weeds

I got $35 for the weed work next door.  Not bad.  She may turn into a regular client.  At $50 a pop for the lawn, I might be able to quit my day job... or make it part of my day job at least.

50 bucks to mow the lawn

I got 50 bucks to mow the neighbors lawn today.  I left it up to her what she would pay me and she talked herself right into 50 bucks.  I thought "we do need groceries."  I'm going to spray her yard for weeds too.  We haven't talked price on that one yet.  It seems like that's a little bit more specialized than mowing though... We'll see.

So, I got done mowing and my legs felt pretty good.  I changed into my running shorts and headed off through the park reserve.  Running a traditional route for most of the way, I was cut off by really high water.  With all the rain we have had, there are spots that are impassible unless you want  to get your feet real wet.  I didn't feel like it today so I found an alternate route.  Quads are still fried but I must learn to run on tired legs.  Also, apparently I need to use vaseline even on 45 minute runs when it is this humid outside.  Actually drew blood.  Outch!!!

I need a day off.  Maybe a few.  I'll keep updated.

tired legs

Yesterday I ran 13 minutes.  I had the idea to run on tired legs for an hour or so since that's what I'll need to do to prepare for a 50 miler.  I got about 8 minutes from home, heard a clap of thunder and immediately turned right around.  The plan wasn't to get any speed work in but that changed when the drops kept getting bigger.  Still the ultra shuffle, just a bit quicker pace. 

Superior 50k

 

Well, I finished running the Superior 50 trail race for the second year in a row just a couple of days ago.  My quads have never been so fried in all my life.  I guess there is a reason why not everyone attacks downhills with reckless abandon.  At one point I had to stand still and down a hammer gel just to get my legs moving again.  A bit like the tin man in "The Wizard of Oz" I suppose.  I'm sure I looked like him for the last 10 miles or so.  Here is the weekend story:

My journey to and through the woods in 5:35

I worked Friday morning; trained a client, did some learning, and out the door by 10:30.  Next it was on to home where I packed the remaining of my things into my large army green rucksack, ate lunch (and fed the two bigs), said my goodbyes and hit the road for Lutsen.  I had been signed up for this race for a couple months.  Did Trail Mix 50k 5 weeks ago and finished that in 5:46 and some change.  I felt pretty good after that race though and knew I could push harder at Superior.  My plan was to drive to Lutsen, get a good nights rest, attack uphill, coast at the top, and recover on the down.  Some of that happened, the unexpected "legs can't move, no literally, can't move" wasn't. 

Back to the story.  I headed up 35 on my way to Lutsen.  I packed all of the food I would need for the entire trip in my little playmate elite cooler aside from the meal I would have that night which turned out to be stuffed pork and mashed potatoes.  It was good, but I'm not there yet.  Drinking water the whole way up beyond Duluth onto the 61 expressway, I didn't need to stop until I reached Two Harbors.  There's a little Holiday station on the lake side.  That was the only stop I would need to make on the trip to the lodge.  I did stop at the Holiday in Tofte so I wouldn't need to on the way out as well.  Being anxious to get to Caribou Highlands; where I would spend the night, and where the race would leave from the next morning, I wanted to drive on through as much as possible. 

I ended up arriving at the lodge about 6:00, checked in to my room, checked in to the race (got my number and such), checked out a movie for my viewing pleasure (Daddy Day Camp- if you must know), walked down the steps to order my runners special ( I actually ended up getting stuffed pork and mashed potatoes-the waitress was good at upselling).  I was a little nervous about how that particular meal would sit the next day on the trail so I left some of the stuffing for the dishwashers to clean off of my plate.  It was delicious though, the bread and chicken soup also.  It was all good.  After dinner it was off to the pre race briefing.  The atmosphere around a trail race is somewhat loose and a little bit crazy.  A bunch of people who pay money to be a part of something that will challenge them in every way, each with their own reasons for attempting to conquer the mind body connection.  And these trails are not your average trails either.  Rocks, roots (which give me the most problem), mud, downed trees, just plain old trees, and the hills (we'll get into that a bit later).  Back to the pre race briefing, there was a comment made about hearing the horror stories of the course conditions and being super excited to take on whatever this course had to offer.  That's about right.  Bring it on!!!

