Weekly Run Log - May 22-28, 2011

05/22/2011: Ran up 7th again out of Leadville. Dropped my hat and tried to continue on snow to the Diamond Mine but that was a no go. Made for a heavy 7 mile run. Snowing and sunning intermittently. Less hip flexor pain this time! 1:19, 7.0+ miles, 800' vert.

05/25/2011: Ran the Powerlines from base. It was really nice being on the Leadville 100 Race Course again. I am still hesitant to run past the Private Property signs but I am staying on the road and I am still curious if someone is illegally posting a public way. Either way I ran it and did no harm. There was a stream to run through where 5A and the Powerlines road junction and the water was not so cold. It went up about mid-shin and was basically standing water. A neat addition to a run. There was also some snow drifts but those were smallish and most of the time I could run around them. A nice run that approached my "Puking Threshold". 1:17, 5.0 miles, 800' vert.

05/26/2011: Fivefingers run around the Fish Hatchery Loop. A classic. I went at dusk and had a hard time seeing and I was able to run through some snow drifts but all went really well (if really slowly when it got too dark to pick a good line. 0:36, 2.0 miles, 300' vert.

05/28/2011: 5th Ave (CR 1) as far as was plowed (just short of the junction with CR 38). I continued on to the junction to make it square. A great climb. Just wish it were plowed further. 1:02, 5.6 miles, 1,100' vert.

Weekly Summary: 19.6 miles, 3,000' vert

Weekly Run Log - May 15-21, 2011

05/15/2011: Ran the Barbara Whipple Trail up to 304, along 304 for a while in the southern direction and then back to the Midland Bike Trail descent back to the footbridge. Still feeling a little sore in the hip flexor. 0:34, 3.0 miles. 400' vert.

05/18/2011: Ran the old spring classic from Outward Bound: the 300/5/5A loop from the parking lot. I don't know if it was the pavement pounding or the fact that I haven't run further than 3.5 miles in two weeks but I feel a little trashed now! 0:57, 5.5 miles, 200' vert.

05/20/2011: ran a nice run up 7th St. (CR 3) in Leadville to the extent that it was plowed. The run had sections of pavement, muddy road and snow-covered road. It was nice running in the 2 or so inches of new snow that fell yesterday. Also nice was it to run in the Mosquitos once again! 1:09, 6.8 miles, 800' vert.

Weekly Summary: 15.3 miles, 1,400' vert.

The Weather

I look back upon my posts here and most of them are pretty positive. My running makes me feel good and it is reflected in my writing.

So now I am going to complain a little:

THE WEATHER SUCKS! It has sucked for two months. I am getting tired of it. I left New Hampshire in the middle of a snow storm and the weather has sucked since then. I had a strong headwind and rain showers the entire drive across the country. It drove my gas mileage down and was just unpleasant. Then I arrived at Moab (the desert) and it was rainy and windy for the three or so weeks I was there! When I left Moab and went to the Grand Canyon there was snow along the rims. Despite my best guess using the weather statistics there was crappy weather even at the Grand Canyon. Then I left and went to Buena Vista and the weather was snow showers for a full month (except for the day that it was super hot for the Collegiate Peaks 50). Now I am in Leadville and the weather has been full snow for all but several hours for the last week and the weather forecast is for (surprise, surprise!) snow for the entire extended forecast. THE WEATHER SUCKS!

I am tired of being cold and tired of fighting moisture. My clothes and sleeping bags are mildewing and I am starting to smell like a homeless person. Where the fuck do I have to go to find some good weather? Death Valley? I suspect that if I went there it would rain there as well.

I am no longer a fan of mother nature. In all of the places I have lived the one constant with the outdoors is that the weather will fuck me over every time I make plans. It doesn't matter if I live in the desert. It will rain there when I have made plans to run. In the mountains it will snow if I am going to run. If my plans include skiing and then it will rain or sleet or lightning storms will crop up. If I make plans to Kayak a huge drought will arrive and the streams and rivers will trickle.

If mother nature were to decide that human beings must go it would be nice if she made humans a quick dispatch. Stop this fannying about. Just send a meteorite already! Fuck your climate change!

