday PM: 20.01 Miles – 2:44:47 – Average Pace 8:14/Mile

Did some more route recon to find out how to get to the Border 2 Border trail that connects several cities around Ann Arbor.  Figured out it was about 4 miles to the trailhead and it wasn’t too tricky to get there, so I went for it.  I told myself I was going to take it really easy today, but I was only half successful.  I didn’t really feel stellar for the first 5 miles, but from 5-15, I felt great.  Ann Arbor is really a beautiful town, and it makes me feel a little homesick for Boise.  The trail runs along lots of water and it was very active with people.  All of which were friendly, except for one lady who said “Leave me Alone” as I said good evening in passing.  Bitch.  I started tanking a bit at about 17 miles in, so I stopped and sat on a bench for a minute to regroup.  It was exactly what I needed, as my last three miles were among the fastest of my run.  I am really stoked that I am dialing in my pacing so that I can finish strong.

Total Miles: 68.07

Total Time: 9:46:37

Absolutely jacked about this week.  I managed to get just about all of my planned miles in this week, including nailing the back to back long runs.  Especially happy to get it done while working out of town while putting in 12 hour days.  Furthermore, my body feels great.  I am going to reward it by going down to the pool and hot tub for a bit.  Confidence continues to build.

July 29 – Aug 4

Monday AM: 6.02 Miles – 48:36 – Average Pace 8:04/mile

Another early morning.  Nothing really special about this run. 

Monday PM: 5 Miles – 45:06 – Average Pace 9:01/mile

Went out to Gateway Park to get some trail miles in.  According to the Garmin data, the 93 degree temps felt like 101 degrees.  I know my body was really feeling it.  Just 2 miles in and I was feeling gassed.  I really enjoyed cruising on the trails despite all of the prick mountain bikers that nearly ran me over.  I was running in the NB 1210’s and liked them for about 15 minutes.  After that, not so much.  I made it through the first loop and just cruised around the fields to get up to 5 miles and called it. 

Tuesday: 6.09 Miles – 46:00 – Average Pace 7:33/mile

Tonight was really muggy.  Legs felt really tight for the first mile, but after that I got loosened up and cruised.  Everything was going really well until 3 miles in and my stomach started to disagree with the fact that I was out running.  I barely made it home “safely” at 4 miles in.  After a brief pit stop, I went out for two more quick miles with the last mile in 6:47.  I am really liking the fact that I am able to get these sub 7 minute miles at the ends of my runs and not feel like I had to really work for it.  Progress.

Wednesday: Off

I felt really tired today after work.  I decided that I just wanted to relax.  Yep, felt like a slack ass.

Thursday: Off

Normal off day.  Enjoyed time with Christy.

Friday: 4.95 Miles – 1:36:48 – Average Pace 19:33/mile

Traveled to Colorado Bend State Park to camp for the weekend, run and get my volunteer hours in for Bear.  Dre and Don joined Christy and I for the weekend.  After we got camp set up, I got ready to go for a run and Don said that he wanted to join me.  Since Don is a former Marine and appears to be in good shape, I figured he and I would be able to knock out some easy miles.  We started off down the trail at around 11 minute pace and Don appeared to be holding ok.  Once we started climbing, it became apparent that Don was struggling and wasn’t expecting what he signed up for.  I eased in to a decent powerwalk and took it easy while Don caught his breath.  As the climb mellowed out, we started running again, but was short lived.  I decided in the end that it was best to only hike the remainder of the trail.  My mileage was cut short for the day, but it was cool getting to know Don better.

Saturday AM: 5.01 Miles – 43:42 - Average Pace 8:44/mile

Set out this morning on my own to run the course from yesterday to see how I could do on my own.  I’ve been wanting to see how my legs would feel on some techy uphill, and I feel pretty good about them.  This section of the race course is pretty rugged.  Not really the most taxing in elevation gain, but the footing is pretty sketchy.  Once through the 3 (ish) miles of uphill, It’s a 2 mile bomb on dirt road to the bottom.  Closed with a 6:22 final mile.

Saturday PM: 3.42 Miles – 1:30:47 – Average Pace 26:33/mile

Simply a hike with the crew down to see the amazing Gorman Falls.  Explored a little bit and headed back up. 

