The last run until the next run...and beer stuff too.

Well the Orcas Island 50K came, I raced it, and got my butt kicked and my face stomped in. Rather than taking a week or so to recover I decided that I was fit enough to hit the ground running. This was a big mistake. I didn't officially take a rest day until the Thursday AFTER the race. Each day I ran I noticed a slight twinge in my knee, along with something that felt like the precursor to PF as well as the residual affects of my ankle rolling adventures both prior to and during the Orcas Island race. I'm a big proponent of active recovery but I think I took it a bit too far in this case. I ended up shortening my long run the weekend after Orcas from my originally planned 20 miles to 11 and then took a bit more time off the following week, shortening some middle distance runs and cutting one out entirely. My long run the following saturday consisted of an abbreviated 16 miles as I proceeded to roll my weak ankle (Again) and had to limp off tiger mountain. Once I got back to the car, slightly broken but not completely beaten, I vowed that I would return to conquer the spirited beast when my ankle was up to the challenge. Last weekend was the first long run I had where I actually felt halfway decent and was able to hit my target of 20+ miles. (I actually ended up doing 22 with around 1800 feet of elevation gain) Unfortunately this in no way prepares me for the potential suck-fest I'm going to have April 30th. I've signed up for a 50 miler and may end up bumping myself down to the 55K. (A paltry 34 miles....HA!) The near monthlong break I'll be taking in March while my wife and I are on vacation isn't going to help the fitness level either. (Though we will be hiking 26 miles at altitude...so maybe I'll be okay) On that thought I'm pretty sure the cheeseburgers I've eaten over the past few weeks haven't assisted in my training...or recovery for that matter. They were very tasty though.

In any event...the race definitely hurt...but the past month of training has probably been the most difficult month of running I've pushed through in quite some time. Not just physically but mentally as well. The weather has been less than stellar so I've been somewhat lacking in motivation. Once I get out the door I'm fine...it's just taking that first step out into the cold rain that usually has me retreating indoors to drink another steaming cup of coffee.

On the beermaking front I'm still working my way through my last batch. Turns out I can't muscle down 48 bottles of beer quite as quickly as when I was in college. (Even then I was pretty slow) I'm a little over a case into this batch and it's probably been over two months since I last brewed. I'm hoping that I can get a quick batch in after we get back from vacation in April. At that point I will christen this blog with it's first real brewing entry. I'll post fun pictures of my destroyed kitchen, portraits of me hating on the sanitation process, and maybe even post an hour and a half video showing me stirring the wort. Should be exciting times. If you are real lucky I'll make it rain...rain hops that is.

So yesterday was the last run until my next run...which probably won't occur until April. If I'm lucky I might be able to pull off the ultrarunner shuffle for short sections of the Inca trail but I'm pretty sure my lungs would burst if I tried a full on run at altitude up thousands of feet of elevation.

Orcas Island...of Pain

This past weekend I partook in the Orcas Island 50K out in the San Juan's. I had been looking forward to this race since forgetting to sign up for it back in September thus locking myself out of registration. Fortunately for me and a few others James, the directory of Rainshadow Running, kept a few spots open for individuals who volunteered to participate in a trail work party the week prior to the run. As such one week prior to the race I found myself mucking it around on some trails, wielding a MacLeod, cutting a pretty sweet new trail through Moran state park with fellow trail runners while being directed by Ranger Rich. Fast forward one week from there and I found myself toeing the line with about 200 other runners, a few of which were still feeling the residual affects of said trail work party. Runners may have a metric ton of endurance packed into their muscles but most of us lack any significant amount of upper body strength. The trail work party convinced me that I need to work my core and upper body a bit more than...well...zero. I just really wish I had realized this before running this race. Lesson learned I guess.

