Category Archives: Races

Races, Running, Trail run, Training Log

August 24-30 Practice Running

Monday, August 24, 2015, 7:41 pm

4.67 mi, 526 ft gain, 36:32. WFSP RR Grade, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #6.

A little faster run today. Trying one of the new pairs of shoes again. They worked alright.

I drove out to WFSP and ran up and down the RR Grade. I clapped fairly regularly to let any bears know I was coming. I didn’t run into any.

My left calcaneus/achilles was a little sore at first, but warmed up. I’m really unhappy that it’s happened so close to the race. I find it odd that it was fine until I started tapering.

I further modified the previous pair, red #4, later this evening. I cut a piece out of the forward edge of the outside midfoot strap on the right shoe where it pinches my foot. It seems to fit much better. I didn’t have the calcaneus issue in those shoes. Or I should say, they were broken in enough that it was no longer an issue. I don’t think the new pairs will be to that point before race day. I might start with #4 and give my Mom a couple extra pair to bring to the crew access aid stations just in case.

Average HR 155 bpm.

 

Tuesday, August 25, 2015, 6:59 pm

4.69 mi, 531 ft gain, 38:10. WFSP RR Grade, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #4.

Checking out this pair of shoes to see how the modifications work. They were great.

I ran kind of hard and fast today. My legs felt good. The taper is going well.

Average HR 149 bpm.

 

Wednesday, August 26, 2015, 8:02 pm

3.15 mi, 28 ft gain, 23:26. Around Town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I sped up as the run went on. I ate a fairly large meal before heading out. I felt fine, but my HR was a little elevated because of it.

Average HR 150 bpm.

 

Thursday, August 27, 2015, 7:22 pm

3.17 mi, 28 ft gain, 24:12. Around town, solo, New Balance MR10v2 white.

I took it a little easier than yesterday. The legs feel good. I charged my HRM for the race and didn’t want to have to charge it again, so I left it home.

 

Friday, August 28, 2015, 1:41 pm

3.08 mi, 28 ft gain, 30:13. Around town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I took the dogs out with me for an easy, slower run before heading out for the weekend. I stopped a few times.

I didn’t wear my HRM.

 

Saturday, August 29, 2015, 10:00 am

68 mi, 14,200 ft gain, 18:25:xx. Cascade Crest DNF, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #4 (23 mi), 5 (30 mi), 6 (15 mi).

As the mileage says above, I didn’t finish. Intestinal issues together with the weather got me. Frustratingly, my legs still felt good when I quit. I’ll write a more extensive post about my race soon. I will be back, though. I quit at about 4:25 am, Sunday morning. At least my run streak stays alive.

 

Weekly totals: 83.9 mi, 15,257 ft elevation gain.

Practice, Races, Running, Trail run, Training Log

June 15-21 Practice Running

Monday, June 15, 2015, 8:18 pm

6.11 mi, 581 ft gain, 1:15:03. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 red #2.

We stopped at Olney Creek for the dogs to take a dip before continuing on towards the hills. I decided to take a different turn this time. The one shortly after crossing the small bridge at the bottom of the hill. I’m not sure I’ve been on that road before, maybe once a year or two ago.

It was fun. There were a couple shorter off-shoot roads that we went on as well. One had some tall grass and flowers growing on it. The dogs had fun running through them. The road ended at a logging landing, but some tracks from heavy machinery continued a little farther.

I wasn’t concerned with pace, with the upcoming race on Saturday. I looked around a bit and let the dogs sniff around too. There were lots of deer tracks on and around the landing.

I felt good on the run back to the car, imagining myself on the final miles of Rattlesnake Ridge 50k, running on the Snoqualmie Valley trail. If I stick to my race plan, the pace should be similar too.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Tuesday, June 16, 2015, 6:55 pm

4.16 mi, 37 ft gain, 34:55. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

Feeling pretty well today, as far as tapers go. More visualizations of the final 9 mi of the race. I took the pace up a little bit today.

Average HR 138 bpm.

 

Wednesday, June 17, 2015, 5:58 pm

4.91 mi, 186 ft gain, 1:12:54. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 & up Olney Creek, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #3.

