Stalking 50

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:Gratz on the run.

I have a suggestion for your ankles! Strengthen up the lateral and medial stabilizer muscles by walking curbs. If you can't go very far on the curbs, then get into a doorway and hold 1 foot in the air and balance for about 20 seconds, then switch feet. Do that over some days and then try the curbs again.

What part of the curb? The top, side, both? And walking along it, or up and down it?

I am envisions walking it so you hang half of your foot over the edge of the curb and you have to use your ankle muscles to prevent the ankle from rolling one way or the other. Sounds pretty intense. Is that what you mean?

Our curbs down here are about 3-4 inches high to prevent a car from running up onto the grass (or make it highly noticeable that you're running up the curb). If y'all don't have that, then another idea would be to walk on a gymnastics beam that's very low to the ground. You walk one foot in front of the other, like you did the time you were having to perform that Field Sobriety Test, last week.

Okay, got it. We actually don't have curbs like that near my house: We have "rolled" curbs, which let every jackass in the world easily drive up onto the sidewalk to park. Maybe what I ought to do is walk along the edge of those rolled curbs, ankles turned partway over, to get them strong but limber. Hm...

Don't know if I'd do that, as it might put too much stress on the muscle and over-lengthen it.

If your streets are concrete and there are gaps or expansion joints between sections, you could do the Sobriety Test-one foot over the other. To start, you could get in a doorway and just lift one foot up for 20 seconds or so, then the other. Rinse, repeat. Then get your son to bounce a ball to you, as you have one foot in the air.

I was kind of kidding about walking the edge of a rolled curb... though seriously hardcore mountain runners like Kilian Journet would probably use that as a warm-up before doing something that'd snap most people's ankles like twigs.

What you're talking about reminds me of "stork" techniques I've been given over the years, and other proprioception/strengthening drills I've read about. They're all great ideas, and they get much more difficult when you do them with your eyes closed. (Not the walking on a balance beam, of course, though I have closed my eyes while running in a big flat open space to feel my way along.) I should definitely keep doing those.

Barefoot Run: 3.1 miles on wet asphalt

Weather: Cool, rainy and breezy. 43 degrees Gear: Bare feet, shorts, long-sleeved T, jacket, hat. Fuel: Post-breakfast

A barefoot run, recovery style, on an unseasonably cold and rainy morning. I kept the effort level very low, trying to focus on relaxing as I ran. My pace was fairly slow, but my HR was lower than I'd expected. Nice.

The whole "relaxing" issue is important for me, I think. I have a tendency to try to muscle through a run sometimes -- especially when I get excited -- and that leads to more soreness, sooner. That may have been one reason one of my ankles got sore on Monday: I was feeling so strong at my turnaround point that I was sort of (cough, cough) started hammering the trail, hanging corners, on the way back.

Anyway... this was a good chance for me to relax and focus on how my body felt. The fact that it was cold and rainy only helped keep my focus inward.

Average HR for entire run: 132

Low HR Run: 6.28 miles

Weather: Rainy, windy, muggy, cool. 47 degrees. Gear: Altra Instincts, shorts, pullover, hat, gloves (shed). Fuyel: Post breakfast, had carrots as a pre-run snack. No water on run.

The most encouraging part of this run happened before I hit "Start" on my Garmin. My HR fell to 48. That's a sign that I am bouncing back nicely from my two hard weeks in a row, and it shows that using yesterday's barefoot run as a pure recovery effort was the right thing to do.

The run was also encouraging. I've read that one warning sign of overtraining in ultra preparation is to see your speed start to fall off. It's difficult to gauge speed on the trails, so these midweek runs can be good barometers. Well, with my HR trending low, it meant I could run faster and still maintain a low HR. I didn't quite dial it in to hit my MAF perfectly (I was averaging 2 bpm above that), I was able to pretty easily go significantly faster at about the same effort level. My first mile after the warm-up was 9:15. I slowed, of course but I was still faster than previously.

Again, it's not MAF, so it cant compare. But it's still nice to see.

Walked first and last 5 minutes. Average HR for entire run: 133

Hi, Mark

wendy_miller wrote:Hi, Mark

Hi, Wendy!

We interrupt this blog to....

Freak out.

OMG! OMG! ZOMG!

I got an email from the race director at the Mount Hood 50 tonight, in response to what was going to be my last pestering email to see if anything was opening up. I'd had a gut feeling last week that, one way or another, I would be signed up for a race by May 24. I had fully expected it'd be my back-up race, the White River 50.

