I'm in Portland now before heading onto Ashland tomorrow and then San Francisco by Thursday night. I've had a few days of some doubts about where my body will be for the race on Saturday but things do seem to be coming back together in just enough time. I've been dealing with a minor head/chest cold but it's been just enough to give me a good amount of overall body fatigue and some burning lungs. I felt horrible on my runs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but much better yesterday and today. Should be ready to roll by the weekend.
At times over the past several weeks I've put a lot of pressure on myself to finish top three at Miwok, but now over the past couple weeks I've let most of that go. I simply want to run the best race I have in me this weekend and see how that plays out. I would love to qualify for Western States, and I know I have a great shot to do so, but I'm not going to get too bent out of shape if I don't. My race this weekend will be mostly about some redemption for what was, in my mind, a fairly poor race for me last year at Miwok. Even though I finished 3rd there last year it was probably the least smooth race that I've had in the past two years. I was both mentally and physically fried by the end of that one... and not in the good way that you can be fried at the end of a race, but rather in the way that was only remedied by two full months with almost no running. Granted a huge part of that time off from running was because I was training for and racing The Great Divide bike race, but even without that I would have needed some serious time off after Miwok last year. What I want from this weekend is to feel that I got even with that course for how much it kicked my ass last year. We'll see. Oh yeah, and I want to win...
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Dease Lake, BC
Heading South. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in British Columbia. We were planning to camp last night but there's still several feet of snowpack here so we opted for a motel.
I'm feeling a little sick the last couple days. This is my second chest cold in as many months. Hopefully this one doesn't last 30 days like the last one did!
I feel like I miss Juneau in many ways right now but at the same time it was really nice to get out of there. I had a lot of things going on in my last few weeks there that were really causing too much stress. As a result I was eating and sleeping very poorly. As soon as we left town though I instantly had a better appetite and the first night I slept more than I had in any night in over a month.
Hopefully my illness now and my anxiety in my last few weeks in Juneau don't combine to negatively effect things at the Miwok. At this point all I can do is show up and run my race. To be honest I have a lot of confidence going into this one. Despite any doubts about some of these little things I feel like I'm probably in the best shape of my life right now. I guess I'll find out next weekend.
I'm feeling a little sick the last couple days. This is my second chest cold in as many months. Hopefully this one doesn't last 30 days like the last one did!
I feel like I miss Juneau in many ways right now but at the same time it was really nice to get out of there. I had a lot of things going on in my last few weeks there that were really causing too much stress. As a result I was eating and sleeping very poorly. As soon as we left town though I instantly had a better appetite and the first night I slept more than I had in any night in over a month.
Hopefully my illness now and my anxiety in my last few weeks in Juneau don't combine to negatively effect things at the Miwok. At this point all I can do is show up and run my race. To be honest I have a lot of confidence going into this one. Despite any doubts about some of these little things I feel like I'm probably in the best shape of my life right now. I guess I'll find out next weekend.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Easy Miles
Got in a great 38 mile run today. Had 4 friends come out with me for different parts of it so I was only running alone for about 7 miles. It's amazing how much mentally easier a long run can be when you get some people to run with you. I have plenty of things I could have spent the 5 plus hours trying to weed through in my mind, but it was kind of nice to get away from my own thoughts for a bit and just enjoy the company of others. I'm glad I don't do most of my running with other people but it has been nice lately to have the thoughts of others help chew up some of the mileage.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Southbound Again
This week has certainly been one of the most crazy, busy, and tiring weeks of my life. I've run about 115 miles in the last 7 days, worked for 6 days straight, hungout late with friends at least three of those nights, and slept about half as much as normal. Oh yeah, and I just packed up almost everything I own in about 3 hours to move to a storage unit. Hope to get better sleep tonight because I'm planning on doing about 35 miles tomorrow. After that I begin my taper for Miwok and try to relax and enjoy my last 3 days in Juneau before rolling out of town first thing on Wednesday.
I'm really excited for the next couple months, but like anytime I make such a drastic change in my life there is also a lot of anxiety that goes along with it. I suspect the next 5 or 6 days will be loaded with stress, anxiety, and more nights without enough sleep but it sure will be nice later next week to be rolling down the Alaska Highway toward the lower 48 with nothing but two months of summer sunshine ahead of us.
I'm really excited for the next couple months, but like anytime I make such a drastic change in my life there is also a lot of anxiety that goes along with it. I suspect the next 5 or 6 days will be loaded with stress, anxiety, and more nights without enough sleep but it sure will be nice later next week to be rolling down the Alaska Highway toward the lower 48 with nothing but two months of summer sunshine ahead of us.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Down The Road
I took a bit of a recovery week this week. Did only about 80 miles, a lot of which was with friends, so a bit slower than normal too. I feel great now and ready to hit a hard 10 day block of training before a bit of a taper before Miwok.
I can't say for sure if I'll run faster at Miwok than I did a year ago, but I do know that I'm in better shape right now than I was a year ago. When I look back through my training log and remember some of the runs I was doing last April I can remember some of them feeling so hard at the time. The same runs at the same pace right now feel ridiculously easier. It's shocking to me how much improvement we can get out of our bodies with consistent training. The question though is can we convert that into faster times come race day. I plan to find out in a few weeks. I ran 8:34 last year at Miwok. I'm feeling enough stronger now than I was a year ago that I should be able to run at least 15-20 minutes faster than that.
On the homefront here in Juneau I've got one more week of work, then 5 days to get all packed up (moving stuff into storage), and then on April 22nd Jill and I will be hitting the road for the long drive down the Alaska Highway and onto San Francisco for the Miwok before heading over to Utah. Gonna spend most of May in Utah and then Jill will be riding in the Great Divide Race beginning on June 11th. At that time I'll either be heading to California to train/scout the Western States course or to Colorado to train/scout/acclimatize for Hardrock. At this point I have almost certainly dropped the idea of doing WS and HR. Because of the competition that's going to be there this year I have made WS my first choice, but if that doesn't work out I'm going to be pretty dang excited to be able to put my focus into Hardrock (provided I can get in from #14 on the wait list). The way I see it is that I win either way. I either get to do the most competitive 100 miler of the year or the toughest one. Either one is really freakin' exciting.
