Bernd Heinrich

I really admire this man's passion for running ...

Bernd Heinrich

And other things - he's one heck of a tree climber.

I'm currently reading his book "Why We Run", and liking it a lot.

Scott Jurek video/interview

Nothing really special to see here, but it's just nice to hear 'what's up' with Scott Jurek in this interview from the UK ... I'm almost (not quite) sold on the idea of going to run in the muck ...

run faster!

This year it seems I'm running slower than ever.  Even when it feels like I'm just blazing on a downhill, I'll check the pace my watch is showing and see that I'm barely running a pace I ran for 5K last year.  I believe that a long stretch of easy long runs this year is the reason.  While the good news is that my endurance base is not too bad, it seems I'm going to have to actually do some hard work to get some leg speed back.

One short extract from a Bruce Fordyce interview in Ultra Running magazine back in 2005 ...

Mark: What are the most important things an “average “ultra runner can do to improve performance?

Bruce: Run faster not longer! When I went to Chicago for the U.S. 50-mile championship, I thought I was better prepared than my American competitors because I had focused more on running fast than longer, which of course is not to say that long runs should be ignored.

Bruce ran a 4:50:51 at that 1984 AMJA U.S. 50-mile championships in Chicago.

What an endurance runner is really looking for is running efficiency.  An efficient runner is going to cover distance with less effort, and probably faster.  I'm adding some faster training runs (interval workouts) to try to improve my speed and efficiency.

observations from Leadville

I spent a week in Leadville before the 2013 Leadville Trail 100 mile race.  Let me make it clear up front - I was there to watch the race and run some parts of the course, but I wasn't in the race.  I had a great week anyhow, exploring the course and seeing the race itself.

Leadville is a great small mountain town.  After a couple of days I was feeling like a  regular at City on a Hill Coffee Shop, I  ate at High Mountain Pies (pizza) enough times that I had to buy the official t-shirt, and had a steak dinner at Quincy's - twice.  Life is good.  The people are really nice.  I met Bryon Powell of "IRunFar.com" in the City on a Hill coffee shop and got to tell him I really liked his blog.  I mentioned I planned to be on the course at various locations on race day, and he encouraged me to send him some texts or pictures as the leaders came by.  I think I provided some useful reports from my early location up on Powerline hill as the leaders came down.  But reporting later from Twin Lakes aid station as the runners came off the trail and crossed the electronic timing mat was clearly not useful ...it wasn't until a while later - when I had internet access again - that I realize how good the real-time updates were from the official Leadville site, the IRunFar blog and tweets.  The coverage was pretty darn good.  Sorry Bryon if I spammed your texting inbox!  (and I look forward to following your UTMB coverage this weekend).

I think the ideal Leadville training plan would include a couple of weeks in Leadville to get acclimated to running at altitude.  I think altitude is going to affect you two ways - it might cause real physical problems (make you sick), or at a minimum it will reduce your level of performance.  My own reaction this week was mostly that I just slowed down.  But my Leadville training plan would include staying in Twin Lakes for a couple of days and running across-Hope-Pass-and-back at least once.  I'd also make sure to try Powerline both ways, and run around Turquoise Lake.  Even though I wasn't racing, I did a lot of running during the week - here are a few shots of some of the course.

Me - after running up and down Powerline (only about a third of the hill is visible)

Hope Pass from the Twin Lakes side

Hope Pass - wind will cool you down fast as you go over the top

Running back down to Twin Lakes a ran into the Hope Pass aid station team coming up with a pack of llamas carrying supplies for the aid station.  Quite a sight!

Llamas hauling supplies up for Hope Pass aid station

Going down the trail later in the week on the Winfield side, I saw about eight mountain sheep cross the trail just ahead of me (by the time I fumbled my camera out they were gone though).

The start on race day was 4:00 a.m. - pretty early.  I enjoyed seeing Scott Jurek at the starting line before the race.  There were quite a few runners who wanted a picture taken at the start with Jurek and he wasn't turning anyone down.  It must be a distraction for him, taking his focus off the start ... I just don't think the other favorites were having the same sort of demands  made on them.  Jurek may have become the unofficial Ambassador of Ultrarunning in the US, the face of the sport.  He's doing a fine job of it.

After the race started, I had breakfast, then headed out to Powerline.  I climbed about a third of the way up the hill and waited to watch the leaders coming down that hill.

Scott Jurek coming down Powerline

Next I spent quit a bit of time at Twin Lakes, watching the leaders come through on their way up Hope Pass, and then eventually seeing the leaders returning after making the turn-around in Winfield and coming back over the pass.

For the finish, I walked from the finish line toward Turquoise Lake, until I decided I didn't really want to be that far out in the dark.  So I was getting back towards the finish line when Ian Sharman passed me on his way to winning the race in 16hrs 30 min.

