Final day of the big project at work. We are putting an LED sign on the side of a bus with the potential of thousands of future sales based on this one sign. It was a rush job to say the least. I started writing code for my two pieces of the project about a month ago. I wont bore you with the technical details, but I do have to say it is cool. Well, I wasn't ready. Partly my fault, but mostly due to circumstances out of my control. I had to pull an all-nighter to get it perfect. I made it with 20 mins to spare. What a day! 28 hours straight at work getting home at 11:30 on Wed. That was after 13 hours on sat and 14 on sun. Ok, I am done whining.
A very fun run in some rough conditions. The weather was perfect but the snow... The snow was deep enough that if you wandered off the trail even the slightest bit, you sunk in up to the hips. We both took some great spills on the way down. Nothing like running sub 6 min pace and then ending up on your stomach buried up to the waist. Good times. The time flew by and before too long we had to turn around. I am glad though because the legs and lungs were sure getting a workout in.
T- 1:10:55 ~2000 feet of vertical (4867 to 6818ft)
Longest run I have done since my last marathon, and probably my longest training run ever. And it came the day after some deep snow mountain climbing. My legs were sure not happy today. The day started out rough as I had an alarm clock malfunction and woke up at 6:30. That meant that I missed the Paul and Walter run I was planning on. That put me in a bad mood right off the bat. My plan B involved running 2 miles to mile 24 of the TOU course and spending some quality time on my feet. The plan was 24 miles in under 3 hours. I completed the first 8 in 58:30 and had built up a cushion of 1:30. The middle 8 were rough, but I made up a bit more time coming down Hollow Road. 16 miles in 1:56. So I only have to do 8 miles in 64 mins to make it. I am going to easily make it. Better make my goal a little harder. How about 7:20 pace (2:56). I would need to do 7:30 pace over the last 8 to make it. I had some good sections and other sections where I thought I would die. I stopped at a church to get a drink at mile 20 and that revived me enough to actually make it the full distance. I was able to keep chugging along even dropping down to 7 min pace for the last mile. I was totally spent. Goal Exceeded I collapsed on my floor never to move again.
T-2:53:56 (7:14) 155 ave (7:20 pace out, 7:10 pace back)
AM: Severe stomach cramps and bloating hindered me today. I did manage 5.5 and was proud of that. Whatever I ate yesterday is now no longer on the approved list. Ouch.
PM: Finally felt better in the evening. 4.5 on the treadmill.
I decided to go exploring today out west. I headed out to Mendon on the Mendon Hwy stopping briefly at the Little Bear River access area. I wanted to go explore on the (unimproved) trail next to the river but it was pretty icy so I decided to head back to the road. I will save that for another day. I hit mendon only 6.5 miles into the run so I needed to add a good 6 miles in the area before heading back. I headed straight to what looked like the biggest hill in the area. It was called Deep Canyon Drive. It looked like it went straight up the Wellsvilles. Unfortunately, it dead ended into a driveway. I did get 700 feet of vertical in just over one mile though. Super tough hill. After that experience, I stuck to the flatter sections of Mendon before heading home. I didn't feel too good today and things got pretty tough at mile 13 but I actually felt better later on and finished with a decent pace. Another week in the books. *Highest mileage week since the end of August 09.
T-2:27:50 (7:23) 153 ave 169 max (on big hill)
After the run, it was time to host my son's 5th birthday party. It was transformers themed but most of his friends are girls who had no clue, but they all had fun. We played lots of games and got them overloaded with sugar in time for them to leave. Good times...
Hilly workout today as I ran up to Dry Canyon and did 1.25 up the canyon. The trail was pretty icy and the footing was tough. I was doing 12-15 min/mile and about 8 coming down. Not exactly blazing fast. I did enjoy being in the mountains though. As I went by the entrance to the BST, I decided to follow the trail for a bit to check out the condition of the trail. I would say it is about 60% ice and 40% dirt. It needs some time to thaw out. As I started heading home, I saw it was 6:57 and I was 5 miles from home. Time to get going. I put the hammer down and got home in just under 30 mins (downhill). Good solid workout that I am sure I will feel tomorrow.
