September 1 - 7
230min (~33mi), 5 runs, 1 workout, 80min tempo-LR, 1xlifting. It took a little while to get my legs back under me this week. Passed up training for the State Fair on Monday, then passed it up again for seasonal allergies. Hill workout on Wednesday on the East River Road from Lake St. up to St. Thomas (~1000m). Wasn't very focused, had some trouble breathing and only managed three in 3:49, :50, :49. The stronger Claritin seems to clear up the breathing issue. Did the LR this morning at City of Lakes, 35min WU, 5mi @ tempo (6:08, :01, :53, :56, :52), 15min CD. Very encouraging, relatively smooth workout. Slabbaj Shout Outs to SCRC for another terrific season!
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I'll echo Krunchtime's shout-out to the SCRC fellahs this season, way to go! Looked like another solid day on the lakes!
As for my weekend workout, the same run stretched across the pair of days and to help combat the fatigue I decided not to bother with an additional jaunt. Paced my boy Cole from 53 miles (Lambs Canyon) to 75 (Brighton) at the Wasatch 100. We were chunkin' along real well at just a couple minutes under 30 hour pace, which is pretty legit on that course.
I got the easy section and started up at 6:30pm on Saturday. It had been a pretty warm, sunny day and Cole started at 5am, so he shouldah been a lot more gassed when I met up with him, but he's tough like that. We had the benefit of making our first big climb sans direct sunlight and so we chugged along to the base of the Millcreek Rd just as it got dark. We were able to hike up the road from there without headlamps because the footing was so good and smooth, which was nice. After a change of clothes, 1/2 a box of Nilla wafers, and smooches from our ladies we headed up into the dark. We had an awesome mix of people around us going back and forth, including the girl who ate 1 cup of noodle soup and puked at least 8 cups of the same soup onto the trail at various points. That's talent.
Cole had some rough patches and fatigue but he kept rollin' along. We got into Brighton 5 mins early at 2am on the dot. After a shoe adjustment and more coffee I sent him off with Lori for the final 25--which turned out to be by far the most heinously difficult miles of the course. Wicked. Kid hung in despite having trouble getting food down and came in at 30:51! Less than an hour off an aggressive goal time over the course of 100 miles ain't bad. Not to mention he lives in Ohio and the race gets up to 10,500ft.
I definitely felt like an ultrarunning voyeur this weekend. It almost felt dirty to see it up close while pacing, like I should be entering a free trial password or something. It was funner'n hell though. A large part of that may have been skipping the first 53 miles and the last 25 as well as being on the easiest section of the course, but who's counting? In any case, it's still gonna be a while before I put myself through a 100, but this added some fuel to that notion. The race is best described as an adult version of the sleepover--you get to drink coffee at all hours of the night, eat cookies and chocolate, then run up and down through the hills and mountain with a flashlight strapped to your head while staying awake all night. What could be more fun? All I gotta say is that my next chance to run through an aid station in the middle of the night is definitely going to involve some streaking. Bedar.
And so... that last inspired image pretty much answers the question about whether or not Mr. Biz will be on my short list of pacer options for a second Wasatch attempt. Enough said!
Sounds like you had a good time Chris. Glad to hear it :) Pretty certain that my own personal race thoughts had reached you post-departure. Argah dargah!
Sept 8: 35 mins along road. Warmup, 6 x stride on one of many unbuilt subdivision roads, then a cooldown. Easy afternoon run.
Sept 9: 54 mins up to Stateline and to the left just enough to make a deposit. Ran the last 20 mins uptempo, felt alright.
Sept 10: 1:20 up Devil's Stairs and back. First attempt at running the stairs this year and it went alright. I wasn't sure if I could pull it off (it's quite the hill) and it was 3 or so minutes slower than I've done it in the past, but I kept it aerobic all the way. Had a couple snowflakes falling, and there was a lot of fresh falling on the peaks above. Saw a couple bull moose on the middle bench heading down from there, but fortunately nothing else. Got dark before I made it back to the trailhead, but nothing terrible.
I'm now sitting here having caught the last couple innings of the Twins on the ol' internet radio and now the coyotes are out in the fields behind my place howling up a storm. Sounds like time to eat more food. Bedar.
Sept 11: Passed the bar. Ran 35-40 mins on road w/Lori & Sophie(dogg). Feelin' alright.