I’ve been getting kind of bored running the same routes around town and in the tree farm. But I want to keep it pretty easy for the taper. I had an idea recently about running up Olney Creek from one of the bridges, possibly all the way to the next one up stream. Today I decided to check it out.

It was a lot of fun. In the water, out of the water, rocks, sand, logs, fish. The rocks under water are quite slippery, but I managed to stay upright. There were a couple places where the creek splits into more than one channel, and one was completely dry. Some of the “rapids” were no more than a few inches deep, while nearby pools were 3-4 ft deep with that crystal blue colored water.

I went a bit over a mile upstream before turning around. I didn’t have the time, nor the inclination to find out how far it was to the next road today. Travel was relatively easy, with few blowdowns to navigate and only a couple places where the water was over my knees.

I didn’t bother emptying out my shoes before heading back to the car. There was quite a bit of sand and small gravel, but it wasn’t too bad for the short trip.

I wasn’t the only recent human traveler through the creek bed. There were at least two other shoe tracks, probably anglers. I also saw all kinds of deer tracks.

Looking at my track on Strava, it appears to be another 1.5 mi or so to the next bridge.

Average HR 116 bpm.

 

Thursday, June 18, 2015, 5:54 pm

4.81 mi, 183 ft gain, 1:08:03. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 & up Olney Creek, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 red #2.

I had so much fun yesterday, I decided to do it again today with the dogs this time. They weren’t sure what was going on at first when I started wading through the water upstream from the bridge. After a little coaxing, they joined me.

The dogs had at leas as much fun as I did. We didn’t go quite as far today, though. They both love the water, but Vida is sometimes tentative to go into water where she can’t touch bottom. Once she’s in or if she’s really motivated to get a stick or something, she’s just fine.

Once back to the bridge, I took short look downstream to see if it was passable in that direction. There were a lot of blowdowns crossing the whole creek bed in the first few hundred yards. I’m not sure about beyond that.

I cleaned out my shoes before heading back to the car this time. I sat by the water, pulled off one shoe at a time, swished it around in the water to try to get the sand and gravel briefly in suspension, then dumped them out. Then I rolled my socks down to my toes (putting wet Injinji socks back on sucks), swished my feet in the water to get the sand off and out, rolled them back up, swished around again to get the sand off the exterior, then put my shoes back on and headed out.

Average HR 118 bpm.

 

Friday, June 14, 2015, 4:01 pm

3.18 mi, 28 ft gain, 25:30. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

Last taper day. I ate shortly before heading out, so my HR was elevated, probably by about 10 bpm. My lower legs just above my ankles were a little tight. They loosened up before too long.

More visualizations of race day. I felt pretty good besides the early leg tightness.

Average HR 148 bpm.

 

Saturday, June 20, 2015, 7:33 am

50 km, 6439 ft gain, 5:20:03. Rattlesnake Ridge Run 50k, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #3.

I had a great race. I stayed fairly conservative going over Rattlesnake Ridge and back. My split was maybe a couple minutes faster than last year. I made up most of the 11 min improvement over last year on the last 9 miles. I’ll post a more detailed race report soon.

Average HR 153 bpm.

 

Sunday, June 21, 2015, 6:17 pm

3.62 mi, 944 ft gain, 1:13:37. Reiter gate #2, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #3.

I forgot about the terrible Sunday traffic westbound on US2, so I didn’t run where I had planned.

It’s getting pretty overgrown with grass and blackberries on parts of this route. Fortunately, the creeks are still running in the area, so the dogs had plenty of water to drink and cool down in.

I found some more old 4×4 trails up the hill. I ended up going much steeper today than I had planned, which ended up meaning a lot more hiking than running than planned as well. That’s ok. Just getting moving and keeping it a relatively easy effort was the goal.

Average HR 117 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 56.9 mi, 8370 ft elevation gain

Races, Running, Trail run

Lord Hill 50k Race Report

2 Comments

I’ve waited way too long to start writing this. The race was over 3 weeks ago. I prefer to write about races within a couple days, or a week max, so it’s still fresh in my mind. Anyway, here it goes.

