I mailed it... (Old Dominion 100)

Well, I did it. I dropped my entry for the 2008 Old Dominion 100 Mile Cross Country Run in the mailbox today. Then I jogged across the street and ate a Big Mac.

Today's run was the Trail Nuts 10k (ran the 10k instead of the half-marathon so I could get some volunteer hours in for Grindstone). I managed to get 2nd overall with a slow 46:45, and received a very nice award -- a 10-pound, engraved stepping stone to commemorate the day.

Overall, a very nice day. Then there's that Old Dominion thing looming... More on this later. I need to collect my thoughts.

Run hard out there...

Running Through the Wall -- a review from CompleteRunning.com

I stumbled across this review of "Running Through the Wall" at CompleteRunning.com.

The Complete Running Network is a collection of over 1,700 running-related blogs. Man, it's going to take a while to get through all of those! If you have a running blog and are not part of the network, add yours today.

Happy reading.

40-year old aversion

I turned 40 on Saturday. Some people think milestone birthdays like this are bad. Not me. I'm in better shape than I was at 30 and 35, so I say "Welcome 40, bring on 45!" In an attempt to drive this positive thinking home, I ventured out for a 40-mile birthday run on Friday.

I drove about an hour from my home to Draper, VA to run on the New River Trail. The NRT is a rails-to-trails path that runs through the New River Valley for 57 miles, give or take a few. It is a mostly flat, scenic run on a forgiving surface. I love to go there for long, fast training runs.

I filled my 64-oz pack with nuun and took off. I knew very quickly that it was going to be a warm day on the trail. After a few miles, I decided to return to the car, change into lighter (faster) shoes, and drop the pack in favor of a handheld bottle.

With just over 10 miles under my belt, I headed back down the trail, bottle in hand. As the miles started to build, I knew 40-miles was asking too much. I was experiencing a bit of soreness from the punishing Promise Land 50k just 5 recovery days prior. And my mind was just not in it. To make sure I got at least 50k I decided to run out 10 miles from the car, forcing myself to come back 10 miles for a total of 31 on the day. At the time I made this decision, I was drinking conservatively, and although I knew it would be close, I thought I'd have just enough water.

Now that I had decided to cut the run short, I picked up my pace. I was running 7:45-pace down the trail, loving every minute of it. Visions of a 50k PR were dancing in my head as I drank to keep my body fueled. But I was about to get into trouble. By the time I got out 10 miles my bottle was almost dry and I was fatigued from the continuous running. I turned around and began the 10-mile slog back to the car. Within a mile or so I was out of water and bonking fast. Mentally I was okay. But physically, my body was beginning to shut down.

Water water everywhere, not a drop to drink. That was the challenge for the next hour plus as I tried to keep up my pace along the beautiful yet unclean New River. Drinking out of the river was not an option. I did dunk my head a couple times, but resisted the strong urge to gulp it in.

Moderate running turned to slow running turned to walking. I asked myself, "what would Survivorman do?" Slow down to conserve energy and keep body temperature under control. That's what I did. That, plus another dunk in the river (now the upper neck of Claytor Lake), and before I knew it, I was at the car.

I quickly chugged 12-20 ounces from the tepid hydration pack. Then after eating some fruit, I crossed the street and bought some cold water and a Pepsi from the local store. Those were gone in minutes. On the way home I stopped to refuel at ye olde local "Omelette Shoppe" where I chased down two eggs, sausage gravy and a biscuit with 2 glasses of water and 2 cups of coffee (Noakes recommends drinking coffee or beer after a long run to stimulate the kidneys -- beer was out of the question with several driving miles yet to go). When I got home I weighed myself, and I was still 3lbs down from where I started the day. It took me a couple more hours to get my plumbing back to normal, but luckily I suffered no ill effects.

Lesson learned -- Current thinking is that it's better to drink too little than too much, but there is a difference between "drinking to thirst" and "going thirsty for 2 hours." I made an unwise decision to run further and faster than my hydration plan allowed. And I paid for it.

