wow...that's all I can say about that one....this was definitely the hardest 50k I have run....up until this point Swampstomper back in January was the toughest because of how it was just a mud slog but the heat beats out the mud and even elevation gain in races like Stumpjump and Sylamore all day....
The race started great...it was relatively cool for the first lap and I took out with the lead group finishing the first lap in 1:06...I was feeling really good though I wasn't really feeling my premixed drink in my bottle....
I rolled through the aid station at the start\finish without stopping and tossed off one of my bottles as I still had one premixed one....second lap felt pretty good but by the time I got to the 4 mile aid station I was really glad to toss out my Hammer for some gatorade.....finished the second lap pretty strong...my total time was about 2:23 at that point....
From here my race went downhill....I took down some gel and refilled my water bottle at the beginning of lap 3 and about a mile into the lap the gel was not sitting well and I had almost completely drained my water...my pace slowed drastically and I was just hoping to come upon the 4 mile aid station soon I as I was really desperate for water...finally made it to teh 4 mile aid station, slammed a bottle or two of water and then got back on my way....now I was really starting to feel the heat...my pace dropped from running pretty quick miles to barely pushing out a pace that can be defnied as running...I even walked some of it.....felt like the lap was never going to end but finally I came up Mt. Bartlett and knew the end of the lap was in sight...
I was pretty sure I was going to have to sit down and take a break at the start finish line because I was hurting pretty bad....I sat down, ate a gel or so, slammed a few bottles of water and that's when I heard that the two of the 4 or 5 people in front of me had dropped from the race....that gave me a bit of a mental boost so I got back on the course as fast as I could...I think I actually hurt myself when I did this because I was pretty excited and I took out for the first mile at a really fast pace...by the 1 mile marker I was completely out of water....I was able to semi run to about 2 miles and that's when I really fell off...mile 26-28 was perhaps the hardest two mile section I have ever gone through....and I can't say run through cause I surely didn't run it....can't even say I power walked...I literally stumbled....I was extremely light headed and desperate for water at that point and I was having to take a break ever few hundred yards to sit down for a minute or so and get a grip on things....at this point in the race I didn't think I was going to be able to finish.....about a .25 mile or so out from the 4 mile aid station I took a seat right as a gentleman by the name of Darryl Green was coming up on me...i asked him if he had any extra water and he poured some of his camelbak into my bottle, saving me.....he also walked the rest of the way to the aid station with me just to make sure I made it....it's things like these that make trail ultras awesome!......
I got to the aid station at 4 miles and sat down for about 10 minutes...at this point finishing time had gone out the window and I was more concerned with simply being able to finish....I wasn't really wanted to drink any gatorade or take any gels at this point so I knew I needed some calories somehow....in the past I have always avoided this during races but for some reason Coke was sounding really good....I slammed 3 or 4 cups of it and within two minutes I was a completely new person....I was able to actually run the next 2 miles to get back to the aid station at mile 6 where I slammed 3 or 4 more cups of Coke....the last 2 miles I ran at a good pace and even felt like if I had to I could have kept going a little bit....so basically, Coke saved my day...without it, I don't know that I would ever have finished....
ended up finishing in 6:25...definitely not my best time and not near my goal time by any means...but I will take it, as it was a huge relief just to finish this one.....but I don't feel too bad as a guy in the lead pack I was running with has a sub 4 hour 50k PR and he finished over 5....
I am looking forward to the fall!!!...I can't deal with running long in these temps...it just totally drains your body....plan for this week is recovery for a day or two then getting back in it as Stumpjump is just under 2 months out.....
share the road and happy running...
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
week in review
Been kinda lazy the last week or so when it came to updating the running journal and blog....finished last week decent, struggled to pull out a decent long run at the Farms two Saturdays ago...
Monday I rocked out 10 from the house keeping a solid pace the whole time....Tuesday I rode to my work meeting at the warehouse and then rode 2 loops of the Tour de Wolf on my cyclocross bike (basically a beefed up road bike with slightly knobby tires)....
