August 23
6mi, 47:40: Intentionally slower after yesterday's effort. The speed yesterday was painfully "fun". Unfortunately, deadlines again and limited sleep hours are not ideal, so I need to be careful and not over do it. I should get some solid sleep on Friday night at least before a final multiple-hour run over this coming weekend. I think that Brian will join me. Until then... (a5)
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Up tempo
August 22
12mi, 1:19: An up-tempo/definitely threshold 10mi at around 6:15 pace in the midst of a run to the Mazama Farmer's Market. After two day's off at the beginning of the week (laziness in the midst of early taper/workload temptations) I felt antsy and decided to run a little faster for the first time in a long while -- since the TVR and the Mazama 10k even. I don't know how this matters/factors in to the Wasatch training, but it felt good enough, so I'll call it a success :) (a5)
Week: 5omiles. The taper officially begins! Really happy to have climbed back out of the hole created by White River. 3 weeks out my body is feeling pretty recovered and happy to be out longer or running a little faster again. Running after this week's longer run felt MUCH MUCH better than the agonizing 34 minutes on August 12 (post 4 hrs on Cutthroat). Time is working in my favor it seems, but backing off for a while also seems to have been as effective as it was necessary. Into the 40's and below as we go...
August 19
12mi, 1:39: Mission accomplished! Mileage today gets me back to 50 again for the week -- for whatever that's worth. The run felt pretty good and it actually rained (!!!) for most of the time. It's been at least 2 years since I've had the pleasure to run in such conditions -- it just doesn't happen that often around here. Good stuff. (v)
12mi, 1:19: An up-tempo/definitely threshold 10mi at around 6:15 pace in the midst of a run to the Mazama Farmer's Market. After two day's off at the beginning of the week (laziness in the midst of early taper/workload temptations) I felt antsy and decided to run a little faster for the first time in a long while -- since the TVR and the Mazama 10k even. I don't know how this matters/factors in to the Wasatch training, but it felt good enough, so I'll call it a success :) (a5)
Week: 5omiles. The taper officially begins! Really happy to have climbed back out of the hole created by White River. 3 weeks out my body is feeling pretty recovered and happy to be out longer or running a little faster again. Running after this week's longer run felt MUCH MUCH better than the agonizing 34 minutes on August 12 (post 4 hrs on Cutthroat). Time is working in my favor it seems, but backing off for a while also seems to have been as effective as it was necessary. Into the 40's and below as we go...
August 19
12mi, 1:39: Mission accomplished! Mileage today gets me back to 50 again for the week -- for whatever that's worth. The run felt pretty good and it actually rained (!!!) for most of the time. It's been at least 2 years since I've had the pleasure to run in such conditions -- it just doesn't happen that often around here. Good stuff. (v)
Sunday, August 19, 2007
En Mass
Less consistant recording of the running as things have gotten busier and time more compressed. So it goes. If I get my rear out the door for 11-12 miles today, then I will have succeeded in getting back to 50mi+ for the last two weeks -- three cheers! Three extra cheers for the fact that major training for Wasatch is coming to a close. I've never achieved BIG weekly mileage, but I have run a lot more than in the previous 4 years, done more 2-6 hour runs than ever before, and gotten to the point where a 30 mile run feels pretty darn nice. I also took some fine photos in the last two weeks, some of which I will be adding below...
August 18
6mi, 40:24: A quick and easy. I haven't run this "fast" in a little while and I'm happy to feel some snap in the legs this soon after Thursday's 30mi. It took 3 weeks, but I think that I've finally recovered from White River. (a5)
August 16
30mi, 5:52: A gorgeous long run over Twisp Pass to Dagger Lake. A sharp turn near the PCT junction and up Macalester Creek to High Camp. Awesome views of Macalester Peak and also a lot of the smoke from the Domke Lake fire on Lake Chelan. Up to South Pass and then down the South Creek drainage to complete the loop. Really felt good. 2x Clip II mixes in my water plus an assortment of Cliff Blocks, Bars and pb n' j. (cas II)
Dan, mugging for some breakfast burrito sponsorship at Twisp Pass.
Perhaps the best "happy runner" photo that I have taken this summer. High Camp.
Also a fine shot!