Runner Arms = T-Rex Arms



No Thank You



With my arms still feeling the after affects of a whopping 5 hours of amateur MacLeoding I decided to start off slow and steady with Danny, a fellow trail work buddy and new running friend.  The single track was soft, the weather was holding (Rain in the forecast but it hadn't yet made an appearance) and my legs felt ready.  Shortly into the run the trail starts a steady series of climbs. Danny took this opportunity to get past a majority of the pack so we wished each other luck and settled into our respective paces. I was shocked to find myself running with a veteran finisher of many "real" ultramarathons. I had never met this guy before but Glen had finished several 100 milers and as such I decided to follow his pace up most of the climb to Pickett. Glen warned me after a few miles that we would be passing through an area that reminded him of the movie deliverance. This actually made me a little nervous as I signed up for a 50K not some horrible life changing experience. (Thought some could argue that the 50K itself is pretty terrible) The "Shacks" turned out to be a yurt, a house with a tarp for a roof, and a wood fired hot tub. The wood fired hot tub was also occupied by the resident of the tarp house. I think I may have unconsciously increased my pace here...

Our first real climb consisted of approximately 1200 feet of gain in about 3 miles. Nothing too incredibly crazy (8% Average Grade) though the course profile for this race has been shown to have low balled the elevation gain. Unfortunately this first climb turned out to be the easiest one of the bunch by a long shot. 



There can be only one

 
Towards the top of Picket we ran through a section that actually looked familiar. This turned out to be the section of a trail that we had rerouted around a huge pond that had flooded a 100 yard section of the course. The lack of the rain this past week made the work almost entirely unnecessary as the "pond" had receded and was little more than a large puddle. At least I got to wield the MacLeod solo.


Following this we turned up a pretty steep climb to top out and then descended two miles along a forest service road passing streams, little waterfalls and a few hikers. Thankfully after a mile or so of slightly boring road running we turned back onto a nice piece of single track, passed more mountain streams, a few ponds and then dropped down into the first aid station back at camp moran. I ran into Danny as he was on his way out and noticed he had ditched his jacket and was now running in a short sleeve with some gloves. We said hi and good luck as we passed and I decided that ditching the jacket would be an excellent idea. The volunteers were lively and extremely helpful. They made a point of asking each runner what they needed in our hydration systems, filled everything up while we stuffed our faces with cookies and made sure we were all feeling okay. After an abbreviated stop I took off back across the grass field, gave words of encouragement to all the runners that were making their way down to the aid station and proceeded to enjoy the next couple miles of fairly flat, soft running. This was not to last...


The easier section of the climb

The second climb is a fairly monstrous beat with over 2000 feet of elevation gain in a little over a mile. This pushed the average grade well over 20% with sections that slowed the hardest of racers to a crawl. I actually passed quite a few people on the first part of this climb and then in turn was passed by a few others about halfway up. There were several instances in which the trail would tease a descent and then rocket back up the mountain 50 yards later. This was by far the most difficult hill I've ever hiked. (I didn't see anybody run it) The arches of my feet felt like they were going to tear apart. I'm fairly certain that I started to develop PF over the course of this one mile section of the race. Despite slowing to a crawl I'm fairly certain I went up too quickly despite my pace being 1.5-2.0 MPH.

After what seemed like an eternity I finally reached the top, tentatively increased my pace to a jog on the short flat and then cut loose on the downhill. This turned out to be a huge mistake. Metering out your effort is one of the most important aspects of ultrarunning. You cannot outrun your stomach, quads, lungs or any other piece of necessary gear during the race. In this case I'm not sure what I pushed too hard but my body crashed out out about halfway down the hill. I went from a 6.5-7 minute per mile pace to about 8.5-9.0 minute per mile on technically easy single track. I really wish I would've held onto the faster pace but I just haven't trained my hill legs enough to maintain my earlier pace. After this we came down to mountain lake and ran the length of it.

Where is the lake?

This section of the trail was nice but I hit a real low spot despite the picturesque quality of the entire length of trail. I sucked down some more nuun, drank some gel and just focused on getting some calories and re hydrating. This seemed to work as shortly thereafter I felt good enough to pick up the pace a bit heading into the water only aid station. Despite being only 4 miles away from the second full service aid station I decided to top off my hydration pack and chatted with a fellow runner for a minute or so who had rolled his ankle three times over the last few miles. He finally decided to pull the plug on his race and hitched a ride back to the start. Big props to him for making it 19 miles on a bum ankle.



