50K

After a long, stressful week in the working world, a good 50K trail race was just what I needed to remove and refresh myself (barring the sore legs). As physically exhausting as it can be, there is something mentally rejuvenating about pushing yourself to completing an event like this.
The course is a 10+ mile loop and there were three different races held - a 10 mile (1 loop), a 20 mile (2 loops), and a 50K (3 loops). Between the three events, there were over 200 runners.
Loop 1 - The first time around went great. There were people around almost the whole time as all the 10 and 20 milers were still on the course. I was glad I had spent a little time on these trails in the past weeks re-familiarizing myself with them. I quickly realized though that I didn't run the same course in training as what were on now - oh well, close enough to have a feel for what the race would bring. I spent most of this loop simply getting into grove, getting comfortable with the mud, and trying not to bite it on the icy portions of the trails. I made it to turn, refilled my water, grabbed a few handfuls of peanut M&Ms, a boiled potato dipped in salt, and half a PB&J sandwich and was off again. (The Trail Nerds have awesome aid stations)
Loop 2 - By this time, the field of participants hand thinned considerably, roughly a third were already done after 10 miles, and the remaining 20 milers and 50K's were spread thin over the 10 mile track. I was still running well and feeling good, but starting to pay a little more attention to the need maintain energy levels through fuel, hydration, and up-hill walks. Some of the icy portions of the trails were starting to melt as the temps rose, but the course was still very treacherous - not sure if the mud or the ice was more slippery. I had witnessed several wipe outs by now, and had narrowly avoided several myself. Somewhere on this loop, my feet slipped out from under me to the side while taking a sharp turn too fast - luckily I caught myself with my hand before anything else hit the ground and was back up running in an instant with no damage. Soon, I found myself in a line of 6-8 other guys all running the full 3 loops. The small talk within the group and the camaraderie of simply having others around made those miles go by pretty fast, but eventually we all set back into our own paces and spread back out. By the time I made it back to the turn with 2 loops down, it was time to trade my heavy gloves in for a lighter pair, let one of the volunteers refill my water for me, and graze over the buffet of food a little longer than last time. I took a big swig of Red Bull and was off again.
Loop 3 - Although I was still feeling relatively good, I could tell I had slowed down quite a bit. I had no major problems - no stomach issues, no serious pains, just tired - and I was extremely happy with that. It was somewhere about this mileage at my last 50K that I hit a wall for a few miles and was completely miserable. This wasn't happening today, just the normal fatigue you would expect from running this far on a tough course. Most of the ice had disappeared by now, but the mud had been churned up and was at an all time high. I felt like I was running through 6 inches of creamy peanut butter through several stretches. About the time I would start to get really tired, I would come across another runner. We would give a few words of encouragement to each other, and then move on. I realized that I was lapping a few of those folks - considering the lap was 10 miles long, this was a huge morale booster for me inside. I made sure to refuel at each of the aid stations this time around despite skipping a few earlier on. I ate everything from cookies, to potatoes, to pretzels, energy gels, bananas, mountain dew, and red bull over the span of the entire event. It was a smorgasbord of crap - but perfect for keeping your energy up during an event. That said, I highly discourage eating 99% percent of these things any other time. While crossing of one of the many fallen logs on the trail, I didn't get my rear leg up quick enough causing my shin bone to hit hard and scrape along the bark. Ouch! Unfortunately it hurt much worse than what the wound let on, so I wouldn't even be able to tell any cool war stories about it. There was broken skin, but no flowing blood to mix in with my mud caked legs. The final aid station had soft chocolate chip cookies! Perfect, my favorite - I grabbed a few to eat as I ran the final few miles to finish.
5 hours and 55 minutes later I crossed the finish line - tired, happy to done, but ready for the next one. Mendy and the boys were there to snap a few pictures, and we headed home to clean up for a date night for Valentines Day.
Finishing times for the 50K ranged from the fastest male time at 4:22:31 (a blazing speed and almost 20 minutes faster than 2nd place), first place female at 6:14:25, and the final competitors finishing in just over 9 and 1/2 hours. My official time of 5:55:19 was good enough to earn 16 place overall out of 77 finishers.
Overall, a great race that was well organized from all aspects. Can't wait for the summer version.