August 13
2mi running, 8 mi HIKE, indeterminute time... A small bit of running in addition to about 8 miles of hiking with Keeley and my mom on Monday night/Tuesday morning. Carrying a 4 year old on shoulders in addition to my 40+ lb pack also seemed training log worthy. (cas II)
Week: 52 miles. 5 days of running. 7 library visits. 350+ miles of driving... A busy week again on the road, but two really nice longer runs as well. August 8th I ran about 3hrs up into the Snowy Lakes area near Leavenworth, WA. This involved climbing 4000ft in about 6.5 miles. Tough! I almost made it to the Enchantment Lakes region and I will definitely have to go back for that sometime. An almost perfect late afternoon run :) On Saturday, August 11, I ran 4hrs plus -- Up over Cutthroat Pass enroute to Methow Pass and then back again. About 23 miles as best as I can figure. Again, excellent! Not really hot at all, in fact I wore light gloves for the entire run. Small twinges of pain in my right heel were a little bit bothersome (Plantar fascitis?...) but that has been a non-issue since. (v & a5)
An unnamed lake (on my map anyway) enroute on my afternoon run south of Leavenworth. A sometimes rocky and challenging trail with lots of climbing.
The best self portait to date...
Snow Lake in the Alpine Lake Wilderness Area.
Near Granite Pass on the Cutthroat/Methow Pass run. That should be 8970 ft. Black Peak in the background, and YES I am wearing the same shirt that I wore 3 days earlier... testing for Wasatch of course!
August 18
6mi, 40:24: A quick and easy. I haven't run this "fast" in a little while and I'm happy to feel some snap in the legs this soon after Thursday's 30mi. It took 3 weeks, but I think that I've finally recovered from White River. (a5)
August 16
30mi, 5:52: A gorgeous long run over Twisp Pass to Dagger Lake. A sharp turn near the PCT junction and up Macalester Creek to High Camp. Awesome views of Macalester Peak and also a lot of the smoke from the Domke Lake fire on Lake Chelan. Up to South Pass and then down the South Creek drainage to complete the loop. Really felt good. 2x Clip II mixes in my water plus an assortment of Cliff Blocks, Bars and pb n' j. (cas II)
Dan, mugging for some breakfast burrito sponsorship at Twisp Pass.
Perhaps the best "happy runner" photo that I have taken this summer. High Camp.
Also a fine shot!August 13
2mi running, 8 mi HIKE, indeterminute time... A small bit of running in addition to about 8 miles of hiking with Keeley and my mom on Monday night/Tuesday morning. Carrying a 4 year old on shoulders in addition to my 40+ lb pack also seemed training log worthy. (cas II)
Week: 52 miles. 5 days of running. 7 library visits. 350+ miles of driving... A busy week again on the road, but two really nice longer runs as well. August 8th I ran about 3hrs up into the Snowy Lakes area near Leavenworth, WA. This involved climbing 4000ft in about 6.5 miles. Tough! I almost made it to the Enchantment Lakes region and I will definitely have to go back for that sometime. An almost perfect late afternoon run :) On Saturday, August 11, I ran 4hrs plus -- Up over Cutthroat Pass enroute to Methow Pass and then back again. About 23 miles as best as I can figure. Again, excellent! Not really hot at all, in fact I wore light gloves for the entire run. Small twinges of pain in my right heel were a little bit bothersome (Plantar fascitis?...) but that has been a non-issue since. (v & a5)
An unnamed lake (on my map anyway) enroute on my afternoon run south of Leavenworth. A sometimes rocky and challenging trail with lots of climbing.
The best self portait to date...
Snow Lake in the Alpine Lake Wilderness Area.
Near Granite Pass on the Cutthroat/Methow Pass run. That should be 8970 ft. Black Peak in the background, and YES I am wearing the same shirt that I wore 3 days earlier... testing for Wasatch of course!Monday, August 6, 2007
Another week, another mile...
Week: 35 miles. Alas, a mental breakdown. Lingering cold aside, I feel pretty good physically being 7 day post-50mi race. However, I went camping on Saturday and just simply didn't muster the time for a run. Hence, the weekly miles drop below 40 for the first time in 12 weeks. Not a particularly alarming fact, since I am doing this Wasatch race on decidedly unhuge weekley miles anyhow, but still a low-water mark in the running of late. With high hopes to kick this cold crud in my chest, I will shoot for a return to 50 plus in each of the next two weeks. Then the taper!
August 5
15mi, 2:01: A run through the woods from home in search of the rumored trail up Lucky Jim Bluff. I found it at about 57 minutes and power hiked up some pretty sttep terrain to the first considerable viewpoint. A slightly treacherous run back down and some hotfooted speed work over the last half hour to make it home in around 2hrs. A fine, fine run, with lots more to explore in future excursions out over top of Lucky Jim. Sweet Views! (v)
August 3
4mi, 33:00: A short easy run. HOT. (ax)
August 5
15mi, 2:01: A run through the woods from home in search of the rumored trail up Lucky Jim Bluff. I found it at about 57 minutes and power hiked up some pretty sttep terrain to the first considerable viewpoint. A slightly treacherous run back down and some hotfooted speed work over the last half hour to make it home in around 2hrs. A fine, fine run, with lots more to explore in future excursions out over top of Lucky Jim. Sweet Views! (v)
August 3
4mi, 33:00: A short easy run. HOT. (ax)
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Nice and slow, see.
