Here's Some Humble Pie...

“Fourteen miles? Piece of cake.”

I didn’t have any particular goal for the Post Canyon Half Marathon other than to go run on some new trails and enjoy the views. It’s probably a good thing, because as it turns out, I wasn’t very prepared for this race.

Due to a bit of Achilles Tendinitis, I had been laying off the running. I did a short race the week before (less than 10K) but hadn’t run since then. I’ve never had a problem just going out and running a half marathon without much training before. That’s one of the reasons I like the distance. It’s work, but I don’t usually need to train up to it.

The race started at 7 AM, and the start out near Hood River was about 90 minutes from Portland. The skies were pretty overcast when I left Portland, but when I got out around Hood River, it was partly cloudy with some episodes of sunshine. Temperatures were in the 50s. Fantastic weather for running!

I got to the start with my handheld full of Viso. This was the inaugural running of this race, and one of my requests for next time would be that they arrange for more port-a-potties. Two didn’t really cut it.

The race director gave her spiel, emphasized the points of the course where the half marathon and the 50K split, and assured us that the course was well marked. We started promptly at 7 AM.

The first mile or so of the trail was obviously new. The dirt was very loose and I was skidding a bit on it. I hoped the whole course wasn’t going to be like this. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

Soon we got onto the more established trails. These trails were mostly used for moto cross and mountain biking. They were very rutted and rocky with plenty of tree roots to boot. I rolled my ankle three times in the first 5K. Not bad rolls, but still, this didn’t bode well. I’m not a total stranger to running technical trails, but the ruts in these trails from the motor bikes proved challenging. I could feel my ankles twisting every which way!

The trails were almost all up and downhill. Flat sections were rare and brief. I nailed most of the uphills, but the downs were tricky and very technical. I managed a decent pace on them by using small, fast steps, but my quads and adductors were starting to feel the impact from all the downhill and lateral movements.

The course was well marked and easy to follow until mile 7. There was a junction of several trails here and more than one had flags and arrows on it. Several of us milled around here and scratched our heads. This would have been a great place for a volunteer! A couple of us went up to the left and ran for about ¾ of a mile before determining that we weren’t going the right way. We ran back to the junction and took the right instead.

The first aid station was supposed to be at mile 9 but ended up being closer to mile 10. It seemed to take forever to get there – I think the experience of getting lost back at mile 7 made me worry that I still wasn’t going the right way. When I did finally get there, I had already run over 11 miles (including the mileage from the wrong turn). I refilled my water bottle and was on my way.

The next mile was a pretty nasty uphill, but there were fantastic views of the Columbia River Gorge to the left and Mount Hood to the right. I had to break down and walk a couple sections on this one. Coming to the top of the hill, the race photographer was there snapping photos. “Oh no,“ I said, “You’re not going to get a picture of me walking!”

Just after cresting that hill, another runner caught up to me and we started chatting. Unfortunately, we both got so wrapped up in our conversation that we missed a turn off. We ran for a good mile and a half before realizing that the trail we were on wasn’t marked and we could hear no one ahead of or behind us.

We doubled back and found the very clearly marked turn off and both face palmed. After a mile of fairly pleasant single track trail, we came to another aid station. We stopped for a water refill, grabbed a few bites  and were on our way for the last couple of miles to the finish. At this point, it was 10:30. We had been out on the trails for three and a half hours!

My chat buddy and I came to the finish line together. “Oh, look,” someone shouted, “They’re racing!” We weren’t and we didn’t. We crossed the finish at the same time. We grabbed snacks and drinks - we hadn’t planned to be out there that long for a half marathon – and realized we had run almost 18 miles.

This was one of the toughest races I’ve ever done. The hills were steep. The trails were the most technical and difficult I’ve ever run. I ended up running four extra miles. I can run a nice flat road half marathon in about 1:30, but this almost 18 mile trail run took me 3:44.