Sept 12: 42 mins on road, nice and easy. Might run again tonight with some folks, but 10k tomorrow morning so we'll see. Bedar.
Sept 12: PM Up Snowking-->Hagen, then down Sink or Swim to Millward w/Kris Quandt. Nice run, dude's in some serious shape. Was untimed, but I'd ballpark it around 30-40 mins. That's a helluvah hill.
Sept 13: Old Bill's 10k, +- 1 mile. Well, not really, but I ran something in the 34's, (34:46 perhaps?) reports from people who had measured the course ranged from it being almost a mile long to being almost a mile short. In any case, it was a good effort and well-structured. Took it out with the goods, crushed some young stud nordic skier with a few well-timed surges, and caught and passed mopey-mclead-a-lot in the last 50 meters. He was pretty salty since he'd led from the gun and I ate his lunch right at the end, but that's racing. I probably should have put him away earlier, but I didn't really get moving fast until the last 4-5 minutes. In any case, I smoked his ass and then after two people in the chute blocked us to slow us down, he threw them out of the way and charged down the chute first. So much for it being a "fun run." Wo treats race volunteers like that? Oh well, last I heard we officially "tied" in keeping with the spirit of the festivities.
Sept 14: Untimed aftenoon run up SnowKing summit, down Wilson to Farrin's and Hagen, back Sink or Swim. Unsure of time or distance (lost my watch) but I'd ballpark it at around 1:30-45. Real tough hill. Anyway, developed a pretty solid cold over the last few days and now officially feel like crap. Rest of the day was wonderful, spent most of it on a rock in the middle of String Lake w/Lori eating food, drinking coffee, napping, wading, and taking pictures. Booyah.
Sept 15: Short warmup, 8 x 200 relaxed on Driggs track w/the group. 37, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 30, 30. Short cooldown, then a standard ass-kicker ab workout. Lotta coughing, felt like crap. Gonna take a day off and try to get this shit out of my lungs. Bedar.
"Wo (sic) treats race volunteers like that?"
this better not be a reference.
Definitely not a reference. Po-dunk fundraiser fun-run = not the time or place to pull the agro-competitive thing, that's all. If we were running about 4-5 minutes faster for the distance, it might be more acceptable. In any case, it's cool. Bedar.
good because otherwise i could debar you.
Woof. That cold turned into 3 days off, and 30 mins easy from the top of the Pass this morning. Might go for a walk in the hills this evening, but there's still plenty of crap in my lungs. I think I'm gonna skip racing tomorrow and try to get in a medium-long run in the hills instead, same for Sunday. I'll probably end up volunteering at the race anyway, so we'll see what that does in terms of timing the rest of the day. Bedar.
Apparently I don't post on this thing anymore. Thing'sve been busy, and running has taken a bit of a back seat. Also, I did this 25k where I missed the start, despite 15 minutes of hauling trying to make it on time.
the recovery from that has been disturbingly similar to the recovery period after the marathons i've run, which is odd since the 18 miles i ended up with on race day was slower than some of the training runs i've done this summer. no apparent reason for all of that, but today was the first run since that my legs felt normal. and there haven't been very many runs. i'm leaning towards skipping the ten mile, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
anyone know if we're running the 8k or the 5k at the alumni weekend?
Sept 20: Two sick people = no racing or volunteering in the rain. Slept in and ended up going for a fantastic run through the Parker Sand Dunes (technically, St. Anthony claims them, but Parker is like 6 miles closer and I feel like they're getting hosed by the establishment in St. Anthony). Untimed, probably 40-60 mins, lot of it barefoot, all of it pretty hard (yo, it's sand, it ain't easy to run in). Really good for the legs, and also just sweet to be running barefoot through the dunes. . .in Idaho. I apparently live 40 miles from an exotic beach or desert vacation. The beat on the street is that they don't get much snow in the winter, so this may become a winter running haven of sorts. Bedar.
Sept 21: 2:04:16 Face Trail up Table Mt to the trail intersection (1:10), then back down the canyon trail. Still wheezing and coughing up crap--made it all of 4 mins before I started hiking on the uphill (it's a wicked steep trail, gains 4,000 ft of elevation in less than 4 miles). Probably ran all of 10 minutes on the way up as my legs were just trashed, and even when it flattened out, I was at 10,000 ft by then and, well, that wasn't helping things. Beautiful though, and a huge moose was a couple strides off the trail at one point, which was cool. Turned into a pretty great weekend despite being sick. It was snowing up at 11,000 ft off and on all day.
