Fumbling Towards Endurance

Several Tidbits

2012-01-19T11:38:00.002-09:00

After a two week vacation to Costa Rica I'm back in Colorado and getting back in to my Iditarod Trail Invitational preparation. From now until the race (which starts in just over 5 weeks), I will try to get out and do something active (combination of skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and running) pretty much everyday. I'm still undecided as to how much running I'll try to do between now and then, but likely I won't do as much total running between now and the race as the 350 miles that I'll do during the race. Part of me is nervous about tackling this race with so little running in the previous couple months, but with how worn out my body has felt anytime I run consistently for more than 5 or 6 weeks, I think this is the only approach that might work for me right now. I guess only time will tell. Overall though, I do feel pretty good about where I am at right now in terms of my overall preparation for this event.

For those that missed it, Ultra Runner of the Year was announced recently. Huge congrats to Dave and Ellie for bringing home the bacon. In my mind they were both completely deserving of the award. Overall I thought the voting went about as expected. Top 5 on the men's side was exactly the order I would have chosen. Performance of the Year was a little less spot on though (in my opinion). Not to take anything away from Riddle's JFK performance, but the thought of Ian's RR 100 not winning POY seems absurd. It's hard not to imagine that the timing of RR being so early in the year played against Ian in this vote. But then again the NF 50 is the last big race of the year, and once again seemed to be almost ignored: Mike Wolfe finished 11th for POY for his run at NF?? WTF? For me that one should have been top 5 for sure, and likely as high as 2nd or 3rd. But the thing that baffled me the most was that a performance which was not even an actual event won POY for the women. Certainly I don't mean to take anything away from what Jen Davis did on the AT this year, but really? Apparently individual time trials now count toward POY? To me this is a really slippery slope. And if this is the case (which it clearly is), how did Dakota's RRR record not get one single vote? Where does the line get drawn? Which non-event performances are recognized, and which ones aren't? To me it makes the most sense to not recognize any of them for a distinction like this. Until now I thought that was the case.

Moving on: Here's a link to a little Q&A interview I did with a fellow blogger. Some unique and interesting questions mixed in with some more typical ones: http://averageguyhitstheroad.blogspot.com/2012/01/geoff-roes-interview-above-average.html

And one last thing: The 2012 sessions of my Alaska Mountain Ultra Running Camp are nearing capacity, but I do still have several spaces left for the May 28th session, which is going to be a really fun session. The running in Juneau in late May/early June is some of the most unique and exciting running I've ever done. This is typically the best time of year for running on the snow in the mountains around Juneau. The snow is nice and consolidated, but still soft enough for great traction and control on the downhills. I know some people hear the word "snow", and want to steer clear, but if you want to try something a bit different, and really fun this is the camp for you. Check out the website for all the info.

Changing Things Up A Bit

2011-12-30T13:06:00.002-09:00

It's been an interesting month for me. After the North Face 50 I began running again almost right away. I spent a week in Juneau shortly after that race and ran everyday while I was there, including some pretty long runs. I was feeling good and felt like I had recovered amazingly quickly from the race, especially considering how late in the year this race is. I figured the time that I had taken off in September and October made this more like a typical spring time race than an end of the season race.

And then I came back to Colorado. And almost right away I felt exhausted. I did some really easy slow runs and felt even more tired out. Finally I decided that my body and my mind were both in need of some more serious time off. The entire second half of this year I would respond pretty well to down time, but the "good times" would only last for a few weeks, and then I would feel the need for prolonged rest again. In the past I have had this same cycle, but the "good times" would usually last for 8 or 10 months. The second half of this year they have lasted 3 or 4 weeks at best. When I've rested my body has responded very well, but only for a short period of time. When I've rested for a week I've gotten maybe 2 weeks of feeling good in return. When I've rested for a couple weeks I've gotten about a month (at best) of feeling good. This rate of return on rest has been about 15-20% of what I've typically received in the past.

This experience has led me to the decision that I'm going to take the entire winter off from running. My hope is that 3 or 4 months off will reset things and allow me to get back to a place of being able to get more return on my rest.

Initially I thought I would take the winter completely off from much of any physical activity, including giving up on the plan of tackling The Iditarod Trail Invitational in late February. After sitting with this plan for a few days though, I decided instead that I'm going to take the winter off from everyday running, but I will still plan to get out most everyday doing very low intensity nordic skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, winter camping, or the occasional mellow run (when conditions are not suitable for other activities, or when I'm travelling to warmer places that don't offer these "snowsports" options).

As I thought more about this plan I still found myself thinking a lot about the Iditarod Invitational. In the past I approached this event from a running perspective, thinking of it simply as a really long run. Over time I've come to think that this isn't really the best way to approach this event. Really it is much more of an adventure, a journey, and on some levels a pilgrimage. And thus I've decided that I'm still going to take a shot at the ITI, even in the midst of taking the winter "off" from running. My "training" will be focused much more on the mental and logistical aspects of this event than on the physical aspects. Rather than trying to get myself through the 350 miles by being in the best possible physical shape, I will try to get myself through the 350 miles by being comfortable with my gear, comfortable with the immensity of the journey, and prepared to best be able to deal with any challenge that will arise while out there. Previously I tackled this event with a plan to try to move quickly. I never had time goals in mind, but the mindset that I went into this event with was very much a racing mindset. Once we started my primary goal was to get to McGrath as quickly as possible. This time around my mindset is going to be very much to have the most satisfying journey possible, even if this ends up being several days slower than I feel like I could do this route.

Perhaps this is a crazy approach. I'm not sure there is a whole lot of logic in tackling one of the most difficult physical challenges in my life at somewhere well below my best physical shape. Then again this could all very well be a blessing in disguise. This could be just the dynamic I need to have the journey that I'm hoping to have out there.

Steamboat In September?

2011-12-16T10:19:00.000-09:00

I'm sure by now most readers of this blog have read about the new 100 mile race in Steamboat Springs next September. If this is new to you then check out the website here: Run Rabbit Run 100. Also, you might want to check out all the "chatter" about the race over on Irunfar.

To me this race is another obvious and expected step in the evolution of ultramarathon racing that I have talked about numerous times on this blog in the past couple years. I don't need to go into all the nuances of prize money/championships/commercialism in the sport. I have been down all of these roads, and my ideas here aren't really much different than I've expressed in the past.

I will however go into a few of the things that come to mind with the emergence of this race:I have stated numerous times (both here and in other publications) that I think the demand for these types of events (due in large part by the huge growth in the popularity of the sport in the past few years, a growth which has shown no sign of slowing down anytime soon) makes the emergence of these races inevitable. For the better part of two years now the question in my mind has not been, are more prize money/high competition type events coming to the sport, but rather, what are they going to look like when they get here? Even more importantly, what should they look like? To my delight the RRR100 gets just about everything "right." If you look back at this post that I wrote almost a year ago, outlining the things I see as crucial to doing an event like this "right" I think it's easy to see why I'm excited about this new race. To some degree this race satisfies each thing I laid out as important for a race like this to thrive.

With the North Face 50 and UROC, the RRR100 now makes three ultras in this country with $10k or more in prize money. To me the prize money isn't the exciting thing though. The exciting thing to me are the number of races in existence now that are pretty much guaranteed to have very high competition year in and year out. It is now possible, if one desires, to run 5 or 6 races a year in which you can pretty much be certain you are going to be racing against dozens of top runners from around the world. In my mind this is something that is new to the sport. Even just a few years ago there were years when top level runners would end up unintentionally "cherry picking" some of the most "competitive" races in the sport. Often times races would only be 3 or 4 runners deep (in terms of runners who had a legitimate shot at winning the race), and if one or two of them got injured before the race you suddenly had folks winning some of the biggest races in the sport by 2 or 3 hours. Now, if you want to run a high competition race and you choose to line up for WS, UTMB, RRR100, UROC, NF50, etc, you can pretty much be guaranteed that you are going to be running against 10+ legitimate top level runners.

Many might ask, what about the 99% of runners who aren't competing at the very front of these types of races? To me this is the beauty of the current dynamic: there is growth in the options for anyone and everyone right now. Not only do all of these mentioned races have a very specific desire/plan to provide a positive race experience for all runners in the field, but for every one of these higher competition races that is emerging there are dozens of grassroots/low profile events that are emerging. Add to this the number of "old classics" that seem to be very dedicated to keeping things more or less the same as they have been for years, and it all adds up to a terribly exciting time to be involved in this sport, no matter what you're looking to get out of it. If you're looking to kick it old school there are more options than ever, and if you're looking to run against as much competition as possible you can have those options too.

To me the only question I have about RRR100 is whether the timing of it (two weeks before UROC) will be a hindrance to either (or both) of the races? I think there is room in the sport for even more of these types of races, but I'm not sure having 2 of them in the same month is the best scenario. I know that RRR100 didn't want to conflict so directly with an existing race with a somewhat similar vision, but apparently September was pretty much the only time they could make it happen in Steamboat. I for one am hoping to run both races (although UROC will have to be a "wait and see how I feel race"), but I do imagine these two races so close together will be working a little bit against each other. Hopefully going forward after 2012 there can be some scheduling adjustments to one (or both) of these races to space them out a little more optimally.

One Of Those Perfect Days

2011-12-14T14:54:00.010-09:00

I'm back in Colorado now after a week in Juneau. I've written numerous times in the past about how much I love Juneau. This trip did nothing but further reinforce my love for the Juneau community and the land surrounding the area. It's easy for a place to feel like "home" when it is the place you are spending most of your time, but when a place that you are only spending 3 or 4 months a year (as I currently am with Juneau), feels so much like home the minute you fly into town, I think that is a good indication of a more permanent and definitive "home."

My visit was pretty typical for the first 2 days: seeing friends, wandering around town, getting reacquainted with the nuances, heading out onto the quick access trails for short runs, and generally just easing back into the unique experience that is life in Juneau. By my third day in town though I was getting the bug to really re-connect with the mountains. I was feeling pretty much 100% recovered from my recent race effort, and the forecast was for a pretty decent day of weather. Around 9am that day my friend Dan and I started up into the mountains with our snowshoes and enough food/water to be out most of the day. Despite the forecast for some afternoon sun, the morning was typical Juneau December weather: cloudy, drizzly, breezy, and really quite dreary. Things however began to dry up and calm down as we went higher. Eventually, as we rose above 2,500 ft, the air became eerily calm and gradually clear. We had climbed above the clouds into one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen anywhere in the world. This combined with the amazingly firm and stable snow conditions made for one of the most inspiring and satisfying runs I have ever been on. I think I'll just let these photos paint the rest of the picture, lest my words diminish something which felt almost too perfect to be put into words:

Vegas Baby!

2011-12-13T23:43:00.002-09:00

If the idea of a weekend of trail running with a few of the top ultrarunners in the country, likely on dry trails, in warm sunny weather, in the middle of the Winter sounds almost too good to be true, check this out. It might be just what you need to kick start your 2012 season. I know I'm looking forward to it.

Pretty Tough End To A Pretty Tough Season

2011-12-05T08:56:00.005-09:00

Going into the NF 50 this past weekend I felt quite confident that I was in good shape and would have a great shot at competing near the front of the pack for the entire day. I had no idea if I would actually be able to win this thing, but I felt pretty certain that I would be able to give it a great shot, and be a factor late into the race. And nothing in the first 20 miles made me feel any less confident. I felt very comfortable all the way through Pan Toll. I was climbing really effortlessly and felt very relaxed. My stomach didn't feel great, but I was able to get just enough calories and water in to keep moving with the lead pack without too much concern. The pace was pretty fast, but to me didn't feel much different than the pace at the front each of the previous 3 years in this race. In fact I think the pace at the very front in the first half of the race was a little slower this year than last year.

Despite feeling so comfortable early on though, it didn't last for me. By the half way point of the race I was feeling very low on energy and falling off the pace a bit. I tried to slow enough to be able to get in more calories (25 miles into the race I had only eaten 400 calories) and water without falling too far out of touch with the leaders. I wasn't though ever able to pull it back together enough to get back in contention for the win. I was able to hold things together enough to keep moving at a decent pace and finish pretty strong in 5th place. My time was about the same as it's been each of the past two years, but this is misleading as the course was at least 20 (and perhaps more like 30) minutes faster than last year (due to some course changes which made the course a couple miles shorter, with a bit less vertical gain, and less technical than last year).

In the end it was a fun day of running, and I made the best of not having as much pep in the second half of the race as I had hoped, but it was certainly disappointing to not have the opportunity to battle with the leaders to the very end. It would have been really fun to battle more with Mike, Dakota, Adam, and Tim who all finished well ahead of me. To me there's nothing more enjoyable then being right in the mix of a serious battle for the win in a big race like this... especially if the battle is with folks who I like and respect as much as all 4 of these guys who finished ahead of me.

I can't help but think about the parallel between this race and my entire running season of 2011. They both started out very smooth and comfortable, with me in a very confident place with my running. But suddenly near the midway point things took a pretty distinct downward spin in which I inexplicably just didn't feel very much strength in my body. In both cases I was able to stay positive, and keep having lots of fun, and keep moving forward, but never quite turn things all the way back around to the place I ultimately want to be physically. Despite this though, I certainly relish the challenge of moving forward from here into 2012. For almost 3 years, racing ultras very effectively was something I almost took for granted. I had so much confidence that I felt like I should pretty much win any race I entered (and I almost always did). The second half of this season has flipped that completely around though. Having really effective races every time out almost feels impossible now, but is certainly a place I'm excited to work to try to get back to in 2012 and beyond.

It's Not About The Shoes... Or Is It?

2011-11-29T13:25:00.004-09:00

[Note: several of you noticed that this post was up briefly yesterday and then removed. Sorry for the confusion. I posted it yesterday in error and intended all along to post it today after editing and adding a few things to it]

After the other day's not so serious post I thought I'd write about something a little more serious today (although only a little more): Shoes. Specifically why I wear the shoes I wear and is there a specific type of shoe that I think works the best for ultrarunning?

People ask me some variation of the following question all the time: "What do I feel like the main difference is between running ultras compared to shorter distance races?" My answer usually goes something to the effect that when you run for 50+ miles it stops being as much about how fast you can go at the fastest points and more about how fast you can go at the slowest points. That is to say, how much you can do to minimize the rate at which you slow down over time.

We can't run forever. There are things which break down as we run that we simply can't rebuild until we stop and tend to these things. No one that I've ever met can process calories as fast as they burn them when they are running, and no one I've ever met can run continually without muscle fatigue catching up to them at some point. In running shorter distance races (probably anything up to 3 or 4 hours) we can get by more efficiently with stored energy than with energy we take in on the run. This is to say that calories we get from eating a gel doesn't offset the time we spend fumbling to open, eat, and digest the gel. Same can be said of water, although the time before we hit this tipping point is much shorter with water (depending on the temperature somewhere in the 30-90 minute range). In ultrarunning though, not only is it more efficient to take in lots of calories/water while we run, it's pretty much necessary.

Ok, by now you're probably wondering what the hell this has to do with shoes. Don't worry, you're not the only one confused. I've kind of gotten myself off topic such that I can't remember what the point was about shoes. Oh, wait, I've got it: I think the same idea applies to shoes. When you think of why we wear shoes: cushioning, stability, protection - these are all things which we can get by without much of for some period of time, but if you go long enough you will hit that tipping point when the extra weight you are carrying around on your feet in the form of extra cushioning, stability, and/or protection begins to be offset by the time you are gaining from having less muscle fatigue and less damage to your feet. To some degree, the longer we run the more shoe we need to find this right balance.

In terms of what the "right' shoe is for a 50 or 100 mile race I think this varies a fair amount from person to person. For me the Montrail Mountain Masochist has been the "right" shoe for almost 3 years now. I have run almost every single step in these shoes since March of 2009. I think this shoe is nearly perfect in terms of it's balance between being lightweight but still enough shoe to help the body hold up after 50 or more miles. Any shoe I've worn that is much lighter (and thus has less cushioning) feels great for a couple hours, but then usually pretty horrible if I go much beyond that.

It's no secret that the basic trend in running shoes over the past few years has been minimal, minimal, and more minimal. In my mind many people are taking the minimal thing way too far in ultrarunning. I think extremely minimal footwear makes a decent amount of sense for shorter distance running/racing, but forultrarunning I think in many cases it's just not enough shoe for the amount of abuse that you're putting your body through running 100 miles on rugged trail. The trend that I see that I think is the most wreck less is that many runners seem to train in one shoe and then race in significantly lighter shoes. Again, in shorter distance races this makes perfect sense, as we all did this in track and cross country back in high school. But in my mind doing this in ultras is similar to trying to eat as few calories as possible during a 50 or 100 miler. I haven't yet seen a "low calorie" gel. Essentially that's what you're getting when you try to run 100 miles in super minimal shoes. It might be the perfect shoe for a half marathon trail race, but the point I'm trying to make is that the perfect shoe for a 100 mile race and a 13 mile race are not the same shoe.

Before I go any further I must say, Yes, I have read the book, and I think it's an entertaining read, and I think there are some benefits to some of the thoughts involving barefoot running. I like that the "craze" has turned so many new folks on to running. In terms of ironic fads I think running around town in foot gloves is way more beneficial than say, trucker's caps. But I'm not talking about a cute fad. The argument that prehistoric man ran barefoot so it makes the most sense for us to tap into this lineage of experience as barefoot runners sounds really great in theory, but it doesn't work in the reality of trying to run 50 or 100 miles on rugged trail as fast as possible. This just isn't something that we've evolved to do. Running 50 or 100 miles on rugged trails as fast as we can find a way to do is something that 99.999999999999999% of humans in the history of the world have never done. Applying the "born to run" argument to racing ultras is akin to saying that at one time man didn't have clothing so we should roam around naked to give our bodies an opportunity to adapt to be able to better protect us from the elements. I guess this makes sense if you're hoping to be the last one in the nudist colony who's able to stay outside when the sun dips below the horizon on a winter afternoon. But no matter how much you get your body to adapt you're not going to be as warm as the dude next door who has on a pair of down pants and a down jacket. In this same way I can see the point that incorporating barefoot running into our training forces our bodies to adapt in ways that will make us much stronger barefoot runners, but I'm not, in this conversation, interested in that. I'm interested in what we can wear on our feet to be the fastest and most efficient we can be at the 99.9% of trail ultramarathons in which shoes are allowed.

One more rant about the barefoot thing before I get back to the main point here. Think about it this way: when we run an ultramarathon we pick our feet up and place them down, over and over, hour after hour, hundreds of thousands of times. I don't give a damn what cavemen did when they ran. What I care about are the options available to me. I can either put my feet down on a couple centimeter thick piece of foam that has been engineered and re-engineered by thousands of shoe developers for the exact purpose of absorbing the impact of these hundreds of thousands of footsteps, or I can put my foot (or my foot wrapped in a foot glove) down directly on roots, rocks, pavement, gravel, or whatever else I encounter over the course of 50 or 100 miles. Any guesses as to which one I'm going to choose? I'll give you a hint: It's the same choice that every other runner I've ever met who is trying to turn themselves into the fastest ultramarathon runner possible has also chosen.

I do think it's important to think about the bio-mechanics of barefoot running when choosing shoes (I think the lower drop you are seeing in many mainstream shoes as a result of the barefoot craze is a positive effect that will stick around for years to come), but in terms of the larger point I'm making here I think that is where the barefoot conversation ends. I just thought I should address the barefoot thing so as to avoid having dozens of responses wondering how I could ignore such an important part of the running footwear conversation. I'm not ignoring it, I'm just saying that I don't think it's all that practically applicable to the point I'm making.

Ok, so back to the larger point. How do we know then what is the right amount of shoe for us? In my mind there's no better method than good old trial and error. When you have the right shoe you'll know it. What you'll know even more is when you have the wrong shoe. If you're looking for somewhere to start I would say try to find the happy medium somewhere between what was popular 10 years ago and what is popular now. Somewhere in there for about 5 minutes I think the typical "popular" trail shoe made sense for racing ultras. The pendulum seemed to swing so quickly from over built "tanks" suited more for backpacking or thousand mile adventures to uber minimal shoes that would be great if we were all back in high school trying to run 3.1 miles over grassy hills as fast as we can. My guess is that at some point the pendulum will swing back and you'll actually be able to go into any running store and find yourself a nice solidly built pair of shoes, but not over built, weighing in somewhere in the 8-11 ounce range. I would even imagine that we'll start to see companies make shoes that are specifically intended for running ultras. I guess if I've made one point in this way too long post it's that I think the right shoe for ultras is quite different than the right shoe for shorter races. One could argue that Hoka has started the trend of making shoes that make sense specifically as ultrarunning shoes. I think the popularity of Hokas in the ultrarunning scene is a great indicator that what many people are wanting on their feet when running 100 miles might just be a lot different than what they want on their feet when running a 10k. Too bad Hokas are so stiff that they make me feel like I'm running in clogs. For now I would recommend just trying a pair of Mountain Masochist and then go up or down from there :)

Ok, that's my rant. If you've taken everything I've written here 100% serious: I'm sorry. My intention here was simply to touch on the general question of what type of footwear makes sense for racing 50 and 100 mile races, and does there come a point when you run so far that you actually want more shoe rather than less shoe? In my opinion there does. Would love to hear what conclusions you've all come to in regards to these questions. Do you wear different shoes in racing ultras (or in really long training runs) then you do in general training? And if so do you go to "more shoe" in races or "less shoe"? I'm sure there are a wide range of opinions on this topic, but I am curious to see if there is a general direction in which folks are going on this topic. Again, I'm curious specifically about folks who are racing 50 and 100 mile (or longer) races, as in my mind not much (if any) of what I'm saying here applies to anything below 3 or 4 hours.

North Face 50 Race Preview

2011-11-28T12:00:00.007-09:00

With the North Face Endurance Challenge coming up this weekend I thought I'd do a post previewing how I see the race playing out.

I think there will be some big surprises before the race even starts. Three of the greatest ultra runners in the world will make surprise appearances in the race field. Dave Mackey will show up at the start line having tricked us all with the oldest trick in the book: the "post on your blog that your not running and then show up and see what it feels like to race 50 miles with no training" trick. Kilian Jornet will decide to race at the last minute at hearing the news that his Spanish/Solomon teammate Miguel Heras (last year's winner) has decided not to run. He will be taking his best stab at challenging Mackey for the top finisher with no training. At half Mackey's age my money will be on Kilian. Last but certainly not least in terms of surprise appearances will be Tony Krupicka who will have decided that if he can power hike Green Mountain faster than 99.9% of the runners in the world can run it why not take a stab at the NF 50. Besides this is ultra running, and as anyone can learn from reading Letsrun for a few minutes (I must confess though, I've never actually read Letsrun) only a handful of the runners actually run a 50 mile race faster than brisk walking pace.

The race will start like many people would expect. The Daves (James and Mackey) will instantly sprint out several hundred yards ahead of the pack. The surprise will be that Rickey Gates will follow suit and eventually sprint into Tennessee Valley in the lead and fall to the ground in excitement/exasperation thinking he had just won the race. When asked how he possible thought he could be done with 50 miles already he will respond, "50 miles? I thought the 50m meant 50 minutes."

Meanwhile back in the chase group of 30 or so runners, Mike Wardian and I will be running along comfortably chatting when I make a wrong turn because I am still, a week later, distracted by the fact that Bryon Powell in a preview on Irunfar stated that he thought Way Too Cool was the most competitive 50k. Unfortunately for Mike this time he decides to go the same way as me. Neither of us realize we're lost for a couple hours as I'm still zoned out trying to figure out if maybe Bryon was talking about the most competitive 50k over the past several years or if he's just never heard of Chuckanut. Finally Mike and I come across a bearded dude meditating in the forest while he eats his breakfast: Fair Trade quinoa/wheat berry hot cereal with goji berries, chia seeds, and flax seed oil. We ask him where we are and he points down through the trees and tells us that the Marin Headlands Hostel is down there. Unfortunately for us the Marin Headlands Hostel overlooks the race start, not somewhere you want to be a couple hours into the race. At least our proximity to the Hostel explains the presence of the dude with the bowl full of barely edible foods.

Back in the race as the chase group which is now down to about 15 runners rolls through Pan Toll (mile 18) they discover that they are in fact in the race lead as the Dave's have both disappeared. Mackey wasn't feeling so well and decided to just leave the course and run for home, a trick he learned from Nico at UTMB (Hoka bretheren unite), and James, well no one really knows what happened to him. He just kind of disappeared, but certain to reappear ahead of the pack in the early stages of another race soon.

Shortly after Pan Toll, Hal Koerner tells the other runners that he's going to drop to the back of the pack because he's worried that he might get lost if he's in the front. When asked, "shouldn't you know the course? Haven't you run this race every year?" Hal is heard responding, "Yeah, but I've never made it past Pan Toll".

Meanwhile, Jornet who has been running strong with the large group all day gets distracted by some sand dunes along the out and back trail out to Mckennan Gulch. Apparently the slow motion Kilian's Quest wasn't as contrived as it seems. The young Spaniard is heard telling friends later on that he just can't run past sand dunes without jumping off of them and clicking his heels. I knew the protege must have some weakness.

Coming into Stinson Beach Dakota Jones has moved into the lead and the crowd is going wild. I swear last year when he and I ran in the lead together for most of this race there were 300 people screaming for him for every one that there was cheering for me (thanks Dad). Unfortunately the Young Money fan club will prove to be his undoing. While filling up his water bottles at Stinson Beach a young fan asks Dakota to sign her sports bra. As he's doing this another fan asks Dakota if he would like a sip of his beer. Being that Dakota is in fact an ultra runner he finds it impossible to resist the lure of a hoppy microbrew. Only problem is that a cop who is helping direct traffic nearby sees this and arrests Dakota for underage drinking.