But... tonight's email said, check the sign-in site, because there's an invitation waiting for me for Mount Hood. Talk about a surprise! My May 24 hunch was right... for the race I originally wanted. Go figure! Patience paid off.

So... I'm now signed up. Finally, actually, truly committed. And somewhat freaked out.

It probably doesn't help that I just realized that the timing of my training plan is a week off, which means I may have only a two-week taper...

Woohoo!!!!! Congratulations!!! And a 2-wk taper is probably fine (wtf do I know). Looking forward to following this blog through your goal - yeah.

Woot, You're in! I think you'll be fine with a 2 week taper, it worked for me.

Thanks, guys. I was really quite surprised to get in at this point.

I'm looking at the calendar, and the way my current schedule works out, I'd be doing the second of two 12-28 back-to-backs on June 30/July1. The race itself is on July 13. Not a lot of turnaround time, so I'm wondering. I guess I could just do a single 12-28 and then start a three-week taper, but I'm not exactly thrilled with that idea, either. Hm. Well, I have at least a little time to ponder my options, now that I have an honest-to-gosh race to run.

Amateur coaches, here's how the time breaks down, looking only at the back-to-backs, before the big day.

8-10 (this weekend)
10-26
10-26
8-10
12-28
12-28 (July 1)
10 (the Sunday or Monday of race week)
Race (Saturday, July 13)

Open to thoughts/suggestions.

My opinion would be to see how it goes after the first 12-28 at 4 weeks out. If you're healthy, then do another one. If not, then match your affliction to your next 3 weeks.

ounce wrote:My opinion would be to see how it goes after the first 12-28 at 4 weeks out. If you're healthy, then do another one. If not, then match your affliction to your next 3 weeks.

Good thought, Doug. Thanks!

Hill Run: 6.28 miles

Weather: Overcast, cool, windy. 52 degrees, gusts to 18 mph. Gear: Altra Instincts, shorts, T, windbreaker, hat. Fuel: Small snack before, carried no water.

I woke up with a little soreness in my lower right leg (I had a stressful night at work last night, and I think I must have drilled my right foot into the floor), so I made sure to keep the intensity low on this morning's run. I decided to run my hilly route, practicing keeping my HR down as I eased up and down the hills. The soreness eased up during the run, which was nice, and the run felt generally easy. My HR was well below my MAF, which is also nice, especially while running hills like these.



I went without water or even an emergency gel in my pack, and I thought I might be in a little trouble as I neared my turnaround point - I was feeling thirsty and a little depleted - but the feeling passed and I finished without any problems.

Walked first and last 5 minutes. Average HR for entire run: 129

Since you're not doing any speed work, I think a 2 week taper will be fine, especially since you're not going to be pushing the speed end of things anyway and looking to hang on to as much endurance as possible. I've tinkered with the idea of a 2 week taper for marathons, but I like 3 since I'm doing faster stuff the entire time. If I was doing basically just endurance work, as you are, I would probably be much more comfortable with 2 weeks.

I agree with Tim, 2 weeks should be fine.

mul21 wrote:Since you're not doing any speed work, I think a 2 week taper will be fine, especially since you're not going to be pushing the speed end of things anyway and looking to hang on to as much endurance as possible. I've tinkered with the idea of a 2 week taper for marathons, but I like 3 since I'm doing faster stuff the entire time. If I was doing basically just endurance work, as you are, I would probably be much more comfortable with 2 weeks.

I agree with Tim, 2 weeks should be fine.

Thanks for the thoughts. I have always been thrilled with full 3-week marathon tapers, either. So maybe this could be a good experiment, especially since I'm not exactly gunning for a course record or anything. (Oh, wait. Simply finishing would be a course record for me, huh? Well, anyway...)

I posted this way back when I was starting this process, but it's easier to just repost than direct anybody interested in this race to the deep recesses of this blog.

A little information on the race itself.

The Mount Hood 50 is part of the Northwest Mountain Trail Series, which has some truly impressive runs in the Pacific Northwest.

Click here for a .pdf that shows all the races in the series.

I borrowed from the .pdf document above to get these images. First up is an overview of the course, looking north along the crest of the Cascade Range toward Mount Hood. The big lake you see is Timothy Lake. The race starts a mile or two south of the lake.



Here's a closer look at the course itself, which is a double out-and-back. The first out-and-back to the north is a bit longer than the out-and-back to south.



