Ultra running – Page 3

Bringing the heat…

Less plot. More fu. ~ Rach

Mon 31 May: 00:31, 2.75 miles, Red Plow barefoot
Tues 1 June: 1:12, 7.45 miles, Pirate Trail to Thorne surges
Wed 2 June: 2:21, 16.28 miles, Westview tempo
Thurs 3 June: 2:25, 9.03 miles, Janet’s house then Flagstaff/Green run/hike
Sat 5 June: 1:45, 10.37 miles, Casa trails
Sun 6 June: 3:51, 22.08 miles, Dirty Bismark to Flatirons Vista
Total: 12 hours, 67.96 miles, 7387 vertical

This past week saw a lot of great progress but one major set-back… the arrival of serious heat to the region. Monday-Saturday were all pretty mellow, temperature-wise but Sunday saw the first really hot day with which I have had to contend this year.

Right now, I am transitioning to time-based training vs. really trying to hit specific distances or paces but it is a little hard to break out of that pattern and I find myself tracking my progress even when I just need to be getting time in on my feet. It feels great to burn 10-minute miles on hilly trails but realistically, I need to get more adept at running a bit more slowly, conserving my energy and staying super relaxed. This, if you can believe it, is easier said than done.

Every run this week featured opportunities for learning and improvement and I took full advantage. While Monday and Tuesday runs were fairly routine, Wednesday featured an overall run that felt super relaxed with a higher pace than what is normal for me. I spun about 9 miles of warm-up then moved into tempo mode for another 5 or so. Overall, a solid effort with great results.

Thursday was a bit of a double with a short session with Janet Runyan where she helped me work on some techniques to improve my lean and relaxation and they seem to be paying off. Essentially working on lengthening the back of my neck and floating the top of my head up and forward to initiate my lean from there rather from my waist. Good stuff. Post run, I went to Chautauqua and ran/hiked Flagstaff and Green. Felt great.

Saturday I went for what is becoming a mainstay – the Casa Trails. These are some of my favorite/most familiar trails near my house. I can spend hours on these trails and not see another person. Just moving along quietly through the woods. Good times. Saturday featured more of the same – just fluid motion on mixed terrain.

For Sunday, I had a mellow, relatively short run planned and met with Bobby-T to spin a lap on the Dirty Bismark course south of Boulder. This is actually a pretty fantastic network of trails that loosely follows the Morgul-Bismark road bike course from the Red Zinger and Coors Classic days. My buddy, Ben Blaugrund, just won a Pro bike race on this course last week so it seemed appropriate. The only drawback to the course is one section that forces you to run along McCaslin Boulevard. Not the worst thing ever but if you are looking to stay off the slab, this section would blow that goal.

Bob and I finished up the loop in about 2.5 hours – a pretty good pace considering we weren’t really trying to push it. We stopped often along the route to read historical markers and walked most of the major hills. Once back at the car, I grabbed some more food and filled up with fresh water in hope of adding another 2 hours to the run. The Dirty Bismark route features absolutely no respite from the sun and, given the forecast heat on this day, was probably not the wisest choice. The tack-on of Flatiron Vista was not much better in the coverage department and the hours in 92+ degrees and no shade took its toll. Warm (and rapidly turning hot) water didn’t help either. By the time I had been out for 3:15, I knew that 4.5 wasn’t going to happen and I headed back to the car – dehydrated and very, very hot.

Lots of lessons were learned: Be prepared for the elements – bring ice and cold water (in a cooler, preferably). Select your route with thought to the conditions expected on that day. Drink more than normal. Roll with the punches.

~stubert.

May 2010 in Review…

At its heart, running is pretty simple, so I try to keep it that way. ~ Anton Krupicka

When one steps back and looks at the numbers, May turned out okay. It should have been a lot bigger but given that I was sick for about 2 full weeks and had to take one week completely off, I feel pretty good about how things turned out. Here are the digits:

Miles: 213.99
Hours: 38:53:13
Vertical: 28,349

I was hoping for 250-260 but am completely satisfied with what I accomplished. It ended up being my second biggest month of the year and I finished very strongly – teeing things up nicely for June. Here are some numbers for the year to date, just for fun:

Miles: 996.68
Hours: 191
Vertical: 73,431 (low by probably 15K)

So I am 3.5 miles shy of the 1K mark for the year. That makes me pretty happy. I’ll get that tomorrow then move on to bigger and better goals.

~stubert.

Mind and body…

What is that, yoga? ~ The Dude

Sat 22 May: 1:32, 8.95 miles, Casa Trails
Sun 23 May: 4:40, 26.5 miles, South Boulder/Mesa variation
Mon 24 May: 00:30, 2.5 miles, Secret trail barefoot
Tues 25 May: 00:55, 5.5 miles, Casa Trails surges
Wed 26 May: 2:10, 15.5 miles, Gunbarrel tempo
Thurs 27 May: 2:20, 9.6 miles, Green Mtn. run/hike

Great week of training thus far. Ended last week with 11.5 hours and 63 miles and am on target for more than that this week. Really pretty happy about how my fitness is shaping up and tacking on additional time each week.