Going into the race, I felt pretty good. I got my stuff all ready the night before. I took three handheld water bottles with dates in a baggie in each pocket. I planned to start with one and swap after each 10 mi lap. I divided the dates up accordingly. Then I was going to drop my bottle for the last 1.1 mi lap.

I got to the park about 50 min before start time. I checked in, used the restroom and went back to my car to stay warm and finish getting ready.

I started a little ways back to try to keep from jack-rabbiting out with the leaders. It worked alright. The first hill starts pretty quickly. I decided that I’d hike the steeper hills to save energy for later. There is about 1700ft gain each loop, and you go around three times. On the first moderately steep hill, my hiking pace was actually just as fast as most of those around me running.

Then came “Oh Lord Hill”, and it’s no joke. It’s not particularly long, but it’s very steep. The first time around wasn’t so bad.

I passed a couple people between the top of the hill and the first aid station. I think one of them was a 20 mi runner, though. At the first aid station I think I was around the top 10, and not too far back.

I pretty much ran alone for the next few miles, though the course has two way traffic in a few places, so I did see people. Then I caught up with a couple more runners on the downhills. It took years, but I finally started loving downhill running over the last year. I can usually make up some time.

I ran with Chris from 7 Hills Running, in Seattle, for the last mile or two of the first lap. We talked a little bit. We came into the start/finish a few minutes before the 5mi and 10 mi runners started. Chris kept going, while I went to my drop bag for a bottle switch, and to drop my hat. I finished the first lap in 1:30. I felt good and was on pace for my reach goal. I was kind of surprised.

The second lap went a lot like the first. I’m not sure I passed any other 50k runners. Going into the next aid station, I saw a few of the same lead guys that I saw the first time around. The aid station is at the end of a short out and back. This time I refilled my water bottle before continuing.

I still felt pretty good for the rest of the second lap. A few 10 mi runners started catching me. It was kind of nice to chat briefly with some of them.

I finished the second lap in 1:35, still well ahead of pace for my primary goal of 5 hours. The sun had come out, and it was supposedly going to warm up a bit. I was sweating in my gloves and long sleeve shirt, even with the sleeve rolled up. So I dropped my gloves and shirt, going shirtless for the third lap.

I still felt pretty good starting the third lap, until I hit the first hill. I didn’t quite bonk, but it wasn’t much better than that. I walked a lot more of the hills, and my running slowed significantly as well.

On the first lap, going up “Oh Lord Hill”, Paul M. Nelson (photographer of the above photo), made a comment something like, “come on, it’s not that steep, you can run it.” My response at the time was that I’d run it on the last lap. That was not happening.

I got to the aid station, refilled my water and asked about salt. They had none. I also drank two little dixie cups of water before heading back out. I don’t know that salt really would have helped anything anyway.

At about the marathon mark, another runner passed me moving pretty well. I was not. It was a very slight downhill. At least I was running instead of walking. I think he was the only 50k runner that passed me after the first lap. He ended up putting about 5 minutes on me by the finish.

I started having a little trouble eating around that point as well. I didn’t really have any GI distress, food just didn’t appeal to me much. I knew I had plenty of energy left from eating before and up to that point during the race to finish. But the little bit of boost shortly after eating might have been nice.

I continued to walk more of the hills and caught myself not starting to run once I got back to relatively flat ground a couple times. I still tried to keep up the pace on the downhills. I was a little slower than earlier, but not too bad.

I finished the third full lap in about 1:56, a big drop in time. I dropped my water bottle, and briefly considered putting my shirt back on before heading back out. It was only another 1.1 mi, and I just wanted to finish.

Leaving the start/finish area for a final time, I picked up the pace slightly. I still walked the couple steeper hills before short loop cuts back around right at the bottom of “Oh Lord Hill.”

I opened up again on the final hill heading into the finish. I think I got close to my early pace going down that hill. It wasn’t nearly as bad, because I knew the finish was so close.

There weren’t many people around the finish. The 5mi and 10 mi races had finished hours earlier, and many of the 20 mi racers had as well.

