3-21-12

never underestimate your opponent.

Rule # 1.  Never underestimate the distance of a race.  Rule # 2.  And I know you’ve heard this next one b/f.  But today I broke the rule and suffered.  Never try anything new on race day.  I don’t know why but I completely changed my nutrition plan that I usually stick to on race day and felt like crap the whole race. 

I wasn’t mentally prepared for this race either.  I didn’t think I’d need to be.  I completely underestimated the distance and thought / It’s only a 20k.  I do more than that all the time. 

But the thing is, I took off at a suicide pace and had no intention of suffering.  I hadn’t visualized myself tired or being passed.  And then when it hit me, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  You have to be mentally prepared for every adversity you can think of b/f a race.  Otherwise anything can throw you off your game.  At about two miles I knew I was too tired.  Why am I so tired? / I thought / I shouldn’t be this tired.  But I was in the top ten at least and didn’t want to lose my spot.  I realized the pace I was going wasn’t sustainable and I was going to have to back off.  I was pushing 7 minute miles and was breathing too hard to take a drink.  The heat threw us all off.  None of us are heat trained at this point and here it was eighty degrees in March.  But I don’t use that as an excuse. 

And for whatever reason, I changed my pre race meal into something that SHOULD be good for a runner’s pre breakfast, but it was something I’d ever tried b/f a run.  It didn’t give me gi issues or a stomach ache.  I just felt / off / for lack of a better word.  So I plugged along and focused on myself and just decided to have a good time.  This was going to be a run, not a race.  It was MUDDY!  I like racing in the mud and going through creek crossings.  I like having wet feet all day.  It doesn’t bother me.  So I just hung on and ran the pace that I could maintain.  I still finished w/ a respectable 1:40ish which isn’t bad but I usually judge a race by the way I feel rather than my time or place.  And I felt awful today and it is of my own volition.  The strange thing was my shoulders felt worse than anything else.  At the end of the run, I couldn’t even lift my arms b/c my shoulders were so sore.  I don’t know what I did differently.  That’s why I say something was / off /  So from now on…heed the words of the masters.  Don’t do anything new on race day.  Stick to the same pattern or routine and you will be more adapt to handle the day.  Also, visualize b/f every race.  Put yourself in the worst case scenarios and work it out in your head and be ready for it to happen.  B/c then it won’t happen.  And you’ll have a good race.  So there.  I’m dropping knowledge.  Boom.  Now I’m off to punish myself w/ another ten.  I will not feel this way at any more races this year. 

“Never underestimate your opponent.”  Bruce Lee

how am i going to break Kilian?

All the running and training is slowly falling into place for me recently.  A few weeks ago, I ran the Survivor Series 15k at Rock Cut Park.  I decided to use this as speed work and took off at a suicide pace.  I’m not the fastest in the world but I lit those trails up and passed every person that I could see.  I wiped out four times and finished the race w/ bloody knees.  Wound up running 7:10 / miles and this was a VERY hilly course.  That STILL wasn’t fast enough to place but I ran harder and felt better than I ever have.  And you can’t ask for much more than that.

On my birthday, I ran the Frost Bitten Fat Ass 50k w/ some friends up in the hilly Blue Mounds.  It was a small race and this was the first year it was put on.  It was a 2 loop course w/ a huge climb at the end of both loops that was almost a thousand feet to the top.  And it was COLD.  And I’d been sick and unable to run the week b/f.  No worries.  I set off not far behind the leaders who were running the 25k.  Ran the first loop w/ them and had a blast.  Set off for the second loop by myself and by the time I made it back to the big climb at the end, I was power hiking and hoping there wasn’t anyone coming up behind me.  Well, turned out I was the only one crazy enough to run the 50k so by default, I got a first place and set a course record.  Luckily some friends waited for me and had some chicken noodle soup and other foods ready for a cold and tired boy.  I fueled up and changed clothes and had it in my head that I needed to run 6 more miles to equal my age.  That’s how I usually celebrate my birthday.  A couple of good friends were willing to run w/ me and I was glad for it.  I was tired and would have had a very hard time getting it done w/out them.  And after that…went to a sushi joint and ate my age in pieces of sushi.  It was an awesome birthday and great training for the McNaughton 100. 

After that, I started feeling some nagging injuries.  Three, actually.  I rarely get injured and of course they would have to come when I’m training for my first hundred miler.  I took it easy for a few weeks, incorporating a lot of cross training and bike riding, hoping like hell the injuries would iron themselves out.  Days were going by and I was unable to log much for running miles.