Sometime in July I'll be done with my early summer racing and Jill will be done with the GDR. At that point we'll head back up here to Juneau and something will happen from there. Something, afterall, always does happen. We'll certainly be staying in Juneau for awhile at that time but it's very undecided right now just how long that will be. Either way I'm sure my late summer/autumn will include another trip back down south for 2 or 3 races. Maybe grouped together as a 3 week trip with 2 races or maybe a couple separate short trips. We'll see. I've got my eye on Wasatch (title to defend); the Bear 100 (heard nothing but great things about this one); the DRTE 100 (more climbing than Hardrock!); Cactus Rose 100 (again, nothing but great things); and The North Face 50 (can you say "cold, hard cash"?)
So there's a really loose outline of my next 8 months. Lots of uncertainties, but I'm certain it's going to be fun, which is the most important thing. Oh, and I forgot to mention that somewhere in there I'm planning to win a million dollars in the lottery :)
I can't say for sure if I'll run faster at Miwok than I did a year ago, but I do know that I'm in better shape right now than I was a year ago. When I look back through my training log and remember some of the runs I was doing last April I can remember some of them feeling so hard at the time. The same runs at the same pace right now feel ridiculously easier. It's shocking to me how much improvement we can get out of our bodies with consistent training. The question though is can we convert that into faster times come race day. I plan to find out in a few weeks. I ran 8:34 last year at Miwok. I'm feeling enough stronger now than I was a year ago that I should be able to run at least 15-20 minutes faster than that.
On the homefront here in Juneau I've got one more week of work, then 5 days to get all packed up (moving stuff into storage), and then on April 22nd Jill and I will be hitting the road for the long drive down the Alaska Highway and onto San Francisco for the Miwok before heading over to Utah. Gonna spend most of May in Utah and then Jill will be riding in the Great Divide Race beginning on June 11th. At that time I'll either be heading to California to train/scout the Western States course or to Colorado to train/scout/acclimatize for Hardrock. At this point I have almost certainly dropped the idea of doing WS and HR. Because of the competition that's going to be there this year I have made WS my first choice, but if that doesn't work out I'm going to be pretty dang excited to be able to put my focus into Hardrock (provided I can get in from #14 on the wait list). The way I see it is that I win either way. I either get to do the most competitive 100 miler of the year or the toughest one. Either one is really freakin' exciting.
Sometime in July I'll be done with my early summer racing and Jill will be done with the GDR. At that point we'll head back up here to Juneau and something will happen from there. Something, afterall, always does happen. We'll certainly be staying in Juneau for awhile at that time but it's very undecided right now just how long that will be. Either way I'm sure my late summer/autumn will include another trip back down south for 2 or 3 races. Maybe grouped together as a 3 week trip with 2 races or maybe a couple separate short trips. We'll see. I've got my eye on Wasatch (title to defend); the Bear 100 (heard nothing but great things about this one); the DRTE 100 (more climbing than Hardrock!); Cactus Rose 100 (again, nothing but great things); and The North Face 50 (can you say "cold, hard cash"?)
So there's a really loose outline of my next 8 months. Lots of uncertainties, but I'm certain it's going to be fun, which is the most important thing. Oh, and I forgot to mention that somewhere in there I'm planning to win a million dollars in the lottery :)
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Montrail Rules
It was announced today that the Montrail Mountain Masochist and The Hardrock '09 both won major awards in Outside Magazine and Backpacker Magazine. The Mountain Masochist was recognized for the "Gear of the Year Award" in Outside and the Hardrock was recognized by Backpacker as the best run/hike crossover shoe.
Glad to see I'm not the only one really digging the new Montrail shoes. I actually haven't had a chance to run in the new Hardrock yet. I'll give my opinion when I do. The Mountain Masochist though have quickly become my current favorite shoe. I know I talked about them just a couple weeks ago but I recommend them so highly that I feel compelled to mention them again. I now have over 250 miles in my first pair of them and a long run of about 25 miles. They are super comfortable; great on trail and roads alike; fit like a glove right out of the box; and seem to be holding up very well. I actually can't think of one thing that I would say they could do better. I'm not yet ready to say they are my favorite shoes ever, but only because I wouldn't make that claim until I'd at least worn fully through a pair.
Glad to see I'm not the only one really digging the new Montrail shoes. I actually haven't had a chance to run in the new Hardrock yet. I'll give my opinion when I do. The Mountain Masochist though have quickly become my current favorite shoe. I know I talked about them just a couple weeks ago but I recommend them so highly that I feel compelled to mention them again. I now have over 250 miles in my first pair of them and a long run of about 25 miles. They are super comfortable; great on trail and roads alike; fit like a glove right out of the box; and seem to be holding up very well. I actually can't think of one thing that I would say they could do better. I'm not yet ready to say they are my favorite shoes ever, but only because I wouldn't make that claim until I'd at least worn fully through a pair.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Wrong Tools For The Job
It's shocking to me how specialized our bodies can become when we focus so closely on just one activity as I have been doing with my running for about 9 months now. I went snowboarding yesterday for the first time in a long time and after one run down the mountain I felt fatigue in muscles that I had pretty much forgotten existed in my legs. I do a fair amount of weight training, biking, and cross country skiing to supplement my running, but lately I've been focusing more and more on the running. My training approach seems to do a good job of getting me into good shape to run ultras, but it sure doesn't do much to help me keep up with the kids on the slopes. It was comical how tired my legs would feel any time I rode for more than about 30 seconds without stopping for a little break, all the while teenagers, many who have probably never run a mile in their life, were blowing by me.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Race Fix
Ran a local 10k this morning. Would have liked to feel better than I did but I was very pleased with my time. I ran a 35:03 with pretty much a perfectly even split. My legs didn't feel very speedy at all but I was almost 2 minutes faster today than I was a year ago in the same race!
It was a fun morning. I talked my roommate and his girlfriend into heading out for the race. They both ran great and had a good time. In the past couple years I've gotten to know dozens of the runners here in Juneau and most all of them were out for the race today. I've talked about it a bit before but it's worth mention again just how impressed I am with the running community here in Juneau. For a town of only 30,000 people and no surrounding communities it amazes me how many avid and very talented runners there are. Per capita I doubt there are too many cities in the country with as many talented runners as Juneau.
