santa fe trail runner

Picacho

2012-02-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

Crone and I capped off the week with a nice summit of Picacho on Sunday. As expected the bottom half of the climb was extremely icy, and the top half was mostly clear aside from what had fallen while we were running. Despite the conditions we made decent time, about 30 minutes up and 16-ish down. Round trip starting from the Sierra del Norte parking lot (10.7 mi / 2700 ft) was a touch over 2 hours.


Summit in the clouds. They were mostly clear by the time we got up.

Lots of ice on the bottom half of the trail.

View toward St. John's college, maybe 2/3 of the way up.

View from the 8500' summit looking north-east. The big peaks
are in the clouds.

Another solid week as the base building continues. The numbers:

Mon: 5.9 mi / 1200 ft. Nail Trail to Camp May Rd. Surprisingly good conditions on Nail Trail compared to the week before.

Tue AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Tue PM: 6.0 mi / 2000 ft. 8 x hill repeats. Still keeping the effort in check.

Wed AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Wed PM: 5.9 mi / 1200 ft. Nail Trail again.

Thu: 4.6 mi / 800 ft. Out toward S-Site until the snow got too deep.

Fri: 5.0 mi / 500 ft. East side road loop easy.

Sat: 8.9 mi / 900 ft. Another east side road loop. Ran this route last week and I'm really liking it as a longer easy effort.

Sun AM (1): 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Sun AM (2): 10.7 mi / 2700 ft. Dale Ball out and back: Sierra del Norte - Cerro Gordo - Picacho. Wasn't thrilled about splitting up the day's mileage but you gotta take what you can get sometimes.

Total: 59.2 mi / 10500 ft.

I love big dumps

2012-02-06T07:58:00.000-07:00

Some steady precipitation has somehow resulted in nearly a foot and a half of new snow up at the basin over the last few days. Gonna have to get me some of that pretty soon. In town we had maybe 4-5" on Friday morning, and sporadic light snow over the rest of the weekend that didn't really accumulate. But it was enough to make for some fluffy fun on Friday afternoon, especially when it started snowing again. By Sunday the trails were largely back to their sloppy selves, with only some fresh packed snow on top of the icier spots remaining as evidence of the storms. I also saw on the news last night that the Sangre de Christo mountains were at 100% of normal snowpack. That was a pleasant surprise to hear. Hopefully it will be enough to avoid a repeat of last summer's tinderbox conditions.

Fresh powder on Dale Ball

No real long run this week but some good quality base work. I've been keeping the intensity in check and will continue to do so until I get my weekly volume up to around 70-80 miles. And so far so good. Sunday's run was at a pace that I would have considered ambititous not too long ago, yet it felt like an easy jog. That was a nice little confidence boost.

The numbers:

Mon: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Tue AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop.

Tue PM: 5.5 mi / 1800 ft. 7 x hill repeats, aerobic effort.

Wed AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop.

Wed PM: 5.0 mi / 1200 ft. West Rd - LA Canyon - Perimeter - Water Tower.

Thu: 5.0 mi / 1000 ft. Camp May Rd about halfway.

Fri: 6.2 mi / 900 ft. Hyde Park - Dale Ball - Cerro Gordo.

Sat: 8.9 mi / 900 ft. East side road loop. Need an easy leg spinner.

Sun: 10.2 mi / 1800 ft. Dale Ball out and back from home.

Tota: 53.1 mi / 8800 ft.

Brooks Pure Grit Review

2012-01-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

Despite whatever impression you might get from my wife or the shoe rack in my closet, I'm ultimately a two-trail-shoe kind of guy: I want a lightweight pair for daily training, and a heavier but more cushioned pair for recovery days and long runs. For about the last 8 months I've been slowly reducing the weight of my heavier shoe. I started out in something a little over 12 oz, and later went down to something in the 10-10.5 oz range. At just under 9 oz for a men's size 9, the Brooks Pure Grit is the next step in that progression for me. And the short version of the story is, I really like it a lot.

Looking no worse for the wear after 50+ miles

If I could only write one thing about this shoe it would be how comfortable it is. It is easily the most comfortable trail shoe I own, and statements that it "fits like a sock" are no exagerration: snug in the heel and midfoot, and roomy in the toe box, just how I like it. The entire upper, including the support overlays, is very soft and flexible. It really does a good job of hugging the foot without impeding natural motion and articulation. A lot of times on my recovery days just putting on my shoes feels like a chore. That has not been the case with the Pure Grit. It almost feels refreshing to slip them on when my legs and feet are feeling tired.

The downside of a soft flexible upper is that I find I have to be more careful with lacing. If I don't get it right then my foot moves a little too much and things get sloppy. Dialing in the lacing with the Pure Grit did seem to take a little bit longer than usual. The elastic band over the top does interfere with lacing sometimes, so I will probably cut it off even though it hasn't caused any discomfort.

The entire upper is well-ventilated

The ride of the Pure Grit brings to mind a mid-weight road shoe. The flexible outsole makes for an effortless transition onto asphalt, rock, and other hard surfaces. A lot of my trail runs include an approach on pavement or dirt roads so I definitely appreciate the multi-surface capabilities. For example a recent 16-miler that I ran in the Pure Grit involved about two miles of pavement, three miles of dirt road, and the remainder on single track. The shoe felt great the entire time. I also have found turnover to be very good, and that combined with the weight make it hard not to push the pace on smooth trail and cruiser-grade downhills.

The cushioning is ample but firm. I don't mind soft cushioning in a road shoe (think Saucony Kinvara) because the compression is mostly vertical. However I find that overly soft cushioning in a trail shoe makes for an unstable ride: the soft cushioning is simply unable to resist the rotational and lateral motions that result from running on uneven surfaces. Fortunately the Pure Grit doesn't suffer from any of that. On the other hand, there is enough cushioning present to reduce ground feel a little bit and make the shoe somewhat less responsive. On more technical terrain it doesn't have the crisp, tactile handling of shoes like the New Balance MT 101, for example. The cushioning did seem to firm up a little bit around 20-30 miles.

The radiused heel is intended to reduce heel striking

The Pure Grit has a number of features that are intended to encourage "natural running": the split outsole fore and aft, the radiused heel, and the strike pod in the center of the outsole. The Pure Grit does not impede my stride in any way, even on steep downhills, but how much of that is due to these features versus the 4mm heel-to-toe drop I couldn't say with any certainty. And from a performance perspective I don't really care: as long as the shoe doesn't get in the way, I'm satisfied. I don't know to what extent these features increase manufacturing cost, however, so on that basis I might be inclined to leave them out.

A simple but effective tread

The outsole is constructed from a (mostly) single piece of what appears to be a very durable rubber compound. I prefer uncomplicated, robust lug patterns on my trail shoes because I feel like they wear better and are more effective. The Pure Grit definitely meets that standard. The tread is not as grippy as shoes like the La Sportiva Crosslite but I have not found it to be inadequate either. It has performed very well on the often-rocky Santa Fe area trails, and holds its own on snow. No issues with Kathoolas either. I do wonder if some weight could be saved with lighter (albeit less durable) material in the center portion of the outsole, similar to the New Balance MT 110.

Testing out the chains on fresh snow

In summary, I chose the Pure Grit as a heavier, more cushioned complement to my daily trainer (currently the NB MT 101). In that role I am very happy with it so far. It is not the most nimble shoe out there, but for the slower paces of my recovery and long runs it is exactly what I'm looking for: a smooth comfortable ride but without the clunkiness and weight that one would normally associate with that category of shoe. So there's a very good chance I'll be lacing these up at Leadville. The Pure Grit also would make a great all-around trail shoe for someone who primarily runs roads and is used to the ride and handling of a road shoe. It has most of the comfort and runnability of the Brooks Cascadia but in a lighter and lower profile package.

As for the "natural running" aspects of the Pure Grit, I view the whole natural running thing as a means to an end. If it improves my running, great, but "running naturally" in and of itself is not one of my goals. On the other hand, I do like the fact that the natural running movement is driving innovation in shoe design, and the Pure Grit is very much the result of that. Yes there are a few things I might tweak but those are all minor.

Lastly, I know this shoe has been likened to the Saucony Peregrine so I wanted to give my thoughts on how they compare since I have spent a little time in that shoe as well. On paper they are quite similar, both in weight and stack height. However, I feel like they followed opposite paths through design space to get to that similar end point. As I mentioned the Pure Grit rides very much like a road shoe, and overall it does come across as a road shoe that's been beefed up with a more tractional outsole and slightly reinforced upper. In contrast the Peregrine seems to me like a canonical 11-12 oz trail shoe that's been lightened and had the heel trimmed down. It has many of the characteristics one might normally associate with heavier trail shoes: more substantial tread, increased upper protection, and somewhat less flexibility. The Peregrine also feels a little higher off the ground to me. But don't get me wrong: I think both are excellent choices in the mid-weight trail shoe category and I wouldn't be unhappy with either.

Into the night

2012-01-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

As soon as I typed the post title I thought of that old Julee Cruise song. Come on, admit it, you used to watch Twin Peaks.

A fresh dusting of snow made for a beautiful but eerily quiet pre-dawn run on Dale Ball on Sunday. Just me, the dog, and some grumpy coyotes who thought they were gonna sleep in. Sorry dudes.

Are we home yet?

A sleeping City Different

Coyote tracks

Looking out over Hyde Park Rd after the sun came out. Picacho
is visible in the upper left, but Atalaya is still in the clouds.

This was kind of an odd week. Three double days followed by a three hour long run was arguably a bit much, but I also had two days with no running at all, and next week will be a recovery week. So I was comfortable pushing things a little. Some rest also should give the irritated posterior tibalis tendon in my left foot a chance to settle down. It's been slowly getting better after I tweaked it on some icy single track a couple weeks ago, but is still a little cranky.

The weekly numbers:

Mon: 30 min core work.

Tue AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Downtown loop.

Tue PM: 5.1 mi / 1200 ft. Ridiculous post-holing trudge up Camp May Rd Trail with Crone, then down the road.

Wed AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop.

Wed PM: 5.9 mi / 1200 ft. More or less a repeat of the previous day's stupidity, but this time up Nail Trail, with Crone, Coblentz, and Porter.

Thu AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop.

Thu PM: 30 min core work.

Fri AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Downtown loop.

Fri PM: 7.2 mi / 1500 ft. Camp May Rd up to Townsight Lift with Stockton, Coblentz, and Crone.

Sat: Off

Sun: 16.2 mi / 2600 ft. Out and back on Dale Ball starting from home.

Total: 53.2 mi / 8300 ft.

The Slog

2012-01-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous Sunday morning views on the way up Picacho

Getting back into a routine after a layoff is always such a damn slog. Stiff legs, sore feet, battered ankles... but the hardest adjustment for me is the getting up early. It seems to help if I don't think about what I'm doing. Just get up and stumble out the door before my inner sissy has a chance to realize what's going on.

On Sunday I got out for my first run in Kathoola's and wow, what an improvement over YakTrax. The YakTrax have worked fine for me for hiking and running on relatively flat, packed snow, but add ice and steep vertical to the mix and it's a night and day difference. Highly recommended.

Kathoola's on the way up Picacho. Yes I'm wearing capris.

Sunday's route.

The weekly numbers:

Mon: 5 mi / 1000 ft. About halfway up Camp May Rd with the lunch group.

Tue AM: 3.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Tue PM: 5.0 mi / 1600 ft. Lunch time hill repeats. Kept it aerobic.

Wed: 4.3 mi / 900 ft. LA Canyon easy.

Thu: 4.3 mi / 800 ft. Partway out toward S-site with Crone through the snow, back on the road.

Fri AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Fri PM: 5.8 mi / 900 ft. Dale Ball easy via Hyde Park.

Sat: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Downtown loop.

Sun: 13.1 mi / 3000 ft. About a 9 mile loop on Dale Ball with an ascent of Picacho tacked on at the end.

Total: 50.0 mi / 9500 ft.

Return of the Living Dead

2012-01-10T04:17:00.000-07:00

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for zombie fiction. The 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead and Zombieland are two of my more recent favorites. However what I'm referring to is not actually zombie fiction, but rather the endless zombie hunger that inevitably accompanies an increase in training volume. Apparently, while I am trying to take things slow and build up my mileage in a sensible fashion, my zombie hunger has decided to return with a vengeance, leaving me feeling somewhat like one of these:

Image found on flickr.

OK so there are worse problems than being able to eat as much as you want whenever you want. I just didn't think it would show up the first damn week of the year.

Now for some 2011 highlights: I could go into my training totals and races and crap like that, but honestly, who cares. There are really just two things I want to point out. First is the shirt from the Deadman Peaks 50 mile. Some of my other race shirts are nice and I wear them regularly. Others went straight to the Goodwill box. But the DP 50 shirt is the only one that is actually cool:

DP 50 shirt in action at the Turkey Trot. Max Mujynya photo.

The second is Santa Fe Brewing Company's Bourbon Barrel-aged State Pen Porter. I mean, their normal State Pen Porter is good enough, but this is just unreal. I hope they keep making it 'cause I only got one bottle left.

Pure bottled deliciousness

And now that I am officially back in training again, the week's numbers:

Mon: 11.5 mi / 2400 ft. Took advantage of one last day off work to bag some miles on Dale Ball with Crone. Attempted to get up Atalaya but turned back due time constraints and the trail having turned into a virtual luge course with all the ice.

Tue: 3.3 mi / 500 ft. Trudged through the snow for a couple miles out toward S-site, then back on the road.

Wed: 7.3 mi / 1500 ft. Camp May Rd up to Townsight Lift and back, with Crone and Coblentz.

Thu: 4.0 mi / 1200 ft. Light hill repeats with the lunch group. Our hill repeat course has enough of a southern exposure that it was actually clear of snow.

Fri: 4.3 mi / 900 ft. Easy jog down into LA Canyon with the lunch group.

Sat: 6.3 mi / 900 ft. Another easy one on Dale Ball via Hyde Park.

Sun: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Total: 42.0 mi / 7900 ft.

This was the fourth week of a gentle ramp-up, with the previous three weeks coming in at about 36, 32, and 40 miles. One thing about winter running however is that the numbers do a poor job of reflecting the training load. Trying to run through unpacked snow is absurdly tedious: more effort gets you less distance in the same amount of time. Good for the legs and lungs, that's for sure.

Downtime, base building, and 2012

2011-12-29T05:11:00.000-07:00

And so it begins.

After a good month and a half of taking things easy I've started easing into my base for the 2012 season. I had seriously considered taking a couple weeks completely off but in the end I figured that if nothing else I needed to compensate for my complete lack of dietary discipline. My ability to resist breakfast burritos is really quite pathetic. Non-existant, actually. And cold weather always makes me crave high energy density foods. Still, the easy running plus a few strength workouts each week has me eager to start logging some miles. Hopefully I can exercise a modicum of common sense and not build the mileage up too fast.

Speaking of common sense, or more specifically a lack thereof, I'm looking at the Jemez 50 and the Leadville 100 as my main races for 2012. With 13 weeks between them there should be plenty of time to mini-peak for Jemez, recover, and then hammer out one last block of specific training. Obviously Leadville is the more challenging of the two but I still want to run well at Jemez, even with the new course. The double crossing of Pajarito is likely to be pretty demoralizing.

The only other race that will definitely go on my calendar is the new Cedro Peak 45. I'm sure other things will pop up but I'm just going to wait and see how the season unfolds before I make any firm race plans. I've also got a few big adventure runs in the Pecos Wilderness that I'd like to pull off, and that I may opt to do in lieu of additional races.

In the meantime we'll see if the weather will let me swap out breakfast burritos for Pajarito repeats anytime soon:

Pajarito Mountain hill repeat set: 4 miles, 3200 feet of vertical.

Winter fun

2011-12-05T06:14:00.001-07:00

A nice little storm put some snow on the ground this weekend and made for a fun jaunt on Dale Ball. I would have rather been up at the ski basin carving through the glades but the ratio of ticket price to runs open isn't quite there yet. Still, I can think of a lot of worse ways to spend a couple hours than romping around on powdery singletrack.

Picacho in the clouds. Atalaya is in there somewhere too.

The dogs always seem to love running in the snow.

Looking east toward the peaks. The cloud line is at about 8000'.

Ski basin repeats

2011-11-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

Beautiful conditions on Saturday at Ski Santa Fe, perfect for a couple laps up to the top of the Quad Chair. On the first run down we hit some wet powder at the top of Muerte, cut across the bottom of Upper Broadway, and finished with a drop down Slalom Slope. Another hike up to the top of Upper Midland was rewarded with some nice wide turns on the semi-groomed slope, and then the real treat of the day: thigh deep virgin powder on Pinball Alley. Now these are my kind of hill repeats. Why the lifts weren't running is beyond me...

ATT 5km

2011-11-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

Atalaya Turkey Trot
3.1 mi / 250 ft
18:47 / 3rd overall

Apparently this is now the biggest 5km in Santa Fe with a field of 300-ish runners. Fortunately the weather was much nicer than last year. My wife was trying a new pie recipe for Thanksgiving so I was under strict orders to bring home some edibles in case hers flopped.

Another nice turnout. Max Mujynya photo.

The start seemed fast off the line and as we crested the little rise and started the long downhill section I think I was in about fourth or fifth among a group of perhaps ten. The eventual winner surged ahead through here and never looked back. I sat tight with a few other runners and just tried to stay out of the lead. The first mile split in 5:40, a little fast but not unreasonable given the descent. My legs actually felt pretty good despite being tired from some short but vertically stout runs in the few days prior.

Another guy had moved off the front in pursuit of the lead while a couple more moved off the back in pursuit of relief, and as we started the short climb that would take us through mile two my chase group was down to three. If his breathing was any indication the guy I had been sitting on was starting to falter, and fifth place was still hanging around, so I pushed ahead figuring it was now time to go it alone. As expected the pace for mile two was a little slower at 6:19, and I had created some space behind me. Judging by the cheers from the course marshals, however, it wasn't much more than a few seconds. Crap I gotta run like this for seven more minutes?

The face says it all. Max Mujynya photo.

I tried to spin the legs as we meandered along a dirt road, anticipating the pain of the last half-mile-long uphill. Some short bursts on the downs helped keep the gaps behind me honest but frustratingly weren't bringing me any closer to second, who had been holding steady 30-40 yards ahead. Somehow my legs seemed to go straight from OK to quivering, so as I started to churn up toward the finish I abandoned any hopes of the number two spot and just focused on holding my place. Fortunately I was able to keep the turnover high enough to do that. I ran the last 1.1 miles in about 6:48 to finish in 18:47. Third overall and mission accomplished. For some reason this didn't seem nearly as bad as last year's race... so either I'm getting more used to higher intensity running or I'm getting more block-headed.

The real highlight of the morning was helping my four-year old run the 1 km kids' race. Like most kids his age he has two speeds: sprinting and walking. So you can probably guess how it went. But he had fun and can't wait to do another. And in what could be a foretelling of things to come he told his auntie later in the day that he ran 80 miles...

Hanging out post-race

Oh, and I thought my wife's pie was pretty good, but she wasn't crazy about it...

Another one bites the dust

2011-11-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yes that's a hole in an MT 101, presumably caused by abrasion weakening the upper material and subsequently leading to separation and tearing. Lightweight shoes are light for a reason I suppose. We'll see how many more miles I can get out of them.

To be fair, the right shoe is in perfectly good shape, and some of my training partners have logged more racing miles in their MT 100s/101s than I've logged training miles on mine, so I've no intentions of moving away from these.

Deadman Peaks 50 Race Report

2011-10-26T13:43:00.000-06:00

Deadman Peaks 50 mile
10/22/11
54 mi / 6300 ft gain
10:33:22 / 5th overall

Eugene Smith Photo

This was easily the toughest mental test I've had in a race so far. Now don't get me wrong: running up and down huge mesas under the bright desert sun all day definitely kicks your ass, no two ways about it. What complicated matters was that my stomach decided to call it quits with about 16 miles to go, leaving me to close out the remaining distance while suffering through cramps, nausea, and hunger. Not a happy place. Somehow I managed to still finish 5th.

Before I get into the details I want to point out that this was a superb race. The markings were impeccable, the aid stations had just enough supplies without being overwhelming, and the finisher's awards and shirts were the coolest I've received all year. My stomach didn't allow me to sample the post-race posole and enchiladas but I heard they were both quite tasty. So all in all a very well done event, and highly recommended as a low key, late season ultra.

The day began with a couple miles of dirt road before we turned onto the trail proper. Then we had some gentle climbing up to the high point at 7300-7400 ft. This was all runnable, but the pre-dawn darkness made it easy to keep the pace in check. Fortunately we had enough sunlight to illuminate the downhill to the first aid station at mile 9, because that was pretty nasty: steep, rocky, twisty. This was going to be a real beast on the way back. I stopped briefly to ditch my headlamp and warm clothing and then rolled out with Coblentz and Geist.

Course profile from race web site

The rest of the course out to the turnaround was spectacular: up and down mesas, through canyons and arroyos, and over these huge saddles. There were many stretches where we were running on bare rock from one cairn to the next, no trail, and sometimes just a couple of feet from a huge cliff. The running was a lot of fun through here, different from my usual stomping grounds but no less enjoyable. I really found myself getting in a groove with the landscape and the three of us kept a pretty steady pace.

We did break up a little due to pit stops in the woods but I reconnected with Coblentz just after the mile 17 aid station, and we caught Geist shortly after the mile 21 (23?) aid station. About 15 minutes from the turnaround the first place runner came by in the other direction, and we didn't see anyone else until we got there. 2nd place was just leaving and Geist had fallen back a bit, so it was Coblentz and me in 3rd and 4th, surprisingly. Our split was around 4:40 for the first 27 miles.

Approaching the turnaround. Jim Breyfogle photo

On the return leg we started out steady, and increased the intensity as we made our way to the second to last aid station, which I'm figuring was mile 37. The harder effort would unfortunately prove to be too much for my stomach to handle. It started getting sloshy, and I had a hard time keeping up on calories and electrolytes. By the time we got to the aid station it was clear I needed to ease up for awhile and get things back in balance. Shortly after we left Coblentz put his head down and I was unable to follow. He would proceed to put an hour on me in 15-16 miles.

Things went downhill fast from there as my body got more and more out of whack. Every now and then I would try to run but either my legs would cramp up or my stomach would threaten to launch its contents. Or both. I kept forcing down gels and Endurolytes, despite both of them making me want to retch. Water was about the only thing palatable. As I continued to flirt with a massive bonk my mind started serving up a veritable buffet of reasons to drop: Maybe I'm about to have a heat stroke. Maybe I'm dehydrated. Maybe I have hyponatremia. Maybe that toe I just stubbed is broken. Maybe that hangnail is getting infected. Ultrarunning is stupid. And on and on and on.