I sat by my drop bag for a little while, trying to gather myself. I put on my shirt and gloves, and drank some water. I spoke with a couple people briefly. I went to my car to drop off my gear, put on some more clothes and grab a banana. There wasn’t much of anything at the finish area that I could eat. I mistakenly got some electrolyte drink when I tried to get water. I tried a little, but ended up dumping it out.

I would have liked to stick around longer to see more finishers, but I needed some food and to get home to my dogs.

My finishing time was 5:16:31, good for 7th place. While it wasn’t as fast as I wanted, I’m happy with the result and how I did later in the race when I burnt out. I still have a lot to learn about how I should pace myself for these longer races. I did a great job pacing at Bridle Trails, but it had much less elevation gain and was a little shorter.

I saw the eventual winner come by the other way on one of the sections with two way traffic toward the end of my second lap while he was on his third lap. He ended up finishing in 4:17, only a couple minutes off the course record. Chris, who I ran with briefly on the first lap, finished second in 4:38, which was about a perfectly consistent pace from the first lap. He kept it up and I could not.

The biggest lesson I take away from this race is that I still need to build more base to be able to meet many of my long- and ultra-distance goals. I need to build the endurance to maintain the pace required over longer distances. And I need to work on pacing better early in long races. I looked back over my 2015 goals, though, and most of them are for distance and not speed. I do have 1mi and 5k speed goals for the year, but I got very close to them already. None of my other running goals for the year are about speed or time. I haven’t set a time-frame for my long- and ultra-distance time and speed goals yet, so I decided I wouldn’t worry about them until at least 2016.

 

Practice, Races, Running, Trail run, Training Log

February 2-8 Practice Running

Monday, February 2, 2015, 5:11 pm

3.22 mi, 28 ft gain, 29:03. In town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

My legs are mostly recovered from the weekend, except my left achilles is still really tight and a little sore. Just like yesterday, it got worse around 0.4-0.5 mi before it got better.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve felt a bit down today. The run definitely helped.

I still ended up not going as far as I had planned. It did start raining with a little bit of hail, but I actually kind of enjoyed that.

I’ll probably stick with this type of run for a few days. Maybe I’ll go into the 5 mi race this weekend on fresh legs. I’d like to get one more specific training run in for the Lord Hill 50k, probably this weekend or early next week.

Average HR 121 bpm.

 

Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 5:16 pm

4.01 mi, 144 ft gain, 42:48. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

My left leg is even more sore today, but it’s actually my lower calf and not my achilles. I don’t know if that’s any better or not. It was stiff for most of today’s run. It loosened up for a few minutes around 2.5 mi, but tightened back up less than a mile later.

I had hoped to go longer today, but kept it short again. Everything else is fine, though.

I broke out a new pair of Superior 1.5s from my stockpile. I modified them last night. My other red pair have lost a lot of their cushioning ability, which isn’t unexpected with almost 600 mi on them. The treads still have plenty of life, so I’ll probably still keep them in rotation for less rocky terrain. I took some photos of my modification process and will post something about that soon.

Average HR 121 bpm.

 

Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 5:33 pm

4.02 mi, 143 ft gain, 43:30. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

Yesterday was pretty rough. After the run, my calf was still bugging me. I broke out the foam roller, did some stretching and some manual massage. I also wore warm socks, used some heat and kept my lower legs under extra covers when I slept last night, all to promote blood flow to the area. Our bodies are capable of amazing things, like healing themselves. The trick is to help the processes.

It was still a little bit sore and tight when I woke up today, but much better. When I started my run this evening, it was fine, loose and not sore at all. My right hamstring is still a little tight, so I’ll do some work on that tonight.

Even though I felt better, I still kept today short and easy. I’d like to go into the 5 mi race this weekend with fresh legs. It’d be great to win one more, but I think I’m already guaranteed top 3 for the series. I know there are lots of people who could have beat me, even locally. But they weren’t racing. And it’s still a big confidence booster.

There wasn’t really anything remarkable about today’s run. It was still great, though. A little rain, no pain, and I felt like I just got started at the end.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Thursday, February 5, 2015, 4:12 pm

4.22 mi, 38 ft gain, 38:13. Green belt in town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

The legs were a little heavy today. But it was still pretty nice to get out. Originally I was considering only about 3 mi, but felt decent so I pushed it out to 4 mi.