I've gotten 3 weeks of really good training behind me now. I felt a bit sluggish all week this past week, but I was already planning a bit of a recovery week this coming week so hopefully if I cut back to about 80 miles for the next week I should be ready to amp back up for a really ambitious 7-10 days after that, and then ease back into a taper for The Miwok.
I think I have a great shot at top 3 at Miwok but I'm certainly not taking anything for granted. I am definitely in better shape than I was a year ago but come race day anything can happen. I'm going there very much hoping to qualify for Western States with a top 3 finish but I've also got some great racing options in my mind should I not do so. No matter how it plays out it's going to be a super fun spring/summer of racing for me. There are so many races out there I want to run. I just need to be careful not to try to run too many of them.
It was a fun morning. I talked my roommate and his girlfriend into heading out for the race. They both ran great and had a good time. In the past couple years I've gotten to know dozens of the runners here in Juneau and most all of them were out for the race today. I've talked about it a bit before but it's worth mention again just how impressed I am with the running community here in Juneau. For a town of only 30,000 people and no surrounding communities it amazes me how many avid and very talented runners there are. Per capita I doubt there are too many cities in the country with as many talented runners as Juneau.
I've gotten 3 weeks of really good training behind me now. I felt a bit sluggish all week this past week, but I was already planning a bit of a recovery week this coming week so hopefully if I cut back to about 80 miles for the next week I should be ready to amp back up for a really ambitious 7-10 days after that, and then ease back into a taper for The Miwok.
I think I have a great shot at top 3 at Miwok but I'm certainly not taking anything for granted. I am definitely in better shape than I was a year ago but come race day anything can happen. I'm going there very much hoping to qualify for Western States with a top 3 finish but I've also got some great racing options in my mind should I not do so. No matter how it plays out it's going to be a super fun spring/summer of racing for me. There are so many races out there I want to run. I just need to be careful not to try to run too many of them.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Ready For April
March has been a tough month for me. I'm glad to see it go. It started out with a disastrous Iditarod Invitational attempt and then I was pretty much feeling sick for the rest of the month. Over the past 10 days though I have finally been feeling very healthy again and am back up to a normal training load. I've still got some work to do to be ready for the Miwok in one month but in the past week or so I have felt quite strong on most of my runs. Yesterday I did a 24 miler in which I felt better than I have on a 20+ mile training run in at least a couple months.
Over the next few weeks I'm going to try to focus on getting in some good speed work as well as some good hard downhill running (as well as my usual tough uphill runs that I typically do every third or fourth day). The trails in the Marin Headlands are some of the most scenic trails I have ever run, but they are also some of the most hardpacked trails I've ever run. In the two races I ran there last year I developed significant quad fatigue due to the downhill pounding on the hard surfaces. This time around I hope I can build up a bit more tolerance to that type of surface by running lots of downhills on roads here in Juneau. I also want to try to focus on eating, hydrating, and sleeping really well in the next few weeks. Maybe I'll even try to drink more water than Pepsi and beer.
Over the next few weeks I'm going to try to focus on getting in some good speed work as well as some good hard downhill running (as well as my usual tough uphill runs that I typically do every third or fourth day). The trails in the Marin Headlands are some of the most scenic trails I have ever run, but they are also some of the most hardpacked trails I've ever run. In the two races I ran there last year I developed significant quad fatigue due to the downhill pounding on the hard surfaces. This time around I hope I can build up a bit more tolerance to that type of surface by running lots of downhills on roads here in Juneau. I also want to try to focus on eating, hydrating, and sleeping really well in the next few weeks. Maybe I'll even try to drink more water than Pepsi and beer.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Deposit
The wall of wind has followed me since I left home, only now I have crossed to the east side of the channel and changed direction so that I'm heading south and directly into the wind. A few minutes ago it was snowing popcorn sized snowflakes but now it has turned back to rain. I lower my head and push against it, lucky to maintain 9 minute mile pace. I hit the point where I'm planning to begin my "tempo" run and am blasted with such fierce winds that I can only lower my speed to about 7 minute pace. My legs feel weak and as soon as I hit the first small uphill my lungs start a serious struggle of their own.
And somehow the wind seems to keep getting stronger. For some reason I continue on, eventually moving a bit faster. I find a way to stabilize my heart rate at a little faster pace. I'm now down to about 6 minute per mile pace, still ridiculously slow for a tempo run, but so much faster than I was running just minutes ago that I feel like I'm flying. I hit a few gradual downhills and am able to speed it up even more. Eventually some of the wind is blocked by a row of trees and I'm able to maintain 5:45 pace, even as I head back uphill.
The rain is much heavier now. I'm wet to the core and heading into the wind I'm beginning to get chilled. It's such a strange feeling to be working my heart rate so high but my body still can't keep itself warm. If I were running this hard at 20 below zero I would be toasty warm and wouldn't need any more clothing than I'm wearing today at 40 above.
I hit the point where I plan to turn around. 8 miles from home and 2.5 miles into the "tempo" portion of my run. The wind is now directly behind me and the rolling hills will trend toward more downhill than up for the next couple miles. With the tailwind my body warms up almost instantly and now 5:30 pace feels easier than 6:30 pace did just 15 minutes ago. On the first downhill I'm able to lower it to 5:10 pace and that's where I stay for the next 2 miles. I feel my legs moving very quickly, but the tailwind makes for a pretty comfortable effort.
As I ease up into my 5 mile "easy" cool down to get me back home I feel like I could have maintained the 5:10 pace forever. In a few moments though I cross the channel once again and begin to head south toward home. The wind blows at my face. I become chilled again and my pace plummets. I shuffle along feeling like the 2 miles to home might take forever.
Once I'm finally showered and heading off to work I wonder why I would ever go out and run in such horrible conditions. Even more odd is that I would try to run so fast in such horrible conditions. At the time it somehow seemed to make sense, but it all seems so ridiculous as soon as I'm removed from it and getting on with the rest of my day. 5 weeks from tomorrow It'll make sense again. I'll be 40 miles into The Miwok and very glad to have such a "horrible" run in the bank, waiting to be withdrawn.
