Rhett

4 easy on the TM. 7:15 AP

10 easy miles. 6 with Blake. Fished up with 5 strides and a cool down. 

4 easy miles on the trails with some strides on the last mile.

I'm getting excited for the race!

Same as yesterday...4 trail miles finishing up with some strides on the last mile.

4 more on the trails finishing up with strides

4 easy on the road in a light rain.

2 days till race day!

2 easy miles with a few strides near the end before heading off this morning. We are catching the ferry out of Long Beach at 2:00.  

AVALON 50

Today was the day I officially became an ultra-marathoner.  This was my first race ever over 26.2.

Blake and I left Havasu Friday morning around 8:30, caught the Catalina Express ferry at 2:00 and were on the the island in the cute town of Avalon around 3:00.  We checked into our hotel and took a quick walk around town. It's very small so didn't take long.  We then went back to our room, got our drop bags together, and went and picked up our race bibs and dropped off our drop bags.  We had dinner at the Lobster Trap and naturallly had fresh caught lobster.  We then retired to our room and settled down for a good night's sleep.

We awoke at 4:15 and got ready.  The race start was right outside the front of the hotel.  It was way low key.  We weren't even exactly sure which way we were supposed to run until we asked another runner.  Exactly at 4:59:50 (I was looking at my satalite watch.) We quietly heard a man saying 10, 9, 8, 7... and the race was underway at 5:00:00 exactly.  

I've never run this far so I'm not sure what kind of pace to run.  A few guys shot off fairly quicklly, but Blake and I just ran a nice easy pace like we were going out for a nice easy long run.  It was dark, so we were all using lights to see.  From the first step we were heading uphill, not too steep at first, but by mile 2 it was getting steeper and steeper.  We ran most of the first 5 miles of climbing, but in some spots it was too steep so we power walked.  I think it took over an hour to do the first 5 miles. (My watch froze up at mile 46.3 of the race and I lost all my data.)  We then started downhill and it was still dark.  At this point I dropped Blake. I run in the dark on trails all the time, he doesn't and he didn't put fresh batteries in his light, so he didn't feel comfortable running fast down the hill.  Basically I ran, and ran, and ran, and also did a lot of power walking up steep hills for a long time by myself.  Once the sun came up around 7:00 it was beautiful to see the island and the ocean.  

I don't think there was any part of this race that was flat. We were always either going up or down and quite often it was REALY steep.  Some of my miles were in the 17 minute range and a lot of my miles were around 7 minutes.  Blake planned on not running the whole race. He went out about 20 miles and then went back to the drop bag station (around mile 34) and waited for me.  It was great to see him and at that point I was still running strong, when I was not having to walk because of the steep hills.  I left that aid station in 4th place! Crazy, my first ultra and here I was at mile 34 in 4th place.  I was pretty excited.  Then at mile 36 all the steep hills caught up with me, and both of my hammys cramped.  I haven't cramped running since my very first mararhon in 2004.  I guess it is only fitting that I cramped in my very first ultra.  

For the next 3 miles I could only walk.  I tried to run a few times and the hammys would cramp right back up.  Wow, I forgot how painful that is, and how much it locks your legs up for a while.  During these 3 miles I was passed by a number of runner.  About mile 39 I gave it another go, running super slow at first and then gradually picking it back up.  Blake did a good job reminding me to keep it slow.  We were running with another guy at this poing who had done this race a number off times. He told us that if we could get to the last aid station by 12:00 we had a chance of finishing under 8 hours, but the next few miles after that aid staion were really steep uphill.  We arived at that aid station at exactly 12:00 to the second.  I downed some coke (it was the only thing I could stomach at that point) and walked on.  I didn't think we were ever going to summit the mountain, but when we finally did, I knew the last few miles were all downhill...steep!  I took off leaving Blake and ran as fast as I could down that mountain.  ( Was running right around 7 minutes I think. )  When I finally saw Avalon I was so excited.  I ran hard to the finish and crossed the line in 7:56:14 and 13th place overall.

Blake came in a few minutes later and we went and stood in the ocean for about 15 minutes to ice our legs.  It was cold.  Thanks Blake for sticking with me and helping me finish that race when I was cramping and didn't know if I would make it.

I really enjoyed doing the ultra and hope to do many more.

30 minutes on stationary bike and 20 minute on elliptical to work out some soreness from the 50 mile race on Saturday.

My legs were a bit sore, but less so than after a hard marathon.  I thought they would be a lot worse.

7 very slow miles that felt more like a shuffle than a run.  Soreness was almost completely gone, but legs were very tired.

7 easy miles that felt like actual running again.  Not fast but running.  No soreness except a small tightening in my right IT band near the end of the run.

7 easy miles a bit faster than yesterday. Legs feel like they are back and ready to get started on perparing for the Phoenix Marathon on Feb 27.

