Archive August 2018

With only 5 weeks into our 50 plan I’m half hoping Dead Horse Ultra has a DFL* award… I mean that only half in jest.

Dead Horse Ultra

Right now in the middle of Oklahoma Summer, 6 weeks into a low carb lifestyle, and being a year older than when I decided I wanted to do a 50K this year, I’m not anticipating this being a fast run even for me.

But barring life threatening injury I do fully expect finishing it and since there’s a 50 Mile run going on at the same time with the same cutoff time for both and the same start time I don’t expect getting a DNF*.

One of the things this plan which is more than really needed for a 50K that I set it out to do was get us to a point where we can enjoy our first 50K.  My first races of all types I didn’t really enjoy them as I attempted them right at the cusp of my ability to do them.

But 31.5 miles is a long time to be on a trail and not enjoy it because you’re at the edge of your ability to keep moving forward.

I did pick up a new travel pack on my employer’s dime. No I’m not ripping them off, we have a system where you can cash in awards that you’re awarded by other employees for doing your job and get gift cards at various online merchants.

Yes it’s an environment where just doing your job well is enough to earn an award due to comparison to people that half ass phone it in.

* Runners Jargon (Random website found while googling but it included the values I wanted and isn’t asshattish like some others)

Gnash Gnash

Rabbit has deigned to occasionally participate in our little running blog.  In spite of her unassuming attitude and modesty, she’s a #realrunner and has been running Ultra’s for a very long time.

I’ve cyber stalked her records and frankly she’s a #badass.  No she’s not Stephanie Howe but she finishes strong and quite frequently ends up in the top 25%.

We met quite by accident, she was the Project Manager for an professional services team that my company employed to help get us through a M&A that frankly I had no resources to deal with internally in our company.

I had to go out to California for reasons I won’t go into but we’d talked over the phone quite a fair bit before that obviously, almost daily for other reasons I’ll refrain from.  I’d bought a pair of Altra Lone Peak 2.5’s about a month before (cheap as they were the year before model) and while I enjoyed them the heel cup was too loose for me on ascents and it always felt like I was on the verge of popping out. But they were otherwise comfortable and I liked the coloring so I took to wearing them as my casual daily shoes.

So I show up and head into a meeting room and the first thing she commented on was my shoes and asked if I ran.  One of the things I’ve noticed is a #realrunner could see someone naked in shoes and they’d check out the shoes first.

So out came the story of how I was trying to become someone who maybe kinda sorta ran sometimes in a #notarunner way and we’ve kept in touch ever since even after our year long project was over.

Rabbit’s been quite a joy of running comradeship and if she’s any indication of the ‘normal’ ultra runners of California, they’re a great bunch just by extrapolation.

A couple or three weeks ago Rabbit and Bunny got to run trails together and Bunny was quite effusive about how much fun it was.

One of these days there’s hope that the three of us will manage to be in the same place at the same time and get to get dusty or muddy together, depending on how much moisture in the air there is at the time.

Week 5 has come and gone of our trek to doing our first 50.

It was an interesting week, Thursday we had a split 10k, 5K in the morning and 5K in the evening.   In spite of differing conditions, flat versus a little hilly, warm and humid versus warm and torrential rain and wind, I ran both 5K’s only 4 seconds apart in time.   On Friday I had a 5K race which I managed to cut 30 seconds off my Thursday runs in spite of being hillier.

Bunny’s Boat Anchor

Bunny on the other hand cut 3+ minutes off her evening run versus her morning run but then she’s a badass who suffers from significant #boatanchor status.

Over the weekend we had back to back long runs, a 15K and a 25K which went… slowly and badly but the distance was done and frankly at this point I’m okay just getting time on feet and distance on the long runs.

I’m thinking though that one of the three regular training weeks of the month cycle I’m going to drop the back to back weekend and just make the Sunday run longer.  5K or 10K longer than the currently plan.