Most of the lead pack at this point is made up of the usual suspects: Bragg, Wolfe, Sharman, Campbell, Meltzer, Olson, Schmitt, Kaburaki, Malarde, Loblanchet, and Chaigneau. As well as a few lesser known, but very strong runners: Flaherty, Schlarb, Burrell, McDougal, and Maravilla. Beyond all of these guys there is one runner that no one has ever heard of: Matias Saari. When he explains to the rest of the pack that he's from Alaska and this is his first ultra in the Lower 48 many of them are reminded of another unknown runner from Alaska a few years back who made his lower 48 debut in Marin at the Miwok 100k, and then went on to put up some huge performances in the few years to follow. Setting records at Wasatch, Mountain Masochist, and Western States along the way. They all rack their brains to try to remember his name, but now that he's old and washed up and pretty much drops out of every race he runs no one can seem to recall.

Somewhere during the climb back to Pan Toll (mile 32), Karl Meltzer is forced to pull out of the race. First his back seizes up on him as he ruptures a disc on the climb. This isn't enough to stop the Speedgoat though. He just needs a little break to let his back loosen up and decides to build a little fire in the forest to keep warm during this time. Unfortunatly the wind kicks up and he starts a small forest fire and is kicked out of the race for breaking the "no forest fire starting" rule. The thing I can't quite understand is why did he have a lighter with him in the first place?

But surely this race is loaded with so many top runners that the race goes on with a very compelling field of runners in the front of the pack as they make their way back down to Muir Beach at mile 42. By this point the lead pack is down to Campbell, Bragg, Saari, Wolfe, Kaburaki, Malarade, Sharman, Chaigneau, and Lorblanchet when a very odd, amusing, and depressing series of events unfolds on Twitter:

StillDepressedAboutUTMB5: @NF50 Here we go again. Why do the Americans seem to suck at every major ultra nowadays.

UltraGeek3: @NF50 At least we have Wolfe and Saari still in the mix.

StillDepressedAboutUTMB5: @NF50 Saari isn't American. He's from Alaska. And I've never heard of Wolfe so he must not be American either.

UltraGeek3: @NF50 Last I checked Alaska is part of the U.S. Haven't you ever heard of The Susitna 100, The Resurrection Pass race, or the Crow Pass Crossing? And yes, Mike Wolfe is from the U.S. I had not heard of him either, but I looked him up on UltraSignup and he's actually done a lot of big stuff. It even says that he was 2nd at WS this year but that must be a typo.

PatriotActRules47: @NF50 Um??? No. Haven't heard of any of those races. Really though? Is this true about Alaska? My cousin was telling me the other day that Alaska was part of the U.S. but I didn't believe him. This is good though. Hopefully Wolfe and Saari can pull it out and not let these foreigners win this thing.

OneLove7: @NF50 No one is a foreigner here. We're all just loving souls who like to run through the mountains and test our limits with ourselves and with nature.

PatriotActRules47: @NF50 If foreigners keep coming over here and winning all of our races we might need to think about tightening security at our borders.

OneLove7: @NF50 What does ultrarunning have to do with national security?

PatriotActRules47: @NF50 Just because we didn't find any WMD's in Iraq doesn't mean that terrorists might not try to send WMD's into the U.S. with ultra runners who come over here to run races. Think about it.

OneLove7: @NF50 I'm thinking about it and I think you're crazy.

PatriotActRules47: @NF50 Anyway, I don't have time for this. I need to go hop into my 6 door, 8 passenger, 12 litre, F900, double Hemi truck with 4 American Flag stickers, and 2 NRA stickers on back and go down to the store and buy another case of Bud Light before this race is over. At least Americans still make the best beer in the world, even if we lost in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and aren't the best baseball players or ultrarunners in the world anymore.

OneLove7: @NF50 Don't forget about the green stuff we grow here in my hometown of Arcata, some of the best in the world.

PatriotActRules47: @NF50 Wow, I guess even hippies have some patriotism about something.

Back in the race the lead pack has been narrowed down to half a dozen runners, ranging from all corners of the world, most of whom have never met each other. Now that the pack is actually small enough to remember a name with a face the runners reintroduce themselves to each other before the final battle to the finish. As they roll through the Tennessee Valley aid station (mile 45.5) spectators can hear Ian Sharman introducing himself to the others. Instantly they all put the name with the face: "Oh, you're Ian Sharman. You're the guy that ran a 12:45 hundred miler. Is this the first race you've run since then"?

Back to the race. Everyone is gathered up the road from the finish line waiting to see who comes into sight first on the homestretch. Suddenly a runner with long hair appears in the distance. Who could it be? Could it be Tony (Everyone's default long haired ultrarunner)? Maybe the power hiking thing really worked out. Besides, the winning time in this race is usually only about 8 minute per mile pace. Isn't that pretty much speed hiking pace? Or maybe it's one of the half dozen or so Tony look alikes that tend to run most every major American ultra nowadays. Or wait, could it be a women? Ellie Greenwood? Lizzie Hawker? They're both fast, but are they this fast?

Anyhow, I'm going to end there. I don't want to give everything away.

Unbreakable

2011-11-17T12:18:00.003-09:00

Many of you are probably already aware of this, but for those of you that aren't there is a feature length film coming out in a few weeks about the 2010 Western States race. This is a piece that ultrarunner and film maker JB Benna has been working on in one form or another for quite some time now. Many of the ideas, and some of the work on the film go back even a year or two before the 2010 race. JB traveled extensively throughout North America to compile footage for this film. I'm excited just to see all the amazing footage of beautiful and wild places in which pieces of this story are told, ranging from the California Sierras to the Colorado Rockies and all the way up to Southeast Alaska, as well as a handful of other locations in between. I think if the story is well told it has potential to be a great film.

The release date on DVD is set for December 20th, but there will be numerous screenings throughout the country between November 25th and December 18th. Click here for all that info, including info on how to host a screening of your own.

For those in the greater Denver area there is going to be a screening in Colorado Springs that Tony Krupicka, Anita Ortiz, and myself will all be attending. The evening will include a Q&A with the three of us after the film. I highly recommend getting tickets for this one early as it certainly could sell out.

A Different Kind Of Tempo Run

2011-11-10T12:21:00.004-09:00

I learned today that doing 10 miles of tempo pace (mostly between 6:00 - 6:45 per mile), at 9,000 feet altitude, on technical trail, mostly covered in ice and snow, wearing micro spikes, with 20 to 30 mph winds blowing somehow in my face the entire time, is a lot different than the typical tempo run. That is to say a lot harder.

But it was that good kind of hard. The kind where you can feel yourself becoming a stronger runner with each step.

Time now to mix up about a gallon of my favorite recovery concoction and sip on it for the rest of the day: Clif recovery powder mix (discontinued product that I'm nursing every last particle of this last container that I have), coconut milk, frozen fruit, some leafy greens (kale, chard, spinach, and beet greens all work well), and a couple tablespoons of Udo's Oil.

And last but not least I think a good hoppy beer will be in order for this evening.

What's Next?

2011-11-07T12:29:00.003-09:00

After UROC I wasn't sure I was going to race again this year. I took almost a month "off" after that race and then began to run everyday again just a few weeks ago. My plan all along was to start back up sometime in mid October and just see how I felt. If I felt good I knew I wanted to race the North Face Endurance 50 miler the first week of December. After a few weeks of running everyday I have decided that I am most definitely going to run NF (assuming I am, knock on wood, alive and healthy come December 3rd). In the past 3 or 4 weeks I have felt better in my training than I have since sometime in the Spring. The North Face race is once again going to be loaded with top talent, and for the first time I am going into this race somewhat fresh. A lot of people seem to complain about this race being run so late in the season, but I kind of like the timing of it. This way it pretty much has nothing else to compete with. If it were held sometime between May and September I don't think you would get near the depth of top talent that this race now gets. Yes, you would have more top runners who were in top form, but for me part of the excitement of the North Face timing has been pushing on for one last race of the season and seeing how various runners are able to do that (or in many cases are not able to). I have no idea how things will play out for me in 4 weeks in Marin, but this is certainly the best position I have been in 4 weeks out of this race any of the times I've raced it.

After North Face comes and goes then all of my focus will shift to The Iditarod Trail Invitational in late February. At this point I am not really planning anything beyond this for 2012. This is such a large endeavor that I don't really want anything looming beyond it to distract me. I'm also well aware that If I finish the full 350 miles I might not have the physical (or mental) ability to run much at all for a month or two. I do have some races in mind that I'd ideally like to do in the late Spring or early Summer, but I won't decide on any of that until after I'm done with the ITI sometime in early March.

One thing I've decided for certain though, is that I am not going to run Western States again in 2012. There are several reasons for this decision, but more than anything I just want my Summer to play out a bit different this year than the last two years. Each of the last two years I trained hard all of May/June for WS, ran WS in late June, trained hard for UTMB all of July/August, and raced UTMB in late August. I've thoroughly enjoyed the training/racing each of these Summers, but this year I am looking forward to changing things up a bit. Right now I don't know exactly what this will mean. I haven't completely ruled out the possibility of UTMB again in 2012, but I think I will more likely do a different late Summer 100 miler. Any recommendations? I've also put in for the Hardrock lottery, and if I get lucky there that will certainly be a hard one to say no to, although the timing of the race would be almost impossible for me with some other things that I have planned already.

And beyond any of these races I'm really looking forward to 2012 likely being a year of less racing for me, and thus more time to get out and explore remote and beautiful places. Almost certainly I'm going to do some racing in 2012, maybe even a decent amount in the second half of the year, but I'm not going into 2012 with as much of a feeling of wanting to race once every month or two as I have the past 3 or 4 years. A bit of a down year (racing wise) should be perfect to give me more time to really explore the amazing mountains that surround me both here in Colorado and up in Alaska, and it should get me nicely motivated for some big racing ideas that I have in mind for 2013 and beyond. Then again this is all much further away than I ever really like to plan and could easily change just as soon as I'm done with the ITI.

A Photographic Journey To Thirteen Thousand Feet

2011-11-06T06:55:00.007-09:00

The Daily Run

2011-10-30T09:20:00.002-08:00

For me it's always really easy to be excited for the bigger, planned out, "destination" runs that I do. These are the runs that you talk about for days (or weeks), you plan around your schedule and your friend's schedules, and you run a route or in a location that is somewhere that you have a specific interest in exploring. For me these kinds of runs are really easy to get excited about and to look forward to.

In stark contrast to these runs though, are the day in and day out runs that fill in the gaps between these larger, planned out runs. Often when I set out the door on "the daily run" I have no idea where or for how long I am going to go. Every now and then I do an entire one of these runs and never really come to a place of feeling like I want to be running at that time. More often than not though, I get a few minutes into one of these runs and things start to fade away. I stop thinking about the story I read while I was drinking my coffee in the morning. I stop thinking about the emails I sent just before heading out the door. I stop thinking about what I'm going to cook for dinner. Eventually my mind comes really present and I begin to really feel my body, and really notice the things going on in the mountains around me. Sometimes this only takes a few minutes, and other times it takes hours, but almost without fail, no matter how much I think that I didn't want to go out for a run on any particular day, I end up coming back home at the end of the run feeling nourished by the fact that I stepped out the door, onto the trail, and went off into the mountains.

I've always known that these daily runs were an important part of moving somewhere close to our potential as runners, but more and more lately I'm beginning to feel that these are actually just as important as the larger, more planned out runs. This might sound contradictory to a post I wrote awhile back talking about the importance of consistency over the long haul as compared to shorter term, day in and day out consistency. In actuality though, I think the two go hand in hand. I'm not saying that it's necessary (or even beneficial) to get out on a run every day, but rather that the shorter, less focused, less planned runs which fill in the gaps between the longer, more planned, destination runs seem to be the key to really being in the kind of shape we need to be in to push toward our physical potential as runners. You can have a lot of fun just doing the destination runs with friends, but if this is all you do you will slowly become less and less fit. I speak from experience here because this is essentially what I have done for the past 2 months. About two weeks ago I returned to the habit of filling in the gaps with shorter, less planned, even somewhat boring at times, daily runs. There is certainly nothing glamorous about these runs, but without them we quickly fall from being capable of performing at anywhere near our optimal level. In this regard these "mundane" runs might be as important as any runs we do. Physically I think we can get by without the big destination runs, and continue to become more and more fit, and more and more capable as runners. I don't think the same can be said for the daily runs that fill in the gaps.

I guess the obvious question then is, what about mentally? Can we continue to grow emotionally and mentally as runners if we are only doing the daily runs, and not the destination runs? That's an interesting question, and one that I think varies from person to person. For me I think the answer is no, and thus the need for both of these types of runs is created, neither one necessarily more important than the other. Both equally important parts of a sometimes difficult to solve puzzle. The one is certainly a lot more glamorous than the other, but glamour of course isn't inherently synonymous with significance, a reality that is sometimes easy to forget, especially in those first few minutes of a daily run when we feel like the last thing we want to be doing at that time is going for a run. Thankfully that feeling rarely seems to last for too long.

Crawling Along The CDT

2011-10-26T10:43:00.006-08:00

Scott and I have been trying to sneak in a 40+ mile run along the Continental Divide Trail from the Indian Peaks down to I-70 for the better part of the past month. Monday finally saw a day in which both of our schedules and the weather lined up to go for it. It was just in time as there is almost 2 feet of new snow here in Nederland today. Basically we waited until the last possible day before The Divide is snowed in until sometime next summer!

I was feeling really worn out from a recent trip to California and a 3.5 hour run on Sunday in Marin, but it was still really great to get out on the most adventurous run I've ever done in Colorado. Everything I've done in Colorado to this point has been on very established trail and in much more gentle weather. This route was all along the Contintental Divide Trail but at times the route was completely a guess and well over half of the run was so rocky and rugged that you couldn't even tell there was actually a trail somewhere in there. The other thing that was unique for me on this run is that I've never done anything where I've been up so high for so long. We went over two 13,000 ft. peaks and spent at least half of the 9 hours that we were out over 12,000 ft.

In the end we cut our route a bit shorter than we had hoped and bailed out at Berthoud Pass on Highway 40. We thought for sure we could average 4 miles per hour throughout the day, but when it was said and done we struggled to cover 3 miles per hour for the entire outing! It wasn't quite as rugged and wild as the more rugged stuff I do in Juneau, but it was very close. Sure is a bummer that the Divide is now buried under a few feet of snow because I can't wait to get up there again.

Here's some photos from the day:

Winter Running

2011-10-18T12:40:00.003-08:00

After nearly two months "off" since UTMB I decided that yesterday would be the day I would return to everyday running. I put "off" in quotes because in the 56 days since UTMB I have actually run over 400 miles, including a 100k race. In that time though I took 30 days completely off from running! So it hasn't been a typical two months off, but it has been the most number of days off from running that I've taken in a two month span in at least a few years.

I thought it to be very fitting that my return to everyday running yesterday was the first outing of the season in which I was running in snow and serious winter like conditions. The next 4 months for me will be very focused on preparing for and hopefully completing The Iditarod Trail Invitational.

I signed up for this race in April and it has been mostly out of my mind since then. There have been numerous times this summer when I doubted whether I actually wanted to try this one again. Yesterday though, as soon as I got up into the serious snow and wind that I ran up into I was more excited than ever for the coming winter running season, and attempting one of the most extreme and challenging winter races in the world. There's something about running in extreme winter conditions that is somehow really relaxing and really satisfying.

At the end of my run yesterday we had a half mile long stretch of straight road, heading directly into a 30 mph wind. You could see the trailhead where our car was at the very end of the straight away and it felt like it was going to take forever to get there. Everything about it pretty much sucked, and yet it was one of the most enjoyable moments I've running I've had in a long time. This brief moment was all I needed to be certain I am making the right choice in ramming my head against the wall of the ITI for a third time.

Binge Running

2011-10-04T09:09:00.003-08:00

I've been taking a little more time "off" since UROC. It's been 10 days since the race but I've only been on a few runs and only one of them was more than 60 minutes. I felt great after the race. By Tuesday I felt fully recovered but I think this last segment of time off (since August 21st I've taken 22 of the 44 days totally off from running) is going to do me some good going into some more focused training to get ready for NF 50. I still haven't decided for certain that I'm going to run that race, but my plan is to basically start training sometime toward the end of next week as though I'm training for it and then see how I feel after a few weeks of that. Between now and the end of next week I'm going to continue to take some "down time," but the weather and the Fall colors are simply too perfect right now to not get out in the mountains for at least a few long outings.

Scattered throughout the days of rest in the coming 2 weeks I've got some really long outings in mind as well, including what should be a really epic run with Joe up in Oregon this coming weekend.

I've done some of this type of "binge" running in the past when I've needed some rest time, but the weather was just too ideal to stay out of the mountains everyday. There's something kind of satisfying about laying really low for 3 or 4 days and then getting out for a full day run, and then repeating the cycle. I think I still prefer when I get out in the mountains most everyday, but for now I'm really looking forward to doing some of this binge running the next couple weeks. Dakota and I are going to hit up the Indian Peaks for 5 or 6 hours this afternoon to kick it off.

UROC 100k Race Recap

2011-09-26T12:01:00.003-08:00

The UROC 100k ended up being quite unlike any race I've ever run. I've had races with a few low points, but never so many as I had in this race. The good thing was that when I would battle through the low points and turn things around I would feel great for a period of time. In this way it felt a lot like 5 or 6 races crammed into one 9 hour run.

I actually felt really good in my training leading up to this race, but being that I basically only trained 2 weeks I certainly wasn't expecting too much on race day. The open mindedness that I took into this race was probably the only thing that kept me plugging along with almost constant focus and determination all day. Had I gone into this expecting more from my body it might have been hard to keep pushing through so many struggles.

Things started pretty typical. A few guys running really hard out front (especially Mackey and Gall) and a "chase group" of 6 or 8 guys including Wardian, Flaherty, Grossman, Sharman, Basham, myself, and others. For the first 20 miles I felt okay. Certainly I wasn't feeling great but I was having fun and I was happy with my position in the race. At this point I was running anywhere between 3rd and 6th, anywhere from 3-6 minutes behind Mackey and Gall. The pace was fast and I was quite certain that no one was going to keep up anything close to this pace, but I felt like maybe I could hold on to something close to this and hope to drop others as the miles built up.

But then we hit the largest climb of the race, just after mile 20. Almost as soon as we started up it became obvious that I was the one that was going to get dropped. Flaherty and Wardian both put some time on me on this climb and I got to the top of it (mile 26) feeling pretty horrible. I knew I was going to keep plugging along and finish the race but I certainly didn't think there was much chance I would be able to do it as a serious competitor near the front. At one point just past the mile 26 aid station I remember doing the math and trying to figure out whether I was even going to be able to finish this thing before dark. It took me about 3:40 to run the first 26 miles and I was pretty sure I was going to be lucky to run the last 36 miles anywhere near this pace. I was thinking sub 12 hours was going to be a challenge.

And thus down the road I went from mile 26. But slowly I started to feel a little bit better. I was running in 5th place and kept looking behind me. Not because I was worried about whether someone was going to catch me from behind, but because I just wanted to run with someone for awhile. I thought if I could just take my mind off of how crappy I was feeling I might be able to turn things around. And then somewhere a little bit before the mile 33 aid station I realized that I was actually feeling really good. I hit the aid station and got a boost from the fact that I was only 6 minutes behind Flaherty and 10 minutes behind the leaders (this turned out to be some good sugar coating from the folks at the aid station as I was actually 16 minutes behind the leaders at that point). The best news I got here though was that I was getting back onto rolling, technical trail for the next 8 miles. All day I was running stronger than anyone whenever we hit the rolling or downhill trail. I just never really had it on the uphills or on the roads. And so I hit this trail and hit it hard. Suddenly out of nowhere I was feeling about as good as I've ever felt in a race. Within minutes I saw Dave who was walking back to the aid station to drop out; passed Scott who was hurting pretty bad (and would eventually drop out); and passed Matt. These 3 had come through the aid station 16, 11, and 7 minutes ahead of me respectively. And I passed all of them within 3 miles! By now Wardian was the only one ahead of me and when I met him (this is an out and back section) on the trail he looked smooth and strong.

When I finished the out and back trail I was 16 minutes behind Wardian (had taken only a minute off his lead in that 8 miles) with just over 20 miles to go in the race. It was clearly going to be a serious battle to try to catch him. And this was when things got really crazy for me. I would feel great for 2 or 3 minutes at a time, become almost certain that I was going to be able to chase down the lead and then almost out of nowhere I would feel horrible again. Just when I would get frustrated with how bad I felt I would start to feel good again without even realizing it. The stretch from mile 41 to mile 48.5 is entirely road. I knew no matter how strong I ran this part I wasn't going to gain too much on Wardian so I just tried to keep moving steady and save as much as I could for the last part of the race that would really cater to my strengths (mile 48.5 - 53.5). When I got to the aid station at mile 48.5 I found out that I had cut another few minutes off his lead. I was now about 14 minutes behind and feeling pretty good (even though I had had about 5 distinct ups and downs in this stretch).

I headed up the dirt road out of the aid station and just began preparing myself mentally and physically for the 3 or 4 miles of downhill technical trail coming up. I knew that if my body responded the way I was hoping it would that I could likely cut his lead in half on this one short stretch of trail. I hit the downhill and my body responded. I was running smoother and faster than I had run all race. I wanted this terrain to continue all the way to the finish, but knowing that it wouldn't (the last 9 miles of the race is all road) made me push even harder to make up as much time as possible. I was cruising down the narrow trail when I came across some folks at a junction in the trail who told me that it seemed quite likely that Wardian had taken the fork to the left (because no one had seen him ahead on the proper trail that went to the right). This was a very easy spot to go off course because earlier in the race we had come up from the trail to the left and the course markings were still there in that direction because there were still a few back of the pack racers coming up that way.

Almost instantly this news took a huge amount of focus and determination out of me. I didn't know for sure if he had in fact made the wrong turn, but I also didn't know if he was out in front of me. Suddenly I had no idea if I was chasing or being chased. And I was low on calories and I was bummed. Bummed for Mike, but also bummed because I was having so much fun trying to chase him down. Eventually I received confirmation that he had gone off course and that I had a large lead. I put it into low gear and just grinded it out to the finish.

In hindsight it seems very unlikely that I could have caught him if he had stayed on course, but I also think that I would have been able to make it very interesting for the last few miles. He was running uphills stronger than me all day and the last 3 miles of the race is all uphill. Even had I somehow found the energy to pull even with him it's hard to imagine that I then would have been able to out race him up that last climb. But it sure would have been fun to try.

In all this was a really satisfying race and great learning experience for me. It was far from my best day physically, but for the first time ever I learned that I'm capable of pushing through so many low points in one run. I got a bit lucky to win the race, but I feel really satisfied with the fact that on pretty much persistence alone I was able to be in the position to finish near the front of this race. In almost all respects I think this race taught me more as a runner (and as a person) than it would have if I had felt great all day and been able to simply run away from the field on physical strength alone.

It was also a really well run event and a great group of folks to run with (many who I've run with a lot in the past, and many I had never met before). I think this first UROC race was a huge success and it was cool to see everyone involved so excited about the event and looking forward to where it goes from here. I know I am. It seems almost certain it'll only get more exciting in the coming years.

UROC

2011-09-21T09:06:00.002-08:00

Heading out to Virginia this weekend to race the UROC 100k. Should be a fun weekend getting together with a lot of friends and running some fun East Coast trails. Although I much prefer the running in the West I do like to get out to the East for a race once a year or so. It adds some nice variety to the big mountain stuff out West.

One thing that I think could be really exciting (for online spectators) about this race is that they will be doing some race day video coverage of the race! There will be a slight delay in the footage, but this is quite certainly the most ambitious attempt at race day coverage of any existing ultra in North America. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's possible in this regard, but it'll be interesting to see how well they can pull it off and how people respond to it. Check out more info. about it here.

In terms of how I'm feeling about this race, that is pretty hard to say. I'm definitely just heading out there with a very open mind. After UTMB I had decided I wasn't going to race UROC. I knew I needed a bit of a break and I was pretty sure I needed a long enough break that I likely wouldn't be running at all until sometime in October or later. After 10 days completely off after UTMB though I started to go for some short runs and I was feeling really good (both physically and mentally). I spent several days trying to decide whether to race UROC or not. In the end I just felt my intuition pushing me toward doing the race. I have no idea how the race will go for me, and I probably have fewer expectations about this race than most any race I've ever done, but I do feel really excited to race this weekend. Ever since definitively deciding (about one week ago) that I would race I have felt really good about this decision and about this race. I have no idea if this means that I will have a good performance on Saturday from a racing standpoint, but I do feel confident that I will have a worthwhile and satisfying weekend no matter how the race plays out for me.

Some folks have complained about UROC being a bit dramatic and over the top in it's marketing approach, or simply in the approach of calling itself, "The Ultra Race of Champions." Certainly I can understand where these sentiments come from as I have always been a big fan of showing people things rather than telling people things. In the case of a race this would mean simply creating the race, enticing top runners to run, offering some big prize money (optional, but perhaps necessary to getting to where UROC is trying to go), and letting folks decide for themselves that this a "championship" type race. At the same time though UROC's approach makes perfect sense to me. Most races have a vision of where they want to get to. In being really clear and open and active with this vision UROC has gotten very far in one year. Compare this to something like the North Face Endurance Challenge Championship race which has instead gone with the "if you build it they will come" approach. I am not certain if North Face's vision with that event was to create a "championship" type race with dozens of top runners from around the world, but one can only imagine this to be the case due to the huge prize purse they put up and the fact that Championship is part of the name of the race. Assuming that this was their vision all along it's amazing to me that they've done almost nothing to promote or encourage this vision. And I think this is the only reason that it took the NF race 3 or 4 years to develop as strong of a field and as much attention on the race as UROC seems to have in it's first year. I'll be honest, the laid-back approach that the NF has taken is probably a lot more my style than the very active approach that UROC has taken, but it's hard to argue that UROC's approach hasn't been more effective in moving more quickly toward their vision. Ultimately though I guess only time will tell, it will be interesting to see what the sustainability will be of these two races. My guess is we'll see some huge changes (presumably improvements) in the next few years from UROC as they continue to be very active about reaching their "vision." North Face on the other hand has changed almost nothing about their race in 5 years and it'll be interesting to see if this static approach will ultimately be to their benefit or to their detriment.