And somehow the wind seems to keep getting stronger. For some reason I continue on, eventually moving a bit faster. I find a way to stabilize my heart rate at a little faster pace. I'm now down to about 6 minute per mile pace, still ridiculously slow for a tempo run, but so much faster than I was running just minutes ago that I feel like I'm flying. I hit a few gradual downhills and am able to speed it up even more. Eventually some of the wind is blocked by a row of trees and I'm able to maintain 5:45 pace, even as I head back uphill.
The rain is much heavier now. I'm wet to the core and heading into the wind I'm beginning to get chilled. It's such a strange feeling to be working my heart rate so high but my body still can't keep itself warm. If I were running this hard at 20 below zero I would be toasty warm and wouldn't need any more clothing than I'm wearing today at 40 above.
I hit the point where I plan to turn around. 8 miles from home and 2.5 miles into the "tempo" portion of my run. The wind is now directly behind me and the rolling hills will trend toward more downhill than up for the next couple miles. With the tailwind my body warms up almost instantly and now 5:30 pace feels easier than 6:30 pace did just 15 minutes ago. On the first downhill I'm able to lower it to 5:10 pace and that's where I stay for the next 2 miles. I feel my legs moving very quickly, but the tailwind makes for a pretty comfortable effort.
As I ease up into my 5 mile "easy" cool down to get me back home I feel like I could have maintained the 5:10 pace forever. In a few moments though I cross the channel once again and begin to head south toward home. The wind blows at my face. I become chilled again and my pace plummets. I shuffle along feeling like the 2 miles to home might take forever.
Once I'm finally showered and heading off to work I wonder why I would ever go out and run in such horrible conditions. Even more odd is that I would try to run so fast in such horrible conditions. At the time it somehow seemed to make sense, but it all seems so ridiculous as soon as I'm removed from it and getting on with the rest of my day. 5 weeks from tomorrow It'll make sense again. I'll be 40 miles into The Miwok and very glad to have such a "horrible" run in the bank, waiting to be withdrawn.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Juneau
I've lived in Juneau, Alaska for over 2 1/2 years now. For most of this time I have constantly had one foot out the door, always certain that my time here would be coming to an end sooner rather than later. It is a very tough place to live. The weather is often horrible and it's extremely isolated (only access is by air and water). I still can't really imagine a scenario in which Jill and I stay here for too long, but over the past several months my foot that is rooted here in Juneau has become much more deeply rooted. When the weather here is nice it's the most beautiful place on Earth and the isolation becomes less of an issue once you really start to find your place in the place that you are isolated to. I still feel myself often thinking of where to go next, but more and more I find myself also thinking about all the reasons that I'd love to stay here in Juneau.
Next month Jill and I are leaving the state for at least a couple months. We'll be hanging out in the lower 48 (mostly Utah), running, biking, hanging out with old friends, and enjoying some sun. Sometime in July we'll likely be making our way back to Alaska, and more and more it seems like we'll be coming back to Juneau, at least for some period of time. 6 months ago I would have been really frustrated at the thought of still being "stuck" in Juneau at the end of 2009, but now the thought of being here at the end of this year seems more comforting than bothersome. Funny how that can happen. I guess only time will tell what actually does happen.
Next month Jill and I are leaving the state for at least a couple months. We'll be hanging out in the lower 48 (mostly Utah), running, biking, hanging out with old friends, and enjoying some sun. Sometime in July we'll likely be making our way back to Alaska, and more and more it seems like we'll be coming back to Juneau, at least for some period of time. 6 months ago I would have been really frustrated at the thought of still being "stuck" in Juneau at the end of 2009, but now the thought of being here at the end of this year seems more comforting than bothersome. Funny how that can happen. I guess only time will tell what actually does happen.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Mountain Masochist
The newest shoe in the Montrail line is the Mountain Masochist.
I got my first pair of these a couple weeks ago and have put about 80 miles on them so far. The first real test won't come until I get a long run on them (currently 17 miles is the longest run I've done in them), but so far I like them a lot. They feel a little bulkier and heavier than the Streak (even though they are actually an ounce lighter), but they also feel like they provide more support than the Streak. As much as I love the Streaks, I do get a bit of fatigue in the balls of my feet if I do too much training in them. I think the Streak will still be my racing shoe of choice but if the Mountain Masochist continues to make my feet happy I might give them a try in the Miwok.
If you're looking for a pair of lightweight (10.8 ounces) trail running shoes that will give your foot the support and protection that rugged trails demand I highly recommend checking out the Montrail Mountain Masochist. Best new shoe I've tried out in over a year.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Interview With Jeff Oatley
I know I said a couple posts back that it would be my last post about this year's ITI. I lied. This post won't have anything to do with my entirely disastrous race experience though. Instead a look inside Jeff Oatley's (this year's winner in the race to McGrath) much more successful race experience. Jeff is one of a handful of racers who has come to define the ITI. He has amazing physical strength and endurance, but even more importantly he has unbelievable mental strength and endurance. In short he is one of the most bad ass ultra endurance cyclists out there. He has completed RAAM (fastest American finisher the year he did it), the ITI 5 years in a row now, and he holds the race record for both the 200 and 400 mile versions of The Fireweed 400.
Here are a few questions he was kind enough to answer that give a good look into his race this year. Even though he won the race to McGrath this year this was his slowest finishing time ever. This gives a pretty good indication of just how bad conditions were out there this year. His accounts below paint the picture much clearer though:
Q: In your mind did you approach the race any differently this year than previous years? With Pete on skis, Rocky not racing, and Jay riding with Tracey you had a pretty clear cut edge in experience and previous ITI accomplishments over the other bikers heading out onto the trail this time around. Did you go into the race looking to be the one riding out in front of the pack or is that just the way it ended up playing out?