This week our runs were –

• Tuesday – 3K Pyramid which is run 3K at zone 2, 3K at zone 4, 3K at zone 2, cooldown.
• Wednesday – 6K zone 2
• Thursday – 5K Z4 runs in the morning and evening.
• Friday – Special 5K run for a race in the evening.
• Saturday – 15K
• Sunday – 25K

The Wednesday run I skipped as I had the race on Friday but I also plan on skipping this run more often depending on how I feel the week is going because a slow 6k run I’m feeling doesn’t gain us a lot in terms of performance or conditioning and skipping it gives us some more recovery time during the week.

We’re both feeling the heat of constant training and I’ve not had a break in training in over 2 years, just keeping upping the target distance after reaching a milestone.  Although I’m feeling it more.

Western States 100 at 2AM

Toeing the start of any race, this is where my mind goes. How did I get here? What makes me think I can do what these real athletes are doing? I’m just me. Not some impressive individual like those I’m standing with. I’m just the one who as a child my mother couldn’t patch the knees in my pants fast enough as I was constantly tearing around and roughhousing. I’m just the one who as I teacher, my kids used to whisper to me during long periods of sitting, “Mrs. Lanka, you’re getting the wiggles” indicating that I wasn’t being still and we all should go outside and run to the fence before continuing w/ the lesson. I’m just the one who designed and marked 24 annual races as Brazen Racing’s event coordinator, overjoyed purely at the fact that others would be outdoors and on the “playground” the following day. I’m just the one who reported on events such Western States at 2 AM in the morning for UltraSportsLive.TV, half crazed due to supporting live feeds for almost 30 hours in hopes to encourage viewers to realize how much potential they have. I’m just the one who currently derails my own meetings by walking into a conference room and asking about the trail shoes someone is wearing* or after being informed that the majority of a customer’s company bikes to work, asks if they would be comfortable with me doing the same. The threads lacing through these experiences are abundant: the draw to the outdoors, the drive for adventure and love of movement, the encouraging and empowering others to realize the strength within them to join the party. Back at the start line, in taking an honest look around me, I see these threads weaving through those I have the honor of sharing the space with, if only by their interactions with each other. And as I study them further, deeper hues of our commonalities become evident, further bonding us by our nature. We all

On the “Playground”

know that we are going to be blessed with sights only found in the wilds we traverse. We all know we’re going to chance upon new friends as well as discover new realities about our spirits and physical capabilities. We all know that somewhere out there, it’s perfectly possible that we will come across some homemade cookies that taste unbelievably heavenly for the sole reason that we had to labor to find them in the racing wilderness.

So, who am I? I’m just another child surreptitiously hidden in an adult body.

Just like everyone else here.

And we’re going out to play.

* This is how I had the pleasure of first meeting Trex, who in turn introduced me to the Bunny not long after. 😊 Oh and me? I’m the RAbbit (WestsideRabbit if you are on Instagram). But that’s a story for another day.

I’m really honestly not sure if KT Tape / Rock Tape provides ANY real benefit per science.  The claims border on questionable to say the least and smack of witchcraft and voodoo.   “It lifts the skin away from the muscles and fascia to promote blood flow”  Uh… huh…

But… with that said I can’t say it doesn’t work.  And mentally for me, and your mileage may vary, it doesn’t hurt anything and potentially could help so… why not?  And sisters and brothers I need every speck of assistance I can get.   Other than your giving money to someone for something that may be a waste of money.

With all that said the last three rolls of KT Tape “Professional” that I’ve purchased over the last year have all sucked at adhesion.  Two from a local sporting goods store, one from amazon, all purchased at different times and in three different colors.   I apply them in the standard per KT positions to assist with ITBS on my left leg.

The roll or two I had prior to that from 2016 stayed on not only for the full duration of a run but literally days and 2 or 3 runs and it was only after they started to look a little faded or I thought it was time to let my skin breath did I take them off.   And peeling the tape off took effort.

Not so much with these new rolls, within a half hour they’re loose at the ends, within an hour or two they’re flapping  and by hour 3 on a run they’re just dangling and annoying so I pull them off.

