I'm still filled with so many thoughts. Just not sure how many I remember at any one point!
Let' see...
Well in recovery from Wineglass the week before, I hadn't done too much. Took a little gentle 4 miler on Thursday and things felt pretty reasonable. Seems to be about a 2-3 day recovery with the quads being the main items to get back in line last.
Sleep was decent, not great, I'd kinda hoped for some sleeping in, but nerves or otherwise, I got about 8hrs a night.
But Saturday night going into Sunday morning, I woke up around 1 and just couldn't really get back to sleep. Got a few bits and pieces with some weird dreams and didn't feel real good at around 4 when it was time to get up.
I got up though, made it downstairs and tried to eat whatever I was going to have for breakfast by 4:30 since I'd be running in a few hours. Mainly fruit and Yogurt I believe.
Otherwise got ready and out the door just after 5:30 I believe.
Decided on the way down that I'd stop at the welcome to PA visitor center to use the bathrooms. Though it's not my first preference given that I'm in running attire and probably look a bit odd to the norms. Also, my key was semi-buried in my Orange Mud pack, but I got the key out and was ready. But... Apparently it was so foggy in that area that I never actually saw it. I was thinking there would be signs for it, but I guess normally it's just obvious where it is. When I went past I'm pretty sure it was just fog and a bunch of extra lights out on the highway where the welcome to PA sign is. Oh well. I ended up making a roadside stop in the dark near a barn when I was down past Tioga. Also realized I had yet another marker light out on the Prius. Apparently around 12 years/200K miles is when they go...
Got on site just before 7 I think which was just about perfect. Got any last minute things attached and headed up the road to the starting line. It was right around sunrise, pretty low key(there were only about 70 runners for the 50K and the 25K didn't start for another hour and a half). Had the starting line clock ticking down until the start time which I liked.
I had already gotten my swag bag Friday night but hadn't realized that I needed to check in Sunday morning to get my bib. So got my bib attached, dropped in my ticket for a prize entry, one last potty break, and stood over by the fire for a few minutes before the pre race meeting. Which mainly told us to follow the yellow, blue or pink blazes and ribbons and to not go towards orange markings.
Then we all kinda meandered over to the starting line and we were off at 7:30!
Overall feeling of the course was just beautiful. The sun was out, yet being filtered by the trees, the wind was blowing through the trees and it was just out running or hiking through the woods with the leaves falling and already on the ground and just beautiful. Temperatures were perfect. It was cold to start, but within a couple miles the gloves weren't needed and the sleeves and buff shortly after that.
Whole course was also fairly rocky. Not horribly so, but my feet in my Fivefingers were feeling it after so many miles. Especially towards the second half and when the leaves were hiding most of them so it was hard to know where to plant my feet even while walking.
But it was about like the course description read. A nice mile of mostly flat, then a real serious uphill, then there must have been a pretty good downhill in there... Actually that might have been the one I flew down in the zone when my legs were fresh. Next hill must have been close to 40 degrees, Very steep and rocky. Just go straight up!
Hmm... I think maybe then was more downhill, but I was having a harder time finding my groove to get much speed...
I think we came down Frankenstein's forehead after that... That one someone did tell me was 40 degrees. It's definitely another straight down hill, and it was the one that really hurt my feet/legs by the time I was back down it.
Shortly thereafter was the 25K/50K split and I was happy to see I hadn't been passed by any quick 25K people.
BUT, that was only mile 13... So kinda a misleading feeling with another 3 miles to go before reaching the halfway point...
But I continued on the 50K path and through the first of some stream crossings, then on to some more hills. Was feeling pretty good and making pretty good time I felt.
And then around 13.5 miles I was climbing a hill and woah... The left thigh had been coming and going with pain as it's done before. But the right one suddenly kicked in with a full on cramp. I decided to just try giving it a minute. After a minute I decided to take off my pack and dig out the mustard I had put in there for this reason. Thankfully before I actually got the mustard the cramp was subsiding. But I put 3 packets in my shorts pocket just in case.
So I continued up the hill, but pulled my pace back considerably.
I think it was about another 5-10 miles before the cramping really wasn't giving any more hints that it was going to bite me again.
And yeah, around mile 14 or so, it was getting pretty tiring and my body was largely saying it would just as soon be done with this. It was a definite mental push for the last 18 miles!
Made it to mile 16 and the halfway point and looked like we'd done 4400' of ascent, so that should mean we were a good bit beyond the halfway point as far as that went.
Made it to the un-manned aid station at 17.5 miles and talked for a moment with 3 other runners who had just passed me. We passed each other several times over the next number of miles. I only passed them when I left the aid stations sooner than they did.
One memorable moment was when I mentioned that it probably wasn't the best bet to have just done the Wineglass marathon the week before and one of the runners said that Wineglass was a lot easier than Monster, and I said I didn't think so. But then I was thinking about it in the miles till I met up with them again one more time, and it occurred to me that Yes, Green Monster is indeed harder physically(though not in every way), but mentally not really(but kinda)...
I don't really like the way my body feels towards the second half of Wineglass, but I do rather like the course. That said, Green Monster is SOOOO much better... Wineglass is paved roads and it's nice scenery, but you're still out on a road. And there's lots of spectators and so there's a lot more pressure to be running the whole way. Monster is just a hike out in the woods.
And as far as aid stations go, I've never really ventured out into some of the more interesting food options. Just pretty much stuck to the gels and water. Well, at the second aid station I tried M&M's. Eh, I kinda regretted that. They were fine, but just didn't push any buttons. (I mean I'm getting plenty of plain sugar in the gels I'm eating). Then around maybe mile 20 I did NOT take a pierogi and almost immediately regretted it. I think I had some gas pains and I was just being a bit cautious, but I was like, Oh I wish I had taken one!
I believe it was mile 21(and these numbers are a bit iffy since my watch was losing signal and I was behind by at least a mile towards the end). I tried a boiled potato. That was fine, though they were seriously missing out as it should have been a SALT potato! It was also the aid station at this cool rock formation which normally would be a ton of fun to run/play on. Indeed, the course went through it and you had to like step over big, deep cracks, and then obstacle course your way over some big stuff. Unfortunately, at that point my legs were not real happy with me, so it was a real concerted effort not to hurt myself there!
Somewhere around there I had my first corn chips of the race as well... OMG... Those are the bomb. Normally I just find corn chips OK and never buy any myself. But, they were apparently what I was craving during the race!
Yeah, LOTS of just keep going for those miles ahead. Don't remember any huge hills there at least as far as steepness. Some more flat-ish sections and generally a bit easier. More cool rocks to look at. Lots of stream crossings, some close to half way up my knees. Well, I could have avoided the water more, and initially I was trying to stay dry, but then I had to go in a bit and then realized that the cold water felt great on my feet. At one point I found a nice deep spot and just stood there for a minute soaking. Ahhh... Got going again and gave a brief though to just laying down in it... But it wasn't really that hot at all, just looking for a refresher.
Hmm, oh there was some muddy sections as well...
I think maybe around mile 23 I pulled out my phone/music and headphones. But, eh... It just didn't do much for me at that point. Which must have meant I was pretty tired cause usually that's good for a bit of a boost.
The next thoughts that come to mind were near the end.
Somewhere around maybe mile 24 the person behind me caught up as we hit the 2nd to last aid station. I hadn't seen anyone for hours at that point I think. The lady there was great. I enjoyed some chicken noodle soup and pierogies! And after a few minutes, I continued on, more medium uphills.
I think it was like 3-5 miles to the last aid station. Oh yeah, somewhere around there were more downhills of decent steepness. MAN even the downhills were really grinding on my legs and I don't generally have any trouble with those.
So, last aid station, mile 28.5. Except that's not what my watch says. It's only reading 27 something. I confirm. This is 28.5? Yep. And it's only 4 miles to the finish? 3.75. WOOHOO, I'm a mile or so ahead of what my watch is telling me! I think I can make it! Except they tell me there is another hill to go up. And that's what I thought I remembered from the elevation profile. Another full climb? Yup.
So, I took quarter piece of PB&J(I regret not taking another), and another cup of corn chips(oh yeah) and off I went for the last section.
And oh my was it... As soon as I left the aid station it was up hill. And it was not gentle. It was pretty steep. Look up... Uggghh, it goes just about full on steep. And it just keeps going. Yep, about another 1000' foot climb. I've no idea how I managed to keep 27 minute miles up that thing. Every step was labored and slow. But another hour maybe and I had reached what I had SOO hoped and turned out to be true was the LAST top of a mountain. Still more or less walking/power walking when one lady surprised me(again, no one had been around for so long) and passed me in full on power hiking mode.
Then on another descent of medium grade. Legs were shot, but not near as bad as some of the other recent descents. I'd find myself starting to get into a slow run down the hill and thinking I was just about there, but then nope, I wasn't. So it was still another hour maybe of off and on again walking/running.
FINALLY got to the bottom... And there had been quite a number of "Am I on the right path?" times where the markers or blazes were spaced out, but this time I was pretty sure I was supposed to go straight to the road, but then which way? After a minute, I finally saw the flags down the road and was pretty sure that was the finish. Sure enough!
10 hours and 2 minutes!
They were kinda working on closing up shop, but I got some applause from the remaining people and they still had some pulled pork and mac n cheese for me. So I sat for a little bit, ate my food, and then made some painful steps to the portapotty and back to the car. Back home around 7:30!
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
1 Weekend, 2 Days, 2 Races
Oh, it was kinda interesting so let me see if I can recap a bit.
Saturday was Hardcore Mudd Run Ultra NY. It was WAY smaller than most other races I've done. Like a few rows of cars small. Like maybe 15 people in the elite wave at 9 and 30? people when I went at 9:30...
Not sure if there was any prizes for the elite wave but I guess I should have signed up, my time was only 10 minutes behind the slowest "winner". Not sure if they were any more picky on the obstacles for that or not...
Anyway, it was a good run. A bit different than I had thought. Let me look at the obstacles to recall...
-Firediver was right at the start, that was simple enough but pretty cool jumping over a couple channels of fire and under a couple more.
-Mudd Run was something of a repetitive theme, a bunch of back and forth mowed paths in a field. Though this first section was up and down hill and through a few smallish mud pits. Not too exciting.
-Landslide I don't even remember unless this was the slide by the pond...
-Cool runnings I guess was the first section through the trees...
This was another issue that could go in either direction...
See, they have an obstacle called "lost in the woods" and it was repeatedly stated by the announcer that the course was 6.5 miles, or 7.5 miles depending on how you went through the woods and that it was very tricky and you might get to a dead end and to just come back, etc...
-So, apparently this first section of woods was NOT intended to get anyone lost... But this was much like the Finger Lakes Trails I've done around home. Which is to say you're just out in the woods with generally no actual trail and you're just looking for the next blaze on a tree. Though they did have some pink tape on these. I guess I did well and found the right way but I really wasn't sure and apparently almost everyone else got lost. So... Not so good if this was NOT the objective here... But I kind of like the rugged terrain so it was kinda fun.
-Rubber bridge is the typical inner tubes on a pond. Eh, it's fine, nothing new.
-OK, I think they misplaced Landslide and that is the slide... Wasn't too impressed with their slide. It was the typical soapy tarp on a hill into a mud pit, but on the other.... 3 of these I think I've done at other races, they were all fun, fast and not really worrying for my safety. This one was somehow not very fast, but still seemed like there were rocks to catch on under the tarp and they'd only cleared one side of the tarp and I kinda slid towards off the side of it into the dirt and into a possibly too small pit at the end. No real problems but it just didn't seem set up well.
-Bobbers were a few rows of 55 gallon drums that you swam under. Quite simple, but the water was nice and warm and I really quite liked hopping in and swimming under them.
-Mission Impossible/Up and over. I think these might be off a bit as well. Basically, it was another not very well marked section of back and forth across a field. Worse this time since the whole field was runnable so I wasn't sure if I was supposed to just stick to the freshly mowed stuff(with no markings at all) or just go straight to the next obstacle. Thankfully there was a somewhat nearby volunteer who told me to stick to the fresh mowed stuff.
That led me to some reverse inclined walls of about 10' I think with a 3/4" rope. I thought I might be able to do it, but dang that smaller rope is really difficult. I managed to get myself on the rope and feet locked on it, but I could get myself up the couple feet to the top of the wall. I was the only one there besides a volunteer. So after a minute or two, I elected to go on around.
-Water stop and a half banana and then to this piece of fence... I've done this obstacle at several other races where it's basically just a tight cargo net on the ground and you crawl under it and it pulls on you. Generally not too bad, bordering on quite easy. Well, this is a section of chain link fence. And again, I was going by myself... This was WAY harder than I had imagined. I spent like 5-10 minutes under that thing. Could barely lift it enough to be able to move myself and could barely figure out which way I should be headed once I was under it and then my Spibelt was getting caught. In the end I made it out, way more energy expended and some pretty good bruises on both shoulder blades.
-Then it was back into the woods where I had previously come out, people were still lost. I was just told this time to follow the paint and that it should kinda go off in a slightly different direction than when I came out of the same opening a little bit ago... Well, I seemed to be following it. Still unsure though. And it was a mix of paint/tape on the trees... Then the paint can lying on the ground near the last paint, but there was still some tape. And then it seemed to dead end... Ok, back to the last tape, look around... Nope... Look some more... Oh wait, way downhill, far to my right in the creek there's another piece of tape. And back on the hunt. Like another mile of randomness through the woods wondering if I'm on the right path or "getting lost"... I finally get out of the woods and there's a guy there and I ask if I was on the right path or not and he tells me that section doesn't come till later and asks if it could use some more marking... Umm, yeah if you're not supposed to worry about getting lost in that section!
-Now we're up to the 10 and 12' walls. Umm yeah, that's about impossible by myself. The last 12' did have a rope though, so i tried and did make it to the top, but there was no way I was going to have the oomph to get myself up the foot or two so I could get a leg over. I caught up to a team at this section and they offered to help, but I didn't get the impression they were going to be able to each lift 100lbs well above their heads...
-So then we're up to the paint ball run where you choose to crawl along hay bales, or run through possible paint balls. The team was going through one by one crawling. No sign of paintballs. I was waiting for them as I talked to the guy and said I wasn't sure which way to go, I've never been hit by a paintball and I wasn't going to get hit in the face, right? So I elected to run for it. It was a short section, I don't think the paintball guys were ready. Took me about 3 seconds to sprint past and then about 2 seconds after I was through I heard a few shots fired. Woohoo!
-Down and dirty... Don't recall, oh yeah it was a crawl under barbed wire. I rolled under.
-Then the cargo mountain... This was a surprise... I've done many cargo nets. Always found them quite easy. This one was NOT... It was attached maybe 15' or more between a couple trees and VERY loose. So, it was a bit more difficult going up, but not bad. But then at the top... Umm this was new... When the nets are loose, my feet are now in FRONT of me, not under me... So how do I get them over the top? The volunteers said something about some people flipping over the top. Haha, very funny. Yeah, I'm sure I could flip over easy enough, but not so sure about not falling straight to the ground afterwards or maybe just busting my shoulder while trying to hold on while flipping... Thankfully the team I had just passed caught up and with a couple guys on there giving it some more tension I managed to maneuver myself just enough to make it over. Still, very scary and difficult compared to all others!