Saturday was a recovery day (very lovely birthday hike with my family), Sunday was a great 12-mile trail run with one of my best running buddies. I was a bit tired for the 12-miler, but nothing unusual for 2 days after a hard 50k run.

On a positive note (I guess), I've just about been talked into running the Old Dominion 100 for the first time. More on that later.

Hot and Bothered

It's that time of the year again. Running Saturday's Promise Land 50k in 75-degree "heat" affected almost every runner I talked to. In three months, 75 degrees will feel cool -- thanks to the wonderful world of heat acclimation. But as summer waxes toward its dog days, we will need to deal with the heat.

I read recently in the book "Run Less Run Faster" that our running performance degrades 1-2% for each 1.5 degrees F over 60. That means that in Saturday's 75-degree heat, we were facing a performance degradation of 10-20%. That's pretty serious, and it's only 75-degrees! Check out what happens as the mercury rises.



When it is 100 degrees three months from now, we will be running at 50%! Last year at Mike Day's informal gathering he calls the Sweaty Butt 50k, we ran in temperatures in the high 90s. After 20 miles we all got smart and called it quits. This year he is starting the event earlier in the day, and he told me that if it is very hot he will once again give runners the option to cut it short.

Heat acclimation plays a big role in all of this. Surely come August, running in 75 degrees will seem much easier than it did on Saturday. But will it still suffer from a 10-20% degradation in performance? Acclimation allows our bodies to better deal with the heat. Wikipedia.org says:

When humans move from a cool or temperate environment to a hot, dry desert environment or vice versa, they should spend up to seven days acclimatizing to the change in their environment. This lets the body make internal adjustments (see homeostasis) to compensate for the change in environment conditions. If the acclimatization process is ignored, then the person is at higher risk for heat related injuries (heat stroke, heat cramp, pneumonia).

So our performance will improve as the temperature stabilizes.

And we all know that dehydration plays a role too. I've read in many places that our performance degrades with even slight dehydration. The jury is out on this one as new research is coming out and old research is turning out to have been funded by a company with a lot to profit. Check out Mike's recent post on hydration to learn more about this.

It turns out less might be more after all, says the "endurance running hypothesis," or the belief that human evolution has programmed us to run (a trend that is clearly reversing in my son's generation).

"Humans evolved not to drink much at all during exercise," says Dr. Timothy Noakes, chairman of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town (and author of one of the most informative running books ever). "If they had to stop every 5 minutes to drink, they would never have caught the antelope." He goes on to say that "the best runners in any culture are the ones who run the farthest and drink the least." Noakes' recommendation is to drink just enough to satisfy or minimize thirst. (source: Men's Health, May 2008)

I'll drink to that.

Promise Land -- a quick update

The story of the 2008 Promise Land 50k started with the heavy rain on Friday evening, which gave birth to a very beautiful morning on the trails, which ended up being quite a hot run for those of us out there after around 11am. It was even hotter for those who finished later. It was over 80-degrees in Sedalia, VA as runners were still crossing the finish line.

Tentative results are up.

More later, including a post-race analysis and a look into how heat affects us during long runs. But for now, grab a cold one and read Mike Day's report on heat and hydration.

Stay cool out there...

Promise Land 50k -- learning from lessons learned

After last year's sluggish Promise Land 50k, I wrote down some lessons learned (as I always do as part of a post-race analysis). Lessons learned, however, are only good if you actually learn a lesson from them. So here is my list of lessons learned from last year, and what I plan to do about them.


Lack of training
Last year Promise Land was my first ultra of the year, and probably my first long run of over 20 miles. And I didn't really plan on running (or training for) it until about 5 weeks out. Dumb.

This year I have three ultras under my belt, including two tough ultras in the last two months with elevation profiles that rival or exceed what Promise Land has to offer. I am physically ready for this one. I ran both Promise Land training runs with ease, and I can honestly say that I've put in my time on the trails and the hills.


Poor pacing
Last year I attempted to run more of the first hill (1,400' gain in 2.6 miles) than my body was ready for. This early energy expenditure caught up to me later in the race as I was passed by quite a few runners who were more conservative early on.