Wednesday I went on my 10 miles route from the house but I did sets of intervals along the way...I warmed up for two miles then put the hammer down for five minutes at near all out intensity followed by recovery for 3 minutes....I did four repeats of this and was pretty beat by the end but ended up with a pretty strong time for the total ten miles even though I was beat for the last two miles from my intervals...
Thursday, I went out for a semi-long run....hitting just over 16 for the day but keeping a good pace....hit 16 right at 2:20 which would put me at a 4:40 50k in a perfect world....but I have found that my splits usually aren't even at 50k distance...though they are getting closer (at Sylamore I was 8 minutes off a perfect split)....I'm pretty pumped for Saturday at Stanky and as of right now my goal for myself is to break 5 hours....
For Stanky, I think I'm going to start with 2 fastdraws each loaded with 200 calories worth of Gu2O and 2 hammer Endurolytes dumped in each one....that will be two hours worth of fuel so I won't have to stop for at least the first two hours...after that the plan is to ditch one of the bottles and use gel and water for the rest of the race....
Today, went out and ran 7.75 at Shelby Farms with Lauren....plan for the rest of the week is to ride tomorrow after work, run in the 6-8 range on Wednesday, and then do a really light 3 miles Friday just enough to keep the legs fresh....
other than that, all is well, tax free weekend was crazy busy as I expected...looking forward to starting school soon...and I got a new cookbook that I'm really pumped about...its called "The Passionate Vegetarian" and it has nearly 1000 recipes.....all I need now is the time to prepare my feast....
happy running and share the road!
Monday I rocked out 10 from the house keeping a solid pace the whole time....Tuesday I rode to my work meeting at the warehouse and then rode 2 loops of the Tour de Wolf on my cyclocross bike (basically a beefed up road bike with slightly knobby tires)....
Wednesday I went on my 10 miles route from the house but I did sets of intervals along the way...I warmed up for two miles then put the hammer down for five minutes at near all out intensity followed by recovery for 3 minutes....I did four repeats of this and was pretty beat by the end but ended up with a pretty strong time for the total ten miles even though I was beat for the last two miles from my intervals...
Thursday, I went out for a semi-long run....hitting just over 16 for the day but keeping a good pace....hit 16 right at 2:20 which would put me at a 4:40 50k in a perfect world....but I have found that my splits usually aren't even at 50k distance...though they are getting closer (at Sylamore I was 8 minutes off a perfect split)....I'm pretty pumped for Saturday at Stanky and as of right now my goal for myself is to break 5 hours....
For Stanky, I think I'm going to start with 2 fastdraws each loaded with 200 calories worth of Gu2O and 2 hammer Endurolytes dumped in each one....that will be two hours worth of fuel so I won't have to stop for at least the first two hours...after that the plan is to ditch one of the bottles and use gel and water for the rest of the race....
Today, went out and ran 7.75 at Shelby Farms with Lauren....plan for the rest of the week is to ride tomorrow after work, run in the 6-8 range on Wednesday, and then do a really light 3 miles Friday just enough to keep the legs fresh....
other than that, all is well, tax free weekend was crazy busy as I expected...looking forward to starting school soon...and I got a new cookbook that I'm really pumped about...its called "The Passionate Vegetarian" and it has nearly 1000 recipes.....all I need now is the time to prepare my feast....
happy running and share the road!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Lakeland trails....
This week has been going pretty well..looks like I'm on target to hit my 40 mile mark if I knock out a 20 at Shelby Farms tomorrow....
Monday I ran a loop of the Tour De Wolf before heading to work....took Tuesday off except for my 15 mile fixed gear ride...Wednesday I knocked out just over 9 in good time at Shelby Farms....Thursday no run....
This weekend Lauren and I are house sitting (our second jobs, we are really good and have quite a client base) in Arlington just down the road from the Lakeland trails...I have never run out there before, only ridden but I figured since I was in the neighborhood I would give it a shot....
