Yesterday I ran the Vail Pass Half Marathon, which is part of the Teva Mountain Games. I had to wake up at 3:30am to make sure I was on the road by 4. I had forgotten how much I hate 3:30am. However, the swelling in my ankle was down substantially (see my last post), so that was good.
The Teva Mountain Games are a crazy event. The people parked next to me left carrying fly rods and I saw one car with kayaks, bikes, and who knows what else somehow secured to the car.
The half marathon itself had a very good field. Amongst the starters were the course record holder, the defending World Mountain Running Champion, at least three former Pikes Peak Champions, and this year's Bolder Boulder citizen's division champion.
The course was interesting for a mountain race, but I liked it. The first 10km or so were like a road race. We gained a little elevation, but not much compared to the first 10km of most mountain races, and ran through subdivisions, golf courses, parks, and a lot of the other things the town of Vail has to offer. Then, the course started up Vail Pass on a bike path until the finish at 13.77 miles.
I like to know my body well, and that includes knowing exactly what to expect from caffeine. I try to avoid caffeine unless I'm in a big race, and as such, am very affected by caffeine. A few years back, I did a few tests during training and discovered that after imbibing any caffeine, I felt great for about 40 minutes, then dropped below where I had been previously. The way the aid stations worked out, I had a choice between first taking caffeine with about 50 minutes to go or with about 25 minutes to go. I opted for the 50, telling myself this would give me good incentive to finish fast, and give me a chance to see whether my body has changed in this regard.
Now, to describe the race itself. I started out at a quick pace. Within a minute, the rest of the field had opted to run their own pace. By 4 miles, I had built up a 150m lead. This isn't much with almost 10 miles to go, including the pass, though. I kept up the pace, and by the 10km aid station, felt good. At this point, I took my first PowerBar Energy Gel, a Double Latte flavored gel with 50mg of caffeine. I then proceeded to miss the water cup I went to grab and had to go without water. I knew that this was probably a little early in the race to have any caffeine in my system, but I wanted to know exactly how early. I pushed the pace up the pass and extended my lead. By the finish line, I had won by a little over a minute ten. I figured out that my body can now take caffeine for about 45 minutes, because the last 5 minutes felt pretty tough. But I put forth a good effort through the entire race and am very happy with how things went, especially given my last week and a half.
Anyways, it was a long day. I finally got home at around 10pm. I slept well last night, then woke this morning for an 18 miler. It was a few minutes slower than my fastest, but I can't complain. Less than two weeks until Mt. Washington.
Also, I had a very humbling experience yesterday. On the drive home, I saw a guy doing 75 on the interstate on a motorcycle, wearing a bowler cap, holding a cup of coffee in one hand, the handlebar in the other, while a lady held him close. I don't even own a bowler cap, a motorcycle, or drink coffee. Plus, I'm single. I think the only thing I had on that guy was that I had just won a half marathon up a mountain pass.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Advice For What I Should Bee Doing With My Socks
I am writing this to ask for some advice. First, I'm going to tell you what happened on my afternoon run today.
I've been training a lot and had a difficult last week. I was doing what was supposed to be a relatively easy, relaxing run this afternoon. Suddenly, I felt a terrible pain in my foot. A bee got under the tongue of my shoe, freaked out, and stung me on top of my ankle. This is the third time in a week that I've been nailed by something getting caught under the tongue of my shoe. I'm mildly allergic to some sort of stinging insect, but usually when I get stung, whatever stung me is not in tact enough for me to positively identify the species. However, I am a little worried that I'll end up with a not good reaction to whatever gets stuck under the tongue of my shoe next. I also feel like my ankle is a little swollen, which is probably not the best for training.
I'm going to switch the detergent I use on my training socks in the hope that insects just really like the smell of my detergent. However, just in case that isn't the case, I'm asking for your help. Yes you, the one sitting on your computer. Does anybody have advice on how to keep stinging and biting insects out from under my tongue? And yes, I do run with my mouth closed. I'll try to remember to enable comments in case anybody wants to post here, or you can post on my Facebook (since that looks like where most of you come to my blog from) or contact me in pretty much any other way.