Still, I couldn't be upset about the extra miles. It was such a perfect morning to be out running and the trails, while difficult, were very picturesque. And, of course, the views of the Gorge and the mountain made up for a lot.

The director and volunteers did a really good job with this race, considering it was the first. There were only a couple of things that I would change – more port-a-potties at the start and someone directing runners at mile 7.

This was a fun race on some difficult but really great trails. It challenged me a lot more than I had expected. It ended up being a nice little adventure, and hey – bonus miles means extra value for your money!

50K Conquered!

“I’m not ready for this.”

That’s what I kept thinking leading up to the Mount Hood 50K. I bailed twenty miles into the Smith Rock 50K a couple months earlier due to calf cramping that kept locking my legs up. I hadn’t done any marathon length runs since then - my longest run was a 20 miler out in the Indian Heaven Wilderness.

Unlike Smith Rock, this race was on terrain I had trained on. I had run part of the route around Timothy Lake during the Timberline Half Marathon. The route was shady and largely on the PCT. While I had never run this particular part of the PCT, I had run other parts of it in the area. That bolstered my confidence a bit.

There were six aid stations and the weather was cool, so I decided to run with just a handheld and ditch my pack, relying on the food (mostly M&Ms, Pringles and Coke) and water at the stations. I don’t really like to run with a pack when I don’t have to. It’s just additional weight, and while chafing hasn’t been an issue with my current pack, the possibility is always there.

The start time was 8 AM, so I woke up at 5, put on my running clothes, my calf sleeves and my shoes, had a light breakfast of Greek yogurt and oatmeal, packed a gym bag with another set of clothes to change into post-race and was on the road by 5:45. The skies were mostly overcast on the way out to Timothy Lake, and the morning temperatures were in the 50s. You couldn’t really ask for better running weather!

Photo by Paul Nelson Photography

I got to the Clackamas Ranger Station around 7:20. I picked up my bib – number 66! - , did a few lunges and hip swings to warm up, hit the port-a-potty and sipped on a Viso sports drink. I felt relaxed, not at all jittery like I usually do before races. I knew I was undertrained for this, so I decided to just enjoy the experience and not worry about my time. I’d be happy with a finish.

We started promptly at 8 AM. We were pretty bunched up on the trail leading down from the ranger station to the lake, and the runners kicked up quite the cloud of trail dust. My energy and spirits felt high. I focused on reining my pace in. I often go out the gate too fast and end up paying for it later in a long race.

We turned north at the lake and hugged its east side for a few miles. I was still relaxed and found a group of guys whose pace I liked, so I hung with them for a while. This was where I had my first fall. I pitched forward, caught myself on my hands and pushed myself back up. The guy behind me commented that I could probably have passed that off as a spontaneous push up.  Everyone was chatty, and we discussed the Smith Rock race. Quite a few had done the 15 miler there, but I was the only one in the group to attempt the 50K. This was the first 50K most of them had attempted.

I pulled ahead of the group as we turned onto the PCT to head north. This section was pretty steadily uphill with only a couple of relatively steep portions. There were plenty of rocks and tree roots to navigate, but I did well on the uphill and flew by a lot of the other runners, many of whom decided to walk the steeper sections. Running hills is a big part of my training and these hills were pretty minor compared to some of the monstrous climbs I had done in the Gorge.

Photo by Paul Nelson Photography

The sun was coming out between the clouds now and we were treated to some amazing views of Mt Hood off to the north as we approached the turnaround point on the PCT. The lead runners began to come down, so I knew the turnaround couldn’t be too far off. I had found another group whose pace I liked, so I followed them up to the aid station at the turnaround. I stopped briefly to grab some food and refill my handheld with water then headed back down the PCT.

The downhill felt good, and I checked my watch to find that I was on pace to finish in less than five hours! This was where I took my second spill while distracted by a particularly gorgeous view of the mountain. There was no damage but a minor scrape to the knee, thankfully.  After a couple miles, though, I felt the familiar twinge in my calves that always precedes the debilitating cramps that I’ve been fighting the past year. Shortly thereafter, the cramping started.