Looking better than I feel with 17 miles to go. Full set.

That's about when I started to remind myself: You know, your wife has been minding the kids by herself on a Saturday so you can go screw around in the desert, and she's gonna be pissed as hell if you drop. OK, so compared to the wrath of a scorned woman, maybe 54 miles doesn't sound so bad. And the reality was, I knew my outlook would change once I got to the last aid station and I'd be able to grind it out. So onward I trudged. Even though gels still repulsed me my stomach did start to come around, and at some point my desire for real food became my main motivation to keep plugging away.

The major challenge over the last nine miles was the climb up the side of the last mesa. From the top, it was an easy seven back to the finish, but that climb was looming in my thoughts as I shuffled my way into the final aid station. In addition to being hungry I knew I needed a major burst of energy so I took in a lot of calories: a few cups of HEED, a couple of coke, some orange slices which at the time were absolutely heavenly, and a handful of potato chips. I was so tempted to just hang out there and eat for half an hour. They even offered me beer. But the thought of finishing pulled me away and I set out at a brisk hike. My plan was to walk the gradual incline to the base of the hill to let my stomach digest, and hopefully have enough energy to get me up to the top.

About three miles out from the final aid station. The final climb scales
the side of the mesa in the background. Jim Breyfogle photo

As I dug into the early slopes I actually felt pretty good. I wasn't moving very fast, but I kept a steady pace and my legs and energy levels held solid. Keep moving, go slow if you have to, but don't stop. There were some flatter dips that I was even able to run. Fortunately the top of the climb was pretty shaded, otherwise it would have been downright tortuous. As it turned out, while the climb was definitely hard, it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it would be.

When I got to the top I immediately broke into a slow, steady jog that I hoped would carry me to the finish. There were a handful of steeper inclines that I had to walk, and even when the going was flat I would still take a walking break every 10 or 15 minutes, but I was making progress. One foot in front of the other. At some point I realized I was still in 4th place, and my thoughts turned back toward the race and holding my position. Those came to an end, however, when Geist passed me with about four miles to go, looking strong.

When I got down off the singletrack and onto the dirt road I kept checking to see if the next runner was coming up. Fortunately he was nowhere to be seen, but what I could see were the tents and cars at the finish. As they grew closer my stomach decided it wanted the last word, and I had to stop and dry heave a couple times with about 100 yards to go. I hadn't had anything to eat since the last aid station, so I had been running on fumes and there was nothing coming up. Joke's on you buddy. Oh wait. That means joke's on me. Another minute and that was it. 10:33, and I managed to hold 5th place by 10 minutes.

This turned out to be an interesting one. Jemez showed me that I could finish 50 miles. I had hoped that on this day I'd be able to race 50 miles. In the end that was a little too ambitious, but I did run strong for nearly 40, and that is a marked improvement even from just a few months ago. So I'm getting there. What has me a little puzzled is that I'm not entirely sure what triggered what. I mean, clearly my stomach had problems, but I don't know if my stomach was the cause or the effect, and if it was the effect, what was the cause? I can speculate but I'm not sure I'll ever figure that one out completely. The big lesson on the day comes from fighting the demons and coming out on top. That will undoubtedly pay some hefty dividends next year.

In the meantime, I've got some beer to drink.

Running with the masses at the Chicago Marathon

2011-10-10T20:02:00.000-06:00

Chicago Marathon
10/9/2011
26.2 miles
3:03:56 / 890th overall

Post-race with my fan club

This race was so totally beyond my previous running experiences that it was borderline bizarre. The largest race I had been in was I think 700-800 runners, and most have been more like 100-150. At 45,000 this was essentially 500 times larger than my average race. Huge crowds out to cheer for the runners and a massive expo only added to the spectacle. In many ways it almost felt like a completely different sport. On the other hand, when you get right down to it, it's still just running. This contrast between the immensity of the race and the overwhelming simplicity of what we were all there to do is actually what stood out to me the most.

The family and I flew out Thursday morning and were picked up at the airport by our hosts for the long weekend. One of my wife's good friends graciously offered to put us up and even play tour guide. My father-in-law and his wife also were in town. She was running the marathon with her son and daughter-in-law. So we banked some family time too. Even without the marathon it would have been a fun trip.

On race morning I jogged a few blocks to the train station, then stepped onto a train with a bunch of other people dressed in running clothes. What a funny sight that was. Fortunately my Duke City Marathon time qualified me for one of the seeded start corrals. With a certain amount of luck I found my way over to the right place, dropped off my gear, and tried to start warming up however I could. The energy was almost manic as the minutes ticked down.

My recovery from Big Tesuque had went about as well as I could have hoped. The soreness peaked on Monday, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't run, and I was able to log some short but medium hard efforts on Tuesday and Wednesday. A mini taper/rest to close out the week had me feeling pretty refreshed as I stood at the start packed in with everybody else. This wasn't an "A race" for me so I didn't have any specific time goals. I mainly just wanted to run smart, have fun, and get in one last leg crushing workout before Deadman Peaks.

The race itself was actually kind of a blur. It seemed to go by really really fast. I don't know if it was the constantly changing scenery or the endless crowds or if three hours just doesn't feel like a long run anymore. Maybe some combination. My lack of specific road marathon training was apparent pretty much from the start. Even though the early miles didn't feel hard, they never felt effortless either. At Duke City last year the pace seemed like nothing for at least the first 10 miles. This wasn't like that.

For the first few miles the crowd was so thick that it was hard to keep speed through the turns as everybody came together and slowed. It reminded me of my bike racing days. Probably around mile five or so is when things finally started to thin out. I did a lot of drafting the first half of the race.

As the morning wore on the pace gradually became more and more uncomfortable. I did start to run a little more aggressively with regard to passing people, not relenting on the pace, and staying focused in the moment. With my growing fatigue what that really meant was that I didn't slow down. In fact my splits were pretty darn even, 1:31:17 for the first half and 1:32:39 for the second. The heat was getting pretty rough out there but I think I managed my fuel and electrolyte intakes about as well as I could have.

Over the last 10k my biggest struggle was mental. Which isn't to say that the final miles were physically easy, because they weren't. I was definitely and majorly hurting. I just found my motivation to be a little lacking. With a couple miles to go I felt like I had already accomplished what I had come to do, and I knew that barring a complete implosion I would easily finish under 3:10. So I kept asking myself, do I really need to keep running hard? Eventually I convinced myself that I was building mental toughness, so while I didn't find the strength to speed up, at least I didn't slow down. And I made a bit of a game out of trying to catch and drop runners ahead of me. Nothing like an arbitrary placing to bring out my stupid competitiveness.

The crowds were deep and filled with energy over the last mile. It was crazy and, I have to say, a little fun. Different, but fun. I found it in myself to hammer out the last quarter mile or so, and 3:03:56 was the final verdict. It's easy to sit here afterward and think, damn if I had only run 10 sec/mile faster I would have broken three hours. On the other hand, it was a highly successful day given my intentions and expectations going in, and I knocked 26 minutes off my PR in the process. I have to admit that I am kind of curious now to see what kind of time I could crank out with a proper and specific build-up... Boston 2013 maybe?? We'll see.

The real story of the day was actually not Moses Mosop's new course record. A runner collapsed and died about 500 yards from the finish. Apparently this happened around 10:30 am, right around the time I finished. I don't remember seeing anything though. Tragic.

ETA: splits from race web site:

Split	Time of day	Time	Diff	Min/mile	Miles/h
05K	07:53:31AM	00:22:06	22:06	07:07	8.44
10K	08:14:42AM	00:43:17	21:11	06:49	8.81
15K	08:36:18AM	01:04:53	21:36	06:58	8.63
20K	08:58:01AM	01:26:36	21:43	07:00	8.59
HALF	09:02:41AM	01:31:17	04:41	06:52	8.74
25K	09:19:44AM	01:48:19	17:02	07:02	8.54
30K	09:41:47AM	02:10:23	22:04	07:06	8.45
35K	10:03:16AM	02:31:52	21:29	06:55	8.68
40K	10:25:27AM	02:54:03	22:11	07:09	8.40
Finish	10:35:20AM	03:03:56	09:53	07:15	8.28

2011 Big Tesuque Trail Run

2011-10-03T09:55:00.000-06:00

Big Tesuque Trail Run
10/1/11
11.8 mi / 2500 ft gain
1:32:49 / 9th overall

Aspens in Fall colors

Everything came together this weekend for the 26th edition of the Big Tesuque Trail Run: perfect weather, beautiful Aspen leaves, and a strong field. To give you an idea of how competitive this year was, the tenth place times in 2008 through 2010 were 1:41:52, 1:41:33, and 1:41:10, respectively. This year it was 1:33:39, with less than three minutes separating fourth through tenth. A lot of PRs were handed out. Gotta love that. I was hoping to do quite a bit better than last year, and after a solid run at Taos a couple months prior, I was confident I could do so.

Right off the gun the usual protagonists started drifting away. Well, except for the eventual winner, who started sprinting away. He is one of several local pro Kenyan runners, and was basically out for an easy tempo run. He ended up winning by about six minutes.

Course and elevation profile

As for us mere mortals... a lot of people got frisky off the start. Bad idea. I felt like crap pretty much the entire first mile. Just kind of sluggish and flat, probably on account of the cold my son had passed on to me earlier in the week. Ah, pre-schoolers. I was a little surprised when, at the first mile marker, I looked down at my watch and saw 8:45. That was hotter than I wanted to be running early on so I dialed things back and tried to relax.

Coming through mile two is a fairly long and somewhat steep straight section. It was here that the race seemed to shake out quite a bit. I could see the leaders, and most of the eager beavers had fallen off the pace. I found myself settled in comfortably with a small group. By the time we came up toward the first big switchback at two and a half miles there was a decent gap to the folks behind.

My plan from the beginning had been to run conservatively to this point, then crank things up a notch or two. Fortunately my legs were just starting to come around, right on time. I surged a little through the turn to kind of test things out. Then I just kept on going. I quickly moved away from my companions and focused my attention on the runners ahead.

Trying not to hack up a lung early. Max Mujynya photo.

I really started to feel good as I made my way toward Lunch Rock. My lungs were opening nicely, my legs had a steady but tolerable burn, and I was able to keep my pace high up all the little steep parts. It was exactly how I love to be running uphill. I could tell that the gap to the next two runners was shrinking, but unfortunately not fast enough for me to catch them before the top. I actually wished the climb was steeper. It would have worked to my advantage. If nothing else however I was putting a lot of time on the guys behind me.

I did have a minor shoe snafu that forced me to stop briefly as I crossed into the ski area. Apparently I had tied my left shoe too tight, and my foot was going numb. I figured I could either stop then and retie it, or I could break my ankle on the descent. Easy decision but it did cost me a little time. I also forced down a gel, hoping to avoid a repeat of last year's bonk with a mile or two to go.

As I churned around the chairlift and up to the turnaround I counted off ten runners ahead of me. 11th place. First and second were pretty far ahead but the rest were all fairly close. I hit the cone in 57-58 minutes. It was a while before I saw the next runners so I wasn't too concerned about getting caught, but I knew I had a chance to do a little catching of my own. Time to go on the hunt.

The gap to the runner ahead of me held steady for the first couple miles. At some point he must have turned on the afterburners because he basically disappeared. I tried to use the steep sections to my advantage as much as possible, since I could really open up my stride and let gravity do all the work. The flatter grades seemed like such an effort to keep the legs turning over. I kept thinking I was slowing down but every time I hit a mile marker I checked my splits, and I was sticking to a steady six minute pace. But I knew people had to be fading.

Bombing a switchback near Lunch Rock. Max Mujynya photo.

Sure enough, just before the last big switchback, I caught and passed the runner who had been a couple places up on me at the turnaround. 10th place. As I came barreling down the straight section after the turn I found myself in a target rich environment with several runners in view. More agony, more pounding, and more near face-plant experiences. I closed the gap to the next guy with about a mile and a half left. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when I realized he was the one who had passed me near the end last year. 9th place.

Desert Dude was next in my sights. He had been about two minutes ahead of me at the top of the climb so I figured he was faltering. But The Dude perservered. I kept gaining ground on the steeps, and then he'd pull away again on the flatter sections. All the while I'm thinking to myself, "man these short races suck, I should just run ultras next year". The cat and mouse continued until I came into the final few turns, and at that point I knew I wasn't going to catch him. After a few quick shoulder checks to make sure nobody was coming up behind I eased off the gas and cruised across the line about 20 seconds after he did.

My final time was 1:32:49, a good eight and a half minutes faster than last year and well below my goal time of 1:35. I probably should have run bottom of the climb a little harder, but still, a very satisfying performance all around. Hats off to the Striders for putting on another great race, and congrats to all 105 finishers who came out for a perfect morning of mountain running.

Results.

Max's full photo set.

Big Tesuque Trail Run Preview

2011-09-25T19:25:00.000-06:00

Next Saturday marks the 26th running of the Big Tesuque Trail Run. I've been looking forward to this year's race since about two minutes after I finished last year's and I'm hoping it's a good turnout. The race is not quite as acutely painful as Taos, but the air is every bit as thin. And there's a great post-race spread of breakfast burritos and hot coffee.

On Saturday morning Crone and I headed up to Aspen Vista for a little course recon. Given the nice weather we've had recently the conditions were quite a bit more enjoyable than last weekend, and the Aspen leaves are just starting to show some color. The current 10-day forecast is showing sunshine for the weekend so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Turning Aspens near the trailhead

Even though this course goes up and down a mountain, it's neither very technical nor very steep. Most of the climb is at an entirely runnable grade. There are several short sections over 10% but only a few that hit 15%. That makes it a very different race from, say, the Jemez half marathon, and as a result the strong road runners tend to do well here. If you look at the grade the first two miles are actually steeper than the rest:

Elevation profile and grade, from the Santa Fe Striders

And the steepest part is a switchback about two and a half miles up:

The steepest part of the climb, during last winter's meager snow

After this the grade relaxes for a little while with only a handful of brief steeper sections. The second big switchback comes at Lunch Rock not quite four miles up, followed by another about 1/3 of a mile later. Then it's pretty much gentle curves until the the road crosses under the Triple Chair and wraps around the back. Last year the turnaround was all the way up at the end of the road but I've been told that it varies from year to year.

The Quad Chair, as seen from the Lunch Rock area

The downhill is more or less a drag race. Some of the rockier sections require a little bit of care to pick a clean line but otherwise there's not much too it. The switchbacks are wide enough that you don't really have to slow down a lot.

Satellite view of the last 3/4 mile or so of the climb. Visible ski runs
include Cornice, Gayway, Parachute, Roadrunner, and Fall Line.

Crone and I were both still recovering from a tough downhill workout two days prior so we kept a comfortable pace most of the way up, really only getting stupid for the middle mile or two. We hit the end of the road in about 62 minutes, which incidentally was my uphill split in last year's race. Then a nice easy 45-50 minute jog down. We saw a number of runners out, including (I think) the race director. All in all a wonderful morning.

Looking out over town

Now it's time to focus on easy volume for the next two weeks, with Big T and Chicago the finishing touches. Then I'll have another two of taper before the Deadman Peaks 50. Let the fun begin.

Big Tesuque and the Three Peaks

2011-09-18T20:09:00.000-06:00

What better way to start a weekend than with a romp among 12,000 ft peaks. On Saturday morning Crone and I hit Aspen Vista bright and early, well at least early, headlamps glowing, on our way up to Tesuque Peak which would be the launching point for a morning of high altitude running. Once we reached the top our plan was to traverse over to Deception and Lake Peaks, follow the Skyline Trail from there down to Puerto Nambe, do an out-and-back to the Baldy summit, then take Winsor Trail back to Ski Santa Fe. From Ski Santa Fe we'd continue down on Winsor, then hook up with the Big Tesuque Trail and take that back up to Aspen Vista.

Fortunately Aspen Vista is easy enough terrain that the darkness didn't really slow us down much. And we were taking our time anyway given the amount of vertical we had on the day's menu. About 3 miles up we entered the clouds and that was when conditions got a little interesting. Fortunately the sun was starting to illuminate our surroundings, because our headlamps were rather ineffective in the fog. Visibility was down to yards in some spots and the wind was howling. By the time we reached Lunch Rock about 4 miles up we knew that the traverse over to Deception and Lake Peaks was going to be an experience... especially since the trees all had a coating of frost and ice on them.

The mist was thick as we entered the ski area

We were pretty warmed up from the initial hour and change of climbing but we nonetheless stopped briefly behind the Triple Chair to put on our jackets before we started the slog over to Deception. Strangely enough we saw a runner coming in the other direction - totally unexpected. I guess we weren't the only idiots out there. Although to be fair, he was running away from the nastiness and we were running toward it, so conclude what you will. As soon as we broke from the tree cover the wind hit us and it was just brutal. We powerhiked as fast as we could toward the summit of Deception and I have to say that that was one of the singular most unpleasant experiences I've had on the trail. Of course that's what makes it epic. And it would soon be topped...

Nearing the summit of Deception Peak

Deception is called what it is for a reason, and that reason is the false summits. They are annoying on a good day and downright tortuous on a bad day. All you can do is grind them out. When we finally reached the top we didn't even pause, just kept right on going to try and escape the wind. As soon as we got ten feet down the back the air was all of a sudden totally calm. It was like we had stepped into a building. Bizarre.

Descending off the back of Deception Peak

The trail down the backside is initially rather technical as it curls around Lake Peak. Eventually it becomes runnable but still quite faint given the limited traffic that this trail sees compared to others. While I normally appreciate a less worn trail, on this day the overgrown grass was wet, and it wasn't long before my feet were totally soaked. Great. As we came around the back of Penitente Peak in our wind-induced haze we completely missed a turn and unknowingly heading straight down the hill into the watershed area. After several minutes we realized that if we didn't turn around we'd be hitch-hiking home from Pecos. When we finally made it back to the trail we actually ran in the wrong direction for a few minutes before realizing that too. All told our mistake cost us a good 15-20 minutes.

Once we got ourselves oriented we had some gentle climbing that led us to the ridgeline above and to the south of Puerto Nambe. As soon as we reached the top of the ridge the wind just hammered us. The climb up Deception had been bad but compared to what we experienced on the ridge it was nothing. I have never run in conditions like that. I knew that we had about a half mile of exposure before we reached the cover of forest again so I just put my head down and ran as hard as I could. I actually had ice forming in my eyelashes.

The whole thing was so surreal I had to pause for a minute or two to collect myself once we got into the trees. Crone jokingly pointed out that that was good Hardrock training. Well, maybe if it was the middle of the night. And if we were in the middle of a lightning storm. And if we had already covered 50 miles. We decided then and there that we would skip the climb up Baldy. We had had enough of the wind and were ready to warm up and thaw out.

The rest of the trail down to Puerto Nambe is just soft, fast, glorious singletrack. It was fun to open it up a bit through here. Toward the bottom there were a fair number of fallen trees that slowed us down but that was one of the best sections of the whole morning.

Puerto Nambe was beautiful as it always is but we didn't waste any time there either. We just wanted to get down lower where - we hoped - temperatures would be a little warmer.

Puerto Nambe at the turnoff to Baldy and Lake Katherine.
(Taken on a different day.)

Fortunately, by the time we made it down to the creeks that was indeed the case. We stopped briefly to put our jackets away before heading out for the three miles or so over to the Ski Basin. That section of trail isn't my favorite by any means but I was glad to be running uphill again and actually generating some body heat. By the time we reached the Wilderness Gate I was feeling frisky so I bombed the steep section down to the Ski Basin with more than a bit of reckless abandon. Now that was fun.

From the Ski Basin the Winsor Trail rolls over to the Norski parking area, finishing with a short but stout climb. The descent off Norksi is fairly technical. It always serves up a beating, especially when you've already been running for almost four hours. But there are some really nice sections through there that are really enjoyable. After a couple miles the trail crosses Pacheco Canyon Road, and then it's just a short distance to the intersection with the Big Tesuque Trail.

The beginning of some wonderful singletrack at the bottom of Big Tesuque Trail

The Big Tesuque Trail is one of my favorite sections of trail in the Winsor / Tesuque Creek area. The climb is runnable, the trail is mostly free of the large rocks that are so ubiquitous, and there are some beautiful aspen groves. As we made our way up toward the road I remarked that it felt like we were on a totally different run on a totally different day from just a couple hours ago. The sun was peeking out from the clouds, my hands were no longer numb, and I was even sweating a little bit.

Looking back on a meadow just below Hyde Park Rd

We both were feeling pretty sapped as we crossed Hyde Park Rd and began the final climb. It's easy to underestimate how much energy your body uses up just trying to stay warm. I had actually never been on this portion of the trail so I was eager to see it. It was pretty nice, but not as nice as the lower part in my opinion. The grade steepened up a little through here and we ended up hiking nearly the entire section. It seemed to go on forever even though it was probably only 10-15 minutes. But eventually we popped out on Aspen Vista at the spot we had passed over four and a half hours earlier in the dark. Seven or eight minutes later and we were back at the car.

Where Big T meets Aspen Vista

In the end we totaled 21-22 miles, 5500 feet of vertical, and 4:45 on our feet. The original route - if we hadn't gotten lost and had done Baldy - would have been about 25 miles and 7300 feet of vertical. I was a little disappointed we didn't get up Baldy. And of course the rain clouds that had been lingering for a week had to blow out Saturday night, leaving Sunday clear and sunny. On the other hand, five hours of mountain running with most of it above 10,000 feet is always a Good Day.

Our eventual route, minus the bonus miles for getting lost

Overall this was a down week in terms of mileage. Probably one or two more hard weeks before it's time to start easing up. The numbers:

Mon: Off.

Tue: 6 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats. Felt so-so but still managed my second fastest time.

Wed: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Thu AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Easy.

Thu PM: 6.1 mi / 1300 ft. Camp May Trail - Nail Trail. Easy up, hard down.

Fri: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Sat: 21.5 mi / 5500 ft.

Sun: 30 min core work.

Total: 48.3 mi / 10200 ft.

Burning up

2011-09-11T20:17:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things about trail running is spontaneously exploring a new trail. Such was the case on Friday when I was out for a road run and I happened upon the Burnt Mesa Trailhead on Highway 4. I swung over to the parking lot, read the sign, said to myself, "well this sure as hell beats more pavement", and off I went. So much for trying to get in at least one long road run before Chicago.

Burnt Mesa Trail looking northwest toward Cerro Grande
and Pajarito. NPS photo by Sally King.