-THEN we come to lost in the woods. I ran into a guy that I thought was quite a ways ahead of me and indeed he was getting pissed at not finding his way out. I kept watch on both sides and thought I could see all the flags, yet they did all seem to end at the same place. Followed the other team and basically figured out I guess the idea was that you were just supposed to loop yourself back to where you started. And sure enough after a bit we found our way continuing on the course. Which then led to more slightly sketchy following of markings through the woods.
-Then to a 40lb rock carry up and down a stretch. No biggie.
-Hmm, they list a few more things, but I'm not sure I recall...
I think it was pretty much just a good bit more trail running over some rugged terrain and thankfully it was more definitive.
-Then to Electric Ave. Now this one was definitely more hardcore as well. Mudder's Electro shock therapy is just a short section you walk or run through and I managed to dodge all of them 2 years ago. This one, not so much. It's down at ground level so you can only roll or crawl through and they all touch the ground so you're not escaping. and it's uphill. I elected to roll which one guy kept saying was the worst idea, but I'm not sure why. I counted 10 shocks as I went through. Only one of them was bad, I think because it hit my head whereas the others just hit my arm.
-But from there, took a minute to figure out where straight was again, then on up the hill, over a couple of maybe 5' walls and to the finish!
A good time overall.
Sunday:Dam Good Trail Race
I'll say that compared to last year it was MUCH nicer. It was about 10 degrees cooler, 50% less humid and the ground was almost entirely dry.
Me? I dunno, I think I must have used up my coordination at Hardcore(or maybe the shocks did me in?) (:
I thought I felt ok as we started out at a quick but not too bad 10 or so minute pace.
But I've never tripped more than a couple times on ANY run. I tripped like in the first mile, then maybe around mile 2 full on crashed and let a group of people on by which was nicer to just run by myself(I guess that kinda depends on who is around, pace, etc as to whether I prefer to run with others in this sense). But I tripped maybe 8 more times and my left ankle/shin something was not feeling too great.
But by around mile 4 or 5 I think my body started to get broken in and not feeling too bad. I was still closer to 13 minute miles than 10's, but I didn't feel like I was hurting and going to crash repeatedly. (Maybe it was just the caffienated shot blocks kicking in).
Kept on trucking and surprisingly around maybe mile 10 I think I felt even better and felt I finished quite strong for the last few miles and not really hurting!
Another good one!
Saturday was Hardcore Mudd Run Ultra NY. It was WAY smaller than most other races I've done. Like a few rows of cars small. Like maybe 15 people in the elite wave at 9 and 30? people when I went at 9:30...
Not sure if there was any prizes for the elite wave but I guess I should have signed up, my time was only 10 minutes behind the slowest "winner". Not sure if they were any more picky on the obstacles for that or not...
Anyway, it was a good run. A bit different than I had thought. Let me look at the obstacles to recall...
-Firediver was right at the start, that was simple enough but pretty cool jumping over a couple channels of fire and under a couple more.
-Mudd Run was something of a repetitive theme, a bunch of back and forth mowed paths in a field. Though this first section was up and down hill and through a few smallish mud pits. Not too exciting.
-Landslide I don't even remember unless this was the slide by the pond...
-Cool runnings I guess was the first section through the trees...
This was another issue that could go in either direction...
See, they have an obstacle called "lost in the woods" and it was repeatedly stated by the announcer that the course was 6.5 miles, or 7.5 miles depending on how you went through the woods and that it was very tricky and you might get to a dead end and to just come back, etc...
-So, apparently this first section of woods was NOT intended to get anyone lost... But this was much like the Finger Lakes Trails I've done around home. Which is to say you're just out in the woods with generally no actual trail and you're just looking for the next blaze on a tree. Though they did have some pink tape on these. I guess I did well and found the right way but I really wasn't sure and apparently almost everyone else got lost. So... Not so good if this was NOT the objective here... But I kind of like the rugged terrain so it was kinda fun.
-Rubber bridge is the typical inner tubes on a pond. Eh, it's fine, nothing new.
-OK, I think they misplaced Landslide and that is the slide... Wasn't too impressed with their slide. It was the typical soapy tarp on a hill into a mud pit, but on the other.... 3 of these I think I've done at other races, they were all fun, fast and not really worrying for my safety. This one was somehow not very fast, but still seemed like there were rocks to catch on under the tarp and they'd only cleared one side of the tarp and I kinda slid towards off the side of it into the dirt and into a possibly too small pit at the end. No real problems but it just didn't seem set up well.
-Bobbers were a few rows of 55 gallon drums that you swam under. Quite simple, but the water was nice and warm and I really quite liked hopping in and swimming under them.
-Mission Impossible/Up and over. I think these might be off a bit as well. Basically, it was another not very well marked section of back and forth across a field. Worse this time since the whole field was runnable so I wasn't sure if I was supposed to just stick to the freshly mowed stuff(with no markings at all) or just go straight to the next obstacle. Thankfully there was a somewhat nearby volunteer who told me to stick to the fresh mowed stuff.
That led me to some reverse inclined walls of about 10' I think with a 3/4" rope. I thought I might be able to do it, but dang that smaller rope is really difficult. I managed to get myself on the rope and feet locked on it, but I could get myself up the couple feet to the top of the wall. I was the only one there besides a volunteer. So after a minute or two, I elected to go on around.
-Water stop and a half banana and then to this piece of fence... I've done this obstacle at several other races where it's basically just a tight cargo net on the ground and you crawl under it and it pulls on you. Generally not too bad, bordering on quite easy. Well, this is a section of chain link fence. And again, I was going by myself... This was WAY harder than I had imagined. I spent like 5-10 minutes under that thing. Could barely lift it enough to be able to move myself and could barely figure out which way I should be headed once I was under it and then my Spibelt was getting caught. In the end I made it out, way more energy expended and some pretty good bruises on both shoulder blades.
-Then it was back into the woods where I had previously come out, people were still lost. I was just told this time to follow the paint and that it should kinda go off in a slightly different direction than when I came out of the same opening a little bit ago... Well, I seemed to be following it. Still unsure though. And it was a mix of paint/tape on the trees... Then the paint can lying on the ground near the last paint, but there was still some tape. And then it seemed to dead end... Ok, back to the last tape, look around... Nope... Look some more... Oh wait, way downhill, far to my right in the creek there's another piece of tape. And back on the hunt. Like another mile of randomness through the woods wondering if I'm on the right path or "getting lost"... I finally get out of the woods and there's a guy there and I ask if I was on the right path or not and he tells me that section doesn't come till later and asks if it could use some more marking... Umm, yeah if you're not supposed to worry about getting lost in that section!
-Now we're up to the 10 and 12' walls. Umm yeah, that's about impossible by myself. The last 12' did have a rope though, so i tried and did make it to the top, but there was no way I was going to have the oomph to get myself up the foot or two so I could get a leg over. I caught up to a team at this section and they offered to help, but I didn't get the impression they were going to be able to each lift 100lbs well above their heads...
-So then we're up to the paint ball run where you choose to crawl along hay bales, or run through possible paint balls. The team was going through one by one crawling. No sign of paintballs. I was waiting for them as I talked to the guy and said I wasn't sure which way to go, I've never been hit by a paintball and I wasn't going to get hit in the face, right? So I elected to run for it. It was a short section, I don't think the paintball guys were ready. Took me about 3 seconds to sprint past and then about 2 seconds after I was through I heard a few shots fired. Woohoo!
-Down and dirty... Don't recall, oh yeah it was a crawl under barbed wire. I rolled under.
-Then the cargo mountain... This was a surprise... I've done many cargo nets. Always found them quite easy. This one was NOT... It was attached maybe 15' or more between a couple trees and VERY loose. So, it was a bit more difficult going up, but not bad. But then at the top... Umm this was new... When the nets are loose, my feet are now in FRONT of me, not under me... So how do I get them over the top? The volunteers said something about some people flipping over the top. Haha, very funny. Yeah, I'm sure I could flip over easy enough, but not so sure about not falling straight to the ground afterwards or maybe just busting my shoulder while trying to hold on while flipping... Thankfully the team I had just passed caught up and with a couple guys on there giving it some more tension I managed to maneuver myself just enough to make it over. Still, very scary and difficult compared to all others!
-THEN we come to lost in the woods. I ran into a guy that I thought was quite a ways ahead of me and indeed he was getting pissed at not finding his way out. I kept watch on both sides and thought I could see all the flags, yet they did all seem to end at the same place. Followed the other team and basically figured out I guess the idea was that you were just supposed to loop yourself back to where you started. And sure enough after a bit we found our way continuing on the course. Which then led to more slightly sketchy following of markings through the woods.
-Then to a 40lb rock carry up and down a stretch. No biggie.
-Hmm, they list a few more things, but I'm not sure I recall...
I think it was pretty much just a good bit more trail running over some rugged terrain and thankfully it was more definitive.
-Then to Electric Ave. Now this one was definitely more hardcore as well. Mudder's Electro shock therapy is just a short section you walk or run through and I managed to dodge all of them 2 years ago. This one, not so much. It's down at ground level so you can only roll or crawl through and they all touch the ground so you're not escaping. and it's uphill. I elected to roll which one guy kept saying was the worst idea, but I'm not sure why. I counted 10 shocks as I went through. Only one of them was bad, I think because it hit my head whereas the others just hit my arm.
-But from there, took a minute to figure out where straight was again, then on up the hill, over a couple of maybe 5' walls and to the finish!
A good time overall.
Sunday:Dam Good Trail Race
I'll say that compared to last year it was MUCH nicer. It was about 10 degrees cooler, 50% less humid and the ground was almost entirely dry.
Me? I dunno, I think I must have used up my coordination at Hardcore(or maybe the shocks did me in?) (:
I thought I felt ok as we started out at a quick but not too bad 10 or so minute pace.
But I've never tripped more than a couple times on ANY run. I tripped like in the first mile, then maybe around mile 2 full on crashed and let a group of people on by which was nicer to just run by myself(I guess that kinda depends on who is around, pace, etc as to whether I prefer to run with others in this sense). But I tripped maybe 8 more times and my left ankle/shin something was not feeling too great.
But by around mile 4 or 5 I think my body started to get broken in and not feeling too bad. I was still closer to 13 minute miles than 10's, but I didn't feel like I was hurting and going to crash repeatedly. (Maybe it was just the caffienated shot blocks kicking in).
Kept on trucking and surprisingly around maybe mile 10 I think I felt even better and felt I finished quite strong for the last few miles and not really hurting!
Another good one!
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
I think I can do it...
Saturday was Tough Mudder. Similar to last year, but somehow we took almost 4 hours. I guess we did wait more at the obstacles, etc. for team members to catch up. Not a lot, but I guess a couple minutes at each one adds up.
Most memorable for me was standing on that 15' platform and hearing 3,2,1 and somehow figuring I just had to take that jump off to the trapeze bar ahead, then somehow I got it, hung on and reached the bell on the other side before dropping to the water below. I have no problem climbing or standing on that platform, but the idea of jumping off is not something my body wants to do and that dang bar was just insane... But I did it somehow!
Also, don't let Mike pick a log saying "yeah, we want the biggest one you got, that 400+lb one!" especially when he didn't realize we had to take it down into a gulley, through a couple walls and some mud and back out again!
I made it up the monkey bars and somehow grabbed the trapeze bar, but completely failed to reach the lengthwise pipe on the other side.
But in all it went pretty well. That said, I did find myself again thinking that I didn't necessarily care about the rest of the races this year...
BUT... I woke a bit tired on Sunday, but actually feeling pretty well... Yeah, I had a few scrapes and cuts, but mentally and physically I was feeling overall better/more capable...
So Monday I headed out for a 16 miler and wore my thicker NB Minimus Trail Zero V2's. Supposedly minimal, but there's WAY more shoe to them. So I have the good and bad... I've lost my ground feel, but my feet which are still a bit off/on with lingering pains to a degree also don't seem to be getting much negatives from it... So I can plow over my rocky road and not even notice golf ball sized rocks wherever they end up... As long as I don't end up going stupid it should be OK.
Although the other double sided part is that since they don't fit like a glove, I ended up with a nice blister in my (lack of) arch on my left foot after maybe 6 miles in. I stopped back at the garage around mile 9 and wrapped it with some electrical tape. It survived.
But in all, I felt quite good at the end of that 16 mile run...
And Tuesday's 6.5 mile run was a bit more rough, I still think it's doable...
And looking at the calendar...
Basically, it will all be done one way or the other in 2 months and a week...
-Howard 5K this weekend
-22 Miler Monday(let's hope that goes well... I should probably think about a paved route for that one...)
-A 16 miler the following Monday which will be taper week for 8.5 mile Hardcore Mudd Run Saturday and 13.5 mile Dam Good Trail Race Sunday.... I think I'm going to consider that pretty close to the 24 mile run that would otherwise be for the following Monday...
-Another 16 mile the next week which leads to the Spartan College Classic.
--POOF... 1 month and the bunch of "smaller" races is done...
-So... basically 26 miles of suck the Monday after Spartan and we're done worrying... 3 weeks of taper.
Then October bops in and we do 26 flat paved miles... Guess I'll aim for the 4:40 pacer and see how it goes...
Then Green Monster the following weekend at a decent walking pace overall and I made it!
I can do this...
Most memorable for me was standing on that 15' platform and hearing 3,2,1 and somehow figuring I just had to take that jump off to the trapeze bar ahead, then somehow I got it, hung on and reached the bell on the other side before dropping to the water below. I have no problem climbing or standing on that platform, but the idea of jumping off is not something my body wants to do and that dang bar was just insane... But I did it somehow!
Also, don't let Mike pick a log saying "yeah, we want the biggest one you got, that 400+lb one!" especially when he didn't realize we had to take it down into a gulley, through a couple walls and some mud and back out again!
I made it up the monkey bars and somehow grabbed the trapeze bar, but completely failed to reach the lengthwise pipe on the other side.
But in all it went pretty well. That said, I did find myself again thinking that I didn't necessarily care about the rest of the races this year...
BUT... I woke a bit tired on Sunday, but actually feeling pretty well... Yeah, I had a few scrapes and cuts, but mentally and physically I was feeling overall better/more capable...
So Monday I headed out for a 16 miler and wore my thicker NB Minimus Trail Zero V2's. Supposedly minimal, but there's WAY more shoe to them. So I have the good and bad... I've lost my ground feel, but my feet which are still a bit off/on with lingering pains to a degree also don't seem to be getting much negatives from it... So I can plow over my rocky road and not even notice golf ball sized rocks wherever they end up... As long as I don't end up going stupid it should be OK.
Although the other double sided part is that since they don't fit like a glove, I ended up with a nice blister in my (lack of) arch on my left foot after maybe 6 miles in. I stopped back at the garage around mile 9 and wrapped it with some electrical tape. It survived.
But in all, I felt quite good at the end of that 16 mile run...
And Tuesday's 6.5 mile run was a bit more rough, I still think it's doable...
And looking at the calendar...
