First day in May

April flew by with very little training volume - 123 miles total. The schedule of normal, daily life simply preempted a few training sessions. What is the result of the lesser volume for the month? The first day of May brought a nice result in a local half marathon. My PR in the half marathon was 2 hours 2 minutes in the 2004 Seattle 1/2 marathon. Other than a few triathlons, I have not raced the 1/2 marathon distance since then. Going into today's race, I was trying to develop a plan. I settled on the intent to run 7:00 per mile for the first 8 miles, then pick up the pace over the last 5.1 miles to sneak in under 1:30. As usual with my races, that plan was tossed out the window within the first mile. Mile 1 was 6:33. Just a bit quicker than planned. Mile 2 was 6:50. Mile 3 was 6:29. OK, at this point, my original plan is gone. My new plan? The same as usual - just hang on. Shoot, I only had 10.1 miles to go. No problem right? Here are the mile splits;

Mile 4 - 6:42

Mile 5 - 6:51

Mile 6 - 6:44

Mile 7 - 6:49

Mile 8 - 6:51 I'm beginning to think that I can hold on......

Mile 9 - 6:45

Mile 10 - 6:41 total time is 1:07:14 - with 5k to go, I just need to go 22:46. 1:30 is no longer the goal - sub 1:28!!!! Here we go.

Mile 11 - 6:43

Mile 12 - 6:47

Mile 13 - 6:39

Last 0.1 miles - 35 seconds

Finish - 1 hour 27 minutes 59 seconds!

This was a much better result that I had expected. Glad that I threw my plan out the window early. I guess I recovered fairly well from last Sunday's 55k ultra marathon. I really felt great today.

I ate 4 oranges 90 minutes before the start. Probably drank 30 ounces of water during that time. During the race, I took a mouthful of water at each aid station (about every 2 miles or so). After the race, 4 or bananas, lots of water. Making up a large banana smoothie now. Later!

Capitol Peaks Ultra Marathon

First, let me start at the end (huh?). Crossing the finish line to the clanging of cowbells, my first impression was the general lack of race participants in the finish area. That explains the prior 19 miles in which I only passed 3 other runners and didn't get passed by anyone. I was a bit surprised when the race director handed me the award for winning the 40-49 age group. 7th place overall.

Rewind 6 hours. The Capitol Forest just southwest of Olympia, Washington is a vast playground for the outdoor enthusiast. Beautiful country and a race venue that I'll return to whenever I can. Sunday's race was billed as a 55k with 4500 feet of climbing on the muddiest trails I've ever seen in a race. My feet were numb from the start. Due to timber sale activity in the area, the course was rerouted which turned the 55k (34 miles) into 36 miles. That measly 2 miles only becomes signicant when you reach the 34 mile mark.

There was also a 50 mile race starting at the same time and running the same course for the first 16.8 miles. Normally, I'd start toward the front. However, I didn't. Started mid-pack and was rewarded with 5 miles of what can best be described as a congo line - especially as everyone was trying to keep their feet dry by dancing around the puddles (in some cases, small mud swamps). When I finally got around the dance troupes, I was covering the miles pretty comfortably. For most of the first half of this race, I'd call the hills rolling and gradual uphill (about 2000 feet of climbing) - until mile 15.4 when we hit the Grunt Trail that ascends to Capitol Peak. I can't think of a better name for this trail. Gaining 1000 feet in elevation in less than a mile on large, loose rock, there was a fair bit of grunting. Over the peak and to the check point in which the 50 mile course and the 55k course diverge. Starting on the path toward the 50 mile route, something just seemed wrong to me. Luckily, I had a good sense of which direction I needed to go at that checkpoint, since the signs weren't very clear. Turned around and back on course on some roads and trails that would lead me back to the start of the Grunt climb where I'd head back on the same 15.4 miles that I started on.

This was the best section of the race for me. 6.3 miles in 54 minutes. The trails through this part were muddy and technical, but it also included a couple of miles of gravel roads. I managed to pass a couple of guys there. And, this began the lonely trek to the finish. I saw a couple of guys 5 to 10 minutes ahead of me across some valleys on the switch backs, but could never reel them in. At this point, my race was with the clock. I was sure that sub 6 hours was in the bank, but I didn't know about that extra 2 miles. When I hit the last water station with 5 miles to the finish, I had 42 minutes to get in under 6 hours. As long as it was downhill or flat, I could make that. But, astonishingly, I didn't remember how many downhills there were on this section during the outbound leg. There were quite a few that were now uphills and were slapping me around a bit. At 2.4 miles to go, I had 20 minutes left on the clock. It's possible, but I can't see anymore uphills. Going around the next corner, another uphill. Now, these uphills weren't big - maybe 200 to 300 yards, but that was enough to add 15 to 20 seconds each time. By the finish, those 15 to 20 seconds totaled 2 minutes and I finished in 6 hours 2 minutes.