A: I definitely didn’t approach the race any differently. I just try to get myself mentally prepared for this race and to get my bike and gear dialed. And honestly I did a multi-day trip with Pete and Ed on ski’s (and myself on a bike), and I talked to Pete a few times about his skiing before the race and I figured there was a 50% chance he’d be on a bike at the start line. I’ve been at or near the front of the race every time I’ve done it except for last year when it was more of a tour for me and my friend, Tim. So it wasn’t new to be in front. But it was unusual to get such a large gap.
Q: I was shocked when I got to Yentna at 4:20 AM to see that everyone except you was still there. Even more shocked to discover that you had left Yentna before the next racer got there. From there until Puntilla your lead kept growing steadily and you continued to leave each checkpoint well before the next racers got there. If my math is correct you probably went 150+ miles without seeing another racer. Is this correct? If so, what was your mindset leaving Puntilla without having seen another racer since presumably an hour or two into the race?
A: I went from Seven Mile Lake to Rainy Pass Lake without seeing another racer. I think that’s about 170 miles. The race started pretty slowly with a group of 6 or 8 bikers tooling along. That was fine with me. I gave myself an hour to get warmed up and then put a little bit of an effort in to see who would come along because I was okay riding with a couple people, but I didn’t want to be in a pack. I was shocked when I was able to walk almost all the way across Flathorn Lake and still never see another racer behind me. At Finger Lake they told me that I had a 6 hour lead (as of Skwentna). I’d taken an hour and a half nap at Skwentna and really felt great leaving Finger so I was riding hard, the trail was good, and I felt like I had a good rhythm going. But I’ve been through Rainy Pass enough to know that nothing really matters until you get to Rohn.
Q: Any details you want to share about the stretch between Puntilla and Rohn would be interesting. How long were you holed up with Bill? (and how many times did you think about slitting his throat? :) Did you attempt heading out over the pass on your own or only once other racers got up there? Did you have any food left when you got down to Rohn? etc, etc.?
A: I got to the Rainy Pass Lake cabin at about 11:30am. I’d passed Bill’s snowmachine and followed his snowshoe tracks until the wind and snow washed them away, so I was expecting the worse at the top. But I was hopeful the trailbreakers would be there from the north side. When I got there my first thought was that I would continue on breaking trial by myself and hoping that I met the trailbreakers before too long. But I quickly discounted that option as being too risky. I knew that if need be there was no way I could break the ~10 miles of trail to the Tatina River by myself. So with no information as to what the status of the trailbreakers was it would have been reckless to try that. I pretty quickly realized that my best option was to get some good sleep and be ready to go whenever the trailbreakers got there or we had enough bikes to attempt to break trail. It ended up being the later. I had been there for about 12 hours (I think) when the next bikers showed up, and 21 hours when our group left the cabin. I think Phil, Jay & Tracey P and I left together, and we were quickly joined by Chris Wrobel, James Leavesly, and Alec Petro. Not sure this is completely the correct order, but before long this was the group. It was a terrific group of people to do this with. Very positive energy and very good humor…which became pretty key as the trip just got more and more absurd. I never had any doubts that we would make it. But I couldn’t even guess how long it might take. I suppose I really imagined us meeting the trailbreakers, or finding their trail, much sooner than we ultimately did. Obviously, after the fact, this was the highlight of the trip for me. The amount of work it took to get to the Gorge (where we finally hit the snowmachine trail) was absurd. We were just wallowing in snow, struggling through willows and alders, and constantly breaking through the ice on the creek…sometimes into water and sometimes not. At one time or another I think each of us hit our limits mentally, but the group spirits stayed high and a joke or funny comment always came at just the right time. Everybody in the group brought something to the table. It was a pretty unbelievable group effort. Cory caught and passed us I’d say within two or three miles of leaving Rainy Pass Lake. I thought we’d never see him again. He looked like he was really moving. But many hours later we ran into his tracks and could tell he was bogged down too. It was so funny when Ed Plumb passed us. We were in deep snow…probably more than waist deep so we were really low. Ed was more or less on top of the snow so he looked like he was about 10 feet above us and he just had this look on his face that was a mixture of bewilderment, pity, and something like contempt. He said something like “That…that looks…horrible…”. Ed is a good friend of mine from Fairbanks and I was really happy to see him and see that he was doing really well with the situation. But we didn’t really get a chance to talk much and he skied on and left us. I’d have given anything for a video of that interaction. But like Cory, Ed soon got bogged down too and we all sort of ended up in the same situation at almost the same location After about 17 hours of pretty steady and somewhat intense effort we bivy’d. It was not the most comfortable bivy because we were all somewhere between damp and soaked. It had been about 50 hours since I left Puntilla Lake and my food supply was low so I ate one piece of bacon before I went to sleep and had a couple more for when I woke up. When I got up I gave Jay some bacon and he gave me some Pringles and I think some chocolate. The previous day I’d given Alec some crackers and I think Chris (it may have been Phil) hade given me some candy bars. It was the type of cooperative effort that probably only happens in like…shipwrecks and the ITI. I really hope I never have to do that exact thing again. But at the same time that is the sort of thing that really makes this race special. I’ve done this race five times and in several of those trips there have been times when the conditions just dictated that we put the race on the backburner and focus on dealing with the conditions together.
Q: How much frustration did you ever have about being forced to squander such a large lead? Obviously you couldn't dwell on this for too long but there must have been some period of time that you had some frustration about it.
A: Honestly I don’t think I was frustrated by the situation at the top of the pass at all. There was plenty of frustration with the trailbreaking that followed. This race is about these types of situations…although they aren’t usually quite as large as this one. I think I made the right decisions at Rainy Pass. I know I would not have made it to the Tatina on my own. I got a lot of good rest and was able to make a pretty big push from there to the end. After the bivy above the Dalzell Gorge I made it to McGrath on one 90-minute bivy with probably less than half of that time sleeping. Plus, the re-grouping made it a pretty good race…at least in my head. At Nikolai I knew (from a snowmachiner) that I was about 2-3 hours ahead of Cory and the trails were absolute shit so I was in full-on race mode. Believing that I was being chased by a world-class skier on a mostly unrideable trail from Bison Camp to McGrath led to a pretty epic last 24 hours for me. I would never have pushed myself that hard if I had reached Rohn with a 12+ hour lead. Yeah, it turns out that Cory took a break in Nikolai so the chase was sort of broken off, but I didn’t know that. I remember that by about 6am on the morning I reached McGrath I was toast. I was so tired I could hardly walk. I’d mostly stopped eating and drinking and I was having a hard time keeping warm. I’d turned my headlamp off because the little circular spot was making it even harder to stay awake. I was basically asleep on my feet. But I was still checking behind me at the end of every straightaway and every time I didn’t see a light back there I tried to push a little harder to hold on. It felt epic to me. That’s what I’m after in this race. Its really funny to me now because if I wouldn’t have thought that Cory was behind me I probably would have done something like imagined a world-class skier was chasing me to try and motivate myself through those hours before daylight…which is really what I was doing anyways. If that makes any sense…that’s the sort of thing I do sometimes. I’m not saying it makes sense, but it doesn’t make much sense to push a bike through a blizzard for 2 days either.