Total Miles: 30.49

Total Time: 6:10:59

I’m not exactly excited about my training this week, but not disappointed either.  I spent and additional 10 hours on my feet setting up and running an aid station on Saturday night which could be some sort of training I suppose.  Regardless, it felt awesome to give back to the scene.  I had thoughts of running the 7 miles from my station back to the start, but with my headlamp broken, I had to take the easy road back.  I’ll be working in Michigan for the next 2 weeks, and I hope that I will be able to stay consistent on my training.  I really need to push hard for the next 3 weeks before I can begin my taper for Bear.

July 22 - 28

Monday: 8.03 Miles – 1:02:02 – Average Pace 7:44.mile

Got up early to get my miles in before work since we are going to the game tonight.  My legs felt incredibly sluggish for the first 3.5 miles.  Despite running at 5am, it still felt really hot this morning.  Normally I can manage with a shirt on, but I literally felt like I was suffocating with the humidity and heat.  The last part of my run felt a lot better. 

Tuesday: 6.01 Miles – 45:47 – Average Pace 7:37/mile

I don’t know if I ran fast tonight because I wanted to just be finished with my run or what, but I felt like garbage.  Way worse than my run yesterday.  My legs felt heavy the entire time, and had some nagging feelings around my ankles.  Regardless, I still managed to finish nice and strong with a 7:04 mile which didn’t feel like I was pushing any effort at all. 

Wednesday: 8.03 Miles – 1:05:04 – Average Pace 8:03/mile

Once again, got up early and ran the same route as Monday.  My schedule actually called for 10 miles today, but I just ran out of time before having to get ready to head to Oklahoma City for training.  The first few miles felt kinda blah, but I finished strong with a 6:47 mile which like last night, felt like I wasn’t pushing too hard.  I considered running on the treadmill and getting some vert gain tonight, but after training and dinner, I just don’t feel it.  I can easily get in extra miles over the next few days.

Thursday: Off

Friday AM: 8 Miles – 1:06:11 – Average Pace 8:16/mile

I really didn’t have any interest in going for a run this morning, but I forced myself out the door anyway.  There was a light rain when I started and I actually felt pretty good until about 3 miles in.  The sun started to come out and it suddenly felt really hot.  I haven’t really eaten right for the last few days after traveling for work and I think I really started to feel the effects at this point in the run.  Once I hit the 4 mile turnaround, I sat and tried to regroup for a few minutes.  Once I started to feel better, I set out again.  I made it about 1.5 miles before I had to stop and sit again for another few minutes.  I ran for another half mile and sat to cool off.  After that, I was able to push for the last 2 miles and finish strong.  My mileage goal for today is 16 miles, so I am going to have to run again tonight to meet that.  I’m hoping that my last two runs for this week turn out better than everything else so far.

Friday PM: 8.01 Miles 58:13 – Average Pace 7:16/mile

Very solid run tonight.  Ran what felt comfortable and this is what it was.  As usual, I pushed the pace a bit harder the last 2 miles and ended with a 7:00 and a 6:37.  All miles were sub 8.  Looking back at my training two weeks ago, that double day had 8 milers in 1:11:09 and 1:06:54.  I like that today my first 8 was done in 1:06 and the second was in 58:13.  I’m getting stronger. 

Saturday: 10.01 Miles – 1:22:48- Average Pace 8:17/mile

Set out this morning with the mindset that this was going to be a nice run to end my week of training.  Spent a bit of time before starting watching the live results feed on the Speedgoat 50k to get some motivation and got out on the road.  I really am missing the trails.  The intermittent rain in the area has kept me off of them, but I will be changing that next week when I go to Colorado Bend to volunteer.  My thought today was to run a new route.  I wanted to find a 5 mile section of road to run on that is reasonably safe from traffic. I found a pretty good road and was nearly 4 miles in when I approached a house that looked a little sketchy.  I looked straight ahead to see a very large Rottweiler standing in front of me.  We had a staredown for about 20 seconds.  He charged, and I retreated.  I really didn’t have to run hard to get away, he was too big to be too quick and seemed to give up after only a few yards.  I may have also overestimated his “charge”.  Regardless, I got back to the house at a little less than 8 miles.  I refilled my bottle and then headed out for the last of my run.