I ran for right at an hour, going just over 5 miles though I'm not exactly 100 percent sure how much further than 5 cause my Garmin was cutting in and out the whole time....I have to say, those trails rock for running...they are great hill training and the way the trail flows you can almost do an interval type run by busting it up the hills and catching your breath on the way down....I definitely want to start getting out there more often as I'm sure it would benefit me for Stumpjump....
I have really been concentrating on picking up the pace in my runs the last two weeks....I used to kind of cruise through my shorter distance runs but now I'm really pushing through them...I need to get back in the habit of wearing my heart rate monitor...I have been judging my intensity by my breathing but I need to be a bit more precise so I can see where I need to improve.....
other than that things are rolling along..school starts in a few weeks and I'm really excited about that...still stayin on the bike too...out cruising the town today and it looks like I'll prob end up around 35 for the day....
anyways, happy running and share the road....
Monday I ran a loop of the Tour De Wolf before heading to work....took Tuesday off except for my 15 mile fixed gear ride...Wednesday I knocked out just over 9 in good time at Shelby Farms....Thursday no run....
This weekend Lauren and I are house sitting (our second jobs, we are really good and have quite a client base) in Arlington just down the road from the Lakeland trails...I have never run out there before, only ridden but I figured since I was in the neighborhood I would give it a shot....
I ran for right at an hour, going just over 5 miles though I'm not exactly 100 percent sure how much further than 5 cause my Garmin was cutting in and out the whole time....I have to say, those trails rock for running...they are great hill training and the way the trail flows you can almost do an interval type run by busting it up the hills and catching your breath on the way down....I definitely want to start getting out there more often as I'm sure it would benefit me for Stumpjump....
I have really been concentrating on picking up the pace in my runs the last two weeks....I used to kind of cruise through my shorter distance runs but now I'm really pushing through them...I need to get back in the habit of wearing my heart rate monitor...I have been judging my intensity by my breathing but I need to be a bit more precise so I can see where I need to improve.....
other than that things are rolling along..school starts in a few weeks and I'm really excited about that...still stayin on the bike too...out cruising the town today and it looks like I'll prob end up around 35 for the day....
anyways, happy running and share the road....
Monday, July 23, 2007
feelin good....
Finished last week with just over 32.6 miles...pretty much felt good all week when it came to running...
Lauren and I went out and did a really lame photo shoot for Health and Fitness as they are doing an article on trail running, though I kind of wonder where the article will go after some of my interview questions...I decided I'm gonna buck up and go ahead and do the 50k at Bartlett Park....if anything it will be a good opportunity to get in a long run with an aid station every few miles and some good company....
plan to bump this week up to about 40 miles...last Saturday I ran 15 at Shelby Farms (oh yeah, the temperature this past weekend was amazing early in the morning!) and I'm planning to go 20-22 or so this weekend....
on another note, I recently acquired a new commuter bike...I picked up an early 80's Bianchi frame from a customer at the Union store and turned it in to a fixed gear, which means there is no such thing as coasting on it, if the rear wheel is moving, so are the pedals....I put a rack on it today and it is ready to rock....
until next time....happy running and share the road
Lauren and I went out and did a really lame photo shoot for Health and Fitness as they are doing an article on trail running, though I kind of wonder where the article will go after some of my interview questions...I decided I'm gonna buck up and go ahead and do the 50k at Bartlett Park....if anything it will be a good opportunity to get in a long run with an aid station every few miles and some good company....
plan to bump this week up to about 40 miles...last Saturday I ran 15 at Shelby Farms (oh yeah, the temperature this past weekend was amazing early in the morning!) and I'm planning to go 20-22 or so this weekend....
on another note, I recently acquired a new commuter bike...I picked up an early 80's Bianchi frame from a customer at the Union store and turned it in to a fixed gear, which means there is no such thing as coasting on it, if the rear wheel is moving, so are the pedals....I put a rack on it today and it is ready to rock....
until next time....happy running and share the road
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Back on my feet again...