Coffee, Snow, and Reflection

It is snowing here in Leadville today. The perfect weather for sitting in a coffee shop, reflecting on things. I find the caffeine does a pretty lousy job of helping me think properly (in some ways the exact opposite that a good run does), but I will give it a shot anyway. Let's see if I can keep this from getting too scattered.

On Recovery
It has been about a week and a half since the Collegiate Peaks Trail Run and I am still recuperating from the race. On the up side, I am seeing the end of the tunnel in my recovery period. My run yesterday hurt in a "training" way (muscular) and not a "need for recovery" way (tendons, ligaments, joint pain). It has taken a slightly longer period of recovery but after all, I did run the CP50 pretty fast (relative to my prior experiences). This contrasts from my recovery following the Grand Canyon R2R2R which was a three day affair and only involved muscular pain. Regardless of how long I am taking to recover from Collegiate Peaks I am still feeling much, MUCH better than my recovery from Run Rabbit Run in 2009.

In thinking about this I started looking at the numbers that I have recorded on recovery time and training time following each race. I created a nice table with each 50 mile event, the training information and the recovery information. I had just about finished the table when I ran into a problem: my idea of recovery has changed with each ultramarathon I have run including the Leadville Trail 100. I have come to view recovery in two parts

1. Complete Rest
2. Active Recovery

After each ultra I take a period of complete rest where I minimize the amount of activity that I engage in to walking short distances to stretch the muscles out. During this period the muscles, tendons, or ligaments are damaged too much to be active again and it generally has taken between 3 days (2011 R2R2R) and several weeks (2009 RRR and 2010 LT100) to get back to a point where I could run and bicycle again to actively recover. During active recovery I have taken from one to many weeks to completely recover to a point where I was increasing the mileage again. It has been this period of active recovery that has varied the most and it has been due mostly to my ideas of what a recovered body feels like.

In the past I have wanted my body to feel completely at ease with running before increasing my mileage again. I am starting to think that I can push the recovery a little faster in the future. The reason I think this is that even in my heaviest training periods I experience pain when I run. It is only during my taper period and during the complete rest period of recovery that I do not feel much pain. I propose (to myself, I guess) in the future that I push through the pain to end my active recovery phase sooner. We'll see how this goes.

Conclusion: Push active recovery phase to start training once again.

On Training this Summer
I have created a spreadsheet to record my training progress as well as aid in planning my training for the summer. I have about 4 months to train for the Bear which, I think, will be enough based on my maintenance miles I kept all winter long, and my training for the Grand Canyon and Collegiate Peaks this spring.

I am expecting to have the time to do speedwork and some barefoot running this summer to strengthen supporting muscles. It should be a fun summer once the snow melts higher in the mountains around here. I am looking forward to running hills until I am on the verge of throwing up once again. I had great success with pushing my cardiovascular system last year on the Power Lines, Mosquito Pass, and Hope Pass. I look forward to doing so once again as well as playing in some new areas: the San Juans, Holy Cross, and maybe the Sangres (I would like to have more positive memories of the Sangres).

But for now I am watching the snow out the window of Provin' Grounds and the weather forecast calling for the same thing all week. I guess I just have to take a "one step at a time" attitude for the time being. All things pass, the good and the bad.

Weekly Run Log - May 08-14, 2011

05/11/2011: Done did run a bit. Ran the Barbara Whipple trail up to 304 and back. Some aches and pains came and went but overall a good, short active recovery run. 0:24, 2.0 miles, 400' vert.

05/13/2011: Ran several of the trails from Riverside Park to loosen up. Still have some hip flexor pain but I am trying to actively recover it using walking and low-stress running. Ran the riverside trail, Barbara Whipple, 304, and Midland Bike Trail. I suspect around 3.5 miles. 0:38, 3.5 miles, 400' vert.

Weekly Summary: 6.5 miles, 800' vert.

Not a huge week of running but I was able to get out a little at least. My left hip flexor is not feeling great. It's not getting worse but it isn't getting better either. Hurts on the uphills so I am thinking that it is time to run some flats.

Collegiate Peaks Trail Run 50

The biggest question mark of this run was not whether I was physically conditioned enough finish. It was also not whether I was mentally conditioned enough. It remained to be seen whether the pain in my abscess tooth was going to be so intense that running without Ibuprophen or Vicodin would bring me to DNF. However, I was lucky and my oral pain was low early in the race and nonexistent for the last 2/3 of the race. This allowed me to do my best at running a fast 50, my primary goal for the Collegiate Peaks 50.