Q: Did you have any notable physical lowpoints during the race? Mental?
A: Well, by the time I got to McGrath my physical condition was not exactly optimum. I mean, I knew I was on a course that was not maintainable for too long. My lower legs and feet were really taking a beating from all the pushing through deep snow. And I was having trouble with my feet because I had been in overflow quite a bit on the Kuskokwim. I’d say my physical condition bottomed out about the time I hit the hardpack road into McGrath…maybe a couple miles before that.
Mentally I had a bit of a low trying to get across the Farewell Burn in a pretty good ground blizzard. It was tough because the trails had finally gotten rideable about 15-20 miles before, but this storm came up and the winds kept getting stronger and stronger and visibility intermittently got pretty bad. About 6 miles beyond Bison Camp the trails were gone…I was in the middle of the Burn and a crosswind was just abusing me. I kind of had to lift the bike to the top of the snowdrifts and the wind was strong enough that it was catching the bike and trying to pull it out of my hands. I fell over the bike about a 100 times during this period. The footing was bad, I was awake, but physically very tired, it was ridiculous.
In these conditions I probably would have stopped sooner but I had a very weird encounter with a lynx on the trail that energized me a little bit me and kept me going for a bit longer. Visibility was very low and all of a sudden I saw eyes glowing real close to me. At about the same time the wind died a bit and a lynx was standing right in front of me, probably 25 or 30 feet away…very close. It quickly bounded out of sight. It was really cool and sort of woke me up for an hour or two. But at about 6:30am I finally just gave up and had to bivy, but there was very little cover around there and I was moving so slow that I knew it was pointless to try and get to cover so I just kicked out a hole in the snow and curled up in my bag for 90 minutes. It was totally mental. I just didn’t want to be out there in that anymore. The wind is weird in that it can really turn your head inside out. Cold by itself doesn’t really have that effect on me. When I got up I was still mentally pretty whipped until I got to Sullivan Creek, got out of the wind for a few minutes, refilled my camelback and ate some food. Then I picked it up again.
Q: How many times have you now finished the ITI (in how many attempts)?
A: I’ve finished the ITI five times in five tries and the Iditasport once in one try before that.
Q: Does arriving in McGrath become any less sweet now that you've done it several times?
A: Rolling down the road into McGrath is always sweet. The first time I made it to McGrath I had tears in my eyes as I soft-pedaled down the road. It’s that kind of trip. If I get jaded to that feeling I hope I have the sense to quite doing the race. This thing is hard. It’s hard for the people at the front and it’s hard for the people at the back. Getting to McGrath is an accomplishment for anybody that sets out to do it.
When you combine that sense of accomplishment with how unbelievable Peter and Tracy are to everybody that shows up at there house, its pretty tough to think of a race that has a better ending. Hanging out in McGrath, sharing trail stories with other racers is a HUGE part of the experience.
Here are a few questions he was kind enough to answer that give a good look into his race this year. Even though he won the race to McGrath this year this was his slowest finishing time ever. This gives a pretty good indication of just how bad conditions were out there this year. His accounts below paint the picture much clearer though:
Q: In your mind did you approach the race any differently this year than previous years? With Pete on skis, Rocky not racing, and Jay riding with Tracey you had a pretty clear cut edge in experience and previous ITI accomplishments over the other bikers heading out onto the trail this time around. Did you go into the race looking to be the one riding out in front of the pack or is that just the way it ended up playing out?
A: I definitely didn’t approach the race any differently. I just try to get myself mentally prepared for this race and to get my bike and gear dialed. And honestly I did a multi-day trip with Pete and Ed on ski’s (and myself on a bike), and I talked to Pete a few times about his skiing before the race and I figured there was a 50% chance he’d be on a bike at the start line. I’ve been at or near the front of the race every time I’ve done it except for last year when it was more of a tour for me and my friend, Tim. So it wasn’t new to be in front. But it was unusual to get such a large gap.
Q: I was shocked when I got to Yentna at 4:20 AM to see that everyone except you was still there. Even more shocked to discover that you had left Yentna before the next racer got there. From there until Puntilla your lead kept growing steadily and you continued to leave each checkpoint well before the next racers got there. If my math is correct you probably went 150+ miles without seeing another racer. Is this correct? If so, what was your mindset leaving Puntilla without having seen another racer since presumably an hour or two into the race?
A: I went from Seven Mile Lake to Rainy Pass Lake without seeing another racer. I think that’s about 170 miles. The race started pretty slowly with a group of 6 or 8 bikers tooling along. That was fine with me. I gave myself an hour to get warmed up and then put a little bit of an effort in to see who would come along because I was okay riding with a couple people, but I didn’t want to be in a pack. I was shocked when I was able to walk almost all the way across Flathorn Lake and still never see another racer behind me. At Finger Lake they told me that I had a 6 hour lead (as of Skwentna). I’d taken an hour and a half nap at Skwentna and really felt great leaving Finger so I was riding hard, the trail was good, and I felt like I had a good rhythm going. But I’ve been through Rainy Pass enough to know that nothing really matters until you get to Rohn.
Q: Any details you want to share about the stretch between Puntilla and Rohn would be interesting. How long were you holed up with Bill? (and how many times did you think about slitting his throat? :) Did you attempt heading out over the pass on your own or only once other racers got up there? Did you have any food left when you got down to Rohn? etc, etc.?