But as a reward for my impulsive decision I was treated to five miles of gentle singletrack with huge views in every direction: the Sangres on the way out, and on the return trip the three peaks of the (75% burned) Jemez 50 course, Cerro Grande, Pajarito, and Caballo. I only wish I had a camera with me. The trail comes to a rather abrupt halt at the pointy end of a mesa above Frijoles Canyon - site of recent flash flooding as well as a major pot party.

(Speaking of Jemez, the August 2011 issue of UltraRunning magazine features my friend Jason Halladay's write-up of the 50-mile and 50-km races. And in that write-up is a picture of yours truly rockin' the Canon de Valle. Fortunately I appear to have wiped all the puke off my face.)

Revisiting trails I haven't been on in a while is almost as fun as discovering a new one, and on Sunday I did that with a loop on the Burn, Winsor, and Chamisa Trails, plus the connector that shows on Drake's map as #399.

Sunday's route and elevation profile

It seems like last summer this was such a regular route of mine yet I don't think I had done it once this year. Winsor and Chamisa get a fair amount of traffic on the weekend afternoons. The Burn and connector trails, however, are just wonderful, isolated singletrack. At about 9 miles and nearly 2400 ft of vertical gain it's a short but challenging course. The icing on the cake was face planting in the exact same spot as I did last time I was on this trail. How classic.

Some additional photos:

The Burn Trail drops from a ridgeline down into a bowl before
following a drainage to the Winsor Trail

The trail down the bowl is steep switchbacking bliss

More great singletrack on the connector trail

The ridgeline offers fine views of Atalaya, Picacho, and Sandia

All of this, strangely enough, coming on the heels of Zozobra.

Another solid week of training on the books, and a down week coming up. The numbers:

Mon AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Mon PM: 30 min core work.

Tue AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Tue PM: 6.0 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats. Not quite as fast as last week but still decent.

Wed: 9.8 mi / 1800 ft. Just like last week, climb easy and descent hard. I think the downhill legs are gonna come around perfectly for Big T.

Thu AM: 30 min core work.

Thu PM: 4.8 mi / 1100 ft. Out and back on Perimeter with the lunch group.

Fri AM: 3.2 mi / 400 ft. Easy shakeout.

Fri PM: 17.8 mi / 2200 ft. West Jemez - Highway 4 - Burnt Mesa out and back.

Fri eve: 1.5 mi / 300 ft. Jog/hike from work along the Perimeter connector to a friend's for dinner. This was intended as a commute, not a workout, but since I ran down into the canyon and powerhiked out I'm countin' it.

Sat AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Sat PM: 30 min core work.

Sun AM: 7.1 mi / 900 ft. Canyon - Cerro Gordo easy.

Sun PM: 8.8 mi / 2400 ft. Burn Trail - Winsor - Chamisa with the dogs. Didn't want to split up the day's mileage but gotta take what you can get.

Total: 74.8 mi / 12600 ft

Lightweight shoes and high country blues

2011-09-04T19:31:00.000-06:00

I've come to realize something over the last few months. Despite the never ending onslaught of articles extolling the benefits of natural running and minimalist footwear - and, it would seem, a growing number cautioning against jumping in, um, feet first - everyone seems to be overlooking an obvious point: running in lightweight shoes is really really fun. Like, when-you-were-a-kid-and-just-ran-as-fast-and-as-far-as-you-could fun. I won't bore all four of you reading this with how and why I started running in lightweight shoes. What I will say is that I feel like my running has gone to another level in terms of how I'm able to interact with the trail. Totally different experience.

A few of my favorite things: Puma FAAS 400, New Balance
MT 101, and Saucony Kinvara

As for the second topic, no I'm not talking about music. I realized this weekend that I've been back from vacation for four weeks now and my only trip to the high country was a two-hour hike with my visiting Dad last weekend. There are various life-work reasons why that's been the case, and I've certainly been logging some good miles on Dale Ball, but views like this have been sorely missed this summer:

Raven's Ridge (roughly) as seen from La Vega

I'm hoping life will conspire to enable another installment in the Dumb Ass Ultra series in a couple weeks. We'll see.

A solid week on the training front. I opted not to do Sunday's Old Santa Fe Trail Run (a 10k road race), having previously decided that the weekend's marital capital was better spent on a 3-4 hour trail outing. And unfortunately I didn't make it to yoga this week. The numbers:

Mon: 5.0 mi / 700 ft. Fitness trails loop with the lunch crowd.

Tue AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Tue PM: 6.0 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats. Set a new PR by a fair amount, despite another afternoon of oppressive heat.

Wed: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Easy.

Thu AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Thu PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail at a brisk pace.

Fri: 9.8 mi / 1800 ft. Camp May Rd to Pajarito Ski Lodge. Took the climb easy and ran the downhill hard, which was the point.

Sat: 7.1 mi / 700 ft. Canyon - Cerro Gordo easy.

Sun: 20.1 mi / 3400 ft. Out and back on Dale Ball, starting from home. Had originally planned a double crossing of Atalaya but with my quads still sore from Friday I decided not to push things.

Total: 69.8 mi / 11400 ft. I resisted the urge to jog around the block just for the sake of breaking 70 miles on the week.

Nathan Endurance Race Vest Review

2011-08-31T08:54:00.000-06:00

About two months ago I finally broke down and picked up a Nathan Endurance Race Vest. I generally prefer handheld bottles but for longer unsupported training runs the hydration pack is about the only option... unless you consider dehydration and giardia to be options (I don't). On those occasions when I did need to use a pack I had been using one from another manufacturer that I won't mention. It served my basic needs, more or less, but still left me a little unsatisfied. Kind of like my first girlfriend: at some point I just started thinking that maybe I should try to trade up.

Trading up to a Nathan pack was for me a pretty obvious choice. I went with the Endurance Race Vest over the ubiquitous HPL 020 simply because it has a little bit more storage. It does weigh a touch more, but at the point that I'm already carrying four and a half pounds of water on my back, I'm not going to worry about a couple ounces. Both models use a reservoir made by HydraPak.

The rear of the vest has an exterior pocket and shock cord, both
of which sit lower on the pack than on the HPL 020.

The exterior pocket has plenty of room for keys, ID, hat, gloves, and
extra food. There's also usable space on top of the reservoir.

In true idiot fashion my first test of the vest was a 5-hour, 30 mile trail run. I loaded it with 70oz of water, a cell phone, keys, a couple flasks of EFS liquid shot, a handful of gels, sunglasses (which were swapped out with a headlamp after sunrise), and some Endurolytes. Now if it hadn't performed very well then I would have been paying attention to it a lot and I'd have a plethora of details to share. But the truth is, I more or less forgot it was there, as it stayed out of the way and did its job with a minimum of complexity and zero hassle. Subsequent runs with it have been pretty much the same. Yawn.

The front pockets can easily hold 1000+ calories of food along with a
headlamp, electrolyte pills, and a small camera or cell phone.

There is actually one thing I will point out because it impressed me quite a bit. One of the front pockets is advertised as being able to hold a full 22oz water bottle. Upon reading that for the first time, my reaction was something along the lines of "yeah right, that bottle will be bouncing around like a double-D breast on the rampage". Then I went and tried it, and it actually worked pretty darn well:

The front of the vest moves very little, even with a full water bottle in
one of the pockets. The two small, upper pockets are new on this model.

And not only did it work well, the extra water was much appreciated given the high temperatures on that particular run.

No, the vest isn't perfect. For example, I tied a small knot at the end of the elastic cord to prevent it from going all the way into the stop when opening the front pocket (you can see it in the above picture). And the clip that holds the reservoir in place requires a bit too much fine motor skill to operate. But these are both minor quibbles. It's a great piece of gear, and I won't hesitate to use it in a race if it seems like the appropriate choice. Highly recommended.

p.s. HydraPak reservoirs rock. Forgot to mention that little detail.

The HydraPak "slide and seal" closure is incredibly easy to operate.

HydraPak reservoirs also turn inside out for easy cleaning and drying.

North Dale Ball

2011-08-28T19:04:00.054-06:00

Other than the climb up Atalaya I think my favorite part of the Dale Ball system is the 4 miles or so along markers 11-10-5-4-3(L)-2. I don't know what it is that makes it so fun but I always find myself really getting into a groove through here, hammering the climbs and flying through the switchbacks. It certainly offers some of the best views of the entire trail system, in particular to the west and southwest, and I have half a dozen routes that incorporate this section. Always a treat. But I sure do get spoiled having this so close to home.

This portion of Dale Ball makes a nice out-and-back from the Sierra
del Norte parking lot, or is easily worked into a longer or shorter route

Jack the Dog negotiating a turn

Climbing up from the Sierra del Norte parking lot


Cerro Grande, Pajarito, Caballo, and Chicoma are all visible on a clear day.

I didn't really get in a long run this week but everything was pretty solid otherwise, and my mileage and vertical totals were both right about where I wanted them to be. Some good core/yoga work too. The numbers:

Mon AM: 6.1 mi / 500 ft. Downtown loop easy.

Mon PM: 75 min yoga class.

Tue AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Tue PM: 6 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats with the lunch crowd, in brutal heat. Ugh.

Wed AM: 3.2 mi / 400 ft. Short shakeout run.

Wed PM: 6.1 mi / 1300 ft. Camp May Trail - Nail Trail with Coblentz and Crone. Easy but honest pace. Felt really good once I got loosened up.

Thu AM: 30 min core work.

Thu PM: 5.0 mi / 1200 ft. Quemezon - Nature Trail with Coblentz, Crone, Halladay, and Porter. Took the climbs pretty easy but got in some good downhill work.

Fri: 12.9 mi / 2600 ft. Dale Ball. Hot and slow.

Sat AM: 4.5 mi / 800 ft. Dale Ball easy with the dogs.

Sat PM: 4.3 mi / 1300 ft. Hike on Winsor from Ski Basin to Nambe Lake drainage and back.

Sun AM: 12.7 mi / 1800 ft. Foothills loop. Circle, Sierra del Norte, Dale Ball, Cerro Gordo.

Sun PM: 75 min yoga class.

Total: 66.1 mi / 12400 ft

Where the hell do my summers go?

2011-08-21T15:16:00.032-06:00

What Ski Santa Fe will look like in about 40 days

I realized this week that Big Tesuque is only six weeks away. That means seven to the Chicago Marathon and nine to the Deadman Peaks 50 mile. I also realized that my last week of hard training was the week of June 27th. The six weeks between then and Taos were taper, race, recover, vacation, vacation, and race. Yes, I've banked some much needed rest, and yes, I've maintained a decent fitness level. Still, it's time to get my butt in gear.

The last seven weeks of my spring build-up went pretty well, so I'm going to try to do something similar, with Chicago as a final hard effort followed by a two-week taper for DP 50. That means I'll be training through Big Tesuque, but no biggie, just a couple easy days before the race and I'll be ready to leave a horde of gasping Striders in my wake.

This week started out slow because my quads were more or less jacked through Wednesday. Like, walking-down-stairs-sideways jacked. But I managed to end the week with a couple decent doubles plus a leisurely 16-miler on Sunday. And now that baby is finally in her own bed(room), the zombie sleeplessness that has accompanied my zombie hunger for the last six months is actually starting to abate. The hunger, not so much.

The numbers:

Mon: 30 min core work.

Tue: Off.

Wed: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Felt like crap. Probably would have cut it a little short if I wasn't feeling guilty about the Ben and Jerry's I demolished the night before.

Thu AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Same as Wed, minus the food guilt and most of the discomfort.

Thu PM: 5.9 mi / 900 ft. S-Site. Legs finally coming around.

Fri AM: 6.1 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Fri PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail.

Sat: 6.2 mi / 900 ft. Hyde Park - Dale Ball - Cerro Gordo. First time since returning from Michigan that my climbing legs felt like they're coming back.

Sun: 16.2 mi / 2600 ft. Out and back on Dale Ball starting from home.

Total: 52.2 mi / 7300 ft.

2011 Taos 10k

2011-08-14T11:30:00.004-06:00

Taos Up and Over 10k
8/13/11
6.2 mi / 2600' gain
1:06:12 / 5th overall

Perfect weather at Taos Ski Valley

I was excited about this year's Taos Up and Over 10k because the 2010 edition was my first ever trail race and I was looking forward to see how much better I'd do with my first real season of training under my belt. Thinking back to last year there were a few things that stood out. One was the number of people who started too fast and had slowed to a crawl by the first mile. Two was the increase in grade for the last half mile of the climb. Three was the steepness of the initial descent off the top, where many people (myself included) were too tentative and lost time as a result.

On the drive up with a couple friends who were also running I was thinking about those things and what my race strategy ought to be, but I eventually concluded that they were largely irrelevant. The truth is that these shorter races are actually quite simple: keep the effort as hard as you can without going over the edge, and be prepared to suffer. How's that for strategy?

Course route and elevation profile

It's always interesting to me how different people are before races. Some are quiet and reflective, others chatty. The nerves were evident among the crowd as people subconsciously shook their legs and toed at rocks. The view of the mountain from the lodge area certainly never fails to intimidate. On paper this climb is quite similar to the ascent up Atalaya Mountain, and as I waited for the start I thought about some strong runs up Atayala I had had earlier in the summer, trying to draw on those experiences for added confidence.

The first mile or so is fairly runnable... hence the tendency I think for people to go out too fast and then implode. Right from the start a group of seven or eight runners started pulling ahead. I figured most of them would start coming back fairly soon. Two of them did before we even hit the 1 km marker. I tried to run as much of the early stuff as possible but didn't hesitate to hike the steeper sections. When I did hike I made a conscious effort to keep an aggressive pace.

Somewhere around 2-3 km a group of four or five of us started to separate from the rest of the field, although things were pretty well strung out by then. Shortly thereafter we caught another of the lead runners. He hung for a little while but eventually went out the back. The rest of us took turns leading as we variously hiked and ran different sections, and we reached the summit spread out over a few seconds. I couldn't help but wonder if being back at altitude for only a week - after two at sea level - somehow held me back a bit, since my cardio and not my legs felt like the limiting factor on the climb. Although I suppose when you're trying to run uphill at nearly 12,000' elevation that is always going to be the case.

As I came over the top I pushed hard to try to open a gap on the group I had been with. I was able to do so fairly quickly, save one runner who caught up to me and then kept right on going. Other than that I had lost sight of anyone in front or behind. I just tried to run as fast as my legs and the footing would allow. Some sections of the descent are so loose that running down them is really a controlled slide more than anything else. Somehow I managed to stay upright.

At about 3 km to go the surface becomes quite a bit smoother and more runnable. My instinct was to ease up through here, but I was able to fight that off despite the sheer agony in my quads. I tried to let gravity do the work and keep my legs spinning as fast as possible, which given the grade meant I was absolutely flying along, at times just barely in control. Finally with about 2 km to go I saw a runner ahead. I steadily worked my way up to maybe 10 yards behind him and then put in a good hard acceleration right at the 1 km marker. Fortunately he couldn't respond. Not long after that I caught my first glimpse of the finish area. I could see the next two runners ahead but at that point there just wasn't enough room left to catch them.

I didn't know what place I was in but when I crossed the line and saw 66 minutes and change on my watch I figured I had run pretty well. Turns out I nabbed fifth place overall (out of 81 runners) and second in my age group. So I was pretty pleased with my effort all the way around. And going nearly eight minutes faster than last year was a very nice bonus, not to mention a huge confidence boost for Big Tesuque in a couple months.

This was my first race wearing my MT 101s and they were great. I was a touch tentative on the rockier portions of the descent due to my limited experience with this shoe. But I don't think I lost much time. I'm definitely looking forward to wearing them in future races.

ETA: results are up

2010 vs 2011 by the numbers:

         2010                   2011
climb    50:01 (17:40 pace)     45:31 (16:05 pace)
descent 23:59 (7:07 pace)      20:41 (6:08 pace)
total    1:14:00 (11:56 pace) 1:06:12 (10:41 pace)

Trails reopening!

2011-07-29T09:19:00.000-06:00

SF New Mexican article

Rail Trail Lemonade

2011-07-22T20:28:00.000-06:00

With only one day left before I rejoin my family up north in Michigan I was determined to get in a good long run. And since both the National Forest and the Dale Ball system are still closed, the only place to get in a long run is Rail Trail. Yes the only redeeming quality of the Rail Trail is that it's unpaved. But sometimes you just gotta make do with what you got. So Crone and I put together a 30 mile out-and-back connecting the Rail Trail with the Galisteo Basin Preserve that actually turned out to be pretty decent. We started at 5:30 am at the Rabbit Road trail head, made it down to the Preserve in a couple hours (with some bonus miles since we missed the turn off), and did about an hour there before heading back up. Fortunately some good cloud cover kept the temps in check otherwise we would have fried - and I still drained 70oz of water. Round trip time was a touch under five hours.

The Preserve was a really neat place. The open spaces here have a unique beauty to them that is simultaneously harsh and fragile. The landscape can definitely become monotonous at times. That happens anywhere I suppose. Yet somehow whenever I return from an out-of-state trip I always catch myself admiring the rugged simplicity and the expansive views, and the Preserve has both of those. I highly recommend getting out there if you're looking for some new trails to explore.

Galisteo Basin Preserve:

Galisteo Basin Preserve trail map

Some pictures:

The turn off from Rail Trail that leads to the Preserve.
We missed it on the way down.

One of many small multi-colored arroyos in the Preserve

Looking southwest towards Oritz and Sandia

Looking due south into the Preserve

Now it's off to northern Michigan for some much needed chill-axation. Last weekend essentially marked the end of the first half of the racing season for me, and my body and my mind are both understandably quite tired. So the goal over the next two to three weeks will be to rest and recharge (and try not to drink too much beer) before gettin' back at it for my October races.

Home for the next two weeks

North Fork 50km Race Report

2011-07-17T20:46:00.020-06:00

North Fork 50km
7/16/11
31.5 mi / 4500' gain
5:32:25 / 8th place overall (results)

Start/finish area at Pine Valley Ranch Park on Friday evening.

Some of you may have heard the phrase "the beautiful game" to refer to Brazilian ~~soccer~~ football at it's best: flowing, intuitive, seemingly effortless. That essentially captures how I ran for 23 miles at the North Fork 50km.

Unfortunately for me, the race was 31.5 miles long.

You can probably guess how the other eight and a half went. However, in case you're having some difficulty, just imagine trying to run with a giant ass cramp for two hours. Yeah, not pretty. But we'll get to that. First things first.

The temperatures were already a touch warm by the time the 7am start rolled around, foreshadowing what would become of the day. The race cruises for maybe a half mile along a flat riverside path and then heads straight into the first of three major climbs, a 2-3 mile / 1000' ascent. This was a great climb on very smooth, clean singletrack, that took us up to one of many small ridges we'd be crossing throughout the day. The entire race was pretty much up and down. None of the grades were too steep though.

50km elevation profile from race website

I expected to have the normal early race issues - cranky butt, burning calves, the usual crap - but it actually didn't take me long to find a nice comfortable rhythm. I still walked some of the steeper parts, mostly to force myself to keep the pace in check. Despite the easy effort I steadily picked off a fair number of runners who were already going out a little too fast. After a quick descent I hit the first aid station, but had no need to stop so I just motored on through.

This race was a little different than some because the 50km and 50mi runners all started together and ran the entire 50km course. Then the 50-milers headed out for another ~ 18 mile section. While this certainly made for easier course planning, I can't help but wonder if it encouraged an above average drop out rate. Imagine you just ran 32 miles in the heat, and you're tired and hungry and whatever else the trail did to you. You roll into the finish area, and there are all the 50km runners, munching on burgers and cookies, drinking beer, lying in the shade, and soaking their feet in the river.... but you gotta head back out for another three hours. Man that would be tough. I saw a number of 50-miler runners milling around in the hour or two after I had finished, and I can definitely sympathize with why they dropped.

Anyway. The 4.5 miles or so to the next aid station were a little more interesting. We were still cruising along through some nice cool forest, on easy rolling terrain. At some point I looked up and saw three runners coming towards me shaking their head. The consensus was that we missed the turn from Miller Gulch onto Gashouse. Apparently the markings were vandalized because from what I can gather the entire race missed the turn. Oops. Fortunately I only lost maybe five minutes. Others lost more. Some people ran all the way down Miller Gulch until they hit the road, and only then realized something was wrong.

Course map from race website

Once that got sorted out we had a little bit more climbing and then it was three or four miles downhill to Buffalo Creek. The trail was a lot of fun through here and I hooked in with a couple guys who were moving along at a decent clip. I let them move ahead as the trail leveled out however, and took it easy going into the 10 mile aid station. My 10 mile split was 1:35, and everything felt nice and loose. All of the aid stations were very well stocked with the usual assortment of snacks along with soda, gels, HEED, etc. I even saw some bacon. Huh?!?

Gashouse Gulch Trail. Photo from race web site.

The climb out of Buffalo Creek was pretty similar to the first climb of the day. I very easily ran the entire thing, with a few accelerations here and there to test the legs out. This was probably the nicest climb of the day: up through a small drainage, cool, and very well shaded. Then it was right back down again for the longest descent of the race. It was at least somewhat broken up by a rolling intermediate section and the 15.7 mile aid station. But as is usually the case with long descents it still beat me up a little bit. This was the kind of downhill that if you aren't paying attention you relax too much and end up losing time. Fortunately I was able to keep my focus and avoid that.

Coming into Shinglemill at mile 15.7 Andy Potter photo.

At some point we left the cover of the trees and entered a burn area. That's when things started to feel a little toasty. I had already been sweating pretty good for the last two hours. When I finally got down to the short flat section before the second pass through Buffalo Creek I again let off the gas and just jogged in at an easy pace. I grabbed my second handheld from my drop bag and headed right back out. My time up to this point was 3:06 for 19.9 miles, which I was pretty happy with especially considering how my body and energy levels felt. Everything had seemed incredibly easy and I was ready to start turning up the effort.

Then about a half mile out of the aid station my body decided that it wasn't having any of that.

A few minutes into the last major climb of the day and my glutes and hamstrings cramped up like I have never cramped up before. Wow. On those rare occasions when I've had cramps in the past I could usually still run, just at a reduced pace. Not this time. I could barely muster a light jog on the short, intermediate flat sections. Never mind the rest of the climb - I walked almost the whole thing. Somehow I could actually walk at a decent pace, but it was hard for me to focus on that because I was so pissed off. And of course I kept looking at my watch the whole time - "WTF, only two minutes have gone by?" I should have taken it off and shoved it in my pocket. Maybe I would have had a little more purpose.

At mile 23.8 was the next aid station, Miller Gulch. It took me almost an hour to cover that four miles. It should have taken me 45 minutes. Then another 4.8 to the Homestead aid station for the second time. At least a lot of that was downhill and I could run it, albeit slowly. But still, another hour. During those two hours I went through four bottles of water (!), five gels, and probably a dozen Endurolytes. Obviously something was wrong, so I just focused on trying to take care of my body in the hopes that at some point I'd snap out of it.