Total Miles - 48.09

Total Time - 6:20:05

The week started off rough, but seemed to end a lot better.  I think the beginning of the week had me feeling beat down a bit from the 30 mile effort from last Friday.  I'm expecting to spend quite a bit of time on the trails this week.  The last two weeks of all road running has helped a bit with my turnover which is good, but not good enough.  I will get the opportunity to run at Gateway a couple of times, and finish off when I volunteer at Colorado Bend this weekend.  My body feels decent as I write this report.  No real aches and pains which is good.  I kind of took some of the easy way out while running this week, avoiding the majority of the heat.  Oh well.

July 15 – 21

Monday: Off – Initially I planned to run tonight, but I didn’t get home from work until 7 or so.  Foiled.

Tuesday: 5.5 Miles – 1:04:43 – Average Pace 11:43/mile

Despite the cool and rainy conditions that greeted me as I stepped outside to go to the gym, I opted against running one of more normal weekly routes to go to the gym and get some elevation gain on the treadmill.  Once again, I was unable to use the incline trainer and it’s generous 30% incline because of the douche bags who consistently use it, but run at 0% grade.   As usual, I set the grade to 15% and hiked at 15:00 pace for 2 miles.  I really didn’t feel very good and I seemed to be dizzy or unstable for pretty much this entire run, especially the first 2 miles.  I then dropped the incline down to flat and put in 3 faster miles at 7:30 pace to stretch out my legs and finished with a .5 mile cool down.  Stopped a little short of my goal mileage for today, but I wasn’t too concerned about it.

Wednesday: 4.73 Miles – 59:42 – Average Pace 12:37/mile

Met up with Martha after work to run the Trinity Loop trail.  I didn’t really have any goals for today’s run, other than getting 4-5 miles.  Fortunately the weather cooled off a bit, but unfortunately, the humidity was at 89%.  I let Martha set the pace, and just followed along.  The trail is pretty nicely groomed and well shaded.  Some vert would be nice though.  The route we took went through the loop trail to the Woodshed and back.  Nice easy run.

Thursday: Off – I had thoughts of possibly getting in my long run for the week late on Thursday to avoid the heat, but after getting home, having dinner and settling into a board game with Christy, I decided to abandon that idea and plan for an early morning start.

Friday: 30 miles – 4:04:46 – Average Pace 8:09/mile

Woke up early and took my time getting ready, while still trying to figure out the exact route I would be running today.  I knew that trails were out, thanks to all of the rain that we got in the area this week.  I would have liked to have just run a simple 15 mile out and back, but I couldn’t think of a route that would keep me relatively safe from all of the traffic.  I ended up settling on running my 2 usual 8 milers a total of 4 times for 32 miles.  The first leg started off very sluggish for me.  In fact, my legs felt like garbage.  I couldn’t seem to get into a rhythm for probably the first 3.5 miles.  It was about this point where I was almost hit by the truck of a city water inspector.  I managed to get out of his way and flail around enough that he finally noticed me.  Asshat.  Apparently that activity got things moving and I had to stop for a quick bathroom break.  Fortunately, a port a potty was nearby.  Whew.  The remainder of this leg was pretty uneventful.  I made it back to the house in 1:07 or so.  I stopped to refill my water bottle and feed the dogs and remembered that it was garbage day so I put out the trash and headed out for the second leg.  This leg was even more uneventful.  However, I was feeling better and getting into a groove and thanks to a long downhill section followed by a lot of flat, I completed the second leg in about 1:05.  Christy was awake this time when I got back so I chatted with her for a bit while filling my bottles.  I then chose to change my shoes and socks, which were soaking wet from running through sprinklers.  The Brooks Ravenna 3’s do not drain worth a damn, and I didn’t want to suffer later.  With happy feet, I headed out for more fun.  As I was moving through this portion I decided that I didn’t want to do the exact some routes again, so I opted to add a few miles in CP Hadley park before heading down to the dead end at Risinger.  With the sun coming up and the temps quickly rising, I was going through my water significantly faster than the first 16 miles.  I stopped at the 7-11 for a Gatorade and a bottle of water.  I hung out here for a bit longer than I would have liked.  I opted to take the longer route around the block as my return, figuring that I would hit the marathon mark pretty much at my doorstep.  I realized that all of my splits to this point had been less than 9:00/mile and figured that if I pushed, I could beat my old marathon PR.  I tried to stay consistent all the way back to the house, and ended up at 26 miles even at my doorstep.  Once again, I had to stop to fill my bottles and use the restroom.  After the short break, I crossed the marathon distance at about 3:33:xx, which is about 9 minutes faster than my PR.  I am really happy about this, considering I was pacing myself to be able to finish 30+ miles.  I ended up deciding to head out to the end of the Candleridge Park trail which is a little 2.1 mile trip from the house.  After slogging there and back, I hit 30 miles at 4:04:46 right at the entry to my neighborhood.  I thought for a minute about putting in another mile to finish the 50k, but I decided I was satisfied with the effort.  I walked the remaining .25 miles to the house as my cool down and called it a day.  I’m really pleased with the result of the run.  I am confident that I can improve on the time in a race environment with more ample calories.  The water intake was pretty spot on.  Regardless of the hot temps and high humidity, I managed to lose only 1.3 pounds.  I might have this hydration thing under control yet.

