2010 in Review

2010 was good to me. I only logged 1465 miles, down from 1856 in 2009. I did not put in a ton of miles, but my workouts were of a higher quality and my overall distance per run and pace per run were both significantly up from 2009.

I ran 4 ultras in 2010:

• Umstead 100
• Promise Land
• Laurel Highlands
• Mountain Masochist

Umstead was my second attempt at a 100 and my second dnf, so right now I am 0/2. More on rectifying that situation in a later post. I ran my best race at Umstead with a PR for 50 miles, but in the end did not have enough in the tank to start the last lap, so at 87.5 miles I called it a race. My feet were beat up bad and my body had shut down. I got the idea in my head of running under 24 hours and simply went to fast.

Promise Land is always a great race and this year was no different. I was not fully recovered from Umstead, especially my feet. I was still able to set a 18 minute PR.

Laurel Highlands was longer this year by 7 or 8 miles because of a detour around a removed foot bridge. I had a good start, but my feet really suffered (probably still not right from spring races) and I walked in the last 25 miles or so. A good experience, but not how I had planned it.

Mountain Masochist was, as always, a great event. I picked up some a new brand and style of shoe and took the chance of wearing them for the start of the race. My dad was crewing so I could change out if need be. It was a gamble but it paid off (I do not recommend new shoes and new socks on race day!). I changed socks once early on and had no hot spots or blisters the entire day. My feet felt great for having run 50+ miles. I set a course PR too.

Hopefully 2011 will be even better.

Brooks ASR7 Review

Brooks has recently released its newest version of the road/trail hybrid Adrenaline ASR line. The ASR7 remains in the mold of previous ASRs with a few upgrades. The shoe is still based on the Brooks Adrenaline road shoe. It still provides some stability and is a good fit for a current adrenaline wearer looking to hit the trail. The new version is styled more like a trail runner with its overall appearance and a more aggressive tread pattern.

Laurel Highlands 2010

On June 12th, 2010 I towed the line once again at Laurel Highlands. I ran this race in 2008 as only my third ultra and finished, but just barely. I was hoping for a much better day. The course was longer this year due to a detour around a bridge that had been removed. I knew I was up for it mentally and physically, the only question mark was my feet. They still were not fully recovered form Umstead and Promise Land.....

This report is taken from a writeup I did for my personal use. After each race I write up Race Knowledge for the race. Here is the narrative of my race from that document. It is broken up in from aid station to aid station.

Hellgate 2009

I had run my first Ultra (Holiday Lake 50K) just 22 months ago. Prior to that my only running experience was training for and running 3 half marathons. Now I found myself standing among 116 elite runners. This is company I probably did not belong in, but I was determined to prove to myself I could and would finish Hellgate. It was like a moment frozen in time, well maybe time was not frozen, but everything else certainly was.
My friend John had volunteered to come and crew/pace with my Dad. Dad is always the first to volunteer to help and is an awesome crew captain. We met my Dad at camp Bethel and sat down to a filling pasta dinner. We then attended the brief and I headed off to my Jeep to try and catch an hour or two of sleep. The next thing I know John and Dad are in the car and we are driving to the start. I quickly got dressed for the cold and we all walked down to the start together. We prayed and sang the National Anthem and without much fanfare we were off.

Dad and I at the Start

The Importance of Warming Up

I have heard it said that a dog can teach you many things and over the weekend my 1 year old yellow lab Jack taught me a valuable running lesson on the importance of warming up. Jack is a puppy stuck in an adult dogs body. Since he will turn one on Halloween and it has not been humid and hot I have decided to take him on some short slow runs. These runs normally occur at the beginning of a workout.

This weekend called me to run back to back 3 hour runs.
Saturday Morning: My legs were sore and tired from running hard last weekend in the mountains and the kettlebell workout I did on Friday afternoon. I headed my local state park and started off on the 1.7 mile paved trail up into the park. I started way too fast and before I knew it I was sweating up a storm and had a little touch of blurred vision. I quickly slowed up, but the damage was done. The rest of the run was horrible as I walked for long stretches and ran intermittently. After an 75 minutes of this run some walk a lot pattern I finally pulled together and managed 8 ok miles of running. With my next race only 5 weeks away and the training I have been putting in I was just a little concerned about this run and my confidence took a hit. How could I run so well the previous Sunday and so poorly today? How would I run the second part of this back to back weekend?