Trying to be Solid

Oct 23- 18 miles blacktop bike path
Oct 26- 18 miles blacktop roads
Oct 27- 12 miles on C&O towpath
Oct 29- 13 miles trail, bikepath, road, sidewalk you name it

Today's run was a new loop exploring the amazing area I now live in. I started from my townhouse and ran hilly roads to a trail that connects into the Potomac heritage trail, that connected to the Chain bridge, then ran the C&O towpath to the Capital crescent bikepath, to the bike/pedestrian path and sidewalks linking me to the Memorial bridge. I crossed the GW parkway then ran the mt Vernon trail north to Roosevelt island and then got on the Potomac Heritage trail again and ran it to a connector trail before finishing my run up Quincy blvd. a sweat loop. I got to go (closely)by the Lincoln monument, Georgetwon, Kennedy center, Watergate bldg, Arlington National Cemetery. What a nice tour.

Next up...MMTR 50 er.....53 miler is coming up Saturday!

Urban Assault Ultra

Okay this is my next dream. Now that I am living in Arlington I am surrounded by an amazing network of within the city trails. Some dirt, some gravel/crushed stone, some paved bike path. My biggest impression is that they are everywhere!

Some fo the trails I have explored completely in the last month include:

W&OD- paved- rails to trails- 45miles

Potomaac Heritage Trail- dirt- rocky nasty-18 miles

Capital Crescent Trail- paved-13 miles

Mt Vernon Trail- paved-18 miles

4 mile- run Trail -paved-7.5 miles

Custis Trail- paved- 4 miles

Bluemont Connector- paved- 2 miles

The above culminated with yesterdays cool run. Here from Garmin. Its called the Arlington triangle loop and it took me 2:39 to cover these 18 miles. I did get a little lost where the trails don't quite connect, but they are currently pooring concrete and bulldozing to make them do so as I type.

Previously I have run a series of connecting trails linking rock creek park to battery kimbal and grover archibald allowing me to run dirt from walter Reed's 16th street entrance all the way to fletchers boathouse and the C&O Canal. As well as running the bike path system thru rock creek- which is 20 miles long

Other area trails include the grandaddy of them all the C&O canal towpath = 184 miles

A great resource is linked here

My plan is to one day lay out a route that allows a completely urban trail ultra of 50+ miles. With all the above choices it shouldn't be to hard! It looks like you could start/finish at Fletchers boathouse and do a figure 8 loop into rock creek park connectinginto the crescent trail run south to the C& O then into the Arlington triangle loop and it'd be close to 50. hmmmmmmm

I'm Not Dead

Really, I'm not it has just been a REALLY long time since I had Internet and felt like posting.

Life: Things are going well! Anne and I are now in the new townhouse and living large in Arlington. We both are working and the cat and dog continue to attack one another to stay amused.

Joey- the cat is not thrilled about the city life and having to stay inside, but he does now have 4 levels to run around on and perhaps more importantly....find hiding places.

Oskar- the dog is happy about everything as a general rule. He now enjoys city block walks and having to have his master pick up his (Oskar's) poop..... Who is really the master anyway?

In my running life I must admit I don't do well with change and living in strange places and having odd schedules and traveling a ton and having a million new duties that I always seem to deem more important than running. Thus my last 4 weeks since leaving Richmond have been all in the 24-38 mile range. Wow sucko!

Anne's running has been going well and we have successfully done long ones of 15, 18, and 20 miles in this time span. She is averaging 30 miles a week now... You go Anne!

A return to normalcy?? Well sort of. I managed 4 runs last week ( an 8 and a 20 with Anne) and a 10 on the C&O towpath.....which I think is my favorite place to run ever. And a whopping 45 miler. The later being the VHTRC's Andiamo run which covers the entire W&OD bike path trail from Purcelville into Shirlington. This was loads of fun for the first 34 miles. Then the last 11 took over 3 hours and resulted in my first bouts of running induced vomiting in over 20 years of running. Pretty amazing GI tract killing pain honestly. Lasted well into the night keeping me up and out of bed from 1-3AM even.

If all ultras were like the first 30 (50k split in 4:58 running easy with 60sec walk breaks at all mile markers) I'd run ultras every few days. If all ultras were like the last 10 miles. I'd never run one again.

Catching up

Wow, been a while since I posted. Been busy prepping for the move and watching the Olympics. a couple solid weeks (56, and 52 miles the last two on 5 runs per week each). Still not as motivated as I should be.....I really need a scheduled day and lifestyle. This should improve soon as I start my new job on Monday! Too bad I can't move into my new house until Sept 16th.

So some highlights of the last few weeks:

8/6, 8/11, 8/18 I did the same workout. One of my favorite quickies. I run to a track and do a 2 mile run where I run the straight a ways hard and jog the curves. this amounts to a 16x100m surging run. this is much like the 30 sec hard 30 sec easy workout many folks do. I always end running the second mile faster as each successive 100m strider feels smoother and faster. On the 6th I ran 13:50 for the 2 miles, then 13:37 on the 11th and 13:02 on the 18th with what felt like the same effort.