Ian Sharman and pacer, about half mile from finishing in first place

There is a huge difference in what the elite runners are doing and what the run-to-beat-the-cutoff runners are doing.  For example - when Scott talks about leaving the 100 miler scene and making a 24-hour record attempt he's talking about running much longer races.  I think the runners just trying to beat the cutoff times just aren't as fast or efficient as the elite runners, and might need to adjust their nutrition planning to account for the time they are going to be doing... gels are interesting but it might be better to just stop for a couple of real meals sometime during the 30 hours.  To think that the spaghetti dinner you had the night before the race has much to do with powering you to the finish almost 40 hours later is crazy ...

I had a great week in the mountain, watching a lot of great runners, and getting to think about running all the time.  Life is good!

Keep your feet under you ...

Sebastien Chaigneau interview

I just have to put a link to this interview with the men's winner of the 2013 Hardrock 100.  I love this interview - the baby moose story, having Scott Jurek as a pacer, Scott hurrying him out of aid stations, the American 'spirit' of not using sticks on climbs...

Sebastien Chaigneau interview

Seb at the finish line

running with the bulls

The final running of the bulls at this year's festival in Spain was run on a short and very fast course ... just 850 meters, taking the fastest bull just 2 minutes and 16 seconds ... that's not much over 4 minutes a mile.  It's hard to imagine a winning strategy in this event - it's not just the fastest bulls you need to worry about.  I do wish all the runners the best of luck though.

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — An Australian woman has been injured in a goring in the final bull run of Spain's San Fermin festival, while four other runners sustained cuts and bruises.

A regional health official, Javier Sesma, says the 23-year-old woman was gored in the thorax and was hospitalized along with the other four.

The Australian, whose condition wasn't immediately released, was struck by a massive Miura bull as she clung to wooden barriers yards outside the bull ring entrance. Other runners got tossed by the bulls or fell as they ran.

Miuras are renowned as Spain's largest and fastest fighting bulls, and Sunday's run was quick, taking 2 minutes, 16 seconds to cover 928 yards (850 meters) from stables just outside Pamplona's medieval stone wall to the central bullring.

fall races

I was completing my application for this years Punxsutawney 50K, and stumbled across a link to a race report from last year's event. It's written by Staci Calder who ran most of the race with me. I got a really nice mention in her write-up.  Looking at some of her other blog postings, you can tell she's really a tough, dedicated runner doing something good to support  good causes. Go, Staci!

http://runningforwater.blog.com/2012/09/09/punxsatawney-groundhog-50k/

I do love the Punxsutawney 50K.  It's got a great race director and plenty of good support on race day.  I keep going back, thinking eventually I'm going to figure out how to get around this course faster ...  This years race will be September 7, 2013.  Just do it!

http://www.runpunxsyrun.org/

probably scarred for life ...

I tangled with a tree branch, and picked up a nice scratch that reminds me of the Brooks logo.

Brooks should sponsor me, maybe? New Cascadias perhaps?

Appalachian Trail

It's hard to believe it took until May to get out on the Appalachian Trail for the first time in 2013 ... I got out there on the section near Boonsboro, MD this morning for a short run out to the scenic overlook that is pictured in my profile for this blog.  Here is a selfie from this morning.

I headed out early because I had a feeling it was going to get hot today.  Wrong!  It was overcast the whole time.  In fact it rained a bit.  The trail was in great shape - there is still a a fair amount of crushed leaves on the trail,  making what can be a pretty rocky trail a bit softer in places.  The climbing was tough though - I've got a lot of work to do.

2013 Adventure Run - Pimmit Run, and Potomac Heritage Trail

Yesterday was a good day for a little trail adventure run with some friends.We met up at my house at 8:30, checked our laces and headed out the door.  Our plan was to follow Pimmit Run to where it ends near the Chain Bridge, and then run along the Potomac Heritage trail to Rosslyn.  We stayed on plan pretty well.

2013 Adventure Run #1 - the plan

We've had quite a bit of rain, but the trail along Pimmit Run at the beginning was in pretty good shape.  Beginning somewhere around the Potomac School, the trail became hard to follow - it pretty much comes down to "the creek is running that direction, let's keep following it".  In running terms, it was slow going ...  Jim took this picture near where we crossed Kirby Road.  From the left that's Mark, Erik, Jim (with the camera) and me.

near Kirby Road

Once we made it to Chain Bridge, it was clear that the Potomac had quite a bit of water running down it.  The Potomac Heritage trail had some underwater segments, pushing us further up the bank into more rocks and brush than usual.  The first mile heading southeast from Chain Bridge was a pretty rugged rock crawl.  We pressed on through pretty much without incident or injuries.

Getting into Rosslyn, my Garmin indicated we covered 10+ miles, though the map indicates it was a little shorter.  I think some of the difference comes from all the zig-zagging we did on parts of the trail trying to find the best way forward at times.  In Rosslyn, we wound up taking the metro two stops up to Clarendon for a nice, late lunch at the Northside Social Club, then the metro (and a two-mile jog) back to my house.  Here is the group near the end of the adventure.

survivors

It's always a pleasant surprise to be reminded there are running adventures that can begin practically from my door-step, even though I'm inside the beltway in the country's capital city.  I'm glad the guys came out to run today!

caution

I wonder if this robot has been sent from the future to serve as a cautionary tale ...