5K Trail Race... plus some

I went out to Wyandotte County State Park this weekend for a 5k event with Bronco (#9). He picked probably the toughest 5K course in the region as his first one, but at least everything from here on will seem easy in comparison. Another of my friends (#17) that I know through work decided to give it a go as well for his first event. Both of them did well and seemed to enjoy themselves, hopefully they will do more.

After the race I stayed at the park to get my training miles in. I was looking forward to running there again as I am running in a 50K there in two weeks, and figured it would be nice to have a refresher course of those trails. After a several miles, I was reminded how humbling they can be - especially since the majority of my miles have been on the road lately. After about 6 miles, I had to revert to fast-walking some of the steeper uphill sections. Despite the difficulty, I had a great time exploring the trails and navigating the rough terrain. I put in 20 miles by myself, plus the 5k for a total of 23.

I was also glad to work out some kinks in my shoes and equipment prior to the next race, which has resulted in me going on a minor spending spree for some much needed new gear - at least I have justified it as "much needed" in my own mind. I ordered some gaiters to keep out the massive amounts of debris that always collects in my shoes and socks, a new hydration belt system, and most importantly some new trail shoes. I really wanted to like my current trail shoes - North Face Rucky Chucks, gore-tex version - but they just don't fit my feet well. I have several sore spots on my feet directly related to the shoes after only 23 miles. They really didn't perform all that well in my last 50K either, but I tryed to ignore it because I liked other aspects of them. Oh well, I got probably 2/3 of their mileage out them. I can't wait to try out the new stuff.

Back to the Woods

This morning was the first time I hit the trails in quite a while. A lot of excuses have kept me staying with the convenience of road running pretty much a winter. I was reminded of what I had missed out on and how awesome it is to cruise through the woods just after dawn.
I ran 21 miles total this morning, but did the first 12 on the roads, timing my arrival at the trails with sunrise so I didn't have to mess with a headlamp. It snowed just enough this morning to coat the trails themselves with a white film - highlighting the singletrack as it snaked through the trees - it looked very cool (wish I had brought a camera). Obviously, my pace slowed down when I hit the trails, and even though my legs could tell they hadn't been off pavement for a couple months, I still felt good through the entire run, including my last and fastest miles back to my car which was parked 3 miles away from the trails.
It was only 16 degrees this morning, but the wind was relatively light so I was very comfortable the whole time. I wore tights with shorts over, a fitted long sleeve shirt, tech t-shirt, and my Reebok running jacket. I wore a face mask and double gloves with hand warmers in them.
Great morning overall. Looking forward to hitting the trails more often.

Topeka to Auburn

Yesterday was the Topeka to Auburn 1/2 Marathon. Brad invited me out to do it with him, he has done it a few times in years past. It turned out to be a great event all around. Aside from some strong winds at time, the weather warmed up into the upper 30's and was sunny - perfect.
The race is a one-way course from Topeka to the small town of Auburn, KS. We parked at the finish, and rode a bus to the start - a van took our gear bags back to Auburn for us to pick up at the finish.
We lined up about mid-pack at the starting line, and held a pace in the upper 7:00's for the majority of the first half. About mile 6 or 7, we sped up and maintained a pace in the low 7:00's for the next for miles. Around mile 10, I was still feeling pretty good, so I turned up the tempo just a bit more logging a sub 7:00 mile and holding through a sprint to the finish. I had just passed a girl right before the finish when I heard my name announced, then the girls name along with a notation that she was the first female to finish. So...at least I beat all the female participants. Final time was 1:39:50, 57th out of 270 runners.