On the other end of the spectrum I got out to Shenandoah NP for four serious climbing/descending and trail running on the AT and other technical trails. I had great company in Sophie and Jeff Wilbur of charlottesville. I ran an 18 mile loop on 8/7 and 8/9 that has over 4,000ft of climb and on 8/15 and 8/17 I ran a tough 21 miler with over 5k of climb. All these runs took between 4:05 and 5:02 to run. For me this is the perfect length of time to be out on my feet pounding and still be able to recover well. In the summer with an early start I will go through 100 ounces of fluid and take in around 800 calories on such a run. This puts me on the verge of being hungry and helps increase my bodies fat mobilization abilities.

Today Anne and I headed to Ashland, VA for the Patrick Henry 1/2 marathon and managed to complete our goal by covering the distance on tired legs at goal marathon pace: 1:59

Fun stuff, highlighted by attending a pre-race talk given by Maureen Ackerly about the US Oly trails marathon in April. This amazing runner is a 39 y.o. mother of 2 who happens to be a partner in a big law firm. Talk about juggling life responsibilities and still manage to PR in the marathon! Amazing.

Trails are Awesome

After 3 resting weeks following Hardrock I was able to get in a good one this week:

61 miles on 6 runs including two(2) four hour runs on trails. Man were they fun! On both Thursday and Saturday I had great company while trotting the trails above the Charolottesville reservoir. We ran the moormans river road loop traveling up to, then 8 miles on the Appalachian trail in Shenandoah NP and back down. Thursday Jeff and I even got to see two bear cups. This is a loop I used to run nearly weekly when I was getting my masters at UVA.

GPS tracks of our runs. Saturday's run with Sophie shows the actual route while Thursdays run the garmin unit lost reception under the heavy canopy and overcast skies. (Here)

Today Anne and I continued to build her long run for this Novembers Richmond marathon by doing a fun 13 miles on the course.

After 12 hours of running in the last 4 days I am feeling incredibly good

Trying to make it Ours

Ahhhhhh Arlington! Good stuff. Moving back to NOVA. Start work Aug 25th. Close Sept 15th. Can't wait for either!

Feeling The Need

For Speed....or the best I can manage these days: MotionBased stats here

8 miles with: 4x200, 4x400, 3x1000, 400, 4x200, 400......ugh..in 95 degree sun at 2pm

Easy warm up...didn't take long in the heat and my favorite time to run...AFTERNOON!
4 x 200 on 40 sec rest- 41, 41, 37, 38 Felt really good, not trying to press, just turn them over
4 x 400 on 90 sec rest- 91, 86, 88, 84 Pace was all over as I was trying to find the best mix between relaxed and pressing the 2nd half to hold the pace. Not to mention I have not run anything this quick since February. By the 3rd and 4th my heartrate was really getting up there and staying up above 120 a bit long following the repeat.

so I took 5 minutes rest then did 3 x 1000m aiming to hit 4:00 or a guess at my 10 mile-1/2 marathon pace. But onc eI got into them I ran faster and was probably closer to VO2max pace than Lactate threshold. Using equal recoveries I managed to hit 4:01, 3:54, 3:46. It felt good and I was running very smoothly. After the faster repeats to start off with, it was hard to run above 90 sec 400 pace on these repeats.

After the 3rd one I felt hot and tired. So I decided to do some more shorter reps and work on my recruitment of the fast twitch fibers that I let lie dormant so much of the time. I will probably be wicked sore tomorrow.

Last bit went 400-84, 4x200-39, 37, 37, 36, then one last 400 to try and break 80 and a nice result of 76. That chased the heartrate up to 175bpm. Probably within a few ticks of my max honestly.

All in all it was a good workout and I am glad I went and got it in. Tomorrow I am off to DC to do a bunch of things related to my new job and my new townhouse! Trying to finalize things on a new place. Super exciting.

Time to Throw Down

Week 2 post Hardrock
3 runs = 29 miles 1 easy, 1 speed, 1 moderate

Now, feeling recovered and well motivated it is time to start throwing it down. I hope to put in more miles in the month of August than I have ever done in one month. My current record is 380 miles from June of 1998 (last 11 years monthly mileage seen here) Getting in a 400 mile month would be nice.

For motivation I am using the following:
Mark
Sean
AJW
Barbara

and good VHTRC buddy Sophie

On the personal side, no luck finding a house yet!!!! :-(

Back into it

After a week off to travel, recover, rest, and house search I am now back in to training. Motivation is low like it always is after a big event, but I do have some fun things on the horizon.

Anne and I powered through an 11 miler on the C& O Canal towpath in DC Sunday. My left ankle (anterior tibialis muscle/tendon) was stiff aching and giving me "itis" problems but that seems to have resolved. This was Anne's first LONG run in the build up for her fall marathon. Fun stuff to be a part of!