Thanks for the help.
For those of you wondering what my difficult week was like, I did my most/least favorite workout on Friday. Imagine the worst hills you can think of doing intervals on. Then, make it ten times worse. What you are imagining is probably a little easier than this workout. Whenever I'm planning on doing this workout, I dread it for days. On Sunday, I did a long run. I felt tired, but I still managed to run about the time I've been running when I felt good. Then, on Tuesday, I did another hill interval session. The times were not good, but still much better than they were last year. So now I'm tired. And my foot hurts.
I've been training a lot and had a difficult last week. I was doing what was supposed to be a relatively easy, relaxing run this afternoon. Suddenly, I felt a terrible pain in my foot. A bee got under the tongue of my shoe, freaked out, and stung me on top of my ankle. This is the third time in a week that I've been nailed by something getting caught under the tongue of my shoe. I'm mildly allergic to some sort of stinging insect, but usually when I get stung, whatever stung me is not in tact enough for me to positively identify the species. However, I am a little worried that I'll end up with a not good reaction to whatever gets stuck under the tongue of my shoe next. I also feel like my ankle is a little swollen, which is probably not the best for training.
I'm going to switch the detergent I use on my training socks in the hope that insects just really like the smell of my detergent. However, just in case that isn't the case, I'm asking for your help. Yes you, the one sitting on your computer. Does anybody have advice on how to keep stinging and biting insects out from under my tongue? And yes, I do run with my mouth closed. I'll try to remember to enable comments in case anybody wants to post here, or you can post on my Facebook (since that looks like where most of you come to my blog from) or contact me in pretty much any other way.
Thanks for the help.
For those of you wondering what my difficult week was like, I did my most/least favorite workout on Friday. Imagine the worst hills you can think of doing intervals on. Then, make it ten times worse. What you are imagining is probably a little easier than this workout. Whenever I'm planning on doing this workout, I dread it for days. On Sunday, I did a long run. I felt tired, but I still managed to run about the time I've been running when I felt good. Then, on Tuesday, I did another hill interval session. The times were not good, but still much better than they were last year. So now I'm tired. And my foot hurts.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Maybe I Should Give My Posts Titles...
I suppose first off I should just say this Saturday (June 2) I'll be running the Vail Pass Half Marathon as part of the Teva Mountain Games. It's a race up a pass in Vail.
Okay, as for how things have been going, it's been a mixed bag. Training has been going quite well. I've put in a few workouts that I've been very pleased with, and hopefully the fitness I get out of them will be apparent when it comes time to race fast. But I do feel tired. Luckily, I've got an easy run tomorrow. But there are intervals the next day, so...
I'm also joining Team Colorado, which is a really low key team of not low key individuals who run up and down mountains and are from Colorado. We're looking to run fast at Mount Washington on June 16, which is both the US Mountain Running Championships and the trials for World Mountain Running Championships. Check out Team Colorado. Check out Team Colorado: http://teamcolorado.blogspot.com/
On the more mixed bag side of things, we had to put down my dog Wolf this week. He was a 13 year old golden retriever, and was my companion for half my life. That was tough. That said, for the past 7 years or so I've thought he wouldn't make it through the year, so I guess the good news is that I got 7 more years with him than I thought I would.
Oh, we also had a wind storm yesterday that was so bad I couldn't run outside. The entirety of Utah blew in, and visibility was down to maybe a mile for most of the afternoon.
One last thing. And this is more of advice for all of the politicians out there campaigning. A candidate for County Commissioner was doing a meet and greet where I started and finished a run the other day. When I asked him about some long term issues that will affect the area in 15 or 20 years, his response was "I won't be around in 20 years." If you are a politician trying to get a 20-something to vote for you, do not ever say this. Their response will be something along the lines of my response. "But I will."
Okay, as for how things have been going, it's been a mixed bag. Training has been going quite well. I've put in a few workouts that I've been very pleased with, and hopefully the fitness I get out of them will be apparent when it comes time to race fast. But I do feel tired. Luckily, I've got an easy run tomorrow. But there are intervals the next day, so...