I stuck to the grass in the park mostly, with a little bit on the gravel access road on the highway side of the tracks.

I picked up the pace toward the end to try to get my legs going ahead of the race on Saturday. It wasn’t great.

Average HR 134 bpm.

 

Friday, February 6, 2015, 3:52 pm

6.33 mi, 265 ft gain, 51:29. To WFSP TH and back, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

My legs felt a lot better today. I didn’t know how far I was going to go until a little over a mile into the run, and I decided to head out to the Wallace Falls parking lot.

It was much easier running today, and I ended up going a little faster than most of my runs.

My HR was a little elevated, though. I either caught another head cold, or the last one has come back. It’s just a mild pressure on the left side of my head around my eye back to my ear, and it mostly goes away later in the day.

Even so, I’m pretty happy with today’s run. I opened it up down the hill from WFSP, reaching close to 4min/mi. I sped up for the last little bit to home as well, not quite as fast, but it wasn’t downhill either.

Bring on the race.

Average HR 143 bpm.

Saturday, February 7, 2015, 9:04 am

1.17 mi, ft gain, 19:18. Frost Eagle Warmup, solo. New Balance MT1010v2.

I ended up parking nearly 0.4 mi away from the parking lot. Lots of people and a small parking lot. I didn’t really have much time for that great of a warmup, but it was better than nothing. I forgot to stop my watch, it was much less time than 19 minutes.

Average HR 134 bpm.

 

Saturday, February 7, 2015, 9:45 am

5 mi, ft gain, 35:57.8. Frost Eagle 5 mi Race, solo. New Balance MT1010v2.

I took the lead from the beginning. Another guy I know passed me for a brief period just so he could say he had the lead. There was a pretty good pack of guys right behind me. I dropped the hammer on the first downhill, and I don’t think many people followed.

The half marathon was started 7 minutes prior to the 5 mi race. The two races shared a good portion of the same course, with the half marathon turning off about 1.5 mi in. I ended up catching and passing quite a few half marathoners. Most of them were great about moving to the side, but a couple weren’t paying attention. When the rest of the people in the group they were in moved over, they decided to take the opportunity to pass right in front of me. It didn’t slow me down much though.

It was pretty muddy and really wet out there, with lots of standing water and some flowing water. I just plowed right through the mud and water. I may have accidentally splashed a few half marathoners.

I came up to one more group just as got to where the race courses diverged. From there out I was pretty much alone. I had put some time on 2nd place, one of my 2 competitors for the series win. I had backed off on the pace a little bit. At about 3 mi I looked back and saw that he had regained a some ground, so I attacked again.

I didn’t attack that much on the climbs, but opened up on some of the descents. I also tried to maintain speed through the turns, mud and puddles. I nearly crashed a couple times pushing the pace. About a mile from the finish, there was a pretty good hill that I tried to bomb down. The trail was fairly straight, but my legs were going all over the place from the mud. I just about did the splits trying to stay upright. I slowed down a little bit at the bottom briefly to make sure everything was alright. I was fine, so I pushed on.

After that, at nearly every turn I’d look back to see if I could see anyone gaining on me, but I didn’t see anyone. When I finally hit the gravel pipeline trail near the end, I saw the runner who wanted to say he had the lead. Apparently he took a wrong turn, and his knee was banged up pretty good from a fall. I asked if he was alright. He was, so I pushed on to the finish.

I won the race, and clinched the series win. Second place was about 45 seconds back, who ended up 3rd in the series. He also pretty handily beat me at the race when I lost my shoe by enough that my shoe didn’t make a difference. The half marathon winner ended up 2nd in the series by 3 points, just 5 points behind me.

I decided not to worry about my HR today and switched to view current pace, and I only looked at that a few times, once at the beginning before the first hill. I saw I was going around 5:40/mi pace and backed down a little. I looked a couple other times just out of curiosity.