Satisfaction

2011-09-19T11:53:00.004-08:00

I recently wrote something to the effect that "this has likely been the most satisfying year of running I have ever had." Based on comments on this blog, emails I have received, and some comments I've read on other blogs it seems as though some people have a hard time believing this. Here's my attempt at explaining it a little more clearly:

The typical confusion seems to come from the idea that satisfaction as a runner is more or less dependent upon race performance. More specifically it seems like many folks can't believe that this could possibly be a satisfying year of running for me because I DNF'ed at Western States and UTMB. I fully accept that for many people race performance and satisfaction as a runner do inherently run hand in hand, but this has never been the case for me. Sure, it's all part of the equation, and performing well at a race can be (and almost always is) really satisfying, but this doesn't (for me) mean that performing poorly is automatically unsatisfying. And more specifically, a couple poor performances certainly don't define an entire year as unsatisfying. I've been on almost 200 runs this year. The vast majority of them have been really wonderful and satisfying, a few of them beyond any satisfaction I've ever gotten from running previously.

For a few years now my primary running goal going into each season has been to be healthy and fit enough to spend huge amounts of time outdoors, in the mountains, exploring my surroundings on the power of my own legs. This year I have done more of this than ever before, and I've been fortunate enough to do this with dozens of really wonderful people. This is why I said that this has likely been the most satisfying year of running I've ever had.

Beyond this though, about 8 or 10 times a year I like to get together with a whole bunch of like minded and capable runners and share the experience of all pushing ourselves as hard as we can over a particular route, each of us looking for a way to do this a little faster than everyone else, or a little faster than we thought possible of ourselves. But again this is 8 or 10 of the 200-300 runs that I go on each year. I'm bummed that I had very little gas in the tank on a few of these runs this year, but in no way do I look at this as reason to feel like this has been an unsatisfying year of running.

Just a bit of food for thought on your Monday afternoon. Hopefully this explains things a little more clearly for those who seemed confused or in disbelief.

Camp Reminder

2011-09-15T08:07:00.003-08:00

Wanted to put out a quick reminder that entry is open for the 3 sessions of my Alaska Mountain Ultrarunning Camp for next summer. I have been taking entries for about one month and next year's total space is almost half full already. The good news is that the entries I have received so far have been spread pretty evenly between the three sessions so at least for the time being there are several spaces available for each session. I do plan to do some advertising in magazines and at races in the next several months so if you are interested you might want to move on it before it's too late. It appears in all likelihood that the camps will be filled up by the end of the year, or by the early part of 2012, if not before. Click here to check out the camp website for more info.

The African Attachment

2011-09-13T13:13:00.004-08:00

Check out this great little video about UTMB put together by "The African Attachment", a South African film company who is as enjoyable and easy to work with as they are good at making movies. Keep up the good work guys: Check out the film here.

Happy Feet

2011-09-13T10:22:00.003-08:00

This has been a very up and down season of running so far for me. It's probably been the most enjoyable year of running I've ever had, but certainly having 2 big dnf's in my top races of the Summer season has been a bit unsatisfying.

One seemingly insignificant (but in fact very important) thing that has been nice to not have to think about all year however has been my feet. Whatever troubles I've had with my body at times this season, foot issues have not been a part of that at all. I haven't had a blister, a black toenail, a numb toe, or any noticeable foot fatigue all year. There are several factors at play here (shoes, continued adaptation, luck, etc), but it's hard not to equate at least some of my "happy feet" to DryMax socks.

I started wearing DryMax socks right around the first of the year and 9 months later my feet are without a doubt in the best shape they have ever been in since I took up ultrarunning. My belief has always been that a sock can only do so much for us. To some degree I of course still feel this way. The perfect sock is only going to do so much to make us better runners, but I can say that DryMax socks are without question the best socks I've ever worn in terms of allowing me to never have to think much about my feet. And really what more can we demand from a sock? If you haven't tried DryMax socks and you ever have any of the above mentioned issues with your feet, I'd highly recommend giving them a try. I was skeptical for years that running socks really varied much at all, but this season has made it really obvious to me that not all socks are created equal.

UTMB DNF - What Went Wrong

2011-08-30T10:35:00.002-08:00

My block of training after Western States leading up to UTMB was not great by any means. I got some really long, really fun runs in, but through much of this time my body wasn't recovering as smoothly from long runs as usual and this was forcing me to take more days off than usual. Three weeks before uTMB though I started to feel a lot better for a nice 10 or 12 day stretch in which I got in 3 nice long runs (about 30 miles each and about 25k ascent between the three of them) and seemed to recover right away from each one of them. This gave me a nice bit of confidence going into the race. I felt that my body was feeling better than it had all summer, and I felt that my mind and my body were as ready for this race as any race since UTMB a year ago. I was however a little bit uncertain about the fact that by the time the race would start I had not run a step in 6 days. When I arrived in Geneva on Monday my luggage was not with me. I didn't get my stuff until late Wednesday night, therefore I had nothing with me except the clothes I had worn on my flight, and thus didn't do any running in the days leading up to the race. I was a little concerned about this, but I also looked at the forced rest as perhaps a good thing since my body was having a slow time recovering all summer.

And so I started the race in what I would call a cautiously confident state of mind. The weather was pretty nasty (cold and rainy) at the start but I wasn't too concerned about this. I was carrying (by requirement) enough stuff with me to run through a hurricane. I can't imagine any conditions in which I would ever wear all the gear they make us carry in this race. I have never run a step in my life in waterproof pants, and I can't imagine a scenario in which I ever would.

At any rate, off we were and I was feeling pretty good. It was amazing how similar the first three hours of this race were to the first three last year. The weather was about the same. I was running in about the same part of the pack on the way down to Les Houches, and somewhere near town Mike Wolfe and I seperated a little bit ahead of the rest of the American runners and began the climb over to St. Gervais behind a lead group of 5 or 6 European runners, led by Kilian. On the way down to St. Gervais several runners (including Nico of course) went blowing by us and then Mike and I gradually reeled them all back in on the gradual ascent on the way to Les Contamines. By the time we arrived in Les Contamines (30k) we had caught up with the 4 person lead pack and the 6 of us ran into the aid station within a few feet of each other. Things had progressed so similar as last year to this point that I was kind of caught off guard when we weren't told that the race was being stopped. Instead we made exchanges with our crews and were off up the trail toward the first serious high alpine of the race.

I wouldn't say I was feeling great heading out of Les Contamines, probably pretty average for 20 miles into a 100 mile race. But the rain had stopped, the stars were coming out, and I felt like the 6 of us were likely settling into a lead group that would end up doing battle for several hours of time through the mountains. Mike looked strong, Kilian and Miguel I knew would be strong for a long time down the trail. I didn't know the other two runners but I just kind of had a hunch that we would all be sharing this adventure for a huge portion of the race. I also knew that Sebastien was just a couple minutes back and would probably join us for the fun.

And then we hit the first steep climbing about 20 minutes past Les Contamines and almost instantly my body felt weak and challenged. I was cramping a bit. Cramping in my legs, but also cramping in my arms and my hips and my abdomen muscles. Cramps in places I have never cramped before. This also caught me off guard as we were only just over 3 hours into the race. I've never cramped that early in a race before. And so I had no choice but to slow way down on that climb. Initially I was fine with this. I was pretty sure I just needed to drink a lot, eat a lot, take in some salt, keep moving as best I could, and things would come around for me. I made it to the top of the climb in pretty bad shape and then when I started running down it felt even worse. The muscles all over my body felt like I had already run most of the race. By the time I got down to Les Chapieux (50k) I physically felt like I should be almost to the finish, when in reality I had not even run 1/3 of the race yet. From here things just progressed further in this direction. Each mile I ran seemed to effect my body as though I had run 10. My quads were pretty much destroyed by the time I began the descent down off of Col De La Seigne.

My mind stayed strong and I shifted quickly from try to compete mode to try to finish mode. I slowed way down and tried to regroup. Ultimately it was way too late though. By the time I finally dropped in Courmayeur (78k) my body was just too thrashed to continue. I was to the point in which I was walking the steep descents backward because my quads couldn't take the impact anymore. I was doing damage to my body with every step I took and thus the decision to stop was almost not even a decision that I needed to make with my mind, my body had made it for me.

With this experience behind me it's still a bit diffucult for me to know what went wrong. There were a lot of top level runners (American and Foreign alike) who had days very similar to mine. The common thing I kept hearing from almost everyone who dropped out of this race (which was more than half of the starters) was that they eventually just hit a point where their bodies felt like they had already run 100 miles. For several folks this occured even earlier in the race than it did for me! For me though I don't know how much my troubles were isolated to this race and this specific day. The weather was a bit tough, and it's a challenging course for sure, although not enough more challenging than a few other hundreds I've done (Wasatch, HURT, and Bear) that I should have felt as beaten up physically after 4 hours as I usually do only after 17+. For me I think my diffucult race was more of a larger picture thing. My body has not felt "normal" for the better part of 3 months now. Typically I feel below average (physically) about 20% of the times I go out for a run. The other 80% is usually average or above. In the past three months though this ratio has pretty much been flipped around. I've been able to fool myself into thinking everything was OK by taking way more days off than I usually do, but this race made it obvious to me that it's not a few days off that I need, but rather a few weeks or months. Just as we hit low stretches in our running in the shorter term, I think I have hit a low stretch in the longer term. After more than 24 months of pretty steady growth and strengthing in my body, I have hit a point in which my muscles need to reset a bit before they can go forward. Basically I feel myself at the same point I was in May of 2009. At that time I took about a month off and came back to running not even sure if or when I would race again. By the end of September that year I had run (and won) 3 hundred mile races. I bounced back that time even stronger than I had been before that.

I had a very strong craving to do well in this race, but I didn't have the fitness right now to do so. I'm OK with this. I'm glad that I finally put my body up against something so challenging that I have no choice but to read the writing on the wall of such an inability of my body to perform when pushed to do so. Where this all will take me in the next several months I have no idea. That's the thing about reseting and then moving on. You have no idea what moving on looks like until you do the resetting. I'm actually really excited for the next several months, and to see where this all takes me. It's hard to totally clear the mind, reset, and just go with what feels right down the road, but this will be what I hope to accomplish over the next several weeks/months.

UTMB Delayed... Again!

2011-08-26T03:49:00.004-08:00

For those following along online in The States (or anywhere in the world for that matter), we got news a bit ago that the race start has been postponed by 5 hours. We will now be starting at 23:30 France time, which is 5:30pm EST in the US. There's a pretty strong and fairly fast moving storm expected to roll through here right around the time that the race was supposed to start. I guess their hope now is that the worst of it will have passed by the time we start 5 hours later. Going to be a lot of tired folks with this race starting about the time most people are used to falling asleep for the night.

I for one love the later start for a few reasons. First of all the storm is going to bring in some very cool weather. We might be running in some rain/snow in the first third of the race, but by sunrise it's supposed to be mostly cleared up and significantly cooler than it's been. Cool weather = better stomach performance which more often than not = better overall performance. I also like that we will get to see a lot more of the route in daylight. Instead of running in darkness for 10+ hours we will do it for about 6 or 7. I love running in the dark, but these mountains here are so amazingly dramatic I want to see as much of them as possible. And the third reason I like the later race start is just that it's something different. In the United States there is such a format to most of our ultras. They're almost all one of 4 exact distances and they almost all start between 5:00 and 8:00am. I love that this is simply a run around a mountain (it happens to be right around 100 miles, but only by chance, not by design) and that we are starting at 11:30 at night. It just gives the whole thing even more of a unique and exciting feel.

And beyond all of this there is nothing like having 2,500 runners primed and ready to do a run that they've been preparing for for most of the year and then telling them they need to wait even 5 more hours. You can just feel the tension in the air here now. It's easy to react negatively to news like this, and part of me is frustrated with the situation, but the decision has been made and now it's time to just wait a little longer and try to get some more rest. As soon as we line up, take the start, and run out of Chamonix the whole 5 hour delay is going to mean nothing in comparison to the adventure that lies ahead. Personally I have a feeling that this is going to be one of the most satisfying runs of my life so I don't really care so much when we start... just as long as we get to actually finish this time around.

One Year Later

2011-08-25T13:43:00.003-08:00

I've been ready to run UTMB again for a full year after last year's postponed race. This has pretty much been my focus race since the day after this race one year ago. Keeping my finger's crossed now that the weather cooperates enough to let this one go off without any stoppages. The forecast currently looks a lot like the weather last year!

My week here in Chamonix started out a bit sour. I arrived several hours late into Geneva on Monday and my luggage (with all my race gear) arrived 2.5 days late! Until late in the day yesterday I didn't know if I was even going to receive my stuff before the race. Certainly I'll be going into this one very fresh as I didn't have anything with me to be able to go out for any running. The only clothing I had were the clothes I wore on the flight. I'm probably a little bit over rested but I'll take that any day vs. being over trained.

For those following along online it should be a pretty good one to follow. When the race leaders pass through La Fouly (110k) they will be giving all of the top runners a small gps device that will show the leaders progress with less than a few minutes delay.

Nothing left for me now except to sleep, eat, and run in the mountains all night and most of the day Saturday. Doesn't get much better than that.

Consistency

2011-08-21T15:31:00.003-08:00

It's no secret that consistent practice of any physical activity can and typically does lead to improved performance at that activity. If only it were really that simple though. In the case of something like running there is only so much running that our bodies can handle before it's too much. This amount varies from person to person, but in the case of most experienced ultrarunners I think there is more of a tendancy to run too often than not enough. I do think consistency is crucial to maximize one's potential, but in the case of something as physically degrading (if overdone) as ultrarunning I think long term sustained consistency is much more important than short term consistency. This is to say that I think it's a lot more important to be consistent over the course of months and even years than it is to be consistent over the course of days or weeks.

Why is long term consistency so important in this sport? Running 50 or 100 miles is not a matter of precision and fine tuning. It is a matter of deep rooted mental and physical strength and endurance which is developed through a series of micro adaptations that we make over the course of years. No matter how hard you train in the 2 or 3 months leading up to your first 50 or 100 mile race you are going to get worked over really hard in that race. Of course there are random exceptions, but everyone I know has been physically hammered by their first ultra. On the flip side of this I see folks (myself included) who have trained and raced consistently for a few years (or in some cases for decades) who have been able to make these gradual adaptations such that they can race every few weeks and only the occasional "race gone bad" has the extreme physical effect that those first few ultras seem to have on everyone. I remember shortly after I ran my first 50 miler someone told me that if I kept doing them fairly regularly that my body would "learn" to do this without even being sore the next day. At the time I thought there was no chance of this. Now, 5 years and about 35 races later, I rarely have very much soreness after a 50 mile race.

Anyhow, if you've read this far you might now be thinking, "okay, good point about long term consistency, but this doesn't make short term consistency unimportant." To some degree I think it does though, because in my experience the most likely way to be consistent over the long term is to not over do short term consistency which in almost all cases seems to lead to eventual injury, fatigue, or burnout that limits long term consistency. This is to say that rather than focusing too much on trying to run a certain amount everyday, or a certain amount of time/mileage each week I think most ultrarunners could benefit a lot from just adopting a lifestyle of going out and running when their bodies and minds (and logistics of day to day life) allow for it and not so much when they don't. Running every single day for a year or running 100 miles a week for a year (if you are one of the rare few to pull this off without getting injured or burnt out) isn't going to make you nearly as capable of an ultrarunner as running a consistent and challenging amount of mileage/hours per year for several years. A few weeks without much running, or even a month, will do virtually nothing to set us back once we have built up all these micro adaptations that this kind of long term consistency leads to. But we can only get to this point if we can stay generally healthy for a long period of time.

How do we best do this? By not focusing too much on short term consistency and just taking individual days as they come and letting our bodies dictate when and how much we run. Of course this is just my opinion about all of this. And of course there are many folks who defy this theory, but I would argue that most ultrarunners would actually run more (and faster) over the course of the long haul if they focused less on trying to run a certain amount each day or week and just ran each day and each week what felt right, taking into account the physical, the mental, and the logistics of day to day life as it comes at us. When your body and mind feels good and you have the time in your day to go out and run like crazy then go out and run like crazy. But when you're not feeling good or you just don't have the time to squeeze in a run without it being too much of an extraction on the rest of your life, then just do what you need to do to take care of your body and/or your life and don't stress about not running enough that day or that week. By not running on these days you'll actually be making yourself a better runner over the long haul.

Colorado, UTMB, and 2012 Camps

2011-08-15T14:01:00.003-08:00

My summer in Juneau has come to and end and I'm back in Colorado getting settled in here before leaving in a few days to head over to France for UTMB. I had an amazing summer running in Juneau, but didn't really feel physically very good for a lot of it. Everything has really begun to click in the past 10 days though and I have felt better in this time than I have for any 10 day stretch in several months. This has me more excited than ever for UTMB. Going to get in one last long run tomorrow and then head off to New York to visit my family for a few days and then on to France.

I've mentioned a few times how successful my running camps were this summer. They were without question two of the most satisfying weeks of my life. And now I have moved forward with 3 sessions planned for the summer of 2012. The entry forms for those camps are now available on the camp website so sign up soon if you want to guarantee a space for next summer. Based on the response I've gotten I suspect these camps will fill up pretty quickly again for 2012. I will update the "Latest News" section of the camp website as applications start to roll in, but if you want to be sure to have a space in the session of your choice please send your entry/deposit as soon as possible. Also be sure to fully read over the camp website before you sign up. Most things will be the same as 2011, but there are a few changes that have been updated on the camp website. The most notable of these is that the May 28th session will be specifically intended for the more advanced/performance oriented runner. Please fully read the website before choosing to sign up for this session. And feel free to contact me via email if you have any questions about this.

First Summer of Camp is in the Books

2011-08-05T17:05:00.004-08:00

Finished up the second session of my running camp this week. I still can't believe how amazing the experience has been of putting on these camps. Both sessions turned out to be amazing. Two of the most satisfying weeks of my life. Thanks so much to everyone who participated. They were such a success that I already have 3 sessions planned for next summer! The dates are up on the camp website and the entry will open beginning on August 15th. Click here for more info.

Beyond this I've just been doing my best to get ready for UTMB and packing up to head back to Colorado for the fall/winter. It sure has been a short summer. I've done a ton of cool stuff here in Alaska since early May, but I feel like this summer could go on for years and I wouldn't run out of run stuff to do. This said, I'm looking forward to getting settled back in to Colorado and enjoying the Rocky Mountain Autumn which can be one of the most wonderful places in the world to spend the next several months.

Running Stupid Interview

2011-07-25T19:27:00.002-08:00

Here's a link to an online interview I did last week on "Running Stupid": http://runningstupid.libsyn.com/running-stupid-lxxxv-geoff-roes-interview-

It's quite long but there's some stuff in there that should be pretty informative for runners new to running ultras... and maybe even a few things that would be interesting to anyone.

Crow Pass Race Recap

2011-07-24T18:01:00.003-08:00

Crow Pass ended up going as well for me as I possibly could have expected. After my rough day at Western States last month I wasn't really expecting much of anything from this race. I have been focused more on UTMB than anything this whole season and I was really only running Crow Pass once again because there were 8 friends of mine from Juneau who decided to run and I didn't want to miss out on the fun.

And then the race started. And almost instantly I went from being quite ambivalent about the whole thing to really excited about it. I didn't feel great, but I felt good. The competition was as solid this year as it's been in a few years. For the past couple years it's been just Eric Strabel and I, but this year Matias Saari was racing again for the first time in a few years and made it really obvious right from the start that he wasn't going to let Eric and I run away with this one as we had done the previous couple years. In fact Matias ended up setting the pace for most of the first 15 or 16 miles of the race (after Eric had done so on most of the first 2 or 3 miles going up to the pass).

Me? I just kind of hungout right on the heels of whoever was running in front. I ran in front a bit, but probably no more than 2 total miles before I took the lead for good with about 7 miles to go. I would have been more than willing to run in front and do some of the pace setting, but Matias really seemed to want to be in front, especially on the downhills which he was running really strong.

The climb up to the pass was much more relaxed than the last couple years, and once we got over the top still no one really tried to push things very much. I for one was very excited about this. I felt very confident about my chances if the race come down to a contest of who could outlast the others without anyone making a really strong push to separate themselves from the others. And this is exactly how it played out. Eric never seemed to be able to quite keep up with Matias and I on the flatter stretches and I just hungout behind Matias, feeling very relaxed, until finally at about mile 16 Matias pulled to the side of the trail and let me by (I found out later that he was dealing with some cramping issues).

I just kept pushing a hard pace and kept moving one step closer to the finish. I figured Eric was probably not far behind but I also felt pretty confident that my pace was going to be enough to hold him off. I didn't have a lot more left in the tank had I needed it, but I was able to keep a quick enough pace that I just didn't need it. I ended up finishing almost 2 minutes ahead of Eric for my 4th Crow Pass victory and 3rd in a row. I didn't quite get in under 3 hours, but I think the slower time was mostly due to the fact that we just didn't push very hard at all until after the river. I think had any of the three of us been running specifically for a fast time rather than to try to win the race I could have run several minutes faster in the first half of the race, and still likely finish the second half just as fast.

In all this was likely the most I have ever enjoyed this race. I'm not sure why I enjoyed it so much. Maybe it was because I didn't really expect to, or maybe because I felt so smooth and steady throughout the day. Whatever the reason though I sure am glad I decided to run it again this year. Don't know yet if I'll run it again next year, but with the race director talking about adding in some decent prize money it'll be even that much harder to say no.

It was also really amazing to share the race and the day with so many close friends from Juneau. The group of 8 of us who raced were quite the eclectic bunch with 2 in their twenties; 2 in their thirties; 1 in his forties; 1 in his fifties; 1 in his sixties; and 1 who will turn 73 this fall! Three of us won our age groups (would have been 4 but they don't even recognize a 70 and over age group because I think Glenn Frick may have been the first person over 70 to ever complete the race - and it's not like he squeezed in under the 6 hour time limit: he finished in 4:30!) Our 60 year old participant (Guy Thibodeau) came in just under 4 hours, something that I doubt there are more than a handful of 60+ runners in the world that could do, and Guy didn't even have a very good day. If a lot of these Juneau runners decide to go back to Crow Pass again next year that will be another thing that will make it very hard for me to say no.

Click here for a story about the race including results.

Juneau Taking Southcentral AK By Storm?

2011-07-22T10:36:00.003-08:00

Heading up to Anchorage for another run at Crow Pass this weekend. Should be a fun one. We've got a crew of 8 of us heading up from Juneau. This will be a fun one to finish up and hang around watching all my friends from here come through the finish. I'm expecting the Juneau contingent to turn some heads up there. We could win a few of the various age groups in this one. If not it certainly won't be for lack of killer mountain training that all 8 of us have gotten in here in the past few months.

Julien Chorier Keeps The Ball Rolling

2011-07-11T14:21:00.004-08:00

European runners are hitting the US ultrarunning scene hard nowadays. It seemed to kind of start with Kilian's strong showing at Western States last year, and since then European runners have won several of the top races in this country. If you also look at European natives living in North America you can then include folks like Ian Sharman, Nick Clark, and Ellie Greenwood in this conversation. Good thing Dave Mackey isn't Euro or it might seem like Americans never win big ultras anymore.

I for one think this is an awesome development in the sport. The European runners who I've had the pleasure to race against have all been fun, talented, and humble folks. To this point they have had more recent success in "our" races than we've had in "theirs", but I think this will only motivate and encourage runners all over the world to push even harder to compete at a top level in races throughout the world. The number of top level American runners heading over to UTMB this year is very impressive, and I would guess this number will only grow in the coming years. The success that European runners have had in our big races in the past year has been a huge part of this interest in American runners heading over to more and more of the world's big races. Who knows, maybe we'll even start to win some of the big ones across the pond, and that will make things even that much more exciting.

The Four Steps To My WS DNF

2011-06-27T19:09:00.000-08:00

I spent some time (and certainly I wasn't the only one) on my flight back to Alaska today thinking about why things may have gone as poorly for me this past weekend as they did. Of course I have no way of knowing for certain so this is all just a guessing game. But here are my guesses:

I think the most prominent factor is that I simply had a bad day. This isn't the first time I've had a race that started out feeling bad and just got worse as I pushed along. It was in fact the 4th in the 40 or so races I've run in the past 5 years. We all have days when we just don't have it. The reason we try to sleep a lot, eat well, and rest before a race is that we try to minimize this chance of having one of these days on race day. And minimize we can, but eliminate we can not. Anyone who runs enough races will have a bad day on race day sooner or later.

The next most likely factor is that the head/chest cold that I had the week before the race was still lingering enough to slow me down. I thought I had kicked it a full week before the race but then on Monday of race week it came back pretty hard for one day. The rest of the week I felt better and better each day, but certainly I was still congested on Saturday. I've done 5 or 6 races in the past few years in which I was just getting over a cold in the days leading up to the race. A few times I've been able to get through this without it having too much of an effect (NF Endurance Challenge 2009 and Run Rabbit Run 2010) and a few other times (Miwok 2009 and Bandera this year) it's had a definite negative effect on my performance. I do think this illness had an effect on me this past weekend, but it certainly wasn't the entire problem, and probably wouldn't have been insurmountable had it been the only problem.