Sept 22: Morning run, 59:56. Up to Wyoming and back. Nice run, light rain off and on, nice and cool. I think I like this run better in the darkness. Legs are a bit fatigued and my quads are pretty sore, but otherwise things are improving. Less coughing, but I was running real easy as well. Snow level moved down to 8,500 ft overnight. It's coming. . .
Chap, I'll email Dave soon, but I'm sure as hell anticipating running that 8k. I think we have some lessons that we can teach those youngsters out there, regardless of what kinda shape we're in.
Just posted some recent running "data" over at my own running glob. Returned to the sight of my first-ever 50k and let age and relative experience pull me through to a fairly solid race. Not hanging up the running shoes for the fall just yet, but the hunters start to make me nervous on the heavily wooded trails about this time of year. Shooting (myself) for a second consectutive 1500+ miles year. About 350 to go.
Sept 23: Easy morning run up part of Snow King & back with Lori. Still coughing quite a bit, but a really nice morning workout in the dark!
Sept 24: Across the Aspen trail and back w/Wray, Jay, Trevor (not T-Mac), and Anna. Untimed, but probably 1:30-45. Felt good, kept it pretty easy for the most part, with a bit of picking up the pace on the way back, until it got dark. Home just in time to catch the 8th & 9th of some hot MN Twins action!
Sept 25: AM 20 mins from Sandy's. Should get in some more this afternoon, but figured I'd go for a little trot as long as I was awake.
Sept 26: Easy 25 mins w/strides. Ended up getting busy with work last night so I skipped the intended afternoon run. You'll see why. . .
Sept 27: Uff-dah. 1 hr bike from Clawson to Mill Ck. trailhead, 9 hour run up Mill Ck to Peaked, up and over to East Ridge, down Beard's Wheatfield, up to Granite Basin & Green Lakes, down to North Leigh trailhead, then all the goddamn way down the road back home. Unsure on distance, but in the 8-10,000 ft of elevation gain realm.
Really shouldn't have taken that long, but got a late start (11:15am), carried a water pump (good idea), which led to me skimping a bit on gels & bars (less-good idea). Failed to throw on bodyglide (terrible idea) and neglected to bring a headlamp (worked out alright).
Ran out of water a mere 3 hours in, and it took almost another hour to hit a stream to tank up. After running pretty quick up Peaked for the first 4,000 ft of elevation gain, well, my legs were pretty pooped. Not much coughing, but I'm definitely not back to full strength yet. Anyway, cruised down to South Leigh where I was hoping to find water, and the crick was dry. Had to decide whether to bail immediately and just suck up the next few hours sans h2o or hope for a spring down the way, or, head uphill and hopefully make it to Granite lakes without getting too parched.
Chose the guaranteed water source, and then about 5 minutes down the trail, came across a spring that was still rockin'! All the snow that we've been getting up high has been melting within a couple days, and apparently ending up in this seep that typically dries up by mid-June.
Was feelin' pretty cashed but also wasn't thinkin' too much about the time of day and gettin' home, so when I got up into the basin and had another opportunity to bail out and save a few miles, I decided to press on. At that point I pretty much settled in for a hike as I was low on available calories and, hell, it was a beautiful day!
I did happen to forget just how rugged the Granite Basin/North Leigh region happens to be and how much longer everything takes than it should--and that's when running, and I was walking. The shadows started getting longer and pretty soon I realized that I stood a pretty good shot of wandering through the dark in heavily populated grizzly & cougar territory without a light, food, or long pants. And I had to get back and give my boss' cat another round of medicine (I'm kitty-sitting for an 18 yr old cat.. .), not to mention that I'd told Lori I'd call as soon as I got back.
Ended up getting off the trail just before darkness set in with some pretty solid downhill runnaj and the aid of the emergency Snickers, but that left a good, long, road, much of it through dense forest, still to go. I ran pretty solidly for the first hour, probably 7:30sih pace (gradual downhill), but once I got out into the fields the grizzly factor reduced and I spent a lot of time walking. Don't know the distance but the road section took 2 hours. Arrived home to find that the Twins had lost, again. Except for the baseball score, I'd say it was a helluvah day!