Basically, it will all be done one way or the other in 2 months and a week...
-Howard 5K this weekend
-22 Miler Monday(let's hope that goes well... I should probably think about a paved route for that one...)
-A 16 miler the following Monday which will be taper week for 8.5 mile Hardcore Mudd Run Saturday and 13.5 mile Dam Good Trail Race Sunday.... I think I'm going to consider that pretty close to the 24 mile run that would otherwise be for the following Monday...
-Another 16 mile the next week which leads to the Spartan College Classic.
--POOF... 1 month and the bunch of "smaller" races is done...
-So... basically 26 miles of suck the Monday after Spartan and we're done worrying... 3 weeks of taper.
Then October bops in and we do 26 flat paved miles... Guess I'll aim for the 4:40 pacer and see how it goes...
Then Green Monster the following weekend at a decent walking pace overall and I made it!
I can do this...
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Change tactics mid stream?
Hmm, not sure yet...
But a couple items that I may try changing based on some more research...
#1 seems to be focus on doing more in less time.
This is easier said than done... I tend to go along the lines of going slower, but getting the miles done. But I'm seeing more about not going out for as long(maybe 3 hours). But the idea is to go faster/better quality runs during that time.
Perhaps this might tie in to:
#2 which is that with the exception of those ultra long runs, just about every other run I'm doing is first thing in the morning with no fuel. It seems that those fuel starved runs may be good, but maybe not for all of them to be that way... So I may want to add some fuel to some of my morning runs.
But a couple items that I may try changing based on some more research...
#1 seems to be focus on doing more in less time.
This is easier said than done... I tend to go along the lines of going slower, but getting the miles done. But I'm seeing more about not going out for as long(maybe 3 hours). But the idea is to go faster/better quality runs during that time.
Perhaps this might tie in to:
#2 which is that with the exception of those ultra long runs, just about every other run I'm doing is first thing in the morning with no fuel. It seems that those fuel starved runs may be good, but maybe not for all of them to be that way... So I may want to add some fuel to some of my morning runs.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
0SPF
Well, this proved to be a rather interesting race mainly because of the odd random pains and numbness etc that had been moving through my toes, feet, ankles, knee, hamstring and hip over the previous couple weeks post 30 mile "run"...
But it seemed like things were feeling pretty decent the morning of. Made it through the flood warnings and torrential downpours on the way up.
Then standing at the starting line I felt some new stabbing needle sensations in my right ankle. Crap, what new pain is this?! Then I looked down after it happened a couple more times and realized it was in fact a bug that didn't care that I was wearing compression socks, it was gonna just chew right through them/me.
But the race felt good as far as my feet, etc went.
But unfortunately the weather was as predicted. Climbing through the 70's and clearing 80 before I was done and humidity was around 90%. So, it was hot and humid to start. And by around mile 8 or so I was really ready for it to be done... I kept looking at my watch and thinking/hoping it must be messed up, it couldn't possible be that far left...
I also was hoping I could just stretch my water out a bit and be ok with my 2 23oz bottles. But yeah, I realized that was going to be a mistake by about 90 minutes in. I got a couple refills in there as well during my near 3 and a half hours out there.
The last half of the race was a lot of my mouth/body saying "just get gallons and gallons of ice water and pour them in!", but my stomach was saying "ehh, just take it easy on me..."
I also made mental notes of being just fine with not running any of the races I am scheduled for this year... As well as the one I think I will try to stand by more which is to probably NOT do this race again, or any this long that may be in this sort of heat. It was just not enjoyable for those last miles. And that last hill was a definite death march just trying to walk up that field road in the oppressive heat, humidity and out in the sun.
So, it was a good race, but that is just too many difficulty factors for me to enjoy at that distance.
But it seemed like things were feeling pretty decent the morning of. Made it through the flood warnings and torrential downpours on the way up.
Then standing at the starting line I felt some new stabbing needle sensations in my right ankle. Crap, what new pain is this?! Then I looked down after it happened a couple more times and realized it was in fact a bug that didn't care that I was wearing compression socks, it was gonna just chew right through them/me.
But the race felt good as far as my feet, etc went.
But unfortunately the weather was as predicted. Climbing through the 70's and clearing 80 before I was done and humidity was around 90%. So, it was hot and humid to start. And by around mile 8 or so I was really ready for it to be done... I kept looking at my watch and thinking/hoping it must be messed up, it couldn't possible be that far left...
I also was hoping I could just stretch my water out a bit and be ok with my 2 23oz bottles. But yeah, I realized that was going to be a mistake by about 90 minutes in. I got a couple refills in there as well during my near 3 and a half hours out there.
The last half of the race was a lot of my mouth/body saying "just get gallons and gallons of ice water and pour them in!", but my stomach was saying "ehh, just take it easy on me..."
I also made mental notes of being just fine with not running any of the races I am scheduled for this year... As well as the one I think I will try to stand by more which is to probably NOT do this race again, or any this long that may be in this sort of heat. It was just not enjoyable for those last miles. And that last hill was a definite death march just trying to walk up that field road in the oppressive heat, humidity and out in the sun.
So, it was a good race, but that is just too many difficulty factors for me to enjoy at that distance.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Is it possible to overtrain and undertrain at the same time?
Oh, let's see I have a couple entries I've been thinking about... This one and then the one for 0SPF which kinda ties in...
Dang runner's mind... I know the waves it goes in and I've heard from so many others that it's the same. Running is great! Why am I doing this?! I'm never running again! OK, Let's sign up for the next one! Something like that... So I'm trying to take my time with decisions.
So the big challenges this year were the Wineglass Marathon which I did last year and was the only race I didn't enjoy and was in a lot of pain at the end. And then the Green Monster 50K which will take me to Ultra status, and is just crazy cause it's like 7800' of elevation...
Well, those 2 aren't until October, but with my other more "normal" races in between and not wanting to run 30 miles the week before or after a race, I worked on building up the mileage early.
So... as of about 2 weeks ago I finished up 3 weeks in a row of a long run each Monday. (there might have been another couple days around the first week, not sure...) but those runs were 26+, 29 and 30 miles respectively. I walked a lot and was out there 6-8.5hrs at a time. I think the 26 mile one I did a lot on the Finger Lakes Trail. The others I kept on my local seasonal road I run which just meant 4 trips back and forth across the hills and the rock laden areas. The first two went about as expected, slow, tiring, but done.
The last one I tried going a bit slower from the start, hoping for some negative splits or just somehow not being in as bad a shape. Yeah, that didn't really work. My feet were still awfully worn out around the halfway point and I was walking most of it.
I think that was my issue. Walking on tired feet in minimal footwear over golfball sized rocks for 30 miles... Still, things felt mostly normal tired afterwards, maybe a tad more knee, hip and hamstring issue, but not too bad. Then like a couple days later I started getting some weird floating issues... I even had a couple pretty good feeling runs in there... But during the course of most of the last 2 weeks, there have been bits of toe numbness, right foot pain, left knee pain, right hip/hamstring pain(that's been pretty minimal). Mainly it was the right foot. I took a walk one day and isolated it to the fact that it was leaning to the right a bit and kind of in the area where an arch would be if I had one. If I kept my weight up on the balls of my feet where it should be, all was fine. it was just the sloppy walking that hurt, which I'm sure I did plenty of and jamming rocks in that area at the same time during that 30 miles...
So then I tried wearing some more protective shoes for recovery for a few days and I think that led to my ankle pain because I wasn't used to having that extra inch of leverage under my feet, or off-angle stuff on a couple pairs.(the other 2 pairs I have are at least 0 drop so that's good).
Anyway, don't get me wrong, I've felt plenty tired and sore after plenty of runs. But after a number of these 20+ mile "runs" in the 6-8hr range, I've pretty confidently concluded that I don't like them. It's more than I want to do. And I rather wish I hadn't signed up for those 2 long races at the end of the year. I believe my hope was that since more mileage felt fine this year that going longer shouldn't be as hard. Well, it would seem I'm still hitting that dang wall at around 16-20 miles, even with more practice.
Now, I don't know that I couldn't build myself up to that level, but I do not want to invest that much time.
So...
The current questions/thoughts are...
-While I wouldn't have conceived of not doing these races I've already paid for... How much pain will I be in, and how much do I really NOT enjoy these distances? I'm seriously considering the option of just skipping them...
-Unless I make the decision of dropping them, how little training can I get away with(currently still only planning on one more long one in the next couple weeks and then maybe another one or two before taper). And which shoes should I wear during training and/or racing...
After this 13.5 mile race on Saturday I went through the feelings of being pretty much OK with just dropping out of EVERY race I'm signed up for the rest of the year, but now I'm feeling better. But still a bit unsure.
I know Wineglass only offers the option to defer my entry to next year. No refunds or transfers. Not positive about trying to switch to the half... Not sure on Green Monster, but might be similar...
I'm not looking for stellar times, I was already figuring most of green monster would be walking, but I guess that's my concern now... I seem to be having more trouble with walking that running... but there's no way I'm going to be running that far, or that far uphill for Monster...
So, we'll see. Right now my feet and calves have bits of notice, but in general I'm feeling pretty decent. But I think I'd like to get my feet feeling pretty well completely recovered before I were to try another run...
We'll see...
Dang runner's mind... I know the waves it goes in and I've heard from so many others that it's the same. Running is great! Why am I doing this?! I'm never running again! OK, Let's sign up for the next one! Something like that... So I'm trying to take my time with decisions.
So the big challenges this year were the Wineglass Marathon which I did last year and was the only race I didn't enjoy and was in a lot of pain at the end. And then the Green Monster 50K which will take me to Ultra status, and is just crazy cause it's like 7800' of elevation...
Well, those 2 aren't until October, but with my other more "normal" races in between and not wanting to run 30 miles the week before or after a race, I worked on building up the mileage early.
So... as of about 2 weeks ago I finished up 3 weeks in a row of a long run each Monday. (there might have been another couple days around the first week, not sure...) but those runs were 26+, 29 and 30 miles respectively. I walked a lot and was out there 6-8.5hrs at a time. I think the 26 mile one I did a lot on the Finger Lakes Trail. The others I kept on my local seasonal road I run which just meant 4 trips back and forth across the hills and the rock laden areas. The first two went about as expected, slow, tiring, but done.
The last one I tried going a bit slower from the start, hoping for some negative splits or just somehow not being in as bad a shape. Yeah, that didn't really work. My feet were still awfully worn out around the halfway point and I was walking most of it.
I think that was my issue. Walking on tired feet in minimal footwear over golfball sized rocks for 30 miles... Still, things felt mostly normal tired afterwards, maybe a tad more knee, hip and hamstring issue, but not too bad. Then like a couple days later I started getting some weird floating issues... I even had a couple pretty good feeling runs in there... But during the course of most of the last 2 weeks, there have been bits of toe numbness, right foot pain, left knee pain, right hip/hamstring pain(that's been pretty minimal). Mainly it was the right foot. I took a walk one day and isolated it to the fact that it was leaning to the right a bit and kind of in the area where an arch would be if I had one. If I kept my weight up on the balls of my feet where it should be, all was fine. it was just the sloppy walking that hurt, which I'm sure I did plenty of and jamming rocks in that area at the same time during that 30 miles...
So then I tried wearing some more protective shoes for recovery for a few days and I think that led to my ankle pain because I wasn't used to having that extra inch of leverage under my feet, or off-angle stuff on a couple pairs.(the other 2 pairs I have are at least 0 drop so that's good).
Anyway, don't get me wrong, I've felt plenty tired and sore after plenty of runs. But after a number of these 20+ mile "runs" in the 6-8hr range, I've pretty confidently concluded that I don't like them. It's more than I want to do. And I rather wish I hadn't signed up for those 2 long races at the end of the year. I believe my hope was that since more mileage felt fine this year that going longer shouldn't be as hard. Well, it would seem I'm still hitting that dang wall at around 16-20 miles, even with more practice.
Now, I don't know that I couldn't build myself up to that level, but I do not want to invest that much time.
So...
The current questions/thoughts are...
-While I wouldn't have conceived of not doing these races I've already paid for... How much pain will I be in, and how much do I really NOT enjoy these distances? I'm seriously considering the option of just skipping them...
-Unless I make the decision of dropping them, how little training can I get away with(currently still only planning on one more long one in the next couple weeks and then maybe another one or two before taper). And which shoes should I wear during training and/or racing...
After this 13.5 mile race on Saturday I went through the feelings of being pretty much OK with just dropping out of EVERY race I'm signed up for the rest of the year, but now I'm feeling better. But still a bit unsure.
I know Wineglass only offers the option to defer my entry to next year. No refunds or transfers. Not positive about trying to switch to the half... Not sure on Green Monster, but might be similar...
I'm not looking for stellar times, I was already figuring most of green monster would be walking, but I guess that's my concern now... I seem to be having more trouble with walking that running... but there's no way I'm going to be running that far, or that far uphill for Monster...
So, we'll see. Right now my feet and calves have bits of notice, but in general I'm feeling pretty decent. But I think I'd like to get my feet feeling pretty well completely recovered before I were to try another run...
We'll see...
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Struggles
So where am I right now? I'm tired. Not hugely so, but there is the frequent weight of tiredness on me at the moment. Really just mental I think. Though, that is one of the struggles, which is to say trying to determine whether my body is just tired from a lot of miles. Which becomes a bit mentally tiring trying to figure out if I should be pushing harder or taking it a bit easier. I do my best to err on the side of safe while still accomplishing my goals. As far as going the distance this seems to work. It seems speed goals are where injuries are more likely.
Right now my goal is the Green Monster 50K in October. Besides being 33 miles long, it's also got almost elevation as the Spartan beast in VT last year.(which was only 16 miles, but had obstacles as well. That took about 9 hours.)
I also have a bunch of other races before that which will somewhat interrupt training. As such I'm trying to build my mileage base now, quite a bit ahead of schedule. I'm trying to follow the 10% rule(as in don't go increase more than that per week), though when your long runs are in the 20's that means I'm adding 2 more miles every week. On that note, it is nice to see the improvement from last year. It was largely the 22 mile run(of which I had only done once before during the Wineglass last year) where I found myself going "oh yeah, I had forgotten this overly tired leg feeling..." Not to say that my feet and legs don't get tired, but not to that level, but they did a lot more with a lot less mileage last year.
Anyway, I'm not going for speed right now, just looking to injury free completion of Wineglass Full and Green Monster 50K a week later. Although I do want to try to get in a bit more speed work before the Howard 5K in... August I think.
Anyway, this leads us to weight and food.
I guess I'll start with weight. I'm currently about 195lbs. And I've been right close to 200lbs for almost a year now. I believe I just barely nudged into the 180's at my lowest last year. And part of me feels that I should just be ok with it cause I seem pretty healthy. Though for that matter, I don't think I was that unhealthy when I was 225lbs or more. Heck, even when I cleared 250lbs right before I decided I needed to lose weight, it's not like I had any real problems. But it's not like I wasn't doing anything, I was out walking a decent amount.
Still. Here I am at 195 and I definitely have a good 30-50lbs of spare tire/muffin top. I'd really like it to be less. And of course it would probably help my speed and reduce the load on my joints. Not that they are showing any serious issues, but occasionally I feel where I've not quite got my form right.