Homestead Trail. Picture from race web site.

And then, when I left Homestead with 3 miles to go, I did. Just as suddenly as I couldn't run before, I could suddenly run again. And on top of that my quads felt totally fresh. Now did I just call it a day and enjoy a nice relaxing cruise down to the finish? Of course not. I did what any self-respecting, overly competitive dumb-ass would do: I cranked up the pace and ran the last downhill about as hard as I could. I even managed to catch two of the six or seven people who had passed me earlier. Too bad the downhill wasn't longer.

The descent eventually dumps out along a creek side trail, which then joins up with the river path for the final stretch. I kept the pace up for 4 or 5 minutes and after a couple quick shoulder checks I could see that nobody was close. That's when I relaxed and just cruised it in, crossing the line in a touch over five and a half hours. Then it was Gatorade, beer, river soak, and burgers, in that order.

D-O-N-E. Andy Potter photo.

The river provided some much needed post-race relief

Despite finishing 8th overall and 2nd in my age group, I have to say that after the race I was a little disappointed. I just felt like I missed an opportunity given how I felt at the 20-mile aid station. On my 6-hour drive home I eventually came around to the view that yes, I did miss an opportunity, but there were still some positives to take away from this one. I had a great first 20 miles, finished on a strong note, and survived probably the roughest patch I've had in a race so far. Yes the mistakes suck but they're part of the learning process. And I am very, very much still learning about ultrarunning.

So what were the mistakes? The bulk of my calories came from a couple flasks of EFS mixed with water in a handheld bottle. I think what happened here is that because I was relying on my water bottle for calories, I drank when I needed calories, not when I needed fluids. I've been able to get away with that when temperatures are more moderate and/or on shorter runs, but with temps in the mid/upper 80s and significant exposure, it eventually caught up with me. The fact that I drank four bottles of water in two hours is pretty compelling evidence of that.

Still, a good (if not great) day on a moderately challenging course, especially when conditions are taken into account. Aside from a couple minor snafus the race was well organized and it had a fabulous post-race spread. It's hard to beat burgers and beer after a morning of running in the hills. I highly recommend the event and I hope I can make it back one of these years.

Splits:

Homestead (4.5): 0:44 / 0:44
Buffalo Creek (9.9): 0:51 / 1:35
Singlemill (15.7): 0:55 / 2:30
Buffalo Creek (19.9): 0:36 / 3:06
Miller Gulch (23.8): 0:56 / 4:02
Homestead (28.6): 1:03 / 5:05
Finish (31.5): 0:27 / 5:32

One last comment regarding my shoes. I've been spending some time in the Brooks Cascadia recently. This was my first race in them as well as my first time wearing them for more than about three hours. They didn't really do it for me. They have always felt a little high compared to my Wildcats and MT 101s, and I think what happened is that as the day wore on my degrading form made it harder to compensate for the extra height, which in turn made the shoe feel unstable. I also had some hot spots underneath the balls of both feet. No blisters, but definitely some discomfort there. I think I'll limit this one to medium distances from now on.

Pajarito Pictures

2011-07-06T12:02:00.001-06:00

This morning someone sent me a link to some pictures of the Pajarito Ski Area. Obviously there's some damage but overall it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And on the drive up this morning I did see a fair amount of green in Pajarito Canyon. Too much smoke to get a glimpse of Caballo however. Here's a preview photo, taken just up the road from Townsight Lift.:

Peter Dickson Photo

And, since we're on the topic of ski areas, I discovered today that the Taos Up and Over 10k is on Aug 13th, not Aug 20th as I originally thought, so I will in fact be able to go. And come on, who wouldn't love this:

Nothing like a 2.8 mi / 2300 ft climb to get the lungs gasping

North Fork 50km AnteThoughts

2011-07-03T09:15:00.002-06:00

As of this weekend I've started my taper for my next race, the North Fork 50km, which is a couple weeks away. I'm not really sure what to expect, in part because this is only its second year and there just isn't a lot of info out there in the form of race reports and past results. In addition I don't really have a sense as to how hard I can or should push the pace. My last race of (somewhat) comparable distance was the Salida Run Through Time marathon back in March and my fitness is considerably improved since then. The North Fork course would appear to compare well with Salida - both have about 4500 ft of gain - but I think Salida might be a faster course given that most of it is on dirt roads and hence not very technical. On the other hand, North Fork tops out at around 8000 ft elevation, and even then only briefly, whereas Salida has several miles around 9000 ft. So who knows. If I can run most of the climbs plus manage my hydration/nutrition/electrolytes well (something I didn't do at Salida) then I'll probably have a good day. If nothing else I'll enjoy a morning of running in the hills followed by some post-race BBQ and a beer or two.

North Fork 50km elevation profile from race website

On another racing note, my boy's fourth birthday party is going to be on the same day as the Taos Up and Over 10k, so that's off the table for this year. Maybe instead I can whack on my quads with a 2x4 for an hour. It probably would hurt less :)

Pink sunrise over Picacho on Sunday morning

The weekly numbers: I think my body has finally integrated all my recent hill work because I find myself running up grades that were not runnable for me just a couple months ago. So I'm feeling strong but ready for some rest. A short trip to Michigan next weekend will help on that front, and with the Dale Ball system also now closed it's a convenient time for a taper.

Mon: 6.9 mi / 1300 ft. Mostly easy on Dale Ball. Had to cut this one short because one of my dogs was overheating.

Tue: 8.8 mi / 3200 ft. Tough, hot run with Crone, Coblentz, and Geist. Went up Picacho then Atalaya from the Canyon Rd TH. Descended down to Camino Cruz Blanca then Wilderness Gate then back up to near the top of Picacho via markers 39-40-35-34 before the final drop down to the car. Ran all of the climbs except for the steepest parts of Atalaya.

Tuesday's route. Click for larger version.

Wed: 13.9 mi / 2500 ft. Out and back on Dale Ball, starting from home. Had meant to do more like 17 mi / 3000 ft but when my 70oz water bladder was empty by mile 10 (!), I decided to cut my losses. But still a good two and a half hours on thrashed legs.

Thu AM: 6.2 mi / 900 ft. Hyde Park - Dale Ball - Cerro Gordo - Gonzales. Easy.

Thu PM: 75 min yoga class.

Fri AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Easy.

Fri PM: 3.7 mi / 1300 ft. Picacho with Nyberg. Didn't realize the trail had been closed until we got back, as there was no sign at the gate and we had parked on the road not in the Upper Canyon lot. Oops.

Sat: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Sun: 9.0 mi / 900 ft. East side loop easy.

Total: 57.9 mi / 11000 ft

New Crosslite 2.0

2011-07-01T09:47:00.000-06:00

Well after inspecting my previous pair La Sportiva sent me a new pair of Crosslite 2.0. The fact that they covered them under their warranty policy even though I received the shoe free through a promotional contest was a pleasant surprise. We'll see what happens with these...

My original review of the shoe as well as a description of the issues I later experienced is available here

Las Conchas Fire

2011-06-28T06:18:00.002-06:00

Well this is the big one everybody was fearing. For those who aren't locals, this fire started Sunday afternoon and within 24 hours or so had already grown larger than the Cerro Grande fire of 2000. The winds have been blowing it straight towards the town of Los Alamos as well as Los Alamos National Lab. As of yesterday the town had been evacuated, and the Lab is more or less closed indefinitely.

Here's the fire map from yesterday morning. The area shown in the pictures in my previous post is in the upper right corner and is presumably destroyed now, since as of last night the fire had crested the top of Pajarito Mountain (about 4 miles from both town and the Lab).

Fire map as of 6/27. File from nmfireinfo.wordpress.com

Everyone is obviously filled with dread, sadness, severe anxiety... I really feel for those who also had to evacuate in 2000. I can't imagine having to go through that again. Although the reality is that having gone through that fire the community as a whole is better prepared psychologically to deal with this one. I see a lot of people holding their heads high, knowing that their family and friends and relationships are all intact. And events like these always bring the best out in people, and I see a lot of that too. This despite all of us knowing that this one is likely to get bad, maybe even real bad, before it gets better.

New Mexico Fire Information website: nmfireinfo.wordpress.com

Pajarito and Canon de Valle

2011-06-26T10:15:00.000-06:00

Got out for a great run on Friday with Crone, Stockton, Geist, and Coblentz. We covered roughly miles 24-35 of the Jemez 50 course, plus a short off-trail section between Pajarito Mountain and Canon de Valle. Starting at the bottom of Pajarito Canyon, we ran up and out of the canyon, hooked up with Nail Trail, and continued up "Geist's Gap" to Townsite Lift. We pushed a comfortable but honest pace up most of the climb, with a little bit of a surge coming into Townsite but that was it. After a quick refueling break we hiked/ran (mostly hiked) the final section up to the summit of Pajarito. The air was nice and cool in the woods, a wonderful break from the searing heat we've had recently. Just as we were getting to the top we saw a beautiful young bull elk pop out of the thick trees and bolt off.

We paused again at the top to tighten up the shoes and check out the summit marker, then scrambled/ran down the backside. The drop to the top of Canon de Valle was about 1000 feet in half a mile, through a mix of large grass clumps and rocks.

Approximate route; click for larger version

The descent down Canon de Valle started out pretty mellow but it wasn't long before Crone and I got stupid and turned on the afterburners for a little mano a mano. It's actually a really great section of trail for some high speed downhill practice. We called a truce just before hitting the Perimeter Trail and then it was a short cruise back to the cars... followed immediately by breakfast burritos at Hot Rocks. Total for the morning was 11-12 miles, and 3000+ feet of gain. Below are several photos.

Townsite Lift

A glimpse of the Caldera from the Pajarito ridge line

Hmmm, that looks tempting

Stellar views from up top

The descent down to Canon de Valle, with Cerro Grande in the background

The top of Canon de Valle. Cerro Grande in upper right.

Running through this is hard to beat!

As it turns out we made it back right around the time that the Stage III fire restrictions went into effect, which means that all National Forest lands in the area are now off-limits unless specifically listed as being open. I personally think this is the right decision until the fire danger passes. Yes it eliminates a significant fraction of my trail running options but that's hardly the most important thing in the big picture right now. Besides, there's still Dale Ball, and it's almost time to start my taper for the North Fork 50km anyway.

The weekly numbers: racked up a decent amount of vertical this week. I'm just enjoying the hills too much to want to do anything else.

Mon: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail at tempo pace.

Tue: 8.5 mi / 1800 ft. Nail Trail to Townsite at long run pace.

Wed: 5.9 mi / 900 ft. S-Site easy with Porter, who was recovering from Lake City.

Thu AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Easy.

Thu PM: 6.1 mi / 1300 ft. Camp May Trail to Nail Trail with the lunch group.

Fri: 11.6 mi / 3200 ft. Pajarito - Canon de Valle.

Sat AM: 3.7 mi / 1300 ft. Hike up/down Picacho with kid #1 on my back and my visiting brother in tow.

Sat PM: 30 min core work.

Sun: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy

Total: 52.4 mi / 10800 ft.

The boy atop Picacho (8500 ft)

And the week before, which aside from Saturday's effort was mostly easy:

Mon: 5.9 mi / 900 ft. S-Site easy.

Tue AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Easy.

Tue PM: 7.2 mi / 700 ft. Flattish with a few medium tempo miles to mix things up.

Wed: 30 min core work.

Thu: 5.9 mi / 900 ft. S-Site again.

Fri: 6.3 mi / 600 ft. Ran the kid to preschool in the stroller, then ran back home.

Sat AM: 13.8 mi / 4300 ft. Borrego to Winsor to Norski and back (10.0 mi / 3200 ft) at a good effort, followed by a lap on the Borrego-Winsor-Bear Wallow triangle (3.8 mi / 1100 ft) with Nyberg.

Sat PM: 30 minutes in the pool.

Sun: 3.6 mi / 500 ft. Easy

Total: 46.8 mi / 8300 ft.

Pacheco Canyon Wildifre

2011-06-19T18:11:00.002-06:00

Saturday afternoon a fire broke out in the Santa Fe National Forest northeast of Tesuque and 8-9 miles from the north side of Santa Fe. The specific location is Pacheco Canyon, which is roughly between the Winsor and Rio en Medio trails west of Ski Santa Fe. A friend of ours who lives in Tesuque was told that the fire started when some power line poles were blown over, but we have not heard that or other suspected causes reported on the news. Fortunately the winds are blowing northeast away from town - but towards the Pecos Wilderness. The potential for this to grow is huge given the tinderbox conditions. For now all we can do is wait and hope for the best. The winds are supposed to ease up soon and the weather forecast includes a chance of showers in a couple days. And more crews are en route. Let's keep our collective fingers crossed.

Pacheco Canyon runs horizontally about one fourth of the way down from the top
of the image. Shown here with part of my Saturday morning run. Click for larger version.

The view from my bedroom window Saturday afternoon

Turning seasons

2011-06-12T20:15:00.007-06:00

After a few false starts I think summer has finally shown up in Santa Fe. I always enjoy June. The temperatures are warm but not oppressive, and memories of the cold are sufficiently fresh that I'm not sick of the heat yet. The blooming trees and shrubs are a welcome reprise from the Tatooine-like landscape we have for much of the year. And the creeks coming off the mountains are full of spring run-off. Of course come late September I'll be pining for crisp nights and the ritual swapping of our summer bedspread for the down comforter, but that's one of the (many) things that I love about living in Santa Fe: we have very distinct seasons, and just as one starts to grind on you, a new one sweeps in.

And so it is with my running right now. The weather is giving me all the motivation I need to be outside, and I can sense my mindset switching from "training" to "running". That means I'm doing the runs that I'm doing primarily because they're fun and exhilarating and challenging. Yes I am still planning some specific runs to prepare for my July events, and yes I am still trying to incorporate a reasonable range of workouts. But the priority is enjoying myself out on the trails, and if I'm chasing fitness it's for the purposes of furthering that enjoyment. Not because of a time goal or a finisher's award. That will come again soon enough.

Some pictures from the weekend:

Heading down the Borrego Trail

Nice place for a picnic

Yummy vertical

The dogs playing catch-up

Classic Dale Ball singletrack

And a classic Dale Ball view, with Caballo off in the distance

Another typical view, this time of Atalaya

And the weekly numbers: climbing at sub-LT/tempo pace was the theme of the week, with my longest run barely breaking two hours. But I needed a rest from the long stuff anyway.

Mon: 5.9 mi / 600 ft. S-Site cruise with the lunch group.

Tue AM: 4.6 mi / 600 ft. Easy.

Tue PM: 6.1 mi / 1200 ft. Up Camp May Trail, down Nail Trail with Crone, Coblentz, and Porter. Nobody felt like doing hill repeats so we did a moderate tempo hill climb instead.

Tue eve: 75 min yoga class.

Wed: 6.2 mi / 900 ft. Hyde Park to Dale Ball and back via Cerro Gordo and Gonzales. I think this is my new preferred AM easy run since about half of it is on either trail or dirt road... if I can get up early enough to squeeze it in.

Thu AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Easy.

Thu PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail at long run pace.

Fri: 9.2 mi / 2000 ft. Nail Trail to Townsite plus a short ways up Pajarito. I was supposed to get up early and join the crew for 6am ski hill repeats, but leaving my wife with a crying/puking/pooping baby to go for a run would have burned up far more marital capital than I was willing to spend :)

Sat AM: 30 min core work.

Sat PM: 3.8 mi / 1100 ft. Borrego-Bear Wallow easy with the dogs.

Sun AM: 10.8 mi / 1800 ft. Dale Ball plus mileage to/from TH. Kept the distance in check in anticipation of a long run next Friday.

Sun PM: About 45 minutes unstructured/mixed swimming with the kid. A perfect way to end the week.

Total: 57.9 mi / 10000 ft.

Bringing sense to the barefoot debate

2011-06-06T16:16:00.000-06:00

During the lunch time run today a couple of us were wondering out loud how much podiatrists' business has increased now that every running publication on the planet is suggesting a transition to minimalist shoes. Fortunately, and as is usually the case, the guys over at The Science of Sport have brought some rational thought to the discussion with a recent article on barefoot running. To quote:

"On the whole, barefoot running, or at least minimalist shoes, is a sound concept. Lieberman’s theories regarding our ability to run are solid, and I do believe that the days of bulky, motion-control shoes are numbered. I think that barefoot running will be very difficult to implement, if not impossible, for some people and probably doesn’t work in the extremist view that some people are offering for it."

I highly recommend reading the article.

Micro vs Macro Cycles

2011-06-05T20:09:00.001-06:00

I've tended to think about my training on a weekly basis, with my weeks spanning Monday through Sunday inclusive. Sure I'll often have a bigger picture in mind but in terms of individual workouts it's always been weekly. Now I'm starting to wonder if I should be thinking in terms of two-week blocks instead.

Nail Trail to Townsite route and profile

What got me thinking about this was a spectacular bonk on Thursday afternoon. I had run up Nail Trail to the Townsite lift, basically the lower 2/3 or so of Pajarito Mountain. I felt good on the way up, but on the way down I had a massive blood sugar crash, despite plenty of calories in the morning. I even walked parts of the descent because I was so loopy I thought for sure I'd trip and take a flyer.

Once I got back and ate something and my brain started working again I played back the last several days of running in my head: hill climb on Thursday, hill intervals on Tuesday, and easy runs in between. But wait, there was that 28-miler on Sunday, and then ski hill repeats the Friday before. Well crap, no wonder I bonked: four hard workouts and over 16000 feet of vertical in seven days, and all of that coming only five days after Jemez. I didn't see it because my mind hit the reset button on Monday morning. But of course my body didn't, and even though my legs might have been OK my glycogen stores were very obviously not. Hence the appeal of a two-week schedule. Actually earlier this year Running Times published an article on transitioning from marathons to ultras that showed some sample two-week schedules. I had forgotten about that article but I'll have to take a look at it again. Perhaps it will give me some ideas. I think the main thing will be limiting myself to two hard sessions plus a longer run each week, and then mixing things up over the two-week cycle so that I hit all of my major workouts. My work schedule is such that I can only do the Friday ski hill repeats every other week anyway, so that one will sort of take care of itself.

Anyway. After Thursday I ran easy on Friday and Saturday and made sure to eat plenty to get my stores back up. Sunday was the first of a few specific training runs I have planned to prep for the North Fork 50km in July. This one was a little over 15 miles and 2600 ft of vertical (so like half of the course) on the Dale Ball trails, all at a steady tempo-ish effort. The first 12-13 were nice and solid but then the heat was getting to my dog and we had to slow down quite a bit for the home stretch. Still a good workout though. I'll probably repeat it next weekend, hopefully with cooler temps.

The weekly numbers:

Mon: Off

Tue AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Easy.

Tue PM: 6 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats with Crone, Coblentz, Stockton, Porter, and Birdsell. My approach this week was to run hard until I blew up, which happened spectacularly at the end of the 4th lap. Splits: 3:42, 3:43, 3:50, 4:07, 4:31, 4:40, 4:35, 4:14.

Tue Eve: 75 min yoga class.

Wed: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Easy.

Thu: 8.5 mi / 1800 ft. Nail Trail to Townsite.

Fri: 7.5 mi / 800 ft. Easy. Hyde Park - Gonzales - Cerro Gordo - Canyon then back up the hill.

Sat: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Sun: 15.4 mi / 2600 ft. About 11 miles on DB plus to/from the TH. Ugh, hot.

Total: 50.8 mi / 8050 ft.

Dumb-Ass Ultra Trail du Mont Baldy

2011-05-30T10:59:00.000-06:00

On Sunday Crone and I did a route that I have since titled the "Dumb-Ass Ultra Trail du Mont Baldy". "Dumb Ass" (vs Fat Ass) because, well, we're dumb-asses for doing this the weekend after Jemez - actually our idiocy gets worse than that, just wait. And "Ultra Trail du Mont Baldy" because the route is a circumnavigation of Santa Fe Baldy, just like the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc is a circumnavigation of Mont Blanc. Of course our run was only 28 miles and 8500 feet of gain instead of 104 miles and 31000 feet of gain, so I suppose you could add "Wanna-be" somewhere in the title as an additional adjective... although whether that adjective should apply to the route or to the runners is debatable.

Mont Blanc. Wikipedia photo.

Santa Fe Baldy. Wikipedia photo.

The origin of this run was my wife's desire to have a girls' night potluck at our house... which means I get kicked out of the house. Now the astute reader may have noted the use of the word "night" in that last sentence. The even more astute reader may have also recalled my statement that our "idiocy gets worse", and put two and two together. No, we wouldn't be doing the whole run in the dark, but the plan was to start around 3pm, meaning we'd be carrying headlamps. And as Crone's wife so quickly pointed out, since we'd be out at dusk we had better bring cat treats along, so my trusty Shephard would join us for the ride. OK he actually goes on a lot of long runs with me; I wasn't just bringing him along as cougar bait (I'm usually the cougar bait, oh wait that's at the bar not the trailhead, sorry).

Anyway. Our route would circumnavigate Santa Fe Baldy via the Winsor, Skyline, Rio Capulin, and Rio Nambe Trails, with some smaller trails used in various places as connectors. Along the way we'd pass by Puerto Nambe, Spirit Lake, Stewart Lake, Horsethief Meadow, Panchuela West, and the Rio Frijoles and Rio Nambe drainages. And because there is no trail in between Baldy and Redondo Peak, we'd be going around Redondo as well.

The Dumb-Ass UTMB route. Click for larger version.

Given that we were most familiar with the section of trail between the Ski Basin and Stewart Lake, we decided to do the loop in the clockwise direction and save that section for last. I won't go into all the small details, but suffice it to say that this was an absolutely epic adventure. In the end we totaled about 8:15 with nearly three hours in the dark. Lots of bushwhacking, trail finding, tree hopping, cattle herd avoiding, and my dog kinda bonked a bit too. This route is not recommended for those without off-trail experience, in particular the section from Rio Nambe up through Panchuela West. Below are a few photos from the day.

Climbing up out of the Rio Frijoles drainage

Panchuela West

Horsethief Meadow at dusk

And congrats to all the participants of the Santa Fe Run Around which took place on Saturday:

The start of the Santa Fe Run Around 5k and 10k

The week in numbers:

Mon: Off. Intense DOMS.

Tue: 75 min yoga. DOMS still bad. Yoga class was painful but it really helped.

Wed: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Decided to finally test things out, slowly. Felt quite a bit better than I expected but didn't take any chances getting frisky.

Thu: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy. Except for some lingering foot soreness and depletion everything seemed back to normal, surprisingly.