I was determined to not let this stop me again! I slowed down, I walked, but I kept moving. It hurt, and there were a couple times that my legs locked up so badly that I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to move them. But I fought, and continued moving, knowing that I couldn’t get my five hour time at this pace. “It doesn’t matter,” I told myself, “Just finish the damned race!”

I found that I could actually run slowly and pain-free through the flat sections, but the down hills triggered the cramps. I ran where I could and walked where I had to. By the time I made my way to the last aid station on the PCT, I knew I looked bedraggled. I got some more food, filled up my water and continued on to the lake.

Photo by Paul Nelson Photography

It was a pretty pleasant section heading south along the west side of the lake with another spectacular view of the mountain. I was able to manage a slow jog pretty consistently. The weather was warming up, but it wasn’t uncomfortable yet. Another runner, whom I’d been far ahead of at the turnaround, caught up to me and noticed I was limping a bit. He asked if I was OK, and we got into a conversation. Turns out he was from my home state of Illinois, so we chatted for a while – distance runners are a chatty bunch! I think it helped me get my mind off my calves so that I was able to run again the last mile or so.

It felt like a long mile. I’d run this before at the Timberline Half Marathon, so I recognized landmarks. When I finally could hear people at the finish, I upped my pace to something a little more respectable for the last ¼ mile or so.

I crossed the finish line, collected my finisher’s beer glass and didn’t even look at the clock. Later I found I had finished in 6:09:51. Not a great time, but considering that I wasn’t very well trained, I was glad to finish without the calf cramps bringing me to a grinding halt like they had at Smith Rock. The time went by amazingly quickly – it certainly helps to run in a beautiful place.

In retrospect, this would have been a better first 50K for me than Smith Rock. The elevation gain was significantly less and the environment – cool, shady with rock and tree-root studded trails – was similar to my training grounds in Portland’s Forest Park and the Columbia River Gorge. I felt very at ease running this route, which I can’t say about the dry, exposed, desert-like environment at Smith Rock.

There are more 50Ks in my future, but I promised myself that I would take the next year off from the long distance races. I’ve done two marathons, a 50K attempt and this 50K in less than a year, and I’m feeling a little burnt out. I’m going to re-focus on running speed at shorter distances, weight training, do some bicycling and take up another sport, maybe rowing or swimming. I have a goal to climb Mount Hood next year as well.

I also need to figure out if there’s some way to fix my calf issues. Water and salt have no effect, and medical research indicates that dehydration and lack of electrolytes don’t cause cramping anyway. I’ve tried stretching, with no real gains. The next thing will be focused strengthening on my calves, especially since I won’t be doing a lot of long runs to stress the muscles even more.

I will still need a bit of a trail running fix, even during this “down time.” I’ll continue doing 20ish mile trail runs about once a month, partially to not totally lose all the endurance I’ve built up, but also because there is definitely something relaxing and magical about running in the wild and beautiful places of the Pacific Northwest.

 

Photo by Paul Nelson Photography

Pre-50K unwind...

Yesterday I finished my last long training run before my 50K out at Smith Rock on May 9th. I should have wrapped up the long runs last weekend, but my training has been so... scattered... that I wanted to get one more long run in to build my confidence.

I did 25 miles of trails in Portland's Forest Park on the warmest day of the year. It felt soooo good to have short sleeves on again. I don't like running in lots of clothes, and I don't like having to carry a jacket around in my pack in case I get cold.

The trails were mostly dry, although there are some parts of the Wildwood trail that seem to be perpetually muddy. The bugs were out in force - bees, flies, gnats, skeeters - but they didn't bother me too much while I was running. There are still quite a few trilliums blooming along the trails.

I did a 10k loop with my running group to start - they're a bunch of bozos but I love 'em - and probably paced a little too fast in that part. I had some food when we finished - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups have become my fuel of choice while I run! - and then took off for a solo 19 mile trek heading south on the Wildwood.