So we come to the losing of weight... Seems like it ought to just drop right off with all this running, right? Well, it did when I started a year or so ago... And I've dropped 5-10lbs in like a week on occasion. But I'm pretty sure I'm still eating too much. But it's difficult to tell just how much I should be eating. Calorie burn estimates on various running apps seem to have humongous differences... The latest one I've got is from Garmin and other than when I really push it at a race, it generally tells me I'm barely clearing 100 calories per mile. While other apps tell me it should be almost twice that. That's a pretty big difference on a 20 mile run... Did I just burn 2000 calories or 4000? And is my body really going to be happy if I still try to keep my intake to around 2000? Or is it going to want more fuel to rebuild those muscles, etc?
Even considering that I should eat less on the really bad calorie intake days, it comes down to my biggest issues:
#1 Emotional eating. Most of the time, this is stress eating. I love my girls to no end and they are WONDERFUL lots of the time! But then they are insane like half the time... One minute they're hugging and talking to each other, the next they're pushing each other down. So I find most often it seems to be the nights and weekends where I just find myself stressed and just wanting to eat something whether I'm hungry or not.
#2 is probably my bit of OCD where I don't like to see little bits of food around. I want to clear them up and feel like it's cleared off/out. And I don't like to waste food and throw it out. This is a lot worse with my girls since they always seem to leave several bites of whatever they were eating in a bowl around the house or in the fridge, etc.
So... We come down to about the only way I've had much luck in trying to control my eating. Basically I think I try to switch the side of my brain that I use when it comes to food. I try to take it from "food is enjoyment" to "food is a utility". Try to switch off the emotional part when it comes to eating. Not to say that this is easy or just works, but if I can keep focused enough, it kinda works. That also ties into trying to eat "cleaner". Cause snacks sound good. Fruit is just kinda OK, and veggies are acceptable at best, but most of the time a definite negative. I've gotten to the point where I am a bit more accepting of veggies, but I'm basically trying to ignore what I'm doing while eating them.
Anyway. just some thoughts that have been hanging on for a while. On we go!
Right now my goal is the Green Monster 50K in October. Besides being 33 miles long, it's also got almost elevation as the Spartan beast in VT last year.(which was only 16 miles, but had obstacles as well. That took about 9 hours.)
I also have a bunch of other races before that which will somewhat interrupt training. As such I'm trying to build my mileage base now, quite a bit ahead of schedule. I'm trying to follow the 10% rule(as in don't go increase more than that per week), though when your long runs are in the 20's that means I'm adding 2 more miles every week. On that note, it is nice to see the improvement from last year. It was largely the 22 mile run(of which I had only done once before during the Wineglass last year) where I found myself going "oh yeah, I had forgotten this overly tired leg feeling..." Not to say that my feet and legs don't get tired, but not to that level, but they did a lot more with a lot less mileage last year.
Anyway, I'm not going for speed right now, just looking to injury free completion of Wineglass Full and Green Monster 50K a week later. Although I do want to try to get in a bit more speed work before the Howard 5K in... August I think.
Anyway, this leads us to weight and food.
I guess I'll start with weight. I'm currently about 195lbs. And I've been right close to 200lbs for almost a year now. I believe I just barely nudged into the 180's at my lowest last year. And part of me feels that I should just be ok with it cause I seem pretty healthy. Though for that matter, I don't think I was that unhealthy when I was 225lbs or more. Heck, even when I cleared 250lbs right before I decided I needed to lose weight, it's not like I had any real problems. But it's not like I wasn't doing anything, I was out walking a decent amount.
Still. Here I am at 195 and I definitely have a good 30-50lbs of spare tire/muffin top. I'd really like it to be less. And of course it would probably help my speed and reduce the load on my joints. Not that they are showing any serious issues, but occasionally I feel where I've not quite got my form right.
So we come to the losing of weight... Seems like it ought to just drop right off with all this running, right? Well, it did when I started a year or so ago... And I've dropped 5-10lbs in like a week on occasion. But I'm pretty sure I'm still eating too much. But it's difficult to tell just how much I should be eating. Calorie burn estimates on various running apps seem to have humongous differences... The latest one I've got is from Garmin and other than when I really push it at a race, it generally tells me I'm barely clearing 100 calories per mile. While other apps tell me it should be almost twice that. That's a pretty big difference on a 20 mile run... Did I just burn 2000 calories or 4000? And is my body really going to be happy if I still try to keep my intake to around 2000? Or is it going to want more fuel to rebuild those muscles, etc?
Even considering that I should eat less on the really bad calorie intake days, it comes down to my biggest issues:
#1 Emotional eating. Most of the time, this is stress eating. I love my girls to no end and they are WONDERFUL lots of the time! But then they are insane like half the time... One minute they're hugging and talking to each other, the next they're pushing each other down. So I find most often it seems to be the nights and weekends where I just find myself stressed and just wanting to eat something whether I'm hungry or not.
#2 is probably my bit of OCD where I don't like to see little bits of food around. I want to clear them up and feel like it's cleared off/out. And I don't like to waste food and throw it out. This is a lot worse with my girls since they always seem to leave several bites of whatever they were eating in a bowl around the house or in the fridge, etc.
So... We come down to about the only way I've had much luck in trying to control my eating. Basically I think I try to switch the side of my brain that I use when it comes to food. I try to take it from "food is enjoyment" to "food is a utility". Try to switch off the emotional part when it comes to eating. Not to say that this is easy or just works, but if I can keep focused enough, it kinda works. That also ties into trying to eat "cleaner". Cause snacks sound good. Fruit is just kinda OK, and veggies are acceptable at best, but most of the time a definite negative. I've gotten to the point where I am a bit more accepting of veggies, but I'm basically trying to ignore what I'm doing while eating them.
Anyway. just some thoughts that have been hanging on for a while. On we go!
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
A year of running...
Well, it's been somewhere around a year that I've been running.
I know my first race was the Chili Challenge right about the first week of November. Won't be doing that one this year since we'll be in Wisconsin for my cousin's wedding.
The Wineglass marathon was pretty much the end to a year full of a running. Well... The first year. At the moment, I think I'm still planning on the Turkey Trot and Christmas 5K's and there's a half in January I'm eyeing...
So, now that I've experienced most races below Ultras, what do I think? Am I ready for an Ultra? NO. (: At least not at speed. The Wineglass was the first/only race where I was trying to keep up some speed and found out where my physical limits were at least with barefoot form. Never before have I tried to keep running while in agony.
And yet... I think I'm going to sign up again for next year.
Was it my favorite? Definitely not. I mean the Wineglass was a great race, I'd say the best road race I've done, but 26 miles is about twice as far as what sounds nice. Yes, as far as road races go, I think I like the half.
But road races are pretty much my least favorite. Not that I don't like them, but I like trail races better. And better than that are obstacle races.
Definitely what sits foremost in my race desire for 2015 is another Spartan Trifecta.
THOUGH....
MOST FUN? I really have to say that was the Color Run with MaKenzie. I didn't really run at all for that one, but seeing my 2 year old running a 5K and playing in the colors was definitely the most fun I've had at any of my races.
But after that one, the Spartan Beast World Championships in VT was my favorite. Yeah, it was 9 hours, almost twice as long as the marathon with only 16 miles, but about 9000 feet of climbing up... And yeah, heading down to the last 5K of obstacles at dusk was really dang tiring and I was more of a floundering fish trying to do any of them than I was an obstacle racer, but dang it I MADE IT THROUGH! And while I was tired and sore, I was not in NEAR the pain I experienced for the last 6-10 miles of the marathon trying to run.
So what now? I'm still working on that... I'm gonna give blood again and see how that goes with trying to run. I recall being more tired when I tried once last year, and looked it up to see that I am essentially reverse blood doping so yeah, it's probably going to have an effect, we'll see how much. I'm also re-focusing on taking off the 10lbs I put back on this year and the other 30 that still need to come off. I'm logging those intake calories again. Tried that a few weeks ago and the morning runs were rough. So we'll see just what this brings and maybe I'll ease up on some runs. Oh, and more barefoot runs. The barefoot group tells me that's my problem with the marathon. It was always on my list, it just didn't seem to get done. Though my feet and hands are the weak points when it comes to cold, so it may be Spring before I get any more barefoot runs in.
I'd like to get more runs in with Kenzie and/or Bella, but we'll have to see how that works out.
I think I'll keep up my Active account and hopefully score some more free races.
I want another Spartan Trifecta so I'll have to see about trying to volunteer for those or something, cause they ain't cheap.
I'll probably do Tough Mudder again since it's just down the road.
I kinda feel obligated to do the local races, though it seemed like last spring was pretty bogged down with races every week, so I may have to re-evaluate that. Most of those are just 5K's as well.
I might go do the Humdinger again, that was my first over a 5K and before the snow was gone and a trail/minor obstacle race...
Probably some trail races, though at the moment I'm not feeling as much pull for them... I think I need to find some closer and/or winter ones...
Dunno, we'll see!
I know my first race was the Chili Challenge right about the first week of November. Won't be doing that one this year since we'll be in Wisconsin for my cousin's wedding.
The Wineglass marathon was pretty much the end to a year full of a running. Well... The first year. At the moment, I think I'm still planning on the Turkey Trot and Christmas 5K's and there's a half in January I'm eyeing...
So, now that I've experienced most races below Ultras, what do I think? Am I ready for an Ultra? NO. (: At least not at speed. The Wineglass was the first/only race where I was trying to keep up some speed and found out where my physical limits were at least with barefoot form. Never before have I tried to keep running while in agony.
And yet... I think I'm going to sign up again for next year.
Was it my favorite? Definitely not. I mean the Wineglass was a great race, I'd say the best road race I've done, but 26 miles is about twice as far as what sounds nice. Yes, as far as road races go, I think I like the half.
But road races are pretty much my least favorite. Not that I don't like them, but I like trail races better. And better than that are obstacle races.
Definitely what sits foremost in my race desire for 2015 is another Spartan Trifecta.
THOUGH....
MOST FUN? I really have to say that was the Color Run with MaKenzie. I didn't really run at all for that one, but seeing my 2 year old running a 5K and playing in the colors was definitely the most fun I've had at any of my races.
But after that one, the Spartan Beast World Championships in VT was my favorite. Yeah, it was 9 hours, almost twice as long as the marathon with only 16 miles, but about 9000 feet of climbing up... And yeah, heading down to the last 5K of obstacles at dusk was really dang tiring and I was more of a floundering fish trying to do any of them than I was an obstacle racer, but dang it I MADE IT THROUGH! And while I was tired and sore, I was not in NEAR the pain I experienced for the last 6-10 miles of the marathon trying to run.
So what now? I'm still working on that... I'm gonna give blood again and see how that goes with trying to run. I recall being more tired when I tried once last year, and looked it up to see that I am essentially reverse blood doping so yeah, it's probably going to have an effect, we'll see how much. I'm also re-focusing on taking off the 10lbs I put back on this year and the other 30 that still need to come off. I'm logging those intake calories again. Tried that a few weeks ago and the morning runs were rough. So we'll see just what this brings and maybe I'll ease up on some runs. Oh, and more barefoot runs. The barefoot group tells me that's my problem with the marathon. It was always on my list, it just didn't seem to get done. Though my feet and hands are the weak points when it comes to cold, so it may be Spring before I get any more barefoot runs in.
I'd like to get more runs in with Kenzie and/or Bella, but we'll have to see how that works out.
I think I'll keep up my Active account and hopefully score some more free races.
I want another Spartan Trifecta so I'll have to see about trying to volunteer for those or something, cause they ain't cheap.
I'll probably do Tough Mudder again since it's just down the road.
I kinda feel obligated to do the local races, though it seemed like last spring was pretty bogged down with races every week, so I may have to re-evaluate that. Most of those are just 5K's as well.
I might go do the Humdinger again, that was my first over a 5K and before the snow was gone and a trail/minor obstacle race...
Probably some trail races, though at the moment I'm not feeling as much pull for them... I think I need to find some closer and/or winter ones...
Dunno, we'll see!
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Wineglass Marathon
Ahh, my first full.
I left there glad I'd done it but kinda unhappy at it. And then by midnight I was already re-contemplating trying it again...
So... It went about like this:
Woke up to a nice 32F. Decided to try on my Injinji compression socks and confirm that they just barely fit in my See-Ya LS'. K, they'll keep me warmer and the compression should only help maybe.
And I guess I'll wear my Spahten arm sleeves for some warmth as well. I was of course already planning on wearing gloves since it might not be over 50F by the time we were done.
Left the house around 6:30. Thought maybe I'd be late as I hadn't accounted for time to de-ice the car!
Got to Bath around 7.
Headed for the buses, but thankfully, the area was full of helpful, happy staffers who directed me towards the FULL buses(I was headed towards the HALF buses) before I even got there. Really, this was the most well staffed race I've done. Everyone seemed quite happy and wished me a great run and directed me where I needed to go before I even asked. This carried through the race as well, there were people lined up at each town and at the finish, all cheering happily on. More so than any other race I've done.
Anyway, got to the starting area maybe 7:20. It was freezing. Waited in line for the portapotties.
More freezing.
Dropped off my post-race bag at the UPS truck. A towel, sweatshirt and pants for when I figured I'd be cold. Turns out I didn't need any of it.
More freezing, another turn at the portapotties.
Were I to do it again, I would have found an old sweatshirt somewhere that I didn't mind parting with and worn that prior to the start and tossed it to the side. I gave it a passing thought before I left, but didn't go further.
And then they said they were starting about 10 minutes late for more people coming, so more time standing out in the freezing(Ok, it was up to 36. It was damn cold!)
But then it was time to line up, new to this whole pacing thing. It was nice though, they had official pacers and I lined up at the 9:44 min/mile 4:15 hr/min finish, as theoretically according to the calculator it should be possible.
And we were off!
Took a couple miles before the feet started finally getting into it and not so numbish.
Largely though the miles just ticked away quicker than I would have expected.
Kept right on with the 9:44 pace.
Nutrition was a bit unknown as I suspected given the difficulty of trying to time out when I'd be at which water stops, but basically they were every 2 miles until around mile 20 at which point they were like 1-1.5 miles apart. I stopped and had Gatorade at almost every one and got Gu's at those 3 stops. I think I used one of my Gu's and I also had a snack Sized Payday for some protein once an hour.
Think I put my gloves in my pocket before we hit Kanona.
I think I hung my sleeves around my spibelt around Coopers Plains.
Spibelt worked well except I attached the extra pocket for some mustard and Paydays and apparently that swung around a bit too much a fair amount of the time. I'd do that differently as well.
But basically it all went quite well through mile 15. I was starting to get a bit tired, but not too bad. Then at mile 16 things started going downhill. Not entirely sure of the order, but I was definitely getting more tired and aches were starting to show up. Mainly the ball of my left foot and my left thigh/hip area. It gathered a lot of pain. Not exactly sure when, but by mile 20 for sure, it was MAJOR pain with every step. It was all I could do to find some periods of 12:30 minute paced running throughout the end. Well, I guess I found a bit more speed in the last half mile to the finish, but things were NOT feeling good at all. I was afraid I was going to cramp my thighs right up. I took the mustard somewhere around the last few miles as well, hoping that would ease something up but I didn't notice anything there.
