Stalking 50

Ben Z wrote:How's the new shirt?

And any ideas on your next race?

The new shirt is pretty nifty, Ben! I've worn it a couple of times, and I get how it's supposed to keep you cool -- strategically-placed sections of the shirt hold moisture, which allows for more evaporative cooling. I think it might work best in climates with a lower humidity and much higher temperatures than when I tested it. That said, it's still a very nice shirt, and I'm glad I have it.

As far as a next race goes... I'm still not sure. I toyed with a marathon in the late fall, but I don't think the budget's going to allow that this year. Maybe I'll do something longer next spring. Yes, the likelihood of me doing another ultra is growing. (Anybody surprised? Didn't think so.) Maybe a 50K, pushing it a little harder? Or another shot at a 50, seeing if I can resolve the ankle issue? Or going even longer? I can wrap my brain around a 100K at this point. Longer than that, not so much.

Still, there are so many choices!

Michael Enright wrote:Sounds like a scene from a movie - too bad they were so humorless about it. I would have found it hysterical.

Hey, Michael!

It brought a movie to mind for me, as well. And I don't know about you, but it was a classic:



That's got to be one of the best movie endings ever.

Bonus! It's even got a running scene in it.

Ben Z wrote:

Mark B wrote:

mul21 wrote:I found a new shoe for you:

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/descpageMRS-SSNSUM1.html

Pay no attention to that price tag!

*Gasp!*

I don't think I'm worthy of shoes that nice. I think those are the ones Kilian Jounet wears when he's out making the best mountain runners in the world look silly.

I got a free pair of the Sense Ultras recently. Pretty sweet shoe. Not sure i would trust myself in it for a 50 miler yet but certainly a trail marathon or shorter. Have you seen next year's Sense lineup?

http://samwinebaum.blogspot.com/2013/08/outdoor-retailer-summer13-salomon-sense.html

The Sense 2 just was released though and I'm thinking that could be a contender for my favorite trail shoe.

I've seen them online, but I've never actually seen them in person. I bet they are great shoes (whether they'd fit my feet, of course, is always a question).

I did Mount Hood in a pair of Altra Superiors. While they're not as minimal as, say a VFF, they've got a zero drop and a relatively small amount of cushion and rock protection. The Sense 2 has a slightly higher stack height and a 4 mm drop, so I suspect the ride in the Salomons might actually feel a little more plush to me. (I seriously would have to run faster in them to keep from embarrassing myself, though. Those shoes are not meant for slogging!)

Still, for the record... Solomon folks? If you need a wear tester, I know one who's available!

---

Oh, speaking of shoes, it seems that Nike has released a couple new pair of trail shoes! I know, Nike hasn't exactly been focused on that market, but these new shoes look to be more designed for trail running than what they've put out before.

Here's a link to a Nike page describing them. Unfortunately, it's a little short on specifics. Here's another post with a little more information.

Yeah, I've held the new Nike trail shoes and while I think the drop and midsole are solid I didn't like how narrow they were. But then again the Sense is crazy narrow but I like how secure it feels on technical terrain.

I knew another ultra was in your future!  I say do it!!!

The Indiana Trail 100/50 in April 2014!
You can share our cabin!

Ben Z wrote:Yeah, I've held the new Nike trail shoes and while I think the drop and midsole are solid I didn't like how narrow they were. But then again the Sense is crazy narrow but I like how secure it feels on technical terrain.

Hi, Ben! I wasn't struck by narrowness when I held them - they seem on par with a lot of their shoes - but one thing I didn't see in the description of the Nikes is any mention of a rock plate. So that makes me wonder if they're really more designed for less-technical trails. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it makes me suspect Nike isn't exactly planning to make a play for the hardcore trail runners out there.

Nick Morris wrote:I knew another ultra was in your future!  I say do it!!!

Glad I could prove you right, Nick!

charles.moman wrote:The Indiana Trail 100/50 in April 2014!
You can share our cabin!

Thanks for the offer, Charles! I think whatever I do next needs to be within driving distance, though. We need to save our pennies. One of the conditions in the crewing arrangement with my BIL and his family was that I'd agree to do the Goofy Challenge with him in 2015. Cha-ching!

Yeah, no rock plate in the new Nike trail shoes. You are right.

I see The Clymb has the Altra Instincts at the moment (the original version) if you like those?

Ben Z wrote:Yeah, no rock plate in the new Nike trail shoes. You are right.