In reading this it might sound like I get sick all the time, but I feel like I get sick about the same as most people (usually 2 or 3 colds a year), I just happen to race about once every 4 or 5 weeks so pretty much anytime I get a cold it is still lingering a little bit by the time I do my next race.

I think another reason why it might seem like I get sick all the time to folks who follow my racing is because I'm entirely open and honest to people who ask me how I'm feeling about a race. If I say I've been sick that means I've been sick. If I say I've been feeling really good that means I've been feeling really good. If I've been feeling like crap and someone asks me how I'm feeling I will tell them that I've been feeling like crap. If I'm feeling like crap during a race and another runner asks me how I'm feeling I will tell them that I'm feeling like crap. I'm not interested in playing mind games and trying to hide what I'm feeling. If this openness sometimes works to the advantage of other runners by boosting their confidence (as I think it probably did for Dave during Bandera when I told him how bad I was feeling) than so be it. To me competition is about the collective experience much more than it is about trying to win at all costs. If I tell someone I'm feeling horrible and they gain some energy/confidence from that knowledge then I think that's awesome for them. If I'm able to turn things around and feel better later on then we get a snowball effect going on and can push collectively well beyond what anyone of us could of as individuals. A desire to win is one of the reasons I love to compete with other runners, but it is certainly not the main reason. Winning is instead just really sweet "icing on the cake" of the competitive experience. Anyhow, I'm off on a long tangent here. The point is I was recovering from a cold this week and that certainly didn't help much with my performance ability on Saturday.

The third factor that may have been involved in this race is that I was perhaps overtrained/undertapered. My training/taper was in fact not much different with this race than it has been for most of the races I've done in the past few years. I ran a total of 19 miles in the 5 days before this race. I ran a total of 96 miles in the two weeks before the race. If anything these numbers are a bit lower than my typical lead up to a big race. In terms of the longer picture I have run almost exactly the same total mileage, time, and elevation to date this year as I did to this point last year. I have also raced almost exactly the same mileage as last year (260 to date this year and 230 to this point last year). I am however open to the possibility that I have been overtraining a bit and that I need a bit of a break (and I plan to monitor this very closely in the next few weeks). I have had a lot of runs in the past month in which I have felt kind of crappy like I did this past weekend. This isn't unusual though. I often feel kind of weak during my lead up to big races and then when I cut back the mileage for a couple weeks before the race I come around nicely by race day. I didn't do much (in terms of rest) while my body was not feeling very good for the past 4 or 5 weeks because I figured that it would just come around nicely with my taper before the race (as it's usually done in the past).

The thing that was different this time around though, and the reason why I might have overtrained a little bit, is that typically when I don't feel well I unconsciously take time off because it's not that enjoyable to run several days in a row not feeling well. This past several weeks though I've been enjoying my running (even when not feeling well) so much that I've just been running through a lot of physically mediocre days and not even really noticing how I'm feeling physically.

The 4th, and final factor that may have played a role in all of this is that my body may not have had enough time to adjust to the style of running that I do here in Juneau after spending 8 months in Colorado. I have no doubt that my body responds very well to the type of running (extremely steep and slow going) I do here, but it may be that I need another few weeks before I will have fully readjusted to this.

In all likelihood I think what hit me on Saturday was a combination of all of these things. Any one (or maybe two of them) would have been possible to overcome, but the combination of all 4 of these things was just too much. The good thing is that two of these things are already gone (the bad day and the cold); another one will automatically be addressed with the rest which I need to recover from the 56 miles I ran Saturday (and some careful monitoring of my body once I do start running again); and the last one will simply work itself out with time as I readjust more and more to running these incredible trails here in Juneau. In other words I fully plan/expect to be in the best shape of my life in 2 months for UTMB, and despite things not going so well this weekend I feel like I'm in perfect position to move in that direction with a ton of momentum and determination.

Blah, And Then Even Worse

2011-06-26T20:02:00.003-08:00

Things started out feeling "off" for me at Western States this year, and from there it just kept going downhill. My legs felt weak right off the start and my heart rate and rate of breathing were elevated way above normal. My stomach felt a little off as well.

Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun running through the snow that covered most of the course from about mile 3 to mile 13, but once we got back on dry ground my legs felt like I had already run 50 or 60 miles - not a good place to be at mile 13. I tried easing back a bit, but felt even a bit worse when I ran slower. No one was pushing a very aggresive pace at this point so I was able to stay somewhat near the leaders despite how weak I was feeling. I tried my best for a few hours to stay close enough to still be in position to take a shot at the leaders later in the race if I could turn things around, but finally at about mile 35 I decided to ease way off and let go of any hope of racing for the win and just try to figure out a way to finish. Well, after 20 more miles (probably half of which was walking) it was obvious that finishing in the state I was in was going to be a stubborn death march that I just wasn't willing or interested in taking part in. I eventually pulled the plug at mile 56. Even with only 35 miles of hard running my legs feel as fatigued and sore today as they usually do after running a full 100.

I am of course a bit upset to have had such a tough race, but I had several hours out on the trail yesterday to come to terms with this one and begin to focus on the things I could take away from this that will make me a stronger runner in the future. I got to run with some great folks and then see most of them finish in Auburn several hours later. It was far from how I envisioned my day going, but it was still a great thing to be a part of.

Huge congratulations to Kilian and Ellie. They both had amazing races. Kilian showed amazing persistence and just kept plugging along at a decent clip all day. Mike, Nick, and Jez made him really work for his win and each ran amazing races themselves. Ellie's performance is still too unbelievable for me to put into words, but I'll try anyway. Ellie was 15 minutes behind with only 10 miles to go in the race! And she ended up winning by over 20 minutes! This after she was more than 30 minutes behind the women's leader when she left Michigan Bluff at mile 56. When the dust had settled she was across the finish line with the second fastest women's time in the history of the race. I couldn't help but think about how similar her race was to my race last year, but in reality what she did yesterday made what I did last year seem like no big deal in comparison. The amount of time that she made up on the leaders in the second half of the race was more than double what I did last year. Good stuff.

My Next Run

2011-06-23T13:29:00.003-08:00

Good luck to everyone running Western States on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who is helping out with the race. Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes. Should be a fun one. Doesn't look like it's going to be too awfully hot, maybe even a few degrees cooler than last year. Should only be around 90 in the hot areas of the course. Either way though this is about 20 degrees warmer than any weather I've been in all year. It's going to feel really damn hot for sure. Did about 5 or 6 miles in Truckee a bit ago. It was about 70 or 75 and this felt really hot. For me it won't even be the heat as much as the dryness. I've been working through a head/chest cold for the past week and the dry air (combined with the altitude) really puts some extra stress on the lungs. Should be good and ready to roll by Saturday though.

Now that Western States will be my next run I'm starting to build some focus and excitement about Saturday. It's going to be really exciting to run a 100 mile race with such depth of world class runners (and then another one again in August). All of the 100 milers I've done previous to this one had significantly fewer truly top level runners. Even Western States last year was nowhere near as deep at the top as this year. It'll be fun to see how it all shakes out. Hope you all enjoy your weekend as much as I'm hoping to.

Slogging To The Top

2011-06-20T20:22:00.002-08:00

Here's a link to a video that Joel Wolpert put together that is now featured on The Running Times website. Joel does a great job of not making things too complicated in the making of his films. His film making style actually reminds me a lot of my running style. The finished product comes as close to showing who I am as a runner than anything I've seen or read previously.

Where I'm At

2011-06-19T15:58:00.003-08:00

Somehow Western States has crept up to only 6 days from now! When did that happen? Seriously, the amount of time I've spent thinking about this race so far this year compared to last year has been almost nothing. Not sure if this is a good thing, a bad thing, or simply just a different year/different thing.

It's been over two years now since I last trained with any serious structure (except for the structure that is a lack of structure), but this Spring has really evolved to a new level for me in this regard. In the past couple years as big races approached I did find myself focusing a little bit on peak training periods, high mileage runs, and specific tapers. Maybe I'll return to more of that again in the future, but so far I just haven't really done any of this in preparation for next week's race. Instead, I've just been running day to day more than I ever have. Even now, with the race at the end of this week I find myself thinking more about what run I'm going to do tomorrow than the run this coming weekend. This might sound like a careless and crazy approach to such a highly contested race, but I've had more fun than ever "training" for this race, and the more the line seems to blur between training and racing the more I seem to enjoy all of it, and the better my races seem to get from a performance standpoint.

At some point thus the question becomes: why race at all then? I'm still not to the point of seriously asking myself this question. I still get a lot of satisfaction from competing with others at something we've all put so much time and effort into. 29 days out of 30 I prefer to just be out running through the mountains at a mellow pace, exploring the terrain around me, but about once a month it's really fun to line up and push myself physically and mentally in conjunction with and in competition with dozens (sometimes hundreds) of other like minded folks. I imagine that I will eventually get to the point of not craving this kind of running anymore, or at least much less often than the once a month that I do now. For now though, come race day, I'm as focused and ready as anyone to scratch and claw to compete at my highest potential on that given day. I'm just not willing to compromise my enjoyment and nourishment from my running on the other 29 days of the month. I did that for a couple years in the past and there's just no comparison in terms of the nourishment that I get out of it. Training with a specific focus and purpose of trying to be as fast as possible on a given day at some point in the future feels so shallow and silly to me when compared to simply going out and doing the run that feels the most logical, enjoyable, and appealing on each given day.

So for now I'm thinking mostly about the Juneau ridge run that I'm probably going to do tomorrow morning, but come Saturday morning all of my focus will be turned to running from Squaw Valley to Auburn as fast as possible. And with the field showing up this year it's going to have to be really damn fast to have a chance of being anywhere near the front of the pack.

Brief Recap Of Camp

2011-06-14T16:38:00.002-08:00

The first ever Alaska Mountain Ultrarunning Camp is now in the books. I've had the idea for this camp in my mind for 2 or 3 years and finally decided this year to make it happen. It has been a lot of work to put it all together and get it off the ground, but the reward that was the first session of this camp made all of the work completely worth it.

We had an amazing group of runners gather for 5 days of running here in Juneau. The group dynamic was amazing and I feel like everyone came in with a really open mind and learned some key aspects of running.

I've always been a big fan of showing people what to do as opposed to telling them what to do. At this camp I didn't want to do a lot of lecturing to people about how they should run, but rather I wanted to just go out and show them how I run and what has worked for me and see if they can learn anything from that. I think on the first day most of the "campers" might have thought I was a bit crazy, but by the middle of the week I started to see everyone beginning to find a real comfort and understanding with what we were doing. When the camp was over I realized that I too had learned a lot about life and about running.

I thought this was going to be a lot of hard work and probably quite frustrating at times, but aside from the work of getting everything prepared ahead of time, the actual time during the camp was one of the most enjoyable and worthwhile weeks of my life. I can't wait to do it again next month. Thanks so much to those of you that attended this first camp. I have so much gratitude for each and every one of you.

For those interested in seeing some great photos and videos from the camp please be sure to keep and eye on the camp website in the next few weeks as I will be putting some stuff up there very soon. You can find this website HERE.

Camp Is Over

2011-06-12T20:44:00.005-08:00

Click here for a little video from day one of the first ever Alaska Mountain Ultrarunning Camp.

I can't begin to describe how incredible and satisfying this camp was. Watch this above video to get a taste for yourself. One of the best weeks of my life! Many more pictures, videos, and thoughts to come, but for now I need to go catch up on sleep cause I'm pretty sure I've spent more time running than I have sleeping in the past 5 days.

Too Much Fun For Blogging

2011-06-05T14:06:00.003-08:00

Haven't been taking the time to post much here. Too much good running to be spending much time online. Also been busy with last minute details for my running camp which begins tomorrow. If anyone is interested in an Alaskan running vacation later this summer there is still one space remaining in the second camp session that begins on July 28th. Check it out here.

Hope you're all getting out and enjoying the mountains as much as I've been in the past week. about 40k of vertical in the last 7 days. Doesn't get much better than that.

Another Media Link

2011-05-22T17:09:00.001-08:00

Did a little interview yesterday with a new website called Ultrarunner Podcast. Check it out Here.

Meet The Moment

2011-05-19T17:47:00.002-08:00

Here's a link to a video featuring me and 5 other Clif Bar athletes that is being used to promote the new "Meet The Moment" campaign. Check it out here

Also be sure to check out the "Meet The Moment" homepage here for more info. on this cool campaign.

The Looming Showdown

2011-05-10T09:58:00.004-08:00

For the first point yet this year my mindset has begun to shift toward the looming showdown at Western States coming up at the end of next month. I know for some folks this mindset begins within hours of the end of WS the previous year (think AJW), but this certainly hasn't been the case for me with this race. In fact I don't really like to approach any race where I put much of any time or energy into that race until about 6 weeks before the start. The lone exception for me in this regard has been the 2 times I've tried the Iditarod Invitational and the time I rode the Great Divide Race. My result in those three events: 3 DNFs. For me I think I end up a little burnt out (mentally) before I even start a race when I focus on one specific event for too long. I operate a lot better when my most important run is my next run and not some run several months in the future.

There's been the anonymous troll posting comments on this blog recently about Western States being "the race of my life" and how I'm crazy to be doing other "two-bit" races recently when Western States is only a couple months away. To that I say that my next race is always "the race of my life." No matter how low key and unestablished a race is, the next race I'm running is always where the majority of my focus is going to be. Right now Western States is the most important race to me, but only because it's my next race, and this has me getting more excited and focused on it than I have been all year.

The field this year looks to be even more solid than last year. The top four finishers from last year are all returning; Hal looks to be ready to be a serious factor again this year; Dave is a bit of a wild card at the 100 mile distance but I certainly know that he has the potential to win anything he lines up for; Ian Sharman showed at Rocky Raccoon that he can run with anyone in the world on a good day; Kaburaki and Bragg are both going to be back this year after a year off last year; and among rookies, both Mike Wolfe and Ryan Burch look to be in killer shape right now. Beyond these folks you have most of last year's top 15 returning plus a few other lesser known rookies who could make a little noise (Fanselow, Olmstead, and Loutitt to name a few). It's also worth mentioning that there are no fewer than 3 or 4 women who need to be talked about not just in terms of the women's race, but in terms of potential for very solid overall finishes (Greenwood, Ortiz, Semick - not sure if Kami is actually running - and Garneau to name a few). I think the women's field is so strong at the very top that if a few of them are having good days they could possibly push each other within reach of Ann Trason's "untouchable" course record. In all I think the competition for the top 15-20 places in the race will be significantly deeper than it was last year. Last year you had over a 2.5 hour gap between first and 10th place; a 3 hour gap between first and 15th place; and almost a four hour gap between first and 20th place. My guess is that all of these gaps will be significantly smaller this year. Last year there were about 35 runners who finished under 20 hours. With similar course conditions this year I wouldn't be surprised to see 50 finish under 20 hours. These are of course all hypothetical projections and it's been no secret that there is currently a ton of snow in the Sierras. Depending on what the weather does in the next 6 weeks we could easily end up with the largest amount of snowpack ever at Western States. That could throw a lot of these projections out of whack.

Anyway, back to my place in all of this. Last year I won Western States. This fact has potential to put a huge amount of pressure on me this year. So far I haven't felt too much of that pressure. I'm planning to do everything I can to have a good race, but I think a big part of this will be how relaxed and laid back I remain about the whole thing. In many ways I think my ability to do this has become one of my biggest strengths as a competitive runner. Now that Western States is creeping closer and it now is my next race, I imagine a bit of pressure (both self imposed and through other people's comments/expectations) will slowly creep in over the coming weeks. I think being back in Alaska will help with this. Up here it's really easy to just get out in the mountains and run each day, without having it feel contrived or specific to a purpose of preparing for one particular day that is still almost two months away. Certainly you can "train" in this way no matter where you live, but here in Juneau everything is kind of closed off in an idyllic little bubble, and it's pretty easy to escape the pressure, stress, and anxiety of competitive running (and of many things in life). This combined with the challenging terrain and the thriving running community makes Juneau the perfect place to prepare for a race like Western States. It's so easy here to focus on the next run rather than on a run that is still almost two months away.

As another way of avoiding putting too much focus on Western States I am pretty certain I am going to run the race with no pacer(s) and with minimal or no crew. I think there are benefits to having a pacer and a crew, but I also think that in many cases the extra stress of logistics and preparation that goes into planning all of this can be as much a detriment as it can be a benefit. Especially in a race like Western States where the aid stations or so well stocked and run, and where your crew can really only get to you at 4 or 5 points on the course anyway. I think it was very beneficial to have Dave out there pacing me last year, but that was last year, and that was my experience of that race. This year I want to experience Western States as more of a solo thing and I don't think this will necessarily have a negative effect on my performance potential. It will just be different. And certainly I have had plenty of experience racing long hard races without pacers. Of the eight 100 mile races I've run I've had a pacer with me for about 35 total miles.

At any rate Western States should be a really exciting event to be a part of again this year. It's been fun and exciting to start thinking about it a bit more in the past several days. But it's also really fun and exciting to be back here in Juneau where there are so many enticing places to run that I'm much more excited about where I'm going to run tomorrow than any runs I have planned in the future.

It Must Be Summer

2011-05-07T10:43:00.003-08:00

The combination of our first really warm weather here in the front range and the fact that I'm leaving on Monday to head up to Alaska for "the summer" has me feeling for the first time yet this year like Spring is winding up and Summer is just around the corner.

Historically Summer has never been my favorite month. The heat doesn't bother me too much, but certainly I prefer 50 degrees to 90 degrees. In the cold you can always put on more clothes and stay warm, but if it gets too hot out there just isn't much you can do to avoid the heat if you want to be outside.

Since moving to Alaska 6 years ago though my perspective on Summer has changed a lot. In Juneau it rarely gets over 75 degrees. Beginning sometime in April and continuing until sometime in September the high temperature is between 50 and 75 almost every single day. Perfect temperature as far as I'm concerned. Sure it rains a lot, and sure the winter's can be pretty dark and miserable, but there are few places I have ever been where the temperature is as ideal for 6 straight months as it is in Juneau from April to September.

It's a little over 80 in Boulder today and I can't help but feel like I'm getting out of here just in time before the real heat sets in. Sure, it's only supposed to be about 50 and raining when I touch down in Juneau on Monday, but for running 20+ hours of rugged mountain terrain each week I'd take 50 over 80 in a heartbeat. The rain might take a little while to get reacquainted with (it's rained maybe 3 times in the 8+ months that we've been in Colorado), but even the rain this time of year in Juneau has a way of feeling gentle and comforting.

Hidden Gem - SBER 100 Race Report

2011-05-01T11:53:00.003-08:00

My race report from The Santa Barbara Endurance Race 100 miler this past weekend has more to do with the months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes leading up to the race than it does with the race itself. I decided to run this race a few months ago. Initially I was drawn to it by the course which was supposed to have about 36k of vertical, and by the prize money that the race was offering for a sub 24 hour finish. Potential to get paid good prize money while running in steep rugged mountains all day seemed like a good idea to me.

A little over two weeks ago though I got a call from the race director saying that the recent rains which have been putting stress on races all over California were threatening to end this event. The Forest Service pulled their approval on nearly all the trails in the area and the only options to still have a race would include a lot of road and/or a lot of loops or short out and backs. None of these options sounded too appealing, but I could tell that he really wanted to be able to pull this one off even if it were compromised because of the weather. After talking with the RD I decided that I would trust him to come up with the best course he could and give it a go, hoping that he could come up with something still pretty sweet to run. To his credit, he came up with about the most enjoyable course you could imagine without using hardly any trail. It ended up being almost all road but these were small, hilly, winding roads way up in the mountains. After just a few hours I forgot all together that we were on roads most of the day. In many ways I felt like I was running along mountain ridges up in Juneau, only difference being that instead of a goat trail, there was a small road, or jeep doubletrack running along the ridge. The scenery was as amazing as any I've ever seen for a full 100 miles.

So Friday morning I found myself at the race and ready to roll. This was to be a small race. 25 or so runners in the 100 mile. Before we set off on our journey we all gathered in a circle for a blessing led by a local Chumash Elder. This was one of my favorite parts of a really enjoyable weekend. He spoke of (among other things) running for a cause, for a cause of compassion. Compassion for the land and thus compassion for everyone since we are all part of the land. This compassion is a huge part of why I feel so drawn to running out in the mountains and through beautiful and wild places. I think a lot of us run for these reasons, but it was really cool to have this recognized and encouraged just moments before starting on our journey. This experience alone made this a wonderful and worthwhile event. I remember feeling 5 minutes into the race that I was already fully satisfied, and that I could twist my ankle right then and drop out of the race and it would all still be worth it.

But from here it just kept getting better. I got to run all day. I felt really relaxed and really content pretty much all day. I didn't run very hard, but I never really slowed down either. I took a lot of time at aid stations. Not because I needed to, but because everyone was so friendly and fun to talk with that I didn't want to leave.

There was this guy Scott who ran with me for most of the first half of the race. It was really nice to have the company for the first half and then get to run the second half on my own. I found out later that Scott had to drop at mile 91. Hopefully he's not too bummed about it because he is one of those runners who just seems to understand mountain/ultra running, even though this was his first official ultra. I think he hit the 50 mile turnaround in about 8:25, so watch out if you run up against this guy in a race.

Pretty much the only thing that went wrong for me was that I started to feel a little pain in my left calf at about mile 45. I was able to manage it for the 9 or so hours that it took me to finish from there. It never hurt too bad, but it was always nagging me a bit. It's certainly a little tender today so I might need a little extra recovery time from this race. We'll see.

Overall this event was one of the most enjoyable I have ever taken part in. There were a lot of runners that were skeptical about this race because of some of the difficulties they have had in getting to this point. I think we all started not quite knowing what to expect, but I think every runner I talked to after the race was really stoked to have been a part of this event. Robert Gilcrest (the RD) has a passion for his event and the people that take part in his event that is really rare and really special. He also has a vulnerability and rawness to his personality that makes him really enjoyable to be around. You can't help but want to see him and his event succeed. If you are interested in this event, but have not done it because it's so new and it's had a tough couple years really getting off the ground I highly recommend giving it a try. It's not going to be the most organized event you ever do (although it was actually very well organized in the areas that really matter), but it might just be one of the most enjoyable you ever do. Hopefully the weather will allow for the use of the original course next year, but even with the last minute course changes this was a hidden gem of a race. Not sure yet what my racing schedule will look like next year, but I'm certainly hoping to be able to fit this one into the mix again in the near future.

A Tale Of Two Races

2011-04-17T17:26:00.003-08:00

Very interesting race for me down in Arizona this weekend. Considering the way the second half of the race went for me I still haven't figured out how I was able to actually make it to the finish, let alone hold on to win the race with a decent time of 8:13.

There were several things I really like about this race. One of them is that the start area is a nice, quiet little spot, with plenty of space to sleep in the forest near the start line, and a small town a mile down the road, with anything you might need the evening before the race. I wish all races were as easy in this regard.

So by the time we started at 5am Saturday morning, I had had such a relaxing 16 hours in Arizona that it was really easy to feel comfortable and relaxed running in the morning darkness. To make things even more relaxing, there were no rabbits that took the pace out very fast so I was able to just cruise along with Dakota, Hal, and Nico for a bit. It felt really easy, and I was really surprised to get to mile 17 (exactly the 1/3 point of this 51 mile route) on pace to run about 7:45. The pace felt so easy to that point that I was certain that as long as things didn't come undone for me I could keep up that pace for the full race, and probably even cruise the last 10 miles or so a little faster. I was still feeling about the same through the mile 23 aid station, but then things went the other way really quickly, but also somehow kind of subtly.

The ironic thing was that just at the point that I started to not feel so great, I pulled away from Dakota (we had already pulled away from the rest of the field somewhere around mile 10) and would end up running the rest of the race on my own. From about mile 25 to the finish I ended up feeling like I was bonking almost the entire way. At some points it would get a little better, but I basically never felt even as good as average after mile 25. I had no specific problems, I just didn't have any energy. My stomach was a little off all day, so I was never able to really take in as many calories as I probably needed. And it got quite hot by the middle of the race. Neither of these things should have made me feel this bad though. I've run plenty or races when I'm only able to take in about 200 calories per hour as I did in this one (I prefer when I can get down 300). In hundred milers I think it's necessary to take in more than 200 per hour, but I've gotten through plenty of 50 milers in the past in which I only took 200 per hour and have felt fine. I've also run plenty of races when it's been as hot or hotter than it was in this one. It never feels as good to run in 80 degrees as it does in 50, but the heat alone has never made me feel this weak before.

At any rate, to make a long story short I just kept trudging along, putting one foot in front of the other. I walked almost all of the uphills in the last 20 miles. I walked some flats. I stopped numerous times. I stopped and laid down in 3 or 4 creek crossings. None of these things seemed to help. The further I ran, the weaker I felt. This was without a doubt the worst I've ever felt for 25 consecutive miles. If I feel like this on a training run I just turn around and come home. When I've felt like this in races I've either stuck with it and turned things around, or they've continued to get worse (Bandera 2011 and Miwok 2009) and I've ended up dropping out. This weekend I never really considered dropping out, but had this been a 100k or longer I'm not sure I would have made it to the finish. Perhaps the strangest thing about how I felt for the last half of the race, was that for the first half I felt about as relaxed, strong, and comfortable as I ever feel in the first 25 miles of a race.

The other odd thing was that within minutes of finishing I felt great. Today I have no soreness whatsoever. I just didn't have the energy to run fast and far yesterday. I was able to use my stored up fitness to fake it and get myself one step in front of the other to the finish, but it was one of the toughest days of running I've ever had.