Friday I woke up and went for a bike ride.  About 25 miles.  When I got back I was feeling good.  Really good and rather optimistic about the nagging injuries.  They felt fine.  I decided I would go for a long night run that night to get used to running at night in the woods.  I also wanted to train running by myself and wanted to do ten loops somewhere, to wrap my head around the whole 10 loop thing I’ll be up against at McNaughton.  So I set off for the trail system by my house w/ a hydration pack, iPod, ten gels and my dog at about 7pm.  Roxy ran about 15 miles w/ me and then I ran her home.  I refueled and headed back to the trails.  I really wanted to do 10 loops.  It was a mental struggle for sure.  But overall, my legs and feet felt good.  I concentrated on the ground in front of me and the little light my headlamp provided.  I ran for a total of 7 ½ hours before finishing my tenth loop of the Rockport Park trail system.  As I was running home, I checked my watch and I was up to 38 miles.  I decided I could squeak out another 2 miles to equal an even 40.  I didn’t get home until 2:30am.  I had a Budweiser and a lot of trail mix before passing out.  I had to work the next morning.  And the next morning after that I ran 17 fast on tired legs.  This was a huge confidence booster for me after nursing the injuries for a couple weeks.  I’m feeling good.  I have two more tune up races b/f I will be running 100 miles of brutal trails on April 13^th.  I’m really looking forward to it.  I will have a few friends there pacing and crewing and it will be a huge celebration of LIFE.  I am also running for Active Water and brining clean water to places where it is not accessible.  Mainly in Zambia, Africa.  Many of the families there have to walk 10 or more miles everyday for unsanitary water.  $25 takes care of a family FOR LIFE!  If I raise $3000, Active Water will dig a well, providing water for an entire village!  So I’m working hard and hoping for big things this year. 

John Dick Memorial 50k

Bells at 4am on this particular Saturday morning.  Race morning is like Christmas morning.  It’s NOT like getting up for work.  Race morning is full of excitement and anticipation.  Race mornings give you a reason to jump out of bed!

I had everything packed the night b/f.  Ate my usual pre-race breakfast, tortillas, peanut butter, honey and bananas.  Thought about coffee.  Wanted coffee.  But you know what coffee does to you later on during the race.  You know.  So I passed on the coffee.

I had everything packed in my over-sized hiking rucksack so I could just run down to the store where I was to meet Chris and Jessica.  I clicked on my headlamp and wondered / What’s an extra mile and a half b/f running a 50k?

We loaded up Chris’s car and we were off.  Neither of them were planning on running the full 50k.  They were along for the ride and the experience.  They planned to run a few laps and enjoy the day.  The race was only $15, so even if they didn’t finish, they weren’t losing much.  Jessica planned on shooting some photos.  Either way, it sounded like a fun day.

I don’t have much nervousness leading up to a race.  I got over all of that while fighting MMA.  Stripping down to a pair of shorts and getting locked in a cage w/ another well trained man to try and kill each other w/ gloves on for 15 minutes, w/ a ref.  Now THAT will wake you up.  A 50K?  No worries.  Just show up and run hard.  No pressure.  A long meditation session.  Easy.

The course is an out and back and then a loop.  Five times.  This breaks the whole thing down for me.  It’s all a mental game anyway.  And this just makes it easy.  It’s not as pretty or as scenic as I would have liked, seeing the same things over and over again.  But it’s broken down into small sections, which makes 31 miles seem more manageable.  You’re just running to the next spot which is never more than 2 or 3 miles away.  And anyone can do that.

The course is all ice.  I had brought a pair of shoes w/ spikes and w/out.  I’m glad I wore the spikes b/c this course would have been unmanageable w/out.  This slowed the race down some.  But it could be worse.  As the day wore on, a lot of this ice turned into mud, mucking the course up pretty good.  You start the race in the middle of the pack and begin picking people off.  The first two loops are a warm up.  The third, you begin to wake up.  The fourth you really hammer it.  At times you can’t believe how hard you’re hitting the little descents.  Your legs are really aching but you just pound down the hills w/ fury.  On the fifth lap, you are a little low on salt and electrolytes but you know you are almost done so you’re able to keep up the pace.  You know you aren’t in the lead.  Maybe the top ten.  The winner was just incredible and on a different planet than you.  His name is Zack and he was coming in off a 106 mile week.  This was just an easy 30 for him.  He is a middle school teacher that regularly pulls in 170 mile weeks, doing two a days.  You can see the freedom and the beauty of the long runs on his face.  Serene and peaceful.  He wore the win like a training run.  He gave him the same amount of satisfaction.  He was the Zen lunatic of the trails that day. 

I really love the small, local ultras.  Many familiar faces.  Many of my hero’s that influenced me SO much a few years back.  Many I’ve run w/.  Many I’ve only talked to online about running and various ultras.  It always feels good to meet up and run against each other.  Test each other out.  Some of these guys kill me on the shorter races.  And then I’m able to toot my horn a bit on some of the longer races.  It’s all good fun.  These are my trail brothers and sisters and I wouldn’t change them for anything. 