After taking Monday of last week off to recover from Iron Butt, Lauren and I headed over to Little Rock early Tuesday morning for the Widespread Panic show Tuesday night...whenever we travel these days we generally always try and find somewhere in the area to do something active so we decided to go to Pinnacle Mountain State Park for a trail run and a scramble up Pinnacle....
It's kind of funny how things have changed in the last 3 years....I spent a good 3-4 years of my life with chasing Panic shows all over the South and even out West before I got into a healthier outdoor lifestyle and now, even though I still love going to Panic shows, I just don't have the desire to devote all my vacation time\funds to following a band....I guess I kind of outgrew that stage of my life...now I pretty much limit my shows to a few times a year when they are reasonably close and my ongoing New Years Eve show tradition in Atlanta...and when I do go to shows, rather than spend my time hanging out in the lot, I prefer to actually experience what the area I am in has to offer......
so anyways, back to Little Rock...the entire ride over I spent driving under the speed limit with my hands at 10 and 2 as it was storming like crazy....my plan was for us to run part of the Ouachita Trail that I ran back in April, hit Pinnacle Mtn., then run back around the side of the mountain.....From the get go it rained on us but it was so hot and humid that it actually felt really good....we hit the trail (or scrambling path) up to teh Pinnacle summit and it was a lot tougher than I remember it being during the race...the rocks were extremely slick from the rain and you had to use your hands and feet for almost every step....
we arrived at the top, took a few photos, popped some gu, and got back on it...I was hoping to descend a bit faster but the backside of the mountain was really slick as well even though the footing is much better than the side we came up....came back on a pretty cool trail that went around the side of the mountain and put us out back near the car....total on the day was only 5 miles but it took us exactly 2 hours as the climb up and down Pinnacle slowed us down quite a bit....
The show rocked out on Tuesday night and we were planning on running in Little Rock Wednesday but ended up just heading back to Memphis early....
Thursday I ran 5 from the house down the Wolf River Trails, wasn't the best feeling run ever but wasn't the worst....Friday I worked at the Union Ave. store so I rode my bike there and home which turned out to be a pretty good 30 mile round trip workout...I did a fartlek style interval session on the way home.....
Saturday I woke up early and met up with my usual running crew for the Saturday long run...I was only planning on going two loops on the Tour De Wolf...the first loop was great, felt strong, no pains at all, the second loop started out well then I started fading about halfway....not a total fade out but just a gradual slowing of the pace as I was really feeling not having run long in nearly three weeks....I was a bit sore the rest of the day Saturday and even some today....usually running 12.5 doesn't make me sore but I guess just from taking off for a bit my body is getting used to it again....
Finished the first week back after a two week hiatus with 22.5 miles...hoping to bump it up this week to the mid 30s....
until next time....
It's kind of funny how things have changed in the last 3 years....I spent a good 3-4 years of my life with chasing Panic shows all over the South and even out West before I got into a healthier outdoor lifestyle and now, even though I still love going to Panic shows, I just don't have the desire to devote all my vacation time\funds to following a band....I guess I kind of outgrew that stage of my life...now I pretty much limit my shows to a few times a year when they are reasonably close and my ongoing New Years Eve show tradition in Atlanta...and when I do go to shows, rather than spend my time hanging out in the lot, I prefer to actually experience what the area I am in has to offer......
so anyways, back to Little Rock...the entire ride over I spent driving under the speed limit with my hands at 10 and 2 as it was storming like crazy....my plan was for us to run part of the Ouachita Trail that I ran back in April, hit Pinnacle Mtn., then run back around the side of the mountain.....From the get go it rained on us but it was so hot and humid that it actually felt really good....we hit the trail (or scrambling path) up to teh Pinnacle summit and it was a lot tougher than I remember it being during the race...the rocks were extremely slick from the rain and you had to use your hands and feet for almost every step....
we arrived at the top, took a few photos, popped some gu, and got back on it...I was hoping to descend a bit faster but the backside of the mountain was really slick as well even though the footing is much better than the side we came up....came back on a pretty cool trail that went around the side of the mountain and put us out back near the car....total on the day was only 5 miles but it took us exactly 2 hours as the climb up and down Pinnacle slowed us down quite a bit....