Fri: 4.0 mi / 3200 ft. Pajarito ski hill repeats with Coblentz. Holy. Mother. Of. God. Me being the idiot that I am I have to go and hammer myself as soon as the legs feel OK again.

Sat: 30 min core work + 2.3 mi easy with the kid in stroller to watch the Santa Fe Run Around then over to the farmer's market.

Sun AM: 3.8 mi / 1100 ft. Borrego-Bear Wallow hike with the wife.

Sun PM: 27.6 mi / 8500 ft. DA-UTMB. And 50k on the day with the morning's hike.

Total (runs only): 43.3 mi / 12600 ft.

And last week's numbers, for the record:

Mon: 5.9 mi / 900 ft.
Tue AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft.
Tue PM: 75 min yoga.
Wed: 4.1 mi / 400 ft.
Thu: Off
Fri: 3.2 mi / 400 ft.
Sat: 50 mi / 12000 ft. Jemez.
Sun: Off (duh!)

Total: 67.2 mi / 14100 ft.

Jemez 50 Mile Race Report

2011-05-23T06:13:00.018-06:00

Wow, what an epic day. First off, kudos to the race organizers as this was an awesome event. The aid stations were well-stocked, the volunteers were outstanding, and the whole day was extremely well organized. And second congrats to the 118 finishers (out of 162 starters) who stuck it out and conquered this course that is a perfect blend of the brutal and the beautiful.

So if you're one of my many many readers (yes that was sarcasm) then you probably know that the Jemez 50 mile was my focus race for the first half of the 2011 season as well as my debut at the 50 mile distance. I had had a solid build-up (by my standards anyway), run tons of hills all spring, a good taper, and now the big day was finally here. My goals were quite simple: run smart, save some strength for the second half of the race, and bring it home in around 12 hours. I figured that if I took care of the first two then the last one would take care of itself. More important than my time goal, however, was having fun out there and soaking up the experience of my first 50 miler. Trail running and in particular mountain running for me has always been about combining the raw, inspirational grandeur of the wilderness with the exhilaration of prolonged physical effort. This is ultimately what makes this sport so enjoyable, and I didn't want to lose sight of that.

As I stood at the starting line all of the nerves of the week seemed to wash away and I felt surprisingly calm. I still hadn't totally wrapped my head around the fact that I would be running until well into the afternoon, but I wasn't intimidated either... just ready for battle. From the start, the course rolls gently over about five miles to the Mitchell Trailhead aid station. The front runners took off fairly quickly but I used the time to get warmed up and socialize a little. No need for me to rush. By the time I rolled through Mitchell I had found a nice steady rhythm and I paused just long enough to drop off my headlamp.

Elevation profile, courtesy of race web site

The Mitchell aid station was the starting point for one of the minor climbs on the day, a roughly 2 mile, 1500' ascent up to Guaje Ridge. I felt pretty good but made a point to keep the effort in check and only ran about half of the climb. This area was burned up pretty good back in the Cerro Grande fire, so I never got to experience these woods as they once were. I'm sure it was spectacular. Towards the top I caught up with Jim the DP50 RD and we ran together for the next few miles, chatting about life and work and running.

The descent down into Guaje Canyon is short and steep, dropping 900-1000' in about a mile. This section was a blast but still hard on the legs. A couple weeks prior some local runners encountered a rather skittish bear down here so I was a little nervous as I came through. Fortunately the only other creatures I saw were runners. The trail turned uphill as we veered west but at a pretty gentle grade so I kept the pace relaxed, enjoyed the cool morning, and fueled up in preparation for Caballo.

Caballo as seen from the climb out of Guaje Canyon

Caballo. The two mile, 1800' climb up Caballo Mountain was the first of three major climbs on the menu... well more like the appetizer really. This ascent was actually quite comparable to going up the north side of Atalaya Mountain in Santa Fe - not quite as steep, but longer. I slowed to a hike fairly early on and just tried to keep a steady pace. It was a really sweet climb through some great forest, and yes the grade was difficult but not brutal. Right near the top the trail emerges from the woods into a little meadow, with some random tree as the turnaround point. The wind was blowing hard up there so I didn't waste any time getting back into the relative shelter of the trees. Which was too bad because the views were phenomenal. I could very easily see myself spending a leisurely afternoon at the top. But not on this day. I tried to take it easy on the descent as I definitely didn't want to put any unnecessary strain on my quads this early in the race.... but I still felt a little beat up and I hoped that the descent wouldn't come back to haunt me later. There's only so much you can do when you're running down something that steep.

All smiles at the Caballo turnaround. Rachel Granzow photo.

I was pretty excited to get down from Caballo and begin the 3 mile trek over to Pipeline. In the weeks leading up to the race I always seemed to think of the first pass through Pipeline as the real beginning of the day. But first you have to climb out of Guaje Canyon. I get the impression that this climb is an often overlooked part of this course. The first half mile or so is rather mellow but soon you get hit with a 3/4 mile, 800' grunt, that if you weren't expecting would be pretty demoralizing coming so soon after Caballo. There was no reason for me to run this so again I settled into a good hiking pace and just focused on getting to the top without going overboard on the effort. I ran/hiked with a woman named Angela through here. She had a good day and would go on to win the woman's race in a little over 11 hours... which isn't too surprising given (as I later learned) that she finished W9 at last year's Western States 100!

The final grunt out of Guaje Canyon

Coming into Pipeline for the first time

Once you get up and out of the canyon the next mile and a half over to Pipeline is just fabulous running through the forest. I had run this section seven or eight weeks prior and loved every step of it, and today was no different. I cruised into Pipeline feeling pretty good, both mentally and physically, knowing I had over a third of the mileage and over half of the climbing under my belt. I stopped long enough to resupply EFS and gels from my drop bag and then I headed over to the top of "Nate's Nemesis". "Nate's Nemesis" (named after Nate McDowell) is a scree-covered drop that takes runners from the plateau down into the Caldera. Probably the best description I've heard of it is a waterslide covered in gravel:

The infamous "Nate's Nemesis"

Yeah, that's about right. Fortunately I had at least some experience with absurd terrain. Often times when I'm snowboarding off-piste I'll pop out of the trees and find myself standing above some nasty little section. About the only thing you can do is take a deep breath, drop in, and get it over with. So I took the same approach here and made my way down without any drama. Problem solved, move on. What followed was a wonderful four-mile section of jeep roads through the Caldera, Just stunning, with huge open spaces surrounded by ridges and peaks. Unfortunately I started to feel really bloated and sluggish through here. And of course once your body starts to act weird your brain starts having negative thoughts. I figured I just needed some time for my stomach to absorb its contents. When I got to Valle Grande quite a bit later than I had anticipated my energy levels were good but my stomach was just kind of off.

Valles Caldera as seen from Pipeline

A portion of the course that never fails to chew people up is the 8 miles or so between the Valle Grande and Pajarito Canyon aid stations. Upon leaving Valle Grande there's a short off-trail ramble through some grasslands. I had to be careful and watch my footing, but otherwise this continued to be wonderful running. Of course it was just a prelude for a beast of a climb up Cerro Grande. The first half mile after you start climbing toward the treeline is not so bad but then there's a mile or so section that climbs around 1300'. The climb basically goes like this: Take four steps straight up. F***. Climb over a log. F***. Traverse a field of boulders. F***. Duck under a tree. F***. Sorry false summit. F*** f*** f*** g*dammit. In the end you just gotta take it all in and try to laugh it off. Or lose yourself in a world of pain, which is the more likely scenario. For a while I thought that judgment day had actually come and this was the beginning of my purgatory. But finally I made it to the top. I know it's almost starting to sound cliche at this point but the views were once again absolutely stunning. It's amazing how much spectacular landscape is around us and we don't even realize it because we don't get a chance to see it.

The next task at hand was the descent of Canon de Valle down to Pajarito Canyon. Before that however I had to take care of some business: my stomach had been growing more and more uncomfortable the entire way up the climb, and after about 30 seconds of downhill running I had to pull over and puke. And I mean puke. Everything came out. I suspect the issue was caused by the EFS, which I had not previously used in runs over four hours. I think it's just too sweet, and if I dilute it, which I had done, then I end up with too much water and bloating. Fortunately, as is usually the case I felt really good after the purge and was able to shift my focus towards getting over to Pajarito Canyon.

Descending Canon de Valle. Jim Stein photo.

The descent through Canon de Valle was just gorgeous. The landscape was different from the approach into Pipeline but every bit as enjoyable: flowers, meadows, aspen groves, a little bit of everything. I was definitely starting to feel some fatigue through here, given that I was approaching 28 miles and had been on my feet for around 6 hours. But I could feel my strength returning as my stomach got back to normal. My mental energy also was climbing for a couple reasons. First, the portion of the mountain between Pajarito Canyon and Townsite Lift is one that I run in training, so I was excited to be on familiar ground. Second, my family would be waiting for me at Ski Lodge. It's easy to think about and be motivated by your own hard work and not letting that go to waste, but when you think about what those close to you have also sacrificed on your behalf, that kind of takes it to another level. I kept reminding myself that I owed it to them to put out my best effort, and I was motivated to do that. Now I had been worried about how I was going to get calories but fortunately at the aid station they had ginger ale which along with Endurolytes would be my savior for the next couple hours.

The climb between Pajarito and Townsite was familiar ground

The climb up Pajarito Mountain begins with a relatively moderate 4 mile ascent to the Townsite Ski Lift. I knew I could run most of this climb, but I also knew that I needed to save some energy for the final push to the summit. I was able to keep chugging along steadily if not entirely comfortably, with some walking breaks on the steeper parts. I stopped briefly at Townsite aid station for more ginger ale and then I was into the meat of the Pajarito ascent, the final major climb of the day. I knew the grade eased up a little at the shoulder after about a mile so I kept my focus on getting to that point. "Get to the shoulder, get to the shoulder, get to the shoulder" is what played over and over again in my head, with intermittent injections of "F*** this hurts" followed immediately by "You're hiking up a ski slope after running 10 miles farther than a marathon. It's supposed to hurt." Once I made it up to the shoulder the second half was mild in comparison, and I was able to coax my body into running a good portion of it. Somehow I managed to catch and pass a few people near the top.

When I finally reached the summit I slowed for a few seconds to enjoy the view but then prepared myself for the infamous descent off the top. Honestly it wasn't so bad. Steep yes but once again I was able to rely on my experience going down steep terrain. I knew to just trust my abilities and I actually ran the descent pretty aggressively, passing another couple runners about half way down. Finally I rolled into the Ski Lodge area in one piece and I was hugely stoked to see my little boy run up to me all excited. Other than the finish that was the highlight of my day. I took a few minutes here to change into fresh shoes and socks that my wife had brought along. Then after a quick kiss goodbye and a couple more chugs of ginger ale I was off.

Coming into Ski Lodge at mile 36.2.

Leaving Ski Lodge was like a fresh start for me. My feet felt good, my energy levels were solid (relatively anyway), and I knew as long as I didn't screw things up I would easily break 12 hours. Most importantly I had all of the big climbs behind me. I had run the three miles or so from Ski Lodge to Pipeline enough times in training that I knew what to expect. This section contains a lot of short little hills, things that I wouldn't even necessarily call hills on a training run, but nearly 40 miles into a 50 mile suffer-fest they were not at all insignificant. They hurt, but I made myself run nearly all of then including the final climb out of Canada Bonita. Fortunately I was finally able to eat some gels again without feeling nauseous so I started hitting those pretty regularly. Then a quick little downhill and I was back at Pipeline.

Canada Bonita, approximately mile 38

After a quick stop to resupply for the last time I departed in a very motivated state of mind. Immediately out of Pipeline is a short stout climb that is definitely a walker, but after that the rest of the way is almost entirely downhill and I was ready to bring it home. I had hoped that I would feel good enough at this point to push the pace. On the other hand, I didn't want to go too hard and have a complete melt down five miles from the finish. So I found a good steady rhythm first, and then cautiously started increasing my effort. The farthest I had ever run before was about 34 miles so this was new territory for me.

Coming into Pipeline the second time at mile 39. Dave Dogruel photo.

What Pipeline looked like a month or two before race day, with
Pajarito looming in the background.

By the time I came back through Guaje Ridge aid station at mile 43 I was feeling pretty solid. Back in December I had run the section between the Guaje Ridge and Rendija Canyon aid stations, so I knew what the next 5-6 miles had in store. I stopped briefly at Guaje Ridge for a final bottle refill and one more chug of ginger ale and then got right back at it. The pain was growing with each step but so was my excitement because I knew I was having a good day. Whenever I was tempted to slow down I kept reminding myself that everything hurt regardless of how fast I went, so slowing down would only prolong the agony.

Finally I hit Rendija Canyon aid station. Two miles to go. After a short grunt to get out of the canyon the rest of the way is a gentle roll over to the finish line. I was suffering grandly through here but I was so excited to be done I had no trouble keeping a steady pace. I had almost half an hour to run the last 1.9 miles and break 11:30. I actually passed a few people on this last section, folks who presumably had blown up and were just walking it in. When I made it back to the road after one last little hill I could feel a huge smile forming on my face. I crossed the line at 11:28 and change, good enough for 25th overall.

About 10 yards to go!

And just like that I was done. This was an amazing day that I won't soon forget. I know I picked a tough course as my first 50 but it's my hometown race so what can I say, I had to run it. But it's not just the course that makes this a great event, it's everything about it. The number and quality of runners who come here to test themselves is proof of that. For me I couldn't be happier with how the day played out. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to complete something like this just a little over a year after I started running and I'm already looking forward to the 2012 edition.

Splits:

Mitchell 0:51 /0:51
Guaje Ridge 0:33 / 1:24
Caballo Base 0:39 / 2:03
Caballo Base 1:07 / 3:10
Pipeline 0:40 / 3:50
Valle Grande 0:46 / 4:36
Pajarito Canyon 1:54 / 6:30
Townsite 0:59 / 7:29
Ski Lodge 1:06 / 8:35
Pipeline 0:41 / 9:16
Guaje Ridge 0:47 / 10:03
Rendija 0:58 / 11:02
Finish 0:26 / 11:28

Gear:

La Sportiva Wildcats
drymax lite Trail Run socks
Salomon shorts
TNF tech shirt
Princeton quad-tec headlamp
REI fitness cap
Ultimate Direction & Nathan handheld bottles
Soleus 10k watch
Native Eyewear bolt sunglasses
Dakine liner gloves

In the race for first place Nick Clark destroyed the field, besting second place by over an hour and a half and shaving 30 seconds off Kyle Skaggs' course record in the process. The Los Alamos lunchtime crew also had a good day overall. Blake Wood took 7th, sneaking in just under 10 hours, and Mark Porter finished a minute or so ahead of me. In the 50km race Brian Crone took 1st place (!) and David Coblentz finished 4th.

Results

Lower Winsor

2011-05-15T12:51:00.000-06:00

Got out to the lower Winsor Trail yesterday for a nice hike with the family. By no small miracle we actually left the house early enough to be the first car at the trailhead in Tesuque, which in turn meant we didn't see a soul until the return leg. This portion of Winsor is rather well-worn and often times crowded. For us however it's kind of like that dish your mom used to make so often when you were a kid that you got sick of it, but now it's comforting and familiar. Despite living about 7 minutes from the trailhead I actually don't run this section of Winsor very often, mostly just as part of a longer trip up the mountain in which case it gets relegated to warm-up and cool-down miles (e.g. last weekend's run). This time, however, it was about going slow, enjoying ourselves, and watching the beautiful spring morning unfold.

The first half mile or so runs adjacent to private land

With the sun still low in the sky we were treated to a number of cool shady sections

Looking up (yes up) the trunk of a massive and amazing pine tree

Enjoying the creek in the way that only mischievous little boys can, with
his loyal amigo standing guard

The morning sun was refreshing after a few colder days earlier in the week.

This was a pretty non-eventful taper week as far as running goes... which was the point. I put in a little over 40 miles and maybe 7000' of vertical, plus a few non-running workouts. All of it pretty easy save for a couple pick-ups on Tuesday and a good solid hour of hilly tempo on Thursday. Next week will be even easier, probably 4-5 miles a day tops with hopefully lots of sleep. The calm before the storm...

The Beer is in the Tank

2011-05-08T15:28:00.001-06:00

Yes I know the expression is "the hay is in the barn", but I thought a reference to the brewing process would be more my style given that I've probably been in a barn all of about four times my entire life. So, two weeks out from the Jemez 50 mile, the beer is finally in the tank and it's time for the conditioning (i.e. taper) to start. And damn am I ever ready for it. Holy crap I'm tired. Fortunately I don't have any nagging injuries that need healing, just wear and tear, and on muscles I didn't even know I had. Kind of like when you visit the East Coast in July for the first time and you start shvitzing in ways you hadn't imagined were possible. Just replace the sweat with pain. Yep that's about what I feel like right now.

This last week was a journey in and of itself mentally. Monday it was "yeah maybe a three week taper is the way to go then I could just start today". Wednesday it was "OMFG just shoot me now", which by about Thursday afternoon had devolved to "I want my mommy". Somehow Friday I felt good again and was thinking "man I just wanna get out and run". Which I did, with a beautiful cruise from Tesuque up to Ski Santa Fe and back via the Winsor Trail on Saturday. Granted, I was cursing my own enthusiasm as Crone and I power-hiked the last of the steep technical singletrack before the Norski parking lot, and cursing myself again as we blasted back down the same section shortly thereafter, but it was a pretty sweet way to end the week and kick off the taper. Of course I had to aspire for even higher levels of stupidity by doing a three hour hike 90 minutes after I got back from a four hour run. I still don't know WTF I was thinking.

Saturday's route:

The last long run. Click for larger version.

So here's what my 18-week build-up (tear down?) has looked like in terms of weekly mileage:

To be honest I like RunningAHEAD.com but I don't get the whole run type thing. I mean, if I run easy up a hill is that an easy run or a hill run? Is it just me? What's just as important as the mileage though is specificity, and for Jemez that means vertical. So here are the actual mileage and climbing totals for each week (with highlights), dating back to the beginning of the year:

1/03: 30.8 mi / 5300'.
1/10: 43.5 mi / 7000'.
1/17: 49.4 mi / 7000' (16.7 mi / 1000' long run).
1/24: 35.9 mi / 4000'. Corrida de Los Locos.
1/31: 49.2 mi / 7800' (6.4 mi / 500' + 16.7 mi / 1000' double).
2/07: 54.0 mi / 8400' (9.8 mi / 1900' + 15.1 mi / 2000' back-to-back).
2/14: 47.0 mi / 8300' (9.3 mi / 2700' + 13.6 mi / 1900' back-to-back).
2/21: 53.8 mi / 7300' (23.1 mi / 1300' long run).
2/28: 51.3 mi / 7000' (13.2 mi / 1200' long run). Hangover run :)
3/07: 52.1 mi / 7100' (26.2 mi / 4500' long run). Salida Marathon.
3/14: 52.4 mi / 8500' (14.0 mi / 2300' long run).
3/21: 60.7 mi / 9200' (23.8 mi / 2900' long run).
3/28: 66.4 mi / 11200' (19.8 mi / 3700' long run).
4/04: 71.1 mi / 12200' (17.2 mi / 4600' long run).
4/11: 40.7 mi / 4400' (11.2 mi / 1300' + 13.6 / 1700' back-to-back).
4/18: 64.5 mi / 10700' (13.7 mi / 2300' long run).
4/25: 72.2 mi / 14300' (19.0 mi / 4900' long run). Tour de Dale Ball.
5/02: 73.5 mi / 12400' (19.3 mi / 4800' long run).

I'm pretty satisfied all things considered. My only real regret is not being able to run a shorter ultra in April as an additional training race. But I guess I'll have to wait until next year for a mid-spring suffer-fest on the home turf. Regardless, I know I can run up and down hills for a long friggin' time without getting tired. Now it's time to ease off the gas and get some rest. Hopefully it will all add up to something better than DFL in a couple weeks.

Tour de Dale Ball

2011-05-01T10:47:00.001-06:00

On Saturday Crone and I did a "Tour de Dale Ball" run: 19 miles and 4900' feet of vertical. Crone's question to me when I suggested the run: how do you get 19 miles out of Dale Ball? Well, it took some creativity, but basically like this:

Tour de Dale Ball route. Click for larger version.

Elevation profile (with start/finish at Sierra del Norte)

It's a large figure eight, with roughly 9 miles in each loop. The southern loop includes a summit of Atalaya. We had considered running from my house to the TH which would have added 4-5 miles. Instead we decided to drive to the Upper Canyon TH so we could use the car as an aid station and thereby get away with handheld bottles instead of hydration packs.

We decided to do the southern loop first. The climb up Atalaya was a grind as expected - about 40 minutes to the top. We had started in the dark but fortunately by the time we hit the summit there was enough light to navigate the descent fairly quickly. I would not have wanted to run down that with only a headlamp to light the way. Toward the bottom as we turned north onto the Dorothy Stewart Trail I realized I had forgotten the map at the car. I had never been on that section of the trail, and Crone hadn't in a long time. But we managed to pick our way through the trail intersections and somehow stuck to our planned route. We made it back to the car right at the two hour mark, and took five minutes or so to ditch our headlamps, top off water bottles, and refill pockets with food.

The start of the northern loop was a bit sluggish. However once we got warmed up again we pushed a really good pace the entire way. I was very pleased with how my body felt: clearly there was a good deal of accumulated fatigue in my legs from the last few weeks, yet the strength was there too. I sort of reached a steady state level of discomfort, but it didn't get any worse and I was very easily able to power up all of the climbs at a decent clip. Our time for the second loop was about 1:38, so 3:38 total. And I already have notions of a Dale Ball Marathon or 50k percolating in my head...

Overall this was another good week with lots of vertical. I'm tired, hungry, and sleep deprived, but things are starting to come together. The numbers:

Mon: 5.9 mi / 900 ft. Easy S-Site out-and-back with Porter.

Tue: 6.0 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats. Splits: 4:10, 4:17, 4:15, 4:28, 4:40, 4:35, 4:25, 4:30. Legs felt pretty flat so I kept it comfortable. Coblentz and I thought we were the only ones stupid enough to venture out in the snow and driving wind, but a couple other morons showed up midway through.

Wed AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Recovery pace. Really needed that one.

Wed PM: 6.1 mi / 1300 ft. Good hill climb run with the lunch crowd. Up a trail that parallels Camp May Rd, down Nail Trail. Finished with Crone, Coblentz, and Porter.

Thu AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Another good recovery run.

Thu PM: 9.2 mi / 2000 ft. Nail Trail to Townsite plus a partial ascent of Pajarito. The beating from the previous two days set me up nicely for a long steady climb on tired and depleted legs.