Training is an interesting beast. One is certainly trying to get one’s body to perform at a certain level but there is also a lot of mental fitness that is being fine-tuned as well. Working on focus, rolling through checks, even conditioning oneself to drink at regular intervals… it’s all part of that big picture. As fit as I am getting, there is lots of room for improvement and I work on my overall fitness on every run.

Currently, I am at a bit of a cross-roads. I’d like to figure out ways to pare down my approach. To break running down to its core elements and be able to do more with less. Tony Krupicka‘s approach is incredibly appealing to me: Minimalist shoes, shorts and maybe a water bottle and some gels is all he needs on most days to complete incredible feats of athletics. But each person is different and has his or her own needs to which to attend. I am heavier than Tony, so (currently, at least) I rely on beefier shoes. I also sweat like some sort of nuclear-powered sweating machine so I tend to need more water on any given run. Plus, when you cover as much distance as quickly as Tony does, you can get away with carrying less. I’d like to get there and am working toward that goal but know it will take awhile. I am starting to discover that those goals which take the most time to achieve are often the most satisfying.

So the remainder of this week will be rest today, 1.5 hours on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. Hoping to finish the week up with ~70 miles and a solid sense of forward progress.

~stubert.

Vests are handsome…

Nathan HPL-008 Race Vest — This doesn't make my butt look big.

Put on approachable airs this summer in our dapper Brisbane Vest, a breezy and brilliant choice for the 19th century gentleman’s mild-weather wardrobe. ~Gentleman’s Emporium

Since I am all laid up, I thought I’d provide a gear review for all you runners out there just dying to know what I think about stuff. So for this installment of Stu’s Reviews™ I bring you (drumroll)… The Nathan HPL #008 Race Vest. (You can stop drumrolling now.)

I had been trying to move exclusively to a bottle system for hydration but found that either I would start to chafe from my running belt on longer runs or would simply not be able to carry enough water to get me from station to station. After talking with Charles Corfield, I decided to give the Nathan HPL #008 a try.

First impressions:
From the very first run, the 008 felt incredibly natural and comfortable and immediately felt like “my” vest. The reservoir holds 1.5 liters of water (about 2.5 regular bottles) and rides well in the pack. Little details make the 008 work really well with a small stash pocket on the back (big enough for a light jacket and gloves); a mesh pocket on the front for energy gel and a zippered pocket up front as well for a camera, extra food, etc.; and a cool reservoir retention system to help keep the bladder upright and kink-free.

Overall impressions:
After using the 008 for over a month, I have come to really appreciate the benefits of the Nathan vest system. So much so that I purchased a second vest (the larger, HPL #020). Occasionally, I will get some light chafing under my arms but this, I think, can be attributed more to using arm warmers than the vest. One note, do not cut the reservoir tube until you have used the pack a couple of times. What seems like ample length when empty, turns out to be just about right when the reservoir is full. Overall, the vest is unbelievably comfortable, keeps my hands free, provides ample storage and is a great addition to any ultra runners go-to gear.

This puppy should set you back ~$80 and can be found both online at a variety of vendors and through many local shops.

~stubert.

Snotastic…

I can’t blow that far. ~ Bunny Lebowski

Tues 4 May: 00:44, 4.5 miles, Casa Trails surges
Wed 5 May: short hike
Thurs 6 May: 1:00, 3.5 miles, Sanitas hike

Weak sauce. Still apparently not invincible, I have succumbed to some foul virus and have been leaking goo from my head and trying to cough up my gall bladder for the past week or so. I checked my training schedule and this definitely wasn’t part of the program but I am dealing with it, have destroyed a small forest via Kleenex use and only lost my voice for a couple of days so far. When looking up “Health: Picture of” in the dictionary, don’t be surprised to my smiling visage in the antonym section.

So that brings us to the “rolling with the punches” section of our training regimen and frankly, I am getting pretty good at it. Sometimes things happen that are just beyond our control. We can either get super stressed and obsessive about them or, the tack I have grown to embrace, just relax, take things in stride and get back with the program when we can. Though having ones lungs fill with something more familiar with the bottom of Lake Superior is disheartening, at best, there is no added benefit to getting too tweaked about it. Particularly when there are 3.5 more months of training to which to look forward before the big event. This week’s super-long run will have to wait. It’ll be there next week, or the week after that.

Rach has been just awesome, providing care around the clock and making delicious food that unfortunately, I am unable to taste – even when she is not feeling any better than I. Time is our friend at this point and aside from treating symptoms, there is not much more we can do besides wait. Though I am getting pretty antsy to get my run on, rest is my friend and so we’ll just sit this one out and come out of it with a new-found appreciation for speech and lotion-infused tissue.

~stubert.