In the end though, it was a super fun weekend, a great event, and somehow, even though I felt like I was going to pass out for most of the last 25 miles, it was still a really enjoyable and satisfying run. It's funny how feeling so bad can sometimes be really horrible (Bandera) and other times somehow be tolerable and even kind of enjoyable, as it was this weekend.

Next Winter

2011-04-12T19:52:00.003-08:00

Some people never learn. I guess I'm one of them.

Team Montrail Kicking Ass

2011-04-11T12:54:00.004-08:00

There are so many races in ultrarunning now that almost every weekend there are impressive performances. This past weekend was certainly no exception. There was of course the old man who ran 5:55 to win the American River 50 on Saturday. Rumor has it that he even stopped a few times along the course to make balloon animals for children who saw his shoes and thought he was a clown. Wouldn't surprise me as he has two kids of his own and he's so sweet and cute with his daughter Ava, that Elle and I have taken to referring to the two of them jointly as Dava. As in Elle asking me this morning, "Are we still going to have a play date with Dava this week?"

Beyond this there were two other performances this past weekend by Montrail team mates of mine that were also hugely impressive. Ellie Greenwood also at American River and Andy Henshaw at the Mad City 100k.

Impressive performances are so common nowadays in ultrarunning that I sometimes feel immune to them. I will hear of a performance that someone has had and, even though they may have set a course record in a 20 year old race I will more or less take the news as though it were expected. Records are being broken so often that in many races I think course records are expected. There are of course still performances which really jump out and scream for attention and surprise. Of the dozen or so of these that I've been aware of in the past year I think that 3 or 4 of them belong to Ellie Greenwood. I've come to expect her to do great things just about every time she runs, but she was able to really catch my attention again this weekend. She ran 6:25, finishing 7th overall in a field of about 800 runners! Only some women by the name of Ann Trason has ever run this race faster (and correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the course has changed since the years that Ann ran it). I thought maybe, just maybe, on a great day Ellie could run 6:30 on that course, but when I got a message from her the day before the race saying that her hip has been bothering her a bit I didn't imagine she was going to do it on this day. Turns out she ran even 5 minutes faster than 6:30. Western States this year will be her first 100 miler. It's hard to expect an eye popping performance in anyone's first 100 miler, but one would have to be crazy not to at least allow for the possibility that she may do something really special on that day.

Andy's performance at Mad City may have been just as impressive. With the possible exception of Sharman at Rocky Raccoon I think this is the men's performance of the year so far (and Ellie's AR is likely the women's performance of the year so far). He ran 6:47, almost a full 10 minutes faster than Wardian's course record there! Certainly didn't see that one coming.

Team Montrail is looking stronger at the front of the pack than ever. Also a shout out to new Montrail runner Ryan Burch who finished 5th at American River in a stout time of 6:09. Super impressive for a Colorado mountain guy.

Acclimatization 8 Months Later

2011-04-10T10:59:00.003-08:00

I've been in Colorado now for 8 months and I still haven't been able to conclude whether living at 8,600 ft. altitude has had a positive, negative, or neutral effect on my running. Initially the altitude was very hard on my body. It took more than a month before my resting heart rate dropped below 48 (my sea level RHH is about 39) and I had no more than 2 or 3 runs in my first two months here that I felt really strong. I never knew how much of this was due to the altitude. Shortly after moving here I came down with a head/chest cold that lasted for about 6 weeks! I think the way I felt (pretty crappy) all of September and October was in part from the alititude, but also in part from my illness, as well as from the emotional/psychological effect of going through a change as distinct as moving to a new place, which resulted in an almost completely different day to day lifestyle for me.

As far as my racing has gone it's also hard to say what effect living this high has had. I ran 3 races in the fall and they were all pretty mediocre for me. By the time my Bandera DNF came around in early January I was starting to think that maybe living this high up was hindering my running performance. Perhaps I was just not ever able to train at a high enough pace to keep my legs tuned as much as they should be. Then I ran Chuckanut last month and completely disproved that theory. Chuckanut was one of the best days of running I've ever had (in terms of how my body felt physically).

Where this has all led to now is that I feel like living this high up was a pretty big challenge for the first several months. A challenge that my body took months to adapt to and to figure out. Now that I have made that adaptation I am beginning to feel like it is to my advantage to live at this altitude. It actually reminds me a lot of when I first moved to Juneau. It took me over a year to adapt to the terrain (super steep and in many areas super technical) in Juneau and turn what seemed like a negative thing into a very positive thing. In the case of the altitude I think a huge portion of this adaptation is purely physical, but I also don't discount that a large part of this is mental. For months I hard a very hard time accepting the way I feel when I run at 8,500+ ft. I just kept waiting for it to feel better. And day after day it just kept feeling pretty crappy, especially when I went up to 10, 11, 12k, and above. Now it still feels kind of crappy when I go up that high, but I've come to accept that this is OK. I've finally, after 8 months, let go of my preconceived notions of what it's supposed to feel like to run.

A couple days ago I did a loop run on snowshoes up in the Indian Peaks Wilderness that was 15 miles and took me up to 11,700ft. It took me almost 4 hours to complete and when I was done I felt like it would have been tough for me to do that loop much faster than I did. I was exhausted. Several months ago a run like this would have really frustrated me. In the same way that "running" up some of the steeper trails in Juneau really frustrated me the first year or two that I lived there.

Now that I have made this shift in consciousness my hope is that it will remain ingrained in my psyche to accept the way it feels to run at high altitude. I'm leaving in one month to head back to Juneau for the summer. After 5 years in Juneau I have little doubt that I will have any problem accepting what it is to run in the mountains around Juneau (probably just seeing the mountains on the flight into town and I'll shift instantly into my Juneau Running Mentality). What will be more interesting though will be to see how quickly I adapt (both physically and mentally) to being back at altitude when I return to Colorado in August. I suspect this shift will take more than just seeing the landscape again, but hopefully this time it takes something more like 8 days than the 8 months that it took this year. I guess time will tell.

Alpine Works

2011-04-10T08:09:00.003-08:00

As I've mentioned a few times on this blog before, I have a strong belief that many runners try to incorporate too much structure and specificity into their running. I think most runners would benefit a lot from allowing for the possibility that in most cases their instincts are likely more valuable than what some other runner tells them they should do. I do think that we can learn a lot about ourselves (as runners or otherwise) from observing other people, but ultimately I think we learn the most when we are able to mostly tune out what others are doing and tune further into ourselves and further into the land that we run through.

This said, I do believe that for most people it takes some coaching (or more accurately, some guidance) to be able to more clearly understand ourselves, and to understand some of the more elusive aspects of running, such that we can more easily get to this place of trusting fully in our own instincts. I do believe in most cases we can eventually get to this place on our own, but I also believe that most people can get there a lot more smoothly with proper coaching.

Of the people I've met through the mountain/trail/ultra running community, Joe Grant seems to have an understanding of running and philosophies about running that are more similar to mine than anyone. This isn't to say he and I see eye to eye on everything that is running, but certainly we experience many of the key aspects of running in a very similar way.

I often have people ask me if I think they should hire a coach, and if so who would I recommend. For awhile my advice has always been, "you are your best coach. Just go out and run and figure it out for yourself and in the end you will be a much stronger runner (and person) than you ever could have been with any coach. As I've gotten to know Joe in the past 8 months (we both moved to the Boulder area around the same time) , and consistently learned things about running (and life) from him, I've often had the thought that he would be someone who really could coach runners in a way that would help them move smoothly to this place of being their own best coach. He has a deep understanding of many of the hard, tangible, more technical aspects of the sport, but also a deep understanding of the intangibles. I think he is someone who could teach runners in a way that would not in any way limit or restrict their own instinctual skills and knowledge.

Okay, now for the best part: Joe has recently launched a personal coaching business. Joe has become a good friend of mine, so maybe you're thinking this is just a shameless plug for a friend's business, but nope, I really do believe that he is the one runner I have met who I would recommend to someone who is looking for a coach. At the very least check out his website and decide for yourself. He's a great writer too, so even if his coaching services aren't for you I highly recommend checking out some of the intriguing content he has on the website.

CEP Compression

2011-04-10T07:48:00.003-08:00

I've never really been a big fan of compression (socks, calf sleeves, etc). Recently though I've been wearing a pair of CEP Compression socks and I think they do much more for me than other compression socks I've worn. The difference I presume comes from the fact that they seem to be a much higher quality product than the 3 or 4 other brands I've tried. They actually maintain their tight, compressed fit over time so that they're not just a long, silly looking sock with little to no compression after a few uses. I've probably worn the pair I have 30 times and they feel just as tight fitting as the first time I wore them. It's obviously hard to judge what kind of effect something like this has our bodies and their recovery, but certainly I've been feeling really good lately. There are so many factors that contribute to how we feel on a day in and day out basis, but I do feel like I generally have been recovering a bit more smoothly when I wear these socks after hard runs. Until I feel otherwise I'll be wearing them more and more. Luckily with these socks that doesn't mean that they're just going to get stretched out and useless. I highly recommend giving them a try.

Running As Pilgrimage

2011-04-05T09:26:00.003-08:00

My girlfriend Corle, is writing an essay for school about Ultrarunning as a means for re-engagement with the land through the lens of pilgrimage. Pilgrimage can be distinguished from travel by including the following phases: hearing the call; preparation; separation; liminal or transitional; threshold; incorporation; and then integration. These phases speak to the journey as having an intimate and deep connecting with Self, but also as service to others. The re-engagement aspect of the essay is to explore healing the land, and societal ecopsychy, through ultrarunning. If this sounds at all intriguing and you would like to be interviewed for her essay, please contact her at: corlel@students.naropa.edu. It'd just be a few short email questions and she'd be excited to have some broader input, beyond just me and a few of my local friends.

No Cali

2011-04-01T16:15:00.003-08:00

As I'm sure most folks have heard by now the Lake Sonoma 50 that I was supposed race tomorrow has been cancelled due to flooding on the course. It would have been nice to race this weekend, but it's also going to be really nice to spend a weekend at home with Corle and Elle. Not to mention that tomorrow is supposed to be the warmest day here on the Colorado front range since sometime in October.

In a couple weeks I'll use the time, money, and energy that was going to go toward Lake Sonoma to go down to Arizona and race the Zane Grey 50. I'm super excited for this race. It's one I've had my eye on for a few years now and with a few other runners defecting from Sonoma to ZG it should be a really fun day of racing. It's probably a bit close to the SBER 100 to be ideal, but it certainly won't be the first time I've done "too many" races in a short period of time. I guess time will tell if 13 days is enough time between on of the toughest 50 milers in the country and one of the toughest 100 milers in the country.

Another One Just Around The Corner

2011-03-27T17:53:00.003-08:00

Back home after a great trip to Southern Utah. It was so nice to spend 5 straight days outside in the desert. I've probably spent over a year worth of time in my life deep out in the wilderness of Southern Utah, but I can never seem to get enough. Every time I go there I want to stay for months. We might just head back that way again in a couple weeks.

Up first though, I'll be heading out to California to race the Lake Sonoma 50 miler this coming weekend. It's a super stacked field and should be a really fun race. Got out for a 4+ hour "run" with Joe today and I'm definitely feeling fully recovered from Chuckanut and ready to roll again in 6 days.

After Lake Sonoma I'll just be in Colorado for all of April, doing as much vertical as possible to try to get good and ready for SBER on April 29th. That one is going to be a serious test of early season fitness. I'm planning to head there and give a 100% effort, but certainly I'll be going into that one thinking of it as more of a serious adventure in some cool mountains I've never run in than a serious race. For now though, my racing focus is on running hard and fast for 50 miles this weekend. It feels good to be going out to California with a huge confidence boost from Chuckanut.

Chuckanut Race Recap

2011-03-21T08:42:00.003-08:00

Had a really great weekend up in Bellingham. The race was super fun and I felt as strong in a race as I have since Western States and Crow Pass last summer. Beyond the race itself this was a really enjoyable event. There were so many people there that I care really deeply for. It felt more like a gathering of good friends than a race.

The race itself I won't go too deep into here. Just a brief summary:

It started out really fast, but the pace felt surprisingly comfortable. Once we hit the first climbing (about mile 7) we were already down to a small group of 3 front runners. Michael Smith was about a minute out ahead of Erik Skaggs and I.

I stayed with Erik through this entire stretch of mostly climbing up to Aid Station 3 (mile 13.3), but I actually didn't think I was feeling very good. I enjoyed this stretch a lot though. I have known Erik for a couple years, but we've never really run together in a race. There was enough uphill in this stretch that we weren't chatting too much, but it was nice to spend that hour or so running stride for stride with him.

After aid station 3 you get onto the Chuckanut Ridge trail and that's when the fun really begins. I still wasn't feeling very good, but I was having so much fun I didn't really care. And then within a few minutes I think the enjoyment I was having on that trail was causing me to begin to feel much better. I felt like I had run to Juneau. This trail was more similar to the trails below treeline in Juneau than any I had ever run on. I knew I was probably feeling pretty good and running well on this trail when I looked back after a few minutes and couldn't see Erik behind me.

Through this whole stretch Michael was still a minute or two out in front of me, but I wasn't thinking much about the race. Just running along having a good time. I felt really good all the way to Aid Station 4 (mile 20.2) and found out I was about 1:45 behind at that point. This is where we began the toughest climb of the race and I instantly fell into a really good groove going up.

A few minutes up the climb I began to transition into race mindset. I started to do the math: if I run 10 seconds per mile faster than Michael for the rest of the race I might be able to catch him just before the finish. Okay, that sounded possible. And upward I pushed, running hard up pitches which I normally power hike in races. And then just a few minutes later, less than a mile from aid station 4 I could see Michael up ahead! I passed him well before the top of the climb and was then just hoping the climb would go on forever. I knew I could put distance on him as long as we kept going up, but I had no idea what would happen when we went flat or downhill. By the top of the climb I probably had one minute on him and then cruised back down to Clayton Beach where he had cut my lead back down to 30 seconds (didn't know this until after the race).

From here it's 6.5 miles of almost totally flat path back to the start/finish area. This stretch didn't feel very good physically, but to my surprise I was able to run it just as fast as we had at the start of the race, and about 3 minutes faster than Michael. When it was said and done I had one of the most enjoyable days of racing I've ever had. Just what I needed.

And now I'm off to Utah for a week of reuniting with the red rock desert.

Chuckanut

2011-03-17T07:40:00.004-08:00

I'm heading up to Bellingham this weekend for the Chuckanut 50k. Should be a great early season test of fitness. I think I'm in great shape as far as strength and endurance are concerned. I guess this weekend will show if that's enough for such a "fast" race. I've talked a lot in the past about how I think speed work for ultras is very over-rated, but Chuckanut might be one of the races that could prove this theory wrong. But then again, is a race that will likely take the top runners under 4 hours really an ultra?

On another note, there are still a few spaces open for my running camps up in Juneau this summer. I have had a few cancellations in the last few weeks, so as of today I have 1 space open for the June 6-12 session and 3 spaces open for the July 28-August 3 session. I'm going to be distributing almost 600 camp fliers in race bags in the next two weeks, so if you're wanting to sign up I would highly recommend doing it as soon as possible to guarantee a space. Here's the website with all the info.

I'll try to check in with a quick Chuckanut race report on Saturday or Sunday, but after that I'm heading to Southern Utah for a week of desert camping, in which I will probably make a point not to be anywhere near a computer. Lucky me.

Salida Marathon

2011-03-15T06:50:00.003-08:00

Drove down to Salida, Colorado this past weekend to run in the Run Through Time Marathon. Mostly this was just an excuse to take a road trip, do some camping, check out a town I had never been to (but heard good things about), and hopefully do some decent running on dirt (most of the running I've done in the past 4 months has been on snow). As for the run itself, I had no intention of running very hard as I am racing the Chuckanut 50k this coming Saturday and had no desire to push myself too hard just one week out from that.

In every regard this turned out to be a very satisfying trip. Salida is about the cutest little town in the world and the weather was absolutely amazing all weekend. The run itself went about as expected. I cruised pretty mellow to a 3:33 finish. I would have liked to feel a bit better in doing this than I did, but I was certainly proud of myself for keeping my effort pretty casual and not pushing too hard to run with the 8 or 10 runners who were running out in front of me the entire race. I got to run on about 25 miles of dirt and I got to hangout with a bunch of running friends (both old and new).

The best part of the entire weekend though was that my girlfriend and her daughter went with me and after the race on Saturday we found a great riverside campsite East of Salida and spent almost 24 hours just hanging out doing all the things you do outside with a 4 year old (mud pies, getting poked with cacti, playing in the ice-cold water, etc.). Sometimes I forget how much of my life I have spent "living" outside like this. It's always when I do it for the first time in a long time that I'm reminded of how much I love being outside. And I mean really being outside. Not just getting out for a 3 or 4 hour run, but actually being outside for an entire day or more. Next week after Chuckanut we are going to take a camping trip to Southern Utah for the entire week. Although I'm quite excited about racing Chuckanut, it's this trip after the race that I'm most looking forward to right now.

Journeys On Foot

2011-03-08T08:43:00.004-09:00

I've gotten in a great little bit of training lately. I've finally worked my way back up to my "normal" training load after taking most of January off. The best thing about being back into shape is that I can just go out and run for most of a day and not get too worn down. Once you get to this point it's amazing the places you can get to simply traveling on your own two feet. For me the most satisfying runs are the ones that have a natural feel to them of getting from one place to another. That is to say the runs that end of feeling like I've gone on a journey or an exploration and running just happens to be my method of transportation.

This past Sunday I did a long run that ended up feeling very much like this. I started from my cabin and ran down to the bus stop in Nederland to meet up with Scott, Dakota, and Joe who had ridden the bus up from Boulder. From there we just ran Eastward and down, linking together a bunch of different trails and gravel roads, until eventually, 30+ miles later, we ended up in Boulder and ran to Scott's house. Jenny was sweet enough to go get us all burritos that we ate while I waited for a bus back to Nederland. When it was all said and done it almost ended up feeling like I had just run from my house to Scott's house to eat a burrito and visit with friends.

Then to cap off a great day of running, when I got back to Nederland on the bus I got to run the mile or two back to my house. I was kind of dreading this part of the journey, but it ended up being perhaps the most enjoyable part of the entire run. It was snowing lightly and there was no traffic on the roads this late on a Sunday evening. I was really tired, but I didn't feel this way at all. I just ran down the edge of the dark, quiet, snowy road and felt like I could run down that road forever. This run from town up to my house was about 15 minutes, but at the time it didn't feel like much more than a few seconds. It was really nice to get home, but at the time I really wished that this road kept going and that I lived several miles away.

When it was all over it was one awesome day of foot travel. Here's a few photos taken by Joe:

New Montrail Website

2011-03-01T20:28:00.003-09:00

The title pretty much says it all: Montrail launched a brand spankin' new website today and it's pretty awesome. Check it out HERE.

Probably the coolest thing about the new site is that you can now order Montrail shoes directly from the website.

UROC

2011-02-25T18:26:00.005-09:00

It's now official. If you haven't already heard: Ultra Race of Champions coming this September.

First to clear up any confusion: I am not involved in this race from a planning or directing standpoint. I'm working with this race as their "Elite Athlete Liaison." That is to say that I am working to try to help bring as many top level runners as possible to the starting line on September 24th. I am not in any position to gain anything from the potential success of this race. My interest and involvement starts and finishes with my hope to help put together as competitive of a race as possible. Many folks have presumed (understandably so), based on some of my blog posts in the past several months, that I have been involved in this race all along, but the truth is that I didn't even know about this race until last month. Me coming to be involved in this event in any way was a result of my thoughts and interests being very similar to those of the race director's, not the other way around. Not that any of this really matters, but I just thought I'd set that straight.

This race has been received very well so far and many top runners have already expressed interest in running. Keep an eye on the website in the coming weeks as they will be likely be listing the runners who have committed soon.

I think this race has great potential to draw a very deep field of top competition this year, and good potential to grow even more in the years to come. I think it's cool that there is finally a race that is advertising itself as a race focused on the competition at the front of the pack. Even the North Face races with their large prize money don't really make an effort (beyond throwing down the big bucks) to get top level competition into their race. UROC is, on the other hand, going to make every effort within their means to get as many top runners as possible on the starting line in September. This from the race website: "the goal of the Trail Runner Ultra Race of Champions is to bring together the best ultra runners in the world on one course on one day"...

The race will also be open to any level runner that wants to run on this day. Sign up will begin on March 14th.

Do I feel like this race is the exact answer to the demand for a "championship race(s)" that I've talked about recently? No, not yet. Not entirely. I do however feel like this race wants to work more and more toward becoming this, and I do feel like it's the closest thing we now have. Either this race, another race, or a combination of a few will emerge (in my opinion) to be huge (in terms of top level competition, and thus large amounts of attention around the world) in the next few years. I think the NF 50 got things rolling with their large prize purse that they introduced a few years ago now, and this race is speeding things up by introducing a race focused on going out and getting as many top runners as possible to join their race. It'll be interesting to see where it all goes from here. One thing I'd bet my life on though: it certainly doesn't stop here...

Badrock

2011-02-23T15:26:00.005-09:00

I did a post several weeks ago about some of the new Montrail shoes available this Spring, but I wanted to write a bit more about a couple of these shoes now that they are widely available in retail locations, and since I have now had a chance to wear them a little more. I'm going to focus on the Badrock in this post and then sometime soon I'll do another post with more specifics about the Rogue Racer (once the snow melts more and I really get a chance to put some serious mileage on them).

When I first got a pair of the Badrocks I didn't think I would like them too much, but now I just keep liking them more and more. I have been doing a lot of running in the snow lately and they are a perfect shoe for snow running. They seem to run about a half size large, but once I got into the right size I love them. They're very roomy in the toe area which I really like for running in the winter. The extra space allows my feet to circulate very well, even with thick socks on. They have incredible traction in loose snow, and at just over 11 ounces they are surprisingly light for the amount of support, cushioning, and protection they offer. As long as Montrail keeps making the Mountain Masochist nothing is likely to replace them as my shoe of choice, but the Badrock has come closer than anything else I've tried. And for running in snow the Badrock is now my shoe of choice. Here's a few different pictures of the Badrock:

Arapaho Peak

2011-02-22T08:01:00.004-09:00

This past Saturday I had one of those near perfect days of running. I wasn't even sure I was going to go out very long, but as I began trudging up the trail in my snowshoes I slowly began to feel the urge to go higher and higher.

When I got up to treeline (at about 11,300 feet) the conditions were near perfect. There was almost no wind, but The Indian Peaks Wilderness receives so much wind in the winter that the open ridges hold almost no snow. I was actually able to ditch my snowshoes and run on dry ground for most of my time that I was up above the trees.

At first I was just content to have made it up above the trees. I began to wander around a little bit and then I just kept finding myself on top the highest point in the immediate distance. Eventually I was at the base of Arapaho peak and it was still a really calm, warm day. I decided to push higher and ended up on top of South Arapaho Peak. At about 13,400 ft. it's one of the highest peaks in The Indian Peaks and it's the highest elevation I've been to in almost 10 years.

I'm not sure how soon the weather will allow me to get high up like this again, but as soon as it does I'll be heading that way.

Here's some photos from the outing:

Energy Justice Fundraiser

2011-02-17T14:47:00.002-09:00

If you live in the Boulder area and somehow aren't already aware of this event taking places tomorrow night then you might want to crawl out from under your rock and head on down to the Wolf Law Building, at CU Law School tomorrow at 7 pm and check it out. Here's all the info.

One Of Those Days

2011-02-17T14:36:00.002-09:00

Just got in from a run. It was one of those days. You know, the ones when every slight uphill feels like a mountain and then an hour into the run you snap into the present moment and realize you are walking on a downhill. Think I might be due for a day off tomorrow. Or maybe it's just because I was gone away from home for the entire day yesterday and didn't have a chance to consume my usual 5+ tablespoons of Udo's Oil.

Way Too Long

2011-02-17T06:53:00.004-09:00

I may be beating a dead horse here (although based on the conversation that seems to follow anytime this topic comes up I feel like the horse is very much alive), so if you're bored with conversations about the current growth of ultrarunning and some of the questions this growth raises then you could simply opt to stop reading here, as this post will likely bore you to death.

Ultrarunning is growing in participation at an amazingly fast rate. Each year there are dozens of new trail ultras all over the country, and still almost all existing races are filling up quicker each year. Several posts I have written in the past few months have touched on various opportunities, concerns, and challenges that this growth has created. Whether it's the question of race selection process', prize money, performance enhancing drug use/prevention, championship races, potential mainstream interest in the sport, etc. - all of these things (and countless more dynamics) are on the table as valid and worthwhile conversations primarily because of the rapid growth in this sport.

Of course no one knows the exact numbers, but to me it seems like at the current rate participation in ultrarunning is doubling every few years (based simply on the fact that the number of events seem to have doubled in the past 5 years, or less, and most of them have had no trouble getting participants). Obviously this increase in popularity isn't going to continue forever, but I think that it has been drastic enough already that it's unrealistic to expect ultrarunning culture to remain the same as it has always been. When anything grows in popularity this quickly there are growing pains and there are changes which occur. In my opinion this is inevitable and therefore these conversations are inevitable and necessary. I think the approach (that a few seem to take) of denying that these challenges exist and/or blaming individuals for creating these challenges is out of touch with reality. I have heard some response to these conversations along the lines of (obviously paraphrasing to make a point here), "hey, stop trying to taint my sport by talking about prize money, championship races, and questioning race selection process'/motives."