Today I did the first official tempo workout of the year. I have done plenty of faster stuff just not an official go for x number of miles at x speed planned tempo. I did start out small and manageable. The plan was 3 miles warmup at 7 min pace then 5 miles at 6:30 pace followed with 2+ cool down at whatever pace. It worked out well, but I did stick to the flat Young Ward Loop course (nice and flat).
Er, it was actually more ice than dirt, but I am not complaining. I did 2 laps of the River Trail. The first one with Jon at a nice and slow but slippery pace. The second lap was 1 mile shorter and Jon ditched me 2 miles into it due to misc. pains. One was a pain in the butt. The run was great even if it was a bit cold and windy and icy. Its too bad we did it so early as it is sunny and nice out now. So, I had better get out and enjoy it then....
T-2:03 (8:12) 148 ave
* One week until my 50K. I am going to treat it as a marathon. I began my taper today with a few less miles then normal. Next week should be pretty easy, especially thursday-friday.
Today's weather was finally warm enough to head out without tights on. No, I wasn't completely naked as I did wear shorts and a long sleeve shirt, but man, it was warm, even at 6am (like 40 degrees). I REALLY enjoyed not wearing tights. I headed up the foothills to Dry Canyon and hit the Deer Fence Trail over to Providence Canyon and on home. The trail was in pretty good shape 90% clear with 5% mud and 5% ice. Not bad at all. I think I will hit that trail quite a bit in the next 2 months before it gets too hot (can't believe I just said that, it never gets that hot in Logan).
T-1:29:46 (7:10) 155
* new course PR, but only the 5th time I have done that exact loop. I will kill that PR later this spring
I did not feel good at all this morning. I decided to bag the early am run and get more sleep. I then tackled a nasty day at work. I felt better in the evening and decided to get a few miles in the clean out the junk. Planet walk was calling.
Buffalo Run 50K (32 Miles) 04:47:24, Place overall: 14, Place in age division: 3
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
17.00
16.00
33.00
Buffalo Run 50K -
I have so many mixed feelings about this race. It was a disaster and I feel really proud that I was able to finish the thing. Period. It was a combination of things that lead to my demise. It was ugly, but I am getting ahead of myself. Lets start at the beginning.
The race is put on by Jim (ultrajim) and was a well run 25K, 50K, 50Miler and even had Davy running the 50Miler 2x's for an even 100. I have been planning on the 50K for some time and really was looking forward to this race. It would be the longest run in my life and also the toughest. I really didn't want to die a miserable death so my plan was to take it easy the first lap of the 2 lap course and save some for later. More on that later...
The race started out fine with me settling into the second pack. The top 3 guys all took off together and there were about 6 of us that ran more or less together for the whole 1st lap. I chatted with Karl Jarvis and Taha M. for entertainment. I was comfortable running with them but was a bit alarmed at the pace we were going. 6:45-7 min pace on the flats and 6 min pace jogging down the hills. The uphills were even sub 8:30 pace. It was hard but not "race effort" yet so I went with it. BIG MISTAKE!!! I am now looking at my Heart Rate data my watch logged (I didn't look at my HR even 1 time during the race) and I was over 170 and even 180+ for the entire first 2 hours. The course is basically a large figure 8 for each 25K and the 50K runners do it twice. I really enjoyed the course and thought it was difficult but not overly sadistic. Very runnable if you have the strength. I loved it during the first lap and really enjoyed myself. For a while... As I was nearing the halfway point of the course, I started to slow down a bit and dropped from 4th place overall to 5th place overall (when the faceless ghost passed me then proceeded to take a wrong turn). I was ok with having him pass me and instead focused on conserving what little strength I had left.
