Category Trail Running

On the heals of our first ultra we ran our last long race/runs this weekend, a combo 5K/15K street race followed by nearly 19k on our usual trail loops on Turkey mountain to complete the distance. As mentioned in recent posts Trex has been bouting with injury and this was our last chance at a solid long run before we start the taper.  In total we logged 24+ miles, just shy of our goal, but a strong comeback in my opinion, in spite of the significant amount of pain we both experienced during and now after the runs.

Speaking of heels, it seems that mine took a bit of a beating during our 5/15K combo which was made worse on the trail, and now I have a nasty swollen red lump at the back of my heel that hurts quite a bit when I walk. So I am elevating it and icing it in hopes that there is no real injury, because being injured this close to our race would “sucks major donkey balls,” to quote my RH.

having a plan B–an alternative exercise routine to stick to during downtime, is extremely crucial for your mental game.

I took time off running and have been cross training with Trex since I frankly didn’t want to suffer injury as a result of over training, and had had a few early signs of things growing a bit unhappy with me right about the same time his foot started giving him fits. So in a show of solidarity and to grow my cross training muscles I joined him in his downtime in efforts to minimize the impacts of our grueling running schedule on my own body. Frankly I feel it did us some good to take some time to do more alternative exercises. I think we both needed to find some greater balance in our approach to running and sometimes being forced to is how it has to happen.

In an effort to maintain my cardio and core strength I have reacquainted myself with the love of the water, and have been swimming in addition to doing stationary bikes and weight exercises along side Trex. We also tried aqua jogging which I find to be quite awkward, although a good cardio workout, when done without the jogger belt. It will take more time to get used to this exercise and in the end it is rather boring which makes it more of a challenge to maintain focus while doing, that and frankly I feel ridiculous doing it!

But the key take away from this experience, for me, has been that having a b plan–an alternative exercise routine to stick to during downtime, is extremely crucial for your mental game. I for one found it very beneficial to be productive physically, even if it wasn’t gaining me ground in my running, because it has been a chance to practice fighting off those pesky mental demons that like to taunt and try to scare me into thinking I’m not ready.

I fully understand the impact to my bodily training by not running. It is extremely difficult to face a race feeling that you may be under prepared physically, but it is crucial to remember your training, and be prepared to face down those mental demons that try to tell you that: a few weeks of not running has undone nearly 2 years of base training. A BOLD FACED LIE!  I am using this time to hone my positive self talk skills, practice how to be supportive to my partner–who is facing those demons daily, and just as importantly to slay my own demons.  And after yesterday’s battle on the streets and trails I know that my plan B has been working. Je suis prête. 

In my seemingly till now never ending quest to find a pair of shorts to go really long in I’ve come across the Altra Trail 2.o Shorts.

I ordered them in the Extra Large (of course) size just on the off chance they would fit.  The official sizing is for a 37 to 41″ waist.   I’m happy to report they fit at the waist just fine for me at 6′-4″ and 240lbs.  YMMV of course.

#GingerRunner likes them and they made his top 5 shorts lists for 2018 and I’ve found over the last couple of years that we tend to have the same opinion on various pieces of gear that we have used in common.

Overall the fit is good, loose but not baggy. Which was a relief.  Although I did buy them from Running Warehouse which has a good return policy.   The waistband is slightly elasticized and there is a drawstring that ties on the outside in the front.  That means no knots, bows or strings inside your shorts to cause a potential chafe point.

The material is soft and on the light-medium weight side.

There are two slanted mesh pockets on the sides that are rectangular and about the size of an iphone 5-6.   They are stretchy so you could stuff a fair number of gels in them.   In the front left is a shallow horizontal pocket that’s big enough for a credit card, a key or two or something of that ilk.  But this pocket has no closer on it, no zip, velcro or overlapping flap.   Use it at your own peril.

In the back is a open sleeve that could be used to hold a light jacket or a pair of gloves or arms sleeves or something like that.  Under the sleeve is a zip pocket that holds a Pixel 2XL quite easily.

One minor thing I found is because the waistband is soft and only a little elastic after 5k my phone had pulled the shorts down a bit after the material had gotten soaked through with sweat.   This could be fixed by tying the drawstring tighter.  BUT… because it’s your typical string based drawstring this might cause a potential chafe line for you if you really load down the shorts with loot.

These trail shorts have a built in boxer liner which I like and the ends are hemmed just right for my quads to be tight enough but not too tight so that the liner doesn’t ride up.   Pretty important for someone like me.

I ran them for the first time today, just a 5k though.  But other than near the end that after sweating them through and them stretching a bit that they were getting pulled down by the weight of my phone they really just disappeared during the run.  And pending issues showing up on a long run these look like a very real candidate for being my 50 shorts.