Today I went out for a longish run, got mis-oriented and wound up in a part of my neighborhood I have yet to run. So I made my way to the local highschool track and did an impromptu workout. Since I am such a wuss and can't stick to a regular track/hard workout routine when I end up at the track I like to make the most of it. after illusions of grandeur and a 5xmile workout I managed two before the legs and mind said......"Hey wait buddy...we are still not 100%"

So here it is:
25 min warm up
2 x mile 6:20, 6:07 on 3:30 recov
15 min cool down

Not to whine about what was but for reference:
7/7/2000- Hardrock- 36:16
7/16/2000- 7 miler with last mile 5:26
7/24/2000- 3 x mile 5:28, 5:22, 5:20
7/26/2000- 8,000m time trial on track by self- 28:53

ugh! I can't wait until I move to DC and get some training partners

what worked

I wanted to write a bit to let folks know what worked for me......and what didn't

FEET: Hardrock is an extremely wet race with stream crossings and marshlands the entire course. My feet were wet from the river crossing at 2 miles straight thru for 46 hours until the river crossing at 99 miles.

AJW tip to wet your feet before long runs was an excellent one! The two weeks prior to the race I ran with wet feet 5-6 times- spraying them down with a hose (filling my shoes really) then re-wet in a local river 30 minutes in to the runs. I also did 2-3 hour yard work sessions where I wet my feet every 45min. This constant time spent in wet socks/shoes allowed my foot skin to toughen and all the looser/weak callus stuff to peel off prior to race day and thus in the race itself I had ZERO problems. I had one tiny blister on the side of my big toe that I did not feel, drained after, and it was sealed and healed in 24hrs. No other issues at all!!!

Shoes:- I wore my Asics 2110's road shoes that have 800+ miles on them and are a year old. They drained well, gripped decently, were light weight, comfortable, supportive but not restrictive and are lower to the ground than my Montrails. However, they have higher side walls around the ankle and this caused my most severe post race problem......I have swollen ankle bones on the outside (lateral malleolus) bilaterally and the right one was rug burned into a bloody area. Runing straight is no problem, but side hill action caused the side of the shoes to push into my ankle bones. Ouch.

socks: I changed socks 4 times for no good reason other than it FELT GOOD! I used white "jockey" socks that fit my feet well. They are all ruined with stains now but hey.

fluids: I drank plan water 100% of the time and filed my bottles from the streams and with snow probably 60% of the time. I'll let you know if I develop giardia. I also took in up to 12 cups of coke along the way (drunk at aid stations)

Electrolytes: I used maybe 8 or so NUUN tablets and one S! cap, then had GI trouble and for the last 26 hours of the race only ate salty food from the tables. Salt pills are overrated. I eat an extremely low salt diet, and was well heat acclimated prior to the race so my sweat has little salt in it. I wish I had not used the NUUN tabs at all. Pretzels is all you need.

Calories: I took in 2400cals of Cliff shot blocks, 4000+cals of pure granulated sugar (that I carried in a bottle then added water too to make a gel like slurry). I will use maltodextrin in the future as sugar worked great but has a taste to it, that I did get sick off, while maltodextrin is tasteless. I ate a strawberry milkshake (real deal ice cream from an ice cream shop), 1/2 a turkey sandwich, 1/2 a turkey sandwich with cheese grilled, 2 cups of pasta, 6 pop sickles, maybe 12 cups of coke, one zip lock bag of peanuts, M&M's, and one zip lock bag full of pretzels. during the 46:45. Pre-race breakfast was a liter of gatorade and 2 banana Power bars. I'm not sure how many calories this all is but it was ALOT! yet I was still hungry and bonky a few times. The caloric expenditure scaling 40% grade mtns at 14,000ft must be higher than 100 calories per mile.

I also recently read that Krissy Moehl took in 600cals per hour at last years hardrock....this is double the 300cals an hour max the stomach is supposed to be able to process.(according to my masters degree in exercise physiology learnings) Interesting.! Probably why she kicked ass. I watched Karl Meltzer pack his drop bags for the 2005 hardrock were he spent 18 minutes in aid stations total time. He had 60 gels. for 6000cals. And ate nothing else. Trying to run at altitude asks a lot of the old cardio system so much of the bodies blood is diverted away from the viscera (stomach/intestines) and shunted to the working muscles. this makes digestion of anything complex very difficult. This is why I chose to stick closely to simple sugar and away from harder to digest foods. During exercise at a high % max output (like I had at Hardrock) the common phenomonen of "take in sugar---recieve huge insulin spike----resulting in lowered blood sugar and BONK" is attenuated. Huge spikes in insulin output are not seen, so one does not bonk as hard after pure sugar intake as one would say when sitting on a couch. No, I am not as dumb as I may seem.

Due to efficiency of the body being able to utilize stored fat when running at x min/mile pace rather than burning glucose or glycogen, the better shape you are in, the less calories you need to take in. I am not in that kind of shape obviously! so I likily needed more calories taken in during the event than fitter/faster folks.

all in all it was a great experiement and I am glad to be back in better shape. It has been a slow climb out of the 2003-2006 duldrums, but I am getting there.

grindstone 100 in Oct and JFK 50 in Nov on the horizon