Fri AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Nice and slow.

Fri PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail easy. I didn't really need to do this run but it was too nice of an afternoon not to get out for a cruise in the woods (and away from the wind).

Sat: 19.0 mi / 4900 ft. Tour de Dale Ball.

Sun: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Total: 72.2 mi / 14300 ft.

Atalaya North Side

2011-04-24T15:31:00.010-06:00

Saturday afternoon my brother-in-law and I hiked up Atalaya from the north side. The overcast weather put a damper on the views but allowed us to push the pace a bit. Round trip was about three hours for the 6-ish miles and 2000 feet or so of climb and descent. The route is for the most part pretty mellow until you get past the turn off for the Picacho summit. After another half mile or so of gentle climbing the trail pitches steeply upward, with a couple false summits along the way. Temperatures were quite a bit cooler at the top, so after snapping a few pics we headed back down. Beers and dinner at our favorite sushi joint made for a great ending to the day.

A few pictures:

Our destination, as seen on the way up just past the Picacho summit turn off

Looking back toward Picacho

The trail gets fairly technical near the end

One last push...

And the reward.

This was another solid week on the training front mostly focused on intensity. Family happenings and Easter prevented me from getting in a real long run this week, but I did get in a number of hard workouts. Lots of positive signs all the way around. Just two more hard weeks to go.

The numbers:

Mon: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail at long run pace.

Tue AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Tue PM: 6.0 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats with the usual crew. Ugh. Splits: 3:51, 3:54, 4:04, 4:12, 4:11, 4:06, 4:05, 3:57.

Wed AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Thu AM: 4.1 mi / 500 ft. Easy.

Thu PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail at tempo. Very handily set a new 4-minute PR, which equates to about 34 sec/mile faster. This was a good confidence builder.

Fri AM: 7.6 mi / 1100 ft. Hyde Park - Dale Ball - Cerro Gordo. Beautiful morning run. Felt great. Explored some new sections of Dale Ball which is always fun. Tempo for about the middle 4 miles.

Fri Noon: 1.3 mi / 300 ft. Easy hike with the kid. I'm thinking the little loop we did would make a good course for hill repeats.

Sat AM: 8.2 mi / 1000 ft. Easy foothills loop.

Sat PM: 5.9 mi / 2200 ft. Atalaya hike.

Sun: 13.8 mi / 2300 ft. Early morning out and back on Dale Ball plus to and from the trailhead. Lots of mist and light drizzle made for another great morning on the trails.

Total (runs only): 64.5 mi / 10700 ft.

Ouch

2011-04-18T10:41:00.002-06:00

Good thing this last week was planned to be a rest week. Toward the end of my run on the previous Sunday I took a decent tumble, landing squarely on my left hip and shoulder. I didn't think much of it at the time, but by Monday morning my hip was bruised and swollen to the point that even walking made it hurt a little. Fortunately after some rest and easy running everything seemed to be OK by Friday morning. I was able to close off the week with a good 10-ish mile tempo run Saturday morning and a reasonable 2.5 hour cruise Sunday morning. Just barely broke 40 miles for the week (40.7 mi / 4400 ft to be more exact) but since it was supposed to be a rest week for me anyway I'm not really sweating it.

Now back to your regularly scheduled mountain running...

Back to the mountains

2011-04-10T15:33:00.000-06:00

This Sunday I finally got out for a decent long run in the Sangres, the first of the season. Crone and I started at 5am at the first TH on Hyde Park road, right after "Nun's Curve". We had headlamps to light the way and my dog as a wildlife early warning system. We climbed the Burn Trail up to the ridge, and then headed west over to the Chamisa Trail. We descended Chamisa down to Winsor, still in darkness, and continued past the intersections with the Bear Wallow and Borrego Trails. We hit the Big Tesuque Trail just as the sky was starting to emerge from its slumber.

The Big T Trail is a beautiful section of single track and always a pure joy to run, both up and down. From its intersection with Winsor, the trail ascends through some nice Ponderosa and Aspen forest, crosses a small meadow, and eventually pops out on Hyde Park Road across the street from the Big Tesuque Campground at around 9700' elevation. The trail continues on the other side of Hyde Park and hits the Aspen Vista forest service road, but Hyde Park would be our turnaround point for this run. The temperature was quite a bit colder at the top. Both of our hydration tubes had frozen up, and my gels were like taffy, so we quickly turned around. The snow-free trail made for a quick descent back down to the creek. By the time we returned to the car we had covered a touch over 17 miles with 4600 ft of vertical. This was for me the quintessential mountain run: a liberating effort through beautiful and challenging terrain.

[The 5am, 3-4 hour mountain run may become a regular Sunday feature, by the way, if other idiots out there are interested].

Our route. Click for a larger version.

This week was the last of a four-week training block consisting of an easy week after Salida and then three weeks of increasing volume. Monday will be the start of a second four-week block: some much needed rest and recovery next week, followed by three more hard weeks. Then it will be taper time. Counting down the days...

I also want to take a moment to applaud the Santa Fe Striders, Santa Fe's local running club. I mentioned in my Corrida de Los Locos race report that the race had an unexpectedly large turnout. As a result, not everyone received a cotton t-shirt. So after the race, the organizers put in an order for technical/wicking shirts for all participants and they just showed up this week. Now personally I need another technical shirt like I need another dog, but hats off to the Striders for using unexpected race proceeds to give something back to the runners.

This week's numbers: same formula as last week i.e. lots of vertical. If it ain't broke...

Mon: 6.4 mi / 1100 ft. Easy out-and-back on Perimeter Trail. Legs felt tired but good.

Tue: 8.5 mi / 1800 ft. Nice climb up Nail Trail and then continued on another trail (whose name I don't know) up to the Townsite chairlift at the ski area. Would have liked to summit Pajarito but didn't have the time.

Wed AM: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Recovery pace. Needed that one.

Wed PM: 4.6 mi / 900 ft. Perimeter to water tower with Halladay, Crone, and Coblentz.

Thu AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Easy. The early morning recovery runs continue to work wonders for me.

Thu PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail easy... although according to my watch "easy" keeps getting faster and faster. Probably the result of the ass-kickings I continue to receive from the LA lunch group.

Fri AM: 12.7 mi / 1000 ft. Rolling east side S. Fe road run, mostly easy with some pickups here and there to get the legs turning over. Generally felt like crap.

Fri PM: 3.0 mi / 500 ft. Hike on Winsor with the family (and a kid on my back).

Sat AM: 5.3 mi / 500 ft. Recovery pace.

Sat PM: 4.0 mi / 700 ft. Hike at Tent Rocks with the family and some out of town guests. And yes a kid on my back again.

Sun: 17.2 mi / 4600 ft. Big T out-and-back per above, with Crone.

Total (runs only): 71.1 mi / 12200 ft.

"Up and up and up..."

2011-04-03T12:45:00.008-06:00

Sometimes I feel like my stream of consciousness is turning into lines from kids' books concatenated together (that's a reference to the post title for those of you unfamiliar with Maurice Sendak).

Anyway. Big week but feeling good. Lots of vertical right now at easy/sub-LT effort. This is really about finding my ultra pace and learning to run conservatively on climbs. Tuesday's hill repeats were the only intensity on the week, which was just as well given some lingering fatigue from the previous Sunday's long run. Got in a little more Jemez 50 recon on Friday. And believe it or not I finally took a few pics of Nail Trail. 'Bout friggin' time.

The bottom section is quite rocky and technical. Not conducive to a good
climbing rhythm, but, as I often rediscover, quite conducive to rolled ankles
on the way down if you aren't paying attention.

The mid section is the nicest part: soft trail, gentle incline, and plenty
of shade. This is looking back down.

The upper section connects to jeep roads. This portion of the forest
was heavily damaged in the Cerro Grande Fire of 2000.

The numbers:

Mon: 5.9 mi / 900 ft. S-site out and back with the LA lunch group. Mostly easy with a few decent pick-ups.

Tue AM: 3.8 mi / 500 ft. Recovery pace. Felt like crap.

Tue PM: 6.0 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats, same as last week. Splits: 4:05, 4:08, 4:16, 4:07, 4:10, 4:10, 4:24, 3:52. I was a little hesitant to do this workout after a rather unpleasant morning run and a poor night of sleep, but once I got warmed up I actually felt really good.

Wed: 5.3 mi / 400 ft. Recovery run.

Thu AM: 3.2 mi / 400 ft. Easy AM shake-out. Felt really good but kept things in check.

Thu PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail @ long run pace. Ran the climb/descent portion in 44 flat, which was actually about two minutes too fast... was hoping to hit more like 46. Oh well.

Fri: 19.8 mi / 3700 ft. Nail Trail - Pajarito - Pipeline - Guaje Canyon. I wanted to get to the Caballo Trail Head but given the amount of snow and ice on the drop into Guaje Canyon it would have taken more time than I had, so I turned around shortly after starting the descent. Still a damn good run.

Sat AM: 45 min core & upper body work.

Sat PM: 3.9 mi / 600 ft. Easy leg stretcher on Dale Ball with the dogs.

Sun: 11.3 / 1300 ft. Easy foothills loop.

Total: 66.4 mi / 11200 ft.

Embrace your inner carnivore

2011-03-28T12:56:00.025-06:00

This was my first week of increased effort after a couple months of steadiness and I was definitely feeling it by the weekend. Fortunately I managed to squeeze in a rest day, and that combined with our baby's rapidly improving sleep schedule kept me from dragging too much on Sunday's long run... although I still probably went a touch high on the intensity this week. This weekend was also the first of three in a row with family visiting, which isn't terrible as far as scheduling runs goes, but inevitably results in eating a lot of good but unhealthy restaurant food.

Speaking of nutrition I've recently been reading The Paleo Diet for Athletes. The book presents a version of the Paleo Diet adapted for athletic performance... I guess perhaps that was obvious from the title. Duh. I won't go into the Paleo Diet here other than to say that some of the arguments behind it are in my opinion speculative and based (yet again!) on correlation rather than causation. Nonetheless, the book has some interesting concepts that are raised within the context of the Paleo Diet but are actually somewhat independent of the arguments behind it. One example is the notion of maximum nutrient content. The book points out that meats, fruits, and vegetables have a higher nutrient content than foods like grains and legumes. Therefore, if you want to maximize your nutrient intake per calorie of food - which in turn enhances recovery and immune system response - you should reduce carb intake to the minimum amount necessary and spend the rest of your "caloric budget" on Paleo foods (like I need another excuse to eat more meat). I had always viewed the reasoning behind low/no-carb diets as "don't eat carbs because they're bad" rather than "don't eat carbs because then you can eat more of other things", so that was a little different way of thinking about things for me. As I said it's an interesting read.

Anyway. The numbers:

Mon: 8.2 mi / 500 ft. Mostly flat, medium tempo leg spinner.

Tue AM: 30 min core workout.

Tue PM: 6 mi / 2000 ft. Hill repeats with the Los Alamos crew. 8 laps on a 0.5 mi circuit with +/- 200 ft climb and descent, plus about 2 mi / 400 ft warm up and cool down. Splits (minus the first lap): 4:03, 4:13, 4:15, 4:12, 4:13, 4:12, 3:46

Wed: 4.1 mi / 400 ft. Recovery pace.

Thu AM: 3.2 mi / 400 ft. Recovery pace again.

Thu PM: 10.7 mi / 2200 ft. Two trips up Nail trail plus to the TH and back. Splits for the climb/descent: 41:37, 38:43.

Fri: 4.8 mi / 800 ft. Dale Ball easy with the dogs.

Sat: Off.

Sun: 23.7 mi / 2900 ft. 3 laps of a foothills circuit near home. A good run but I definitely did not enjoy the 4:30 am start. Splits: 1:13:xx, 1:16:xx, 1:14:xx.

Total: 60.7 mi / 9200 ft.

La Sportiva Crosslite 2.0: Initial Impressions

2011-03-22T18:27:00.004-06:00

Background

About a month ago I was fortunate enough to win a pair of La Sportiva Crosslite shoes in one of iRunFar.com's giveaway contests. I actually already owned a pair, so I figured I'd just stick the new pair in the closet for the time being. When the package arrived from La Sportiva, however, I discovered that what they had sent me was the Crosslite 2.0. Curious as to what the differences were, I browsed over to the La Sportiva web site. La Sportiva describes the 2.0 as essentially the original plus some cushioning for "extra protection and comfort on longer runs". At the time I did not think these differences would amount to much. However, after putting some miles on the shoes I have come to conclude otherwise, and I thought I'd share my observations. But before I get into the 2.0, I want to (briefly) describe my experience with both the original Crosslite and the La Sportiva Wildcat, since I will use these shoes as points of reference and comparison for the Crosslite 2.0.

The Wildcat and Original Crosslite

I first tried the Wildcats after an initially promising but ultimately failed experiment with another brand of shoe. And it turned out to be fortuitous, because the Wildcats are, for me, a great trail running shoe: Grippy, breathable, and comfortable enough to wear for hours on end. I just love 'em. They are my go-to shoe for anything longer than a couple hours. I used them for several trail races in 2010 as well as the Salida Trail Marathon earlier this month.

I picked up my Crosslites back in October with the hope that the large, widely-spaced lugs would make them ideal for winter trail running. They have indeed performed admirably in the muddy, sloppy, slushy, icy, and snowy conditions that constitute winter trail running in Northern NM. And as many other reviewers of this shoe have pointed out, they just feel light and fast. You can't help but want to crank things up when you're wearing these. I wore them a couple months ago in the Corrida de los Locos cross-country race and they performed great.

My trusted companions: Wildcats (left) and Crosslites (right)

I like to think of these two shoes as a sedan (the Wildcat) and a sports car (the Crosslite): one for long trips, and one for getting out and just having fun.

Quick note on sizing: My normal shoe size is 9-9.5. I prefer a 42.5 in the Wildcat but a 43 in the Crosslite since it's a little narrower through the midfoot.

The Crosslite 2.0

When I first pulled the Crosslite 2.0 out of the box, my first thought was, yikes that's a mean lookin' shoe:

La Sportiva Crosslite 2.0 after a few miles

Just holding it, the 2.0 feels like the original Crosslite on steroids. Everything from the tongue to the midsole to the heel support is more rugged. Even the upper material seems to be thicker. There's no shortage of foot protection.

The 2.0 retains the cover over the laces but a slightly larger toe bumper

Lacing them up, the same basic Crosslite fit is there, but there are also some differences that can be noticed before you ever even start running. The increased cushioning in the midsole is rather obvious, even just walking around the house. The 2.0 also has more arch support. All of this contributes to a shoe that just feels more substantial on your foot - although ironically the weights are essentially the same, something I confirmed with my kitchen scale.

Once I started putting miles on them, however, the differences really started to reveal themselves. For starters, as one might expect, the added cushioning dampens and reduces ground feedback. Some folks will like that and others won't. I appreciated the cushioning when running on rocks and packed snow/ice, as well as short pavement sections. With the original, I can very definitely feel the outsole lugs pressing through the midsole into the bottom of my feet when running on a hard surface. With the 2.0, this sensation is considerably reduced. On the other hand, there are plenty of times when more intimate contact with the running surface provides useful feedback.

The increased midsole thickness of the 2.0 also changes the ride by putting your foot a touch higher off the ground. For me this was most noticeable when cornering hard. The 2.0 never felt out of control, but I could sense more lateral motion of my foot compared to the original.

The thicker midsole of the 2.0 is readily apparent

The traction and midfoot fit are all Crosslite. On steep technical descents, the 2.0 gripped my foot and the ground just like the original. I had no qualms about bombing down rocky, twisty singletrack at high speed in these shoes. On snow and ice they also performed great and again gave me the same secure footing I get with the original. I have not tested them in hot weather yet but my suspicion is that the 2.0 will be less breathable than the original due to the heavier upper material. Even in the moderate temperatures we've had recently I can tell that my feet are warmer in the 2.0 than they are in either the original or the Wildcats.

The 2.0 features a larger and more supportive heel cup

According to the specs, the 2.0 has less heel lift than both the original and the Wildcat. I've seen some variation in the absolute numbers, but best I can tell the relative heel-to-toe drop is 8mm for the 2.0, versus 10mm for the original and 12mm for the Wildcat. Given the magnitude of the other differences between the 2.0 and the original, I didn't really notice this aspect.

Overall, I would say that the 2.0 actually rides and feels a lot like the Wildcat underfoot. I want to say that I get a bit more ground feel in the Wildcat than the 2.0. However, I'm not convinced yet that I'm actually feeling that rather than just imagining it. Otherwise it's more or less the same comfortable feeling that I love about the Wildcat just with a different fit: You don't necessarily feel like running fast, but you definitely feel like you could run all day and your feet wouldn't object.

Conclusions

So what is the role for this shoe? The original Crosslite has received significant praise for its low profile and fast feel. If that is what you are looking for in a shoe, I think the original is still the better choice. However, if you like the fit and traction of the Crosslite but want something that is more cushioned, rugged, and/or protective, the 2.0 might just be the ticket.... especially if you don't want the weight of the beefier La Sportiva shoes like the Wildcat, Raptor, or Fireblade. In that regard I think La Sportiva's description is accurate, but incomplete: yes, the 2.0 is most definitely a more cushioned Crosslite, but that comes at the expense of a modified ride.

Now none of this should be taken to imply that I have a negative opinion of this shoe, because that is definitely not the case. I like the concept of a shoe that rides like my Wildcat but saves me an ounce or two of weight on each foot, and the more I wear it the more I like it. If I do have an issue it's really the name of the shoe more than anything else. To me, the use of the designator "2.0" implies a new and improved shoe, something that keeps the characteristics of the original while addressing any flaws. I don't think that that is what La Sportiva has done here.... and to be fair I don't know if that was their intent. In the end it's a great shoe regardless of the name, but if you pick up a pair thinking it's a new and improved Crosslite you might be a little disappointed.

Followup 5/29/11

As I mentioned in one of my comments the shoes have unfortunately developed tears in the upper where the rubberized upper material meets the rest of the upper. The shoe flexes heavily at this point and I believe the seamless interface between the two materials caused the fabric to fail. I would estimate mileage at 100-150. Below are some pictures that show the issue.

Inside left shoe

Inside right shoe

Outside right shoe

And one more 28 mile run later and the shoe is basically destroyed at this point. Very disappointing.

Note the hole in the right shoe's toe box (as if it's hard to miss)

Yes it goes all the way through

Follow up 7/1/11

After contacting La Sportiva I sent them the shoes. They evaluated them and sent me a replacement pair under their warranty policy. I have not run in the new pair yet but will start working them into my rotation and we'll see what happens.

Jemez 50 Recon

2011-03-20T15:04:00.007-06:00

Did a little Jemez 50 recon this week. Thursday was a short out and back on the Perimeter Trail that covered roughly miles 28-30. Friday was an out and back from Pajarito Ski Lodge to Pipeline, roughly miles 36-39 and peaking out at 9800 or so feet elevation. It was nice to get in some miles higher up. Forgot the camera on Thursday but got some good pictures on Friday. Still a fair amount of snow in spots. In fact I had a little knee-versus-rock incident in Canada Bonita due to post-holing and flopping over. I ran into Coblentz and Crone on the way back. They had tried to summit Caballo but eventually decided on another route due to too much snow. Maybe in a few more weeks.

Some pictures from Friday:

Sneaking a look back toward the increasingly bare slopes
of Ski Pajarito

Canada Bonita was overflowing with fresh deer and elk sign

Yes there's a trail in there somewhere

Valle Caldera off in the distance; the 50-mile course
goes straight down the scree slope

My Salida recovery has been surprisingly quick. I was able to run more or less comfortably within a couple days, although I was still obviously tired. I did keep the intensity in check all week so as not to risk aggravating something I hadn't noticed. And I took Saturday off to give my bruised knee a rest. Sunday's run was a little on the short side but I pushed the tempo a touch and generally felt strong. Now it's time to start cranking things up. I've been holding at ~ 50 miles per week the last couple months and it will be interesting to see how much more my body (as well as my hectic life) can tolerate. The core and strength work is already taking a back seat now as I try to dedicate whatever time I can to mileage and vertical.

The numbers:

Mon: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Easy run on Nail Trail.
Tue AM: 3.2 mi / 400 ft. Easy town loop.
Tue PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail again, a little harder this time.
Wed: 5.3 mi / 400 ft. Another easy town loop.
Thu AM: 3.2 mi / 400 ft. Same as Tue AM run.
Thu PM: 6.4 mi / 1100 ft. Out and back on Perimeter Trail.
Fri: 6.2 mi / 1100 ft. Pajarito to Pipeline out and back.
Sat: Off
Sun: 14 mi / 2300 ft. About 11 miles of rolling tempo plus 3 easy on Dale Ball.

Total: 52.4 mi / 8500 ft.

Warning semi-gross knee-versus-rock aftermath picture below

Before it turned purple

Salida Trail Marathon Race Report

2011-03-13T11:23:00.008-06:00

One of the coolest things about trail racing is that your average Joe Shmoe middle-of-the-packer like me gets to toe the line with the sport's best. Case in point: I was standing at the starting line of the Salida Run Through Time Trail Marathon and took a casual glance around. Hmm, that's Geoff Roes, 2009 and 2010 Ultrarunner of the Year. And that's Nick Clark, winner of the 2010 Bandera 100k, Jemez 50 mile, and Wasatch 100 mile races (among others). And that's Timmy Parr, two-time defending champ and 2009 Leadville 100 winner. And that's Ryan Burch, winner of the 2010 Leadville Trail Marathon, 2009 Jemez 50 mile, and 2009 Run Rabbit Run 50 mile. I could go on, but I think you get the point: what other sport can offer this? I can't think of one off the top of my head.

I put this event onto my calendar as a training race a couple months before the Jemez 50 miler. I wanted to get some feedback on my fitness coming out of winter so that I could make any needed adjustments to my final Jemez build-up. The course had 4500' of climbing and descent, with the middle 10 miles at about 9000 feet elevation and the start/finish about 7000 feet elevation. So it was well suited as a Jemez training run. I expected to finish somewhere between four and four and a half hours, but truth be told I wasn't too concerned about my time. I just wanted to put in a good effort and test my downhill chops.

Marathon course map, courtesy of CCRC. The
left/upper portion of the loop is the outbound le

I opted to stay Friday night at the Simple Lodge and Hostel which is a great little place right downtown and within a couple blocks of several restaurants (e.g. Amica's, where I ate dinner in lieu of the pasta dinner) as well as the race start and finish areas. After a relaxing morning and breakfast I wandered over to the Steamplant Event Center for check-in. I definitely appreciated the later (9am) race start.