Even not worrying about my HR during the race, I still wore the monitor to look over the data afterwards. My average HR was 181 bpm. I’m not sure how accurate this is. It looks like the reading dropped suddenly for a little bit early, then spiked over 200. Even if it is off, It’s probably not by much. My HR hovered around 180 bpm most of the time. My most recent bout of head cold has gotten better, but my HR is still a little elevated because of it. Running by feel and not by HR, I think I was also able to push harder than if I had looked. I may have backed off seeing it that high. I’m starting to get the feel for that edge between uncomfortably fast and blow-up fast. But I have lots more to learn.

Saturday, February 7, 2015, 4:29 pm

3.18 mi, 28 ft gain, 30:04. Around town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I took the dogs out for a little spin around town before dark. It started raining as soon as we started, but it wasn’t cold, fortunately.

Man, my legs were stiff. They loosened up a little by about 1 mi, but took until about 2 mi to feel ok. The same little spot in my right hamstring that’s been a little bothersome for over a week finally got to the point that I decided I’d do something about it.

This evening I sat my hammy on the foam roller, going back and forth for about 10 minutes. That was not pleasant.

Average HR 135 bpm.

 

Sunday, February 8, 2015, 3:36 pm

11.21 mi, 2307 ft gain, 2:07:03. Upper Wallace Falls via woody trail from home, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

My legs were a little stiff today but not quite as much as yesterday afternoon’s run. I loosened up a couple miles in. I was pretty sore as well, and that didn’t really go away. It wasn’t quite so bad later in the run, though.

This wasn’t exactly what I had planned for today, but it worked based on how I felt after yesterday’s race.

The trails were a little bit busy, but not bad. Most people were on their way back to the TH as I went out. The muscle soreness slowed me down a little. I made it to the Upper falls from the TH in about 33 min. I spent a couple minutes up there watching the waterfall, drinking some water and snacking on some raisins and a couple dates.

Since my legs were still sore, I took it extra easy down the steep, slippery steps near the top. I kept it pretty easy going most of the way down. I just wasn’t quite as surefooted with tired legs and didn’t want to push my luck with the wet conditions. It didn’t rain today, but there was quite a lot of rain over the last several days.

Once I hit less than 1 mi to the TH, I was feeling good again and picked up the pace. On the short road grade section at the end, I even hit 6:40/mi pace and felt good.

I passed 3 guys in the last little stretch who I had seen on my way up just below the Lower falls view point. As I went by, one of them said in a seemingly joking tone, “I hate you”. I couldn’t help but laugh a little.

Running the roads back home wasn’t too bad until I turned onto US2. I spent the last 1.5 mi running into a pretty stiff headwind. It only died down briefly a couple times. It was mostly steady, though, and even picked up enough to slow me way down. That’s part of the experience of running outside.

Average HR 143 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 42 mi, 3311 ft gain

Practice, Races, Running, Trail run, Training Log

January 5-11 Practice Running

Monday, January 5, 2015, 6:30 pm

5.17 mi,  539 ft gain, 58:14. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

My hamstrings were a little sore starting out today. Everything else was pretty good. They felt a little better later in the run.

I’m glad I waited until the evening. It was still absolutely pouring down this morning and mostly stopped by afternoon. But the logging road I ended up running on had flooded and was probably still underwater into the afternoon. Olney creek was very high, only about 18 inches from the bottom of the small bridge I ran across when I was there. But the road was covered in silt and all the grass was brushed to the downstream side from moving water up to a couple feet above the level of the bridge deck. That’s about 5 or 6 feet higher than when I was there. It would have been cool to see Olney Falls or Wallace Falls with all that water.

After such a strong December, I felt like I barely got started when I made it back to the car. I still have a little soreness in parts of my lower legs from December, and I have the Bridle Trails 50k on Saturday, so I’m going to continue to take it easy this week and probably most of next week as well.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Tuesday, January 6, 2015, 4:22 pm

5.12 mi, 46 ft gain, 46:57. Town RR access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I finally got out with daylight again today. The alpenglow on the mountains to the north and sunset to the southwest made for some great views on this flat run through town.

Jumped the tracks to the river side about a mile out and ran on the access road. There were some workers who appeared to be staging some things by a couple of the piles of concrete railroad ties.