I kept my pace pretty reasonable through most of the run. I occasionally checked my heart rate and found I wasn't really getting higher than about 125. I think I should be able to run a little harder than that, but I'm always a little conservative on training runs.

I was stopping about every 6 or 7 miles to eat. They have aid stations at the race in those intervals. I'm planning to use their food and refill my handheld with water at the stations so that I don't have to carry a pack with me. I've found I can safely eat about 220 calories - two Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! - per hour. I can probably push that a little higher since I've had zero GI issues with that amount of food.

Compared to most of my long runs, the elevation gain on this was pretty negligible. I did feel it climbing up to Firelane 1 about 18 miles into the run. I slowed to a crawl there, partially due to the climb and partially due to the muddy spots. My legs were starting to feel tired - trails definitely fatigue you faster!

The last 10K was tough. My calves - they've been persistently problematic this past year - were starting to show warning signs of cramping. I was alternating hiking and running, but my overall pace didn't suffer too much for it.

This was the first time I had trained for a race that required training runs over 20 miles, and those 20+ mile runs are still rough on me. I got the miles in, though, no matter how ugly the last few might have been.

I recovered surprisingly quickly from this run. There's some lingering soreness in the legs, but nothing alarming. I don't feel particularly tired or hungry this morning, and I'm actually planning to get out for a lazy 10K this evening just to shakeout a bit.
I'm feeling a lot better about this 50K after two 20+ mile runs on consecutive weekends. My training was interrupted a few times by work trips, and there were times when I just wasn't feeling it. I don't mind some rain and mud when I run - I like when there's a little mud to soften the trails! - but when you get rained on during every run and have to wade through ankle deep mud all the time, it gets old. That's winter running in the Pacific Northwest!

Smith Rock, here I come!

Training for life...

I was chatting with my new trainer recently about my struggles to get enough calories in my system to keep from burning out on long runs or particularly intense workouts. I told him that I used to be a "big" guy and it wasn't easy for me to get my head around the idea of eating 3500 calories a day. He responded that he had a hard time getting his head around the idea of me being a "big" guy, so I sent him this picture from the 2011 Portland Marathon.

October 2011, Portland Marathon Finish

I was 40 years old and pushing 200 pounds at the time. I had trained for 16 weeks leading up to the marathon, but all that running only took about five pounds off me. I wasn't training particularly hard since my only goal at that time was just to make it through 26.2 miles without keeling over. I finished the marathon in 4 hours 50 minutes and struggled mightily, but I finished. I was happy.

A few months later I decided I wanted to take my fitness more seriously. I wanted to be a better runner, but I also just wanted to be all around more athletic, healthy and fit. I found a trainer who was holding boot camp classes not far from me, so I went to one. I thought since I had finished a marathon that I had to be in OK shape, but I quickly learned otherwise. I ran to the bathroom halfway through the first class and threw up. I was embarrassed and frustrated and had almost convinced myself not to come back to anymore classes.

There was this voice in my head, though, that said, "That's exactly why you need to go back." So I did. Three nights a week I went. Consistently. I didn't let myself make excuses to not go. Each night it got better. I didn't throw up again. Pretty soon the other people in the class were struggling to keep up with me. We ran stairs. We did broad jumps. We bear crawled across the gym and back. It was as lot of sweaty work. I was still running two or three times a week and I was getting faster. I lost a bit over 10 pounds.

August 2012, Crater Lake Half Marathon Finish

The classes came to an end and I decided to hire the trainer as a personal trainer. I told him I wanted to be a better runner, to be lighter, stronger, faster. But I also wanted to keep my overall fitness high. Running is a great endurance sport, but fitness includes strength and flexibility. Running doesn't do much for you in those areas (trail running does include some strength building, but I wasn't trail running at the time).

