Training the Week of 2/21/11

So this is my second week out from the Holiday Lake 50k on 2/12/11. I'm feeling good and at about 90%. My power still seems a bit low running and biking up hills. But all in all I'm feeling good.

My next race is the 4/1 6 hours of Warrior Creek so the goal at this point is to increase my bike miles while retaining my long run aerobic fitness and working on some speed work and/or interval training.

You'll see in my training log that I try to have at least one of my runs in Five Fingers. I've been wearing these for the last year and have worked on building my foot strength and stability by incorporating them. I think they are a great tool to help build up foot strength and regain a more "natural" running gait.

2/21/11 - Ran 2 miles in Five Fingers on the treadmill.

2/22/11 - Ran 6.5 miles around our neighborhood. 7:45 pace

2/23/11 - Ran 7.65 miles at the cove. 4 Gorge, Comet, Songbird, and out via the road. Legs felt pretty good tonight.

2/24/11 - Ran 2 miles in Five Fingers on the treadmill.

2/25/11 - Ran 7.8 miles off road. Doing some race course recon.

2/26/11 - Road biked 51 miles - Merriman, Wade's Gap, Adney Gap, Calloway Road, County Line Road, Bottom Creek Road, Blue Ridge Parkway back to Merriman.

2/27/11 - 7.4 mile mtn. bike ride at Fishburn Park trails.

25.95 miles running, 7.4 miles mtn. biking, and 51 miles road biking.

Training the Week of 2/14/11

So I'm recovering from the Holiday Lake 50k on 2/12/11. I decided to take Sunday and Monday off. I didn't have any particular aches or complaints I just felt like not running.

2/15/11 - Ran 6 miles on the road at an easy 9:00 minute pace. Right calf was a bit sore.

2/16/11 - Ran 6.2 miles at the Cove - Up hi-dee-ho, across the fireroad, and down buck to the road, and back on the road. Felt good. Hit the hi-dee-ho pretty hard and felt good.

2/18/11 - Mtn biked 8 miles at Fishburn and Patrick Henry.

2/20/11 - Ran 8 miles at Lake Norman, north of Charlotte NC. Nice trails with mild rolling terrain. Felt good. Legs are almost back.

20.2 miles running and 8 miles mtn. biking.

2/12/11 - Holiday Lake 50k++

This was my 6th running of Holiday Lake. Since my first finish there I've wanted to break the 5 hour mark. Holiday Lake is a 50k++ just north of Appomattox Virginia at the Holiday Lake 4H Center. The course is a loop configuration where you run a clockwise loop and then turnaround and repeat the loop in the counterclockwise directions. Since the most recent course change the loop mileage is right around 16.2 miles.

Here is my Holiday Lake 50k History:

• 2002 was my first year. I started running in August of 2001, ran my first race the Jingle Bell Run 5k in Roanoke, and signed up for my 2nd race; Holiday Lake. The weather and footing for my first race here was perfect and I ran a 5:23.
• The 2nd year was the year of the mud. There was mud everywhere. On the path out the trail and roads were getting messy and by the time we reached the turnaround the paths were 10-20 feet wide from people trying to get "good" footing. I think I ended with a 5:50 something. I don't think I've ever seen so much mud.
• The 3rd year I had the dreaded bowel issues. I think I ran into the woods 4 times to take care of business. Horton gives a best blood award and I thought I was a shoe in. A couple of times I had to dart into the woods I ended up getting cut from briers and locust trees. My blood was overshadowed by a guy that ran the race commando which caused him to rub the end of his junk off. I didn't look but the damage left a visible mark.
• Year 4 I ran an almost perfect race to beat the 5 hour mark but had one wooded pit stop that pushed me over the 5 hour edge. I ended up at 5:04:04.
• Year 5, last year, was the year of the snow. I was in my best running shape to date and should have been able to easily beat 5 hours. I had done a training race of 25k on 1/2 and a 50k on 1/16 which had me ready. When we showed up to Holiday Lake there was 4-8 inches of snow covering the entire course. Footing was poor through the entire course and that made the effort seem 100% harder. Finished in 5:37
• Year 6, I've spent much of the winter trying to run an average of 40 mile weeks and was feeling pretty good. I ran the 1/16/11 Swinging Bridge 35k as preparation and to get in some tough trail miles. I figures I had a best case scenario of 4:30 and worst case of 4:59:59. I was hoping to run the first half of the race at a 7:45-8:00 min/mile pace and then begin to slow on the 2nd half of the course. Everything went according to plan. The return loop to the finish had a couple of spots that seemed to go on forever but I was able to stick with the pace and stay cramp free. I finished in 4:33:16 for 16th place.