I also have a pair of 2XU compression tights that I’ll be testing to see if they will work for me for long runs.   With the potential temps of the Dead Horse 50K we’re doing in November ranging from 30 to 50, dressing appropriately may be tough.   I have a feeling it’s going to be a cold start and being a bit underdressed so as to be comfortable for most of the run.   Still not sure if I’ll be doing shorts or tights for it, probably take both.

There are tons of articles online about stress and accumulation of stress and over stressing and over training.  That’s one of the reasons I’ve cut our Wednesday cruising run, is to try to reduce stress load.

The tricky thing is stress is very much a single bucket that is filled from all kinds of sources.  Those sources might be just an annoying drip in the night because you wake up 3 or 4 times or it might be a fire hose of impending job loss that threatens to wash you down the street.

Stress from your professional and personal relations and environments, stress from the daily commute, the volumes of bad things going on in the world, the 28 miles you ran over the weekend, insomnia, health issues, running conditions, hydration levels, weight changes; none it is singular and it all impacts our abilities to ‘do it’.

Whether it’s at work, play, in bed or on the trail, stress can and does have major impacts on our lives and potential.

Personal reference point, yesterday’s run, not that great, 2 minutes slower than an identical run last week…

————

Weekend 6 was a high volume week with 28 miles done on Saturday followed by Sunday and Monday being off days from running.

Yesterday was the first run after the long day with a 12K run scheduled dividing into a pyramid of 4K zone 2, 4K zone 4, 4K zone 2.   That was the plan anyway.

And it’s only going to get longer. That’s what she said…

When the plan met the dirt it kind of fell apart.   Bunny was at Zone 4 for the first part while I was in Zone 2.   For the Z4 stuff my push fell apart and I ended up hiking a fair bit of it instead.

It was also roughly 100 billion degrees Kelvin out.  Or a 100F.  One of those two is correct.

I also wore my slightly too short Lone Peak 3.0 size 13’s.  They’re a quarter inch shorter than my Escalante Size 13’s.  FGS Altra the sizing ridiculousness is just… ridiculous.  They’re okay for shorter distances but the heat accelerated my foot swelling so by the end of it my toes were just touching the end of the shoes.  I guess I’m going to have to retire them permanently.

Intellectually I know this failure was in large part due to just accumulated stress from the weekend, that it was OMFG hot, but emotionally it still feels like a bit of a failure.

The loop we were on, the Snake aka Pink trail, at our nearby trail refuge of Turkey Mountain, where I’ve never seen a turkey but I’ve seen several bobcats, rabbits, snakes, frogs, a bazillion mosquitoes and spiders from hell, measures right around 3.5 miles, at least the route we take.   There’s a small loop on the way back to bring it up to 3.5 miles and as we were coming back the second time I was sorely tempted to bypass that loop and just be short but Bunny wouldn’t commit to doing it so as always “when it’s a run day you run”.

We still ended up about .33K short of our planned 12K distance but I deemed it good enough, the heat and W shape of the elevation was enough to make up that slight lack in distance.

Tomorrow is another double morning and evening run, just 8K each for a total of 16k.  “Just 8K”.

It’s interesting how what things change over time.  I was thinking about that on the way home yesterday, how when I started my Couch to 5k plan, my first sessions were 20-25 minutes long and maybe 2k to 3k total.  Now any run less than 90 minutes / 15k is now considered a “it’s just xxx”.

And it’s only going to get longer. That’s what she said…   At week 6 in a 18 week long plan, the long days and weeks are only getting started although we do have a 2 week taper so really it’s 16 weeks that we have to ‘worry’ about.

 

60K Race Report
(My apologies to Aerosmith)

Blips in my consciousness:

– It’s 3:30 AM. But at least we’re near the beach?

– We’re all on a school bus (AKA “shuttle to the start”) and someone drops their phone, setting off a cricket sound effect. “So nice to be out in nature,” someone quips. We’re all just awake enough to laugh.

– I’m biologically confused as I swing violently between passing out asleep and snapping awake to nearly vomit. What I get for riding a bus on a windy road in the dark.

– Rush for the accordion door. All of us praying after the 45 min ride that the bathrooms are open. They’re not.

 

Consciousness booting…. Please wait….

While we all do our own versions of dances over lack of faculties (and in SF you can get in deep shit – ha ha – if you hit the bushes), the RD jumps up on a nearby park bench and bequeaths that he was going to do the race briefing while we were all a captive audience. As his audience barely holding onto code yellow, we pleadingly look up at him and do our best to be attentive.  [TRex:  RD is Race Director aka the person who gets all the blame when anything goes wrong on a race.]