To Constitution and beyond!

 After the aid station we headed skyward again up a ridiculously steep section trail. The objective here was to make it from Mountain Lake to the top of constitution, another 2K plus of elevation with long sections well over a 20% grade. This painfully awesome portion slowed me to a crawl again and I ended up chatting with a fellow runner as we ascended, both discussing how unbelievably difficult the power line trail was. I started feeling pretty good, told her that I was going to try to use my energy while I had it and power hiked/ran up the remainder of the ascent to Constitution. (She would later fly by me on the descent) I ended up passing a few other people along the way, snapped what I hoped to be some pretty cool photos,  and found myself on the top of constitution at the mile 23 aid station.

The face of an Ultrarunner?

The aid station offered a large variety of food though I didn't really feel like eating. That being said I decided to muscle down a small piece of PBJ, some chips, a pretzel, some mountain dew and an orange slice and then shot down the trail like a rocket without any jet fuel. My quads were blown, the trail though not particularly exposed to switch back repeatedly and offered many opportunities to trip and roll a hundred feet or so down a nice steep hill so I took it super easy and just tried to keep a pace that I felt I could maintain over the next 8-10 miles. Eventually I came to a flat section and started running with a few fellow racers. I settled in behind a tutu girl and a tall dude that looked like he was getting ready to hibernate in his pain cave. We ended up dropping the guy who was struggling and then followed the pace set by the tutu girl who I would end up finishing with.  Lisa was super fun to run with, seemed to have words of encouragement for everybody we passed or passed us, and kept me going over the last 1.5 hours of the course despite me wanting to curl up and sleep on several of the moss covered boulders. We chatted a bit which helped pass the time, almost turned our ankles on several occasions and all around had a fantastic time running the gradual uphill and the descent back down to cascade lake. (At one point I tripped, caught myself, watched my left calf cramp and then ease up all within the space of about a half of a second. A severe cramp would've ended my day...) At this point we ran into a volunteer that said we were "almost" there. It turns out "almost" is a pretty subjective term.

The finish line...about an hour after

Reinvigorated Lisa upped the pace and we ran pretty solid until we hit a section that turned us away from camp and looped us around a few other lakes for at least 2-3 miles. This was extremely demoralizing as the "almost there" didn't quite mean the same thing as we were hoping. Our pace slowed a bit and since neither of us knew exactly how far away from the finish we were we didn't really know how much effort we could meter out. After looping around for what seemed like an eternity we came back on a familiar section of trail and were informed that we had about 600 meters to go. We pushed as hard as we could and were told we had 29 seconds to finish under 7 hours by a volunteer with about 100-150 meters to go. Lisa really pushed the pace here since I didn't really understand what the volunteer meant by 29 seconds and I hadn't really looked at the finish clock. I started to settle back behind her but she told me I needed to push the pace and finish along with her. Sprinting down the final section we both ended up coming in under the 7 hour mark with huge smiles on our faces. It was funny because afterwards she thanked me for pushing the pace, keeping her motivated and helping her over the past 8 miles and I pretty much said the same thing to her. Never underestimate the power of running with a like minded individual. For much of the middle part of the race I was running solo, which while fun can become a bit taxing when you reach a low point. A fellow runner can really help you get through the rough spots and I'm extremely grateful she was there to help me at the end of the race.

After we finished I headed inside and found my new friend Danny sitting with his family enjoying the warmth and some hot soup. We gave each a congratulatory guy hug (Hand shake with the one armed back pat) and then immediately settled into discussing the power line climb. I think this was a common topic of discussion at the after party. He ended up finishing in about six and a half hours, an excellent time for this type of run. Shortly thereafter he and his family headed back to their rental cabin for some recovery food at a recovery hot tub soak. I still had an hour or so before Brandi was coming by to pick me up so I settled in, drank some beer, listened to some live bluegrass and chatted with a few other trail work friends and fellow runners who I had chatted with a bit out on the course. Keri, a trial work friend, had finished about 45 minutes before me and had a pretty good race. Ron, the guy with the bum ankle, had iced and elevated his foot for a good two hours after hitching a ride back to the start and seemed to be in good spirits in spite of the injury.