On a side note, tomorrow is the second annual Hot Air Balloon Half which I am the defending champion (see race report under Rhett's Races).  It starts at 7:30 sharp on the island.  Registration is up 100% from last year as Blake has confirmed that he will be racing with me.  If anyone else wants to join us, you can sign up on race morning.  The cost is $00.00 and all proceeds go to me the race director.  There are no aid stations, no street closings, and you must wear a GPS watch as the turn around is when your watch says 6.55.  Everyone is welcome.  There will be approximately 50 hot air baloons flying around us in honor of our great race.  It is a beautiful sight to see.  Weather is expected to be in the upper 40s with almost no wind.  See you tomorrow.

Today was the second annual Hot Air Balloon Half in conjunction with the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival here in Lake Havasu City.  We doubled the number of racers this year!  That means 2. It was 50 degrees and mildly windy this morning.  Unfortunately it was too windy for the Hot Air Balloons to go up like planned.

We started the race a little after 7:30.  My goal was to run 6:52 miles for as long as I could.  Having run the 50 mile race just 6 days ago, I wasn't sure how long I could keep up that pace.  I hit the halfway at 44:59, one second ahead of pace, and as I turned around I was pleasantly surprised to see Blake only about 50 meters behind me. 

I was starting to tire soon after the turn around but kept pushing.  Miles 9, 10, and 11 my pace started dropping though and about a quarter mile before hitting mile 11 Blake caught me. I slipped in behind him and ran for a bit.  It was nice to have someone there with me and my body soon relaxed and I was able to pick it back up again.  We ran side by side for the last 2.1 miles averaging 6:45.  I thought Blake was going to drop back, but I told him he had to stay with me and he dug deep and did it.  We crossed the finish line, 13.1 on our watches, at 1:31:25 in a dead tie for first place and since we are in differnet age groups we each won our age group. :)

A few things I learned about running a half marathon 6 days after a 50 miler:  1)  It takes more than six days to get your legs at 100% after a 50 miler,  2)  13.1 miles seems really short after running 50 miles,  and 3)  13.1 hurts as bad as a 50 miler, just in a different way. 

Congratulations to Blake who set a huge half marathon PR today, and he ran 40 miles of the 50 last Saturday with me.  He is looking good for his first BQ next month in Phoenix!

10 really easy with Blake while we watched all the hot air balloons flying.  It was a beautiful morning. 

Avg HR 128

8 trail miles with the middle 4 on what I am going to call Roller Coaster Rd which is a 1 mile dirt road in the middle of the desert that has crazy steep hills on the whole thing. 
 

I was cruising along this morning running at a low HR in the low 130s thinking how great is feels to be running 7:30 minute miles and not feel like I was working at all when all of the sudden about 8 1/2 miles into the run my left calf tighted and then gave me that sharp pain that I have gotten in the past when my calf gives me fits. I recognized what was happening really fast so was able to stop immediately and not casue any extra damage, so hopefully within a week I'll be back running strong again.  It sure is depressing though, that everytime I start to peak, my calfs give me problems!  My amazing running turned to a depressing run really fast.  I walked in the last 1 1/2 miles for a total of 10.

15 minutes walking the stairmill.

30 minutes arc trainer

15 minutes stationary bike

I did everything keeping my HR right at 135 which I found is way easier in the gym than out running in the real world.  My calf felt perfectly fine.  My old self would be out running tomorrow, but I'm going to take a few more days of cross training to be safe.

Another hour of cross training at low HR around 133 today.

30 minutes stairmill

30 minuters elliptical

\Calf felt fine.

30 minutes stationary bike

10 minutes jump rope

30 minutes stationary bike

10 minutes arc trainer

Right near the end of my jump rope my calf started to tighten up a bit, then again it did it about 10 minutes into the arc trainer.  No pain just tightening but I stopped as soon as I felt that.  Maybe tomorrow I will try some light jogging.

Avg HR 115

90 minute hike with Doone and the kids. We climbed up to picnic table peak. It was a lot of fun and a good way to get some low intensity aerobic work in. 

6 easy trail miles. 

Avg HR 137

Calf tightened some right near the end and took a few hours to get back to normal. 

30 minutes on the stair mill. 

10 minutes jumping rope

20 minutes arc trainer

Kept HR around 135 most of the workout. No calf issues. 

6 very easy trail miles...avg HR 130

Calf did not tighten up or cause any problems, but I could tell it wasn't 100% and had I tried to run harder, I would have probably had some issues. 

Same cross training workout as Tuesday but today I would say my calf felt 100%. Now to see how it feels running tomorrow. 

Not sure what to expect this morning with my calf on the mend for the last week and a half, but I felt like it was close to 100% yesterday doing cross training so I headed out with Blake this morning for a long run.

The first 16 miles we kept it nice and easy keeping my HR in the 130s then we dropped to mp for the last 4 miles doing those at 7:05 pace.  I felt great.  That was the most energy I've had on a long run in a long time and my calf gave me no problems.  I also did this run on only water and the last time I ate was yesterday's dinner around 5:30.  I've been training my body to burn fat for fuel and I think it is working really well.

9 trails miles this morning which was more of an exploration adventure than a run. There was a lot of power hiking and some rock climbing. It took 2 hours to do the 9 miles. I kept my HR in the low 130s for most of it.