First thing’s first, the police are on their way to open the restrooms.
Second “thing” was a ball of too much:
1. There was zero fog over the Golden Gate Bridge. We were instructed to enjoy the views but be advised this meant it was going to hit triple digits. We’re looking at you 60K runners.

2. There was a bike race scheduled for the same day on an overlapping course. We were informed not to panic however there were going to be thousands of bikes, non specified type (mountain or road), out there “somewhere” and they were not going to be looking for us and our small event.
3. The markings were out yesterday so they were most likely still there. However we were to be aware that this area has a high level of vandalism and so we had better be familiar with the course. The first stretch towards the Golden Gate Bridge should be the easiest as we “really don’t need the markers, just run towards the bridge. You’ll be fine.” [TRex:  I’ll never understand this.  You can’t get people to clean up their own trash but they’ll gleefully pull up marking tape just to screw with people.]
4. Other stuff I tuned out at that point because the police had arrived.

We all abandon the RD to rush the stalls. We’d been informed we’re going to be running on the sun, while dodging murderous cyclists and were using the Golden Gate Bridge as a landmark to get across the bay then follow markings that are “probably” there to the finish. What else did we need to know?

Bathroom break over, we all line up and figure out that we’re supposed to go as the front of the pack takes off. That or they were just done standing around and decided we should start.

Thoughts by the Mile

Mile 1 – Made it to the Golden Gate Bridge! And we only had to have one trail running convention to figure out an intersection in getting here. Can I throw up now?

Mile 3 – Wow the Golden Gate Bridge is really this long. Can I throw up now?

Mile 4 – Off the bridge and the view is spectacular. Problem is, the noise isn’t. There’s a runner latched onto me who is doing a damn good impression of Tim from Jurassic Park prattling at Dr. Grant in their first scene. Word score 1,000 him to my 1. I’m still pretty nauseous so probably just as friendly as the the good doctor as all I want to do is slam a door on him. “- I heard that there was this ah, meteor, um, hit the earth. Some place down in Mexico, and made this big crater-…” I use my uphill gear to lose him. Or toss my cookies. Or both.  [Trex:  Neat, an oblique dinosaur reference.]

Mile 6– ‘Look at you eat like a big girl! I’m so proud of you. Yes I am! You ate 1/2 a waffle just like a big girl!’ Great. I’m already having an internal conversation with 1 extra personality that has shown up thus far. I’m thankful it’s the encouraging one instead of an alternative since I needed to figure

out how to eat while still bus sick.

Mile 8 – Rolling into this aid, the race plan of my coach surfaces in my mind again. The goal was to arrive here feeling very fresh, like I had just started. Unfortunately his exact words were, “like you just got off the bus”. No coach no!!! Not like I just got off the bus please…..
In due diligence, I took a PB&J quarter away from the table feeling the plaid start to materialize on my face again. [TRex:  By mile 8 I’m usually feeling like it’s time to head to whatever the local better version of IHOP is.  You know the place, where they have good pancakes and service.]

Mile 10 – The sun starts to take jabs at us as we traverse Miwok. I’ve joked about our fire trails acting like solar panels however this is not far from the truth. There are a couple of outings where I’ve been concerned about burning the underside of my nose as rays ricochet off the ground. I backed it down a little knowing that overheating would keep me from eating too and I’m behind in calories already. While it’s not near that high temp, I knew this was an going to be an inevitable race feature.

Mile 12 – Bikes! BIKES! Heads up! Fortunately they were on the road and not the trail as we feared and there was a volunteer to cross us to the aid. It seemed like something out of a cartoon stoplight as one direction of traffic halted on a dime (them) while the other (us) floored it. Once safe at the table a running buddy of mine calls for ice. I verbally poke at him saying it’s not THAT hot yet and make mental note to call him Ice Princess next time I see him. We only give crap to those we love. [Trex: Holy Hannah, if I’m ever on a trail with Rabbit I’m in for a seriously hard time.  By mile 12 I’m wearing a bladder filled with ice and pouring ice water on my head _every single chance I get_…]

Mile 14 – “And they died because of the weather. And then my teacher told me about this other book by this guy named Backer, and HE says” – oh fantastic, Tim was back. Good for me (and him) he found others to attach to. I let them go.

Mile 16 – F@#k….. It’s uphill which is usually my forte but lack of fuel had turned my legs to lead. I imagined my central control room with all hands at their stations, the supervisor standing menacingly over the drive control engineer who had their feet up on the console reading a magazine.

