August 24, 2012

Leadville 100; I believe in you

Me and Jerry as we leave Twin Lakes (mile 60) and head towards Fish Hatchery.

It’s been a week since I paced Jerry Armstrong at the Leadville 100.  Some details are fading from memory but others are sharp.

Saturday afternoon, before he came through the Twin Lakes Aid Station where I would relieve Mark of pacing duties until Fish Hatchery (around mile 76) I relaxed for a few minutes and made a phone call.  The person on the other end is not familiar with Ultra running except what she’s heard me discuss.  As I sat in the back of my Durango, stretched out with the tailgate open to catch the slight breeze, I talked about the people at Leadville.

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Filed Under: Racing, Summer 2012, Trails Tagged: , , , , ,
August 4, 2012

Fall Training Begins

It’s barely August but today feels like Fall.  59 degrees and a cozy layer of clouds hint at days to come.  Tomorrow’s high of 96 will be harsh, but today is a love note from the Universe.

Summer is a time to get away from any routine or structure.  With kids home from school I don’t get out to run as frequently in the mornings.  I miss lots of Saturday Morning runs with the girls due to camping and family obligations.  It’s hard to reflect and write.

Summer is a season of “doing”.  I never get as much sleep in the summer due to the late sunset and early sunrise (I have to really work to ignore the Circadian rhythm).  There are 500 different things to do during the summer and for the life of me, I can’t get them all done.  It’s a time of Doing with very little time to reflect.

As much as I love the action of the season, I always look forward to Fall.

I love the cooler temperatures and not drowning in my own sweat.

I love the fall colors of the mountain.

I love the cloud coverage and the mist that sits in the forest on certain morning.

I love waking up at a 5:30 or 6am when it’s still dark.

I love seeing the sun crest the horizon halfway through my run rather than chasing it down when I’m still sleep-deprived from the previous night.

Fall is a “let’s get moving” time of year, where kids go back to school, there’s a new spurt of energy and we ease into routine once again.

My twitter feed is getting noisy with people talking about fall marathons and trail races.  Friday night discussions about Long Slow Runs are popping up again, as well as pictures of sore ankles, lost toenails and the like.

My calendar has several races already on it for the fall and today’s cool weather is a good reminder that it’s time to get serious about training again.

I ran Bobolink yesterday and managed some Marathon (and Half Marathon) paced miles in addition to the warm-up and “get the blood moving” miles.  The faster miles revealed tight muscles that need to be attended to before I ramp up again.

After the run I stretched hamstrings and adductors, and while sitting on the couch last night I massaged the leg and slathered tiger balm all over.  Today it’s a little sore from the deep tissue kneading.  I won’t run today but will hit a trail tomorrow morning.

“Ramping up” will consist of every-other-day running for at least two more weeks.  In the past I’ve run whenever it felt good and got injured because I pushed too hard or fast.  This fall I want to be smart about the running; come January when Boston Marathon training begins I want to be completely healthy and strong.

In two weeks I’ll be in Leadville pacing a runner.  He’s attempting to run 100 miles in 24 hours and while I could pace him 16 miles tomorrow, I’d like a better base before I run around the mountain at 10,000 feet for a few hours.

My self-treatment regimen consists of stretching, self-massage, yoga, tiger balm, arnica and castor oil wraps.  After torturing myself with Pigeon Pose and whatever else I can think of, I’ll put a castor oil wrap on the leg to draw out any inflammation and encourage blood flow to the muscles and tendons.

Tomorrow I’ll hit the trail and will spend a few hours on the mountain as an ultra runner, paying close attention to heart rate, tempo and terrain.

 

Filed Under: Summer 2012 Tagged: , , , , , ,
July 7, 2012

WET

WATER was the element of choice for the world today.

Wet on the mountain and Wet on me and in me and beneath me and the birds and hummingbirds were in the greenest pocket of the valley you would ever find in a drought-stricken mountain.

Water stuck on everything and every pine needle had a shimmering crystal attached to it.  Sunlight made them look like prisms. The wispy clouds stuck to the rock faces and never moved; water in the sky, on the mountain, on the foliage, dripping sweat from my pores, water bursting out of my skin evaporating in the air, water coming out of the crevices in the rocks and flooding in rivers down the trail, water clinging to all the leaves that smacked my legs as I ran on the single track.

The mountain drank the water in large buckets and bathed in the beauty of droplets and made garlands out of them for decoration.  I gave the mountain sweat and didn’t take anything except images that got burned into my brain.

After an hour of running my heart rate was high again. I was at a fork and didn’t know which way to go because I had fallen too far behind the group so I just stood there not caring which way because eventually either way would dump me out again on the Mesa Trail.  I just didn’t know which way they went.  So I stood there and watched.  Birds.  Butterflies.  Hummingbirds.  Clouds.  The different greens of the trees and bushes.  The changing sunlight.  I just watched.

Then I went down Towhee and missed the turn and ended up on the Homestead Trail and was running down the trail, jumping over rocks, placing feet and jumping and dancing and sailing but not as fast as usual because I didn’t have the energy.  Didn’t have it in me.  So went slower and just breathed in the moist air and felt each foot land on dirt or rock, exactly where I told it to go and suddenly I was free and it was good.  I was free.

Then there was a sign that said Trail Closed for Restoration and I slowed down and stopped and realized that I couldn’t go further so I had to go back.  Had to go back up the hill.  I walked.

The Garmin made a ton of noise today.  I wore the HR strap and apparently my little watch thinks my HR got up to 190, almost 200, several times.  I ignored the beeping for a while because I always run these trail.  RUN the trails.  Not hike them.  And I’ve never worn a HR monitor on them and have never passed out and can fly up AND down.  But then the beeping got too much and I looked at the Garmin and realized I couldn’t breathe really well so I slowed down and that’s why I ended up taking the short cut.  Because I knew I didn’t have it in me to catch them today.  Couldn’t catch them.  Not today.

I’m going to keep trying to run, keep trying to get the goo out of my lungs and stop coughing all the way and get my heart rate back down to normal and get my flying speed back.  If I can’t… I might not race the 50M.  I have to have the energy for it and today I went 6 miles.  Six lousy miles.  Yeah I know the elevation gain was about 2000′.  And I know this was one of the hardest routes we could have done.  But still.  The choice might end up being DO IT and just see what happens… or drop out before I even begin.

You know what I’m going to do, don’t you.

Filed Under: Sick or Injured, Summer 2012, Trails, Training Tagged: , ,
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