Whenever I race the Kettles, one of my favorite places to stop afterward is the LaGrange County Store.  You can get a meal and a beer or a coffee for a fair price and the ambience is great.  Just a laid back place for runners, hikers, campers and bikers to sit down and take a break.  I don’t know that I’ve ever been in the store w/out my legs hurting but relieved to be done for the day.  One of the best feelings there is.  The endorphin rush.  The sense of calm.  The sense of peace.  The sense of / I’ve done it.  I’ve come back and done it again.  Today is a good day…

1/28/12

I guess it’s safe to say I’m back in full on training mode.  My mileage and workouts have been pretty steady but just w/in the last week have I been beginning to feel mentally stronger.  My weekly mileage hasn’t been triple digits too many times but I think I’m being much smarter about it all.  I cross train w/ the bike, weights, swimming.  I mix it up from week to week to try to trick the legs.  One week, I’ll really try to destroy the legs w/ hills.  Then I’ll back off and bike for the majority of the next week.  Then I’ll do a hundo mile week.  Then I’ll give the legs a break and focus on some upper body or core workouts.  I feel that cross training is what helped me out last year.  That seems to be what my body responds best to.  All of this is after a significant cut back in workouts and mileage at the end of last year and the beginning of this.  I took some time off and then slowly started incorporating workouts when I felt like it.  And now things are coming together nicely and I’m really looking forward to exercising everyday.  It’s really important to add in that mental break to your training every so often.  All of our needs vary widely but I know when burnout is around the corner.  That’s when I back off. 

I’ll be switching jobs in the very near future and I have arranged it so that I will be able to fit in more training.  I will have more free time and it’s much easier to run to this job than my previous job.  There’s a treadmill and a shower to which I can use at my disposal at any time I please.  AND I get a week and a half off in between jobs.  And if you know me, you know I’m just going to live like a hermit and train like a wild man.  It’ll be a big week for sure and I can’t wait. 

And last but not least, I am officially signed up for the McNaughton trail 100 mile run in about seventy-eight days.  I feel like I’ve been training well but just the act of signing up will light a fire under you and make you put in a few extra miles at night.  I did the fifty there last year and it nearly destroyed my legs.  I couldn’t walk down stairs for days.  This year, it will be my first 100.  I’m also training for Leadville in August.  Those will be the two A races for the year.  I’m doing two 50k events in February and one in March.  All of these will have big runs (20ish miles) the day after in preparation for the bigger events.  I’m looking at 8-9 ultra events this year and I would like to do well and not be burnt out at the end of the season.  It’s a fine line.  I know I say it every year but this is going to be my biggest year.  Every year, I’m just trying to blow it up bigger than I ever have.  I have nothing to lose.  I’ve gotten rid of all the people in my life that tried slowing me down.  If you don’t support me and my goals, you’re out.  I don’t have time.  These are the things that I’m passionate about at this point in my Life and I’m trying to show others how to explore their passions, even when and especially if it means losing sleep, losing girlfriends or sleeping on a park bench to get it done. 

If there’s something you want to do in this Life, do it. 

DO IT.  

If you don’t like your job, quit it and find a new one. 

What’s stopping you but yourself?  

Now if you’ll excuse me...I’m off for a run...

year end...

It’s 2012!  Let’s see, how did 2011 go?

Swam 24 miles.

Biked over 2068 miles.

Ran 1632 miles.

Hours spent working out 451.

I only completed 7 events this year.  Last year I had that doubled.  However the events were bigger this year, focusing more on quality distance.  I did two 50 milers.  One 100k.  A half iron and a full iron.  I ran my age on my birthday and spent NYE running a 50k.  It was about a good a year as I could have hoped for, working two jobs and having little to no time.  I even managed to place in a couple of my events.  And one of the greatest moments of the year was winning the Dances with Dirt 50 mile run.  I exceeded my goals for the year and it was magical.

The only thing I’m officially signed up for at this point is the Leadville 100.  I plan to do at least two 100 mile runs this year.  With a couple of 50k’s, 50 milers and 100k’s thrown in there.  I hope to do my first ultra cycling event.  I hope to be healthier.  I hope to drink more.  I hope to say yes more.  I hope to make new friends.  I hope to inspire.  I hope to live my life w/ the volume turned all the way up.   I hope to burn the candle from both ends.  I hope to run mountains.  I hope to become a superhero.  I hope to strip my life down to the bare essentials.  I hope to not compromise myself or my goals for anyone else. I hope for a lot.  So here’s to hoping.  I hope…