I see The Clymb has the Altra Instincts at the moment (the original version) if you like those?

Wow, that's quite a deal! Figures I just got a second pair of the v1.5, so I should be set for the next 700 miles or so.

So, ultras.

Not that I'm actively thinking about this, but here are a few ultra options for early next year that have the benefit of being close to home (or close to a relative's house).

Hagg Lake 50K: Also known as the "mud run" - within an hour's drive of my house.

Gorge Waterfalls 50K: In the Columbia River Gorge near where I live, in late March.

American River 50 Mile Endurance Run: Early April, usually coinciding with spring vacation, which is a nice bonus. It's in the Sacramento-Folsom-Auburn area, so it's close to my wife's family.

Gold Rush 100K: Early to mid-May, from the foothills of California gold country to Sacramento. My BIL was talking about this even as my legs were twitching after the MH50. Again, it's close to kin (who may or may not have my best interest at heart).

Beacon Rock 50K: Mid-June, also in the Columbia River Gorge. Lots of climbing in this one. I did the 25K a few years ago and it kicked my fanny.

There are more, but that's a start, I suppose.

If you wanna go fast I'd say do the AR 50. But you know its mostly on a paved trail with a shoulder right? Not exactly the prettiest 50 miler out there I'd argue. 

I signed up for TNF 50 in Marin in December. Wanna come down and run that one? Or pace me??

Ben Z wrote:If you wanna go fast I'd say do the AR 50. But you know its mostly on a paved trail with a shoulder right? Not exactly the prettiest 50 miler out there I'd argue. 

I signed up for TNF 50 in Marin in December. Wanna come down and run that one? Or pace me??

Had to look that one up. Are you doing the 50-miler or the 50K? Either way, it'll promise some impressive scenery and some notable climbs, I bet.

Me pace you? Ha! Only if you want to be slowed w-a-a-a-a-a-y-y-y-y-y down!  

I'd thought about doing the AR50 this year, but it didn't seem like I'd be ready in time for it... so I'd set my sights on a July ultra instead.

As for next year, the AR is one of the more likely possibilities. And while it's not jaw-droppingly spectacular, it's pretty easy on the eyes, with grass and open oak woodland that's especially pretty in the spring before all the grass browns out. (I used to live in NorCal)

One more for the list, in the mountains above where I used to live in Southern California. You might even be able to look down on the part of town I used to lie in from the course, which would be kind of cool. But really, the name makes it great: Old Goat 50. (One caveat, however: it boasts 13,423' of elevation gain.)

Oh, almost forgot to mention...

Lab Testing/Form Drills: ~ 30 x 50' repeats at the Nike Sport Research Lab

Back to Swooshertown this morning for some shoe testing, which means running short repeats on an indoor track at a decent clip as instruments record things like leg/foot angles and footstrike. I tested four different shoes, and one of them I liked very, very much. I hope it makes it to market unchanged (they don't always).

Doing this after a slightly more challenging Sunday run made it interesting, but I managed to stay loose and enjoy feeling the muscles warm up and get excited about going faster, even if only for 15-second intervals. I think I did about 30 repeats in all, but it's kind of hard to keep count.

Mark B wrote:Oh, almost forgot to mention...

Lab Testing/Form Drills: ~ 30 x 50' repeats at the Nike Sport Research Lab

Back to Swooshertown this morning for some shoe testing, which means running short repeats on an indoor track at a decent clip as instruments record things like leg/foot angles and footstrike. I tested four different shoes, and one of them I liked very, very much. I hope it makes it to market unchanged (they don't always).

Doing this after a slightly more challenging Sunday run made it interesting, but I managed to stay loose and enjoy feeling the muscles warm up and get excited about going faster, even if only for 15-second intervals. I think I did about 30 repeats in all, but it's kind of hard to keep count.

So jealous you get to shoe test!

I am doing the 50 miler. I know the trails fairly well over in the GG National Recreational Area having run on them 5-6 times now. But I've never strung them all together in loops like this. Should be interesting though as I probably won't be running much during the honeymoon. So that means a couple of good weeks of running now again, two down weeks, then 9-10 weeks to get ready including a taper. My plan is to really focus on back-to-back weekend long runs along with one other quality workout mid-week (probably exclusively an uphill tempo run) and the rest just really easy runs. Should be an interesting training cycle.