Saturday: 3.07 Miles – 25:01- Average Pace 8:09/mile

I chose to go for an easy recovery run today after yesterday’s effort, even though my schedule called for no mileage.  I am really surprised at how well my legs feel today.  Only a little tightness in my hips.  Temp this morning was 73 degrees at start with 94% humidity.  Definitely felt a lot hotter than it really was.  I’m surprised that my “recovery pace” was the same as yesterday’s run.  I followed my usual pattern for long and recovery runs (5 min run/30 sec walk) and got home feeling like I just went for a nice stretch. 

Total Mileage: 43.3

Time: 6:34:12

I feel decent about my training this week, especially the effort on Friday.  I would have liked to have picked up another run today, but I need to remember to be patient and add in some recovery time.  This month will have my highest mileage total to date and there is still a ways to go until Bear.  I'm happy about the progress.

July 8 – 14

I decided that I want to get back into journaling about my runs to describe how I feel and see if I can track patterns in my training.  Here goes nothing.

Monday AM: 5.62 miles – 43:36 – Average Pace 7:46/mile

Drug my ass out of bed to get a jump on my mileage for today.  Schedule calls for 14 miles, but it is too hard to get that in one shot during the week.  I don’t want to sacrifice too much time with Christy, so on days like this, I will have to do things this way.  Nothing really special about this morning, but this was as far as I could get before having to head to work.  I just tried to keep an easy pace after my mileage the past few days.  6^th day in a row, so my legs are feeling it.

Monday PM: 8.01 miles – 1:21:34 – Average Pace 10:11/mile

April wanted to get some running in together and her schedule called for around 2 miles.  I took her over to the Trinity Loop Trail after work and we set off on a very easy run/walk pace.  For this portion of the run, I felt fine.  I am hoping that experiencing running on a trail will help to motivate April.  Once we finished the trail, April called it a day.  I threw my headphones in and headed off in the opposite direction on the Trinity Trail.  For the first 3 miles to the turn around, I felt pretty good, just keeping an easy pace and slogging through in the heat. (99 degrees at start)  However, once I turned around my body just shut down.  I think that I walked the next half mile just trying to recover.  I was really feeling a lack of energy and dizziness, which is something I am not accustomed to.  As I made it back to my truck, I realized that I was likely struggling due to the heat, combined with the fact that I failed to eat breakfast and lunch.  Definitely something I can’t continue doing if I am running 5-6 days per week plus lifting weights.  After I stopped at the store and got a sandwich and a Gatorade, I felt almost instantly better.

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: Off

I had every intention of running today, but the crazy weather and power outage at work didn’t allow me to get home until almost 9pm.  Psh.

Friday AM: 8.11 miles – 1:11:09 – Average Pace 8:52/mile

Schedule called for 18 miles today.  I failed miserably on the first attempt.  Got started late and my body just wasn’t handling the heat. 84 degrees at the start and quickly heated up to the mid 90’s.  With the humidity, I was just not feeling it today.  I pushed through my usual 8 mile route and got back to the house for a refill on fluids.  I took a few minutes to cool off and stepped outside with the intention of hitting another 8 mile loop, but I found myself short on time.  Decided to cool it and thought I would run later.