So... It would seem I either need to work more on Barefoot/pavement and/or switch to something with some more padding to go those distances on pavement.
But I am now thinking I am going to try it again... I've also put about 10lbs back on this year and am sitting right about at 200, so I've got a good 40lbs to lose that would help a lot as well. That's going to be my focus now.
The Wineglass had great food afterwards. Greeted with chocolate milk and water, then a bag to put your food in, Wegmans had bagels and cookies and soup and bananas and... I think more... Then Rico's had pizza... It really was the best race as far as the structure around it. It was just the pain for the last 10 miles that was something I was not used to and was really killing me. But now I think we'll have to try again!
I left there glad I'd done it but kinda unhappy at it. And then by midnight I was already re-contemplating trying it again...
So... It went about like this:
Woke up to a nice 32F. Decided to try on my Injinji compression socks and confirm that they just barely fit in my See-Ya LS'. K, they'll keep me warmer and the compression should only help maybe.
And I guess I'll wear my Spahten arm sleeves for some warmth as well. I was of course already planning on wearing gloves since it might not be over 50F by the time we were done.
Left the house around 6:30. Thought maybe I'd be late as I hadn't accounted for time to de-ice the car!
Got to Bath around 7.
Headed for the buses, but thankfully, the area was full of helpful, happy staffers who directed me towards the FULL buses(I was headed towards the HALF buses) before I even got there. Really, this was the most well staffed race I've done. Everyone seemed quite happy and wished me a great run and directed me where I needed to go before I even asked. This carried through the race as well, there were people lined up at each town and at the finish, all cheering happily on. More so than any other race I've done.
Anyway, got to the starting area maybe 7:20. It was freezing. Waited in line for the portapotties.
More freezing.
Dropped off my post-race bag at the UPS truck. A towel, sweatshirt and pants for when I figured I'd be cold. Turns out I didn't need any of it.
More freezing, another turn at the portapotties.
Were I to do it again, I would have found an old sweatshirt somewhere that I didn't mind parting with and worn that prior to the start and tossed it to the side. I gave it a passing thought before I left, but didn't go further.
And then they said they were starting about 10 minutes late for more people coming, so more time standing out in the freezing(Ok, it was up to 36. It was damn cold!)
But then it was time to line up, new to this whole pacing thing. It was nice though, they had official pacers and I lined up at the 9:44 min/mile 4:15 hr/min finish, as theoretically according to the calculator it should be possible.
And we were off!
Took a couple miles before the feet started finally getting into it and not so numbish.
Largely though the miles just ticked away quicker than I would have expected.
Kept right on with the 9:44 pace.
Nutrition was a bit unknown as I suspected given the difficulty of trying to time out when I'd be at which water stops, but basically they were every 2 miles until around mile 20 at which point they were like 1-1.5 miles apart. I stopped and had Gatorade at almost every one and got Gu's at those 3 stops. I think I used one of my Gu's and I also had a snack Sized Payday for some protein once an hour.
Think I put my gloves in my pocket before we hit Kanona.
I think I hung my sleeves around my spibelt around Coopers Plains.
Spibelt worked well except I attached the extra pocket for some mustard and Paydays and apparently that swung around a bit too much a fair amount of the time. I'd do that differently as well.
But basically it all went quite well through mile 15. I was starting to get a bit tired, but not too bad. Then at mile 16 things started going downhill. Not entirely sure of the order, but I was definitely getting more tired and aches were starting to show up. Mainly the ball of my left foot and my left thigh/hip area. It gathered a lot of pain. Not exactly sure when, but by mile 20 for sure, it was MAJOR pain with every step. It was all I could do to find some periods of 12:30 minute paced running throughout the end. Well, I guess I found a bit more speed in the last half mile to the finish, but things were NOT feeling good at all. I was afraid I was going to cramp my thighs right up. I took the mustard somewhere around the last few miles as well, hoping that would ease something up but I didn't notice anything there.
So... It would seem I either need to work more on Barefoot/pavement and/or switch to something with some more padding to go those distances on pavement.
But I am now thinking I am going to try it again... I've also put about 10lbs back on this year and am sitting right about at 200, so I've got a good 40lbs to lose that would help a lot as well. That's going to be my focus now.
The Wineglass had great food afterwards. Greeted with chocolate milk and water, then a bag to put your food in, Wegmans had bagels and cookies and soup and bananas and... I think more... Then Rico's had pizza... It really was the best race as far as the structure around it. It was just the pain for the last 10 miles that was something I was not used to and was really killing me. But now I think we'll have to try again!
Saturday, September 20, 2014
2014 VT Spartan Beast World Championships
What a ride... Not even sure what to include or what I remember at this point...
Left Friday afternoon. Stopped at the Waterloo outlet mall to see if there were any UA deals. As I feared, I think most of the good deals I found before were like start of the new year clearouts. Nothing really seemed great.
This stop was made worse by me going into the bathroom and somehow tossing my phone under/into an occupied stall. The guy was nice enough and handed it back to me but um... EWW to say the least...
Then I stopped at the UA outlet at the Adirondak Outlets near my hotel. I at least found a couple things I could use for 50% off.
And I think around 6pm I pulled into the Lake George Inn. Got checked in. Room seemed fine, a couple spots of drywall tape to be fixed, but nice and clean overall. Time for some food.
Decided on the A&W down the street. I just wanted takeout, but it took me a minute to figure this out and pull up to a parking spot up front so that the waitress could come to me as there were signs telling me NOT to go up to the window on the building.
Can't say I'm overly fond of these little lake towns, it reminded me of the 1000 islands, except considerably larger I think. Basically, the parking spots in the Motel were tight and slanted in a way so that some of them(like the one in front of my room) would be almost impossible to get in or out of. The A&W lot was similar, and the entire section of Canada Street is just packed full of little shops. I could see the appeal if you had a nice hotel right there and wanted to just walk around and were spending some time there, and it wasn't horrible since it was pretty much fall when I was there, but it all just feels a bit too tight/packed in.
So, back to the Motel, bikers were pulling in. I took my luggage which had somehow amounted to a Camelbak, like 3 backpacks, a cooler bag, and a couple others...
Ate some dinner, then dumped all my stuff out and finally got the Camelbak packed and ready for Saturday as best I could, along with my gear to wear and items possibly needed before or after.
Then to try for some sleep about 9pm. I slept not TOO bad, but I thought today's bikers were supposed to be more civilized. Fraid I heard tons of creaking from people walking around and LOTS of yelling and swearing and what not. Wasn't sure if a brawl was going to break outside.
Up at around 5am Saturday. Showered, ready and what not, left the Motel about 6:30. After a gas a couple potty breaks, it was just about 8:30 when I got to Killington. And according to my GPS, I was a mile and a half out when I hit the stop and go traffic... Well, about another half mile in and we got to pay our $10 to park. Somewhere around here is when I got my first glimpse of the actual mountain. There was definitely something about seeing it there, especially since the top was in the clouds.
Then about another half mile in I got to actually park. Which left about a half mile climb up to the actual starting area. There were shuttle buses running from somewhere, but I don't know how much farther down the hill you had to go to get to them, nor how long you'd have to wait to get on one. I had heard parking was close, so I figured I'd hang out in my car and what not before the race, but with seeing the big climb and not knowing the details, I elected to do the same as Jersey, just bring everything I needed with me and plan on not returning to the car. Only new items this time were a pair of pants and a sweatshirt that I was wearing while standing around for a couple hours. The forecast was actually looking good. However, in reality, it may have been 50F which wouldn't be that bad, but there was zero sun and STRONG winds blowing constantly. NOT warm at all.
So up I climbed, got to registration, got my packet, found the line for the pottys, saw a bit of the course and some tents and finally after a while found the Spahten team tent.
Interestingly as much as I had been hyped up on adrenaline or whatever excitement for about a week or so ahead of this, actually being there on the mountain and seeing some of the course and even the teeny tiny people WAY up on the mountain I was almost eerily calm. It was more of a feeling like "It doesn't look that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's gonna majorly suck, but we're just gonna go out there and do it!"
Mainly hung out near the team tent for a couple hours before our 10:30 heat. Looked around the vendors, would have liked to buy a VT t-shirt or something, but didn't want to make the trip back to the car and leaving stuff at the team tent wasn't a sure thing. Watched the course, but it was probably around 9:30 before the elites started hitting the bucket carry so we could see anything. The NBC helicopter was flying around then as well. As our heat neared closer, I slathered on some sunscreen, shed my extra layers, pinned my bib, then the elites hit the sand bag carry and scared me as I saw them pick up TWO sandbags. Oh sure, 60lbs for a half mile doesn't sound like enough, let's make it 120lbs... But then as I had hoped, someone said that was just for the elites. We had a team photo and then it was off to the starting line.
I aimed for a spot a bit closer to the front of the pack this time because you had to actually walk MORE uphill to get to the start, and then we were running DOWNhill to start. And downhill running seems to be where I do better than a lot of others.
Sure enough, that worked out about like I thought, and then we rounded the corner at the bottom and pretty quickly everyone slowed down as we began the first of many hikes up the mountain.
I don't remember a lot of what happened when exactly. But the first time up was just about all the way up the mountain and had some side trips through the woods as well I believe. Steepness varied from "quite steep" to "you need to find a foot hold, or you're just going to slide down". Really, it was steep.
After a number of miles and ups and downs I completely understood what Norm the course designer was saying a few days earlier on a podcast, something to the effect of "If I let people get a flat spot where they can run, I feel like I've failed." and "I like to just go out and bushwhack with the chainsaw. I found myself wondering if one section was too steep, then wound up falling head over heels landing upside down in a ravine. I laughed and thought: Yep, that was too steep." If we weren't climbing straight up the side of a mountain on a grassy path we were in the woods, and all those wooded sections were like someone just went through a dense part of the forest and cut some trees out of the way. Lots of slippery hills, jumps, fallen trees, bushes, branches, rocks, mud and whatever else you can think of.
There were a few obstacles here and there... The pancake carry and the first bucket carry that weren't that bad. A cool cargo net climb at the top up in the clouds.
Yes, it was crazy at the top of the mountain. We were literally in the clouds and the wind was blowing them. It's crazy to see clouds blowing through the trees in front of you.
Oh, and apparently I would later found out that we skipped the first swim and tarzan swing because someone went missing who later was found to just be somewhere else.
I think the biggest mistakes I made were regarding hydration. I should have been taking in some good sips every 15 minutes during the morning instead of every 30 with food. I was eating a snack sized Payday on the hour and a Gel ever half hour in between, that seemed to work well. But cramps showed up later, so I probably wasn't drinking enough.
And I figured I'd refill the Camelbak at the halfway point. Well, I guess everyone else had this same idea cause it was backed up pretty good there. And this was at the top, about the coldest point. So... I spent about 10 minutes waiting in line, filling my Camelbak(which is nice that it sets the weight at your waistline, but is difficult to fill at best, and as I found out once it's full of items, it's almost impossible.) But I got it filled, had my Nuun dug out and tablets dropped in, then as I was walking off to the side for a pee break I thought "that feels like it's too wet..." So I checked. Sure enough, never happened before or after, but somehow I got a piece of dirt in there or something and it didn't seal. And I had lost the majority of my water. And I did NOT feel like wasting any more time digging out the Nuun again and waiting in line and trying to refill yet again especially knowing that standing around was going to get me in trouble, let alone on the coldest spot. So I just got everything sealed and took off. Ended up refilling at 2 later spots and never put more Nuun in. Probably a mistake.
Oh, there was the log carry. As usual I didn't have trouble with this one, but it was about the hardest since they were all big around and not long, so were difficult to balance. But it was a dangerous place. LOG! LOG! LOOOGGG!! I believe I just barely stepped out of the way of a medium speed one, and after I completed my trip around, I saw one going supersonic down the hill, ready to take out several people if they hadn't moved.
Basically 5 miles in I was thinking "This isn't that bad... which scares me... I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of bad at the end..." Which was correct.
The first 3hrs went by pretty quick and was leading me to think I might be done in 6hrs.
And around mile 10 or so, still not much for obstacles, but definitely getting tired.
I think around mile 12 or 13 they finally gave us the obstacle dump(though we were still going up and down hills). Oh, and apparently Spartan doesn't count the distance you take around obstacles, so Spartan said 14.9 miles, everyone else said 16(about what my Tomtom said) or up to 18 others had.
I think I just didn't have much energy left so I never actually exhausted my arms as much, and my cramping leg killed whatever little chance was left. That started right after the second bucket carry. I got done, started up the hill and UGH, right quad locked right up. Something I have never experienced before. THankfully I had brought the mustard. Wasn't sure if I believed in it or not since some people say it's just a placebo. But I tell you what, I took 4 packets, and as I took the third one, the cramps just went away. This happened again at the rope climb. Wasn't sure I was going to make it out of the water.
I started the platinum rig, but have never tried gymnastics rings, and as soon I was trying to hang by one hand I just fell right off.
The Atlas carry was trying to speed things up, so it was just a matter of taking it from the previous person, carry it out and back and hand it to the next. Never touched the ground or burpees which are the hardest parts, but I've never failed that anyway.
I passed the memorization test, and I hauled all the weights around, the herculean hoist, atlas, etc. Made it maybe halfway across the Tyrolean traverse. Wasn't sure just how hard that would be, but it was definitely a big drain on the arms. About halfway out I was doing all I could to try and stay on, pulling myself up to my elbows to try and keep going, but the arms were all but gone and then my leg started cramping besides and poof, it was time to drop. I'm sure I was supposed to do burpees there somewhere, but I didn't see a spot and my leg was partially cramping so I just kept going. Also got my biggest cut there along my knee(even with knee pads) while going over a fallen tree where branches had been cut off.
Failed both spear throws. One by not much, the other completely off.
Thought maybe I had a technique to get up the rope climb this time, but I didn't realize the ropes don't reach the bottom, so I had to pull myself up with my arms to get my legs on the rope, and there wasn't enough rope to wrap around my leg/foot to get a grip from the height I could pull myself up(not much at that point).
More cramping at the second barbed wire crawl, but made it without much issue for that and the final crawl and under the wall.
Made it about 3 or 4 hands along the pole hanging thing which was a couple more than I suspected I might get at that point.
Only made it to about the 3rd monkey bar as well, first time I've failed that one at Spartan. Just didn't have much left in the tank I guess.
And I was so whooped I think I did about 10-15 sloppy burpees for each of those failed obstacles. I was just trying to keep moving forward.
And it was getting dark at about that point. The last trip through the woods was definitely borderline for needing the headlamp. And then after the last obstacle and hearing "just up the hill, down the hill and you're done!" I was hoping he meant hill and not mountain... Yeah, it was a pretty good climb up the hill and over/under/through fallen trees to get around to the finish, and that part definitely would have been good to have my headlamp on for, but I didn't feel like spending 5 minutes to get it out of my pack when I was only a hillside away from the finish! Couldn't see a lot of where I was stepping, but I made it without a problem!