I'm also joining Team Colorado, which is a really low key team of not low key individuals who run up and down mountains and are from Colorado. We're looking to run fast at Mount Washington on June 16, which is both the US Mountain Running Championships and the trials for World Mountain Running Championships. Check out Team Colorado. Check out Team Colorado: http://teamcolorado.blogspot.com/
On the more mixed bag side of things, we had to put down my dog Wolf this week. He was a 13 year old golden retriever, and was my companion for half my life. That was tough. That said, for the past 7 years or so I've thought he wouldn't make it through the year, so I guess the good news is that I got 7 more years with him than I thought I would.
Oh, we also had a wind storm yesterday that was so bad I couldn't run outside. The entirety of Utah blew in, and visibility was down to maybe a mile for most of the afternoon.
One last thing. And this is more of advice for all of the politicians out there campaigning. A candidate for County Commissioner was doing a meet and greet where I started and finished a run the other day. When I asked him about some long term issues that will affect the area in 15 or 20 years, his response was "I won't be around in 20 years." If you are a politician trying to get a 20-something to vote for you, do not ever say this. Their response will be something along the lines of my response. "But I will."
Thursday, May 17, 2012
I waited to publish a new post until after the Black Canyon Ascent because there wasn't really anything else interesting. I've been pretty busy since then, but made some time to update whoever it is that actually reads this blog.
I ran the Black Canyon Ascent last Saturday. My main goal was to just have a really good effort. I was successful in that regard, especially during the last mile. I did have a few slow portions of the race, but overall I think things went really well. The light headwind helped keep me cool. I won, set a new course record of 39:57, and was the first person ever under 40 minutes for the race. Plus, everybody who raced got running shorts (instead of a shirt) and a delicious loaf of bread. And I got to know some people from the mountain running community that I really had no excuse to not know. Overall, a very successful day.
My uncle from Norway came over on Sunday. I haven't seen him in a really long time, which is a big part of why I haven't gotten this post up earlier. It's great to see my long lost relatives and spruce up on my Norwegian.
Training has been going pretty well. My legs are a little tired right now, but the training plan has been modified. Frankly, if I never feel tired, I must not be training hard enough.
As a bonus for patiently waiting for this blog post for so long, I recently learned about a really cool creature. The naked mole rat. They are abundant in Ethiopia and the surrounding area, are resistant to pain and cancer, and can run backwards as fast as forwards. Their blood is especially good at transporting oxygen and they are the longest living rodent known to man. They can live for 26 years. Granted, they are very ugly and eat their own feces, but they can't feel pain. That's really hard core.
Thanks for reading and I'll try to get another post up as soon as something else interesting happens.
I ran the Black Canyon Ascent last Saturday. My main goal was to just have a really good effort. I was successful in that regard, especially during the last mile. I did have a few slow portions of the race, but overall I think things went really well. The light headwind helped keep me cool. I won, set a new course record of 39:57, and was the first person ever under 40 minutes for the race. Plus, everybody who raced got running shorts (instead of a shirt) and a delicious loaf of bread. And I got to know some people from the mountain running community that I really had no excuse to not know. Overall, a very successful day.
My uncle from Norway came over on Sunday. I haven't seen him in a really long time, which is a big part of why I haven't gotten this post up earlier. It's great to see my long lost relatives and spruce up on my Norwegian.
Training has been going pretty well. My legs are a little tired right now, but the training plan has been modified. Frankly, if I never feel tired, I must not be training hard enough.
As a bonus for patiently waiting for this blog post for so long, I recently learned about a really cool creature. The naked mole rat. They are abundant in Ethiopia and the surrounding area, are resistant to pain and cancer, and can run backwards as fast as forwards. Their blood is especially good at transporting oxygen and they are the longest living rodent known to man. They can live for 26 years. Granted, they are very ugly and eat their own feces, but they can't feel pain. That's really hard core.