I hope to add my training schedule as a weekly post to the blog. I've neglected this format as a way to share how my training is set up. I feel like I've been successful in my training and racing on what I feel is low mileage and have been able to stay injury free. I started as a non runner looking to finish the races I entered, then moved on to wanting to do better than my previous race, and now my focus is on fine tuning my efforts so that I can work on being a top 10 contender.

My next scheduled race will be the 6hrs of Warrior Creek mountain bike race on 4/2/11. This will be my 3rd year racing on a duo team. I've got to get my biking legs under me in the next 6 weeks.

Running Trails at Night

Gina and I have run trails by headlamp and flashlight since we first got into trail running back in 2001. Due to time constraints, most of our fall and winter running occurs after dark. Both of us prefer to run on trails and don't want to let darkness keep us from staying in trail running shape. In addition, there are aspects of running at night that you just can't put into words.

Light Source:

My lighting preference is to use a LED headlamp and a flashlight (halogen or LED). LEDs are a very energy efficient lighting source and cast a white glow (I can't stand to buy and go through a lot of batteries. LEDs have really helped increase the run time of battery operated lights). Depending on your LED headlamp, the beam emitted will be a glow or a focused beam. There are countless options of headlamps for a variety of uses. I'm a fan of Princeton Tec lights. I've yet to find a headlamp that lights up the trail and allows you to get depth perception.

When running at night you get depth perception from shadows being cast from your light source. The best way to get shadows is to use a flashlight. Holding a light lower, in your hand, helps to get the shadows you need to identify rocks, roots, and other obstacles in your way. With this in mind I usually only run using a headlamp, but if I'm planning to run a trail fast, run a rocky orrooty trail, or run a steep downhill, I will also use a flashlight. Not only does this help minimize getting injured on the trail but it is also smart to have a backup light source in case your primary light stops working.

Three of our Sponsors carry flashlights and headlamps:

Outdoor Trails

Walkabout Outfitter

Dick's Sporting Goods

4/24/10 - Promise Land 50k

This marked my 5th run at the Promise Land 50k (34.65 by GPS). Since my first year I have been striving for a sub 6 hour finish, this was my year. Due to the large amount of snow this winter I have been running regularly and my bikes have become lonely. I've been consistently getting in 40+ mile weeks and have felt like my training has been right on for a good running/racing spring. In addition, I've lost some weight and am at my lightest weight in 20 years. It has been so long I don't remember the last time I was under 175lbs. Yeah, I was a heavy kid.

OK, so the Promise Land race boasts 7800ft of elevation gain, beautiful scenery, and a post race meal (veggie burger for me). The perfect combination. The race starts and ends with a 2.6 mile gravel road section. This road becomes one of the steepest roads I've been on. I remember one of my first mountain bike rides with clipless pedal, where I stalled out on this climb and fell over on my side. Steep, steep steep. Not so bad at the beginning of the race but to hit this point after running 32 miles is scary and not knowing whether your muscles or joints will support you is borderline dangerous.

I have made up a little chart for where I think I should be in the race and have used this in the last two attempts. I noticed that this year I was gaining ground on the projected times at every aide station. By AS 4 I was 10 minutes ahead of schedule and feeling good.

The miles between AS 4 & 6 are what I call the lower loop or no mans land. Its an up and down grassy fireroad that seems to go on and on forever. I usually suffer from cramps and a lack of motivation in this section, but this year was different. I was able to run most of it and didn't have any poor me segments.

Once at AS 6 you have a 3 mile run and hike up Apple Orchard Falls Trail This starts out as a gradual climb and then becomes a steep climb with 100s of rock and wooden stair steps. The best part of it is knowing that at the top it is "only" 5 miles down to the finish (there is one short steep 200yd climb in there that most people forget about, but I remembered). I made the mistake of taking some of the stairs 2 at a time. This caused my quads to overexert and I was about to have some cramps. Fortunately I was able to hold off the cramps until the downhill to the finish. I had a few bouts of calf and quad cramps but was able to make pretty good time to the finish.

This year I ended up 19th in 5:41:27. I improved my time by 25 minutes which is 45 seconds per mile.

It's really nice to have things fall into place and achieve and exceed a goal that you know you're able to. It was a perfect day for a race. Started out in the mid 50's, got up to an overcast mid 60's with a nice breeze.

Great day and a great event - see www.extremeultrarunning.com for more info and other races put on by Dr. David Horton