Friday PM: 8.14 miles – 1:06:55 – Average Pace 8:13/mile

Tonight’s run felt a hell of a lot better.  Oddly enough, the starting temp was 100 degrees, but with the sun not burning the hell out of me, I fared reasonably well.  I’m not particularly happy with the splits being so inconsistent, but I gave it what I had.

Saturday: 10.05 miles – 1:31:27 – Average Pace 9:06/mile

Another day, another rough run.  84 degrees at start with 62% humidity was not what I would consider comfortable.  For the first 5 miles, I was feeling fairly decent.  My 6^th mile was pretty shitty.  I was really struggling along, trying to conserve my water in the blistering heat.  I got a second wind and made my way to a convenience store to get some more fluids.  I stopped outside for longer than I would have preferred, rehydrating and cooling off in the shade.  Slogged through the last of the run and called it a day.

Sunday: 11.20 miles – 1:23:23 – Average Pace 7:27/mile

Today was exactly what I needed to feel better about my week.  Until today, it felt pretty weak really.  Initially my plan was to go to the gym and spend 4 miles on the incline.  However, when I got home and the temp was 70 degrees and rainy, I chose to spend it outside.  I decided that I was going to run every step today which is a break from my last couple of runs where I walked some portions.  4 miles in and feeling good, I started heading back home and when I got to my street, I just kept on going.  The rain had me completely drenched and I was loving every minute of it.  I was feeling plenty of pep in my legs, surprisingly after getting into some higher mileage this week, and doing double days of training.  At about 11 miles in, I decided to call it quits.  I feel like I had some pretty solid miles.  First mile at 8:08 to warm up, and then no miles over 7:41.  I really didn’t push the pace at all, but these were just “comfortable” for today.  Now I’m hungry.

Total Weekly Mileage – 51.04

Training Time – 7:18:03

My only real curiosity about this week has to do with the benefit of splitting my daily mileage goal into multiple runs versus getting the long run in.  I would like to think that at some point, breaking the mileage into smaller chunks will help to reduce my chances of injury, and running multiple times during the day might help simulate the leg fatigue that I experience in the longer runs.  I know at some point, I better get some long runs in, but I hope this base building will benefit me.  Next week will be a good test, as I am planning a 50k run on Friday.  

Racing Short

Yesterday,  I raced a 5k.  I am considering calling it my first official 5k.  I have run the distance in a "race" environment a total of 6 times: (Including yesterday)

2010- Beat Coach Pete Fun Run - Unofficially timed, 22 minutes or so
2010 - Light the Night 5k Fun Run - Unofficially timed, 20:36
2011 - Beat Coach Pete Fun Run  - Unofficially timed, 25:14 (Ran in costumes as a group)
2011 - Light the Night 5k Fun Run - Unofficially timed, 20:12
2012 - New Years Day 5k - Officially timed, 37:36 (Paced Kifer in his first race)

Some friends from work decided that they wanted to run this race as a team, and so I decided to join and figured I would just hang out with everyone and not worry about time.  5k's are not on my radar in a competitive sense, so I was cool with this.  Then, April's boyfriend Jason issued a challenge to me that if I spotted him 3 minutes per mile plus an additional minute for the .10, he could beat me.  Jason is most certainly not a runner, and really not in any exceptional physical condition.  To be fair, it wasn't a fair challenge, but I am not one to back down.  At that point, I decided I would actually race the distance and shoot to break 20 minutes.  I haven't really been running a great deal since the Grasslands 50 mile and the Pickled Feet 24 hour failure, so I didn't know how successful I would be.  The fact that I have had some sort of tendonitis in my ankle bothering me wasn't going to make the undertaking any easier, not to mention that I have avoided mostly everything resembling speedwork for the last year and a half.