August 2
8mi, 1:12: A nice feeling run with brother-in-law and fellow White River recuperee, Andy Roth. Across Wolf Creek and up the hill from our house to Sun Mt. Lodge. Early in the day, so not so hot as yesterday. Much better. I'm acclimated to the heat better these days, but I should still really run early a little more often than I do. Legs feeling remarkably nice today. Watch your step coming back across Wolf Creek! I will have a good stone bruise on my right shin to remember that mantra. (v)
August 1
7mi+:1:01: A hot a sluggish run to town on the Community Trail. 3 days post White River I feel better off than three days post Tahoe, but it will be nice to feel even better soon. Some minor bruisy feelings in the left quad. Stick It! (ax)
PS I somehow missed posting the week of July 9-15 before going on vacation. Nothing extraordinary, but I did get in 45mi including another good 3 hour run via a trip over Abernathy Pass with Brian Sweet. All in all it was a restfulish week prior to Tahoe, in part to not over stree the tender left hipflexor -- which has miraculously healed! Duely noted as well that I will be skipping the "speed" training phase for Wasatch in favor of more miles/strength.
8mi, 1:12: A nice feeling run with brother-in-law and fellow White River recuperee, Andy Roth. Across Wolf Creek and up the hill from our house to Sun Mt. Lodge. Early in the day, so not so hot as yesterday. Much better. I'm acclimated to the heat better these days, but I should still really run early a little more often than I do. Legs feeling remarkably nice today. Watch your step coming back across Wolf Creek! I will have a good stone bruise on my right shin to remember that mantra. (v)
August 1
7mi+:1:01: A hot a sluggish run to town on the Community Trail. 3 days post White River I feel better off than three days post Tahoe, but it will be nice to feel even better soon. Some minor bruisy feelings in the left quad. Stick It! (ax)
PS I somehow missed posting the week of July 9-15 before going on vacation. Nothing extraordinary, but I did get in 45mi including another good 3 hour run via a trip over Abernathy Pass with Brian Sweet. All in all it was a restfulish week prior to Tahoe, in part to not over stree the tender left hipflexor -- which has miraculously healed! Duely noted as well that I will be skipping the "speed" training phase for Wasatch in favor of more miles/strength.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
July 16-29
Weeks: 6 days. 97 mi. Not a lot of days spent running during this 2 week stretch, but I took a 2000+ mile road trip/vacation, tapered a bit, and nursed a nagging hip flexor injury so that I could race twice. By some certain grace, the hip pain is gone despite running the Tahoe Rim Trail 50k on July 21 and the White River 50mi on July 28th...
July 28: White River 50mi. 8700ft elevation gain. 9:18.38. 35th place. I reserved judgement on running this race until the day prior. On the heels of Tahoe, it seemed like a good training run for Wasatach, but I developed a cold AND I was a little uncertain about the recovery of my legs etc.. All turned out OK. A conservative first climb answered most questions about my fitness and I was anxious to push a little harder by our turn around at the second aide station (around 3hrs). All day, running downhill was the roughest on my recovering legs. Adding insult to subtle unstableness, I was stung by a yellowjacket smack on my lower lip near the 4:30/25mi mark!
Note the swollen lower lip!
I was only about 15-20 min from the next aide station when this happened, so I was able to get a Benedril and to spend about 5-8 minutes monitoring for any more serious reactions. It had been a long while since I was last stung.
I moved on from this point with hyper-awareness of my breathing etc. for about the next hour. At the Fawn Ridge aide station I took some ice and held it to my lip for the first 10 minutes of the hike/run to Sun Top. Around the 6 hour mark, I was feeling pretty beat, but somewhere around mile 40 (halfway down from our second "summit" at Sun Top aide station) I got a second wind. The sting was no longer a worry and I was also excited to be thinking about single digits again!
The last 10 miles felt really good. I regained some ground that was lost by my daylong pedestrian pace on the downhills, and passed 8-10 people in this final stretch. Calorie management experiments on the day were also a decent success with a combination of Hammer Gels, Gu, Gu20, Cliff Bars, Cliff Blocks, PBJ's and the Succeed Clip II drinks which I started at around 3 hours. A reminder: Hammer Gels seemed a little less sweet than GU. Gu2O was tasting GREAT in the final 6 miles, and the Succeed was MUCH better when adding some ice. It was otherwise bearable, and didn't give me any stomach problems -- although this was only a 9 hour effort. I'll be going slower and eating more real food early on I hope at Wasatch...