At the finish

I then chatted a bit more with Lisa about the race. Brandi showed up with the new Nikon Camera that she had been playing with most of the day and after introductions we talked for a few more minutes before saying goodbye and heading back to the car. (I mistakenly thought she would be picking me up at 5:30 instead of 5:00. Big thanks to her for walking around the camp and finding me as my legs were pretty shot)

In conclusion...this is the first Ultra I've run that actually felt significantly more difficult than a marathon. I'm pretty sure that is a bit of an understatement...

31 Miles, 8000 feet of elevation gain, Shower, Hot Tub, Dinner at Allium...Great Day. Onward to recovery...and Longer Races.

Capitol Peak 17 Miler

Well the first semi-organized "Fun Run"/Race has come and gone and I'm fairly certain my legs were expecting a little less vertical and a lot less pace than what I threw their way yesterday. Not that I really care...I decided to thrash them again today and will do so again tomorrow until they fall in line and decide to quit being pansies.

The fun run was located out in Capitol Forest. For those of you unfamiliar with the area it's a little bit south of Olympia and consists of a collection of hiker, horse and ORV trails. If you are out there and listen closely the sweet, calming sounds of a gun club can be found over the annoying traditional wilderness fair. (Babbling brooks, winds, birds...that sort of thing) The area is actually quite nice for trail running as everything is pretty well marked and the area itself is smorgasbord of mileage for those people that live in Tacoma or further south. Unfortunately that means for your truly the day started at 5:00 AM. The drive from Seattle is about an hour and a half a full 45 minutes longer than it takes me to get up into the I90 corridor for my training runs so I probably won't be making myself out to Capitol forest much before my next race there on April 30th.

In any event, woke up, took a slight detour in the Tacoma area to pick up Doug and then head out to the Margaret McKinney campground and found to our surprise that a few hundred people had shown up for the run. We managed to find parking, got geared up (Which didn't consist of much..)grabbed our entrance fees (5 bucks and a roll of toilet paper) and then checked in. No race numbers at these "Fat Ass" events so following the registration we just milled around with other runners and listened to the sounds of hundreds of Garmin Watches booting up in preparation for the next 17 or 34 miles. (Doug and I ran the 17 miler)

The race itself is put on by capitol peak ultras who are also responsible for a couple other races in the Capitol forest area. They did a fantastic job with the event giving us runners enough guidance to get us through the run without getting lost or feeling idiotic but also keeping it low key enough to where it really just felt like a fun run despite the fact that there were water aid stations, a finish line clock, and well marked trails. Super nice volunteers and friendly runners rounded out the day to create a great atmosphere. Oh and what would it be without the infamous Capitol Forest mud of which there was plenty.

In any event, the 17 mile run itself was an out an back with 2500 feet of total elevation gain. It stuck mainly tot he waddle loop and green line trails. The beginning started easy enough...not a whole lot of mud and just an easy pace. Trail runs are interesting in that you are locked into other peoples paces for a vast majority of the first few miles. After about 3 miles everything started to spread out and the mud made its first appearance in spectacular fashion. Most runners seemed to be trying to avoid the nastiness but Doug decided that we should embrace it and hit every puddle on the mountain. This strategy really paid off as we didn't do nearly as much dodging as many of the other racers. That being said we also didn't make too many friends during those early miles as I'm sure we splashed a ton of folks who were trying in vain to stay clean and dry. One instance saw me whooping as we sprinted strait into a giant 15 foot puddle being fed by a temporary creek that happened to be running down the rest of the trail. I splashed through, yelled "On your left" to some ladies that were trying to dodge all the water and proceeded to pass them as they screamed "Don't splash me!". Ah...great stuff.

The rest of the first half was pretty standard. We maintained a pretty fair pace up the 1000+ foot climb and then sped up a bit on the descent. We lost a bit of time at the turnaround as I had to fill up my bottle and empty my near bursting bladder. (Damn you breakfast tea!) I felt pretty good at the turnaround so I decided without consulting Doug that we would actually race the second 8.5 miles. I set a pretty ridiculous pace (for me) up the incline and we almost immediately started picking people off. This just served to fuel my inner speedster and I increased the pace further. We ended up picking up a few additional folks and turned our two person racing machine into a four man freight train. (Freigt train was actually what one of our additions used to describe it.) Once we got to the top we cranked it up to 11 on the descent, splashing our way past several other runners while trying our hardest not to barf.