The start was a little bit hectic given that a marathon and half-marathon ran together for about the first mile and a half. The marathoners then turned right onto a short pavement section before the surface turned to dirt. The first 8 miles was basically a 2000 ft climb. For the first half hour or so I was completely discombobulated. I had no rhythm or focus, my breathing was erratic, my head was filled with negative thoughts, and I refused to accept the fact that my body should be working and my muscles should be burning. This seems to be an occasional pattern for me early on in races but fortunately I was able to recognize the situation. [An interesting historical note: several years ago I was a sub-elite level road cyclist - Cat 2 for those of you familiar with the USCF system - and I realized on the drive home from Salida that I sometimes did the exact same thing in bike races.] I fired up some hip hop on my iPod and after a few minutes of listening to my West Coast playaz and deliberately slowing the pace a bit I was rolling again. I came into the 7-mile aid station feeling strong. I grabbed a couple gels on the move and kept motoring along.

Hand drawn elevation profile courtesy of CCRC.

Once we crested the climb there was a short flat-ish section before we started going down again. On this relatively mild downhill I saw a runner coming back the other way. My first thought was, there's no way that could be the lead runner; he must have had to go back for some reason. The turnaround for the out-and-back section wasn't until mile 13.6, and here I was maybe at mile 9. Then I saw another runner, and another, and so on and so on. Eventually I figured out that the turnaround had to be at the 10.4 mile aid station, not 13.6 as I had originally thought. The final grunt up to the turnaround was quite a bit steeper than the opening climb, rising perhaps 400 feet or so in half a mile. And it was more technical - not single track, but definitely some gnarly jeep road. I broke into a power hike on the steeper sections and was breathing pretty heavily by the time I reached the top. The views were just phenomenal and I wished I had had a camera with me. But no such luck, so I just grabbed a couple gels and headed out. The trip back down was a blast and I was able to run it pretty well. In retrospect I think I might have run this climb and descent a little bit too hard, since my legs were feeling the effort as I climbed back up the previous descent. I was able to recover a bit through this section and came through the 13.6 mile aid station feeling pretty good. I jokingly asked for a beer and they pointed me to a case of PBR. Ah, no, I think a cup of Gatorade, a slice of orange, and couple gels will do.

I felt pretty good over the next couple miles, but at about mile 15 I stopped to pee and it came out looking like two-month-old bongwater (gotta love college). Clearly I had not been drinking enough. I slammed a couple gels to get some electrolytes and started drinking steadily to try and reverse the damage. I was able to push the pace strongly for about another half hour or so, including some steeper descents that I again ran quite well, but eventually I had to slow down because I could feel the cramps starting to flare up. The next mile or two was definitely a low point for me. I felt like crap, couldn't run very fast, and the 20-mile aid station just never seemed to come. And then all of a sudden I came around a turn and there it was.

Psychologically that really gave me a boost, because I knew I only had about 10k left to go, with nearly all of it downhill, and about 55 minutes left for me to break four hours. It also was about at this point that the course turned onto single track (finally!). The next mile and a half or so was fantastic: downhill with a couple short rollers, and just technical enough to keep things interesting. My legs were tired, but I was having so much fun I was easily able to keep running hard (more on that aspect later). I really thought I was going to be able to finish the race strongly, but then it came: The Demoralizer. Right about mile 22 was the steepest climb of the race. It was not very long, maybe a third of a mile, but seemed to go straight up and it was all I could do just to keep walking up it, never mind running it. After that climb I was not the same and I just wanted to be done. I also knew I had gone so slow up that hill that any shot I had at breaking four hours was gone. Despite being demoralized I kept pressing on, taking some solace in the fact that I was going downhill. There was a bit of a rise up to the aid station at mile 23.5, but this was a gentle grade and I was able to run nearly all of it.

From there I had a little under half an hour to run 2.7 miles and hit 4:15... which seems easy but when you're ready to be done nothing comes easy. The course wound around the back of "S Mountain" before descending on what seemed like eternally long switchbacks down the front side. The switchbacks went on for so long I was actually starting to get pissed off. And then when I finally thought I was at the bottom, nope the course keeps going along the base for another few hundred yards. WTF? Finally I emptied out onto the gravel and then it was half a mile of flat running to the finish. I crossed the line in 4:15 and change. I think I ended up in 29th place out of ~ 130 starters. That was actually better than I thought I'd do given the competition, the course, and the unexpected heat.

My gear for the day:

La Sportiva Wildcat shoes
drymax Lite Trail Run socks
Salomon shorts
North Face technical shirt
Soleus 10k watch
Native Eyewear Bolt sunglasses
REI fitness cap
Hydrapak Flume hydration pack

Everything performed great except my shorts. I love these shorts but I'm starting to notice that when I wear them for more than about three hours, the seam of the liner starts to chafe my inner thigh. When I was undressing for my post-race shower I didn't notice it until the water hit it.... which really hurt. The hydration pack was definitely overkill given the six aid stations but I wanted to test it in a race situation before Jemez, since I expect to use it there. One question that came up in my mind however is how to monitor fluid intake with a hydration pack. With a handheld bottle you can just look at the bottle and see how much you've drank. It's also right there in your hand as a reminder. But with a pack, short of taking it off and inspecting the bladder, I'm not sure how to keep track. Maybe it's just something you get from experience, but if anyone has any suggestions please advise. My nutrition was fine all day. I ate two or three gels per hour, mostly from aid stations. Plus the occasional orange slice and cup of Gatorade.

One thing I took away from this race was how valuable back-to-back long/hard training runs are. Without a doubt, having spent some time running on tired legs in training is what helped me get through those last miles. I'm definitely going to try and do more of them over the next 10 weeks, along with really hitting the steep climbs and descents.

My aid station splits. Numbers are mileage, split time (h:m:s), split pace (min/mi), elapsed time (h:m:s), and elapsed pace (min/mi). You can see how much I slowed between stations 5 and 6.

3.5: 0:30:45, 8:47, 0:30:45, 8:47
7.0: 0:35:37, 10:10, 1:06:22, 9:29
10.4: 0:29:32, 8:41, 1:35:55, 9:13
13.6: 0:28:34, 8:56, 2:04:30, 9:09
20.0: 1:01:16, 9:34, 3:05:47, 9:17
23.5: 0:43:07, 12:19, 3:48:54, 9:44
26.2: 0:26:43, 9:54, 4:15:37, 9:45

It's easy to look at the numbers and play "what if" but in the end running 9:45 min/mile on a course with 4500 feet of climbing and over a third of the mileage at 9000 feet elevation is a result I'm happy with. This was a great race and I may very well try to make it an annual event.

Some props I want to give out before signing off. First and foremost to my awesome wife for letting me get away for a day and a half, and my MIL for helping with the kids while I was gone. Second to the Simple Lodge. They were very accommodating and even let me come back after the race and shower even though I had already checked out. And third to the race organizers. Somehow they have managed to put together a race that is casual and low-key in every regard, yet attracts some of the best mountain running talent in the country. That's a formula I'm sure many other race organizers would love to have.

ETA: race results

Pre-Salida Thoughts

2011-03-07T13:56:00.003-07:00

Well my first significant race of the season is less than a week away. I'm definitely excited. Here's a summary of my training (mileage run / vertical climbed) for the first 10 weeks of the year, with this week projected as a rest week (5 mi/day easy) with a marathon tacked onto the end:

1/03: 30.8 mi / 5300 ft.
1/10: 43.5 mi / 7000 ft.
1/17: 49.4 mi / 7000 ft.
1/24: 36.0 mi / 4000 ft. Rest week + Corrida de Los Locos.
1/31: 49.2 mi / 7800 ft.
2/07: 54.0 mi / 8400 ft.
2/14: 47.0 mi / 8300 ft. Daughter was born.
2/21: 53.9 mi / 7300 ft.
2/28: 51.3 mi / 7000 ft.
3/07: 51.0 mi / 7000 ft. Rest week + Salida Trail Marathon.

And then an hour or two of core and strength training each week in addition to the above. All things considered I'm pretty happy with these numbers. Part of me wishes I could have given Salida a full and proper taper, but ultimately my goal for the first half of the season is Jemez not Salida. So I'll run easy this week and hopefully that will put enough zip back into my legs for a decent run. A sub-four hour finish would be fabulous, but what I'm really hoping for is to be able to hammer the downhills in the second half of the course. Either way it will cap off a nice early season base. If any fellow S. Fe or Northern NM runners are traveling to Salida and want to meet up for dinner Friday night, leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

Like the previous week, last week's training also was somewhat unpredictable, especially with the 16-hour day I had to pull at work on Tuesday. No real long run to speak of but I did get in a lot of tempo/LT type miles which is really helping me learn how to keep running when my body is tired. The numbers:

Mon: 4.8 mi / 800 ft. Recovery on Dale Ball.
Tue: Off.
Wed AM: 30 min core routine.
Wed noon: 7.8 mi / 2000 ft. St Johns TH to Atalaya Summit and back.
Wed PM: 1.5 mi / 200 ft. Recovery hike with the wife and baby at the Nature Conservancy trails.
Thu: 8.2 mi / 1000 ft. Rolling foothills loop near home at tempo.
Fri AM: 8.2 mi / 1000 ft. Same as Thursday.
Fri noon: 30 min core routine.
Fri PM: 2.7 mi / 0 ft. Easy downhill shakeout run over to the MIL's.
Sat: 4.8 mi / 800 ft. Recovery on Dale Ball.
Sun: 13.2 mi / 1200 ft. Longer foothills loop.

Total: 51.3 / 7000 ft.

February totals are all increased over January despite three less days in the month: over 200 miles, 32k feet of climbing, and 6 hours of core and strength training.

The Hangover Run

2011-03-06T12:31:00.002-07:00

Background

So if you go and read up on ultramarathon training, one of the techniques you'll come across is the so-called back-to-back run. The idea behind the back-to-back run is to run long on consecutive days. The first day's run tires you out so that on the second day you simulate the fatigue and depletion associated with the latter stages of an ultramarathon. In this spirit I have come up with an innovative new concept called the hangover run. The idea behind the hangover run is to drink on the first day and run long on the second day. This allows you to simulate on the second day the naseau and general feelings of crappiness associated with the latter stages of an ultramarathon.

A fortuitous convergence of events this weekend allowed me to test this method first-hand. The last article in which I read about back-to-backs mentioned something like a four hour run the first day and a two hour run the second. So in my test I substituted four hours of drinking beer for the first day's run.

Day One: SF Brewery Tour

My sister-in-law for some reason decided to organize a tour of Santa Fe breweries. Bless her heart. Of course I decided to participate in the name of exercise science (and not because, say, drinking beer on a Saturday afternoon is something I would otherwise enjoy). We started out at Santa Fe Brewing Company. After a sampler tray and a pint of OctoberFest we took a tour of the brewery, then sat back down for a second round.

Santa Fe Brewing Company tap room, where it all started

This is where things started to get a little fuzzy. We left SFBC and headed over to the Second Street Brewery - the original, not the bright/shiny version at the Railyard. After some food and a couple samplers there we made our way to Marble Brewing Company on the Santa Fe Plaza for what I believe was round five but I might be mistaken on that point. Eventually I got dropped off at home, where I promptly grabbed both kids and fell asleep on the couch. Despite 20 minutes of vigorous snoring and a solid dinner I had a good buzz going for the rest of the evening.

Day Two: The Run

Sunday morning I awoke at about 4:30 am with the goal of getting myself out the door by 5:00 am for a two hour run. I picked as my route a large loop that would take me up Bishops Lodge Road, around Circle Drive, back across Bishops Lodge and Hyde Park via Gonzales and some back roads, and finally over to Cerro Gordo and the top of Canyon Rd. Then a slight detour to pick up the car I had left at the MIL's the previous day. Total of 13 miles and change and something like 1200 feet of climbing. My legs generally felt sluggish and depleted, but no naseau or stomach issues. I was actually able to push a good tempo back down the hill and made it down to my car in well under two hours.

Observations and Conclusions

The objective of this experiment was to try and replicate feeling awful during a long run. In that regard I don't think my experiment was successful. I certainly didn't feel great during the run portion, but that could be attributed to several other possible causes, e.g. newborn-induced sleep deprivation, or the string of tempo runs I did earlier in the week. And I certainly wasn't hungover.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to repeat the experiment and try to control all the extraneous variables more carefully. *Darn*

Some highlights:

SFBC Wild Ale #6. Fermented with yeast from apple trees. Almost like a cider.
2nd Street Irish Red. Very tasty.
Marble Brewing Company Oatmeal Stout. Smooth and creamy.

Disappointments:

SFBC Chicken Killer. At 10% this just wasn't drinkable for me.
2nd Street Sour Cherry. Tasted like Nyquil. I kid you not.
Marble Brewing Company Blue Corn Brown. Blah.

Gallery

Below are the remaining pictures from Day One. They are much more interesting than anything Day Two could offer.

Santa Fe Brewing Company sampler tray
Front, L to R: Happy Camper IPA, Nut Brown, Pen Porter, Chicken Killer
Middle: Java Stout (off the tray), Hefeweizen, Dirty Blond, Pale Ale
Rear: OctoberFest (can), Wild #6, OctoberFest

The aftermath

Where it's made

Finished product (Java Stout)

Now that's my kind of cold storage locker

Second Street Brewery sampler tray. Cream Stout in the middle. I think the
Irish Red is at 12:00 and the Sour Cherry at 3:00. Don't remember
anything else.

Marble Brewing Company sampler
L to R: Oatmeal Stout, Blue Corn Brown, ... ??

Show Me the Data

2011-03-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

So in between changing diapers last night I was sitting on the toilet reading - and let's face it, if you're a wanna-be ultrarunner with two young kids, the toilet is about the only reading time you have - a back issue of Running Times. To be fair, for the most part I enjoy that magazine, at least compared to some of the other mainstream running publications. But anyway, I'm sitting there reading this article about how your body does this or that and you can improve it by training like this or that but if you do this instead you get better faster. blah blah blah. Bottom line is, the whole thing sounded reasonable, but the author did not offer a single piece of data or quote a single scientific study to support the claims. Instead it was "so and so holds the world record for Scorpios who run marathons dressed in drag, therefore you should believe him". In other words, arguing from authority. Which, even if true, is not scientifically defensible. You'd think if the author had observed this so many times during coaching that it might have occurred to him or her to actually conduct some trials, but apparently being versed in the scientific method and understanding the differences between causation and correlation are not prerequisites for publishing articles in magazines.

Overlooking the Obvious

2011-03-02T15:48:00.002-07:00

Every now and then I have these moments where I notice something and think it's new. And then my wife tells me, no, actually, that's been there for years. That's how I'm starting to feel about Picacho and Atalaya Peaks. They are almost quite literally in my backyard, yet for some reason when I'm looking for vertical my eyes always drift upward towards the big peaks. But with those routes packed in snow and time being my most precious commodity I've been making a point to hit both of them recently.

Picacho (L) and Atalaya (R) Peaks as seen from the entrance to my
neighborhood. The trailheads are 2-3 miles away.

The Atalaya summit - at about 9100 ft and change - can be reached from both the north and the south. The northern route comes up from Picacho and, as I found out while trying to descend it last weekend, is quite treacherous due to packed snow and ice. Not recommended right now. The southern route however is more or less clear of snow. I prefer to follow the St John's Trail starting at the college before connecting with the Atalaya Trail. The route gently rises up through some arroyos and small canyons for a couple miles before the climbing begins in earnest. The trail winds up to the southern ridge, visible to the right of the peak in the above photo. This intermediate section of the climb offers some decent views to the south, but the real treat awaits at the summit.

The view towards Sandia from about halfway up

Of course you have to do some work to get up there. The hardest part of the climb is in my opinion the last third of a mile or so up to the ridge. I can run most of the climb up to this point but I invariably break into a hard power hike for the final push. Once the ridge is achieved the last portion up to the summit is quite runnable.

The grind up to the ridgeline

Turning north for the final summit push

The clearest views from the summit are to the west toward the Jemez mountains. I'm sure one could find an unobstructed view of the Sangres as well but I have not yet taken the time to find such a view.

Looking west from the top, with Caballo Peak off in the distance


Tesuque Peak and Ski Santa Fe visible to the north through the trees

The descent down is steep and twisty and technical... and a lot of fun. The switchbacks just below the ridge can be a little tricky but otherwise one can pretty much just bomb the whole thing. The biggest challenge is dodging the day-hikers on the way up.

All said and done the round trip is about 7.8 miles and probably about 2000 feet of climbing (TH @ 7300, summit @ 9100, plus a few intermediate ups and downs). The route from the north starting at the Upper Canyon TH is about a mile or so shorter each way but has roughly the same amount of vertical.

Running by the Seat of My Pants

2011-02-27T15:04:00.002-07:00

Somehow my son's preschool schedule conspired with my newborn's (and hence wife's) sleeping patterns to allow for a decent long run this week. The timing kind of sucked given the previous day's strength training and Picacho ascent, but I can't really complain. Then on Sunday I took advantage of a kids' play date to finally get in a decent climb, this time up Atalaya from the St Johns TH. All in all a decent if somewhat improvised week of training.

Picacho Peak seen from Cerro Gordo Rd. Summit is at ~8500 ft.

One highlight worth mention was the six-pack of Santa Fe Brewing Company's Java Stout I drank. I like a lot of their beers but hadn't tried this one before. Pretty tasty I must say, although my favorite is still their Pen Porter.

mmm delicious

The numbers:

Mon: 7 mi / 1300 ft. Out and back on the Winsor Trail from Tesuque TH to Chamisa intersection. Good tempo on the return leg despite the snow.
Tue AM: 45 min strength training.
Tue PM: 3.6 mi / 1200 ft. Picacho summit and descent from Upper Canyon TH.
Wed: 23.1 mi / 1300 ft. Rail Trail Zia TH to Spur Ranch and back. Needed that one.
Thu noon: 4.8 mi / 800 ft. Recovery on Dale Ball.
Thu PM: 45 min strength training.
Fri: 7.4 mi / 750 ft. Moderate tempo run. Canyon to Cerro Gordo to Gonzales to Hyde Park Rd.
Sat: 45 min strength training.
Sun: 7.9 mi / 2000ft. St Johns to Atalaya summit to Picacho summit and back via Dale Ball and Camino Cabra Trail.

Total: 53.8 mi / 7300 ft.

Wednesday's route:

209 Crazy Fools

2011-02-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

I hopped over to the Jemez 50 miler page at ultrasignup.com this morning and was greeted with this:

Looks like all 209 spots are full. Both the 50km and the half-marathon have 35-40 spots left, however. The 50mi entrants list does not seem to have quite the number of elite/sub-elite ultra runners as last year, but still plenty of folks who will be gunning for the win.... while the rest of us try to survive.

I am a Total Wuss

2011-02-20T16:58:00.004-07:00

On Friday I did a short out-and-back on the Chamisa Trail. I had cruised the way out but was putting in a good hard tempo on the return climb. About halfway to the saddle, with Eminem blaring in the iPod, I started taking observations on the state of my body: lungs working hard, legs burning, feet slipping on the mixture of ice and mud. As the grade steepened for the final pitch and I caught myself easing up, I realized that I am a complete and total wuss. You see, early Thursday morning, I had witnessed my wife give birth, for the second time, without any anesthesia or epidurals. She screamed, cursed, grunted, and groaned for several hours, and when faced with the toughest pain she didn't back off but instead found the resolve to push harder. The fact that it even occurred to me to ease up my effort on the climb seemed almost ridiculous. How's that for inspiration? Mom and baby are fine, by the way.

Obviously training is going to be haphazard over the next few weeks. Recently I've been relying on back to backs so that even though my longest single run each week is only a few hours duration, I'm on tired legs from the start and therefore simulating to some extent the latter portions of a longer run or race. That will probably continue to be the pattern in the short term. Of course my biggest challenge is going to be sleep!

I had some decent running pictures this week but none of them top these:

Viola Ashley, two days old

A bewildered but proud big brother with his new little sis'

And the numbers:

Mon: 7.1 mi / 700 ft. Hour-ish at long run pace.
Tue AM: 45 min core routine.
Tue PM: 4.8 mi / 800 ft. VO2 max work on Dale ball.
Wed AM: 5.7 mi / 800 ft. Recovery pace.
Wed PM: 2 mi / 0ft. Half an hour of gently chasing the kid around the park, with much of it barefoot.
Thu: Off
Fri AM: 30 min core routine.
Fri PM: 4.5 mi / 1400 ft. Chamisa Trail out and back.
Sat AM: 45 min strength training. Spartacus workout.
Sat PM: 9.3 mi / 2700 ft. Chamisa-Winsor-Borrego lollipop at long run pace. Quite a bit of postholing along the creek.
Sun AM: 13.6 mi / 1900 ft. Bishops Lodge-Circle-Tano out and back on wasted legs.
Sun PM: 30 min very light core work, more for stretching and recovery really.

Total: 47.0 mi / 8300 ft.

Hurry up and wait

2011-02-13T17:04:00.002-07:00

With our baby due any day now I'm on a short leash, so nothing much beyond a couple hours at a time this week and never far from home or the office. I did get some good practice running on tired legs with a three day stretch that consisted of Camp May Rd on successive afternoons followed by a rolling 15 miler. Had some beautiful views of the Sangre and Jemez peaks on the latter run. A playful pseudo-fartlek run on Dale Ball Sunday morning flushed out some of the aggregated sludge and was a perfect ending to the week.

Snow-capped Sangres, with Baldy, Deception, and Tesuque Peaks all visible

Caballo Peak, the first major climb in the Jemez 50, off in the distance

My Dale Ball runs were a not-quite-5-mile lollipop course: starting from the Cerro Gordo TH, north to markers 24-20-18, west across Cerros Colorados and looping over to Hyde Park via 21-17-14-13-12, and finally 18-20-24 back to the car. The first and last mile or so are a gentle grade but in between is twisty and rolling and a lot of fun, especially the snowy drop down to Hyde Park. Adding the 2.5 miles each way from my house to the Cerro Gordo TH is going to make a nice tempo run to do while I'm home on paternity leave.

Atalaya Peak taking in the morning sun

The numbers: somehow I managed to put up my first 50+ mile week of the year.

Mon AM: 30 min core work.
Mon PM: 4.8 mi / 800 ft. Recovery run on Dale Ball.
Tue: 5.7 mi / 800 ft. Rolling fartlek course near Bishops Lodge Rd.
Wed: 30 min core work.
Thu: 9.8 mi / 1900 ft. Camp May Rd at long run pace.
Fri AM: 4.0 mi / 400 ft. Recovery run.
Fri PM: 9.8 mi / 1900 ft. Camp May Rd again. Long run pace up, tempo down.
Sat: 15.1 mi / 1900 ft. Out Bishops Lodge Rd to Tesuque then back into town via Monte Sereno, Tano, and Circle Drive.
Sun: 4.8 mi / 800 ft. Dale Ball.