I was only .25 of a mile from the end of my loop 1 when the 25K runners began. Not good. That meant there were 300+ runners all running on the trail the opposite direction as me all excited and full of energy. They were not paying attention and I had to run 10 feet off the trail and yell at people to watch out as they were not looking up and didn't see me coming. I was only 2 mins from being ahead of all of them but since I was not, I had to pass them all going the opposite direction then turn around at the aid station and pass most of them again. Not fun at all.
I spent a min at the aid station swapping my waterbottle and taking off my warmer clothes. I was back running again at 2:03 min into it. I knew that I would slow down this lap but figured that a 2:30 lap was reasonable to reach my 4:30 goal. Things went ok for about 1 mile before I realized I was in trouble. I was in the middle of the 25K runners and as I started to slow, I was getting passed by the same people I had just passed a quarter mile earlier. Trying not to panic I tried to keep moving as fast as possible.
My stomach violently cramped up at this point. I could not get it to relax. It hurt to touch it with my hand and it felt like a side ache that took over my whole torso. That brought me to a crippling walk. It hurt to even walk. What am I supposed to do now? I tried everything from massage to hunching over to burping and even had some vomiting/dry heaving. I felt dizzy and was losing all motivation to continue. I had been taking 1 S! cap every hour and keeping up on my fluids (I thought) and I also took some energy gel (1-2 oz per hour). I think that some combination of that really messed me up. I was able to talk myself out of quitting and finally made it to the aid station at mile 21.5 at the 3 hour mark. I had to do a lot of walking on the downhills as well as the uphills to even make it there.
From that point on, it was pure misery. There was nothing that was good about this time in the race. I was getting passed by everyone and I had given up on racing miles ago. It was purely a mission to finish. It was a battle to maintain 11 min miles on the flats. Seriously! I loaded up on water at the last aid and tried to flush out my stomach of the gu and stuck to pure water and S! caps for salt. I think it finally started to work as I sped up to a sub 9 min mile on the downhill after the aid at mile 27. The final 3 miles were the best of my second lap and I was able to actually run the whole time and was again passing people. The final 3 miles were 8:38, 8:29, and 7:48. Yes there was a large amount of downhill, but at least I was running.
The finish line has never looked so good. I had just completed the hardest thing I have ever done and lived to tell the tale. I was the most miserable I have ever been in my life, ever. Luckily Jon was there to fetch my clothes and keep me from curling up in a ball and whimpering like a baby.
Mistake 1: Went out at a pace that felt ok. Don't do that. It should be EASY, not moderate to hard, even if you feel like you belong in that group. It will come back to haunt you in a bad way. Use the heart rate monitor to give you feedback.
Mistake 2: Energy Gel + S! caps + gatoraide + running hard = stomach cramps Find another fueling solution if running beyond 2 hours.
Other than those 2 major issues, the rest of the execution went well. I am proud of my 2:02 min first lap. I know I could have shaved 10 mins off that lap if I went all out. I am not proud of my 3 mins per mile slowdown I had the second lap. That is sad.
T-4:47:25 (8:58) 32.08 miles 166 ave 186 max (did 1 mile warmup as well)
Aid 1 - 42:22 (mile 5.55) (overall pace = 7:38)
Aid 2 - 1:21:55 (mile 10.71) (overall pace = 7:39)
Aid 3 - 2:01:28 (mile 15.96) (overall pace = 7:37)
Aid 4 - 2:59:00 (mile 21.45) (overall pace = 8:21)
Aid 5 - 3:57:43 (mile 26.63) (overall pace = 8:56)
4 Slow miles on the Planet Walk. The recovery is going ok. Today's run was nice and easy. I may have broken 8 min pace somewhere in there. It was nice to get out even in the stormy weather.
AM: 4 - Serious stomach issues today. Not sure if it is leftover from sat or something else but I earned 6 stars since 5am. Including 2 stars in 4 miles. Yuck