Sun Rise

I need to get my butt moving faster in the morning. I woke up at 4:00 so I would have plenty of time to get 24 miles in before church yesterday, but still ended up getting started about 15 minutes later than planned and only got 22 miles in before time to go to church. Oh well, it was still a good run and my last couple miles were pacing in the low 7s - not bad for me after 20 miles. I felt extremely fresh still when we arrived at the finish, and once again wanted to keep going if not for time constraints. Brad met me after the first 4 miles so I had him as company for the majority of the run. I normally like to run solo so I can do my own thing, but it's nice to have someone to talk to every once in a while, plus, Brad and I run at about the same pace.

Although it's sometimes hard to get out the door in the wee hours of the morning, it sure is nice to be running when the sun comes up. I love the feeling of accomplishment knowing that I have ran further than most people ever will - all before they even got out of bed for the day. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from it that I can't really describe. It's not an "I'm better than you" type of thing, but more just a secure sense of self confidence. A rush that keeps me feeling good all day.

Hurricanes

Since the pain in my achilles area still hadn't gone away, but had instead spread to my right leg as well, I decided it was time to possibly try a different shoe style. I have been wearing Mizuno Wave Creations for quite awhile, and have always liked the firmness of them, but a little reflection helped me realize that maybe this was the problem - especially considering the weekly mileage that I have been averaging.
I went to the store last night in search of something with a little more cushion and some moderate pronation control (I slightly overpronate at best, but figured a little support in this area might help the pains I've been having). I came out with a pair of Saucony Hurricane 10's. I already put 20 miles on them this morning and couldn't be happier with my decision to switch to them - I didn't know what I had been missing all this time. I felt great the entire 20 miles, finishing stronger and faster than at any other point during the run, and had none of the achilles area pains that I had recently been experiencing even on shorter runs. The area is a little tight right now, but nothing like before and no more than what I would normally expect after 20 miles. If the family weren't waiting for me a tome to get to church, I would have liked to have kept going longer today - the extra cushioning in these shoes compared to what I was used to really helped keep my legs fresh.

Next week I'll get an extra early morning start and go for 24-26 miles, then I'll probably go down in mileage for a rest week before building the mileage back up again.

Running is an all-weather sport

I logged 18 miles yesterday in single digit temperatures, and during the 2.5+ hours that I was running, I had plenty of time to contemplate my sanity. Not sure that I came to any definite conclusions, but I knew that I was happy to be running despite the icicles forming from my eyelashes.

Actually, it really wasn't that bad - I was slightly overdressed and working up quite a sweat (an odd sensation when the temps are that cold). For my upper body, I wore a long sleeve tech-T, a long sleeve 1/4 zip heavy tech-T, and my new running jacket with fleece vest liner. For the legs I wore tights with running pants on top, regular running socks with thin dress socks over them (mainly to ensure I had something over my ankles), light gloves inside a pair of my hunting mittens, and a face mask. I put Aquaphor on the exposed portion of skin around my eyes.

Normally, if I overheat, I would just shed a layer, but due to the extreme temps, I was afraid of shedding a layer and then exposing sweat dampened clothing and figured that wouldn't be very good. Fortunately, I was able to get used to the extra clothing and monitored the situation by lowering/raising the zipper on my jacket - it's amazing how much heat can be released or retained by doing this. I was also afraid to pee behind a bush as I normally would from a real fear of a mid-stream freeze possibly leading to even more troubles.

Aside from the shear weight of all the extra clothing, the mask also made for very labored breathing. It has holes in the mouth and nose area, but still obstructed the air from flowing freely. My water bottle froze too (guess I should have been able to predict that), but luckily my route looped back by my car a little past midway where I had another bottle that was still in liquid form.

I didn't really want to be out in the cold yesterday, but not running would have made me very grumpy, and I didn't think I could last that long on a treadmill. As I told Mendy, "I just wouldn't feel right if I didn't get my run in." Oh well, I guess there are worse hang-ups to have.