Ben Z wrote:I am doing the 50 miler. I know the trails fairly well over in the GG National Recreational Area having run on them 5-6 times now. But I've never strung them all together in loops like this. Should be interesting though as I probably won't be running much during the honeymoon. So that means a couple of good weeks of running now again, two down weeks, then 9-10 weeks to get ready including a taper. My plan is to really focus on back-to-back weekend long runs along with one other quality workout mid-week (probably exclusively an uphill tempo run) and the rest just really easy runs. Should be an interesting training cycle.

Any training cycle with a wedding and honeymoon is going to be interesting, to say the least! When's the big day?

Ben Z wrote:

Mark B wrote:Oh, almost forgot to mention...

Lab Testing/Form Drills: ~ 30 x 50' repeats at the Nike Sport Research Lab

Back to Swooshertown this morning for some shoe testing, which means running short repeats on an indoor track at a decent clip as instruments record things like leg/foot angles and footstrike. I tested four different shoes, and one of them I liked very, very much. I hope it makes it to market unchanged (they don't always).

Doing this after a slightly more challenging Sunday run made it interesting, but I managed to stay loose and enjoy feeling the muscles warm up and get excited about going faster, even if only for 15-second intervals. I think I did about 30 repeats in all, but it's kind of hard to keep count.

So jealous you get to shoe test!

It's fun, no doubt. I think they keep me around as their designated biomechanical outlier. If I can wear em, anybody can!

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:I am doing the 50 miler. I know the trails fairly well over in the GG National Recreational Area having run on them 5-6 times now. But I've never strung them all together in loops like this. Should be interesting though as I probably won't be running much during the honeymoon. So that means a couple of good weeks of running now again, two down weeks, then 9-10 weeks to get ready including a taper. My plan is to really focus on back-to-back weekend long runs along with one other quality workout mid-week (probably exclusively an uphill tempo run) and the rest just really easy runs. Should be an interesting training cycle.

Any training cycle with a wedding and honeymoon is going to be interesting, to say the least! When's the big day?

Sep 7. Coming up fast!

Ben Z wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:I am doing the 50 miler. I know the trails fairly well over in the GG National Recreational Area having run on them 5-6 times now. But I've never strung them all together in loops like this. Should be interesting though as I probably won't be running much during the honeymoon. So that means a couple of good weeks of running now again, two down weeks, then 9-10 weeks to get ready including a taper. My plan is to really focus on back-to-back weekend long runs along with one other quality workout mid-week (probably exclusively an uphill tempo run) and the rest just really easy runs. Should be an interesting training cycle.

Any training cycle with a wedding and honeymoon is going to be interesting, to say the least! When's the big day?

Sep 7. Coming up fast!

Enjoy it! September is a great time to get married. My 20th anniversary is coming up on Sept. 18.

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:I am doing the 50 miler. I know the trails fairly well over in the GG National Recreational Area having run on them 5-6 times now. But I've never strung them all together in loops like this. Should be interesting though as I probably won't be running much during the honeymoon. So that means a couple of good weeks of running now again, two down weeks, then 9-10 weeks to get ready including a taper. My plan is to really focus on back-to-back weekend long runs along with one other quality workout mid-week (probably exclusively an uphill tempo run) and the rest just really easy runs. Should be an interesting training cycle.

Any training cycle with a wedding and honeymoon is going to be interesting, to say the least! When's the big day?

Sep 7. Coming up fast!

Enjoy it! September is a great time to get married. My 20th anniversary is coming up on Sept. 18.

OMG, my 28th Wedding Anniversary is on the 7th!

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:I am doing the 50 miler. I know the trails fairly well over in the GG National Recreational Area having run on them 5-6 times now. But I've never strung them all together in loops like this. Should be interesting though as I probably won't be running much during the honeymoon. So that means a couple of good weeks of running now again, two down weeks, then 9-10 weeks to get ready including a taper. My plan is to really focus on back-to-back weekend long runs along with one other quality workout mid-week (probably exclusively an uphill tempo run) and the rest just really easy runs. Should be an interesting training cycle.

Any training cycle with a wedding and honeymoon is going to be interesting, to say the least! When's the big day?

Sep 7. Coming up fast!

Enjoy it! September is a great time to get married. My 20th anniversary is coming up on Sept. 18.

OMG, my 28th Wedding Anniversary is on the 7th!

Wow! Congrats!

Walk: 2.2 miles

Weather: Sunny, 72.