The show rocked out on Tuesday night and we were planning on running in Little Rock Wednesday but ended up just heading back to Memphis early....
Thursday I ran 5 from the house down the Wolf River Trails, wasn't the best feeling run ever but wasn't the worst....Friday I worked at the Union Ave. store so I rode my bike there and home which turned out to be a pretty good 30 mile round trip workout...I did a fartlek style interval session on the way home.....
Saturday I woke up early and met up with my usual running crew for the Saturday long run...I was only planning on going two loops on the Tour De Wolf...the first loop was great, felt strong, no pains at all, the second loop started out well then I started fading about halfway....not a total fade out but just a gradual slowing of the pace as I was really feeling not having run long in nearly three weeks....I was a bit sore the rest of the day Saturday and even some today....usually running 12.5 doesn't make me sore but I guess just from taking off for a bit my body is getting used to it again....
Finished the first week back after a two week hiatus with 22.5 miles...hoping to bump it up this week to the mid 30s....
until next time....
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Iron Butt 07'
Yesterday I participated in an annual Memphis event called "Iron Butt"....basically, Iron Butt was an idea contrived by a few Memphis mountain bikers some years back to ride every trail (some rideable, some hike-a-bike style) in the metro area in one day....
I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty pumped up about doing the ride...as I have mentioned, if I am not pumped about a long distance event, be it running or cycling, it is hard for me to get in the groove...I spent Friday evening getting my borrowed mountain bike in working order (as my mountain bike is in pieces right now) for the day's ride....
The ride started at a guy's house in Arlington with 23 riders eager to hit the trails for a long day out....We took out from Arlington at 7:40am and rode about 6-7 miles to Stanky Creek where we took off for a lap around all the loops of the Stank....I guess it rained some at Stanky on Friday because those roots were the slickest I have ever seen them....I was still trying to get used to the borrowed ride and I was sliding all over the place....I rode my lap at Stanky at an easy pace with fellow trail runner Wade (who is racing next weekend in Bozeman, MT at the Devil's Backbone 50 miler) who had come out for the first part of Iron Butt...
From Stanky, we rode out to Jackson Avenue where we slogged through the mud with beer drinking rednecks on 4 wheelers....This is the first time I had been on this part of the trail since the death run in April and I have to say it was much nicer yesterday than in April as it was much drier and easier to find routes around the monstrous 4x4 mud holes....
When we got to Walnut Grove we hit the gravel road over to the Shelby Farms visitor center where we hosed off the bikes, lubed chains, and took a loop of the Tour de Wolf....From the Tour we hit the gravel road over to the Wolf River Trails where we took the blue\white trail to G'town Parkway....
From there we hit Gray's Creek trail all the way to Gray's Creek...this part of the trail was pretty overgrown with lots of stickers and log crossings that required dismounting....I have run all the way to Gray's Creek but I have never gone across it so I was curious as to how that was going to happen....the creek was fairly deep but there was a perfectly positioned log wide enough for us to walk across while shouldering our bikes...After crossing Gray's the bank is a very steep, use both hands to grab and pull up style bank.....we had to do a little bike hand off action to get the bikes up the bank....
The other side of Gray's Creek trail was hardly a trail at all...pretty much a hike-a-bike section that dumped into a power line road which dumped us into Houston Levee Road near Collierville.....From here we rode a ways on the road out to Fisherville to our lunch stop at Herb Parson's Park....took a much deserved lunch break at Herb's before taking off on a lap around the lake....by this time I was beginning to hurt pretty good....I felt good as far as my legs and cardio goes but my contact points (hands, butt, feet) were all aching pretty bad....