Not even bothering to look up they drawl,
“I realize what you think we should be doing but the nutrition shipment we were suppose to receive never showed up so you’ll need to get in touch with procurement and work it out with them then we’ll need to process that…”
Smart ass. Who hired that clown? Downgraded to cranky hiking. [Trex: Yay!  We have a same pace, The Cranky Hike!  I wonder if she also has Hongry Shuffle?  (Hot+Angry)]

Mile 20 – Everything in me screeches “No! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Why are you not dropping to the 37K?!?! You’re going the wrong way! The finish is this way! That way is death you imbecile!”
My body somehow walks out of the aid towards the 60K out and back while my soul scrabbles at every rock, tree and trail sign in a futile attempt to stop my forward motion, save my life and get me to run to the finish instead of the required bonus miles.

Mile 21 – The heat and lack of calories finally start breaking me down on a spiritual level. Another movie quote synapse fires randomly as I’m trudging. I hear Ed Harris from Apollo 13, “What have we got on the spacecraft that’s good?” Silence in the control room as everyone looks to anyone else to call out something functioning well. I felt as bodily able as that ship.

Mile 23 – Out in the beating sun. So this is hell. And there are amber waves of grain and a gorgeous sweeping view of the sea 5,000’ below. Damn Marie you’re in a state. Just keep moving.

Mile 25 – See Ken “All Day” getting a heat training run before he sweeps and he gives me the best news all day (pun intended). His wife Karen along with Victor and Lorna are at the turn around and with this news comes internal dedication to get there to see them. I also take note that many times, we know each other by our handles rather than birth names. Kind of like fighter pilots. Yeah, let’s go with that since it sounds cooler than I don’t remember your real full name.

Mile 26 – PSA: Gentlemen of the non-warrior class. If you should choose to court or settle down with a warrior woman, let it be known that she will teach you through eloquent and frequent use, how versatile and comprehensive the word “fuck” is. I meet one of my fellow female warriors and we weave together full sentences, with zero linguistic error, clearly stating the condition we are in, our goals for the near future, our views on global warming as well as whether we feel the left or right Twix are the one true Twix. We are the few, the proud, the sometimes frightening.  [Trex: You know things are going south for me and Bunny when F#ck with varying numbers of !’s trailing it are the first word we use after switching back out of Hongry Shuffle to Lurching Jog modes.]

Mile 27 – Finally to the aid. I’m reminded yet again how much power a smiling face has and here I have 3. Karen, Victor and Lorna are there and putting all of us back on track. Since I’m not crying, bleeding, throwing up, pushing a bone back under skin or holding a limb at an unnatural angle, I’m small potatoes. In under 5 minutes they have me iced, reloaded and aimed back to the former aid station that would now be my gate to the finish. Heat and food or not, they put me back in a good headspace.

Mile 27.5 – “Is it suppose to be this way?!” My new running buddy of 1 mile, Scott, yelps as his eyes bulge out. I look at him in puzzlement as he explains he just had his first ever salt tab but rather than swallowing it, he pushed it between his gums and cheek and let it burst there.

“Uh…. I don’t think so.” I stammer and then explain that I’ve always swallowed them with a little food and liquid. This is quickly followed by a mental scramble as I realize that I’ve never read the directions on how to eat a salt tab “correctly”.* My confidence in my trail running expertise shaken, I make note to not say anything else to hang myself and study up next time I’m around the bottle. [TRex: Folks this is why I switched to the chewable ones, they can go down any way, suck, chew, swallow whole, you pays your money you takes your choice.]

Mile 29 – Encouraging side makes another appearance, “If you can do 28 miles on Priest Rock, with 8,000’+ of vert in over 100 degrees, you can do this!”
Alright! Let’s get this show rolling!

Mile 32 – I come to pass a younger woman who is a fellow 60K runner but clearly lost, walking very slowly and doing her best to win the hide and seek game with course ribbons. I apparently either talk a good game to instill confidence that I know where I’m going, or just look like I do. She follows close to the next turn then I lose her as she slows.

Mile 34 – At the last aid station, as I rally for the last 3M to the finish, a different woman jams right through sans stopping, calling out her number w/ the statement she’s fine and going for broke. My aggressive side’s head snaps around, hissing and bearing syringe teeth fuming over the fact that someone dare pass it. Security flies across my control room, pinning it to the ground while simultaneously whipping out every restraint it has to control the beast. “Oh no, you’re not invited today! Coach said TRAINING RUN! Really, you’re going to show up now?!?! We’re not through at this aid station yet and not chasing anyone down today!
Wait just a damn minute and let me get his ginger ale down.
Heel!
HEEEEEEEEEEL!!!!!!” [TRex:  I have no personal experience with Rabbit’s coach but if her #badassedness is any indication she’s either supremely naturally gifted at running on dirt or her coach knows a thing or two about getting a runner up to their peaks.]