Down at the Bear 100 my boy Kris Quandt debuted with a 27:05 9th place finish! Despite a wicked sore knee from 50 miles on. My buddy Ty Draney finally won it and went sub-20, Eric Taft pulled off a solid 7th, Postal Mike & Tennis Pro were just over 30 for Tennis Pro's debut. All around tons of good races on a disturbingly difficult course.
I gotta say, maybe 8k cc is where it's at.
Actually, Biz, I had a similar experience this morning. Headed out for my run neglecting to bring water or gels, which turned out ok, but, well, you'll see.
Chillier than it has been, and the 50 degrees felt awesome, though the forearms were a bit cold on the getting going. I'm wimpy. I hit Summit, and continued down towards the river. Around Cleveland, I was getting thirsty, and had to decide on whether to go ahead or bail and head home for guaranteed water. After the light changed, I decided to push on. Fortunately, the fountain at the River was still on, so I managed to get a drink there. I went up the river towards Franklin, and I have to say, it's been a while. I forgot all the construction that was going on on the paths- unfortunately, someone decided to replace all the concrete walking paths with more concrete walking paths. The bike paths, thank goodness, are still asphalt.
Anyway, after another brief stop for water just before Franklin, I noticed that not only was there new concrete, but there was also quite a bit more of it than there had been before. Again, I had to decide whether to bail on the run or keep plowing ahead and hope that Minneapolis hadn't made such poor decisions with respect to their walking paths. Stubbornly, I continued. There aren't enough leaves down yet to cover the dirt path on the West side of the river, so I braved the wilderness, but I will say I was a bit scared of the possibility of a bear or Ole attack. That probably sped things up a little bit, and I got where I was feeling normal again on a run for the first time since City of Lakes.
Out of the woods, I raced some bikers across the Lake St. bridge back into St. Paul. It took, probably, an hour just to cross that bridge. I forgot how far St. Paul is from Minneapolis. At least and hour, it turns out. One more stop for water after passing a large group training for TCM, and I was back on Summit. But from there (slightly uphill) I started to get worried about making it to Marathon before the Sox game was scheduled to start. (Note that I've since realized both that Marathon doesn't open until noon, and the Sox game wasn't scheduled to start 'til 12:35, but was delayed by rain. But that didn't change my attitude at the time, since I thought I would get to Marathon and back before the 11:35 start time that I, apparently, imagined.)
Summit was a long way back up, and now I knew there was no water or food opportunities between myself and the end of my run. Also, I had to run past St. Thomas. It was horrible. Finally, I got to Fairview, turned on Wheeler, right on Hague and stopped. Totals for the run: 8.5 miles, 59:19. Best run by far since CoL. Glad I'm not running TC10, but looking forward to the Alumni ?k.
Bedar.
Forgot to mention that the birds on yesterday's run were fabulous--bunch of lil' chirpers were still holding their ground up high, but the bald eagles above Teton Canyon and also up in South Leigh were pretty sweet.
Moving on.
Sept 28: Easy 25 min shakeout. Took until 4pm to coax myself out the door, but I'm glad I did. Legs are a bit heavy but the only real limiting factor is the blister under the ball of my left foot. In retrospect I should have dealt with that last night and then maybe gone for an easy long run today, but oh well.
Decent week for being sick for much of it. About 65-70ish miles, about half of them or so coming yesterday.
Plan for next week is to get some more consistency and put in a couple quality days. I'll have a couple days in Boise so hopefully I can turn that into a good thing training-wise. Not sure about what the move is for next weekend, depends a lot on how my legs recover from yesterday. I've got a little over 2 months to get ready for a 1/2 and I feel like things are on the right track. I'm thinking another 5 weeks of steadily increasing volume with a mix of workouts, followed by a decrease in long runnaj and an increase in intensity. Tough part will be avoiding skiing too much until after the race. Bedar.
get ready for a "1/2" what? A 1/2 transcontinental run? A 1/2 global circumnavigation? A 1/2 orbit of saturn?
9 hours? what. the. f---.
A rough start to the last few months of 2008. After two post-50k weeks of really low mileage, something in my right achilles flaired up last weekend. Playing soccer with K on Sunday might have done it, but I'm essetially at a loss. Feeling better today, and it seems to have weathered the Tues/Thurs soccer coaching experience... Might have to try running again this afternoon.
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