After the pre race briefing it was off to my room to set up for the early start and pop in "Daddy Day Camp".  I found a bit of inspiration in that movie in that Cuba has an idea, a mission, a vision, and attacks it head on no matter how bleak it may seem, he keeps charging and with values that make me proud, overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles by the "bad" camp.  Again, back to the story, it was 8:30 and I was ready to get some sleep.  After all, I was up before 5 that morning.

Time to run

I had set a wake up call for 530 am and they weren't kidding with the "wake up".  That is the loudest phone I have ever heard in my life.  It needed to be because I was sleeping like a baby.  I set the alarm on the alarm clock too but it didn't go off at all.  In any case, I was awake and ready to take on the hills and downed trees.  I brewed a pot of weak coffee, mixed a water bottle full of EFS to drink before the race started, had 3 packs of instant oatmeal that I had brought from home (along with a couple of bananas), headed to check in by 6am when the check in began, and headed back to my room to get ready for the run. 

My plan was run the uphills, cruise the flats, and recover on the downs.  Apparently I had forgotten what some of the uphill looked, and felt like.  There are 5 uphills that I am just not good enough to run yet, and by the end of the race there were a whole heck of a lot more than that.  It is tough to train for hills like that at Elm Creek Park Reserve, where I do most of my training aside from some hill repeats.  I'll need to map out some better runs to prepare me for the hills that I'll face at Superior and I'm sure other ultras as well.  I had done some hill training in the weeks leading up to Superior and I'm sure that helped a lot primarily with the recovery part on the flats.  So I got ready and spent the minutes before the race in my room waiting, rolling, praying about the day ahead, and going over my pre race strategy in my head.  I knew there would be times where I felt like quitting and just giving up, but I also knew that I was stronger than that, that I needed to find sources of strength to get me through some of those times.  I would draw on my family, my faith, and examples of perseverance from my career as a personal trainer.

Well, I got to the start line, started about mid pack and got the go signal.  This is the part of the race when everyone is together and you get to sort of feel everyone out and you'll settle in with the 5 or 6 people to head out onto the single track with.  My pace was much faster than I had anticipated, but my plan had sort of changed at the line.  Probably not the greatest strategy, but in any case that's what happened.  I figured I would be tired by mile 20 weather I took off fast or slow and I would need strength outside of myself by that point regardless of what my pace was for the first 18-20 miles.  The only difference between going fast or slow out of the gate was how quickly I got to that point.  I decided it was better to get there sooner than later.  Between mile 17 and 18 is where I really began to feel the effects of what I was doing to my body.  Around mile 3 or 4 I started to feel my quads getting a little bit tired.  I was recovering on the way down like I had planned ( for some reason I felt that since I could feel my quads now, I was bracing too much on the way down the hill); when I felt my quads start tingling I made the decision to use gravity on the downs and let it all go.  The key to downhill on these trails is quick feet, good eyes, and a good kick behind you.  If you don't make the lever short on the way back out front, you'll catch whatever it is you are hurdling and down you will go with a face plant into whatever rock is in front of you at the moment.  Not a good place to be.  So my brilliant recover on the down plan was out the window and instead I was working to make up ground as I shredded my quads with a series of eccentric contractions (negative) repetitions.  Ouch!!!  This would prove to be a decision that would leave me feeling like that tin man I mentioned earlier. 