Race fuel was juice from 2 young coconuts plus water in which raisins were soaked overnight. I carried 2 bottles - each at 22 ounces. I finished the first bottle by mile 13, and filled that with water. At mile 23, I stopped at the same aid station on the way back to fill the first bottle again and to top off my 2nd bottle. At mile 31, I filled the 1st bottle again, and both bottles were basically empty at the finish. So, I consumed 44 ounces of the coconut juice/raisin water mixture and about 70 ounces of water. Had a banana at mile 23 as my bottles were being filled. Noticed a bit of colorful pee around mile 18, so I picked up the water consumption then. This worked pretty good. I feel great today, and will be getting out for a normal Monday run this afternoon.

Also, for those interested, I currently run all my trail races in the Adidas RLH Cross Spikeless. It's a very light (about 7.5 ounces) cross country racing flat. When the new Innov-8 X-Talon 190 comes out later this summer, I'm going to give those a rip. The Innov-8 numbering system refers to the weight of the shoe in grams, 190 grams or about 6.7 ounces. That will be great. I do like the feel of the Innov-8 shoes. I currently have their f-Lite 230, but it's a bit too heavy and over-built for my liking. It will only be a training shoe. I don't see it being a race shoe.

If you happen to be in the Pacific Northwest and can go to one of the Capitol Peak Ultra events throughout the year, definitely do that. Here's their website; http://www.capitolpeakultras.com/

and facebook page; http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=100000451825914&ref=search&sid=1098545633.3682372394..1

March 31st - First day of winter?

The last day of March is supposed to be in the 2nd week of spring. Well, not in this part of the world this year! Winter is here in a big way. My typical training run on the last day of March treated me to 2 feet of snow at the summit. The most I saw up there all winter was only 3 inches. The sun was shining and doing a fairly good job of cutting the chill. March was a good month overall. Nearly 200 miles of running with a bunch of elevation gain. Climbed about 25000 feet for the month, but most of that was in the first week, during my race on the 20th and in the past week.
Some pictures from March 31st - 4.4 miles up to the summit at 3500 feet and 4.4 miles back down to the Lake at 960 feet. Adding in the 2.2 miles to and from the trail totals an 11 mile run.
The summit;

Looking down on Rattlesnake Ledge and Rattlesnake Lake below

And looking up to Rattlesnake Ledge from the lake;

And finally, a quick clip running downhill in the sloppy snow around the 2500 foot level. Planned to get more clips, but dead batteries!

Chuckanut Mountain 50k Trail Ultramarathon

An amazing day in the Pacific Northwest! Saturday provided great weather for a 50k stroll on the trails around Chuckanut Mountain in Bellingham, Washington. One year ago marks the day of my first ultramarathon at the 2009 version of this same race. One year later, one year older, and one year better. That's how it's supposed to go, right? It is funny how memories fade over a year, because I truly had myself convinced that the hills of this course were not as steep as I perceived them to be last year. However, somewhere around the 12 mile mark, my memory came back! Those hills are flippin' steep. A good example of the steepness is the signature climb (Li'l Chinscraper) which comes at mile 20 and gains 1000 feet in a mile.

The race starts in the Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham. Marty and I exchanged our good lucks and headed out. Marty would start a bit slower than me (that's called experience - he has more!) The first 6.3 miles are fairly unenventful on the Interurban trail that runs south and overlooks Chuckanut Bay. This portion is relatively flat and can have a big influence on the rest of the race. I comfortably reached the first aid station in 50 minutes - right on an 8 min/mile pace, which is what I wanted to do.

The next 4.2 miles begins with a reasonable uphill section of 2 miles that gains about 1000 feet up to Fragrance Lake. That's followed by 2.2 miles of flat and downhill to the 2nd aid station (42 min 5 sec). This is where Marty caught me last year. Next is a long uphill grind on a gravel road for nearly 3 miles that gains about 1600 feet, followed by a very technical 3 miles on the Ridge Trail and somewhat relaxing 2 miles, then a 3/4 mile climb and 1 mile descent to get to the base of Chinscraper. That whole portion was 9.8 miles that I covered in 2 hours, and still no sign of Marty, yet.

So, did I mention that Chiscraper is steep? It goes up, gets steeper, and just when you think it can't get any steeper, it does! After 6 minutes, I hear "This is where legends are made!" behind me and here comes Marty. Due to the steepness, we're both walking, however, our walking paces are at different ends of the spectrum. Marty passes me with 1/2 of the climb still to go. I managed to climb that 1 mile hill in 22 minutes and Marty is out of sight!

The best thing about reaching the highest point on the course is that you can only go down from there - 3.6 miles & 1800 feet. Now, downhill running definitely requires some skill, especially after 21 miles. Sure, I could just charge down and blast my legs, but what about the final 6.5 mile return to the finish? I spent the first 1/2 mile or so recovering from the last hill and the prior 20 miles, gradually allowing gravity pull me down the trail. I managed to pick off at least a dozen other runners on that section - completing it 27 minutes with Marty still out of sight. He is a bit faster on the downhills than I am now.

As I finished the downhill and tossed my extra bottle to my pal Eric, I knew the next 6.5 miles were going to be a challenge. Eric says that I'm just a couple of minutes behind Marty. I just need to go 10 seconds per mile quicker to reel him in.