After Herb, we rode a 16 mile road section which was a great relief to the Lakeland trails....I have never ridden Lakeland before and I gotta say that trail kicked my ass after 80 miles of riding...I was in the lowest possible gear pretty much the whole way, occasionally even having to dismount and hike....from Lakeland took what was supposed to be a short 2.5 mile road ride back to our starting point but a wrong turn took a few of us a few miles out of the way, tacking on a few extra miles for the day....
Finally ended up back in Arlington for pasta, bread, and Fat Tire Ale.....ended up riding about 90 miles on the day....the second most I have ever ridden and by far the longest I have ever ridden on a mountain bike....I wasn't too terribly sore muscle wise yesterday but today I am definitely feeling it in my legs and my lower back as well as all my contact points....
I'm gonna take a few days off the bike but this week starts my return to running to it will all work out well....Tuesday Lauren and I are headed to Little Rock for the Widespread Panic concert but we are going to go early and run some of the Pinnacle Mountain Trail that kicked my ass in the Ouachita 50 miler....until next time...happy running and share the road
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Cruisin on up...
It has been a relatively uneventful week thus far, Monday I rode to and from work for a grand total of 6 miles on the day...Tuesday I rode to my work meeting out at summer and highland and caught a ride back to the store for 12 miles and worked all day before Lauren came by and picked me up to go to the Firecracker 5k....
I wasn't actually racing the 5k, as I'm sticking to my plan to staying away from running right now but I enjoyed socializing with lots of familiar faces and of course the Tyrone Smith Review getting down at the after party...usually when I go out to watch races I end up thinking to myself "man, why didn't I race" or "I could beat this or that time" but I honestly had no bad feelings about skipping this one...for some reason road 5k's do not appeal to me at all....
Wednesday morning Lauren and I rode from my house out to Germantown/Collierville where we met up with her dad and brother for a 4th of July ride....ended up being just about 30 miles for both Lauren and I for the day....after riding we power napped before heading over to a friends house for a 4th celebration....
we ended up slack lining, which if you are not familiar with this, you basically tie 1" webbing between two trees and try and walk across it....tight roping with flat webbing I guess you would say....it's actually quite a bit of fun, simple as it may be and really works your entire body, as the line starts shaking big time and it takes every muscle in your body as well as balance and coordination to keep it under control....
Looking forward to Saturday when I will be participating in the Iron Butt....basically an 87 mile mountain bike tour of every trail system of Memphis....I have always wanted to do this in year's past but it has never worked out with my schedule...it's definitely going to be tough but I think it will be a lot of fun.....anyway until next time
happy running and share the road
I wasn't actually racing the 5k, as I'm sticking to my plan to staying away from running right now but I enjoyed socializing with lots of familiar faces and of course the Tyrone Smith Review getting down at the after party...usually when I go out to watch races I end up thinking to myself "man, why didn't I race" or "I could beat this or that time" but I honestly had no bad feelings about skipping this one...for some reason road 5k's do not appeal to me at all....
Wednesday morning Lauren and I rode from my house out to Germantown/Collierville where we met up with her dad and brother for a 4th of July ride....ended up being just about 30 miles for both Lauren and I for the day....after riding we power napped before heading over to a friends house for a 4th celebration....
we ended up slack lining, which if you are not familiar with this, you basically tie 1" webbing between two trees and try and walk across it....tight roping with flat webbing I guess you would say....it's actually quite a bit of fun, simple as it may be and really works your entire body, as the line starts shaking big time and it takes every muscle in your body as well as balance and coordination to keep it under control....
Looking forward to Saturday when I will be participating in the Iron Butt....basically an 87 mile mountain bike tour of every trail system of Memphis....I have always wanted to do this in year's past but it has never worked out with my schedule...it's definitely going to be tough but I think it will be a lot of fun.....anyway until next time
happy running and share the road
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