Mile 36 – With the aggressive side successfully mummified in figurative duct tape, I am back to cruising. I pass a family group hiking up through the redwood grove and as soon as the kids on foot spot me, they fall in right behind, running down the trail and yelling gleefully.

The one child too small to make it far under their own power, riding in a hiking backpack, starts squealing with delight, smacking their Sherpa’s ears, hair and almost eyes. I’m sure the adults were glad to see me go.

Mile 37 – Dropping off the Dipsea trail I head down the ave to the finish in the Stinson Beach parking lot. Small finish line and welcoming committee complete with cowbells ended the tough grind of a race. The RD came over to congratulate me and it was then I learned that the 60K course only had about 6,000’ of vert rather than the 9,000’ – AKA the reason I registered for this race. I just started laughing hysterically. Of course it wasn’t 9,000’! Because that was the reason I signed up!

Confused the hell out of him…

So what did we learn kids? It’s only a waste of time if nothing is learned.[TRex: and/or you didn’t have fun.]

1. “Bad” races/runs show you just how strong you are. They make you think on the fly, create and implement new solutions fast, force you to really work for it physically and therefore forge stronger armor. These are the experiences you look back on when something else in life gets rough and say, “I did THAT. I can do THIS.”

2. Heat is still my arch nemesis and today it had lack of fuel to back it up. Pain I can take. Sketchy directions and markings I can figure out. Elevation is my “thing”. Put me in more than 100 degrees and take away food? The machine starts to lose its bolts. Something I need to continue to work on. Or get an air ratchet. 

2. Seeing people I know and who do not judge me by my speed, weight, language, smell (at the time), whatever, can put me back together faster than anything else. They are fuel for the heart and you can’t get that from anywhere.

3. How f*&king fortunate are we to have the OPPORTUNITY to do this stuff? While the large portion of the planet’s population are worried about where or IF they are going to have clean water, a roof over their heads, not have themselves or their families under attack, we’re out PLAYING on the trails. We have nothing to complain about. N_O_T_H_I_N_G.

4. Hang on. I didn’t fall. Not ONCE! So maybe this song isn’t really applicable. Again, my apologies to Aerosmith. 

5. Morning bus rides can kiss my ass. Yes sir.

*HA! You had to look down here because you didn’t know either! Go look at the label. I’ll wait…. 😉

I took my Olympus 4.0’s out on Carl yesterday and have a couple of follow up observations.

Carl is pure vertical and technical vertical at that.   It’s a ‘granny gear’ slope of typically 45 degrees or sharper with loose shale, slick rock and loose rock.

After 4 loops I came away less thrilled with the grip of the Olympus. Granted these were rough conditions.   But in general I found them to be slightly less sure footed as my Lone Peak 3.5’s.   Slightly more slippage on loose material and I partially slipped twice while descending on large rocks (boulders).

At the end of the day I came away feeling less sure on bad surfaces than I do in my Lone Peak’s.   This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it makes me more aware of footing and balance and potentially avoids over confidence that my LP’s might put me in.

Part of the problem I think is the Vibram outer ring on the Olympus is harder material and while I’m sure really durable, it seems less secure on smooth hard surfaces at dramatic slopes that may not be as dry as they could be.

They’ve also had more stretch to them them I’m used to in a trail shoe and after lap 2 I had to retie them, starting at the base of the laces all the way up to get them to lock back in.   This ‘should’ be a problem that resolves itself over time as all the stretch is taken out but the increased volume this is causing in the midfoot has me pulling the eyelets closer and closer together.

I’m going to have to get a pair of the Lone Peak 4.0’s sooner than later so I know what I’m going to be training with from now till spring.

[Follow up here]

Ran my Olympus 4.0 from Altra for the first time yesterday.  Just a short 10K on mostly single track dirt paths with a few moderate technical sections.

My prior trail shoes have been Leadville V3’s, Altra Lone Peak 2.5’s, Altra Lone Peak 3.0’s, Altra Lone Peak 3.5’s.   My current trail shoes are the Lone Peak 3.5’s that have distances up to a full marathon on them.

Sizing Note:  I wear anywhere from a 12.5 to a 14 in Altra shoes.  In Lone Peaks I’m a 14, Paradigms a 13, etc.