July 21: Tahoe Rim Trail 50k. 6895ft elevation gain. 5:20.51. 5th place. Pretty clear right from the start that I wasn't going out with the leaders. I settled in to what looked like 5th-8th place (uncertain about the mix of 50k/50milers ahead of me) and tried to find a pace that would agree with the altitude. 20 miles of the race were run above 8000ft and I was definitely NOT used to that. I intended to push myself, but also wanted a solid 30+ mile run at some altitude more than anything else.
Minor discomforts aside, said altitude provided AMAZING views of Lake Tahoe from both Marlette Peak and Snow Valley. It was far and away the most scenic 5ok that I have ever done.
I ran mostly by myself amidst a sea of 100 milers that had started 1 hour prior and shared the first 18 miles of our course. This was especially fun on the Red House Loop as we chatted some and shared in similar misery on the sandy climb out of the loop. In that last 1o-12 miles I was very aware that the eventual women's winner was just behind, and this definitely spurred me on in the final miles. Despite many electrolyte caps, I fought cramping in my upper quads the final 8 miles. Still, any real biting cramps were held off until after the finish. I will certainly use these caps in all future runs/races of 2hrs plus... Where have you been in the marathon race plans!!?
Not a great, full service-report, I know, but I should get to work on other things. Below is a shot of fellow Carleton College friends (92'-95') and race participants. Fellahs reuniounaj NO. 9 is done and gone. See you in Minnesota for 2008!
July 28: White River 50mi. 8700ft elevation gain. 9:18.38. 35th place. I reserved judgement on running this race until the day prior. On the heels of Tahoe, it seemed like a good training run for Wasatach, but I developed a cold AND I was a little uncertain about the recovery of my legs etc.. All turned out OK. A conservative first climb answered most questions about my fitness and I was anxious to push a little harder by our turn around at the second aide station (around 3hrs). All day, running downhill was the roughest on my recovering legs. Adding insult to subtle unstableness, I was stung by a yellowjacket smack on my lower lip near the 4:30/25mi mark!
Note the swollen lower lip!I moved on from this point with hyper-awareness of my breathing etc. for about the next hour. At the Fawn Ridge aide station I took some ice and held it to my lip for the first 10 minutes of the hike/run to Sun Top. Around the 6 hour mark, I was feeling pretty beat, but somewhere around mile 40 (halfway down from our second "summit" at Sun Top aide station) I got a second wind. The sting was no longer a worry and I was also excited to be thinking about single digits again!
The last 10 miles felt really good. I regained some ground that was lost by my daylong pedestrian pace on the downhills, and passed 8-10 people in this final stretch. Calorie management experiments on the day were also a decent success with a combination of Hammer Gels, Gu, Gu20, Cliff Bars, Cliff Blocks, PBJ's and the Succeed Clip II drinks which I started at around 3 hours. A reminder: Hammer Gels seemed a little less sweet than GU. Gu2O was tasting GREAT in the final 6 miles, and the Succeed was MUCH better when adding some ice. It was otherwise bearable, and didn't give me any stomach problems -- although this was only a 9 hour effort. I'll be going slower and eating more real food early on I hope at Wasatch...
July 21: Tahoe Rim Trail 50k. 6895ft elevation gain. 5:20.51. 5th place. Pretty clear right from the start that I wasn't going out with the leaders. I settled in to what looked like 5th-8th place (uncertain about the mix of 50k/50milers ahead of me) and tried to find a pace that would agree with the altitude. 20 miles of the race were run above 8000ft and I was definitely NOT used to that. I intended to push myself, but also wanted a solid 30+ mile run at some altitude more than anything else.
Minor discomforts aside, said altitude provided AMAZING views of Lake Tahoe from both Marlette Peak and Snow Valley. It was far and away the most scenic 5ok that I have ever done.
I ran mostly by myself amidst a sea of 100 milers that had started 1 hour prior and shared the first 18 miles of our course. This was especially fun on the Red House Loop as we chatted some and shared in similar misery on the sandy climb out of the loop. In that last 1o-12 miles I was very aware that the eventual women's winner was just behind, and this definitely spurred me on in the final miles. Despite many electrolyte caps, I fought cramping in my upper quads the final 8 miles. Still, any real biting cramps were held off until after the finish. I will certainly use these caps in all future runs/races of 2hrs plus... Where have you been in the marathon race plans!!?
Not a great, full service-report, I know, but I should get to work on other things. Below is a shot of fellow Carleton College friends (92'-95') and race participants. Fellahs reuniounaj NO. 9 is done and gone. See you in Minnesota for 2008!
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