Now it’s possible these days I could have legs covered in petroleum jelly or astro-glide but you’ll have to take my word that’s not the case.  The tape goes on clean dry skin, I’m not any more hirsute than I was before.  So the logical answer by Occam’s Razor is the adhesive on the newer issued rolls is not as good as the older ones, or quality control has gone to hell.  My money’s on KT as manufacturer finding some way to save money to increase profits for the tippy top of the profit sharing food chain by using a lesser adhesive.

Last week I ordered a roll of Rock Tape through Amazon and picked up another roll at one my local running stores to try out.

A couple of immediate observations, Rock Tape isn’t precut strips, just one long roll.  Secondly a new roll of Rock Tape doesn’t quite fit in a KT tape plastic container indicating the tape or center spool is thicker by a fraction of a degree.

I cut three strips out of it, the usual size I use with KT tape, one precut strip cut into two for an X and one precut strip left whole to go over it.  The method as offered by KT in their videos.

Another observation is the edges all stuck down well pre run.  With the KT tape I’ve been using there was always a little bit of ‘not quite’ sticking going on at the ends.

I ran a 5K this morning right around 30 minute pacing in warm humid as water world hell setting and then took a shower.  So far the tape is remaining stuck down on all edges.

I’ve got another 5K this evening and obviously a shower after that so we’ll see how it goes and I’ll post an edit on this afterwards.   But so far while more expensive $19 versus $16 the Rock Tape is even with just a single short run’s results sticking far better, much like the 2016 versions of KT Tape Pro did.

I have owned two Brooks running sports bras since I started running just under two years ago. I started with the Juno model two sizes ago, and now I am into the Rebound Racer. These two bras alone have hugged my girls and kept them nice and snug for all of my major races and long distance runs.  I also own and use a C9 (Champion Target Brand) and a SheFit, which I use for day to day running mostly, choosing the Brooks because they have softer materials and fit better as they are quality bra’s, but they are not without their issues.

Brooks Juno & Rebound Racer Pro’s & Con’s (The short version): If you want a bit more back story read below the bulleted lists for my personal experience in each of these areas.

Pros:

• Good soft materials – doesn’t really cause chaffing (with the exception noted below) during distances up to a Marathon.
• Durable materials – has taken almost daily washings and been worn for over a year (Juno) and a half (Rebound) without showing visible signs of wear and tear (one major exception also noted below).
• Snug fit – my girls don’t bounce and the front tacky strap adjustment helps synch them in nice and tighten on the fly.

Cons:

• Stinky Fabric – After about 3 months of summer wear, both models have a breakdown in the materials and begin to trap odors which are released while wet. NO it’s not just me, or my laundry routine.
• Outdated Design – Sports bra’s should be easier to get on and off. Especially when one is wet with sweat! See below for my opinion on the matter.
• Price – are you kidding me? I paid full retail marked up price for mine at local running stores, and if they were perfect I would happily pay that price. But come on, I get almost as good support and coverage from my Target bra and it never stinks!

All in all I would recommend these bra’s for fit and comfort for longish and short distance, mainly because I haven’t found anything else that I like better. But for the price I would like something I love and I don’t love these bra’s. I use them because I bought them and I like to get my monies worth. But given the issues I have had with them I am on the hunt for a better bra for my Ultra distances.

More In-depth experience:

To begin, as mentioned before in other posts, I am rather sensitive to the feel of the material against my skin, so it is EXTREMELY important to me that the materials be soft (to me). I don’t like rough seams or scratchy edges, or stiff materials. And as I am upping my distances chaffing is going to be a HUGE concern.  So to be noted, with the Juno I occasionally had a problem of chaffing just above my breast plate where the fabric sagged into my cleavage. It started happening during my first marathon and happened a few times after that. My guess is that my boobs shrank just enough to allow this to happen, or I simply hadn’t run far enough for it to happen before that time. Either way I don’t like the burning sensation it caused during my post marathon showers.  Since boob shrinkage is a real thing thanks to running, I had to move down a couple sizes and purchased the Rebound Racer, and I have not yet had this chaffing issue, instead I have had a different problem.