I initially ordered 14’s in these but they were just clown shoes so I swapped them for 13’s.  For trail shoes with descents the 13 is about right.   But in a 13 they’re noticeably longer than my size 13 Escalante 1.0’s when you put them next to each other.   One thing that is rather annoying about Altra’s is how flexible the ruler is they use to measure their shoes.  Because no one typically carries much above a 12.5 locally I almost always have to order shoes either though the local stores or online and just hope that a given model fits me in the size I ordered.  I’ve had to send back half the new to me Altra’s I’ve ordered because I guessed wrong on the sizing.

Initial impression was “Wow, soft and wow, I feel tall” after putting them on and walking on them.

Over the course of the 10K I was left with a fairly pleasantly neutral outlook on them.  While I didn’t walk away with a “OMG these are amazing.” I certainly didn’t walk away with a “These are going back.”

Honestly after the first couple of miles I kind of forgot about them and, again honestly, isn’t that a good thing?

By the end of the run they had loosened up a bit and if the run had been much longer, say a half+ I’d of likely stopped to tighten the laces but it wasn’t enough to be an issue.

Grip wise they handled everything, sand, dirt, mud, rock that I was on and I always felt like they were stuck to whatever the surface I was on.

The lugs I think are wide enough that they probably won’t cake up as badly as my Lone Peak’s do going through exceptionally thick clay type mud that we occasionally encounter, the type of material where you gain 2lbs, per shoe by the time you’ve gone 20 feet over it.

The laces, a bit of a pet peeve, weren’t too long nor too short.   I was able to double knot them without an issue and there wasn’t enough dangling to bother me.

The arch support was just about right for me, if you have flat feet these shoes may not be to your liking so try them before buying them or may sure you can take them back.

Overall, with only 10k on them, I think they’ll do to replace my 3.5’s when they wear out.   My current pair has about 150 miles on them and I have another pair LP 3.5’s NIB waiting their chance to come out and play but I’ll be rotating these Olympus 4’s in as well.

At this point barring any surprises in durability or fitment coming up I can see myself in a new (but broken in) pair of these for the at least half of Dead Horse 50K, if not the whole thing.   A race I was worried about as I still have 600 miles or so of training to do before them per our schedule and a pair and a half of Lone Peak 3.5’s isn’t going to get me there and leave enough to do 50K in.

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.

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)

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

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.

Week 2 of our 50 plan has come and gone and we did our back to back long runs over the weekend.  One of the things I’ve put in our training schedule is one weekend a month we do both long runs on the same day, one in the morning, one around 9:00 p.m.

This weekend we did the night run on the Snake trail at Turkey.  There’s a reason it’s called the Snake trail.  We had to shoo off, go around or jump over about half a dozen copperhead snakes between 18″ to maybe 30″ long.   Copperheads are typically non-aggressive and rarely fatal although they can leave you with some pretty nasty tissue damage.

The snakes were somewhat easy to spot in advance, it was the giant spiders constantly spinning webs across the trail as we did the multiple out and backs that were really annoying.   Being the slowest #boatanchor member of the group running I ran in front mostly to set the pace and as a result I got to clear the path of all the spiders and webs as we ran.  Mostly by running through the webs.

On week 5(ish) of dropping carbs from the diet and I’m still feeling the hit to some degree.  My pace is off by a fair bit for one, heart rate still on the high side for any given pace and in general just don’t feel ‘fast’ not that I ever did but it’s worse. A factor in this is that I don’t really have a ‘low intensity’ speed so converting stored fats to fuels is slow for me.

One semi-interesting thing is that even though we’d already done one 9 mile run that morning the second 9 miles that evening didn’t feel much different than the first one.

On a more useful topic is lighting.  Running Wife #1 forgot her headlamp and I didn’t have the spare I normally carry with me so I loaned her my headlamp and used the backup backup light I carry in my bag.  It’s one of many flashlights I’ve carried for a few years now, a Quark / 4 Sevens light, I’d give the model but you can’t get them anymore.   On medium which I used it puts out about 160 lumens OTF which I found very usable.  Not great at that setting for spotlighting far up the trail but I didn’t need to see that far out.

The biggest take away is that a light that’s not in line with your face is far more useful in terms of spotting hazards that might trip you up due to the sole fact that it casts shadows you can see unlike a light 1″ above your eyes.

As a result I’ve been doing a fair bit of research on lights, specifically L shaped lights I can use to attach to a belt or vest or carry easily and more naturally in my hand as I run.

I have some very specific needs though which makes it tough (impossible) to get a perfect light.