This year I have trained much more on hills, and keep reminding myself that run-walking the first long hill in 35 minutes and arriving at the top with energy to spare is really more efficient than running it in 30 minutes and paying for it later. That's how I've trained, so that's how I need to race.


Stomach issues and inadequate calorie intake
Last year's mistake started with too much pizza at the pre-race dinner. I also had a late breakfast last year that included two cans of Ensure and a honey bun. Dumb. I never ever eat or drink that stuff in training, so why start now? I paid for it later when I had trouble tolerating anything that the aid stations had to offer.

This year, after reading The Paleo Diet for Athletes, I plan to take Coach Friel's advice, and take my own healthy dinner and breakfast. That just leaves more pizza for everyone else (they ran out last year). And other than real food from the aid stations, I will be drinking nuun, and eating my beloved Black Cherry Clif Shot Blocks. That's the stuff that has worked well for me so far this year.

Hopefully starting with good pre-race nutrition and not stuffing myself with food and drink that I rarely eat and drink, I will not have any stomach issues and will be able to take in enough calories to keep my energy levels high.


Poor sleeping
Last year I got silly and decided to forgo the tent and sleep beneath the stars. Wind gusts of up to 30mph resulted in a mostly sleepless night. I know I can race on little sleep, but tossing and turning got to me mentally, and I felt sleepy and sluggish getting to the start.

I also stayed in the sleeping bag too long last year, and was still in line for the porta-johns when Dr. Horton was calling us to the line.

This year I will take my Ford Escape SUV and sleep in the back. This has worked for me in the past. I'll take my tent along too in case I decide I need more room.

With these relatively minor modifications, I should have no issues getting to the starting line early, properly rested, hydrated, fed, and ready to race (er, run-walk efficiently) up the mountain.

Promise Land 50k, here I come. See ya'll Friday night.

Ironman Champion Tim DeBoom to run Leadville

Here's the article from Inside Triathlon.

(Boulder, Colorado – April 15, 2008) – Tim DeBoom, a two-time Ironman World champion and America’s No. 1 ranked long distance triathlete, today announces his entry in the 2008 Leadville 100 trail race – a 100 mile ultramarathon through the Rocky Mountains of Leadville, Colorado. The Leadville 100 marks DeBoom’s first try at an ultramarathon and is regarded as one of the toughest annual races in the country, with runners climbing and descending a total of 15,600 feet.

“Competing in the Leadville 100 will push and challenge me in new ways both mentally and physically, and I am looking forward to rediscovering how it feels to run without pressure,” said Tim DeBoom. “Competing in triathlons is still my passion and winning another Hawaii Ironman is a top goal of mine, but I’ve conquered it twice before and am excited to try something that I’m not 100 percent sure I can even finish.”

DeBoom is bringing his athletic expertise and champion drive to the Leadville 100. Currently America’s No. 1 long distance triathlete, DeBoom is an avid runner who enters Leadville with both enthusiasm and apprehension. The 2008 Leadville 100 will be DeBoom’s first ultra-marathon and the first time he has competed in a running race over 26.2 miles.

The 2008 Leadville 100, or The Race Across the Sky, is an annual race in Leadville, Colorado that presents runners with a 50-mile out-and-back trail and dirt road course through the Rocky Mountains. Climbing and descending 15,600 feet, runners compete at high elevations between 9,200 and 12,620 feet – making the 100 mile race one of the toughest ultra-marathons in the country.

Consisting of around 500 runners, barely half of the Leadville 100 competitors finish in the 30-hour time limit set by organizers. The race, which begins before dawn, is most known for the grueling trails and the two climbs up the 12,620 foot Hope Pass – encountered on both the outbound and return leg of the race.

The 2008 Leadville 100 will take place on August 16 and 17 in Leadville, Colorado. The race has a start time of 4 a.m. on August 16. For more information on Ironman Tim DeBoom, please visit www.timdeboom.com or, for more information on the Leadville 100, visit www.leadvilletrail100.com.

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This should be exciting to follow between now and August 17. He says he is "looking forward to rediscovering how it feels to run without pressure." I hope he means atmospheric pressure.