After that, it was the usual, get your medals, your foods, your finisher shirt. I went and found nicely that my pants and sweatshirt had not been stolen from the team tent. And I decided this was a big enough deal where I'd try to buy a Beast/trifecta shirt. They really suck at having stuff/enough stuff, but I did find a trifecta patch and a beast shirt.
My Tomtom watch died just over 8hrs in, I finished in 8:53. My phone recorded the whole thing, but as has happened a couple times before, it decided to erase almost all of it when I tried to sync it to runkeeper. *NOT HAPPY!*
I normally hose off before heading back to the car, but I didn't even see where those stations were(assuming they were) and I just wanted to get that 2 hour trip back to the Motel done before I passed out.
Well, there was that long walk back to the car, the usual sorting out of what stuff needs to go where back at the car, but I just laid down a couple towels on the seat and headed out. Stopped at McD's for dinner and it took them a good half an hour to get through the drive through. I think I got back to the Motel around 10PM, and after eating, showering, etc got to bed close to midnight...
But unfortunately while there was less biker noise this night my mind was just racing with race thoughts. Not sure if it was adrenaline or what exactly, though after the fact I have now realized that I believe like 7 out of 9 of the gu's and a last packet of jelly beans had at LEAST the caffiene equivalent of a 20oz of Cola, and since I don't normally drink more than a cup or two of Earl Gray, I may have been swimming in a good bit of caffiene.
I got about 3hrs, then couldn't sleep, think I got maybe another hour in, then it was like 5AM, I decided to sit in the bathtub for a bit, tried again and got maybe another 45 minutes and decided it was time to head home.
Quads were still quite making themselves known.
But made it home early afternoon, and thankfully the girls took a nice nap and let me get another hour or so of sleep and I felt a good bit better that night.
Monday the quads were still sqwuaking about getting up and down, but were considerably better by night. And Tuesday morning I had a 7 mile run scheduled. Well, I went a LOT slower, walked a LOT, and made it about 4 miles. Not much pain, but I could tell the legs were definitely not back up to speed yet.
But since then, I haven't noticed the "ugh" and pain as I get up from a chair, etc. so I think we're in much better shape.
I was really kind of undecided on future races and what not... But now I'm kinda really feeling like I'd like to get another trifecta next year...
The biggest issue with that is going to be that this year I won my entries... So... I'd have to either spend a crap load of money, or I need to find some time to volunteer... And of course there's no races that are close by...
We shall have to see.
For now, "just" my first full marathon in 12 days!
Left Friday afternoon. Stopped at the Waterloo outlet mall to see if there were any UA deals. As I feared, I think most of the good deals I found before were like start of the new year clearouts. Nothing really seemed great.
This stop was made worse by me going into the bathroom and somehow tossing my phone under/into an occupied stall. The guy was nice enough and handed it back to me but um... EWW to say the least...
Then I stopped at the UA outlet at the Adirondak Outlets near my hotel. I at least found a couple things I could use for 50% off.
And I think around 6pm I pulled into the Lake George Inn. Got checked in. Room seemed fine, a couple spots of drywall tape to be fixed, but nice and clean overall. Time for some food.
Decided on the A&W down the street. I just wanted takeout, but it took me a minute to figure this out and pull up to a parking spot up front so that the waitress could come to me as there were signs telling me NOT to go up to the window on the building.
Can't say I'm overly fond of these little lake towns, it reminded me of the 1000 islands, except considerably larger I think. Basically, the parking spots in the Motel were tight and slanted in a way so that some of them(like the one in front of my room) would be almost impossible to get in or out of. The A&W lot was similar, and the entire section of Canada Street is just packed full of little shops. I could see the appeal if you had a nice hotel right there and wanted to just walk around and were spending some time there, and it wasn't horrible since it was pretty much fall when I was there, but it all just feels a bit too tight/packed in.
So, back to the Motel, bikers were pulling in. I took my luggage which had somehow amounted to a Camelbak, like 3 backpacks, a cooler bag, and a couple others...
Ate some dinner, then dumped all my stuff out and finally got the Camelbak packed and ready for Saturday as best I could, along with my gear to wear and items possibly needed before or after.
Then to try for some sleep about 9pm. I slept not TOO bad, but I thought today's bikers were supposed to be more civilized. Fraid I heard tons of creaking from people walking around and LOTS of yelling and swearing and what not. Wasn't sure if a brawl was going to break outside.
Up at around 5am Saturday. Showered, ready and what not, left the Motel about 6:30. After a gas a couple potty breaks, it was just about 8:30 when I got to Killington. And according to my GPS, I was a mile and a half out when I hit the stop and go traffic... Well, about another half mile in and we got to pay our $10 to park. Somewhere around here is when I got my first glimpse of the actual mountain. There was definitely something about seeing it there, especially since the top was in the clouds.
Then about another half mile in I got to actually park. Which left about a half mile climb up to the actual starting area. There were shuttle buses running from somewhere, but I don't know how much farther down the hill you had to go to get to them, nor how long you'd have to wait to get on one. I had heard parking was close, so I figured I'd hang out in my car and what not before the race, but with seeing the big climb and not knowing the details, I elected to do the same as Jersey, just bring everything I needed with me and plan on not returning to the car. Only new items this time were a pair of pants and a sweatshirt that I was wearing while standing around for a couple hours. The forecast was actually looking good. However, in reality, it may have been 50F which wouldn't be that bad, but there was zero sun and STRONG winds blowing constantly. NOT warm at all.
So up I climbed, got to registration, got my packet, found the line for the pottys, saw a bit of the course and some tents and finally after a while found the Spahten team tent.
Interestingly as much as I had been hyped up on adrenaline or whatever excitement for about a week or so ahead of this, actually being there on the mountain and seeing some of the course and even the teeny tiny people WAY up on the mountain I was almost eerily calm. It was more of a feeling like "It doesn't look that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's gonna majorly suck, but we're just gonna go out there and do it!"
Mainly hung out near the team tent for a couple hours before our 10:30 heat. Looked around the vendors, would have liked to buy a VT t-shirt or something, but didn't want to make the trip back to the car and leaving stuff at the team tent wasn't a sure thing. Watched the course, but it was probably around 9:30 before the elites started hitting the bucket carry so we could see anything. The NBC helicopter was flying around then as well. As our heat neared closer, I slathered on some sunscreen, shed my extra layers, pinned my bib, then the elites hit the sand bag carry and scared me as I saw them pick up TWO sandbags. Oh sure, 60lbs for a half mile doesn't sound like enough, let's make it 120lbs... But then as I had hoped, someone said that was just for the elites. We had a team photo and then it was off to the starting line.
I aimed for a spot a bit closer to the front of the pack this time because you had to actually walk MORE uphill to get to the start, and then we were running DOWNhill to start. And downhill running seems to be where I do better than a lot of others.
Sure enough, that worked out about like I thought, and then we rounded the corner at the bottom and pretty quickly everyone slowed down as we began the first of many hikes up the mountain.
I don't remember a lot of what happened when exactly. But the first time up was just about all the way up the mountain and had some side trips through the woods as well I believe. Steepness varied from "quite steep" to "you need to find a foot hold, or you're just going to slide down". Really, it was steep.
After a number of miles and ups and downs I completely understood what Norm the course designer was saying a few days earlier on a podcast, something to the effect of "If I let people get a flat spot where they can run, I feel like I've failed." and "I like to just go out and bushwhack with the chainsaw. I found myself wondering if one section was too steep, then wound up falling head over heels landing upside down in a ravine. I laughed and thought: Yep, that was too steep." If we weren't climbing straight up the side of a mountain on a grassy path we were in the woods, and all those wooded sections were like someone just went through a dense part of the forest and cut some trees out of the way. Lots of slippery hills, jumps, fallen trees, bushes, branches, rocks, mud and whatever else you can think of.
There were a few obstacles here and there... The pancake carry and the first bucket carry that weren't that bad. A cool cargo net climb at the top up in the clouds.
Yes, it was crazy at the top of the mountain. We were literally in the clouds and the wind was blowing them. It's crazy to see clouds blowing through the trees in front of you.
Oh, and apparently I would later found out that we skipped the first swim and tarzan swing because someone went missing who later was found to just be somewhere else.
I think the biggest mistakes I made were regarding hydration. I should have been taking in some good sips every 15 minutes during the morning instead of every 30 with food. I was eating a snack sized Payday on the hour and a Gel ever half hour in between, that seemed to work well. But cramps showed up later, so I probably wasn't drinking enough.
And I figured I'd refill the Camelbak at the halfway point. Well, I guess everyone else had this same idea cause it was backed up pretty good there. And this was at the top, about the coldest point. So... I spent about 10 minutes waiting in line, filling my Camelbak(which is nice that it sets the weight at your waistline, but is difficult to fill at best, and as I found out once it's full of items, it's almost impossible.) But I got it filled, had my Nuun dug out and tablets dropped in, then as I was walking off to the side for a pee break I thought "that feels like it's too wet..." So I checked. Sure enough, never happened before or after, but somehow I got a piece of dirt in there or something and it didn't seal. And I had lost the majority of my water. And I did NOT feel like wasting any more time digging out the Nuun again and waiting in line and trying to refill yet again especially knowing that standing around was going to get me in trouble, let alone on the coldest spot. So I just got everything sealed and took off. Ended up refilling at 2 later spots and never put more Nuun in. Probably a mistake.
Oh, there was the log carry. As usual I didn't have trouble with this one, but it was about the hardest since they were all big around and not long, so were difficult to balance. But it was a dangerous place. LOG! LOG! LOOOGGG!! I believe I just barely stepped out of the way of a medium speed one, and after I completed my trip around, I saw one going supersonic down the hill, ready to take out several people if they hadn't moved.
Basically 5 miles in I was thinking "This isn't that bad... which scares me... I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of bad at the end..." Which was correct.
The first 3hrs went by pretty quick and was leading me to think I might be done in 6hrs.
And around mile 10 or so, still not much for obstacles, but definitely getting tired.
I think around mile 12 or 13 they finally gave us the obstacle dump(though we were still going up and down hills). Oh, and apparently Spartan doesn't count the distance you take around obstacles, so Spartan said 14.9 miles, everyone else said 16(about what my Tomtom said) or up to 18 others had.
I think I just didn't have much energy left so I never actually exhausted my arms as much, and my cramping leg killed whatever little chance was left. That started right after the second bucket carry. I got done, started up the hill and UGH, right quad locked right up. Something I have never experienced before. THankfully I had brought the mustard. Wasn't sure if I believed in it or not since some people say it's just a placebo. But I tell you what, I took 4 packets, and as I took the third one, the cramps just went away. This happened again at the rope climb. Wasn't sure I was going to make it out of the water.
I started the platinum rig, but have never tried gymnastics rings, and as soon I was trying to hang by one hand I just fell right off.
The Atlas carry was trying to speed things up, so it was just a matter of taking it from the previous person, carry it out and back and hand it to the next. Never touched the ground or burpees which are the hardest parts, but I've never failed that anyway.
I passed the memorization test, and I hauled all the weights around, the herculean hoist, atlas, etc. Made it maybe halfway across the Tyrolean traverse. Wasn't sure just how hard that would be, but it was definitely a big drain on the arms. About halfway out I was doing all I could to try and stay on, pulling myself up to my elbows to try and keep going, but the arms were all but gone and then my leg started cramping besides and poof, it was time to drop. I'm sure I was supposed to do burpees there somewhere, but I didn't see a spot and my leg was partially cramping so I just kept going. Also got my biggest cut there along my knee(even with knee pads) while going over a fallen tree where branches had been cut off.
Failed both spear throws. One by not much, the other completely off.
Thought maybe I had a technique to get up the rope climb this time, but I didn't realize the ropes don't reach the bottom, so I had to pull myself up with my arms to get my legs on the rope, and there wasn't enough rope to wrap around my leg/foot to get a grip from the height I could pull myself up(not much at that point).
More cramping at the second barbed wire crawl, but made it without much issue for that and the final crawl and under the wall.
Made it about 3 or 4 hands along the pole hanging thing which was a couple more than I suspected I might get at that point.
Only made it to about the 3rd monkey bar as well, first time I've failed that one at Spartan. Just didn't have much left in the tank I guess.
And I was so whooped I think I did about 10-15 sloppy burpees for each of those failed obstacles. I was just trying to keep moving forward.
And it was getting dark at about that point. The last trip through the woods was definitely borderline for needing the headlamp. And then after the last obstacle and hearing "just up the hill, down the hill and you're done!" I was hoping he meant hill and not mountain... Yeah, it was a pretty good climb up the hill and over/under/through fallen trees to get around to the finish, and that part definitely would have been good to have my headlamp on for, but I didn't feel like spending 5 minutes to get it out of my pack when I was only a hillside away from the finish! Couldn't see a lot of where I was stepping, but I made it without a problem!
After that, it was the usual, get your medals, your foods, your finisher shirt. I went and found nicely that my pants and sweatshirt had not been stolen from the team tent. And I decided this was a big enough deal where I'd try to buy a Beast/trifecta shirt. They really suck at having stuff/enough stuff, but I did find a trifecta patch and a beast shirt.
My Tomtom watch died just over 8hrs in, I finished in 8:53. My phone recorded the whole thing, but as has happened a couple times before, it decided to erase almost all of it when I tried to sync it to runkeeper. *NOT HAPPY!*
I normally hose off before heading back to the car, but I didn't even see where those stations were(assuming they were) and I just wanted to get that 2 hour trip back to the Motel done before I passed out.
Well, there was that long walk back to the car, the usual sorting out of what stuff needs to go where back at the car, but I just laid down a couple towels on the seat and headed out. Stopped at McD's for dinner and it took them a good half an hour to get through the drive through. I think I got back to the Motel around 10PM, and after eating, showering, etc got to bed close to midnight...
But unfortunately while there was less biker noise this night my mind was just racing with race thoughts. Not sure if it was adrenaline or what exactly, though after the fact I have now realized that I believe like 7 out of 9 of the gu's and a last packet of jelly beans had at LEAST the caffiene equivalent of a 20oz of Cola, and since I don't normally drink more than a cup or two of Earl Gray, I may have been swimming in a good bit of caffiene.
I got about 3hrs, then couldn't sleep, think I got maybe another hour in, then it was like 5AM, I decided to sit in the bathtub for a bit, tried again and got maybe another 45 minutes and decided it was time to head home.
Quads were still quite making themselves known.
But made it home early afternoon, and thankfully the girls took a nice nap and let me get another hour or so of sleep and I felt a good bit better that night.
Monday the quads were still sqwuaking about getting up and down, but were considerably better by night. And Tuesday morning I had a 7 mile run scheduled. Well, I went a LOT slower, walked a LOT, and made it about 4 miles. Not much pain, but I could tell the legs were definitely not back up to speed yet.
But since then, I haven't noticed the "ugh" and pain as I get up from a chair, etc. so I think we're in much better shape.
I was really kind of undecided on future races and what not... But now I'm kinda really feeling like I'd like to get another trifecta next year...
The biggest issue with that is going to be that this year I won my entries... So... I'd have to either spend a crap load of money, or I need to find some time to volunteer... And of course there's no races that are close by...