I’m currently looking at the following (no direct links as they are likely to go dead over time)

WowTec A2S ($30 on Amazon at the time of this post)

Skilhunt H03 ($30 to $45 depending on where you get it)

Skilhunt H03 RC ($55 various places)

Zebralight 600 Mark IV ($85 from vendor)

Armytek Wizard ($65 from vendor)

Armytek Wizard Pro ($80 from vendor)

I’ve ordered the WowTec A2S, got it today actually and a Zebra to test out.  Will likely pick up a Skilhunt as well.

Here’s the bigger problems I have – None of these lights are programmable so you have to use the settings they come with.

None of them have the perfect light levels for me.  I’d like a medium or high around 250-300 lumens to get the best efficiency at that level for me.   I’d like another setting in the 150-190 lumens range.   One that’s around 20-30 lumens and a ‘moonlight or firefly’ mode.

I need them to have a decent spill as well as okay spot but without a hot spot and I need it in a warm color range to make it easier to spot things like snakes that are almost the same color as the dirt I’m running on.  Warmer lights to me make it a fair bit easier to distinguish smaller color changes in greens and browns.

The TURBO!!!! modes I have no use for personally.   I just don’t see a point in having a light that in theory can throw 1100 to 2500 lumens for all of 30 seconds before the temp controls cycle it down significantly nor having a light that on the highest sustained power that doesn’t burn it up lasts an hour.

“Why don’t you get a dedicated trail running light?”

Good question, best answer I have is that Trail running specific vendors are lagging behind lighting technology and in general aren’t cutting edge in technology.   Not that bleeding edge is necessary or even a great thing but when it comes to a light the fewer batteries you have to potentially carry, the tougher the thing is, the more light it throws per watt, these are all good things.  And frankly most of them are pretty expensive for what you’re getting compared to the rest of the lighting world.

As I test these various lights specifically as options for trail running at night I’ll post my thoughts of each one, stay tuned.

I am one of those kinds of people who fully embraces any opportunity to travel with open arms because of the excitement I get from thinking of all the different possibilities a new or different city holds within its borders. So when my job duties called for a trip to Silicon Valley I wouldn’t say I jumped at the chance since this is my third trip here in the last year, and frankly I don’t relish the idea of missing my family for a week; but since I can’t just quit my job and stay home with them, then I see no reason not to make the most of this trip.

Last year when it was Trex’s turn to make the journey for his job he went begrudgingly so, but luckily Karma overlooked his lack of enthusiasm, and he came back with a new found friend who is a lover of this crazy sport we call Ultra Running. She is not only a lover of the sport she is also a badass while doing it, and has certainly fanned the flames of my (our) interest in increasing my (our) distances, and venturing out to more scenic places to run than on paved city trails.  So when the chance came for me to take advantage of a company paid flight to California I booked the earliest flight out of town I could reasonably take to arrive with just enough time to take her up on the offer to play tour guide through her ‘playground’, the Santa Cruz Mountains; and oh what a playground it is, I have the bite marks to prove it!

The text conversation leading up to the trip started out something to the effect of  “I want someplace awesome to run that will make Trex greener with envy”– greener because well, he is already a green reptile; which was followed by some evil laughs and scheming to find a trail, elevation gain, and distance that wouldn’t kill me–since I am not quite the badass ultra-runner our friend is, but that would induce a fit of jealousy that might provoke a Trex to overcome his reluctance to travel.  So full discloser, this article will contain considerable bias in favor of the latter statement.

It is obvious the second you step outside in San Jose why people pay the astronomical price to live here. First and foremost the weather is freaking perfect. Pleasant, sunny, mild with a light warming or cooling breeze. Just freaking damn perfect. Next would be the views. Flying in you can see the mountains and hills that surround the ‘valley’ and they are most definitely a far cry from our little Urban Wilderness reserve Turkey Mountain. Here you are in proximity to so many outdoor activities and options, coupled with perfect weather that you can truly take to the hills to unwind after a long day and really recharge. And taking to the hills was exactly what we did.

Now, like us, our Rabbit friend (her nickname earned proudly from her exceptional navigation and skill of popping up all over the trails), is currently in training for her next big race, so she had to clear the planned distance for my scheduled run with her coach since we were running on her ‘easy’ day.  I of course laughed at this because I knew that my pace would be so much slower than her easy running pace that this would be like walking for her. But none the less time on legs and feet, while ascending close to 2K feet is wear and tear and the last thing we want is for her machine to become injured while she is in pursuit of her next big race, which is not just any race, it is none other than the Finlayson 100K. Look it up, it’s not for the faint of heart. So she, having “maps for brains” found us a good segment that was within my abilities and meet both her and my needs in terms of elevation and distance.

