Highland Sky 40 and some new training plans

   I have a new longest distance I’ve ever run and its 42 miles (somehow a couple miles of course markers were removed).  I’m pretty happy about that and more importantly, I feel a lot more confident about the two even longer races on my schedule in October and November.  There was a lot to like about this race.  The course has some road but not too much and the trail sections are really beautiful.  The people were friendly, the weather was great and there was free beer at the finish line.  The race was full of the kinds of moments that barely seem real later on.  At mile one, for example, while we were still running on a country road, a pony broke loose from a neighboring farm and ran on the course right up through the front half of the race to the lead pack.  The pony stuck around for about a mile.  I’ve never run anything that rocky or that hilly before and I’ve also never run a race with a section like Dolly Sods, where runners are advised not to leave the path as there may be unexploded World War II era bombs out there.
    For me the race was a little bit of a test of my training.  Most of the places to trail run within an hour or less of Cleveland aren’t quite as hilly as some of the places I want to race and also I want to run races that are longer than my training runs and I want to run them really well.  I finished this race without injury and feeling pretty good so in that regard it was a success.  I didn’t run as fast as I wanted to or as fast as I think I’m able to.  I’m hesitant to write about feeling disappointed with a third place finish at a new distance because maybe I should just be happy with what I’ve got.  I am happy.  Heck, right after the race I was pretty much elated.  I just know I can do better and I think perhaps it will help somebody out there if I share how.
    The first trouble I ran into was a blood sugar crash.  The race information said there would be hammer gel at aid stations but after aid station #2, there wasn’t.  I should have switched to just eating whatever was available right away but I figured I could just wait until the next aid station.  I took too long to begin eating and my then had enough of a deficit that I had to slow down to feel better.  Right before aid station #4, close to 20 miles, I had crashed to such an extent that I got confused about where I was on the course and just stood still for a minute or so before realized that I better just shuffle on ahead.  It turned out I was only a couple hundred yards from the aid station.  What to do differently in the future?  Well, I can pack more gels in preparation for this kind of thing.  I can also start eating a variety of aid station type foods on my long runs to get my system used to solids.  Also that will give me a chance to make sure none of it gives me too much trouble.  When I started trail running about a year and a half ago it took a few weeks to get used to even drinking water during runs so it seems likely there’ll be a few runs that get slowed down by my adjustment to solid food instead of gels but I’ll get there.  Lots of careful chewing and lots of water I think.
    My legs managed the hills pretty well but with some modification to the way I run hill workouts and the way I time them in my week I think I can get both stronger at hills and better at running the flatter areas.  So far I’ve run hill repeats by running fairly quickly up a hill and then walking down to recover.  Here’s the trouble with that; later in races, taking advantage of descents becomes increasingly risky and difficult and the downhill muscle fatigue.  Also, running more quickly up hills means fewer repeats.  I need far more feet of elevation gain in each hill workout.  Over the next few months I’m going to do some Saturday hill repeat days where I spend maybe a couple hours jogging up and down a hill.  I don’t think its going to be all that much fun but I do think it will be worth it.  On Sundays, in order to learn to run tired, I will run 20+ miles of beautiful trail on those beat up legs.  Mondays there will be eating and sleeping.
    The only other trouble I had involved trying not to sprain my ankles.  I rolled them both a little around mile 14-17 trying to maintain speed over some very rocky terrain.  I didn’t injure myself really, just scared myself a little and had to slow down.  What to do?  Well, I’ve been working on ankle strength some and I’m pretty sure without that I would have actually injured myself.  The exercise I do, which I mentioned last month, is to stand on one foot without holding onto anything and slowly raise up onto my toes and back down.  More reps more times a day should take care of that.  When my ankle starts to roll over I push up and onto my toes before I can think much about it.  The hill repeats should also help with the stabilizing muscles.
    On a side note, I’ve also concluded that I need to be a little more disciplined about signing up for shorter races.  I don’t think short races are actually the same thing as tempo runs and I do think they beat me up a little more than I realize.  The weekend after Vulture’s Knob 15K I ran the Ohio Warrior Dash, then the next weekend, the Hampton Hills 10 K trail race, then the Highland Sky 40 and then this weekend, a 5 mile trail race at Chapin Forest.  I want to be able to race that often but I’m not very good at not racing and racing isn’t the same as training at all.  Intellectually I get it but you know how it is, your friends sign up, you want to go run with them...
   

Forget the PR, Mohican 50K and 25K Trail Race

            A group of us from Grunt Girls and a few of our friends stayed in a cabin at Mohican Adventures, where the start/finish area moved for this year’s race.  Two of us ran the 50K while seven ran the 17.4 mile long “25K”.  For our friend Will this 25K was the first race of his adult life (he’s 28) and he came out of it wanting to do more.  I really like going to races with a big group and making a weekend of it, even if it does mean maybe a little less sleep and an extra glass of red wine.  This time it also meant an audience for the two of us who ran the 50K and followed it up with an ice bath.  An audience is good, it keeps you from backing out when you stick your first foot in or from getting back out before fifteen minutes have passed.  For Gabe this was his first 50K and his first ice bath.  He did very well with both, finishing the race in a flat out sprint which he says hurt like heck, and concluding that he likes 50K trail races better than 15 minute ice baths.  I have to say I agree completely and wouldn’t bother with the torture if it didn’t get my legs working right again so quickly.