I'm never one to line up at the very front of the pack, but sometimes I wish I was.  I weasled my way nearly to the front, but still had probably 150-200 people in front of me.  Knowing that my fastest single mile I have run this year was about 5:55 and that I needed to average 6:26/mile to break 20 minutes, I decided to get through mile 1 in 6:45 and then just start pushing the speed as long as my legs and lungs would allow.  Once the race started, I began dodging people as best as I could, waiting for the crowd to thin out.  The first mile runs uphill on University Drive for probably .70 miles and I took advantage of this and passed maybe 70 people.  I came through mile 1 at 6:44, right on target.  I had to expend a bit more effort to dodge and pass the other runners, but no big deal.  I picked up the pace and kept passing more and more runners throughout the next rolling hill sections until mile 2.  I was still feeling really strong but tried to reel back and save it for a strong finish.  I got through mile 2 in 6:07.  I was feeling pretty strong, and so I started pushing and passing as many people as I could.  The last section is all flat through the zoo and I just kept running as well as I could.  I hit mile 3 at 5:51 and started running as fast as I could manage and set my sights on one final runner that I might be able to pass and I did so only 5 yards from the finish.  I finished the race in 19:11, good enough for 17th place overall, and 2nd in my division.  Pretty happy with the result.

Oh yeah, and I won the bet. :)

Rocky Raccoon 100

Back in October as I was running the Arkansas Traveller 100, I kept asking myself what the hell I was doing.  I didn’t have to pick a 100 miler to qualify for Western States.  I could have taken the “easy way out” and picked a 50 miler or a 100k.  I whined to myself for a while and then just got my ass in gear and finished the race in a personal best time, dropping my PR from 23:50 (Antelope Island) to 23:37.  I told myself that I was going to lay off the 100’s for a while and do 50’s until I qualified and was drawn for Western States.  Yeah, that lasted all of about a couple of days.  Shortly thereafter, I developed kidney stones and had to have surgery to remove them which shut down my running for a few weeks.  I then got to run a bit during the last week of November, and knowing that I would be able to train well in December with a good portion of the miles being back home in Boise on awesome trails, I decided to register for the Bandera 100k. After a very solid month of training in December, I felt very confident about racing Bandera but during the week of the race I got bronchitis.  It took a lot of self- restraint to bow out of the race, but I am sure it was the right decision.  After Bandera was over, as I sat on the couch pissing and moaning about missing the race I came across a post by Joe Prusaitis on Facebook discussing the possibility of re-opening the registration for Rocky Raccoon which had been filled for quite some time.  Without thinking, I sent an email to Joe requesting the opportunity to register.  After a short while, I came to my senses and thought, “what the hell did I just do?”  I then basically thought that I wouldn’t get in anyway, so no harm no foul.  I was definitely wrong about this.  Joe sent me a special invite link the next morning and again without thinking, I signed up.  This happened 19 days prior to the race.  Taking on a 100 miler with little more than 2 weeks’ notice, after being sick, run down from work and no runs in the 20+ mile range in over a month?  What did I get myself into?

I typically set three goals for each race that I sign up for.  Each goal is a threshold for the next.  If one is achievable, move on to the harder one.  And then on to the next hardest one, and so forth.  For this race, my goals came in this order:

  1.)   Finish the damn race

2      2.)    Continue my streak of sub 24 hour finishes at this distance

3      3.)    Break my PR

I didn’t want to set my goals too high, considering how undertrained I felt.  I’m happy with my choice for this race.  Knowing that Rocky Raccoon is classified as one of the easier 100 mile courses gave me some additional confidence about finishing, but not that much.

Loop 1: Mile 0-20

I lined up at the starting line with far more people than any of my previous 100’s.  Antelope Island had 34 finishers (Not sure how many started) and Arkansas Traveller had 101 starters of which 80 finished.  I didn’t worry about placement in the group, and I still don’t know if I wish I did or not.  The first 5 miles were so congested that I was worried about stepping on others and also being stepped on by them.  As the pack thinned out I began breaking into a comfortable pace without paying any attention to my garmin.  I ran for a while with a guy named Juan who said he used to be a pretty serious 100 miler, having run Western States, Leadville, and a few others.  He was just getting back in to running this distance again and seemed to be moving along pretty well.  It was really good conversation but we parted ways I think around mile 8 or so.  I continued running down the trail getting a little more gutsy as the sun rose and I could negotiate the rooted trails with little concern.  At some point probably around mile 14, I met up with another runner named Cory who was running his first 100.  He had been a pretty accomplished athlete completing several Ironman triathlons in all distances.  At one point after about 3 miles, he said “holy shit, we have been doing 9 minute pace!  I am going to hammer back a bit and save what I can for later”.  I then saw that my average pace for the loop was right around 10 minutes per mile which didn’t seem too out of the ordinary so I wished Cory well and kept on down the trail clicking off miles until I finished loop 1 in 3:11:45.  I felt like it was too risky for me to run this pace so I decided that I would take the next loop much easier.  I took my time at the main aid station going through my drop bag for supplies before heading out for my next loop.  I got to talk to Christy for a few minutes which was a nice boost and then I took off, back out on the trail for more looptastic fun.  (I hate loop courses)