With my Rebound Racer the straps compress over my collar bones during long runs and have left bruising on both side after races. Of note this occurs primarily when I have to wear a my Nathan Vest. Now you could argue this is the vest’s fault and not the Rebound, but I wore my vest with my Juno during Little Rock and didn’t have this problem. The fact is that the strap material of the Rebound feels thicker and doesn’t seem to absorb/compress softly enough over my skin and bones to prevent this from happening. Not sure if this is the Bra’s fault but worth noting nonetheless as it is a BIG factor in why I won’t be using it for our 50k.

My next complaint with both of these Brooks Bras would be the design. I don’t know about you but I HATE, with a passion, pulling a nasty sweaty sports bra off over my head. Not to mention wrestling into one before my runs. While you have the options to unstrap the shoulders on these models, I tend not to because they are a PITA to re-thread through the eyelet due to the velcro.  I also HATE the old fashion hook and eyelet adjustments on the back. I find myself looking like a contortionist every time the hooks catch over the fabric and won’t find the eyelets!  I would seriously like to see an open front option, and a velcro back adjustment maybe like my SheFit; the key here would be for the fabric and materials would have to be just right as to not cause chaffing or pressure points, I haven’t found my SheFit to be perfect in this department hence why I still wear the Brooks.

But so far my number one complaint about these two bras is that that they stink. Literally. About 3 months of wear during the summer months and both bra’s developed a stink that is released after they get wet with sweat. A smell like dead rotting vegetation wafts up into my nostrils and is most unpleasant during my runs.

Now before you jump to the conclusion that I have poor hygiene or don’t know how to wash clothes let me explain. First I don’t and have never had this issue with any other bra or sports equipment for that matter.  My husband is also a runner and his stuff doesn’t stink.  I wash our running clothes immediately after use in a detergent (Nellies Natural Laundry Soda) which I used to wash my babies dirty cloth diapers and my Roller Derby pads, so I know it is NOT my laundry routine that is the problem.  Again it is only these bra models I have ever encountered this problem.

With the Juno when the problem occurred last summer I tried using Biokleen Bac-Out before washing, as it is an enzyme based odor remover, but that didn’t help. The only thing that has helped is Bleach, which seems to kill whatever bacteria is able to develop by the way the fabric traps in sweat.  I did a sniff test yesterday after I ran in my freshly washed Rebound and it seems to be the mesh fabric that traps the smell. It wasn’t the fabric that lays over my breasts, but the waffle woven dry fit fabric that surrounds the padding on the inside, which I thought was interesting.  So into the bleach it went. Problem solved.  I am sure Trex’s nostrils will thank me. He’s never said anything but I am sure he’s just being polite.

So my search continues. I guess one plus of moving into the ‘itty bitty’ category is that I don’t need quite the support as I did before, so I can move away from these thicker fabric models. Wish me luck in my endeavors to find a replacement for my first Ultra.

~B

NOTE: I purchased all of the products mentioned in this article at retail price, from retail stores, for my own personal use. I have no affiliations with any retailers, company, or suppliers. This is strictly a user review of these products.

Week 4 has come and gone.   Week 4 is a ‘light’ week with only 27 ish miles in it.   The weekend had a 10K and 20K run.

Over all things didn’t go too badly although even a light week was still a little on the hard side. With only a month into this training plan it’s been going okay but I’m leaning toward dropping the Wednesday run.   It at most is just to get rid of that “something is missing today” feeling.   That will leave Tuesday and Thursday as the various tempo, interval, threshold, hill repeats, speed etc runs.   Saturday and Sunday will be the back to back training and long slow runs.

A problem I’m trying to get ahead of before it’s a problem is over-training.  Wear and tear is cumulative if you don’t have time to recovery.

And a reminder that this plan is a hybrid 50 plan.  A bit more than needed for a 50k and a bit less than a 50mile plan.

Also to be remembered is this is our first attempt at going beyond a marathon which we’ve done a whopping 2 of, one road, one trail.