A funny thing happens between 8:00 am and 12:00 pm on this race. The flat 6.3 miles that we ran at the start, has now become a constant uphill grind with some shorter, steep uphill sections. I swear that they must bring in some dozers and regrade the trail after the morning run. As soon as I get to a straight section, I can see Marty's white shirt and white hat. I'm pretty confident I'll catch up to him, so I plug away. At this point, I'm shuffling along at a 9 min/mile pace. That's going to have to be good enough. As Marty comes within a couple hundred yards, I pick up the pace and pull along side him with 3.5 miles to go. At that point, I've already decided that we're going to finish together. Although that last 3.5 miles was tough, it sure went by a bit quicker running with a buddy. We crossed the finish line in 5 hours 23 minutes. For Marty, that was the best time for him in that race by 2 minutes, and for me it was 31 minutes better than last year.

For those who are interested in such things, my race day nutrition included two bottles (22 ounces each) with coconut juice (from young coconut) and water that I had soaked raisins in overnight. I finished most of that and 1 other bottle of water. I felt fine. The weather was nice, but cool. Looking back, I might have taken more water or nutrition, but I was never hungry, thirsty or felt like I was lacking anything. But, after 31 miles, I was done!

Recovery has been good. Some minor soreness the day after. Monday's run was short, started slowly, but ended feeling really good. I'll get back on the mountain trails on Wednesday.

It was a great day for our whole group. We had 4 doing their first ultramarathon - they all had successful days. And, another had a 46 minute improvement over last year. So, a fantastic day had by all.

Some pictures;

Me on Chinscraper: http://www.pbase.com/gtach/image/122955343

Marty on Chinscraper: http://www.pbase.com/gtach/image/122955342

Me downhill at mile 10: http://www.pbase.com/gtach/image/122938610

Recovery week (with a little race)

A week of recovery that followed 4 weeks of buildup including a hard fall last Sunday. The result of that fall is creating some anxiety. Good thing next Saturday's 50k race isn't today!

A quick summary of training for the week;

Monday - 1 hour swim

Tuesday - 3 miles 28:36 - my hip was really sore.

Wednesday AM - 4 miles 38:08

Wednesday PM - 5 miles 41:40 - hip is getting better, but still sore

Thursday - 6 miles 53:37 - still improving, but wondering how the upcoming 5k will go.

Friday - 3.25 miles 24:59 - OK, now I'm getting better - 5k race in the morning

Saturday - 5 miles 43:00 warmup before 5k race

Saturday - St Patty's Day 5k race - 19:50. 8 seconds off my 5k PR.

Sunday - 12 miles 1:39:28Weekly total - 42 miles - 5hr 50min - Pretty easy week of recovery

I was pleasantly surprised with the 5k time yesterday. My hip is still sore, the course was very turny and hilly for a 5k. It's definitely not a course that you'd expect to get a personal best. I look forward to some flat and fast races later this spring. I definitely can get that time under 19:00 soon enough.

The next 4 days will be very important to continue to get improvement in my hip, pick up my speed and get me set up properly for Saturday's 50km trail ultra marathon. I'm hoping to run this as close as I can to the line of exploding without going over. I'll try to get in 40 miles this week and probably will split those up between AM and PM runs, so nothing too long. If each run is 4 to 6 miles - twice a day, that will be perfect.

Bananas have been the food of choice this week. That will continue this coming week. Although, I did have 4 oranges before today's run. Then, 5 bananas right after the run. After showering, just finished about 70 ounces of banana/young coconut smoothie - 13 or 14 bananas, young coconut meat, a pint of water and 2 handfuls of ice. That's how I like my smooties.

And, with the weather warming a bit - the forecast leading up to race day is sunshine and some clouds with highs in the 50s on race day - things are lining up nicely.

Taper, recover, race

Today marked the final day of hard training for the Chuckanut 50km race in two weeks http://web.me.com/krissymoehl/Chuckanut_50k/Welcome.html. February was a big month for mileage and climbing. For the month, I totaled 216 miles which included more than 30,000 feet climbing - with most of the coming during the 2nd & 3rd week. At 216 miles, February exceeded the prior monthly maximum by 55 miles. A lot of consistency.

March has started with great weather and the first week ended with a 17 mile mountain trail run that included more than 4000 feet of climbing. My weekly total was 72 miles, which is 9 miles more than any previous week. That 72 miles included more than 15,000 feet of climbing and almost 12 hours of running.

Taper starts now! The timing is perfect, since I picked today's run to crash hard with 6 miles left. I don't mean crash as in hitting the wall or bonking. I mean crash as in my ass hitting the trail after tripping over a perfectly placed tree root. I'm expecting a lot of great colors to come out of that one! There's already plenty of red. Yellow, blue, etc. are coming next. I'll spend the next 2 weeks running on the flats, recovery runs and strides & tempos to reintroduce myself to faster paces. Looking forward to a good result at this race. 1 year ago was my first ultra marathon, I'm expecting at least a 40 minute improvement. We'll see. Gotta go eat again.