We shall have to see.
For now, "just" my first full marathon in 12 days!
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Tri State Super Spartan
Left the house about 6am. Was about a 4hr drive. However, while I did stop at 2 of the rest areas, I made the mistake of not stopping at the third, figuring it would be like the Tuxedo sprint and in less than an hour I would be parked and have lots of porta-potties.
Well, it wouldn't have been bad if I didn't need to go so bad. It ended up being another of the "let's figure out where I'm supposed to park" deals coming from my direction. There were people parked all along the sides of the road, then what looked like ONLY VIP parking at the registration area, then a lot of people walking down the road from an unknown location... Then definite parking to the left, but the sign saying to go straight and then finally finding an actual parking spot at what felt like 10 miles down the road. Apparently it was only 2, and I'm not sure why people were walking, the shuttle buses were running very quickly. But at the time I arrived, I REALLY had to use the bathroom and wasn't sure how it was going to work so I made the call to just leave what I didn't need in the car, and anything else was going with me in the Camelbak.
So about 10 minutes later I was at the registration desk, though there weren't any bathrooms there either. So another 10-15 minutes later and I was through registration, partway up the hill looking to the right where I was told they were, but then finally found them far off to the left.
It was QUITE warm. I heard 86F. And pretty humid as well. Know what's even better? When you've really got to pee and you end up standing in the portapotty for 5 minutes. It was over 100F in there, as soon as I got in the sweat was steadily dripping off my head and when I finally got out, it felt SO much cooler(though it was still nasty hot).
On the portapotty note... I was amazed at the amount of Spartans who don't understand porta-potties and latches... It's pretty simple. You look for one that's green and go in. Red means it's occupied. However, when I tried to do this, I opened the door on one male and one female Spartan who failed to latch the door. And when I was inside with the door latched, some guy came up, tried the door, it didn't open so he tried again and forced it open. At which point I had to reach behind myself, UNlatch the door so I could close it, then latch it again. *sigh*.
After that it was largely standing around for an hour before the start time. I should have brought another bottle of water to drink because I was hesitant to use up my Camelbak water before the race.
But then we were off up the hill. Nothing like climbing mountains with that hot humid sun beating down on you. But it was going pretty well. The swim section was new and was a bit interesting cause there were too many people in there including people with life jackets just laying on their backs kicking so I was getting hit from ahead and behind. But it was nice and cooling!
Thought I was drinking enough as I was taking a decent drink of my Nuun water like before and after a Clif Shotblock like every 15 minutes and a glass or two of water at each of the stations, but around maybe half way or so, I started to feel my calves acting up on the way down the mountain. This is the first I've ever had them start to cramp. I ate two of the mustard packets that had been recommended for this situation And continued on. They never completely cramped on me, but I could feel them getting stiff and I thought I might have been out of luck right after the fire jump, they really came close to a full on cramp as I was waiting for my medal.
But anyway, around this halfway or so point I was thinking I might be done around 3, but got to the bucket carry and was told they were pausing the race. Now, it had been thundering for almost an hour at this point. So it was not real clear as to just when they might decide to go again. Nor were instructions/explanation very clear... The first I heard was that the bucket carry was stopped, but you could do your burpees and continue on. Then that the course was stopped. Then that you could go at your own risk, then immediately no you can't. So ended up sitting for like 15 minutes and of course my body decided it might as well start shutting down since we were no longer in race mode... And given that the forecast was calling for MORE thunderstorms at this point I figured who knows how long we'll be here. Might as well eat a Clif bar. And of course as I was halfway through they started up again. So I've got my 5 gallon bucket full of gravel, climbing the mountain and half a Clif bar sticking out of my mouth. In retrospect I should have just dropped the Clif bar cause I think between the sitting and eating a whole bar at once, I didn't start getting close to recovering till towards the end of the race. Also didn't help that this was the start of like twice more up the mountain and a lot of the weight carrying/pulling stuff. It also meant that because of the pause but everyone still moving to obstacles that EVERY obstacle was backed up at least 5 people deep. And then they still weren't letting people do the rope climb when I got to it. Though the next time down the hill it was open again so I was kinda disappointed I didn't get to try it. But I still burpeed the spear throw and the log hop. Oh, I was so close, I just got leaning off to the side and missed the very last log! and I did 30 somethings, but they were REALLY sloppy burpees from the way I was feeling.
Anyway, it was good, but that pause at the middle which seemed just stupid(Umm, we already signed waivers that we might die and I'm sure we're more likely to get killed driving to/from this event than struck by lightning and what's the difference if we're moving or sitting still on the mountain?), well it just really killed my motion and I ended up with a 3hr 47 minute time which I think was about 45 minutes longer than it would have been... I didn't run down much of any of the remaining hills which is where I make some time.
Oh, there was a lot more water at the bared wire crawl too. You pretty quickly learn to just ignore any sort of worry about nasty water, etc. Cause it's like 10-15 minutes of rolling through foot deep puddles, lots of rocks, etc under the barbed wire. Everything is just completely filthy when you emerge. On this note, I tried using the Shotblocks in a ziploc bag, but while it kept them from getting too bad, it was definitely still muddy in there. Thinking I may switch to something more single use like Gu's for VT just to avoid this issue... Not sure.
But then the race was over, I did a quick hose down at the showers and it was another quick shuttle back to the car. I changed quick and was on the road. At which point in the first hour I did a good bit of yelling and swearing at a couple of idiots that were really causing me time. I want to get home to my girls by like 8, not after 9! The worst was a like 5-10 mile stretch of single lane construction with a 55mph speed limit so it shouldn't have been bad, but for some reason this rimmed Jeep with a U-haul trailer was topping out at 30mph and then slowing to like 20mph when the road had a turn in it... UGH!
Still, I made it home around 9:20 very tiredly.
But I now have my second piece of the Trifecta!
Killington is like ten days!
Well, it wouldn't have been bad if I didn't need to go so bad. It ended up being another of the "let's figure out where I'm supposed to park" deals coming from my direction. There were people parked all along the sides of the road, then what looked like ONLY VIP parking at the registration area, then a lot of people walking down the road from an unknown location... Then definite parking to the left, but the sign saying to go straight and then finally finding an actual parking spot at what felt like 10 miles down the road. Apparently it was only 2, and I'm not sure why people were walking, the shuttle buses were running very quickly. But at the time I arrived, I REALLY had to use the bathroom and wasn't sure how it was going to work so I made the call to just leave what I didn't need in the car, and anything else was going with me in the Camelbak.
So about 10 minutes later I was at the registration desk, though there weren't any bathrooms there either. So another 10-15 minutes later and I was through registration, partway up the hill looking to the right where I was told they were, but then finally found them far off to the left.
It was QUITE warm. I heard 86F. And pretty humid as well. Know what's even better? When you've really got to pee and you end up standing in the portapotty for 5 minutes. It was over 100F in there, as soon as I got in the sweat was steadily dripping off my head and when I finally got out, it felt SO much cooler(though it was still nasty hot).
On the portapotty note... I was amazed at the amount of Spartans who don't understand porta-potties and latches... It's pretty simple. You look for one that's green and go in. Red means it's occupied. However, when I tried to do this, I opened the door on one male and one female Spartan who failed to latch the door. And when I was inside with the door latched, some guy came up, tried the door, it didn't open so he tried again and forced it open. At which point I had to reach behind myself, UNlatch the door so I could close it, then latch it again. *sigh*.
After that it was largely standing around for an hour before the start time. I should have brought another bottle of water to drink because I was hesitant to use up my Camelbak water before the race.
But then we were off up the hill. Nothing like climbing mountains with that hot humid sun beating down on you. But it was going pretty well. The swim section was new and was a bit interesting cause there were too many people in there including people with life jackets just laying on their backs kicking so I was getting hit from ahead and behind. But it was nice and cooling!
Thought I was drinking enough as I was taking a decent drink of my Nuun water like before and after a Clif Shotblock like every 15 minutes and a glass or two of water at each of the stations, but around maybe half way or so, I started to feel my calves acting up on the way down the mountain. This is the first I've ever had them start to cramp. I ate two of the mustard packets that had been recommended for this situation And continued on. They never completely cramped on me, but I could feel them getting stiff and I thought I might have been out of luck right after the fire jump, they really came close to a full on cramp as I was waiting for my medal.
But anyway, around this halfway or so point I was thinking I might be done around 3, but got to the bucket carry and was told they were pausing the race. Now, it had been thundering for almost an hour at this point. So it was not real clear as to just when they might decide to go again. Nor were instructions/explanation very clear... The first I heard was that the bucket carry was stopped, but you could do your burpees and continue on. Then that the course was stopped. Then that you could go at your own risk, then immediately no you can't. So ended up sitting for like 15 minutes and of course my body decided it might as well start shutting down since we were no longer in race mode... And given that the forecast was calling for MORE thunderstorms at this point I figured who knows how long we'll be here. Might as well eat a Clif bar. And of course as I was halfway through they started up again. So I've got my 5 gallon bucket full of gravel, climbing the mountain and half a Clif bar sticking out of my mouth. In retrospect I should have just dropped the Clif bar cause I think between the sitting and eating a whole bar at once, I didn't start getting close to recovering till towards the end of the race. Also didn't help that this was the start of like twice more up the mountain and a lot of the weight carrying/pulling stuff. It also meant that because of the pause but everyone still moving to obstacles that EVERY obstacle was backed up at least 5 people deep. And then they still weren't letting people do the rope climb when I got to it. Though the next time down the hill it was open again so I was kinda disappointed I didn't get to try it. But I still burpeed the spear throw and the log hop. Oh, I was so close, I just got leaning off to the side and missed the very last log! and I did 30 somethings, but they were REALLY sloppy burpees from the way I was feeling.
Anyway, it was good, but that pause at the middle which seemed just stupid(Umm, we already signed waivers that we might die and I'm sure we're more likely to get killed driving to/from this event than struck by lightning and what's the difference if we're moving or sitting still on the mountain?), well it just really killed my motion and I ended up with a 3hr 47 minute time which I think was about 45 minutes longer than it would have been... I didn't run down much of any of the remaining hills which is where I make some time.
Oh, there was a lot more water at the bared wire crawl too. You pretty quickly learn to just ignore any sort of worry about nasty water, etc. Cause it's like 10-15 minutes of rolling through foot deep puddles, lots of rocks, etc under the barbed wire. Everything is just completely filthy when you emerge. On this note, I tried using the Shotblocks in a ziploc bag, but while it kept them from getting too bad, it was definitely still muddy in there. Thinking I may switch to something more single use like Gu's for VT just to avoid this issue... Not sure.
But then the race was over, I did a quick hose down at the showers and it was another quick shuttle back to the car. I changed quick and was on the road. At which point in the first hour I did a good bit of yelling and swearing at a couple of idiots that were really causing me time. I want to get home to my girls by like 8, not after 9! The worst was a like 5-10 mile stretch of single lane construction with a 55mph speed limit so it shouldn't have been bad, but for some reason this rimmed Jeep with a U-haul trailer was topping out at 30mph and then slowing to like 20mph when the road had a turn in it... UGH!
Still, I made it home around 9:20 very tiredly.
But I now have my second piece of the Trifecta!
Killington is like ten days!
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Dam Good Trail Race
Ahh, the Dam Good Trail Race.
I dunno, I don't feel like I have a lot to say about it, but I bet I will anyway somehow...
In short, it was good, but it did feel like it was a bit harder/more tiring than it should have been... Why? I could guess...
-Not much of a taper. 18 miles the Sunday before and 9 miles on Thursday are a bit more than the 10 and 3 that would be on a good taper...
-Nutrition. I haven't been eating overly well.
Dunno. I still made it in about 2:40 which was about a half hour quicker than the pre-run which was REALLY sluggish. Although that pre run also had a heck of a lot more mud and apparently I took a couple longer sections than the actual course.
So... Let's see...
I guess this was my first time actually racing with my Camelbak. I've had periodic problems with the waistband rubbing on my back when I wear the Camelbak or the weighted backpack, but I put some Glide there thinking that would take care of it. Turns out, it wasn't enough and it rubbed an even larger area. Wondering about just putting a strip of duct tape across there for the Spartan Races coming up...
Sara nicely filled up one of my travel bottles with honey, so I used that for about the first 1.5hrs. Then a pack of caffeinated Sports Beans.
Overall, yeah it was good, a bit tiring. Nowhere near as muddy as the Pre-run, but yeah there were several sections of seriously muddy, I guess more so because so many people had already run through there. One point I was a half second away from falling for sure. And that really sucks the energy out of your legs just for a few seconds of running through!
Also amazing how much just like 5-15 feet of elevation hits those legs as there are quite a few stream crossings and it doesn't look like much, but especially on the return trip you just take like 3 seconds of big steps back up out of the gulley and UGH those legs!
Oh, and I don't quite understand how it was set up, but I did take the wrong turn at the loop. I didn't see anything overly obvious as to which way to go, and I could have sworn it was the way I went on the pre-run which I thought lined up with a previous runner's GPS, and also came back out where I was pretty sure I had seen other people coming back on the loop...
Either way, thankfully about the 4th person behind my said "hey, it's gotta be to the right!" And we only lost maybe 30 seconds going in the wrong direction. SORRY!
I wasn't the only one, I did get passed by one lady who then went straight up the other side of the creek instead of a 90 degree turn to the right. Once over the hill, they kinda went in the same direction so I thought maybe she just was taking an alternate route, but then she said she didn't know where she was going and thought she shouldn't be in the lead. hehe. We traded forward/back spots about 5 times I think. I think she may have been nursing an ankle or something.
But then I finally made it to the end. Well... Actually at that point I wasn't exactly sure WHERE the end was... I exited the woods, but it wasn't overly clear to me as to where/how far I was supposed to go. So I kinda slowed down more than I otherwise would have. Finally found that I was supposed to run across the grass for a while and then there was a line and then they kinda awkwardly gave me a medal. (they were younger kids I think so probably weren't quite as forward as a lot of adults are).
As usual, trail races are WAY better cause they FEED YOU! This time was possibly my favorite. Lots of pizza and desserts! (oh, and some fruit). (:
I hung around for the awards and it was worthwhile. I guess they try to give something back to everyone so they just pick race numbers at random and call your name and you get to pick out a prize. I ended up with a Patagonia Belt. It does look to be quite good quality.
I think that's about it. Now the Spartan Insanity is in full swing!!!!
I dunno, I don't feel like I have a lot to say about it, but I bet I will anyway somehow...
In short, it was good, but it did feel like it was a bit harder/more tiring than it should have been... Why? I could guess...
-Not much of a taper. 18 miles the Sunday before and 9 miles on Thursday are a bit more than the 10 and 3 that would be on a good taper...
-Nutrition. I haven't been eating overly well.
Dunno. I still made it in about 2:40 which was about a half hour quicker than the pre-run which was REALLY sluggish. Although that pre run also had a heck of a lot more mud and apparently I took a couple longer sections than the actual course.
So... Let's see...