Total: 54.0 mi / 8500 ft.

Summer Dreaming

2011-02-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about summer lately.... in particular when I'm headed out the door at oh-dark-thirty in sub-freezing temperatures and wishing instead that I was headed out for a shirtless afternoon in the mountains or along the lake in Michigan.

Looks like the Taos 10k will be on August 20th this year. But it won't be part of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup again - in fact looking at the schedule it appears that Jemez and Jupiter Peak are the only races that carried over from the previous year. I still haven't made a final decision on what distance to run at North Fork. Given that I'll have a six or seven hour drive home after the race, I'll probably do the 50k... but until I actually register I suppose nothing's final.

Some visions of warmth:

Northern Michigan in July

Lake Katherine on an August morning

Thawing Out

2011-02-06T15:14:00.012-07:00

Wow what a crazy week. First there was snow that was supposed to come and sort of came but sort of didn't, at least at my house. Then 4 below Tuesday morning, 10 below Wednesday morning, statewide gas/power shortages Thursday, and a work shutdown on Friday. Somehow I managed to get in some decent runs, the most enjoyable of which was a short but blissful powdery affair on the Chamisa Trail Friday afternoon. The front side was reasonably packed down but tracks were scarce down the backside and the descent was just a blast. Last week's drag race plus all the running on snow this week has got my feet sore too.

Right now I'm kind of in an intermediate physical state. I've accumulated enough fitness over the last few months that a lot of my harder runs are feeling routine.... not quite effortless, but easy enough that I can put things on cruise control. So obviously the temptation is to go into maintenance mode. On the other hand I can see that there is another level within reach. It will require mental perserverance and physical effort to get there but it is within reach. That's where I'm hoping to be in a few months.

The numbers:

Mon: 4.7 mi / 600 ft. Recovery pace.
Tue AM: 30 min strength/core training.
Tue PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Beautiful but frigid run up Nail Trail at long run pace.
Wed: Off.
Thu: 9.8 mi / 1900 ft. Camp May Rd. Did the climb at long run pace and then got in some good downhill tempo on the descent. Surprisingly little snow on the road.
Fri AM: 30 min strength/core training.
Fri PM: 4.5 mi / 1400 ft. Chamisa out and back.
Sat AM: 6.5 mi / 500 ft. Rail Trail long run that was aborted due to a minor plumbing event at home. But it set me up nicely for an afternoon sequel and 23+ miles of near tempo pace on the day.
Sat PM: 16.7 mi / 1000 ft. Rail Trail from Zia to Vista Grande and back.
Sun: Off.

Total: 49.2 mi / 7800 ft.

January totals: ~ 169 miles, 25,000 feet of climbing, and 375 minutes of core/strength training. But only one day of snowboarding :(

Pictures from Friday's run:

The dogs at the Chamisa saddle

Powder on the backside

Breaking in a second pair of Wildcats

Run-dultery

2011-02-03T18:12:00.003-07:00

run-dul-ter-y: -n. Voluntary registration for, or participation in, a road race by a trail runner.

I committed run-dultery today: I signed up for the spectacle known as the Chicago Marathon. I know, WTF was I thinking. Well let me explain. Having grown up in the midwest, my wife loves Chicago. She's always saying how she wants to go visit again. Two of her best childhood friends (both of whom were bridesmaids in our wedding) also live there. And, every year my father-in-law and his wife come down to watch her son run the marathon. Add in a free place to stay, a holiday weekend, and a couple award flights on Southwest... it just seemed like a good fall vacation. So we're going, and I'm gonna run it.

Given the timing - one week after Big Tesuque (most likely) and two weeks before Deadman Peaks 50 - this is definitely going to be a fun race rather than a focus race. My biggest challenge will be finding the discipline to avoid going too hard. Maybe it'll help if I write "Deadman" down one forearm and "Peaks 50" down the other with a big-ass sharpie. Beating your PR by 1 second still counts as a new PR, right? :)

There you have it. Forgive me.

Sammy Wanjiru taking it home in 2010:

Corrida de Los Locos Race Report

2011-01-30T14:52:00.002-07:00

Corrida de Los Locos is a 9k-ish cross-country style race out at the Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe golf course. Aside from a very short section of pavement the course is run on gravel and dirt paths. Therese, one of the race directors, had posted that coffee, hot chocolate, doughnuts, and possibly breakfast burritos would be on offer... all of which helped convince my very pregnant wife to come along. The race is somewhat infamous for freezing temperatures. Thanks to La Nina and a mid-morning start the temps weren't too bad and the sun rapidly warmed the Saturday morning air.

Approximate course:

I had hoped I could wear short shorts and that the snow's glare, reflected off the whites of my winter legs, would disorient my competitors and allow me to run away with the win. Alas, the lack of substantial snow on the ground meant I'd just have to run hard instead. Given my focus on hills the last few months I had no idea how my legs would respond to a drag race. I hoped to run about a 6:45 pace and finish the 5.5 mile out-and-back in 36-37 minutes. After recognizing several local speedsters (including all three Big T winners from 2008-2010 plus the 2006 Duke City Marathon champ) I figured I'd be lucky to sneak into the top 10.

Me with a stupid-ass grin on my face before the start

And we're off: I think about 80-90 people lined up.

I was foolish enough to try following the speedsters and went out way too fast for the first mile. After seeing my split I made a very deliberate effort to cool things down through the second mile. It paid off as I hit the turnaround working hard but feeling back in control. I think I was in tenth place at that time. The course was deceptively tough. It was basically a bunch of small rollers strung together, which means the ups are short enough that you run all of them hard but the downs aren't long enough to really recover. These types of courses are always a challenge for me mentally: demoralizing at 5-10k pace, and rhythm breaking at marathon pace.

Me crossing the line. Thank my wife for the
photo of the race director's rear.

But back to the race. On the return leg I felt pretty good and was able to push again. I had kept the distance close to the runner who had passed me around the three mile marker, and I caught back up to him as we neared the end of the rollers. But then on the last downhill he gapped me as we passed the five mile marker and I was d-o-n-e. I crossed the line drooling copiously in 35:04, good enough for 11th place and below my time goal by a good amount.

Despite the so-so placing, this was the fastest pace I've run in a race to date, so I was pleased with my effort. I felt like I was able to push closer to my limits than in previous races, hold things there, and deal with the physical discomfort. My legs were definitely burning hard yet feeling strong just about the whole way. Fortunately, and despite preliminary indications to the contrary, the previous night's Szechuan Beef and Sweet and Sour Chicken twosome didn't entertain us with an encore appearance after I finished. Today I am feeling the soreness that I usually do after a short flat race. I took the dogs out for an easy trail run yesterday afternoon and that really helped clear the lactic sludge.

I opted to wear my La Sportiva Crosslites rather than my Nike Lunar Elite road shoes and it was a good choice. There were several tight turns plus a short sandy section where I appreciated the firm foot placement. Also I think some of the mile markers were off. My splits were 5:54, 6:59, 7:05, 6:46, and 6:28.... and if you add those up it means I ran under two minutes for the last half mile. Yeah, that didn't happen.

As is characteristic of races hosted by the Santa Fe Striders, this was a very well organized event. The food spread was nice, as was the long sleeve organic cotton race t-shirt. About the only hiccup was the larger than expected turnout.

I'm starting to become a fan of scheduling training races at the end of my recovery weeks when possible. They add some fun to what would otherwise be a pretty mundane week, and they provide feedback on the training cycle immediately prior. This race in particular seems to have increased my flow of competitive juices and fueled my excitement for Salida and Jemez.

My weekly numbers (everything done at recovery run pace except the race):

Mon: 5.3 mi / 450 ft.
Tue AM: 5.9 mi / 700 ft.
Tue PM: 30 min core workout.
Wed: 5.3 mi / 450 ft.
Thu AM: 30 min core workout
Thu PM: 6.6 mi / 1100 ft. A little Jemez 50 course recon.
Fri: 3.0 mi / 500 ft. Winsor out-and-back.
Sat AM: 7ish mi / 300-400 ft. Race plus warm up and cool down
Sat PM: 3.0 mi / 500 ft. Winsor out-and-back.
Sun: 30 min core work.

Total: ~ 36 mi / 4000 ft.

Now it's six weeks to go until Salida. My goal is to try to focus on long runs through February, and then take 7-10 days of easy running immediately prior to the race. What will make things interesting (in a wonderful, life changing sort of way, mind you) is kid #2, due in mid-February. Fortunately I'll have lots of family in town and about a month off of work, so I think I'll manage. I'm just going to have to be opportunistic and take what runs I can get, when I can get them.

Thanks again to the Striders for putting on yet another great race!

ETA: results

Conquering the Downs

2011-01-26T04:14:00.000-07:00

I have more or less hated downhill running. Hated it. I don't mean the short stuff. I mean, running downhill for miles at a time. The thing is, I knew I needed to get better at it, especially since a number of my planned races this year have course profiles that look something like this:

North Fork 50k elevation profile from course web site

Blow your quads on the early downhills and you are dead meat. So a couple/few months ago I started making a point to actually run the downs at a decent pace instead of casually making my way to the bottom, which is what I've tended to do in the past. This alone has helped build my legs and toughen my attitude. But I still felt like I was getting up on my heels and holding back as soon as the grade became really steep.

At some point, however, something clicked in my head. It occurred to me that running steep terrain is basically like snowboarding steep terrain. Once I was able to start applying those techniques - neutral lean, engage the upper body, flow with the terrain instead of fighting against it, controlling speed through motion rather than braking, letting your legs absorb vertical motion - things started to become a lot easier. I'm still a long way I think from being a strong downhill runner, but if nothing else the pounding on my body seems to be lessening.

Out of curiosity I did a little search on downhill training. I found a couple interesting articles over at Running Times that articulate better than I can some of the biomechanical subtleties. I also found a short blog post on the subject by elite ultrarunner (and 2010 Jemez 50 mile winner) Nick Clark:

Sweating the Small Stuff

2011-01-23T16:50:00.002-07:00

Remember that self-help series of books called Don't Sweat the Small Stuff? When it comes to life in general I tend to take that notion to heart pretty good. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd be downright certifiable if I didn't. For running, however, I do the opposite, and here's why.

Most of us, when we're starting out, assume that if you just keep running more then your fitness will improve. And to a certain extent that's a true statement. It's also an incomplete statement. The reason it's incomplete is that everyone has a point at which their susceptibility to injury and/or infection starts to dominate the system and thereby limits the amount that you can train. This is true of any athletic activity, really.

This is where sweating the small stuff, i.e. paying attention to the little things, starts to pay off: it can raise that limit. I don't know how close I am to that limit, but I do know that when I pay attention to the little things, I recover faster and my body feels better. 10-15 minutes on the foam roller every night. Making sure I get calories within 30 minutes or so of a hard workout. Eating high-quality, nutrient-rich foods. Getting enough sleep. These all add up and help keep me running hard.... which in turn keeps me out on the trails having fun, rather than, say, sitting in front of the computer reading blogs written by two-bit runners like me.

A typical recovery meal at Casa SFTR: lentils simmered with potatoes, carrots,
chard, and a medley of curry, tumeric, and other spices.

One thing that hasn't limited me from running recently is the weather. The last several weeks have been mostly dry and mild, and what snow is left on the trails continues to melt. This has allowed me to push the mileage a bit, but it's also made for craptacular snowboarding conditions. Oh well. Maybe another day trip up to Wolf Creek is going to be in order soon. I took advantage of the Monday holiday to stack a couple hard workouts, then ran easy the rest of the week before finishing up with some good efforts. Next week will be an easy 4-6 miles a day, topped off by the Corrido de Los Locos 5.8 mile cross-country-style race out at the Marty Sanchez Golf Course.

Winsor Trail slop

The numbers:

Mon AM: 30 min strength training.
Mon PM: 9.3 mi / 2700 ft. Hard tempo run on the Chamisa-Winsor-Borrego lollipop.
Tue: 5.3 mi / 450 ft. Easy.
Wed: 45 min strength training.
Thu: 5.3 mi / 450 ft. More of a limp than a run, really, given all the squats and lunges the day before.
Fri AM: 30 min strength training.
Fri PM: 9.8 mi / 1900 ft. Camp May Rd. Kept things pretty controlled.
Sat: 3.0 mi / 500 ft. Easy leg stretcher on the Winsor Trail, more for the dogs' benefit than mine.
Sun: 16.7 mi / 1000 ft. Rail Trail out and back from Zia TH to Ave Vista Grande. Progressive pace (neg split) with minimal calorie intake to encourage fat burning.

Total: 49.4 mi / 7000 ft.

Sunday's route:

Weekly Recap 1/10-1/16

2011-01-17T05:55:00.082-07:00

The human body never ceases to amaze me. You beat on it and break it down, and then if you treat it right afterward, it rewards you with renewed strength and resilience. The analogy that comes to mind is annealing: the metal gets abused to no end but comes out of the quenching and cooling process much stronger. This notion has been on my mind as of late because I think my body is going through a training adaption right now. My appetite has shot up. My efforts are getting stronger on a weekly basis. And I find myself craving hard workouts even when my body is tired. The temptation is always to keep pushing but we can't forget about the "if you treat it right afterward" part. Looking back at the calendar, the week of 1/17 will be the seventh in a row of build-up so I'm going to take things easy the week of the 1/24 before I start working on my long runs in February. The fact that my body is adapting also means it's time to shift the focus a little bit.

Speaking of long runs, inspired by Desert Dude's post about cycling the Rail Trail I decided to head out there for a run Saturday morning. It was my first time on the Rail Trail and it was a nice change of scenery. I think my legs appreciated the flat and rolling miles after a week full of hills. And with clear blue skies in every direction the views were huge. So I suspect I'll be heading out there again to get some 3-4 hour runs under my belt before Salida.

One of several bridges

Looking north towards Atalaya with Tesuque and neighboring
peaks in the background

Looking south toward Sandia Peak

This weekend also brought about a change to my racing calendar. Instead of the Run the Caldera Marathon in June I'll be running the North Fork 50mi/50k in July (haven't decided on a distance yet). It's just going to work out better with summer vacation plans. I thought about the Leadville Silver Rush 50 miler, which is the same weekend as North Fork, but quite frankly the spectacle of the Leadville events is a little off-putting to me... and after surfing reports from both races, the North Fork course just seems nicer given that it is predominantly single track versus dirt/jeep roads.

The numbers:

Mon: 4.6 mi / 600 ft. Recovery pace. Got snowed on at the end.
Tue: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail with fresh snow on the ground. That was tough.
Wed AM: 4.6 mi / 600 ft. Recovery pace.
Wed PM: 60 min pilates class at Fort Marcy + 2.2 mi / 350 ft to run there and back. Pilates class was decent but not really the pace or level of intensity I was looking for.
Thu: 9.8 mi / 1900 ft. Camp May Rd. Ran it faster than last week yet felt more controlled as well.
Fri AM: 30 min strength training.
Fri PM: 4.5 mi / 1400 ft. Easy out and back on Chamisa Trail.
Sat: 10.8 mi / 725 ft. Rail Trail from Zia to 9 Mile.
Sun: Off.

Total: 43.5 mi / 6975 ft.

And one last parting shot, I thought it would be interesting to compare elevation profiles from some of this week's runs:

Camp May Rd elevation profile, incl. about 1 Mile on West Rd.
Turnaround at Pajarito Ski Lodge.

Rail Trail elevation profile - Zia to 9 Mile

Chamisa Trail elevation profile. Turnaround at Winsor Trail intersection.

Weekly Recap 1/3-1/9

2011-01-10T07:16:00.002-07:00

On Monday I woke up with some bizarre strain in my right thigh, presumably from snowboarding the day before... although it was weird that it was only in one leg and not the other. So I took it easy on the lower body for the first half of the week. I didn't make it out to the snowshoe race on Saturday up at the NorSki area but I'm thinking I might show up for the Corrido de los Locos 10k-ish run at the end of the month.

On Thursday I ran up Camp May Rd to the Pajarito Ski Lodge and back down. Normally I would run the trail but I wanted to get in a hard, but not necessarily technical, descent. Since the road is a much faster surface... let's just say my quads were pretty thrashed Friday morning.... and Saturday morning... and even a little on Sunday. So it was painful, but a good workout, and I'm going to try to include it at least once a week in addition to the trail course. No question it will pay dividends later in the year.

I'm starting to get excited about the Salida Trail Marathon. Originally my goal was to run it as training and to get a read on my form a couple months before the Jemez 50 miler. But now I'm finding myself more and more interested in putting in a good hard performance. It appears that the course has been modified to include a lot more single track as well as more vertical (4500 feet versus 3000-3500), both of which are great as far as I'm concerned. About the only change I'll make in my training over the next couple months is to give myself 10-14 days of taper/recovery before the race instead of the 5-7 I was planning.

The numbers:

Mon: Off
Tue: 5.3 mi / 400ft. Easy recovery run.
Wed: 60 min core + upper body workout.
Thu: 9.8 mi / 1900 ft. Camp May Rd.
Fri AM: 30 min core + upper body workout
Fri PM: 7.1 mi / 1400 ft. Nail Trail. Ridiculously slow pace due to wasted legs and lots of snow. Stopped briefly to watch a herd of elk in the trees.
Sat: 8.6 mi / 1600 ft. Easy leg stretcher on Winsor trail. Nothing like lots of snow to help keep the pace in check.
Sun: 60 min core + upper body workout.

Total: 30.8 mi / 5300 ft.

Runners versus athletes

2011-01-05T18:20:00.003-07:00

Back in November I decided that over the winter I would try to improve my overall strength and muscle balance, with the goal of becoming a better overall endurance athlete - as opposed to just a runner. The difference between the two is somewhat comically described in Born to Run:

"Runners are assembly-line workers; they become good at one thing - moving straight ahead at a steady speed - and repeat that motion until overuse fritzes out the machinery. Athletes are Tarzans. Tarzan swims and wrestles and jumps and swings on vines. He's strong and explosive. You never know what Tarzan will do next, which is why he never gets hurt."

I knew that secondary muscle endurance was a weakness of mine based on a number of prior experiences, for example the Duke City Marathon back in October. Achieving a certain degree of whole-body fitness, as opposed to just legs and lungs, also is appealing to me at a very basic level. I don't want to be a scrawny fragile runner - with no offense to scrawny fragile runners, although if you happen to be one, feel free to heckle me ~~when~~ if you pass me on a climb.

My first thought was to sign up for some classes at the local rec center, but I couldn't find anything that would fit my schedule. It so happens that at some point in the recent past I was browsing an article about strength training over at No Meat Athlete, a web site I enjoy despite the fact that I am decidedly not a vegetarian. The article recommended a book called Core Performance Essentials, so I tracked it down at my local book store and after browsing through it I figured it would be as good a place to start as any. Granted, most of the text in this book is intended for people who aren't necessarily very active in the first place. But what I like about the book is that it's essentially a reference guide of exercises that are combined to build circuits focused on flexibility, core, and strength training. The circuits increase in difficulty as you progress through the levels, both due to harder exercises and more reps. It took me about four or five weeks to work through the levels, at which point I started to seek out some variety in the exercises I was doing. But I continued to follow the same routine of flexibility, core, and strength circuits.

[Yes, I know strength training for runners is somewhat of a controversial subject. Whatever. If it improves my overall fitness and endurance, without resulting in significant weight gain, then I think it's beneficial. That's just my opinion. Anyway.]

Ironically, sometime around Thanksgiving I happened to stumble upon a still-wrapped Fitness Ball Deck in some random over-stuffed cabinet in my living room. I have no idea when or why this showed up at my house, but the timing of finding it just then was a little funny (I also found a "Stability Ball for Dummies" DVD, but haven't looked at it yet).

The Fitness Ball Deck

The Fitness Ball Deck consists of 50 "flash cards" of fitness ball exercises (duh!) for the major muscle groups. Again, a lot of these exercises are for people who are only moderately active, but overall it's been a good source of alternate flexibility and core movements to work into my routine.

The first place I looked for some new strength exercises was the web site for Mountain Athlete, a gym located in Wyoming whose mission is to train professional climbers, guides, ski mountaineers, and the like. Their web site also happens to have video demonstrations for a ton of exercises, many of which combine extensive, functional body movement with high intensity. I've tried incorporating a few of them so far into my routine and they definitely leave me feeling wasted... but by the next workout I'm already noticing improvement. Here's an example called the "Leg Blaster":

Ouch.

Another high-intensity strength circuit that I recently tried is the Spartacus Workout over at the Men's Fitness web site. All I can say is, give yourself a day or two between this workout and a hard run because the first time I did it, it kicked the crap out of me. Like the Mountain Athlete exercises, most of these also involve multiple body movements, but by the end I was gasping. I can't help but think I'm also getting an aerobic/anerobic benefit.


Example exercise from the Men's Fitness "Spartacus Workout"

So far I've generally been doing three workouts per week, typically with one flexibility circuit and two each of the core and strength circuits. On any given day I'll combine exercises from one or multiple sources depending on what I feel like trying. On days before or after a hard run I'll usually limit the strength exercises to torso and upper body... but I've also found that doing a moderately hard run the day after a full-body strength training workout is good practice for running on tired, depleted legs. So in some sense it mimics the "back to back" long run workout by pre-fatiguing the body. One thing I won't be doing is increasing the weight that I use in the strength work, since I don't want to bulk up too much.

Now of course the big question is, has it helped. Definitely, and I'm only two months in. The most noticeable improvement is that I'm able to run much more fluidly, and therefore faster, over highly technical terrain, both uphill and down. My dynamic balance also has improved significantly, for example when running on loose or snowy trails. I haven't done any runs longer than about two and a half hours since I started this, and therefore haven't been able to make any observations on endurance.... but I have observed that I can snowboard much more aggressively and dynamically, and for a longer period of time, than I could last season, which suggests some degree of enhanced fatigue resistance in my lower body and mid-section.

As I slowly increase my running volume over the next couple/few months I suspect that at some point I'll drop down to two days a week, but in the meantime I'm enjoying having an activity to focus on that has very tangible benefits, and across multiple sports to boot. Highly recommended.

ETA: Couple follow-on comments. First, the winter schedule for the Fort Marcy Complex shows an evening pilates class on Wednesday, plus noon-time classes on Monday and Friday. I'm going to try the Wednesday class this week and see how I like it. Second, an article on strength training just appeared over at Running Times. It cites a number of peer-reviewed scientific studies that demonstrate the benefits of strength training on endurance performance, with the overall conclusion that strength training can improve both running economy and time to exhaustion. Definitely worth a quick read.