The American Heroes Run

The weather report for Saturday, September 9th looked perfect, with a high of 82. I had gone a bit harder than planned two days before the race while ascending Green Mountain in Lakewood due to the classic tapered feeling of pain feeling much better..
On race morning my phone was covered by a pillow and my quiet alarm didn't wake me up (I believe that's the third time that's ever happened to me!). Thankfully my internal clock gave me jolt an hour later. Still, since the idea is to start my races with stable blood sugar and low insulin levels, waking up late means a much smaller breakfast.

Breakfast a little over an hour before the start:
-one spoonful of almond butter
-a few raspberries
-the usual Awake Tea and virgin coconut oil
-Vespa about 10 minutes before start

The American Heroes Run course consists of a 1.05 mile loop around Rogers Grove Park in Longmont, CO. The event was great and there was a distance for anyone, from the 5k up to the Ultra -a fixed-time event where runners compete to cover the 1.05 mile loop as many times as possible in 9 hours and 11 minutes. I signed up for the Ultra, which had a course record of 49.xx miles which I fully intended to break.
Sabrina was also there racing the 9.11 miler, and to crew for me once she finished.  

smiling at the start line, loving the energy of the children at the front

At 8:46, the time the first tower was hit on 9-11, the race started. I came through the first loop in 7:48 which didn't overly concern me since my race plan was to run the entire first 50k at a decent pace then do enough to break the course record before kicking back until time ran out.


one of the early laps

The first 15+ miles where gone before I had time to think. At about the two hour mark I took in my first calories, one pack of plain Generation UCAN, and was really enjoying myself despite the fact that the loop was getting lonely as everyone in the shorter races finished. I continued hydrating with plain water and S!Caps and took a UCAN about every other hour, sometimes mixing a little Hammer mix into it for the protein and electrolytes. By the 4:30:00 mark I was finally starting to feel the miles (which I had heard was a bit under 50k still). Around then I started walking part of the gentle hill by where Sabrina had set up, allowing myself to eat pieces of Stinger waffles with some coconut oil on top. I couldn't figure out why I felt so bad: my energy felt fine, my legs weren't too bad, hydration had been perfect, yet my gut felt off and the heat, which was well above predicted, seemed to effect me more than usual. It wasn't until an hour after the race that I would learn why.



At some point about 6 hours in my lungs started really hurting. I know that I overuse my chest when running, but by the 7:30:00 mark I was forced to breath entirely with my diaphragm. My upper lungs felt like they'd been beaten with a meat tenderizer from the inside out, like they were bruised, and forcing them open made me wince and cough. Even with the pain present I looked at this as a good thing. Running longer is going to require me to fix my breathing and here was my chance.

the start/finish area that I ran past 51 times

Toward the end I was certain I would break the course record by 4-7 miles even if I completely relaxed and I was more than 3 loops ahead of the nearest competitor. So my real race ended around the 8:00:00 mark. And when I ran in what I figured would be my last lap, I saw that I had 20 minutes left -enough time to get two more loops in, but instead I called it a day. 53.55 miles; a new PR for distance covered in a day and a new course record.

In all, I took in more water than ever before, about 300 mg of caffeine, and averaged about 100 calories per hour. My energy was solid throughout and my head was never foggy. The limiting factors were truly my breathing and my desire to race well in the next month. Add that to the post-race realization that I was sick and there was a lot in the way of a perfect race for me.

To summarize the whole experience..
The good: nutrition, hydration, crew (Sabrina), pacing, ...setting a Course Record, winning money for shoes, blister and chaffing prevention/care
The bad: being sick, leaving with 20 minutes left on the clock -pussying out

I should be back next year as a UROC prep race...

I learned a ton and established my ketogenic diet as a solid performance enhancer.
      -thanks David Clark for the pictures

Thoughts Going Into The Lake Arbor 5k

Well, I'm not exactly fast right now -after not taking a single fast stride in over a month. And to add to it I've been sick for a few days now and today has been the worst so far. Thinking about running hard when standing up makes me dizzy is rough. I rarely get sick: running generally helps the immune system, but 27 miles in a day will turn the tables a bit.
Despite all that, I'm really excited for this one. I've run 80 miles a week for six weeks in a row now and I'm starting to get hungry for a race. Also, recently my running dreams have been reaching further than ever. I'm feeling the need get out a see how I do against runners that I've idolized. I'm slowly getting ready to take my heroes off their pedestals and put them in my dust (at least at the 50k distance). Also 2012 is gona see a new 5k PR for me.
Since junior year of high school I've been running almost the same pace at every 5k I've run and I'm sick of it. Since chasing the 50k more seriously, my mental game has gotten exponentially stronger. When I race my self-talk is always positive: in my mind every difficulty the course throws at me hurts everyone else more. When I'm hurting, the guy next to me must be ready to quit. So this year it's about time to see myself running sub-16:10 for the 5k... even if I never do short speedwork again.
As far as this race however, I'm just looking to place well (there're going to be plenty of people faster than me here) and have fun.

The Next Few Months of Training

Last week was my first week at 80 miles. I plan to hit 80 miles 12-15 times between now and the beginning of April. I've done 60 for extended periods before, but dispite the diminishing returns of running more and more miles, I strongly believe the extra 20 miles a week will help me run MUCH faster than currently. -Others have seen it when moving from 60 to 80 miles per week and so will I.

-my average week should look something like this:
Monday: run to/from work (15 miles for the day/15 miles total)
Tuesday: run to/from work, maybe some more with Sabrina (18 for the day/33 total)        
Wednesday: decent warm up, 400-800 meter repeats, decent cool down (10+/43)
Thursday: 20 minutes running in the sauna before going out for a few miles (8/51)
Friday: off*
Saturday: 15, once a month some of these miles with come from a trail race -from 5k to 12k (15/66)
Sunday: whatever I need to run to close the week out at 80, hopefully not much to allow myself to recover from races when I do them (14/80)

*Most "serious" runners don't take too many days off, but I take one each week. It helps me stay hungry -nothing makes me wana run more than knowing that I can't. Also, taking one day off means I have only six days to run as much as most people spread over seven days, which makes my days bigger. So taking a day off means better training days AND better physical and mental recovery.

400 meter repeats

i chose, on an impulse, to do something fast thursday night. after having such a great trail run the night before, i wanted a good, fast road run, and 400s are my favorite -i love um!
i don't feel that ultra- or trail marathon- runners have any reason to do conventional, track-style intervals (with a set period of non-active rest between them). since the ultra running motto is 'relentless forward movement,' why would you ever stop moving in a workout? -repeats for any runner who's event lasts longer than four hours should never stop or walk during workouts, period.

so the workout went down like this:
>800 meter WU(warm up)
>12X 400 meters slow: 400 meters at sub-5:20 pace
>2 mile CD (cool down)
-since I'm going to race a 1.4 mile halloween run at Clement Park Lake on the 28th, i did the workout entirely on the 1.4 mile loop that the race is going to be run on. breaking 8 minutes would be great in a costume...
-my Garmin 405 made this workout possible for me: its relentless beaps told me when to sprint and when to jog. i feel way better knowing that there isn't any human error in my workout.

i felt great with the effort and remembered fully why i love the short-lived pain that comes with fast running. looking forward to Moab, i should have the aerobic capacity to do very well, but that still seems far off