He was tough on me, and I learned a lot about my physical capabilities. We sprinted and did park workouts, we squatted and pressed and did a whole lot of jumping. I lost 15 pounds in my first five weeks and another ten the next five. At one point my trainer held a dowel up about four feet off the ground and said, "Jump over this 20 times." I gave him my "You're a nut job" look and he told me that if I didn't at least try it, I could find another trainer. So I did. I jumped over it. Twenty times. And that's the moment I learned confidence in my physical abilities.

Since then I've continued training at the gym and running. I began trail running seriously about a year ago - it took me a few months to warm up to it, but I was burned out on road running and the trails have re-invigorated me. I have a new strength training coach who I'm very happy with, and I'm doing my first 50K trail run in two months. My health and fitness are great for being 44 years old... BMI is 23, body fat is 10%, VO2 max is 65 and my resting heart rate is 45-50 BPM. My doctor tells me my blood pressure is good, my cholesterol levels are ideal and I should keep doing what I'm doing. I'm strong and I have good endurance... I still need to work on flexibility, though.

Fitness is a lot of work, especially in our society where we do everything we can to NOT move. There's no magic formula. You have to move. You have to not eat like an asshole. It's not easy, especially as we get older, but if I can do it - especially with no athletic background before I hit my 40s - anyone can. And the good news is, once you get to a fit state, it's a lot easier to maintain it than it was to get there.

Relax... Slow Down... Have a Beer...

My long run in the Gorge this past weekend was a "step back" run of only 16 miles. Only. Of course, when you climb 5600 feet over those 16 miles - most of that was really in the middle four miles slogging up the tricky, rocky and very technical Wyeth Trail - it feels a lot longer. I knew it was going to be a nasty climb. I didn't realize it was going to be quite THAT nasty. I should have looked a little more closely at the topo map.

What to do when a run turns out to be a lot tougher than expected? Relax. Don't sweat your pace. Enjoy it. The weather was unbeatable - low 60s under a clear blue sky. I had a brand new Sony compact digital cam with me, so I took the opportunity to get some pretty fantastic pictures. The Gorge is a great place for photography, even if, like me, you're not a particularly good photographer. Just point it somewhere and shoot. You'll get a cool picture.

More pictures
https://plus.google.com/photos/108216029714705859702/albums/6123709451452847841

Also relatively new on this run - my shoes. My attempts to deal with my calf strain issues have led me back from a neutral shoe like the Inov-8 Trailroc to the Brooks Cascadia. I wore the Brooks on last week's long run in Forest Park, too, but the trails there are more forgiving. Less rocky. Less steep. Overall, I'd say I don't mind these shoes. They're heavier than my Trailrocs, but they were pretty comfortable and they dry out a lot faster - yes, I purposefully slipped... I mean, uh... stepped in a stream to find out! Footing was good with them and I didn't experience any ankle rolls, despite the Wyeth Trail's best efforts. I'm not sure if they're doing anything for my calves, but I don't supinate in them as much as in my neutral shoes.

I'm done with the crazy hill climbs for a while. My 50k race only has about 4000 feet of uphill. Over 32 miles, that's not bad at all. I'm going to stick closer to the Gorge 400 trail, which doesn't have the crazy climbs but provides some decent technical work and fantastic scenery. I'll still run up in Forest Park, of course, but there's no point in killing myself on hills at this point, especially with my calves being so delicate. Injuring myself before the race is not a good plan for successfully completing the race!

Training Crap

I realized this weekend that I had “completed” the first eight weeks of my 50k training and, well… It’s been pretty crappy. I haven’t been hitting my long runs, not even close. I was supposed to do a 22 miler this weekend and I struggled to make 15.

My training’s been pretty erratic, honestly. I was out of town on a work trip for a week and didn’t run at all. I spent a weekend in San Diego and didn’t run at all. One Saturday, it was raining so hard that the soul was sucked right out of me and I didn’t run at all. I know this is lame. No real athlete would make these excuses.

One thing that I have successfully done is go after some pretty monstrous elevation. I did some runs out in the Gorge that had me climbing 3000+ feet over about 10K. Hills like that are never gonna be easy, but I managed them fairly well, and they’re tougher than what I’ll face in my race – 4400 feet over 32 miles.