Lower legs are still a little tight, but better later. It’s getting better, but I’m a little unsure about turning the 50k into a back-to-back this weekend. It’s fairly flat, and it seems to be better on flatter terrain.
It still felt like a really short run.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015, 4:27 pm

5.32 mi, 46 ft gain, 47:26. Town RR access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Today was much like yesterday. Pretty much the same route and near the same pace. The sky wasn’t quite as spectacular today, however.

The Mio Link was kind of buggy starting out. It showed my HR way high, in the 170s. Based on my breathing and how I felt, I think it was in the low to mid 120s at the time. It does this occasionally, and I haven’t figured out the problem. It’s probably related to contact between the sensors and my skin, but I wear it in almost the exact same spot at the same tension every time, so I’m not sure. Maybe it’s a low battery issue. Or maybe some ambient radio signal messes with the connection with my Suunto.

I had a weird twinge on the inside of my leg just above my left ankle. I’m not sure what it was. It lasted for a while then disappeared.

I’m both looking forward to the Bridle Trails 50k this Saturday and a little apprehensive. I haven’t had a proper long run since sometime in November. I think my long December streak makes up for it, though.

I’m also unsure if I want to go just to finish and treat it completely as a long training run, or if I want to race and see how fast I can go. From reading about it, it seems flat enough that I could maybe set a 50k PR. But it can also be quite muddy, and it’s supposed to rain, so that might limit my speed. Either way, I plan to take it easier for the first 4 laps, then maybe make a push for the last 2.

Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Thursday, January 8, 2015, 5:23 pm

4.81 mi, 367 ft gain, 51:21. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 loop, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Went out for 4-6 mi. The logging roads were really sloppy from all the big trucks. They’re logging somewhere up the hill toward Wallace Lake. My run on Monday was detoured because of it.

It was a little cool tonight, but not too bad. I warmed up fairly quickly. The first mile went by more quickly than it has the past few days. Running was pretty easy tonight.

Average HR 121 bpm.

 

Friday, January 9, 2015, 5:21 pm

4.56 mi, 330 ft gain, 50:33. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

The logging roads were much less sloppy today, though I didn’t run around the loop, which was sloppiest yesterday. Running was pretty easy too.

I still keep going back and forth over whether to race or just run tomorrow. With all the other runners, it’s always tough to hold back. I guess I just need more practice.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Saturday, January 10, 2015, 3:00 pm

28.18 mi, 1415 ft gain, 3:59:13. Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival 50k, solo. New Balance MT1010v2.

I started a little further back in the crowd than I originally wanted, but I think it helped me take it easy to start. I might try it again in the future for long races.

My HR was way high early. It started coming back down after the first lap. I have HR, pace and cadence to scroll through on the bottom section of the main screen on my Suunto Ambit 2 R. I ended up switching to pace and leaving it there for most of the race. I checked on my HR a couple times, but it was still higher than I expected, so I paced myself by my breathing instead.

It wasn’t too muddy early on. After a couple laps, the mud got turned up pretty good, but it wasn’t bad. It was kind of thick and not too slick.

I ran with one handheld and my UD SJ Essential belt. Originally, I carried my ziploc baggy of dehydrated bananas and dates in the belt, but switched to the handheld pocket after a few laps instead.

I drank one full bottle about every 2 laps. At the end of lap 2 I stopped at the aid station to refill my bottle and ate a piece of banana dipped in salt, stopped to pee, and got in my drop bag to grab my headlamp. I didn’t turn the headlamp on until about halfway through lap 3. I was going to grab more food at the end of lap 3 but I forgot. It wasn’t a problem, as I ate pretty good before the race. At the end of lap 4 I refilled my bottle, had another chunk of banana with salt, grabbed more food from my drop bag and dropped off my hat. I got a little more dehydrated than I prefer to be. I wanted to limit restroom stops, and it worked. But I finished off the bottle by the end of lap 5, grabbed another banana with salt, refilled the bottle about 1/3 and downed that before getting to the start/finish area, where I tossed my empty bottle with my 2nd empty food baggy over by my drop bag. Then I went off for the final lap.