I do believe that ultrarunning is still small enough that an individual, or a few individuals, can be a catalyst for certain changes in the sport, but it's much too large of a thing for individuals to create change. The changes are created by the overall growth and the natural challenges that occur when you are working to meet the demands of hundreds of thousands of people as compared to a few thousand people. The modest increase of money into the sport for example (specifically prize money and sponsor money) has happened/will likely continue to happen not because individuals are talking about whether this is good for the sport or not, but because of the huge growth in the sport in the past few years. Races which focus primarily and/or entirely on the competitive nature of the sport are working their way into the sport (and trust me, they are working their way into the sport) not because of the conversations that have arisen about how best to approach/structure these kinds of races, but again because of the rapid growth in the sport. Individuals who are talking about how best to deal with these changes are simply taking a proactive approach to responding to these changes. A sport with 5 or 10 times as many participants as it had 20 years ago (again a total rough estimate to help make a point) just isn't going to have the same culture that it had back then. Utopian societies work great up to a population tipping point, and once they go over that tipping point a new approach is needed. One which draws from the aspects of the Utopian society which are still possible with the larger population, but also finds logical and creative ways to work these aspects in with the challenges of the larger population. In my opinion Ultrarunning has gone beyond the tipping point of being capable of being the "Utopian Society" that it once was. I think it is now in the process of finding the best ways to blend the most desirable (and plausible) aspects of the Utopian roots of the sport in with the challenges/opportunities that have arisen due to the growth in the sport.

So, if you're still with me here I'll assume that you agree in principal to at least some of what I'm saying. Basically all I have said to this point is that Ultrarunning has been and will continue to go through some growing pains so long as it continues to grow in popularity as rapidly as it has the past few years. I have also said (in way too many words) that it is my belief that it makes a lot more sense to talk about, debate, and find ways to best work through these growing pains than it does to simply deny that they exist.

This isn't to say that everyone has to believe that these "growing pains" exist. I have heard from some people who genuinely believe that, despite the rapid growth, ultrarunning can simply remain Utopian as it has always been by collectively doing nothing. Personally I wish I believed this to be true, but as I've already said, I think we've gone well beyond this point.

Thus, with all of this said, I would say thank you to those who have had these discussions with me (and each other) here on this blog about some of the challenges in ultrarunning right now. I hope we have all learned from these conversations. I know I have. There have been some themes to various conversations, here and in other places, that have made a lot of sense to me, and then there have been others that have made little to no sense to me. Overall though, I think that these conversations (agree with the details of them or not) are an essential part of the process that ultrarunning is going through right now.

And therefore I want to go back to some of these conversations now and touch on some of the things I have thought about in response to some of these challenges/opportunities which have been brought up (gosh this post is long and getting longer, but I think it would be hypocritical of me to write a novel about the importance of talking about these things and then not talk about any of them).

The first thing I want to touch on is the Hardrock 100. A lot of people seem to think that it's a travesty that Hardrock doesn't do whatever they could to ensure entry to all top runners who want to run the race. Others think it's an affront that anyone who hasn't paid their dues to Hardrock over the years should possibly be given any kind of preference based on performance potential. Although a compelling conversation that could probably go back and forth forever, I don't think it's a very important one because Hardrock has made it clear that they are not going to change what their event is, simply because there is a steady and growing demand (by some, certainly not by all) for them to do so. As I said in a comment to my post titled, "Western States It Is," I have a huge amount of respect for the Hardrock race organization for having an idea for an event, implementing that idea, and then sticking to that idea.

The interesting thing which the Hardrock selection process highlights though, and the main thing I was trying to convey in my above mentioned blog post, is how many people (front, middle, and back of pack runners alike) seem to want a seriously rugged and challenging race like Hardrock to emerge as a race focused very seriously on the competitive nature of it. This isn't to say that everyone wants this. Of course they don't, but I think so many people do that it's inevitable we will see this soon (actually I know we will see this soon, it's not a matter of if, but rather when and where).

In the days shortly after the Hardrock lottery I received dozens of emails from people saying how bummed they were that (as we all knew and could have predicted) that Hardrock would (as always) not be a race of the top runners who wanted to toe the line on July 8th, but rather a run of the lucky 140 who were selected, mostly at random, to do so. Some of these emails were from previous Hardrock racers, some of them were from non-runners, some of them were from the select group of 140 that will run Hardrock this year, Some of them were from race organizers/directors of some of the most grassroots events in the country, and some were from other top level runners who also hoped to toe the line on July 8th. A couple of them had a tone of anger at Hardrock specifically and I responded to these with an abridged version of what I'm writing here. The vast majority of them though had a tone of frustration with what the Hardrock lottery seems to highlight most every year now. A frustration of having this sport which is growing in huge numbers, a sport which is practiced in the form of a race (which is by nature competitive), but somehow collectively holds onto this idea that it is taboo to truly emphasis the top-level competition of the sport.

Now, right here I think there is a very important somewhat divergent point to make so as to avoid some confusion which has come up within this conversation in the past. I, nor anyone I have talked to about this has any desire for all ultra events to put a strong emphasis on the front of the pack competitive aspect of these races. I have run some of the most famously grassroots, low key events out there and I believe there is a huge value, depth, beauty, and satisfaction from these events and the culture they foster. I, like most think it would be absolutely tragic if events like Hardrock were all replaced by events focused primarily on the front of the field competition. This said, I have no idea how me (and others) talking about the demand (that has been created by the extreme growth in this sport) that currently exists for a handful of championship type events is going to effect the 500 (again, random number to make a point) or so existing events which have little or no true focus on the race at the front. It would be a different story if anyone were trying to say that every race should be like this, but there just isn't the demand for that, and there never will be. In my opinion there is space right now for about one "championship" type race at each of the common distances (50k, 50m, 100k, 100m). That's 4 races. 4 races that are primarily or exclusively focused on the race at the front of the pack, and 500 that aren't. I'm just not sure what real threat those who are only interested in the 500 existing races see from these 4 potential races.

I think a good comparison for this is the current marathon racing scene. Does the fact that there are several marathons around the world that invite, pay, encourage, and/or limit their race to top level runners undercut the health, integrity, popularity, or grassroots feel of the tens of thousands of marathons worldwide who don't? Unless I'm really missing something I'm pretty sure the local, small town marathons are thriving, both in participation and in spirit. Is there actually a city out there that doesn't have a marathon, the vast majority of which are very low key and grassroots by marathon standards?

I've talked about this in the past, but I'll mention it again because of it's relevancy here: I think that the creation of events focused on the front level competition will not only not harm existing (and future) grassroots or low key events focused equally on all level runners, but rather strengthen them. Races may be forced a little bit more to choose an identity. To me this is a good thing. It's always been the races who know what they are, and embrace what they are, that have been the most appealing to me. It's worth noting that of the dozens of races out there that really seem to have a true strong identity that is really emphasized by the race and deeply understood and appreciated by the participants they are all in the direction of being really grassroots, laid back, low key events. We don't, to my knowledge, have a single trail ultra in this country that identifies itself, and embraces their own identity as a race primarily emphasizing the competitive aspect of the sport. We have a lot that try to straddle between the two (several that even do this very successfully), but certainly none that go anywhere near as far in the direction of competitiveness as Hardrock goes in the direction of non-competitiveness. Why is this? I do not know. A fluke? An oversight? It's certainly unique among competitive sports (including all other types/distances of running) in this regard. It's certainly the only sport I know of where you are likely to get criticized for saying that you are interested in competing against as many top athletes in your sport as possible. In most sports this is simply inherent. This said, I do think the abundance of non-competitive, low key events is actually what draws many new people to this sport, but I don't think this abundance would be negated by a handful of highly competitive events - again, think of the current marathon running scene.

Mentioning that I think there is space for a championship type event at each of the 4 common distances reminds me of one of the most common responses opposed to this championship race idea that I have read here on my blog as well as other places. This is the USATF argument. It generally goes something like this: "The USATF already has trail national championship races at 4 ultra distances so why don't you fast runners all get together and actually show up to the championship races that already exist?"

On the surface (as long as you don't scratch it at all) this sounds like a very logical response.

First, before digging a little deeper into the USATF thing though, I would also say that this isn't about a handful of fast runners who could simply make a plan to show up at some race and effectively turn it into a championship race. This is already happening (Rocky Raccoon a couple weeks ago was a variation of this). It happens all the time that a few fast runners decide to run a race and then several more jump on board because they want to run against other fast runners, or in many cases because their fast runner friends talk them into it. That's not what this championship demand is about. This is about having a race (or a few) that focuses on getting as many top runners as possible from around the world to race each other on the same day. Not simply an exclusive bunch who are "in the know," but instead a race which (as we see in just about every other sport in the world) hopes and works to encourage anyone who has a legitimate chance of being competitive to participate. If it sounds like a lofty aim, think about all the other sports in this world that are known about worldwide almost entirely because they have a true national or international competition exclusive to the very top athletes in that sport (think obscure Olympic sports). People from a wider audience really like following some pretty fringe sports when they feel like they are following the best who participate in that sport.

Anyway, back to the USATF point: The USATF "national championship" races are a gimmick akin to the ice cream shop I have been to in Alaska that has a sign out front that says: "World's Best Ice Cream." This sign was enough to get me to stop in there one time on a warm August afternoon. The ice cream was pretty good, maybe even one of the other flavors would have been great, but as I walked out the door I saw the Sysco restaurant supply driver unloading tubs of ice cream into the back door of the shop. We see this gimmick all the time in marketing products. Rather than working to create the best possible product companies simply state that they have the best product, when in fact what they have is the same thing everyone else has. The result: people try it once or twice and then go elsewhere looking for something better. Eventually when there are enough people demanding something better, supply rises to meet this demand.

Right now in ultrarunning we are in the midst of the supply rising to meet the demand phase. If USATF (or WS or Hardrock or Leadville or on and on and on) opted to try to rise up to meet this demand they would have a great head start (although the time may be already up for this) at being the eventual consumer's choice in regards to this particular demand. In other words just slapping the label "national championship" on a race doesn't mean it's going to happen that way if you don't also do the work to create a more appealing product than what everyone else is already putting out. I think the recent history of these USATF races has more than proven this point.

Okay, I think this touches on most of the things that I've been thinking about in terms of all of this in the past several days. If you actually read all of this, what the hell is wrong with you? If you read all of it and you feel like I have way too much time on my hands, you are probably right. If you read all of this and didn't think it was funny (regardless of whether you agree or disagree with some of my points) then I suggest reading it again (if you have another few hours to kill) knowing that I am writing most of this from a very light, ironic place with a bit of a smirk on my face. I take none of this as serious as it might seem if simply read at face value. At the end of the day, I, nor any of us as individuals, can do anything to "change" ultrarunning. Nor can any of us do anything to ensure that ultrarunning doesn't change. It's just running... for a long time. All we can really do is go out for a run.

Trudging Towards Santa Barbara

2011-02-12T17:36:00.004-09:00

I've been back at "normal" training for almost 10 days now. I feel really good after almost a month "off." Normal training is anything but normal right now though. Winter has finally come in full force to the Colorado Front Range so most of my "running" in the past two weeks has been snowshoeing through deep snow. The wind has been blowing so strong that no matter how nice of a "trail" I get broken in it's certain to be drifted over by the following day. It finally got warm enough today that the snow softened up in the sun and will hopefully freeze tonight and "cap" things off so drifting won't be as much of an issue in the days to come.

This has been my routine for the past week: Hang around the house all morning waiting for the wind to die down. Finally head out for my run around 2:00 when the wind has invariably picked up even higher. Get really frustrated as soon as I hit the trail because all of the "work" I did to break a trail the day before has been trumped by the wind. Finally come to peace with the conditions and accept that I will be breaking through knee deep drifts for the entire run. And then after about 30 minutes I begin to even relish the difficulty that the wind has created. I start to really enjoy the effort it takes to push each step through 12+ inches of snow with a 22" platform attached to my foot. I start to notice that every step feels like I'm going up a steep hill. The more I tune into this the more I enjoy it. And the more I enjoy this feeling of pushing up a steep hill the more likely I am to be reminded that I am going to be running the SBER 100 (also knows as the DRTE 100) at the end of April that has almost 36,000 ft. of climbing! I'm really excited for this race. There is nothing I like more than running uphill. Except perhaps running on snowshoes in deep snow. The other cool thing is that tomorrow morning I'm going to run a 10k snowshoe race just down the road from my house. I think Dave might run too so it's not exactly going to be an easy one to run away with. Probably won't race it at all, but one never knows with these kinds of things.

Up And Comers

2011-02-11T14:41:00.004-09:00

I thought it'd be fun to do a post highlighting some of the runners who I think are very likely to become a lot more known in the ultra running world in the next year or two. A few of these runners have already had some "breakthrough" performances and others of them are almost completely unknown, but what I think they all have in common is that they have just scratched the surface of what they are capable of. I think it'll be really fun to follow each of their progress this year and beyond. The other thing I would say about this list is that I have been fortunate enough to meet all of these runners except for Ian and Jacob, and they are all great people who I think are very likely to succeed in their running and in most anything they take on in their lives.

It's hard to call Ian Sharman an up and comer, especially after his performance last week down in Texas, but I for one am really excited to see what he can do in more technical races going forward. Rocky Raccoon might just be a course that fits him perfectly, and he may have a difficult time ever having a race like that on a more challenging course, but on the other hand Rocky Raccoon may give him a level of confidence going forward that makes him a contender to win any race he runs. One thing I'll be curious to follow is how much "gas in the tank" he'll have at Western States. If he sticks to his current race plans he will have raced 300 miles this season before Western States! I am planning to race 180 miles before Western States, and I'm a little bit concerned that this could be a bit too much. To put this into context, I raced 130 miles before Western States last year, and Tony K. raced 62. Granted Tony raced such a small amount because he was coming back from injury, but I think a huge part of the reason Tony and I were able to run as fast as we did last year at WS was because of how relatively fresh we both were going into that race.

It's probably even harder to call Ellie Greenwood an up and comer, but I put her on this list because I think she has only scratched the surface of her potential. I don't mean this as any disrespect to any other runners, but I think Ellie is the most talented female ultra runner in North America right now. I for one am really excited to see how this talent manifests itself in the months and years to come.

Bill Fanselow is another one who has already had some solid results, but who I think will turn a lot more heads as he gets more and more experience racing for 7+ hours. He's a large guy for an ultra runner, but in my limited experience racing against him he seems tough as nails. This past fall at the Run Rabbit Run 50 miler he just kept on my heels for the entire day. In the end I was able to hold him off by 10 or 15 minutes, but then found out after the race that he had just had surgery on his heart less than a month before the race! I heard he dropped out of Rocky Raccoon last week after 80 or so miles, but my guess is he learned a lot from running that far and will be a force to reckon with in upcoming races. Bill, if you read this you should shoot me an email (grroes@yahoo.com) if you want to get out for a run sometime. I lost your number after Steamboat.

Jason Schlarb is a local Boulder guy who turned a lot of heads with his 5th place finish at the North Face San Francisco race in December. I'm pretty sure he's planning a pretty busy ultra racing schedule this season. If he gets on a roll he could be a force to reckon with.

Jacob Rydman is a much lesser known runner, who I have only met through email. One thing that stands out with Jacob though is that he seems to have a desire to test/push himself to see what he can do. He also seems to understand the importance (in my opinion) of huge amounts of vertical in training for long ultras. I think he's planning to run Way Too Cool and American River so he may not be such an unknown for too much longer.

Michael Owen might be the most exciting youngster this side of Dakota Jones. I think he's 21 and he just finished 9th at the North Face race in December. He's been running high mileage in training for about a year, and is a rare 21 year old that seems to truly get what it takes to race ultras. I only chatted with him for a bit during the SF race, but I saw enough to suspect that he has a great shot (if he wants to) of being a top contender in ultra running for several years. There are young, inexperienced runners who seem very young and inexperienced, and then there are young and inexperienced runners like Michael Owen (and Dakota) who seem to understand running and racing well beyond their years. I'm not sure what his racing plans are for this year, but I hope I get a chance to cross paths with him again soon.

Patrick Garcia is a cool guy from Denver who might not have quite as much raw potential as some of these other runners, but my guess is (based on the one run I've done with him and his impressive 3rd place finish at Hellgate 100k this past December) that he'd be suited really well for long slow races (Hardrock, Wasatch, etc.). It's sounds like his racing schedule is going to be fairly minimal this year as he and his wife are expecting a second (or a second and third) child this summer. After a year of drawing strength and focus from his family I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him drop some performances in 2012 that exceed anything he's done (from a performance standpoint) thus far. I'll certainly be rooting for him in every race he runs.

Rachel Phelps is the least known of anyone on this list. She's a friend of mine from Juneau who has only raced one marathon and one 50k. She had great performances in both of those races and has only just barely scratched the surface of what she's capable of as a runner. I don't know if she has a huge desire to race too many races in the lower 48, but I do know that she has a ton of talent as a mountain runner. Steep mountain ascents seem to be almost effortless for her, and the longer she goes the stronger she seems to get. I have been on more than a few runs with her over 4 hours in rugged, steep, mountainous terrain, and each time she has seemed as strong at the end of the run as she did at the beginning.

Ok, that's it for my list. I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on these runners and/or of some more "up and comers" any of you might have in mind.

Clif Shot Gel

2011-02-10T17:59:00.003-09:00

I think the most common question I get about my running is: "What do you eat when you run?" For me I like to keep it really simple. Sometimes on longer training runs I'll go for more of a variety, including some solid foods, but in my races, and in most of my training runs I like to get virtually all of my calories from gels. They're really easy to get down; they're easy to track caloric consumption; and they seem to get into my body and address energy needs quicker than anything else.

I've tried just about every brand and flavor of gel over the years. I've had a few that have rotated through as favorites, but the one that has stuck around as a favorite and come to make up almost all of my calories consumed during running is Clif Shot Gel. They are the only ones that I don't get really sick of if I use them day in and day out. If you haven't tried Clif Gels in awhile I highly recommend it. Last fall they switched to a new recipe, switching from Brown Rice Syrup to a Maltodextrin/Cane Sugar combo. In my opinion the new Clif Gels are the best gels on the market if you want something that you can eat dozens of and not get really burnt out on them. A few of the flavors are not as good as others, but I have 3 flavors (Citrus, Vanilla, and Strawberry) that I probably consume an average of 10 a week and have not gotten sick of at all.

Western States It Is

2011-02-06T15:11:00.004-09:00

No Hardrock this year for me. Quite a few fast guys got in (Jurek, Meltzer, Jones, Clark, Callahan, Campbell to name a few) so it should be a fairly exciting race in the San Juan Mountains in July. Nowhere near as exciting as it could have been though if the race organization had any real desire to create as exciting a race as possible at the front of the pack. It's their race and they can do what they want with it, but I think it's unfortunate for fans of the competitive aspect of the sport of Ultrarunning that the most challenging and most scenic 100 miler we have in this country has seemingly no desire to bring a high level of competition into their event. I hope to, and probably will, run the Hardrock course one of these years, but I think there is a good chance that it will not be as part of the "race."

One of my favorite things about racing is to put myself up against as many top level runners as possible. I like to challenge myself in this way and I like the bond that is created from sharing this type of experience with so many like minded people. Take this competitive aspect out of a race and there's not a lot left for me that I can't get from just going out and running the course on my own or with some friends.

I'm sure some of you are thinking that I'm just sour about this because I didn't get drawn into the race, but the truth is that had I been drawn in I'm not even sure I would opt to run. My plan all along has been to run either Western States or Hardrock, whichever one would have a more competitive field to race against. My hope was that by some miracle virtually all of the top runners got into Hardrock and then it would have been a no brainer to run Hardrock. If all things were equal (competition wise) I would have also opted for Hardrock because I prefer to run races that I haven't run before, and from everything I've heard the Hardrock course is beyond belief in challenge and beauty. But with the way the lottery turned out, even if I had been drawn into Hardrock I would have likely opted to tangle with Tony, Kilian, Sharman, Clark, and others at Western States instead of Hardrock (the competition on paper looks about equal at both, but I am pretty certain at least a couple of the top guys on the Hardrock list are likely to not run). That is to say that it would have been a tough call, but one that I don't need to worry about making.

The other thing that had crept into my mind a bit more in the past few days was the temptation to run them both (if I had the option). In some ways I'm kind of glad I don't have the option to do anything as stupid as running both of them.

A Few Spaces Still Remain

2011-02-04T09:54:00.004-09:00

I wanted to post a quick reminder that sign up for my Summer running camps is still open. The June 6-12 session is full (taking wait list applicants), but the July 28-August 3 session still has 5 spaces available. I will be advertising the camps more extensively (have only advertised here so far) in the next several weeks so I wanted to do one more plug here to make sure all my blog followers had first chance to get signed up before I begin spreading the word in other outlets. You can find all the information about the camps HERE.

Udo's Oil

2011-02-02T10:59:00.002-09:00

I've been aware of the reported benefits of Udo's Oil for endurance athletes for at least 2 years, but I had never used it with any regularity until a few months ago. Scott Jurek has been Udo's largest promoter among ultrarunners, and it's certainly hard to argue with his success and knowledge in the sport. And then this fall on a run with Krissy Moehl she also spoke highly of Udo's Oil and the effect it's had on her running. Finally I decided that the endorsement of two of the people I respect the most in the sport of ultrarunning was enough for me to give it a more serious try. I have now been taking 2-4 tablespoons of Udo's 3-6-9 Oil virtually everyday since the end of November.

The science behind the benefits of "healthy fats" for endurance athletes (or for anyone for that matter) is well documented so I won't go into it here. There are all kinds of resources on the web that explain this with much more detail and with much more knowledge than I have at my disposal. Here is a good spot to start if you're interested in reading more about this.

All this science and research doesn't mean a thing to me though unless a product works for me. Two months is not a conclusive amount of time to state with 100% certainty that any product is having a significant positive effect on my body. I tend to have natural ebbs and flows in my general physical well being which seem to last 3 months or more. This said I have felt significantly better in many areas in this time that I have been taking Udos. It's hard for me not to believe that this Oil has been a major player in feeling as healthy as I have.

The area that I have noticed the most improved physical well being since beginning on Udo's has been in my overall energy levels throughout the day. I have previously felt quite tired most of the time between my training runs. Typically I have turned to afternoon caffeine to get me through the low points, and then sleep as much as possible, and I'm usually able to feel pretty good and recovered in time to do it all over again the next day. In the past few months though I have noticed less and less of this low point between runs. Even on days when I do a really long or really hard run I tend to feel totally recovered and re-energized within a few hours. I am quite certain that the improvement I have felt in this area is directly a result of my consumption of Udo's Oil. The difference has simply been too much to ignore.

As far as my physical well being during runs, I would say the jury is still out on this one a bit. I feel like I have felt generally a bit stronger during runs in the past few months, but I have had a lot of variables that have been presented in this time. I have been dealing with the effects of adjusting to living and training at 8,500 ft. I have lived at this altitude since August, but only in the past month or two do I feel that I have fully acclimatized. I have also, in the past 3 weeks, taken my first significant break from serious training in over a year. Because of these variables it's pretty hard for me to really grade the effect that Udo's has had on how I feel during runs. I do look very forward to the coming weeks though as I get back into the "normal" swing of things to see how I feel running on 4 or 5 tablespoons of Udo's Oil a day. I'll keep you all posted on this one.

The other thing I would add is how much I have enjoyed the flavor that Udo's adds to some of the foods I've been eating it with. It adds a great rich, hearty, Earthy flavor to my recovery smoothies. This is a concoction that I have typically choked down in the past, but with a couple tablespoons of Udo's it's much tastier. I've also really enjoyed using it as an oil for salad dressing. I think my favorite is a simple dijon vinaigrette with a bit of dijon mustard, garlic, red wine vinegar, and Udo's. I also ate some on pasta the other day for the first time and was surprised at how satisfying that was.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, you should get some Udo's 3-6-9 Oil and try for yourself. As I said, it's only been a few months for me, but the early results are very positive, and I'm excited to move ahead with Udo's as a regular part of my diet.

Serious Return To Winter And Some Thoughts Surrounding That

2011-02-01T10:22:00.004-09:00

So much for feeling like Spring is just around the corner. Two days ago it was over 50 here and today it's topping out at about negative 8. Supposed to go down to about 25 below tonight. Luckily it isn't windy right now or I'm not sure we'd be able to keep it warm enough in our little cabin.

All this cold has me thinking a lot about Alaska, and specifically about outdoor adventure in the winter in Alaska. More specifically than that, it has me thinking a lot about the Iditarod Trail Invitational (if you aren't' familiar with this race I highly recommend checking out the website. It still amazes me that this event really exists).

This year's version of the "ITI" occurs in March and I will most definitely not be taking part. Next year though, who knows? I've tried this race twice and dropped out both times. Part of me isn't sure why I would want to do it again. But most of me is very intrigued by the idea of doing it again. It has an appeal to it that is similar to the way I felt about the first couple 100 mile races I ever did. It's not a challenge to see how fast you can do it, but rather a challenge to see whether you can do it at all.

I miss this aspect of my athletic endeavors a bit. Back in 2008-2009 I participated in 3 events like this within a 16 month span (ITI twice and the GDR), but since July '09 I have focused entirely on "short", high performance running races. It has been really nice to put all of my energy into one type of running, and it has been very satisfying to have the success in doing this that I have had, and I am excited for the schedule of races I have lined up for the next 10 months. I do however find myself missing some of the more adventurous, longer, multi day events that have to this point been very difficult and elusive to me. Despite my lack of "success" in finishing these events, I have had some of the most fond memories of my entire life in the midst of these events. There's just something so satisfying about being out in a harsh and beautiful landscape, for days in a row, with nothing to move you forward but your own strength, stubbornness, and determination. I don't know for sure if I'll participate in the Iditarod Trail Invitational next winter, but I will certainly put a lot more thought into this over the next couple months, before I would need to sign up in April.