Next week will be some solo training runs as B won’t be available most days.  The difficulty ramps up a bit with Tuesday being a ME day, where the run is done in the Morning and Evening which for this first ME day is a 5K.

Thursday is a 3K pyramid which is a 3K z2, 3K z4, 3K z2.

The weekend is a 15k and 25K weekend.

Total distance is thus 59K or 37ish miles.  That’s assuming we skip the 6k on Wednesday which I’m pretty sure we will. Otherwise it would be 40+ miles.

Today as part of my 10K training I participated in the Tess Charity Run, a run for which the proceeds go to assist battered and abused women in seeking help and counseling.

The race was a 5K trail run that ran over the blue and yellow tracks of Turkey Mountain.   It had a M shape elevation chart with some reasonable technical pieces, mostly the vertical ups and downs.

A smaller turn out, only 81 participants were in the race.   There was also some larger race going on at the same time that probably pulled folks out because a) it was larger and b) it was street.   It’s been my experience and I’m sure everyone’s that trail runs pull quite smaller fields.

I’d like to say I held back knowing this was just the first 5K of the day for me but I ran it about 90% effort.  Enough to place 2nd in my age group but let’s face it, 2nd in your age group when there are 81 total runners isn’t all that.

Let’s just say I finished near the 66 percentile on the wrong side of the halfway point.  There were a fairly good set of speedsters there today with  winner turning in a 22 minute 5K trail run.   We actually picked him out before the race as the person that was going to win, he showed up in racing flats and ran in just a pair of shorts.

But overall I felt decent for the race, running the 5K on trails with a fair bit of vertical 5 minutes slower than my last flat road 5K last week that I ran about 95% effort.

After the race I caught up with a friend who ran it as well albeit faster than me (but a minute slower than my road time) and we went up the hill to do another 5K on the Pink aka Snake Run trail although we cut out that right hand out and back as you’re coming back up on the official Snake Run route which makes it 3.5 miles instead of 3.1.   Leave that short out and back off and it’s almost exactly a 5K.

We had a good time on both the race and the training run afterwards but with only a couple of exceptions I’ve had a good time with races and even those that were ‘bad’ aka my first marathon, Little Rock, my first 25K, Pumpkin’ Holler, my second half marathon, T-Town Half were still not bad.  Yes the last few miles of each one of those was pretty bad but everything leading up them was enjoyable so a few bad miles due to injury, dehydration, whatever isn’t enough to detract from the overall experience.

And if you don’t push right up to and even a bit beyond the breaking point, you won’t ever know what your really capable of.

I picked up a Scosche 24 HR band back in May and for the most part it’s been okay.   There are some runs where the readings are questionable (pretty sure I’ve never hit 208 BPM in my life and that it would kill me to do so now) and some runs where there was a lot of drop outs, especially if my watch and my scosche were on opposite arms, and a few runs where it just shut off in the middle of a run.

Hmm you know it sounds like maybe it’s just barely been ‘okay’.

In the last 3 weeks I’ve gotten significantly shorter battery life than it was giving me prior.  And I’ve been very careful after the first unexpected ‘no charge’ incident on my 5th run after a full charge to keep an eye on it and make sure I’m not leaving it on.

Today things took a turn for the worse though.  While out on a run I was getting a high reading on my watch.  My Scosche was on the outside of my forearm so I pulled the strap to spin it where I could see if it had turned off and “Pop” it flew off my arm.

I picked it up and saw it was missing a watch pin (the spring loaded pin that the bands hook on).  Well crap.  I finish the run and come home and the spare pins I have from my Fenix watches are about half a MM too long to fit.  So I google “Scosche 24 pin failure” to find out what the size is, thinking I’d just pick one up and replace it, and I start seeing post after post on Amazon from other people saying they’d lost a pin and theirs was because the case had cracked as well.

Sure enough I put mine under a strong light and one of the pin mounts is cracked.  Well double crap.

This particular area doesn’t seem all that well designed to me.  The screws that hold the top and bottom case parts together are in such a position it forms a natural weak point due to lack of material in this area.  And although I’m not a destruction testing scientist, nor do I play one on T.V., the material for the lower half of the case has that shiny ‘snap like a twig’ plastic look to it.

