training plan

Mary and I just got back from spending almost a month wandering about in France.  We had a great time - but looking at my running log, I only did 10 runs in June while traveling.  I ran in some interesting places, but there wasn't a lot of intensity or duration.  This fall I'm planning on running the Punxsutawney 50K in early September, and then the JFK 50 Mile run in November right before Thanksgiving.  How can I be ready?

I've got just 9 weeks left before the Punxsy run.  Here is what I plan to do for the two races:
1.  Set the bar fairly low for Punxsy - my goal is to finish the event without beating myself up too bad.  I'm going to think of it as a good step on the way to the JFK 50
2. Focus on 'duration' over intensity.  I want to accumulate as much 'time on feet' as possible, and to get that number up fast I will sacrifice intensity (speed).
3. Get some higher intensity work in each week.
4. Don't get injured.  A big increase in workload is risky, I like to think experience will help keep me out of trouble, but you know self-coached runners ...

I think I'll stay on the roads getting ready for Punxsy, running back and forth over Powhatan hill close to home to get ready for those Pennsylvania hills.  In September and October I'll get out on the Appalachian Trail as much as I can (maybe once a week?) to get ready for all that rocky footing in the early part of the JFK 50..

I'm certainly well rested now, so, I've got that going for me.

a thought for today

"Sucking is the First Step to Being Sorta Good at Something" (Alexis Ohanian)

I guess I'm on my way then.

looking back

2013 was an 'ok' running year for me.  Maybe it suffers a bit in comparison with 2012, where I trained smart and hard to get ready for the Comrades, and ran the race of my life.  This year I didn't have any big hairy audacious goals, and as the JFK 50 approached I wound up just trying to spend enough time on feet and get enough miles logged to be able to finish the race.  I did finish, but it was a hard day - in some ways I thought my familiarity with the course and running experience played as big a role as my conditioning. did.

This year I will improve the quality of my training.  Run faster.  I've been thinking that the software I use to track my running (SportTrack) focuses on TRIMP.  I can always accumulate plenty of TRIMP with lots of long slow running.  My old Suunto watches calculated TE or training effect - what I need to do this year is make sure I get some higher intensity / TE runs done as part of my weekly routine.

Running highlights of 2013

There were no real racing highlights for me, but I did have some memorable runs.

- My sister Lisa and I ran the Appleton, WI 'Turkey Trot' 5 miler on Thanksgiving morning.  It was a cold day in Appleton, and the first time my sister has run 5 miles that she remembers.  My wife Mary was on the course at the same time, walking it with our extended family.  Everyone had a good day - definitely a running highlight for me too!

- Portland OR run-about.  A couple of days in Portland in September gave me the chance to run some new routes starting from in-town, going up the hill to Skyline Drive, then back into town on a two-mile downhill stretch coming down Burnside about as fast as I have run in a long time.  A blast.

-  Exploring and running bits of the great Leadville 100 course, and then watching the race from various points on the course.  Wow ... just wow.

Keep your feet under you, and have a happy new year!

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 ...