Spring is Just Around the Corner

2011-01-29T07:31:00.003-09:00

I'm still keeping my running super low key for another week or so before gearing back up for a new season. 2011 is looking to be a really fun and really challenging year of running. It has however been really nice taking a bit of time off. Ironically some of the most enjoyable runs I've done in quite some time have been in the past couple weeks. One with Dave and one with Joe. Both runs were satisfying because we had virtually no agenda and in both cases ended up off trail climbing up Green Mountain summit along ridge spines coming in from the South. I really miss this kind of "running." That is to say, the kind of running I do so much of in Juneau. Steep, rugged, off trail, and with no agenda.

Next week when I get back to "normal" training it'll be with my eye on 3 killer spring races to get me ready for another huge summer.

First I'll be heading up to Washington to run Chuckanut on March 19th. I've never run this race and this year's field looks to be as competitive as ever. Should be a great early season test of leg speed. Much like Way Too Cool last year, although this year I have no intention of getting lost on course.

On April 2nd I'll be racing Lake Sonoma 50, another one that has a really good solid field of runners planning to toe the line.

And then on April 29th I'm going to head down to Santa Barbara to run the DRTE 100. This is a new race that has been trying to get off the ground for a few years now. Normally I shy away from races until they have a few years to get the kinks worked out, but this one is just too tempting to pass on. 35,000 ft. of ascent. That's enough to get me interested. I'll definitely be running this one as more of a long hard training race (usually the best way to approach a 100 miler anyway) to get ready for UTMB and WS (and/or Hardrock - lottery pending). It'd be nice to run Hardrock and have it be less vertical than my previous 100. Provided things went well at DRTE that could be a killer confidence boost for either Hardrock or UTMB.

I'm getting more and more excited for the huge races coming up this summer, but right now I'm not even thinking about that a whole lot because I'm really excited for these 3 early season races that are kind of just around the corner now.

"The Championship Race"

2011-01-25T13:49:00.007-09:00

There's been a lot of talk lately about the interest in a true championship race in American Ultrarunning. There have been several attempts at this over the years, but in my opinion no one has gotten it just right. No race has been able to separate itself as the race that all top runners flock to each year to test themselves against the best. Western States has probably come closer to this than any, but really hasn't come to stand alone as an undisputed championship race. In the past few years the North Face Championship race in San Francisco has emerged as another event that comes close to doing this, but they're still coming up short as well. UTMB has come even closer to this than Western States or North Face, but it's in Europe. Until some race becomes "The Championship" race here in The United States there is going to continue to be a demand for this.

Some people express concern about this idea of a championship race. Concern that races which so definitively emphasize elite runners will have a negative effect on the experience of the 99% of ultrarunners who are not elite runners. I think there is some validity in these concerns, but I think it's important to keep in mind that what people are talking about is a desire for there to be ONE true championship race. I don't think anyone wants anything more than this. That means ONE race unlike anything we have now, and hundreds of races which would be the same as they are now.

At any rate, I think the discussion of what effect a true championship race would have on the sport is a moot point. I think that there is such a high demand for this that it is absolutely going to happen within the next couple years. It's a simple aspect of a free market that when you have a large demand for a product/service that is not available someone will provide a product/service to fill that void.

I think we can and have learned some things from the "what effect would this have on the sport" discussion, but I also think it's time to move forward and focus more on the discussion of what a true championship race should and likely will look like. It's been good to see (on blogs) and hear (from other runners or interested parties) a lot of talk about this in the past couple months. I couldn't begin to count the people that I've had quite detailed conversations with about this type of event in the past few months. The surprising thing to me has been how similar people's ideas about this are. There are several things which almost everyone I talk to about this agree on. My purpose of this post is to outline what I see (from conversations with others and from my personal opinion) as the primary aspects that any true championship race should have. I don't think that all of these are necessary for the emergence of a race like this, but I do think that most of them are, simply because any race that tries to emerge that is lacking in too many of these aspects will be replaced by a race that provides more of these things.

Here's the list of the most important things (in my opinion) for a race to include to become a true championship race:

Entry guaranteed to any runner who wants to run the race who would have any chance of competing for the win in a race like this. There are many ways to do this. I think the best would be a combined system of invitees and auto qualifiers based on previous race performances
90%+ trail with at much of this as possible singletrack
Single loop or point to point course (as compared to multiple loops or out and back)
100 miles - this seems to be the preferred distance among a lot of top runners, but I think a 50 mile or 100k distance could pull this off as well. The shorter distances would just have to put that much more energy into convincing top runners to show up because you will have a few that will not be inclined to take it seriously at first because it's not 100 miles.
prize money - not necessarily a lot, but enough to make the race in the very front that much more appealing to the front runners and to spectators
150 to 250 ft/mile of elevation gain - not too little nor too much climbing
Average altitude less than 7,000 ft. and high point less than 9,000 - you don't want to eliminate from the race those who don't have the time or money to acclimatize for several weeks before the race.
Location within reasonable distance (less than 100 miles) from major airport
Location in Western United States - there are places in the East that could work, but probably not any that would be as appealing as something in the West, especially considering that probably 75%+ of the runners who would be competing live and train in the West
Race date no earlier than June 1st and no later than October 1st - you want competitors to be in top shape, not early season legs or late season fatigue.
Stand alone championship event as opposed to an event which also tries to incorporate a middle/back of pack race at the same time OR permit space to accommodate 500+ runners in one event - probably a race in conjunction with a "standard" race. Maybe a week apart, or maybe just a day apart. I think, as many have said in comments that this would appeal to the masses more if you have non-elites racing the same race with the elites. I agree with this, but I think most places in the United States are hard to get large enough permits to accommodate this. If you have enough space to do both together than that will work fine but if you are ending up not being able to take on all the elites that want to run then you are simply ending up where Western States is now.
Start/Finish area with very easy access and space to accommodate thousands of people, preferably in a large population center - opportunity for large amount of spectators
Points throughout the race that pass through accessible population centers - same as above point
High quality pre, during, and post race online coverage - I mean really high quality. This is where a race like this could stand to bring in the money to pay for all of this. With today's technology it wouldn't be hard at all to do WAY more than any races are currently doing in this regard. If you do it right you could charge viewers a small fee for access to interviews, analysis, race tracking, race footage, etc. A fee which I suspect thousands, if not tens of thousands worldwide would be happy to pay for in depth coverage.

As I said, not all of these things are necessary, but I think the more of them you have the more likely you will have a race that will emerge and remain as "a championship" race. What do you all think? What am I missing? What do you agree/disagree with? I think the most likely scenario is for a new race to emerge in this manner, but are there any races out there that can/do already provide most of these things? Certainly there are some which provide a lot more than others, but I don't know of any who currently provide enough to emerge (and this is why, in my opinion, none have really emerged yet) as The Championship Race.

Anonymous

2011-01-19T11:32:00.002-09:00

Thanks all for the congratulatory comments about UROY. Based on a few private emails I received yesterday I wanted to clear up something I said in my previous post. I am not any less proud or honored to receive this award this year as I was last year. If fact I'm probably more proud and honored than I was a year ago. Defending something like this is almost always harder than winning it the first time around. Defending it for another time in 2011 is looking (based on some of the race schedules some of the other top runners are putting out there) to be even more challenging, a challenge I'm getting really excited about. What I was trying to convey in my previous post was simply that the actual announcement of this award didn't have as much of an effect on me this year as it did last year. I'm sorry if this sounds cocky: but I kind of expected to win it. I don't think this was me being cocky, I think this was me being informed and realistic. I think receiving every single first place vote shows that I had reason to expect it.

As to the obnoxious anonymous comments about a whole range of other random things on my previous post, I agree with most of you who responded to those comments: some good entertainment, but not a whole lot of substantive value. I have had these type of "feather ruffling" comments in the past. A few times in the past I've even allowed them to get under my skin a bit. I have however never taken steps to not allow anonymous comments. Despite being sometimes totally out of line, I think there is usually some value in what everyone has to say. I'm a big fan of listening to everyone's opinion. I think sometimes I even learn some valuable things from some of the most obnoxious comments.

This said, I have thought about this a bit in the past day and have decided to no longer allow anonymous comments. I have no desire or intention to limit what people say on my blog, I just no longer am willing to allow them to fire away anonymously. I've tolerated this kind of thing in the past, but I have decided to draw the line at people using my blog to throw inflammatory, anonymous comments in the direction of other people. I think it's really obvious to most everyone reading these comments that this person is obnoxious, ignorant, and likely quite envious of Tony. In trying to define Tony as foolish, they have of course made themselves the ultimate fool. I hope the readers of this blog can be mature enough to avoid making these kinds of comments in the future, but if you feel the need to you will no longer be able to do so anonymously. At least this way we can all know who we are laughing AT.

Sorry to those of you who post constructive and reasonable things anonymously just because it's easier than setting up an account and logging in. I don't want to keep people from sharing their thoughts. The process of setting up an account and logging in each time is really quite simple. Less than 5 minutes of your time.

Ultrarunner Of The Year

2011-01-17T11:41:00.002-09:00

Results for Ultrarunning Magazine's Ultrarunner of the Year award were announced today and I was named Male runner of the year for the second year in a row. Finding out about this was a little less exciting for me this year than last year, partly because last year was the first time for me, but mostly because the voting was a lot closer last year. This year I kind of knew that I was going to win it. That said it's still a huge honor and something I am very proud of. It's never easy to defend an award like this and I certainly ran my ass off in 2010 to win this award a second time.

In general I think the voting panel did a pretty good job. Each year there are some surprises in this voting, but I think when you have something as obscure as ultrarunning being measured by a panel of 18 voters you are going to have some weird outcomes.

It still baffles me how little recognition this panel gives to the North Face Championship race in December. Granted I didn't win this race, but I beat more truly world class ultrarunners in that run than any North American ultrarunner has in a long time, if not ever. It certainly wasn't my best race ever, but not good for a single vote in the performance of the year category? Tony's vote tally for his Western States performance, which I think he deserved, shows that the panel is willing to vote for a second place finisher, but my lack of even a single vote for NF race shows just how unwilling the panel is to acknowledge that that race has become, without question, the most competitive ultra in North America.

I think another example that illustrates this is the fact that Dave Mackey got one total vote for runner of the year. Yes, he only ran 2 ultras all year but he won Firetrails and finished 3rd at North Face. Max King (not to take anything away from Max, but just to prove a point) also ran (to my knowledge) 2 ultras this year. He finished 2nd at Way Too Cool and 3rd at American River and finished with 8 total votes and 11 places ahead of Dave in the voting. Perhaps Max picked up some votes due to his dominance at shorter races, but I suspect it has more to do with voters who are unwilling to place as much importance on a new race like NF 50 as they are on some of the old classics like Way Too Cool and American River, even if the new race had a significantly stronger field.

At any rate, this is a pretty minor thing to be my biggest question with the voting. Overall I really do think they do a pretty good job at something which is really not as easy it sounds. The women's side of things was certainly a lot closer and likely will raise a lot more questions, but I think the panel did a good job there too. Personally I think Ellie deserved female runner of the year, but without having run a 100 miler I certainly didn't expect her to win it. She has the talent to dominate the women's side of things for the next several years, I'm excited to see if she's able to stay healthy and turn that potential into a reality.

Montrail

2011-01-16T14:47:00.004-09:00

I've been a part of the Montrail Ultrarunning Team for two full years and am really excited to be starting another year with them. Also, for almost 3 years before joining the team I wore Montrail shoes most of the time. In the past 5 years I have probably run 95% of my mileage in Montrail shoes. Despite being a big fan of Montrail shoes for half a decade there has never been a time when I've been as excited about the shoes they have on the market, or are bringing to the market soon as I am right now.

I am still doing almost all of my running in the Mountain Masochist (as I have for almost two years). In my mind these are the best running shoes ever made! I think they are a perfect balance of everything that a good trail shoe should be, and they fit my foot perfectly. I would recommend them to anyone for pretty much any type of trail running. At 10.8 ounces I think they are a perfect balance between the traditional 13+ ounce trail shoes that have dominated the history of trail shoes and the minimalist (6-8 ounce shoes) that are the latest trend in trail running. With the Masochist you get the best of both worlds: plenty of support, cushioning, and protection, but still light and flexible enough that you really feel the agility and quick foot speed that you feel in a really light shoe. I could go on and on about these shoes, but I've done that on this blog in the past and I think you get the point: If you haven't worn these shoes, you're missing out.

The one bad thing about having a shoe that I love as much as the Mountain Masochist is that I hardly ever have the patience/interest to try out other shoes. I've dabbled with all of the shoes that Montrail has on the market, as well as those that they'll be bringing to the market this year. I haven't however worn any of them enough to give any kind of in depth review. What I can say is that I like every Montrail shoe that I have worn in the past 3 years, just not any of them as much as I like the Mountain Masochist. Here's a bit about a couple of my favorites that we be available very soon:

The Rogue Racer is Montrail's answer to the minimalist trail shoe trend, and the demand in the marketplace for ultra light trail racing shoes. They will be available retail sometime very soon. I have been fortunate enough to do some running in a pair for the past several months. There are a lot of things I like about this shoe. If I ever raced shorter trail races (anything under 2 hours) I would likely wear these shoes. They fit exceptionally well and feel great under my feet, even on the most technical trails. For my taste they are a bit too minimal for runs over 2 or 3 hours, but for those who like an 8 ounce shoe even for longer runs I think it'd be worth your time to try these out.

The Badrock is another new shoe for spring 2011 that will be available retail very soon. This is a sturdier trail shoe (more in the line of the old Hardrock) that is actually a lot lighter (just a bit over 11 ounces as I recall) than it looks. When I first got a pair of these shoes I didn't think I would like them much, but as I've run in them more and more I'm liking them more on each run. They will be a great shoe for heavier runners or any runners who really like a lot of support and cushioning under their foot. I've been loving them lately for running in the snow. They have great traction on packed snow and the spacious foot box allows me to wear thick socks and still have plenty of room for circulation. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see this shoe end up with a loyal cult-like following similar to the old Hardrock shoes. They will also be available in Montrail's new Outdry waterproof technology which I think is going to be infinitely better than the GoreTex shoes that we've all more or less avoided over the past couple decades.

Alaska Mountain Ultrarunning Camp - Second Session

2011-01-13T11:09:00.003-09:00

I've made it official, I will be doing a second session later in the Summer for my running camp. This second session will be July 28th-August 3rd. The entry form for this session will be available on the camp website by the end of the day tomorrow (Friday). Hope some of you can join me in Juneau in July.

Down Time

2011-01-12T12:49:00.004-09:00

I've been enjoying a really relaxing week post Bandera. It feels weird not to have a next race so close that I feel like I need to get back at it as soon as I'm recovered. I feel entirely recovered from my little 50k outing on Saturday, but instead of getting out running right away I'm just hanging out, catching up on some work, changing the look of this website, doing a little skiing, and taking the little one out sledding (when I can actually get her out the door).

My running camp scheduled for June is just about full so I am moving forward with plans for another session later in the summer. I will be announcing the dates of this second session by early next week. Keep an eye on my camp website if you're interested in that.

Also, over the next few weeks I'm hoping to do several posts about some of the products that I prefer to use in my running. Most of these will be companies I am sponsored by and/or receive free or discounted products from. However, this will not just be me plugging my sponsors. I believe strongly in all of the products that I will mention. For each of these products there are several competing products which I've tried that have not been satisfactory to me for one reason or another. Lucky for me I've been able to secure partnerships with most of the companies who make my favorite products for trail running. If I don't care for a product I won't endorse them. I suppose if someone offered me enough money to endorse a product I didn't believe in I might be tempted, but this is ultrarunning we're talking about, nobody is throwing enough money my way to make me even tempted to endorse any product/company that I don't fully trust and believe in. So keep an eye open for some product reviews and recommendations over the next couple weeks... if you're interested in that kind of thing.

Bandera DNF

2011-01-10T11:31:00.006-09:00

Well, certainly things didn't go as planned this weekend at Bandera, and I ended up dropping out at the halfway point. I'm still not sure exactly what was going on, but pretty much everything felt "off" right from the start. I've kind of known for awhile that I need a bit a break from racing. I think this past weekend certainly confirmed that. I've done 10 races in 10 months and for the next couple months I'm going to give myself a bit of a break. Probably won't race again until late March and will take the rest of this month off from any kind of focused training.

Anyhow, back to Saturday. I had a nasty head cold last week, but by race day I thought it was more or less gone. And then I slept better on Friday night than I ever have the night before a race. 7:30 am when we started I thought I had everything in line to have a good solid run.

And then we started and within minutes I felt really crappy. My stomach was off, my legs were off, my lungs felt really stressed, and the pace felt way too fast. I should have slowed down right then. Dave James took the pace out really fast, but instead of slowing down I thought I could just push along and get warmed up and start feeling better. This has after all worked for me numerous times in the past when I haven't felt that good at the start of a race.

Not this time though. I felt crappy and kept feeling worse. Eventually I knew I needed to slow down, but by that point we had covered about 15 miles and the damage was done to me. I was in this "No Man's Lan" where I felt like all I could do was hold on and hope for a miracle. Of course slowing down then would have still been wise, but at the time it felt very much like I had already done enough damage by going out too hard (for what my body had on that day) that I may as well just stick with it and see what happened.

And so this is what I did. Dave James, Dave Mackey, and I were running this entire stretch together. I had a few moments where I felt good for a minute or two, but overall it was just bad and getting worse. The most tangible problem was that my stomach wasn't taking in calories. I would eat a gel and it would take 45 minutes or more for my stomach to settle and absorb the calories. By mile 25 I knew I was in serious trouble and I finally slowed way down and let Mackey run out ahead.

Usually when I feel really crappy in a race it's still really fun, and I relish the challenge of trying to manage things back to a point of being able to race again. It never felt this way on Saturday though. The crappy feeling just didn't feel fun at all and the slower I went the worse I felt. By mile 28 I hadn't eaten anything in over an hour and my stomach was feeling even worse. I had only had 300 calories all race and so I slowed even more.

I can't really explain what makes me choose to stop in a moment like this as opposed to pushing on and trying to find a way to turn things around. It's just not a tangible thing that can be explained, but for me in the moment I just know when to stop and I know when to go. My body, my mind, and every other part me was telling me it would be better to stop in this race.

When I struggled for almost 30 miles in the middle of Western States last year, not once did the slightest thought of stopping creep in. And so on Saturday I stopped at the 50k aid station.

As soon as I dropped I walked to my tent and just laid on the ground for an hour. Finally after that I was able to stomach a little water (first water in about 2 hours). About 3 hours after stopping I was finally able to eat some food. Within 6 hours of stopping I felt great, and having dropped out felt really silly. But at the time, and right now, I know that it was the right thing to do. This just wasn't my day. That happens every now and then. The last time this happened for me was Miwok in 2009. I came back a few months later from that race a significantly stronger runner than I was previously. That's what my plan is this time around too.

In the end Mackey had a super solid race and finished in 8:17, taking more than an hour off the previous course record. This was the biggest reason I was bummed to have not had more in me on this day. It would have been fun to battle it out to the end with Dave. Hopefully I get that chance again soon before Dave is retired and in a nursing home. Dave James also had a great run, finishing less than 20 minutes behind Mackey, and also way under the previous course record. Two more great runners with a shot at Western States if they choose to take it.

Racing Again - Gosh This Came Up Fast

2011-01-06T09:39:00.003-09:00

I'm heading down to Texas to race Bandera this weekend. It kind of feels like I just raced in San Francisco a week ago. It's actually been 5 weeks. Should be a fun trip though. It looks like it's supposed to rain on race day, but there should be some nice sunny weather tomorrow and Sunday. And this race has $5 camping right at the start area - something every good race should have. I'm excited to spend an entire weekend outside. I'm also excited to run on all day on dirt. It's been nothing but running on snow for me for about 4 weeks now.

The race itself should be a good one too. It's certainly not one of my primary races, but come Saturday morning I'll be running to win. Dave's racing this one too so I really look forward to running all day with him again. There should be some other great competition also. This one aint gonna come easy (not that any of them really do).

Thanks to everyone for the great, informative comments on my post about a UTMB type race here in the States. Good to see that I'm not the only one interested in something like this. Hope everyone is having a great start to 2011.

Alaska Mountain Ultrarunning Camp

2011-01-02T17:28:00.002-09:00

I've got all the details ironed out for a running camp that I'll be directing in Juneau this summer. Check out all the details here: http://www.akultracamp.blogspot.com/

Right now I am planning one session (June 6-12), but if there is enough demand I'll be doing another session later in the summer. Please do let me know if the June dates don't work for you, but you'd be interested in a session in late July or August. Each session will be limited to 10 runners so sign up soon if you want to guarantee a space.

UTMB in the US?

2010-12-31T11:59:00.003-09:00

There's been something I just haven't been able to get out of my mind since running the first few hours of the canceled UTMB race in August. This being the question of why don't we have any races like this in the United States? That is to say races with the kind of energy that UTMB has. Sure we have a handful of road marathons that have this kind of participation and energy, but as far as trail ultra goes we have nothing even close. Western States is probably the most "energetic" of our trail ultras, but compared to UTMB, Western States feels like a church bake sale. And where I see the real difference is that at a race like Western States the energy doesn't really spread out of the very isolated bubble that is American ultrarunning. Sure a few Auburn/Sacramento "locals" get a little bit excited about Western States, but for the most part the general American public doesn't give a shit about a bunch of people crazy enough to run 100 miles. Or do they?

Now before I go too far here let me acknowledge what a lot of you are probably thinking: that this is a good thing. A big part of me agrees with this. Some of the most enjoyable races I've ever been a part of have been the ones that are the most low key/low energy. Bear 100, HURT 100, Run Rabbit Run - to name a few. A larger part of me though feels like a balance of the two would be more appealing and more satisfying. This touches a bit on a few points I made in my previous post about prize money. I think the more races you have with high energy (or hype or attention or prize money or whatever you want to call it), the more super low key races you are going to have as a response to that. To me these are the types of races that appeal to me: the ones out on the edge of either edge of the spectrum.

Back to my original point though: why don't we have any trail ultras that are even close to UTMB in "energy?" This is the question that has been bugging me for 4 months now. I've talked to a lot of people about this, and most seem to feel that there is simply a difference in American popular culture as compared to European (or at least French) popular culture that Americans simply don't have an interest in these kinds of events. I don't agree with this opinion. I think instead that it's a result of the fact that almost every trail ultra in this country does everything it can to create a route that takes the runners out into as much wilderness and away from as many settled areas as possible. We do this because we love running in solitude through the mountains and through the forest, and because here in the United States we have enough open space to actually do this. Thank God for that. I love this aspect of these races as much as anyone. In Europe they don't really have this option. If you want to create a Tour De France or a UTMB you are going to have to pass through settled areas. You bring the race to large populations of people and the people respond. Here in the states we just haven't brought these kinds of events to large populations of people because we don't have to the way that they have to in Europe.

And so the next question becomes: if we bring the race to the people, how will the people respond? I don't know the answer to this question. I don't know if anyone knows the answer to this question because I don't think anyone has really tried. I want to try. I want a mountainous trail ultra that embraces populated areas, rather than avoids them. Race mostly through the mountains, but also race right through the center of numerous towns. Promote the race in these towns. Get local businesses on board who get excited about the prospect of several hundred (and potentially several thousand) spectators being out and about their town on race day. We have places we could do this. There are places along the California coast where you could put together a 100 mile route, mostly in the mountains, but where you could also hit a dozen or more villages or cities along route. It would be a little trickier but you could also do this in a couple places in Colorado and perhaps some areas of Washington or Oregon. Or for that matter, out East, in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, etc. where there are plenty of mountains and trails, but also, like in Europe, small villages scattered throughout these mountains.

Anyhow, just a random thought that's been running through my mind. I think it'd be awesome if we had a race or two like this. And I think it's possible. I just don't think anyone has tried. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm curious to hear what others think. I can't be the only one who has had this thought. I suspect many are going to comment that they feel races like this would damage the existing low-key ultrarunning culture. I can certainly respect this opinion, and I certainly have some of these same concerns, but if you have been to France and been a part of UTMB it's really hard not to feel (at least for me) like there is a whole another aspect to ultrarunning culture that we are really missing out on here in the United States.

Prize Money

2010-12-21T23:23:00.003-09:00

There's been a lot of talk lately about the future of the sport of Ultrarunning in regards to globalization and money. I think a lot of this was a result of the recent North Face race in San Francisco that drew a large international contingent of runners wanting to get a piece of the "largest purse in ultrarunning." I realize that to 99.99% of the people in the world this might be the most boring topic imaginable, but for the .01% who give a shit I suspect that there are some really passionate thoughts about this. Here are mine:

Globalization to me is an easy one. We're all humans. When I line up to run a race it really doesn't matter much to me where the people are from that I'm racing against. It's a fast growing sport and this is leading to races with more and more people from all over the world. I love running day in and day out, but the thrill of lining up with hundreds of like minded runners and testing myself in a competition with them is something that I can only do in races. I thrive on the competition. Generally the more top level runners in a race, the more excited I get about that race. And thus, the worldwide growth of the sport makes me really excited to open up so many more possibilities of talented runners to race against. I want to race against the best in the world. More and more that is becoming a possibility. A possibility that might not have existed in trail ultras a few years back. To me these are all good things. It's the money issue where things get a little bit stickier:

There has been a fair amount of prize money making it's way into Ultrarunning in the past few years. There still isn't much, but if the amount of races with prize money (and the total amount of this prize money) grows as much in the next few years as it has in the past few years it will begin to be a fairly substantial amount. The North Face Endurance Challenge races are the most obvious examples of new prize money in the sport, but there have also been dozens of other new races to pop up in the past few years with small amounts of prize money. Why is this?