A: I got to the Rainy Pass Lake cabin at about 11:30am. I’d passed Bill’s snowmachine and followed his snowshoe tracks until the wind and snow washed them away, so I was expecting the worse at the top. But I was hopeful the trailbreakers would be there from the north side. When I got there my first thought was that I would continue on breaking trial by myself and hoping that I met the trailbreakers before too long. But I quickly discounted that option as being too risky. I knew that if need be there was no way I could break the ~10 miles of trail to the Tatina River by myself. So with no information as to what the status of the trailbreakers was it would have been reckless to try that. I pretty quickly realized that my best option was to get some good sleep and be ready to go whenever the trailbreakers got there or we had enough bikes to attempt to break trail. It ended up being the later. I had been there for about 12 hours (I think) when the next bikers showed up, and 21 hours when our group left the cabin. I think Phil, Jay & Tracey P and I left together, and we were quickly joined by Chris Wrobel, James Leavesly, and Alec Petro. Not sure this is completely the correct order, but before long this was the group. It was a terrific group of people to do this with. Very positive energy and very good humor…which became pretty key as the trip just got more and more absurd. I never had any doubts that we would make it. But I couldn’t even guess how long it might take. I suppose I really imagined us meeting the trailbreakers, or finding their trail, much sooner than we ultimately did. Obviously, after the fact, this was the highlight of the trip for me. The amount of work it took to get to the Gorge (where we finally hit the snowmachine trail) was absurd. We were just wallowing in snow, struggling through willows and alders, and constantly breaking through the ice on the creek…sometimes into water and sometimes not. At one time or another I think each of us hit our limits mentally, but the group spirits stayed high and a joke or funny comment always came at just the right time. Everybody in the group brought something to the table. It was a pretty unbelievable group effort. Cory caught and passed us I’d say within two or three miles of leaving Rainy Pass Lake. I thought we’d never see him again. He looked like he was really moving. But many hours later we ran into his tracks and could tell he was bogged down too. It was so funny when Ed Plumb passed us. We were in deep snow…probably more than waist deep so we were really low. Ed was more or less on top of the snow so he looked like he was about 10 feet above us and he just had this look on his face that was a mixture of bewilderment, pity, and something like contempt. He said something like “That…that looks…horrible…”. Ed is a good friend of mine from Fairbanks and I was really happy to see him and see that he was doing really well with the situation. But we didn’t really get a chance to talk much and he skied on and left us. I’d have given anything for a video of that interaction. But like Cory, Ed soon got bogged down too and we all sort of ended up in the same situation at almost the same location After about 17 hours of pretty steady and somewhat intense effort we bivy’d. It was not the most comfortable bivy because we were all somewhere between damp and soaked. It had been about 50 hours since I left Puntilla Lake and my food supply was low so I ate one piece of bacon before I went to sleep and had a couple more for when I woke up. When I got up I gave Jay some bacon and he gave me some Pringles and I think some chocolate. The previous day I’d given Alec some crackers and I think Chris (it may have been Phil) hade given me some candy bars. It was the type of cooperative effort that probably only happens in like…shipwrecks and the ITI. I really hope I never have to do that exact thing again. But at the same time that is the sort of thing that really makes this race special. I’ve done this race five times and in several of those trips there have been times when the conditions just dictated that we put the race on the backburner and focus on dealing with the conditions together.
Q: How much frustration did you ever have about being forced to squander such a large lead? Obviously you couldn't dwell on this for too long but there must have been some period of time that you had some frustration about it.
A: Honestly I don’t think I was frustrated by the situation at the top of the pass at all. There was plenty of frustration with the trailbreaking that followed. This race is about these types of situations…although they aren’t usually quite as large as this one. I think I made the right decisions at Rainy Pass. I know I would not have made it to the Tatina on my own. I got a lot of good rest and was able to make a pretty big push from there to the end. After the bivy above the Dalzell Gorge I made it to McGrath on one 90-minute bivy with probably less than half of that time sleeping. Plus, the re-grouping made it a pretty good race…at least in my head. At Nikolai I knew (from a snowmachiner) that I was about 2-3 hours ahead of Cory and the trails were absolute shit so I was in full-on race mode. Believing that I was being chased by a world-class skier on a mostly unrideable trail from Bison Camp to McGrath led to a pretty epic last 24 hours for me. I would never have pushed myself that hard if I had reached Rohn with a 12+ hour lead. Yeah, it turns out that Cory took a break in Nikolai so the chase was sort of broken off, but I didn’t know that. I remember that by about 6am on the morning I reached McGrath I was toast. I was so tired I could hardly walk. I’d mostly stopped eating and drinking and I was having a hard time keeping warm. I’d turned my headlamp off because the little circular spot was making it even harder to stay awake. I was basically asleep on my feet. But I was still checking behind me at the end of every straightaway and every time I didn’t see a light back there I tried to push a little harder to hold on. It felt epic to me. That’s what I’m after in this race. Its really funny to me now because if I wouldn’t have thought that Cory was behind me I probably would have done something like imagined a world-class skier was chasing me to try and motivate myself through those hours before daylight…which is really what I was doing anyways. If that makes any sense…that’s the sort of thing I do sometimes. I’m not saying it makes sense, but it doesn’t make much sense to push a bike through a blizzard for 2 days either.
Q: Did you have any notable physical lowpoints during the race? Mental?
A: Well, by the time I got to McGrath my physical condition was not exactly optimum. I mean, I knew I was on a course that was not maintainable for too long. My lower legs and feet were really taking a beating from all the pushing through deep snow. And I was having trouble with my feet because I had been in overflow quite a bit on the Kuskokwim. I’d say my physical condition bottomed out about the time I hit the hardpack road into McGrath…maybe a couple miles before that.
Mentally I had a bit of a low trying to get across the Farewell Burn in a pretty good ground blizzard. It was tough because the trails had finally gotten rideable about 15-20 miles before, but this storm came up and the winds kept getting stronger and stronger and visibility intermittently got pretty bad. About 6 miles beyond Bison Camp the trails were gone…I was in the middle of the Burn and a crosswind was just abusing me. I kind of had to lift the bike to the top of the snowdrifts and the wind was strong enough that it was catching the bike and trying to pull it out of my hands. I fell over the bike about a 100 times during this period. The footing was bad, I was awake, but physically very tired, it was ridiculous.