Maybe it’s a QC issue, bad choice in materials for the case or just bad design but whatever the case it’s unusable at this time.   I might be able to design and 3D print some kind of cage to put the unit in and that will attach to the 24 band or possible one of the old version’s velcro bands.   But that’s not going to be an option for 99.999% of their customer base.

I’ve dropped them an email explaining the situation, hopefully there will be a happier outcome but at this time I’m not sure I can recommend the Scosche 24.   There’s no android app to check firmware, I’m getting random shutdowns, battery life seems to have broken after 3 months and now I find you apparently have to really baby the case putting it on and off or you’ll crack it.

I’m hoping these things get fixed as I really, really, like the Scosche, it’s far more comfortable to me than a chest belt, the readings are almost, for me, as good as a chest monitor and in general it’s a good piece of kit, when it works and doesn’t break.

This is the end of Week 3 of our Run Salty 50 Plan.   Our runs this week were

• Monday – Core/Rest
• Tuesday – 2K Double which is a 2K warm up, 2K sprint, 1K recover, 2K sprint, 1K recover, 2K cooldown (10K total)
• Wednesday – 6K Slow
• Thursday – 10K Hill Repeats (we did repeats for 70 minutes and then had to bail due to commitments) on Lipbuster at Turkey Mountain
• Friday – Core/Rest
• Saturday – 15K Easy
• Sunday – 25K Easy
• Total 37 Miles, less than scheduled due to the Hill Repeats on Thursday getting cut short.

I was doing okay up until today, Sunday.   I’ve been trying to run continuously lately even though we race Run/Walk style in varying schedules.  Today for whatever reason was pretty brutal.  The first 15K went okayish but the last 10K and especially the last 5K everything fell apart.   Blame it on dieting while trying to train, removing all but a smidge of carbs from diet, the heat and the last 10K being in full sun, or something else but whatever the cause it was just bad for me out there.

So we ran 40K this weekend, just shy of a marathon.

On the way home, like usual, I stopped to pick up some iced tea for myself and my non-running wife and a doughnut for my kids, just something I do after a long Sunday run.   While waiting in line I was hit with a bad case of nausea and almost lost the contents of my stomach, not that there was anything in it but water and possibly whatever remained of the 2 tablespoons of peanut butter I had around mile 7.   But a few deep breaths and frankly iron clad willpower to not throw up inside a store I escaped without making an ass of myself and kept things tightly wrapped till the feeling passed.

I also made the mistake today of assuming things were going to go well and didn’t bring any cold frozen water and out of ALL the public water fountains on our entire ‘street running turf’ which is comprised of about 20 miles of Riverside Trail and Creek Turnpike Trail, there is a single water fountain that is remotely cool and we didn’t reach it today.  All the rest are low pressure, ambient air temperature at best.   I’ll try to make that mistake less often.

This coming up week 4 is is a light week and I’m considering dropping the 6K on Wednesday to add some more recovery time in there.   Every 4th week I scaled back the mileage to be in the low 20’s.   Each week the mileage goes up by roughly 7-10% other than off weeks.

Right now I couldn’t walk a 50K much less run/walk one.   My Paradigm 3.0’s are just about shot and I’m only ‘okay’ with the Paradigm 4.0’s I’ve got.   They’re nothing special or earthshaking in terms for me personally.  My Lone Peak 3.5’s are still doing okay for trail and I have a pair of Altra Olympus 4’s coming in size 13 to replace the size 14’s that were just too big.   Once again you just can’t tell what size Altra to get until you’ve put them on your feet.  Some I’m a 13, some I’m a 14.

I’m hoping training gets better as the heat goes down and we have some down time next week.  Assuming the heat goes down.

But to say I’m not at least a little concerned about DFL / DNF on our scheduled 50’s would be a lie.  50K in Nov, 50M in February, 50K in April and somewhere in there I’ve already entered a triple, back to back to back Halves race that I forgot about.  Early registration and the discounts can result in some schedule chaos.