Don't be an asimo!

Newton's Running Formula (with apologies to Jack Daniels)

When we hear new things, we think about the new information in terms of what we already know and believe to be true, and decide if it both fits and adds something new. With engineers, this process includes thinking about new information in terms of scientific principles and laws.

Now, Newton (Isaac, not the South African running Arthur - though both would be fun to talk to about this) observed in his laws of motion that the acceleration of a body is proportional to the force acting on the body, and is inversely proportional to the mass m of the body, i.e., F = ma (see Wikipedia).

I thought of the F = ma law when I read that sprinters exert a force equal to several (five?) times their own weight on the track. For larger runners this can be many hundreds of pounds of force (think about a large football running back accelerating to record his best 40 yard time).  I'm trying to reconcile this with the idea that runners might want to be "light on their feet". For sprinters this doesn't seem to be possible while applying such large forces.  The track has to take that pounding!

Getting back to Newton, and knowing that the distance traveled equals 1/2 a * t^2 we could make some dramatically simplifying assumptions and think about running 100 meters fast (most importantly, this calculation assumes acceleration is constant over the entire race, and it isn't - Usain Bolt seems to hit top speed and then cruises a good portion of even 100 meters ...).

But since distance (d) = 100 meters, and Mr Bolt's time in London 2012 was 9.63 seconds, let's assume we can solve for Usain Bolt's acceleration - it is about 2.157. We can call that number "one Usain Bolt".

Let's run Usain's numbers for a hypothetical 9.5 second run ... it is a 1.3% improvement in time but he's going to need an acceleration of 2.216,which is a 2.7% improvement in "Usain Bolt" force. Now Usain Bolts acceleration, just like everybody else s is proportional to the force he can apply and his own mass. This is a lot because there really isn't much he can do to get his mass down (run naked?).  And he's awfully strong already.

In addition to appreciation for the real forces involved, one can only accelerate during the time that force is being applied. The implication is that when you stop pushing and pick that back foot up, acceleration stops. Once you are off the ground you are decelerating. A long 'push time' would seem to be good.

Now, referring back to our man Newton, he tells us an object in motion tends to remain in motion ... doesn't a distance runner only need to accelerate for a very short period, and then simply remain in motion? Why does it feel like it continues to take significant effort? Drag (wind resistance) is actually very low at my running speed. There is little friction with the ground (the foot is not providing sliding friction, but is closer to a rolling wheel). I think the largest component of drag must come from the landing foot. In essence the landing (forward) foot is providing a stopping force, that needs to be matched during the push if we are going to maintain speed.

Joe Friel just blogged about cyclists who might try to 'pull up' in addition to pushing down on the pedals. He concludes that it isn't possible to provide a real contribution to pedaling force by pulling up, that at best one can only partially compensate for the effort it takes the downward pushing foot  to lift the rising pedal. In other words, the best one can do is reduce the amount of drag caused by the rising foot..

The same thing must be happening with running - an efficient runner wants to reduce the drag coming from landing force and minimize the corresponding force required to maintain constant speed.  Fitting this in with what we think is true about running form means that landing the forward foot under your center of gravity (very close to where it can start to push!) is a good thing.  And looking at the stride angles of elite distance runners, they actually do keep that pushing foot on the ground through quite a few degrees of the running stride cycle.

gear update

There's nothing like getting new shoes to mark the early days of a new training cycle ... I just got the new Brooks Cascadia 8 trail shoes.

Brooks Cascadia 8 trail shoes

I have run in the Cascadia shoes a lot over the past years.  I've been buying and wearing the size 15 shoes, because I have pretty big feet and like some room in the toe box.  The new Cascadia 8 shoes fit differently - I actually found the size 15 to be too big.  Maybe I'm shrinking (I wish!).  But for now I'm happy running in size 14's for a change.

Another gear update is coming.  I've had my Garmin FR60 watch for a while now.  I like the feature set (I run with the heart rate monitor, and the shoe pod that gives me speed, stride turnover rate, and distance).  And I really want to keep resisting going to a watch with GPS, as the required charging discipline guarantees 1) the watch will be dead when I need it and 2) I'm going to leave that charger behind on some trip one day. The FR60 system just works for me. BUT ...when the FR70 came out with the same feature set, it seems one of the real changes was a better band.  A lot of users were reporting the non-replaceable band on the FR60 was breaking.  My own FR60 is now showing the signs that the band is failing.

Garmin FR60 watch band cracking

I'll probably go with an FR70 when the band breaks.  The one big (unlikely?) improvement I would like to see in the FR70 is a barometer that would record the elevation profile for a run.