Thanks for reading and I'll try to get another post up as soon as something else interesting happens.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
So it's been a while. I figured writing about rest after a marathon wasn't very interesting, and nothing more needed to be said about Boston. But I'm working back into the training, so maybe I can say something interesting now...
My next big races coming up are mountain races for quite a while. Likewise, I'm doing more training on the hills than I was earlier this year. This actually works pretty well for marathon training too, I think, because this gives me a good, long period of lots of strength, and running more on trails means I can run more with less chance of injury. There is the risk of taking a fall, like I did on Friday, but my fall Friday was because of a loose shoelace, barely bruised at all, and on some of the flattest, easiest running I did that day. Frankly, I keep telling myself that I'm too afraid to fall on the really hard stuff. The thing with the shoelace really drove home that I need to listen to my mother. She came along because she really wanted to see the trail that I was running on, and warned me about the shoelace before I started. I think every time I don't listen to my mother when she says something about training, something goes terribly wrong. Granted, she was an Olympian for Norway in Nordic skiing in 1980, so she knows a thing or two. The sad part about my mother coming to see the trail was that she was too afraid of heights to actually make it far enough on the trail to see much more than the parking lot.
I ran 18 miles today. I was really pleased with myself, because I went out at a pretty decent pace, and negative splitted the run. I also finished building a greenhouse from scratch today, and given my lack of carpentry skills, I'm very pleased with it. By which I mean, it is still standing.
Also, it looks like I got into the New York City Marathon, so hopefully that goes well. But I've got some time before that, so I'm probably better off thinking more about having a great summer of mountain races and less about Manhattan.
My next big races coming up are mountain races for quite a while. Likewise, I'm doing more training on the hills than I was earlier this year. This actually works pretty well for marathon training too, I think, because this gives me a good, long period of lots of strength, and running more on trails means I can run more with less chance of injury. There is the risk of taking a fall, like I did on Friday, but my fall Friday was because of a loose shoelace, barely bruised at all, and on some of the flattest, easiest running I did that day. Frankly, I keep telling myself that I'm too afraid to fall on the really hard stuff. The thing with the shoelace really drove home that I need to listen to my mother. She came along because she really wanted to see the trail that I was running on, and warned me about the shoelace before I started. I think every time I don't listen to my mother when she says something about training, something goes terribly wrong. Granted, she was an Olympian for Norway in Nordic skiing in 1980, so she knows a thing or two. The sad part about my mother coming to see the trail was that she was too afraid of heights to actually make it far enough on the trail to see much more than the parking lot.
I ran 18 miles today. I was really pleased with myself, because I went out at a pretty decent pace, and negative splitted the run. I also finished building a greenhouse from scratch today, and given my lack of carpentry skills, I'm very pleased with it. By which I mean, it is still standing.
Also, it looks like I got into the New York City Marathon, so hopefully that goes well. But I've got some time before that, so I'm probably better off thinking more about having a great summer of mountain races and less about Manhattan.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
I have a sign in my bedroom.
"Some people race to see who's the fastest. I race to see who has the most guts." -Steve Prefontaine
I probably should say something profound about that, but I don't really have the energy. So instead, I'll explain what happened at Boston. Going into the race, I heard a lot of people talk about how everybody prepares for Boston's uphills, then gets killed by the downhills. To prepare for this, I did a lot of downhill intervals. Most of Boston's downhills are roughly a 2% grade, give or take a bit, and that was what I was doing around 1/3 of my intervals on. I knew exactly how fast I could go down a hill without having shot legs at the bottom. Also, I kept in mind that I turned into a full time runner a year ago. I ran a 2:20 in Chicago on about 6 months of being a runner instead of a skier. Now, I have a year under my belt. I'm about 10 lbs lighter and just about everything about my running fitness is much better than it was for Chicago.