I seriously started questioning whether or not I would be able to maintain the pace we set (I say we but I'm pretty much to blame here since I was in front) when I took a swig of fizzy Nuun and had a serious bit of nausea almost overwhelm my anti-vommit measures. I immediately backed off the pace and let our two newfound friends pass. (I think Doug was having a similar bout of stomach nastiness so he ended up staying with me) In any event...I tried to pick off a few other people but just couldn't convince my legs to go any faster. The last half a mile came and went without too much difficulty. We were cheered into the finish area by a few crows, a frog and a couple of kids giving us as much cowbell as their tiny arms could muster. Big thanks to everything that cheered us on as this always seems to give me a nice shot of adrenaline during any type of race.

After crossing the finish line we wrote down our official time (Mine was 2:56:00 I believe) and reconvened with the other two members of our freight train. I was told almost immediately that if I hadn't set that pace that none of  them would've run that fast. I mostly felt good about this but a tiny part of me asked the following question...

"You mean I didn't need to run that fast?"

I immediately squashed this girly man thought, doubled over with my hands on my knees and grinned through the near constant micro-cramps that were shooting up my thighs.

We ended up hanging out at the finish line for 10 or 15 minutes congratulating our fellow runners. The director of Evergreen Trail Runs came in and told me that I had set a pretty ridiculous pace on the second half. I thanked him, chatted for a bit, had the same girly man thought I mentioned above, and for the first time felt that I might actually be okay at this running thing. The rest of our time was spent cleaning up (we were pretty filthy after splashing through a hundred or so mud puddles) and partaking in the finish line bonfire and potluck. I crammed my face full of some food, dropped off some homemade guacamole then started the long drive back to Seattle. Pretty awesome day. Big thanks again to Capitol Peak Ultras for putting on the event and Doug for coming out and doing the race with me. (And putting up with the pace that almost made us both barf)

2011 Race Plans

The 2010 season was a real eye opener for me. I was introduced to trail and ultra running and took to it almost immediately. The idea of cruising through some soft single-track being accompanied by a peaceful, natural soundtrack sounded so fantastic and simple that I couldn't believe I hadn't really given it a shot before. I bought some Brooks Cascadia 5's, found some local trails and shot up them like a three legged tortoise. Sure I was slow...but I felt free when I was on those trails. It's a place where problems like overpopulation, car pollution and work problems are minimized. Needless to say I was hooked. I signed up for a trail half marathon with over 2000 feet of vertical gain and loved every minute of it. Yes it hurt and yes....yes...I was slow. REAL SLOW. But it was the most fun I had at a race up to that point.

I then read Born to Run, subscribed to a fair number of ultra-marathoner blogs for daily inspiration, checked Scott Jurek's twitter on regular intervals and found that I had found new ways to stay motivated. I dropped 30 pounds, shaved over an hour off my Marathon PR, 13 minutes off my half marathon PR and signed up and finished two ultra marathons. (Of the 50K variety)

The point of all this is that my focus has changed. For the past few years I had primarily been focused on the marathon distance. This year I'm going further. I may not even run a traditional marathon. I'm not exactly sure yet. What I do know is that I'm going to focus on the White River 50 Miler in July. I do have races scheduled before then but that will be my focus for the year. I may also try out a 100K in september but my plans to run the Where's Waldo in August have been scrapped. In any event...that's a brief explanation on my thought process this year. My race plan is as follows:

February 5th - Orcas Island 50K
April 30th - Capitol Peak 50 Miler
May 15th - Capital City Half Marathon
July 30th - White River 50 Miler
September - TBD
October 15h - Defiance 50K

So there you have it. No marathon on there though I wouldn't completely rule it out. I need to find a cheap one though because all of these entry fees add up to a fairly significant amount. Running is a deceptively expensive sport...especially as your weekly mileage creeps up to the levels required to run Ultramarathons.