In these conditions I probably would have stopped sooner but I had a very weird encounter with a lynx on the trail that energized me a little bit me and kept me going for a bit longer. Visibility was very low and all of a sudden I saw eyes glowing real close to me. At about the same time the wind died a bit and a lynx was standing right in front of me, probably 25 or 30 feet away…very close. It quickly bounded out of sight. It was really cool and sort of woke me up for an hour or two. But at about 6:30am I finally just gave up and had to bivy, but there was very little cover around there and I was moving so slow that I knew it was pointless to try and get to cover so I just kicked out a hole in the snow and curled up in my bag for 90 minutes. It was totally mental. I just didn’t want to be out there in that anymore. The wind is weird in that it can really turn your head inside out. Cold by itself doesn’t really have that effect on me. When I got up I was still mentally pretty whipped until I got to Sullivan Creek, got out of the wind for a few minutes, refilled my camelback and ate some food. Then I picked it up again.
Q: How many times have you now finished the ITI (in how many attempts)?
A: I’ve finished the ITI five times in five tries and the Iditasport once in one try before that.
Q: Does arriving in McGrath become any less sweet now that you've done it several times?
A: Rolling down the road into McGrath is always sweet. The first time I made it to McGrath I had tears in my eyes as I soft-pedaled down the road. It’s that kind of trip. If I get jaded to that feeling I hope I have the sense to quite doing the race. This thing is hard. It’s hard for the people at the front and it’s hard for the people at the back. Getting to McGrath is an accomplishment for anybody that sets out to do it.
When you combine that sense of accomplishment with how unbelievable Peter and Tracy are to everybody that shows up at there house, its pretty tough to think of a race that has a better ending. Hanging out in McGrath, sharing trail stories with other racers is a HUGE part of the experience.
Monday, March 16, 2009
One Week? Screw That
For whatever reason I've had a lot of people in the past few weeks ask me for tips about training for ultras. The problem is that I don't really have a set training plan that I follow from race to race. There certainly are general guidelines that I stick to but I almost never actually plan specific workouts more than a day or two ahead of time, and even that's pretty rare.
One general guideline that I do use that tends to be different from most people is that I never break my training down into one week cycles. A one week cycle makes sense from a schedule standpoint, since so many other things in our lives revolve around weekly cycles. From a training standpoint though a one week cycle doesn't really make sense to me. Often I just train on a linear path that never seems to cycle back around, but when I do break my training down into cycles I usually do either 10 or 12 day training segments. The problem with a one week cycle is that you don't have enough space in there to make fine adjustments. A lot of people seem to do weekly cycles in which they do one long day, one day off, 1 speed day, 1 hill day, and the other 3 days as active recovery days. The problem with this is that running a long run once every 7 days is too much, as is a rest day once in every 7 days. One speed day and one hill day is probably not enough but if you added in another day of either of these it would probably be too much. By using a 10 or 12 day cycle you can add or subtract a day of a certain type of workout and it isn't such a drastic increase or decrease. A typical 10 day cycle for me would consist of 1 long day (about 20-25% of my total mileage of that 10 day cycle), 2 hill days, 2 speed days, 2 cross training active recovery days (weights, bike, ski, etc.), and 3 active recovery running days (sometimes one of these days completely off if I'm feeling unusually tired or busy). With a longer cycle like this I can adjust things to more closely fit the work that I think I need at the time without feeling like I'm making a drastic change to what my body is used to. I know this isn't a huge difference from a one week cycle, but for me it's enough that I couldn't imagine ever again breaking my training into 7 day cycles.
One general guideline that I do use that tends to be different from most people is that I never break my training down into one week cycles. A one week cycle makes sense from a schedule standpoint, since so many other things in our lives revolve around weekly cycles. From a training standpoint though a one week cycle doesn't really make sense to me. Often I just train on a linear path that never seems to cycle back around, but when I do break my training down into cycles I usually do either 10 or 12 day training segments. The problem with a one week cycle is that you don't have enough space in there to make fine adjustments. A lot of people seem to do weekly cycles in which they do one long day, one day off, 1 speed day, 1 hill day, and the other 3 days as active recovery days. The problem with this is that running a long run once every 7 days is too much, as is a rest day once in every 7 days. One speed day and one hill day is probably not enough but if you added in another day of either of these it would probably be too much. By using a 10 or 12 day cycle you can add or subtract a day of a certain type of workout and it isn't such a drastic increase or decrease. A typical 10 day cycle for me would consist of 1 long day (about 20-25% of my total mileage of that 10 day cycle), 2 hill days, 2 speed days, 2 cross training active recovery days (weights, bike, ski, etc.), and 3 active recovery running days (sometimes one of these days completely off if I'm feeling unusually tired or busy). With a longer cycle like this I can adjust things to more closely fit the work that I think I need at the time without feeling like I'm making a drastic change to what my body is used to. I know this isn't a huge difference from a one week cycle, but for me it's enough that I couldn't imagine ever again breaking my training into 7 day cycles.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Breathing A Little Easier
I think I'm finally coming around a corner with this stupid respiratory illness. I was even able to run 7 miles this morning! My longest run in almost 2 weeks!
I didn't end up seeing a doctor because the 3 that I called all said their next available time to take a new patient was sometime in April. My most logical option seemed to be the emergency room, but that seemed a bit ridiculous considering that all I almost certainly have is a very slow moving sinus infection. I guess I need to try to become more unhealthy so that I have myself a "regular" doctor that I can actually get an appointment with in less than a month.
I didn't end up seeing a doctor because the 3 that I called all said their next available time to take a new patient was sometime in April. My most logical option seemed to be the emergency room, but that seemed a bit ridiculous considering that all I almost certainly have is a very slow moving sinus infection. I guess I need to try to become more unhealthy so that I have myself a "regular" doctor that I can actually get an appointment with in less than a month.
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