The red markers are aid stations (at miles 6.0, 9.2, 14.2, 19.2, 22.4, 28.4, 33.7, 39.2, 44.7). The darker green area is National Forest, while the lighter green is the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

The relief shading on the map shows the terrain pretty well, but here's a look at the elevation profile:



Lots of climbs (5,630 feet), but the sort of climbs I prefer: longer, continuous grades. That'll match up well with the trails I have been running this year. I also sort of like how it doesn't start by going straight up a mountain in the first mile. That's rare in these parts!

The course runs almost entirely on the Pacific Crest Trail and is supposedly shaded. Taking a closer look at aerial views of the course doesn't show anything particularly volcanic or technical. So, if there was a mountain race that'd be relatively barefoot-friendly, this might be it. Except I'm crazy, not stupid: I'll wear my Altras.

The course opens an hour early for anybody who might need extra hour on top of the 12-hour cutoff. I signed up for the early start, just to play it safe and take some of the pressure off. It means I wouldn't qualify for an award, but I don't think I'd be in contention anyway...

As far as logistics go, things are working out pretty well. I reserved a campsite for the night before and night after the race in a campground very close to where the race starts. (See the campground here.)

My brother-in-law and his family have agreed to come up with their trailer as a base camp/crew quarters for sleeping and to keep Alec and Alita entertained while I'm out there. (In exchange, I've agreed to do the Goofy Challenge with him in 2015.)

MAF+ Test: 8.27 miles total

Weather: Partly cloudy, mild, muggy (97% humidity), breezy. Gear: Altra Instincts, shorts, T (peeled off for about a mile). Fuel: Grape Nuts and coffee before. Water during.

This morning seemed like a good day to try a MAF test down at the local high school track. I didn't have huge expectations for it -- I am in a stepback week after two of the longest weeks of my life, and its less than a week since I did a 10-24 back to back -- so I didn't stress about times so much. This was more to make sure I wasn't getting overtrained, and to give me some stimulus right at my aerobic threshold. Sort of an aerobic tempo run? Hm.

The weather wasn't great for this. It was in the low 50s but it was quite muggy -- the temp was 54.2 and the dewpoint was 53.4 when I started -- and the sun came out a couple of times. I must have started to overheat a little. I did pretty well in the first two miles (9;43, 9:45) because I had a big drop-off in pace in MAF Mile 3 (10:08) That continued in the next mile (10:19), though not by as much. Then I decided to do something a little different: I peeled off my shirt and did the next mile shirtless. I cut 16 seconds off my pace, in my fifth mile (10:02), just like that. Wow.

I stopped to use the porta-potty, put my shirt back on for modesty (somebody else came to the track) then did two more miles (I'd also done a warmup mile) when my pace fell even lower - back to sub-10 (9:52, 9:52). Not bad! In those last two miles, my body remembered that I needed to relax my feet as I was landing, and it felt easier and lighter.

One caveat: My target MAF heart rate is 138, but my pulse was so jumpy this morning that I could only manage to hit an average HR of 140. That's not ideal, but the fact that *every* mile was 140 still shows a good progression for how my body responds to accumulated fatigue... and what I can do to deal with that.

Here's how the first 5 miles compares with previous efforts since I returned to low HR training.



Not bad. I'm not as speedy as I was barefoot -- be it from less weight on the feet, greater cooling by not having shoes on, or because I wasn't running such long distances -- and I seem to have hit a bit of a plateau, but that probably shouldn't come as a surprise. I'll take it.

Walked first and last 5 minutes. Average HR for entire run: 134

Congrats on the entry. You always lose me on these MAF tests but you seem pretty happy about it heartrate man so test on. I'm guessing the lack of speed is directly related to the mileage buildup.

Dave Wolfe wrote:Congrats on the entry. You always lose me on these MAF tests but you seem pretty happy about it heartrate man so test on. I'm guessing the lack of speed is directly related to the mileage buildup.

I'd say so, yes. I did go back and look at other runs this year and noticed that I was faster after the pit stop than I was previously. I'll take that as a good sign, and a good reminder that a brief break can extend that range of endurance out farther - and even let you speed up a bit.

Walk: 4 miles on the Leif Erikson Drive in Forest Park

Weather: Party cloudy and mild. 62 degrees

A walk on Forest Park's Leif Erikson Drive, a former road turned into a broad path for cyclists, walkers and runners. Alita had just got a pair of Altra Intuition 1.5s, and it was a nice day to test them out. I'd never run on Leif before, so this seemed like a good way to check it out.