I felt better than I expected later pretty much all race. I think my big December streak and the taper made a difference. I felt great until about the last 1.5-2 mi, when I had to put in more effort to keep up my pace. I still felt better than the end of pretty much all my other 50k races.

My lap splits were pretty even the whole night, right around 40 min give or take a little. I came through the halfway point at about 2:00:15, so I met my first goal of 2015 and ran a negative split for the second half of my first ultra of the year, though not by much. That’s all including time stopping at the aid station, toilets and drop bag. I did pretty well not stopping much. According to Strava, my moving time was only 3 minutes less than total time. And while I did go sup 4 hrs, I’m not counting it as a 50k PR or as meeting my sub 4 hr 50k goal, because the course was a little short, probably more like 46-47k.

I was passing people pretty regularly the 1st lap, still quite a few the 2nd lap, a handful on the 3rd lap, a few less on the 4th lap, just one or two on the 5th lap, and I don’t know if I passed anyone on the final lap. That’s not including lapping people. There were a couple guys that re-passed me when I stopped for aid/restroom/drop bag, but I caught back up and passed them again not too far down the trail.

The only person who passed me and stayed away was the 2nd runner of the winning pairs 50k relay team, Uli Steidl, who flew by me (lapping me) about halfway through my 5th lap.

I managed to not get lapped by the 3 guys who finished ahead of me. Looking at the early results before I left, 2nd and 3rd place were pretty close at the end. The winner finished in something like 3:33 and change. Something to work towards in the future perhaps.

I ate about 700 calories and drank about 70 oz of water. Both were lower than I’m used to, but it worked out great. For this weather, distance and time, I think that probably works better than eating and drinking as much as I have in the past. I could probably have done with a little more water, but it worked out. I had 2 more bottles worth of water and the last baggy of food by the time I made it home.

I really enjoyed the race. The trails were great, with excellent marking. Seattle Running Club and Northwest Trail Runs did an awesome job. If it fits in my schedule, I’ll be there again next year.

Average HR 157 bpm.

 

Sunday, January 11, 2015, 5:49 pm

10.61 mi, 1173 ft gain, 2:02:45. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

This run was really rough starting out. My legs were sore all over. My left achilles tight and achey. I think from the heel counter on the MT1010v2 pushing into it during the race. If I’m going to wear those for more muddy races, I’m going to have to do something about that. The Superior 1.5 just doesn’t have enough traction in mud, and I’ve probably got 1000-1500 mi worth of them left in the two that I’m currently rotating and the two extra pairs I have in waiting.

Back to the run. I started to loosen up a little by about 0.5 mi, and even more by 1.5 mi. I headed straight out toward the road to Wallace Lake. I planned to go up to the lake and add on enough more to make 10-15 mi. But I very quickly decided to keep it closer to the low end. I forgot that they were logging up toward the lake and had to change plans. I went up the other road at the ‘Y’ to the end, then out to the end of the next road lower.

On the way back, I turned toward the connector hill and ended up going out about a mile. It’s 1 mi from the gate to that intersection, so 2 mi from where I turned around, which is the first turn at the very start of the hill.

I felt pretty decent from about 4-8 mi considering how bad I felt at the start. I don’t think I refilled my glycogen stores enough after the race and before this run, and my energy levels were pretty low for the last couple mi. It wasn’t terrible, though.

I saw my friend the northern saw-whet owl again and got some photos. A couple turned out ok.

My original plan weeks ago when I signed up for the Bridle Trails 50k was to use it as the first of back-to-back long runs. I felt really good during the race and decided to go after it, which I paid for today. I have a feeling I’ll end up doing the same at the Lord Hill 50k next month. I also planned to use it as the first back-to-back long run that weekend. I’ll probably be recovered enough for about 20 mi next weekend, but might do 15 and 10 b2b instead, or something like it. Then in 2 weeks hit a couple b2b long runs, which will give me 2 weeks recovery from Bridle, 2 weeks recover until my last short race of the winter, and 2 more weeks until Lord Hill. Then if I go b2b long runs 2 weeks after that, I’ll have 3 weeks to recover if I decide to do another big race.

Average HR 114 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 63.8 mi, 3915 ft gain