Our fair Rabbit friend picked me up after I arrived in town and took me for a bit of shopping therapy at her favorite local running store The Sports Basement.  This is a fun store, think REI meets TJ Maxx. They have all the big brands for all things sports but are generally sold at a discount. Truly a retail haven for the thrifty yet serious runner. We weaved around the store where Rabbit found the items on her shopping list. Myself I restrained from going nuts and limited my purchases to consumables for on the trip. I wish sincerely we had this store in our area.  Both eager to hit the hills we crammed a few protein bars in our bellies, that we picked up at the Basement–they have a huge selection, and wound our way up the sharp curvy Big Basin way to Skyline Trail. Once at the top, me a tinge nauseated from the curvy drive, with the usual preparations (water bladders filled, sunscreen and bug spray applied) we were off for our run.

What I noticed first and foremost was the clean fresh smell of the air. Unlike our trails the air was dry and fragrant with natural vibrant plant smells. Nothing reeked of rotting vegetation or stagnant water. It was just fresh and cool. The trails are mostly single track packed dirt with occasional up-cropping of  rocks and roots just to keep you on your toes. It is not too rocky or gravely, and a nice mix of a few interesting technical areas with long stretches of rolling trail which is perfect for running.  There is a great mixture of sunny areas and shaded areas that wind through the amazing tree canopy created by the mighty Oaks and Sequoya that cover the mountains. The vegetation that lines the trails stands out to me as one of the more memorable and enjoyable aspects. At several points along our route we encountered trees that were hundreds of years old with huge trunks and crocked limbs. There is a plethora of poison oak along the side of the trail that in a few places requires stepping carefully through where it has crept over the path.  There were small riveletts and gulley’s and even a waterfall or two. There were very enjoyable sections where climbing rocks and actual stairs were required and rather steep deadly drop offs which fueled our vertigo just a tad and restored a healthy sense of respect for natures boundaries.

     

But the absolute best part of this run of course were the vistas. Around the bends and through the trees you could come to vast views of the expansive mountains with a birds eye view of the cities far off. I was told by our fair Rabbit friend that the trail we were on runs through to the ocean and at several spots we could see the vast blue sky that touched it below the other side of the range. The feeling that over took my senses was a general sense of my own insignificance. When you stand next to trees so large they feel like buildings or look out to the cities below made microscopic by the height of nature you simply feel microscopic yourself.  It is a feeling I rarely encounter in my area of the world, and it is a good reminder to the ole ego to know just how unimportant I am in the grand scheme of the Earth. Now that’s not to say I don’t consider the importance of being a good citizen on this planet, but as a singular person I felt quite negligible. 

Along the way we passed several “civilians” as Rabbit likes to call them. Day hikers who carried clunky water bottles and cellphones in hand wearing sandals and street fashion athletic shoes and clothes. At least one needed directions and most had no clue about proper trail etiquette. I am sure most of the experienced trail runners had already come and gone during the cool of the morning, likely positioning themselves to see the sunrise over the valley. That’s what I would do if I had these mountains to play on back home. The temperatures varied quite a bit along the trail. In the direct sun on the rocky sides of the trails it was on the warmer side, but nothing compared to the heat back home, but just about the time I was feeling hot we would slip back into the canopy and the temperature was at least 10 degrees cooler in the shade. But in general through the heat of the day the weather was simply perfect. Perfectly warm, perfectly cool, and perfectly sunny. Darn you Californians with your perfect damn weather.

Rabbit and I bounded through the trails at a leisurely pace, walking much of the inclines and clipping down a few of the downhills.  We covered approximately 10 miles with 1900ft of elevation gain. That is comparable to the first segment accent we will cover for our 50K, so when I frankly wasn’t really all that sore the next two days it was a relief to know I am in much better shape than I thought I was preparing for our biggest race yet.  So except for the times when I nearly fell off the side of the trails whilst being bitten on my ass and neck (and not in a good way) by a few hungry yellow jackets which were attracted to my “fatty meat” smell  due to my Keto diet, I would say the run was by far the best trail run I have experienced to date.

I managed to fit my two scheduled training runs in the morning before work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Because of the 30 degree cooler temps, and the clean freshness of the air of the Lower Guadalupe River Trail that I ran on, these were very pleasant and enjoyable morning runs compared to the 104 degree temps I will be returning to for our evening runs.

Now as I write this from the middle seat of a Southwest flight back home and look out my window at the vast land formations, I feel the pull to get out there and give those yellow jackets a piece of my mind, but I miss my family more and am happy to be heading home. I count myself fortunate to have “broken trail” with our fair Rabbit friend and look forward to the next opportunity to hop around the mountains, whenever that may be. And maybe just maybe I can convince Trex to come too. (Not holding my breath though).