When race day came, I felt prepared. It was hot, but I thought that since Colorado had a few weeks of 80s during March and April, I would be okay. I told myself that my race plan was to go out at the correct pace and run my own race. I understood that Boston is a big race and I could potentially go out far too fast, so I went out slower than I knew I could, just to make sure I didn't go out faster than I wanted to. Within a few miles, nobody else was running with me. I told myself that they would be back, but that I just had to keep up a good pace and jump in with them once they caught me. If nothing else, it would give me a few miles of my pace before I tried to run theirs. At the time, I thought that if anything I should be going a little faster, because going down a hill doesn't require a great amount of effort, especially if you are ready for it and know how to run the downhills. I was trying to not pay any attention to the fact that I was leading because it's a 26.2 mile race. I figured I could let the crowd pump me up during the last 6 miles.
As it turned out I probably wasn't as prepared for the heat as I thought I was. It started with stomach cramps. Badness steadily moved through my entire torso. Then it moved into my extremities. I tried to double down on both drinking and pouring water on myself, but my digestive system wasn't receptive. In the two days since the race, I have yet to actually feel hungry. I told myself that I was just going through a rough stretch, needed to run my own pace for a few miles, and then I'd get back into it. I've done enough mountain running that I felt confident on the uphills and downhills, which is most of the course after 15 miles.
As it turned out, the rough stretch lasted for roughly the last 20 miles. I think I started swerving a bit around mile 23, but I'm not sure. After the race as I rode the subway back to the hotel, I almost passed out. It wasn't my day, and I'm at peace with that. If I would have run conservatively, I may not have had as bad of a result, but it still wouldn't have been my day. I would rather have a really bad race while trying to run a great race than just a pretty bad race while trying to just have a pretty bad race and nothing worse.
Every great race I have ever had has been the result of taking big risks. That is the only way I know to have great races, and the day I am unwilling to risk everything in a race is the day I need to find something else to pour my heart and soul into. I try to run every race like it is going to be great, because if it turns out it wasn't my day, it wouldn't have been my day anyways. If I'm going to run aggressively, I have to accept that there will be some bad races, accept those races and try to learn from them.
I have working theories as to what went wrong. The heat definitely hurt me, but I'm not sure if that was all. Because of the heat, I made sure to drink a lot before and during the race. Another theory that I have is that my stomach problems were because I drank more than I was used to before and/or during the race. I will continue to think about what exactly went wrong, and intend to learn from it.
If I can figure out how, I'm going to disable comments on this post. Apparently there is a lot of drama on some message boards, and I'm trying to stay away from it. I find that if I don't read all the bad things people I've never met have to say about me, then I'm a happier person for it. I haven't read the message boards about my race, don't intend to, and don't really want a bunch of e-mails about the same type of comments on my blog.
"Some people race to see who's the fastest. I race to see who has the most guts." -Steve Prefontaine
I probably should say something profound about that, but I don't really have the energy. So instead, I'll explain what happened at Boston. Going into the race, I heard a lot of people talk about how everybody prepares for Boston's uphills, then gets killed by the downhills. To prepare for this, I did a lot of downhill intervals. Most of Boston's downhills are roughly a 2% grade, give or take a bit, and that was what I was doing around 1/3 of my intervals on. I knew exactly how fast I could go down a hill without having shot legs at the bottom. Also, I kept in mind that I turned into a full time runner a year ago. I ran a 2:20 in Chicago on about 6 months of being a runner instead of a skier. Now, I have a year under my belt. I'm about 10 lbs lighter and just about everything about my running fitness is much better than it was for Chicago.
When race day came, I felt prepared. It was hot, but I thought that since Colorado had a few weeks of 80s during March and April, I would be okay. I told myself that my race plan was to go out at the correct pace and run my own race. I understood that Boston is a big race and I could potentially go out far too fast, so I went out slower than I knew I could, just to make sure I didn't go out faster than I wanted to. Within a few miles, nobody else was running with me. I told myself that they would be back, but that I just had to keep up a good pace and jump in with them once they caught me. If nothing else, it would give me a few miles of my pace before I tried to run theirs. At the time, I thought that if anything I should be going a little faster, because going down a hill doesn't require a great amount of effort, especially if you are ready for it and know how to run the downhills. I was trying to not pay any attention to the fact that I was leading because it's a 26.2 mile race. I figured I could let the crowd pump me up during the last 6 miles.