Loop 2: Miles 21-40

It was a little after 9am when this loop started and it felt like the temperature had risen a lot already.  I had changed from a long sleeve to a short sleeve at the start which was definitely the right choice.  The first few miles were pretty uneventful, aside from dodging oncoming runners who were on their way in to finish their first loop.  As with pretty much all of my ultras to date, I began to feel like death right around the marathon point at 26 miles.  Knowing that I could expect this, I planned to eat extra food the next aid station to try and avoid the worst of it.  I kept pushing forward, clicking off mile by mile and listening to some Skrillex on my mp3 player.  This helped break me out of my funk until around mile 33.  At this point, I began hating everything about what I was doing.  I began looking for excuses to bail on the race.  No matter what I did, I could not manage to shake the negative shit that was going on inside my head.  Needless to say, the next 4 miles were some of the worst for me during this race.  At about mile 37, I bumped in to Christy on the trail which was a nice boost for me.  We didn’t get to talk long, but it was nice.  Around the same time, I caught up to a runner that I had been playing leapfrog with for most of the loop.  His name was Alex.  He had seemed strong all morning, but at this point was hobbling gingerly down the trail.  I asked him how he was doing and he said he was struggling with some pain in his hips and groin, apparently an injury he had been dealing with for the last few months or so.  I tried to give him words of encouragement, especially when he told me that he had already made up his mind to drop at mile 40.  This helped to turn things around for me.  I decided that I would keep pushing and I had no intention of my first DNF being on an “easy” course like Rocky.  I finished loop 2 with a split of 4:05:54, which was much more in line with what I felt was much more sustainable for me.  I feel bad for Alex dropping at mile 40, but he certainly helped motivate me to keep going so for that I thank him.

Loop 3: Miles 41-60

When I left for loop 3, I had intentions of pushing really hard to get to the 50 mile mark in a PR time.  I reached the 50 mile point at AI in around 10:45.  I further improved this time at AT, in about 10:17.  I felt like I should be able to break 10 hours without doing anything too stupid.  My legs were feeling strong.  Actually, a lot stronger than I expected them to feel.  What was lacking was the desire to utilize how strong they felt.  I tried switching songs, singing, yelling and so on to try and snap me out of my funk.  Nothing seemed to help until I latched on to a runner (didn’t catch his name) who seemed to be cruising along really well.  His pace was quicker than I had been running, but not so quick that it was impossible to keep up.  Leeching off his pace, I finished the first 50 miles in about 9:35.  This is a bit of an adjustment actually, as my garmin fritzed out a bit cutting 2 miles off the first loop.  Whatever, I finished the first 50 in sub 10 which was a victory for me.  I tried to piggy back off of this success for the next several miles, but I started to realize that my feet were really starting to hurt.  This was the longest continuous run for me in minimalist shoes (MT110) and my feet were letting me know that I was an idiot.  I decided to forget about it until I got to mile 60 and could change into something with a little more cushion, like my Brooks Pure Grit.  The remainder of the loop was pretty uneventful really. I walked a bit more to take it easy on my sore feet and also to not risk injury by tripping over the many tree roots on the course.  I think this was a wise choice.  I ended up finishing the loop in 4:30:16 which seemed pretty damned respectable.  I looked for Christy, but she was nowhere to be found at the start/finish line.  I continued to replace my supplies for a few extra minutes after I changed my shoes and was off for more fun.  Except fun was (unbeknownst to me) a long way off.