I had a fast start, feeling good all the way through the first 25 miles to the turnaround. I surprised myself by descending the Midland Bike Trail to the bridge fast by using the berms on the edge of the trail - one of my favorite parts of reconning/training on the course.

The return started off roughly. I had not hydrated well during the first half and it caught up to me on the climb up to 304 (the old railroad Midland Grade). My calves were starting to twinge with signs of imminent cramping. My left hip flexor felt pulled. It cast doubt upon my finish.

Taking the problem solving approach to ultrarunning. I started to drink and down electrolyte drink with high frequency. I had peed only twice in the first half and needed to pee more if I were to stay hydrated and in the race. I started walking to reduce the stress on my hip flexor. Both mitigation practices worked and my hip flexor never got worse and I stopped cramping up.

The course went well on the return. The numerous aid stations made it very easy to focus on completing the individual sections. On average a new aid station was coming up every hour. I was able to run the downhill’s very well and keep a fast uphill climb when needed.  There were several runners I kept leapfrogging with.

The heat was the most difficult of the challenges during the race. The temps rose to the low 70s which was only difficult because I was not acclimatized. I sweat a lot and consumed a lot of electrolytes and I was still feeling pretty nauseous during the last 6 miles. It could have been the heat, the hydration, or not eating enough. It is just more to think about for future runs.

It was really nice getting bunches of hugs from bunches of friends at the turnaround and the finish. It makes the race feel really good!

In the end I came through the finish line in 10:53. It is a new personal record for 50 miles. I am quite happy with the way I ran except that I am still pretty far down on the finishers list. Still back-of-the-pack. Ah well. On a future run with more ups and downs I will be closer to the start. All that really matters is that I am happy with my performance.

Here are the final results and the race report.

Weekly Run Log - May 01-07, 2011

05/02/2011: Ran a quick loop from Riverside Park in the Fivefingers. Extended it because I was feeling great! 0:19, 2.0 miles, 400' vert.

05/03/2011: Midland Hill Trail from Riverside Park in BV. Pretty nice sustained climb from where the trail crosses 304. One gains elevation quickly on this trail. Felt better running today! Maybe I am becoming aclimatized or maybe I am just more hydrated. Haven't had a beer in several days and I know that is always a performance detractor. 1:15, 4.8 miles, 1,500' vert.

 Towhee Trail

Cutoff between Towhee and Mesa Trails.

05/04/2011: Despite the news that I will need a root canal I got out for a nice short run in Boulder. Wow the weather was fantastic! I want to move here pretty badly! 

I wanted a taste of the Mesa Trail so I parked at the South Mesa Trailhead (the road to Eldo or 170) and ran a loop consisting of the Towhee Trail to the junction with Shadow Canyon Trail, then shot over to and down the Mesa Trail back to the parking lot. Nice to be at low altitude again after some degree of aclimatization. 0:45, 3.4 miles, 800' vert.

05/07/2011: Collegiate Peaks Trail Run. See future post. 10:53, 50 miles, 5,100' vert.


Weekly Run Summary: 60.2 miles, 7,800' vert.

Pre-Collegiate Peaks Trail Run

Here I am about to run the second ultra of the season- the Collegiate Peaks Trail Run 50. I have run every section of the race course, much of it twice. I have been feeling physically prepared and mentally prepared. So why am I not looking forward to this awe inspiring run? A toothache.

I have a root canal scheduled for Monday morning in Summit County. They couldn't fit me in before then for the root canal. So what they did was write me prescriptions for Vicodin and Penicillin and said good luck. They didn't even know what kind of a weekend I was going to have. I guess it will be the weekend of pain.

Now, two days before the run, I am figuring out my race nutrition. All the sugar in my Gu packets and Shotbloks- will it cause me to have a lot of pain during the run? Will I just have pain during the run regardless? Will there be no pain. Where I had been confident of a finish (maybe even a "fast" finish) now I am not even sure I will be finishing. At this point I am just going to relax. There is nothing I can do about it. I am just going to approach the run with the mentality of "at least I am starting. Maybe I will be able to finish. And MAYBE I will have all the fun that I normally have on a challenging 50 mile run."