As it turned out I probably wasn't as prepared for the heat as I thought I was. It started with stomach cramps. Badness steadily moved through my entire torso. Then it moved into my extremities. I tried to double down on both drinking and pouring water on myself, but my digestive system wasn't receptive. In the two days since the race, I have yet to actually feel hungry. I told myself that I was just going through a rough stretch, needed to run my own pace for a few miles, and then I'd get back into it. I've done enough mountain running that I felt confident on the uphills and downhills, which is most of the course after 15 miles.
As it turned out, the rough stretch lasted for roughly the last 20 miles. I think I started swerving a bit around mile 23, but I'm not sure. After the race as I rode the subway back to the hotel, I almost passed out. It wasn't my day, and I'm at peace with that. If I would have run conservatively, I may not have had as bad of a result, but it still wouldn't have been my day. I would rather have a really bad race while trying to run a great race than just a pretty bad race while trying to just have a pretty bad race and nothing worse.
Every great race I have ever had has been the result of taking big risks. That is the only way I know to have great races, and the day I am unwilling to risk everything in a race is the day I need to find something else to pour my heart and soul into. I try to run every race like it is going to be great, because if it turns out it wasn't my day, it wouldn't have been my day anyways. If I'm going to run aggressively, I have to accept that there will be some bad races, accept those races and try to learn from them.
I have working theories as to what went wrong. The heat definitely hurt me, but I'm not sure if that was all. Because of the heat, I made sure to drink a lot before and during the race. Another theory that I have is that my stomach problems were because I drank more than I was used to before and/or during the race. I will continue to think about what exactly went wrong, and intend to learn from it.
If I can figure out how, I'm going to disable comments on this post. Apparently there is a lot of drama on some message boards, and I'm trying to stay away from it. I find that if I don't read all the bad things people I've never met have to say about me, then I'm a happier person for it. I haven't read the message boards about my race, don't intend to, and don't really want a bunch of e-mails about the same type of comments on my blog.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Apologies for the extended time since I've updated. Given that my every day life seems...well, every day to me, I struggle with actually thinking things in my life are interesting enough that people actually want to read about them. I'll start out with the most important things, saying when I'm going to be in Boston for the Boston Marathon. I'm bib 26 for those watching. That way people in the area who want to see me know that and when I'm there. Then I'll let the blog devolve into trying to make mundane, uninteresting things in my life seem interesting.
I'm arriving in Boston the evening of Friday, April 13 (oooh, spooky), running the race on the morning of Monday the 16th, and leaving before I see the sun on Tuesday the 17th. I'll probably be pretty lazy and not up for much during Saturday and Sunday, and I'll probably be pretty tired on Monday afternoon and evening. I'm going to a PowerBar Recovery Party after the race (assuming I can walk by then), although I don't know where or when that is other than somewhere in Boston sometime on Monday. And I'll be on a plane before anybody with any complaints about my race can find me on Tuesday morning.
I'm done with the important parts of my blog, so you can all stop reading. Seriously. Because all I really have to say is that I'm coming off one of the most pathetic moments of my life a few days ago. I got a first degree burn from a sock full of rice. That's about all there is other than things like working on community presentations, training, running away from vicious turkeys, you know, the stuff that happens all the time around here.
I'm arriving in Boston the evening of Friday, April 13 (oooh, spooky), running the race on the morning of Monday the 16th, and leaving before I see the sun on Tuesday the 17th. I'll probably be pretty lazy and not up for much during Saturday and Sunday, and I'll probably be pretty tired on Monday afternoon and evening. I'm going to a PowerBar Recovery Party after the race (assuming I can walk by then), although I don't know where or when that is other than somewhere in Boston sometime on Monday. And I'll be on a plane before anybody with any complaints about my race can find me on Tuesday morning.
I'm done with the important parts of my blog, so you can all stop reading. Seriously. Because all I really have to say is that I'm coming off one of the most pathetic moments of my life a few days ago. I got a first degree burn from a sock full of rice. That's about all there is other than things like working on community presentations, training, running away from vicious turkeys, you know, the stuff that happens all the time around here.
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