The walk was nice, cool and shady. We carried windbreakers but didn't need them. The climb was 221 feet (per USATF's mapping program), with most of the climbing in the first two miles. Very mild. The surface was pretty rocky -- that people run barefoot here amazes me -- I think I'd actually prefer the trails I usually run on, because only sections of them are rocky.

Alita and Alec at the halfway point:


And then the guys:



We got Alita's shoes nicely broken in and a bit mucky, thanks to some mud and still-decaying leaves.

Good thing we got our walk in yesterday, because it's raining like crazy here this morning!

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Rainy Low HR Run: 10.26 miles

Weather: Steady rain, wind. 52 degrees. Gear: Altra Instincts (passed 500 mile mark in them), shorts, long-sleeved T, jacket, hat, gloves (for a while). Fuel: Small serving of Grape Nuts before, with coffee. Carried no water, got a drink from a water fountain at 5 mile mark.

My step-back Monday coincided with Memorial Day, which means both Alec and Alita were home from school, so I got up early and did my 10 miles without hitting the trails. Good timing for it: it was pissing down rain all morning, so the trails would have been very muddy (and around here, that means slippery). I ran in the Salmon Creek Greenway, saw no wildlife whatsoever, unless you count maybe a dozen very wet walkers and joggers. (It rained 0.17 inches at our neighborhood rain gauge while I was out.)

After spending my whole run yesterday trying to get as close to - but not above my MAF heart rate of 138, I decided to run easier today. I let my body find a relaxed pace and didn't try to push harder when I saw my HR floating in the low 130s. What surprised me a little was that, despite the extra low HR, I wasn't going particularly slow. That was nice.

The weather was distracting at first, and I was shivering a little before I got warmed up. But after a couple of miles, I got comfortable -- even though it would have been difficult for me to get any wetter!

Walked first and last 5 minutes. Average HR for entire run: 133

Congrats on getting into the race of your choice Mark. I'm still not sure I understand this ultra thing but I must admit that I'd hike in that area at the drop of a hat if I had time. We try and get up into the High Rocks area near there to pick Huckleberries if we have time in the fall. Looks like you'll be at elevation but the berries won't be ripe till late August so it won't work to stop and pick a few for a quick energy boost.

Has Alec been to Little Crater Lake? It's just off road 58. It's a short walk from the parking/campground to the lake but it's one of my favorites. I haven't had time to look at the map to see exactly where you're running and camping but it couldn't be far.

I'm sure you were wet today. We even had rain last night and this morning!

nkrichards wrote:Congrats on getting into the race of your choice Mark. I'm still not sure I understand this ultra thing but I must admit that I'd hike in that area at the drop of a hat if I had time. We try and get up into the High Rocks area near there to pick Huckleberries if we have time in the fall. Looks like you'll be at elevation but the berries won't be ripe till late August so it won't work to stop and pick a few for a quick energy boost.

Has Alec been to Little Crater Lake? It's just off road 58. It's a short walk from the parking/campground to the lake but it's one of my favorites. I haven't had time to look at the map to see exactly where you're running and camping but it couldn't be far.

I'm sure you were wet today. We even had rain last night and this morning!

I'm not sure I understand the ultra thing either, Nancy, but apparently I've learned to embrace hurling myself into the unknown. I blame my ancestors, who kept wandering over the face of the Earth until they made it to the Pacific Northwest and ran out of continent.

Alas, it would be nice to harvest a few huckleberries during the race. But it's too soon.

We'll have to check the lake out. I think the race goes past it, but I might not be in a position to linger at that point.

The rain is inconvenient, but nice considering how dry it was earlier in the spring. The last thing we need is an early and prolonged fire season.

(Note: My shoes were still wet this morning, 24 hours after my run. Yipes!)

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Walk: 4 miles

Weather: Partly cloudy, breezy, a few raindrops. 62 degrees.

A slightly longer walk today. Had a couple of brief rain showers, but it was mostly dry.

My right hip was a little tight at the start but got better as I warmed up.

Barefoot Run: 3.1 miles on wet asphalt

Weather: Showery, mild, a little breezy. 55 degrees. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T, jacket, hat (while it rained). Fuel: post-breakfast.

It was dry but threatening rain all morning... until I walked out the door for my barefoot run. Within 30 seconds it was raining moderately, and a bit windy. Oh well. At least my shoes won't get wet.

The run went well. I kept my HR very close to my MAF target and still ran every mile sub-10. (9:56, 9:41, 9:48)

The rain stopped after a mile or so, but it was nice and puddly out - so I got lots of foot baths. And a few eye rolls from the neighbors.

Average HR for entire run 138 (no walking warm up or cool down)