I also got some good – I mean RIDICULOUS - technical work in out there, so I’m feeling better about my ability to run on rocky, difficult terrain. I’m planning to continue doing at least one long run a month out there, although I’m probably going to scale back the ridiculous climbs a bit. No need to tear up my calves that much before the race.

I think my training mileage was simply too aggressive. If I were a more consistent runner, maybe it would work, but I’m not. I don’t want running to consume my entire life. I like to run, but I’m not THAT passionate about it. I’m not going to give up my lifting for it. I like doing both, even though they limit my ability to be top tier in either.

So… 12 weeks out from my race and I’m switching up my training plan. The long runs are shorter to start, and I’m only going to plan on one hilly run during the week. Three days a week I’ll run, two days a week I’ll cross train – weightlifting, some functional work and some metabolic conditioning – and I’ll have two days a week to recover and spend plenty of time on stretching, rolling and maintenance.

Wk	M	T	W	Th	F	S	Su
1 2/16	-	-	-	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 18 M	1-hour medium effort run
2 2/23	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 7 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 20 M	1-hour medium effort run
3 3/2	Rest	X-Train	60 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 16 M	1-hour medium effort run
4 3/9	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 8 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	SPRING FLING TRAIL : 13 M	1-hour medium effort run
5 3/16	Rest	X-Train	65 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 22 M	1-hour medium effort run
6 3/23	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 9 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 24 M	1-hour medium effort run
7 3/30	Rest	X-Train	70 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 16 M	1-hour medium effort run
8 4/6	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 10 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	LONG TRAIL RUN: 26 M	1-hour medium effort run
9 4/13	Rest	X-Train	70 min. hilly run	X-Train	Rest	Trail Half Marathon	1-hour medium effort run
10 4/20	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 8 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	30 minutes easy	Trail 10K
11 4/27	Rest	X-Train	Hill repeats: 5 x 600m	X-Train	Rest	Trail 5K	90-minute run
12 5/4	Rest	X-Train	1-hour easy	X-Train	Rest	50K RACE

The mileage in this plan isn’t monstrous, but I think that’s OK as long as I’m hitting my long runs and getting some good quality cross training in (I approached training for my two marathons last year like this, too). I seriously hope I can get this together. If I can at least be successful with my long runs for the next month, I’ll feel a lot better about this race. 

I Can Touch My Toes!

I turned 44 last month. It was no big deal. I’m used to being in my 40s. I like being in my 40s. I’m in better shape physically than I’ve ever been. It’s amazing what a motivator middle age has been for me to get off my ass and work on my fitness.

I’ve been working with a chiropractor for a couple months now and I’ve learned a lot about movement patterns. I’ve seen that I have muscle engagement issues. The first one the chiro helped me identify was my glutes. I wasn’t using them while running or walking. My legs were doing all the work. It seems we’re on our way to fixing that, though. I feel them when I’m running, now, and I think about them. It hasn’t become totally unconscious for me yet, but it gets closer every time.

Sort of related to that was that I always had issues touching my toes. I assumed this was due to inflexibility in the back of my legs. Actually, it just turned out that I wasn’t doing the movement correctly. I wasn’t swinging my hips and butt back, but was just reaching for my toes and stretching out my hammies. After some corrective exercises, I can now touch my toes easily. It was just a matter of learning to engage my hips and glutes in the movement.

Last night, we started looking at my balance problems. My chiro noticed that when I’m balancing on one leg, I don’t engage my big toes. The arches of my feet are doing a lot of work to compensate for this. He gave me an exercise to do, balancing on one leg while writing the alphabet with the other foot. The difference when I actually spread my toes and get that big toe engaged is phenomenal.  It’s amazing that such a simple adjustment could make such a huge difference.

I wish I had known some of this stuff years ago, at least before I started running. Better late than never, I guess. If it ends up keeping me more or less pain and injury free when I run long distances, I’ll be a happy camper.