3...2...1...POO POO!

Poo Poo in this case is not what you think it is. Today my buddy Doug and I went for a trail run in the tiger mountain area. The plan was to hit the three western "summits" and then tack on an out and back to Poo Poo point. The point is actually named for the sound steam whistles used to make when workers called the loggers. That being said the name still causes me to break out into fits of laughter. I guess parts of my brain still functions like a 10 year old.  

We started the run in the traditional lake area and took the West Tiger 3 trail up to...West Tiger 3. We found that many of the trails in the area have the word tiger in them and as such it was quite easy to confuse one with several others. We ended up adding about a mile on the Tiger Mountain Trail (not to be confused with the West Tiger 3 trail) and doubled back to hike slowly up the cable trail. This exceptionally steep section was completely unrunnable and very nearly unhikable. Several times I felt like I would end up sliding or tumbling down the slope doing my best John Cusack "Better off Dead" impression. 

Thankfully the slick footing didn't result in an epic slide and we reached the top without too much difficulty. After reaching the summit we took all of 3 seconds to enjoy the lack of a view and proceeded over to West Tiger 2. There is a bit of a saddle coupled with some more steep uphill sections. This section was uneventful and the view at West Tiger 2 was about as unsinpiring as that on West Tiger 3. The continuation to West Tiger 1 involved a bit of a downhill section coupled again with a fairly steep uphill. At the summit we were greeted with terrific views of mount rainier, the peninsula and downtown Seattle. Too bad neither of us wanted to carry a camera. We also found a hikers hut. We immediately set upon this treasure only to find it devoid of anything interested. I'm not sure what we were hoping to find. A pot of gold maybe. I did however imagine several things that I most definitely did NOT want to see there...

 At this point we linked up with the bypass, poo top and west tiger trails. I took a bit of a spill on a section and immediately checked to see if I had Taco'ed my femur. Thankfully my notorious mountain bike exploits didn't directly carry over to our trail running adventures. After the misstep we linked up with another unmarked trail and made our way to Poo Poo point. This would've been a decent view if we hadn't just descended off West Tiger 1. We spent a few seconds checking out Mt. Baker and then set off the way we came to descend another unmarked trial to the tradition lake plateau. Doug flew down this portion as I was already dragging a bit and struggled to keep up. I almost ate it several times but my intact legs kept me upright through the descent. Once we got down to the fire road we simply followed it back out to the High Point parking area. All in all it was a great day of running. We got less lost than usual and took in some great views. There was enough snow to add some character to the area without negatively impacting our pace.

Final Tally - 12.5 miles, Elevation Gain 3264 Feet, Time 2:54. Great way to kick off the 2011 running season.

Welcome to my Blaaaaahg!

In a truly hypocritical move I decided to start a blog. I've been highly critical of the Blogsphere over the past few years primarily due to me spending 5 minutes watching a CNN program in which they spent the entire show browsing blogs. (That and I think BLOG still sounds pretty lame. Henceforth I shall refer to it as an Imperative Post of Awesomeness. IPA For short)  Since then however I have found myself following several athletes and friends IPAs. In a flash of insight I determined that not all IPAs are worthless and that people truly have interesting things to say. I've decided to add my voice to the masses.

This will by no means be an online diary as I have no wish to give my zero followers insight into how my mind works. (Not well) Instead I will dazzle you with my wealth of knowledge on the topics of brewing, ultrarunning and nutrition. In actuality you will read my posts as I attempt to acquire a greater understanding and appreciation for these three awesome hobbies. My primary objective will be to decrease the frequency in which I drag my wife into running conversations by instead posting about my latest running exploits. I decided I'm not a good enough runner to have an IPA focused solely on my race for mediocrity so I threw in two other interests, brewing and nutrition, to give myself some additional IPA fuel.  A secondary objective would be to motivate anybody who happens to stumble across these posts to take up one of these hobbies.

I decided IPA is a stupid way to refer to a blog. It works better as a beer. Back to the term blog...for now....

Oh hey it's snowing! Time to go for a run!