The good news is that up until mile 16 I had only run 2 miles slower than 11 minutes.  Mile 4 (mystery) and mile 14 (carlton).  That's when I began to slow down though.  I had used up the glycogen and was no longer ahead of the fatigue.  My quads were shot and I still had 14 miles to go.  The section after the Sawbill aid is rolling and relatively flat in comparison to the other two sections of the course, so I said to myself as I headed out of that Sawbill aid to make up as much ground as I could because I knew I would be walking quite a bit on the Oberg section to finish the race.  Miles 16 through 21 I was running steady high 11 minute miles ( a little bit slower than I would have liked) but with the condition of my quads is particular any jog was my goal at this point.  I still had a long ways to go and the step hill in the Oberg section was a killer.  It seemed to never end, with each new turn in the path was more hill and more steps.  There were a few breaks on that hill just to catch my breath and fuel.  I probably went through 2 hammer gels just on that hill alone.  Once reaching the top of the steps came the tin man legs.  There was a group behind me of 3 runners that I needed to let pass because my legs stiffened up like boards.  I needed about 5 minutes and a full gel (oil) just to get them working again.

Once at the top of this 4th big hill of the race, I knew I needed to keep moving.  If I stopped and walked, I would walk all the way in and the pain would continue to worsen and slow me down even more.  I needed to get off this course as soon as possible and dig for whatever I could to get me there.  I thought of family and my son Caden saying "whatever you do, do your best".  I knew that my best was to keep moving and to fight through the obstruction that my legs didn't want to move.  I thought about clients who have experienced hardship that I hope I'll never have to endure.  I thought of personal conquer in beating what had beaten me last year.  About mile 24 is where I walked it in last year and finished in 6:12.  Not this time, not this year; these hills and rocks, and roots, and beaten down legs weren't going to beat me this time.  And I feel they didn't.  I was much slower in between miles 24 and 28 but I was jogging and gaining and my spirits were high and I knew that I was doing my best.  On the switchbacks up the final hill I was passed by a kid who was running his first ultra.  He kept me going.  He also taught me along with a number of other fast hill walkers, that I need to practice walking up hills quickly so I don't get passed like that with just a couple miles to go. 

I tried to catch him all the way down the hill but didn't see him again until he was filling his paper cup with 1919 root beer with a bowl of awesome chili in his hand.  Once reaching the top of that final hill, hearing the Poplar river is a welcomed sound as that signals you are just about "out of the woods"!!  You cross the bridge, cruise up the hill to the road, and it's pavement for the last half mile or so.  What a great feeling to look down at my watch and see 5:35.  Even greater knowing that I pushed through so many opportunities to stop, slow down, give up, quit and I pushed through every one of them and did my best to finish the race that I started.  Ultra marathoning is a metaphor for life.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going.  True character is not revealed when it's easy, but when times are tough is when true character shines through.  That is something I need to keep at the front of my mind as I try and juggle my life at it's so far craziest.  Be the rock in the house.  Keep my foundation firmly Jesus and build upon his rock that he promises will stand forever and be there in times of good and bad.  I feel that I ran a good race; really breaking it down into 3 sections; fast, getting tired, and fighting hard.  I averaged about a 10 minute mile from 1-15, then went to closer to 11:30 minute pace until mile 21, where I settled in at around 15 minute pace to top of hill 5 ( where the pace hastened on the way down the hill to the finish).  The drive home was good with frequent bathroom stops ( a good sign).  That means insides are working and it is also an opportunity to stretch the legs a bit.  Now, two days after the race, I haven't been this sore in a long time, maybe ever.  No chaff, which is nice, feet are in good shape, muscles are absolutely shot!!  Quads, calves, traps, hams, core.  What a great feeling to know that you spent everything out on the course and really did your best out there.  I'll look forward to running my first 50 miler this fall and next summer hope to complete my first 100 mile race.  Understanding that's a whole new level of precision. 

My Training "b" log

Welcome to my training blog.  Here I'll post some of the things I have been doing for training.  I've got 5 races scheduled for this summer and fall.  Finding time will definately be a challenge, but it is for everyone, a challenge to make time for exercise.  Thanks for visiting!