There are so many ultra races now that a new race needs to do something to separate itself from all the other races. One way of doing this is to offer prize money. The more money, the more separation. So far this trend hasn't really had much of an effect on the sport. The old established races are generally still the most recognized races and to my knowledge not one of these "old" races has yet added prize money. I'd be surprised if this still true in another year or two.

By putting up a $10k prize the North Face has created a race that in 5 years became what was generally considered to be the most competitive 50 mile trail race ever in the world. Surely someone else has noticed this and has thoughts about upping the ante. The North Face has done almost nothing to promote this event and tap into the real potential that they have in their lap here. Instead it feels like they just kind of threw down the prize money for the hell of it and then forgot about it. Someone soon will put down more money and will do more to take advantage of the runners that this will draw, and in short time they will have one of the most recognized trail races in the world. To me this seems like a given. And when this happens I think it will begin to force some of the existing "most recognized" races to make some decisions.

Right now there is a void. The North Face has shown that by simply putting down a little bit of prize money you can draw a ton of attention from top runners around the world. As more new races begin to follow suit this void will begin to fill up and existing races will need to decide if they want to play the game or if they want to fade aside into the category of largely non-competitive races. Most will probably choose the later. A few will choose the former and there will become a fairly distinct divide in terms of the level of top competition seen at various races around the world. Not unlike the current marathon racing dynamic around the world.

Maybe none of this is actually going to occur. I think it's going to though. I think it's already started and is virtually unavoidable at this point. Thus the question becomes whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, or neither.

I'm actually kind of split on this question. I would love to be able to earn decent money racing something that I love so much. More than this though I would love it if there were dozens of races around the world that drew the kind of competition that the North Face race is now drawing. I want enough money in the sport that truly elite marathoners (sub 2:10) are inclined to try their hand at it. Large amounts of prize money will make these things happen.

Where the problems with prize money start to creep in is when you start to think about where the money is going to come from. Ideally large corporations (North Face and others) put down the money and draw enough attention to the event (because of the elite runners), and their products, that they feel confident that they are making a financial gain. The other option is that races pay out large sums of prize money with money generated from race entry fees. In some situations this might be able to work (specifically in races which are allowed huge numbers of people), but in most cases this prize money will result in significantly increased entry fees or significantly decreased amount of amenities that we receive from races on race day. I think entry fees are already really high in this sport ($370 for Western States), and certainly nobody wants races to provide less for them before, during, or after the run.

And herein lies the potential problem with more prize money in the sport. Ultra running is already a pretty exclusive, middle to upper middle class activity. Right now I think this has as much to do with demographics as it does with the costs related to participating in events, but the thought of making events even more expensive, and thus less accessible to individuals with less money doesn't seem like a good direction to head towards.

Ultimately what I hope and think will happen is that large corporations will follow the lead of The North Face and put down some serious prize money to get their hands on some of the void that exists right now because of how fast this sport is growing around the world. Just think how strange it is that by simply throwing down $10k (which is virtually nothing to a company like NF) they were able to create one of the most competitive ultra races in the world almost overnight. It shows just how much the established races aren't keeping up with the growth of the sport. Companies that are able to maximize the attention they get from being attached to such a worldwide event should have no problem recouping the prize money they put down without any need to charge super high entry fees.

Many races will take a staunch stance against prize money and they will "thrive" as old-fashioned, low key, low competition events for individuals who are drawn to this aspect of ultrarunning. The ironic thing is that many of these will be the same races which are currently some of the most recognizable and competitive events in the sport. Personally I think this is all a good thing. I like the low-key, low competition events just as much as the events with world class competition. In fact I think the further toward either end of this spectrum that an event falls the more appealing it is to me. It's the ones in the middle that are kind of boring. Luckily these are the ones that will likely fade into oblivion (by moving far to the left or to the right) as more prize money comes into the sport.

Loving Juneau... Again...

2010-12-14T13:45:00.004-09:00

I'm in Juneau now for almost two weeks. Got here yesterday afternoon and for the second time since leaving here in early August I have returned for a visit. And just like it was when I was here in October the weather is perfect. It was a bit cloudy when we flew in yesterday, but by this morning it had cleared and the forecast now is for 8 or 9 days of sunshine! I know I pretty much did this same post when I was here in October, but if you haven't been to Juneau when the weather is like this you really are missing out.

I ran up to about 2,000 ft. today (just above tree line) and was blown away by the beauty of the mountains here. I have seen the view I saw today hundreds of times but it still looks absolutely amazing every time. On days like today it is hard for me to believe that this place really exists. It is without question the most majestic and luring landscape I have ever been immersed in.

I'm still taking it pretty easy on the running front. I did 19 miles on Sunday and it was a fun run, but I was still feeling fairly tired from racing 8 days prior. After yesterday off I felt really good today, but only went for an hour. I'll probably go pretty easy again the next couple days, but by the weekend I intend to get out for 4+ hour runs with my snowshoes up into the mountains here... we'll see if I can actually wait all the way until the weekend though.

Looking Forward

2010-12-09T16:10:00.004-09:00

With 2010 winding down I thought I'd touch a bit on my running plans for 2011.

Actually my current racing season isn't over yet. Since March I've been racing more or less one race each month (only in November did I not race) and I'm going to extend that streak one month into 2011 and head down to Texas to race the Bandera 100k on January 8th. It was just announced this past weekend that Bandera will be the USTAF 100k trail national championship race for 2011 and '12. Hopefully this will help entice some top runners to line up with me next month, and I know of at least 2 top guys who are considering joining me there.

After Bandera I'll take a little time off and then race again in late March (either Way Too Cool or Chuckanut); early April (Lake Sonoma 50); and early May (either DTRE 100, Miwok, or Ice Age).

My summer will look a lot like this past summer: Western States, Crow Pass (tentative), and UTMB. I wavered for the entire fall on whether to run Western States again. I had fun in that race this year. The course was a lot more enjoyable than I expected. This said though, I certainly wouldn't be running Western States again if it weren't for Kilian and/or Tony both planning to run again next year. I just can't imagine the two of them lining up for a rematch in that race and me not being there to be a part of it.

Without a doubt though, UTMB will be my focus race for 2011. Ever since this year's race was cancelled I have been ready and anxious for next year's race. This race is so far above and beyond anything we have here in The States as far as the energy one feels in being a part of it. I still get goose bumps just about every time I think about running through St. Gervais in last year's race. On top of this I feel hungry and excited to race Miguel Heras after he got the best of me this past weekend in Marin. And I'm sure Kilian will be there again. And hopefully Tony. And all the other top runners who seem to be planning to flock to this race next summer.

Trail Ultra Running is becoming more and more of an international thing than ever before and I couldn't be any more excited about this then I am. I love the American Ultra Running scene/culture, but I think it's great to mix this scene/culture with the Ultra Running cultures around the globe. I feel like all the foreign runners who ran this past weekend (and did very well for themselves) was a huge step toward many of the top races around the globe becoming truly international events. I think next year's UTMB will have more of an American presence than ever, and I fully expect Americans to be a huge part of the race at the front of the pack. Beyond UTMB there are dozens of races around the globe that interest me, and will interest me more and more as they become globally participated events. Good stuff.

Interspersed amongst all of this racing next year, I am hoping to put on a couple Trail/Ultra running training camps up in Alaska next summer. I'll be posting more details on this in the next several weeks as I get more of the details figured out.

In all it should be another super exciting year of running. I'm looking forward to it.

North Face Endurance Challenge Race Report

2010-12-07T13:20:00.004-09:00

I'm glad I've taken a few days to let this race sink in before writing this report. There has been a lot to think about and I probably would have missed a lot of things had I written this two days ago.

Things didn't go that great for me in the 10 days or so leading up to this one. Two days before Thanksgiving my lower back got really sore and forced me to spend the better part of 3 days in bed. In all I only ran 13 miles in 4 days during that stretch. I felt a lot better on Sunday and Monday (5 days before the race) only to come to feel a bit of a head cold creeping in on Tuesday. I fought off the cold with every thing I could think of: Lots of sleep, little to no running, vitamin C, and Osha root. This seemed to work and by race day I was excited that I still hadn't been hit too hard by this cold. Just a slight sore throat and headache as I lined up to race Saturday morning. The main downside was that I hadn't run at all since Tuesday, meaning that I ended up only running 5 of the last 10 days before the race, certainly more of a taper than I would have liked.

But as the race started I quickly felt excited just to have made it fairly healthy to that point. My back was healed up and my head cold felt like it would hold off for at least one more day.

And so we were off. I felt tight. I felt like I hadn't run in 4 days. But beyond that it felt great to be racing.

We were in a huge group at the start. 10 miles in and I think there were still 25+ of us within a few seconds of the lead. Looking around I knew that there were several runners who didn't belong in this group, but there were also a dozen or more who did belong in this group. It was an amazing group of elite runners to be running with. I chatted a fair amount with Dakota and Dave, and a bit with Michael Owen, and one or two short sentences with Miguel Heras. Beyond that I just kind of ran along very relaxed. It was nice when the sun came up around mile 15. At this point we seemed to regroup into a couple lead groups. One group of 3 up in front and then a "peloton" of about 12 of us slowly reeling in this lead group on the climb up toward PanToll.

I still felt tight, but this climb also felt really easy to me. This was probably the first point in the race when I knew that I would have no problem running hard for 50 miles on this day. I didn't know if I would be able to run fast enough to stay near the front, but I knew that I was going to be able to put in a 100% effort and that my body would hold up.

By the time we got to PanToll the peloton had caught the breakaway group and Dave took the lead on the short downhill stretch over to Bootjack aid station. Dave hammered down this technical stretch of trail and a few of us followed in close pursuit. This fast downhill and the transition point at Bootjack was a key point in the race in which several runners were suddenly unable or unwilling to stay on the pace. Still hanging around in front was Dave, Dakota, Heras, Lorblanchet, Matt Flaherty, and I.

Just past Bootjack we hit the 4 mile out and back stretch of the race and Dave seemed to really push the pace in this stretch. I still felt pretty relaxed but I certainly couldn't have run this stretch much faster than we did. I was relieved when we made it back to the beginning of the out and back portion and begin the drop down to Stinson Beach. The pace felt a lot easier going down and I knew that once we hit Stinson we would begin the long climb back up to PanToll. Something I felt excited about, as I had been climbing comfortably all day.

I stopped to urinate at the bottom of the climb from Stinson Beach up to PanToll and discovered that we had dropped Flaherty and Lorblanchet. We were down to 4 in the lead group. Dakota moved into the lead on this climb and I slowly, and easily passed Miguel and Dave and caught back up to Dakota. This climb felt super smooth and super easy to me. Dakota and I put a bit of a gap on Dave and Miguel and we cruised together this way all the way to about mile 35. On the downhills through this stretch Dave would catch up to us briefly, but we would drop him again just as soon as we went uphill at all. Just past the Old Inn aid station there is a short (but steep) climb and this was were I pulled away from Dakota for good. He stayed close though all the way back to Muir Beach. And then finally on the climb out of Muir Beach I pulled comfortable away from him and into the lead all alone. I had no idea where anyone else was. I knew Dave and Miguel were probably not far back but I hadn't seen either of them in almost an hour.

I was feeling good, but never feeling certain that I would win. All day I had felt strong on the uphills, but relatively average on the flats and gradual downhills. I liked my chances of winning based simply on the fact that I was 2 or 3 minutes ahead with less than 10 miles to go, but I also knew that if anyone behind me found a really strong late surge that I might still be vulnerable.

And of course it was Miguel who found that surge. I was pretty sure I saw him storming down toward me as we dropped into Tennessee Valley (mile 45) but I kept holding out hope that maybe it was a runner in one of the other races as there was a 50k and marathon going on at the same time. And so I pushed on harder. Mostly knowing that it was Miguel and mostly knowing that he was going to catch me, but never really knowing for sure until he motored by me with about 4 miles to go. Of course I tried to stay with him for as long as I could but I just didn't have it in me. I hadn't faded, but rather Miguel was closing his race in epic fashion. It was frustrating to finish second in this fashion but there wasn't anything in my bag of tricks that could have held Miguel off on that day. Sometimes everything just comes together at the right time and that was the perfect time for him.

Overall I was super happy with my race. I finished ahead of more truly elite runners than I ever have in one race and it was a delight and an honor to race with everyone in this race. And now I feel like I have a much better understanding of how Tony must have felt about his Western States run. My race Saturday was a lot like his WS race. Strong and steady throughout, but just not quite enough to hold off a freak of nature like late charge. It certainly felt better to be that freak of nature as I was at Western States, but it's also really fun to be the strong and steady one who drags the pack along most of the day.

A Little Bit Closer....

2010-12-05T05:34:00.002-09:00

... To actually winning a race in The Marin Headlands. I'm now 0-5 in races in Marin. I'm obviously quite happy with my race yesterday, but I do feel a bit like I let one get away that I had in my grasp. I don't know if there's anything I really could have done though to hold off Miguel Heras. He was on fire the last 10 miles. Overall it was a super fun day of running with some of the fastest ultra runners in the world. I'll write up a full report about my race in a couple days. For now though It's all driving. Hitting the road in just a bit for the 1,200 mile drive from here back to Boulder.

The Closest I'll Come To Making A Prediction About This Weekend

2010-11-30T11:42:00.004-09:00

On the surface the race in Marin this weekend looks a lot like Western States. When you look at most of the pre-race chatter about the men's race the talk is dominated by a "Big 4." The strange thing is how similar the "Big 4" are to what they were at Western States. In each case you have a 2 time former race champion (Koerner and Steidl), a foreign phenom (Jornet and Wyatt), and then Tony and I playing the part of Tony and I.

This is all on the surface though. Below the surface there are 2 major differences between this one and Western States. The largest of these being that it still remains to be seen how many of these "Big 4" actually toe the line on race day. Rumors are flying and it's seeming more and more likely that it will be fewer than 4. The other major difference is the strength of the runners behind these four. To take nothing away from any of the top level runners that ran Western States this year, it was much more clear at Western States that one of "the 4" was almost certain to win the race.

This weekend is much different than that though. Even if these four that are being talked about the most all show up it's not a given that one of us will walk away with the $10k. Mackey, Skaggs, Lundstrom, Heras, Mallarde, Bragg (to name just a few) could all contend for the win.

In my mind Dave should be included with Tony, Uli, Jonathan, and I as part of a big 5. He has probably won more 50 mile trail races than the rest of us combined and has more experience/knowledge on the trails in Marin than any of us. I think some people are uncertain as to what kind of shape he is in right now since he hasn't raced much in the past 18 months. I've run with Dave enough in the past two months to know that his current fitness is not at all in question.

Beyond these guys I've named there are at least a dozen other runners who could have a good day and claw their way onto a podium spot (especially if some of the front guys don't start or don't finish).

Western States was a very competitive race for sure but the depth of the elite runner's in this race is (in my mind) at least double what it was at WS. Many of the top runners will not finish, but there are so many strong runners toeing the line that there are likely to be guys finishing out of the top 10 who are used to battling for the win in most every race they run. It doesn't get any more exciting than that. I just hope that none of the rumors I'm hearing are true and everyone is there and ready to race Saturday.

The Need For Speed?

2010-11-29T18:05:00.004-09:00

I ran about one mile fast today. I don't run fast in my training very often but usually in the 10 days or so before races I will do some short tempo stuff to keep my legs turning over as I rest more and more to get ready for a race.

Running fast for a bit got me thinking about speed training and raw speed capability and how or if they apply much at all to ultra running success. I was thinking of the upcoming 50 mile showdown this coming weekend in Marin and was wondering if the eventual winner of the race would finish in the top 10 if the race were a 10k instead of 50 miles? Or even a marathon compared to 50 miles? In each of these cases I am fairly certain there would be a huge shake up in where various front of the pack runners would finish.

The interesting question to me is why is this the case? Is it primarily that each runner has a certain distance or style of running (flat, hilly, technical, etc) that they naturally excel at or do certain runners do a better job of figuring out how to adapt to a certain distance or style of running? I guess in reality it's probably a little bit of both. I've known more than a few runners who would say it's almost entirely the former reason and that the later has almost no relevance. I disagree strongly with this. I think the reason there are dozens of sub 2:30 marathoners out there who have had a hard time finding their groove in 50 and 100 mile trail races isn't simply because they aren't suited for longer distances, but more so because they have too much of an idea of how to train for running marathons. That is to say that they get caught up thinking that training for a 50 or 100 miler is quite similar to training for a marathon. A handful of fast marathoners have been able to fake it up to 50 miles, but for every one of these there are several who get to mile 30 or 35 in their first 50 and are completely fried. At that point all the leg speed in the world aint gonna do much of anything for you.

How then does one prepare their body (and mind) to race well for a full 50 or 100 miles? There are a lot of potential answers to this question, but in my mind the most important answer is to let go of the idea that we need to focus in our training on improving our leg speed. Racing 50 or 100 miles is about strength and endurance. It's about nutrition and hydration. It's about patience, stubbornness, and determination. It's about a lot of things, but it's really not much about leg speed. Sure there are great ultra runners with great shorter distance speed, but there are also great ultra runners with mediocre (at best) shorter distance speed. The fact that Tony K's 5k PR is about 16:30 should be all the proof one needs on this point. In nearly every ultra he runs he beats dozens of runners who would beat him if the race were a 5k. Why? Take a look at his training. He runs a ton and he runs uphill on rugged trails. He does more in training to build his strength and endurance than anyone I've ever known of. And more importantly he does more or less nothing in his training to build his leg speed. Or take me as another example. I'm blessed with a bit more leg speed than Tony, but it was when I stopped thinking that I needed to try to sharpen and hone this leg speed that I began to have the high level of success in ultras that I've had over the past 20 months.

This isn't to say that you can't be successful at ultras if you do speed work in your training, but I do believe that doing speed work in training for 50 and 100 mile races (especially hilly, technical ones) does nothing to make us "faster" on race day, and in most cases probably makes us slower because it uses up time and energy in training that could be better spent increasing our strength and endurance.

This entire conversation reminds me of a run I was on about 5 weeks ago with some folks here in Colorado. We ran from my house and we run up. As we climbed the snow got pretty deep. Eventually we were just trudging through knee deep snow, higher and higher into the mountains. It was a fun group of runners and no one was complaining about the conditions, but I do remember Dakota saying at one point that although he was enjoying the hike up through the snow, he didn't really imagine that any of this was going to be very beneficial come December 4th in Marin. Well Dakota was 19 (a very wise 19) then, and I'm sure he'll figure out soon enough the value in the strength and endurance one builds from moving uphill, at a steady pace, through knee deep snow. Luckily for me most strong runners who come from a road marathon background never take the time or have the patience to figure this out.

Quiet And Dark

2010-11-28T19:25:00.003-09:00

Had a great Thanksgiving getaway out to Western Colorado. We spent 3 days at a friend's ranch in middle of nowhere outside of Meeker, CO. The silence and the true darkness at night was wonderful and refreshing. I love where I'm living in Nederland, but our cabin is close to a busy highway and there is always some light pollution from town. I've spent a lot of time in places that are completely silent and completely free of artificial light, but I've never lived anywhere like this. Our trip out to Meeker reminded me of how much I want to live somewhere like this at some point in my life, preferably sometime fairly soon.

I'm not even sure just what it is but there is something that feels really healthy to me about being somewhere out of sight and out of sound of others. I love having a community around me and I value a lot of the benefits of urban and/or populated areas, but when I am fortunate enough to spend some time away from populated areas I almost always feel more comfortable and more able to understand myself and understand the things going on around me.

This coming weekend I will be heading out to San Francisco for The North Face Endurance Challenge race. To get back to Colorado I will be driving a car that a friend wants moved from there to here. My plan was drive the first day to Salt Lake City and the second day to my home here in Nederland. After this weekend though I can't help but think of all the wonderfully quiet and dark places between San Francisco and here that I could spend a night camping rather than a night in Salt Lake City.

Exhausted And Loving It

2010-11-23T18:37:00.003-09:00

Had one of those runs today that will make it a lot easier to taper than I was thinking it will be. That is to say I felt absolutely exhausted today as I ran for about 2 hours with Dave. Virtually every step of it felt hard. Not hard in a bad way. Just tired out from 12 hours and 70 miles of running with close to 20k ft. of ascent in 4 days. Now it's time to ease back and let my body strengthen from the solid effort I've put in my training over the past several weeks.

I never train with very much focus. I mostly just go out and run. In the last 3 or 4 weeks though I have made a fairly focused effort at trying to be as fast as possible come December 4th. The last time I did anything like this was with a focus on being as fast as possible on June 26th.... I guess that worked out quite well for me.

I'll be interested to see how my body is able to perform next weekend. It's been an up and down few months for me in terms of how my physical body has felt and I'm kind of curious to see if the confidence from how strong I've felt in the past few weeks will be able to override the doubts I may still have lingering about how weak I've felt for most of the past few months. Kind of a fun little psycho/science experiment.

Tapering Is So Hard To Do

2010-11-22T17:16:00.003-09:00

It's gotten to be about that time that I should begin to taper for the NF 50 in San Francisco in 12 days. Problem is that I'm feeling as good as I've felt and enjoying my running as much as I've enjoyed it in quite some time. Each day I keep telling myself that this will be my last long run before December 4th.

Today I actually did a short mellow run, but will probably take advantage of the free time that I have tomorrow and get out for a 2-3 hour run with ~5,000 ft. of climbing. There are just too many runs that interest me right now, and lately I've been having no trouble finding great companions to join me on these runs. It makes it hard to taper when I know I'll really enjoy my day quite a bit more if I get out for 3+ hours.

I spent most of my time on my run today exploring some trails half way between here and Boulder. I was able to find a link that cuts out most of the road that I needed to run the last time I ran from my house to Boulder. I've got a route figured out now that can get me to Boulder on 25+ miles of trail with less than 5 miles of dirt road and less than a 1/4 mile of pavement. It'd be wise of me not to run this route in the next 12 days, but we'll see if I'm actually able to resist the temptation.

It's About Time

2010-11-15T10:46:00.003-09:00

Finally for the first time since August I have strung together several weeks of time in which I'm feeling really good in my training. Beyond this it's felt great to feel strong and healthy in my day to day life outside of running.

It's always really hard for me to feel confident and grounded in life when I am struggling in how I feel in my physical body. For all of September and most of October I felt sick, weak, and tired more often than not. That was a hard time for me.

For over 3 weeks now though I have been feeling progressively stronger and stronger. This has allowed me to finally feel excited about being here in Colorado, and for the first time since moving here it really feels like home.

In terms of running the timing couldn't be better. I'm less than 3 weeks removed from the most competitive race I will have ever run, and it feels really good to be developing the kind of confidence that I am right now. I still have about 10 days of really good training that I need to get in before a week long taper, but I feel really good about where I am right now... Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself.

Freaks Of Nature

2010-11-07T15:13:00.004-09:00

Was out running in the mountains around Boulder with Tony (and several others) today. We were running down Fern Canyon and began talking a bit about Kilian Jornet and his insane talent running up and/or down steep technical trail. I mentioned to Tony how I had no idea what to really expect from Kilian going into Western States this year, but how obvious it was just a few minutes into the race that he is every bit as gifted of a runner as all the hype would indicate. He has so much capability that I only needed to run with him for a few minutes to realize that we were running in the presence of someone who is one of the best in the world at what he does.

As Tony and I ran down one of the steepest, most technical trails in the Boulder area and talked about this I suddenly had this ironic "ahha" moment in which for maybe the first time I really understood how insanely talented of a runner Tony is. Here was a guy who had run 68 miles yesterday, was 2+ hours into a run in which he hadn't had a sip of water, and was running down Fern Canyon like it was a paved bike path. I was feeling really good today so it was really easy for me to stay right on his heels and admire how gifted he really is. I was shocked at how smooth he was able to run down this trail with his legs as tired as they must have been after his huge effort yesterday. I also had a bit of insight into just how dialed into the local trails he is when we were further down Fern Canyon and in mid sentence he said, "oh, that is new." That being one random rock in the middle of a thousand rocks. Intimate trail knowledge certainly helps with being able to run so smoothly down a steep, technical stretch of trail, but what I saw in Tony today goes way beyond intimate trail knowledge. It speaks rather of the reality that he (like Kilian) is one of the best in the world at what he does. Good stuff.

Ultra Town USA

2010-11-01T19:24:00.002-08:00

As much as I have been missing running in Juneau, this past weekend here in Colorado sure went a long way in getting me dialed into my running here.

On Saturday I took the bus down to Boulder to meet up with a few folks for a fun little 4 hour group run. What I expected to be a dozen people or so was actually more like 50. I started behind everyone because I showed up late and eventually I made my way toward the guys running out in front. I've known since moving here that the talent of runners in this area is off the charts but it wasn't until Saturday that this really hit home. Had this been a race it would have been one of the most competitive ultras ever run. Scott Jurek, Tony K., Dave Mackey, Nick Clark, Dakota Jones, Joe Grant... just to name a few of the locals that I would run with most of the day on Saturday. I didn't feel very good that day but it was nice to run with such a large, diverse, and insanely strong group of runners.

On Sunday Tony, Joe, and Dakota drove up to Nederland to join Patrick Garcia (who had driven up from Denver) and I for a fun 5 hour slog up over 11,000 ft. into some pretty serious early season snow. It was mostly clear trail up to about 10k, but once we were to 10,500 there was well over a foot of snow. Stubbornly we pushed on to get a nice view of the Continental Divide before turning back for home and then down to Boulder for some trick-or-treating with the little one and a fun Birthday/Halloween/Housewarming party at Scott Jurek's house.

In all it made for a great weekend in which I felt, for the first time since moving to Colorado, that I found a bit of a rhythm to my running here. I actually felt physically really weak on both of these long runs but it felt really nourishing to get out with several other runners and to be out for over 4 hours for two days in a row. Now I just need to find a way to get my body to come around and catch up with my mind and spirit.