Took a shortish walk during lunch, down to the Columbia River. It was a gorgeous day, not too warm, with a bit of a breeze. I picked up the pace a little on the return trip, as I try to figure out what I need to do to learn how to walk/hike faster. Can't push it too hard, though, being that I was wearing work clothes. Going back to work all sweated up would probably not be appreciated.

Mark B wrote:

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:I am doing the 50 miler. I know the trails fairly well over in the GG National Recreational Area having run on them 5-6 times now. But I've never strung them all together in loops like this. Should be interesting though as I probably won't be running much during the honeymoon. So that means a couple of good weeks of running now again, two down weeks, then 9-10 weeks to get ready including a taper. My plan is to really focus on back-to-back weekend long runs along with one other quality workout mid-week (probably exclusively an uphill tempo run) and the rest just really easy runs. Should be an interesting training cycle.

Any training cycle with a wedding and honeymoon is going to be interesting, to say the least! When's the big day?

Sep 7. Coming up fast!

Enjoy it! September is a great time to get married. My 20th anniversary is coming up on Sept. 18.

OMG, my 28th Wedding Anniversary is on the 7th!

Wow! Congrats!

Our 37th was a few days ago...silly time for farmers to get married...we usually have to celebrate in the winter.

Good to see you running...and looking at future races.  I'm not surprised but do still think ultras are a bit crazy!

nkrichards wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:

Mark B wrote:

Ben Z wrote:

Mark B wrote:
Any training cycle with a wedding and honeymoon is going to be interesting, to say the least! When's the big day?

Sep 7. Coming up fast!

Enjoy it! September is a great time to get married. My 20th anniversary is coming up on Sept. 18.

OMG, my 28th Wedding Anniversary is on the 7th!

Wow! Congrats!

Our 37th was a few days ago...silly time for farmers to get married...we usually have to celebrate in the winter.

Hey! Another late summer marriage! And congrats, Nancy! The nice thing about celebrating later is that it extends the fun.

nkrichards wrote:Good to see you running...and looking at future races.  I'm not surprised but do still think ultras are a bit crazy!

A bit? I'd say a lot, myself. But I am interested to see if I can put lessons learned last time to use. Besides, marathons have gotten so expensive these days! Ultras are bargains by comparison.

Barefoot Run: 3.1 miles

Weather: Partly cloudy, mild, a little muggy. 60 degrees, 80% humidity. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T. Fuel: Just coffee

This was one of my weirder runs. Well, not "weird" in the good/fun/crazy way I usually mean. It was, well, weird.

I was going to run yesterday but put it off after considering all the intensity I'd thrown at myself in the past couple of runs. But when I got up this morning, I still wasn't particularly enthused. I didn't have any appetite, so I just had a half cup of coffee and no food. (I usually have some sort of fuel to get the motor running.) I stalled going out the door and was pleased that at least my HR dipped into the 50s before I started.

When I started, I remembered my experiment last week with the "springy" total-forefoot approach. I made it a tenth of a mile before my body rebelled. No pain, just a total rejection of what I was doing. I had to stop and regroup. I thought back at the past week and realized that this run really needed to be a recovery run, and nothing more.

I started again, and struggled through the first mile. Everything felt off. But eventually - finally - my body settled down. My heart rate settled down into the low- to mid-130s and I started relaxing into the run. I ended up running each mile faster than the one before (11:01, 10:15, 10:06) with no real increase in effort. That was encouraging.

Looking at the HR chart, the transition after the first mile is pretty obvious.



Told you it was a weird run.

When I wrapped up the run, I noticed my heart rate fell to below 100 faster than usual. That, too, was encouraging.

Average HR for entire run: 129

ps I'm not positive why things started off so poorly. But I have two theories: I went without fuel, which meant my blood sugar was at a low, and it took a time for my body to start burning its stores; or I started too hard after too many too-intense sessions, and my body -- remembering the catastrophe of pushing too hard, too soon after previous hard race efforts -- put on the brakes. It's probably both.

pps Another reason: I discovered yesterday that our school district's spring vacation is a week later this year than last, which means the *perfectly* timed American River 50 -- isn't. Back to the drawing board.  

I am not planning on a 3 mile barefoot run next week with you! At least I won't be doing that! I will do a run, but with my Hoka Bondi Bs on. Still at the Denver airport and soon will be heading to Spokane. Hopefully our family addition will be less jaundiced and out of the hospital today.