Loop 4: Miles 61-80

I was able to run only the first couple of miles without having to turn on my headlamp.  Once the sun went down, so did my mood.  I really felt like I struggled with this loop.  Every single person that I encountered running toward me was a hated individual in my eyes.  In my head, all I could think was that they were about to finish and I was stuck out here doing 2 more damn loops.  I guess this lasted until I ended up at Dam Nation.  Very few words were spoken at the aid station 3 miles in, but the folks at Dam Nation had so much positive energy that it was infectious.  Early on in the race, I think it was Juan who told me that Dam Nation was like an oasis.  He wasn’t kidding.  My attitude slowly improved although my pace slowed.  I didn’t really care a great deal about my pace at this point since I was still in for several more hours.  That is unless I could get myself to drop for the first time in my (short) running career.  I found myself searching for excuses and justifications to drop.  Issues with my kidney, the odd knee pain that I hadn’t ever had to deal with but had started and was worsening each step, blah blah blah.  Reasons that could be realistic, but altogether nothing bad enough to get me to do so.  I hate the idea of giving up and failing at anything.  My feet were feeling better after the shoe change and I adjusted my approach for the remaining miles.  I decided that I would walk all the uphills regardless of how steep and that I would run the downhills and flats no matter how bad it hurt.  The only exception would be the areas that were very rooted. I would walk these sections carefully.  I wanted to lessen the chance of injury so I would make no exceptions for these rules during loop 4.  I wasted a fair bit of time at the aid stations eating and sitting.  There is not much more to say about this loop except for the fact that I finished in 4:55:37.

Loop 5: Miles 81-100

I took my time putting on tights, which I hoped would help shut down the knee pain that I was feeling.  I was hoping that I would bump into Christy since I hadn’t seen her since mile 37 or so.  I filled my bottle, stuffed the remaining gels I would need into my vest and I was off.  I knew that I was in good shape to finish and achieve all of my goals, but I would likely slow quite a bit and get drowsy.  I decided that I was going to have to stick to the same rules that I did in loop 4, except for hike the uphills harder, run the downhills and flats harder and spend only enough time at the aid stations to fill my bottle and grab food to eat as I walked out.  My legs were holding up ok, but getting heavier and heavier which would cause me to trip over the rocks and roots on the trail.  Just before I tripped for really the first time in the race at mile 89, I was thinking that I just might get through a 100 miler without losing the toe nail that had just grown back in.  Then I jammed my right big toe on a tree root…..HARD.  I stumbled, caught myself and kept moving forward.  I was generating some pretty impressive strings of curses that would have made even my Grandpa proud.  It was also right about this time that I dropped the handheld light I was carrying to supplement my headlamp and it broke.  Fortunately, a couple of runners helped light the way as I salvaged the batteries and exchanged them for the dying batteries in my headlamp.  It was just enough to light my way for the next 10 miles.  As I moved along the trail, I suddenly realized that this was not only about to be my 3^rd 100 mile finish, but my 3^rd finish in less than 12 months.  I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and I began running as hard as I could.  I refused to look at my watch and only listened for the beep that reminded me that I had clicked off another mile.  I ran harder and harder.  During the last couple of miles, I passed several runners who cheered me on as I did the same for them in return.  My lungs burned but my legs no longer hurt.  As I came into the final straightaway leading to the finish chute, I screamed as loud as I could.  I got closer and closer to the finish and saw that I was going to finish in less than 22 hours.   I heard the beep as I crossed the timing mat in 21:46:16, a personal best by nearly 2 hours.  I was so happy and relieved that I was laughing out loud and nearly crying at the same time.  I received my buckle, handed in my timing chip and called my day complete.

Post- Race Thoughts:

I am still quite surprised at how this race shaped up.  I am really pleased with my pacing, except for going out too fast on the first loop.  I guess I have no way of knowing if it was more of a benefit to bank the time in the first loop, or if I could have made up the time over the course of the remaining loops.  I am disappointed in myself that I sat down frequently at Dam Nation during loops 3 and 4.  If I had not done this, I might have been able to finish closer to or even less than 21 hours flat.  I am still having some knee pain that doesn’t feel like residual soreness.  I hope something isn’t torn. Aside from that, I have recovered really fast.  The race was organized incredibly well which is no surprise considering the other races Joe has put on.  Course markings were very clear as well.  Very good food offering at the aid stations. I really enjoyed the course, though this likely isn't a race that I will seek out doing again.  Flat loop courses definitely aren't my preference.  I do need to figure out my race schedule for the rest of the year though.  I would really like to get 2 more 100's in this year.  Possibly one in May or June, followed by one in October or November.  Gotta heal up first though.

Happy Running!