            Rob Powell, the race director (and an all around great guy), changed the course for both races this year and I’m a huge fan of the changes.  Now there are better hills, including the aptly named “Big Ass Hill”, which has its own sign at the bottom and is followed closely by the “don’t hate the hill, hate the race director” hill.  Also, this year both distances included the waterfalls loop, which is a really beautiful section of trail everyone should get to see.  There are parts along the creek where the trail is really just a creek with flags along it to tell runners they’re really still on course.  Later the flags actually lead under a waterfall before climbing up out of the ravine through tree roots runners have to grab hold of due to the steepness of the side.  This kind of course is why I trail run and I love it.  The river crossing was intimidating for a few but made for great pictures and everyone in our group made it across.  Stacy fell in up to her neck but bravely went on to finish strong if a little chilly.  Gale was a little nervous about the iffy footing at first but Gabe came along on his second loop while she was considering her strategy and they crossed together, arm in arm.  Someone on the bridge above captured them on camera and posted the pictures on the race website so we all got to see.

            For me this was my best 50K so far.  It was my second fastest but a more challenging course by far than the Fool’s run three weeks ago where I managed a PR.  The two loops are not identical in length or terrain, with the half way point coming a couple miles before the end of the first loop.  This meant managing pace more by paying attention to effort than by watching my GPS watch.  I was still jogging small hills in the last few miles of the race and crossed that finish line very, very tired but running.  Learning to pace by learning how my body feels at a particular distance is a goal of mine and something I really enjoy.  I also finished first woman and fifth overall, which is the highest overall finish I’ve ever had.  I like running for its own sake but I also really like the feeling of training hard and racing hard and then seeing the results.

            What did I learn from this race?  Well, my body definitely races better on more calories.  Every time I went too long without a gel, even just by a little bit, my legs would start to tell me I’d run the earlier miles too fast after all.  10-15 minutes after putting in a gel or two my legs would change their tune.  I think low blood sugar gives me illusions of pain.  I ended up putting in four Accel gels with protein, two Gu gels and I think seven or eight Hammer gels.  Talking to a couple fast runners after the race, I think I need to add more healthy fats to my breakfast before long races but maybe I’ll just always need a lot of calories to go fast.  I’m planning to experiment with a couple spoonfuls of natural peanut butter before my next few long runs to see what kind of impact that has. 

            Endurance athletes mostly get pretty comfortable discussing body functions and learning what to do about them during our sports.  A couple members of our group have a history of problems with fast moving digestion (the kind that causes emergency pit stops in the woods) and stomach cramps during or after long races.  I had some problems last year (three problems in one 25K) and have dealt with it ever since by taking a couple Immodium about two hours before any race longer than ten miles.  I have had great success with no follow-up trouble the next day, so of course I shared this information with my friends.  Everyone who tried this approach over the weekend felt that it worked very well, and Andrea, who has always had pain in her guts for the rest of the day any time she runs long said she felt great this time.  I share all this in case anyone reading it has similar problems.  It’s not one of those things you see mentioned much in running magazines so maybe it’s not a big problem out in the running community but if you have a problem with it then it is probably big to you.

           

Run With Your Heart 15K Trail Challenge

The 2010 Run With Your Heart 15K trail challenge was the very first trail race of my life so running and finishing first woman overall this year was special to me.  I had run a couple 5 mile charity road races with friends but hadn’t considered running to race since quitting high school cross-country about 20 years ago.  Over the preceding winter I’d made friends with many of the women in Grunt Girl Racing and had begun going trail running with them on weekends.  With their encouragement I signed and ran in the foot of snow that had fallen the night before, finishing exhausted but happy and in love with trail running.
    I spent the rest of 2010 running more trail races and building my endurance for the Buckeye Trail 50K which these same friends had convinced me to sign up for in an optimistic moment.  It turned out to be a great idea.  I liked it enough to sign up for two more 50Ks in the fall and conquered the Bobcat Trail Marathon in November.  All in all it was a great year for me and one with barely any time to think back on how it all got started.
    And then came this year’s Run With Your Heart.  It didn’t snow quite as much and I ran 22 minutes faster and feeling a lot stronger.  The thing is there were all these moments during the race when I found myself remembering the year before.  It’s funny how the memory works.  When I run down a particular piece of trail sometimes I can remember all kinds of odd details about the last time I ran there. 
In 2010 I spent the last 3 miles running behind Dan Belinger, who I’d never met before.  He asked if I want to pass which I definitely did not want to do.  Focusing on the motion of his feet was pulling me along and keeping me going.  A few minutes later he introduced himself and introduced me to something I didn’t know about trail runners.  They just race about happily making friends with whoever happens to be close by.  It’s fantastic.  I’ve made friends in just about every trail race I’ve run long enough to allow for a nice chatting pace but that one, clear memory of that first trail race stays with me, that camaraderie, that strange and special combination of fatigue, pain and happiness.