I guess this was my first time actually racing with my Camelbak. I've had periodic problems with the waistband rubbing on my back when I wear the Camelbak or the weighted backpack, but I put some Glide there thinking that would take care of it. Turns out, it wasn't enough and it rubbed an even larger area. Wondering about just putting a strip of duct tape across there for the Spartan Races coming up...
Sara nicely filled up one of my travel bottles with honey, so I used that for about the first 1.5hrs. Then a pack of caffeinated Sports Beans.
Overall, yeah it was good, a bit tiring. Nowhere near as muddy as the Pre-run, but yeah there were several sections of seriously muddy, I guess more so because so many people had already run through there. One point I was a half second away from falling for sure. And that really sucks the energy out of your legs just for a few seconds of running through!
Also amazing how much just like 5-15 feet of elevation hits those legs as there are quite a few stream crossings and it doesn't look like much, but especially on the return trip you just take like 3 seconds of big steps back up out of the gulley and UGH those legs!
Oh, and I don't quite understand how it was set up, but I did take the wrong turn at the loop. I didn't see anything overly obvious as to which way to go, and I could have sworn it was the way I went on the pre-run which I thought lined up with a previous runner's GPS, and also came back out where I was pretty sure I had seen other people coming back on the loop...
Either way, thankfully about the 4th person behind my said "hey, it's gotta be to the right!" And we only lost maybe 30 seconds going in the wrong direction. SORRY!
I wasn't the only one, I did get passed by one lady who then went straight up the other side of the creek instead of a 90 degree turn to the right. Once over the hill, they kinda went in the same direction so I thought maybe she just was taking an alternate route, but then she said she didn't know where she was going and thought she shouldn't be in the lead. hehe. We traded forward/back spots about 5 times I think. I think she may have been nursing an ankle or something.
But then I finally made it to the end. Well... Actually at that point I wasn't exactly sure WHERE the end was... I exited the woods, but it wasn't overly clear to me as to where/how far I was supposed to go. So I kinda slowed down more than I otherwise would have. Finally found that I was supposed to run across the grass for a while and then there was a line and then they kinda awkwardly gave me a medal. (they were younger kids I think so probably weren't quite as forward as a lot of adults are).
As usual, trail races are WAY better cause they FEED YOU! This time was possibly my favorite. Lots of pizza and desserts! (oh, and some fruit). (:
I hung around for the awards and it was worthwhile. I guess they try to give something back to everyone so they just pick race numbers at random and call your name and you get to pick out a prize. I ended up with a Patagonia Belt. It does look to be quite good quality.
I think that's about it. Now the Spartan Insanity is in full swing!!!!
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Howard 5k: The one where I win!
Well, ok first off, this was a small race. I dunno, maybe like 40 people there and half were walkers? Not sure.
But I was like I believe the 4th one back.
And FIRST in my age group!
And I was not actually slow... This was the only 5K I've been in with big hills and rocky roads to run on(and hard packed dirt and pavement and grass...) So I was NOT expecting a PR...
But I did! 25:08! That's like maybe 10-15 seconds per mile off! On a hilly course! Woohoo!
There is a possibility that I might be able to pull off a 4hr marathon... Still a REALLY big IF there!
Marathon miles are seriously climbing. That 16 on Sunday REALLY tired out my feet and that on again off again right ankle, though they were considerably better by afternoon. Then again, I haven't cleared more than about 13.5 miles since almost March I think. We'll see how 18 goes this Sunday!
But I was like I believe the 4th one back.
And FIRST in my age group!
And I was not actually slow... This was the only 5K I've been in with big hills and rocky roads to run on(and hard packed dirt and pavement and grass...) So I was NOT expecting a PR...
But I did! 25:08! That's like maybe 10-15 seconds per mile off! On a hilly course! Woohoo!
There is a possibility that I might be able to pull off a 4hr marathon... Still a REALLY big IF there!
Marathon miles are seriously climbing. That 16 on Sunday REALLY tired out my feet and that on again off again right ankle, though they were considerably better by afternoon. Then again, I haven't cleared more than about 13.5 miles since almost March I think. We'll see how 18 goes this Sunday!
Saturday, July 26, 2014
PA Grand Canyon Half Marathon
Well this one started off Friday when I drove down to pick up my packet. Went smoothly enough, though I wasn't overly impressed with the goody bag. Basically just flyers for Wellsboro stuff and one of them had a granola bar attached. There was a nice tech tee though.
As for the race itself?
Well it was early...
I got up at about 3:55am, out the door about 4:15am.
Arrived at the high school parking lot about 5:30.
There were a lot of people there waiting.
One bus shows up. Didn't make it on.
I think it was about 5:52 when (5:45 was supposed to be the last bus) the next one showed up. And then thankfully like 4 more buses.
It was almost a half hour trip down to Colton Rd. Same place the rally cars run.
So we got there just before 6:30. One last potty break and then basically just hung around the woods for half an hour.
And then we were off!
Now, I have to say... I wasn't entirely sure about the elevations... From their description it made it sound like it was mostly flat with maybe a few little hills, or that's what I was picturing. But from the rally car days of walking these roads, I didn't remember anything flat.
And in the end, that was all kinda correct... There weren't any big hills like I'm used to... But there was NOTHING flat.
So... there was a bit of up and down throughout, but more down for the first 2/3 maybe. So I was aiming for a 9:09 min/mile pace to break 2hrs, and I was beating that on those downhills, but not by enough that I thought I was going to keep it for the way back. Thought for sure I'd be walking parts. But no, I DID manage to run the whole thing. But I did slow considerably for the way back up. Ended up with a 2:08 finish time and considering the hills I'm quite happy!
Oh, also had a short chat with someone shortly before we started heading up again, she was saying the same thing about how on the way down we weren't looking forward to knowing we had to go back up. It was nice to have someone to chat with!
Afterwards, got a nice medal and a box filled with all sorts of post race recovery foods like chocolate milk and hummus and chips and a few other things. That made up for the goody bag. And they had water, sports drink, bananas, apples and pretzels out as well.
So I hung out for maybe 20 minutes afterwards stretching out my calves. Then decided to head back to the buses.
Well... I ended up right behind this like over 6 foot tall European guy who was just SO enjoying his post race high. "this is so awesome!" Every couple minutes. We got in line to wait for the bus and talked a bit with him and a couple of his friends who ran as well. It was nice to be around other crazy runners!
This ended up being a while. We waited for I believe over an hour for the bus. This is also evidence of just how sweaty I must get cause I was STILL dripping by the time the bus came. I literally soaked every inch of my clothing. And I missed any notice that there was a bag check at the race itself, otherwise I would have at least brought a towel.
So we finally get on a bus at like 10:40 or something... And we start heading back. We drop off spectators. And more spectators. Then... We start heading back a bit. I laughed it off, but obviously there were some mess ups with the buses. I guess they were saying the buses were so slow because they didn't have full buses going to Wellsboro. So they decided to swing back to the spectator area and combine the half full buses of runners into one full one. Now, why no one could have figured this out back before we got ON the buses is a mystery to me. And while I laughed it off, some people were getting quite frustrated with it and some were complaining that they had to check out within an hour and we weren't back yet. Hopefully they'll get that figured out next year.
When we picked up more runners, ended up having another nice chat with a lady from West Virginia about all the races she was doing as well.
It was also interesting to hear the number of people who were going to do the full the next day too! I'm not THAT crazy yet!
Anway, about 11:20 and we finally were back to the high school parking lot.
So, in all it was a lot of fun!
Next up is just a 5K, but those Spartan races are coming up soon!
As for the race itself?
Well it was early...
I got up at about 3:55am, out the door about 4:15am.
Arrived at the high school parking lot about 5:30.
There were a lot of people there waiting.
One bus shows up. Didn't make it on.
I think it was about 5:52 when (5:45 was supposed to be the last bus) the next one showed up. And then thankfully like 4 more buses.
It was almost a half hour trip down to Colton Rd. Same place the rally cars run.
So we got there just before 6:30. One last potty break and then basically just hung around the woods for half an hour.
And then we were off!
Now, I have to say... I wasn't entirely sure about the elevations... From their description it made it sound like it was mostly flat with maybe a few little hills, or that's what I was picturing. But from the rally car days of walking these roads, I didn't remember anything flat.
And in the end, that was all kinda correct... There weren't any big hills like I'm used to... But there was NOTHING flat.
So... there was a bit of up and down throughout, but more down for the first 2/3 maybe. So I was aiming for a 9:09 min/mile pace to break 2hrs, and I was beating that on those downhills, but not by enough that I thought I was going to keep it for the way back. Thought for sure I'd be walking parts. But no, I DID manage to run the whole thing. But I did slow considerably for the way back up. Ended up with a 2:08 finish time and considering the hills I'm quite happy!
Oh, also had a short chat with someone shortly before we started heading up again, she was saying the same thing about how on the way down we weren't looking forward to knowing we had to go back up. It was nice to have someone to chat with!
Afterwards, got a nice medal and a box filled with all sorts of post race recovery foods like chocolate milk and hummus and chips and a few other things. That made up for the goody bag. And they had water, sports drink, bananas, apples and pretzels out as well.
So I hung out for maybe 20 minutes afterwards stretching out my calves. Then decided to head back to the buses.
Well... I ended up right behind this like over 6 foot tall European guy who was just SO enjoying his post race high. "this is so awesome!" Every couple minutes. We got in line to wait for the bus and talked a bit with him and a couple of his friends who ran as well. It was nice to be around other crazy runners!
This ended up being a while. We waited for I believe over an hour for the bus. This is also evidence of just how sweaty I must get cause I was STILL dripping by the time the bus came. I literally soaked every inch of my clothing. And I missed any notice that there was a bag check at the race itself, otherwise I would have at least brought a towel.
So we finally get on a bus at like 10:40 or something... And we start heading back. We drop off spectators. And more spectators. Then... We start heading back a bit. I laughed it off, but obviously there were some mess ups with the buses. I guess they were saying the buses were so slow because they didn't have full buses going to Wellsboro. So they decided to swing back to the spectator area and combine the half full buses of runners into one full one. Now, why no one could have figured this out back before we got ON the buses is a mystery to me. And while I laughed it off, some people were getting quite frustrated with it and some were complaining that they had to check out within an hour and we weren't back yet. Hopefully they'll get that figured out next year.
When we picked up more runners, ended up having another nice chat with a lady from West Virginia about all the races she was doing as well.
It was also interesting to hear the number of people who were going to do the full the next day too! I'm not THAT crazy yet!
Anway, about 11:20 and we finally were back to the high school parking lot.
So, in all it was a lot of fun!
Next up is just a 5K, but those Spartan races are coming up soon!
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Tough Mudder (VS Spartan?)
So Tough Mudder...
Did this one with my friend/neighbor/mechanic Mike. This was my first time having someone else to run with and was a lot of fun! I was kind of wondering how we would pace each other. Mike works all day with his hands, so I figured he probably had me beat on upper body strength, but he hasn't run as far/often/fast as I have, so I thought I might have him beat there.
As it turns out, we seemed to end up right about the same pace from what I could tell. Though he is taller which I hadn't really noticed until we were in this run and he would stop to a walk and I had to periodically bump up to a run to catch up to him since my strides weren't as long! He also seemed to have some advantage jumping to things, etc.
So let's see...
We got there about a quarter to 8 and figured we'd do the 9am wave. We were early but that was good, we got a decent parking spot that I think might not have been the full half mile distance from the starting line area. When we left, the other end of where people were parking was probably another quarter mile away across hay fields. We opted NOT to take the $5 each way shuttle. (:
Got our bibs, bathroom break and headed back to the truck to get ready.
I went with:
Fivefinger Spyridon shoes. Upped one size since I had a did lose a pinky nail on a 13 mile trail race with thin socks and I went with thicker Injinji knee high compression socks this time. I'm undecided on this at the moment. I think the socks were a good idea for protection, but the upped size Fivefingers feel a hair large and the straps definitely seem too long and at one point when I tried to re-tighten them after some mud/water, the straps seemed too long to be able to get a good grip with the velcro. Really thinking I would prefer the Spyridon LS. Not entirely sure which size... would be nice to get a good handle on this before Sept Spartans!
UA Compression shorts, UA Running shorts, UA Coldblack shirt, UA trainer fingerless gloves, bandaids on the nips, Glide a bit on the feet, Spibelt and took my Fitbit One and old Boost Hydro phone in LokSaks in the Spibelt to track the run.
So we thought we had time still, but then they said the 9am wave was leaving. When we headed up for the 9:20 wave we'd realize we probably did still have time, it seems they have a pre-starting line holding area where they keep people until like 10 minutes before, then you head up to the starting line, spend another 10 minutes there or so and THEN leave. As such, we were at the back of the 9:20 wave pre-holding area and I started Runkeeper on my phone, and it was apparently 9AM, but it was 9:20 when we actually left to start the run.
Overall? I dunno, I feel I can only compare it really to the harder races I've done. One being the 10 mile Pfeiffer Nature Center Trail race that was wicked hilly. The other being the Tuxedo Spartan Sprint which was 4.5 miles on ski slopes.
So...
Mud:
-Spartan really wasn't that muddy at all. Yeah, there was some, but not a ton of it. Though I ended the race the dirtiest of any race I've done.
-The trail race had a light amount of mud throughout the entire race.
-Tough Mudder definitely had the most mud, deeper, pits of it, mountains of it to repeatedly climb over, etc. Though it seemed to be placed out so that by the end, I was the cleanest of any of the OCR's I've done and not soaking wet.
--From what I could guess, this may have changed if you did the legionnaires loop and more likely, ran Sunday. We were only in the second wave and you could see the paths were muddy and getting worse. I can only imagine after everyone ran Saturday, let alone on Sunday when it was raining!
Running/lower body:
-The trail race pretty much was the hardest. It was a number of times up and down maybe 400'+ hills, one of which they had a rope to help you go up, and generally everyone was running as much as they could. This one left me a bit sore afterwards.
-Spartan was definitely second. The slopes were similar in height to the trail race, but ski slopes, so some were significantly steeper, but usually not quite as far/high at once as the trail race. And of course it gets broken up by stopping to do obstacles.
-Tough mudder was EASY in comparison. There were only a few hills and of those, only about twice maybe was there anything that was even a real hill. There was like one steep climb(I think they called it the cliffhanger as an obstacle) and it was a steep hard climb, but it wasn't as steep or as long as the majority of the trail race or Spartan was. I think we were only going up it for a couple minutes at most.
Upper body:
-Well, probably obviously the trail race was the easiest, since other than the rope or scrambling for a grip on a steep section or two or pumping your arms, there isn't really any upper body used.
-Tough mudder ... OK, I was gonna say it was easier than Spartan and it was for sure, but I'll add that it was a bit different....
They had parallel bars that were long and went up maybe a few feet, then back down. I wasn't sure I would make it at all, but I did actually get about 75% of the way before I just kinda ran out of enough strength to keep it and I was in the water. That was definitely more taxing on my shoulders than any other race I had done.
The other one they had was the monkey bars. I think Spartan's were maybe unevenly spaced, but they weren't as long and they weren't as elevation changing. And they didn't seem as slippery. I made Spartan's monkey bars. For Mudder, there was again maybe a few feet elevation change up then back down and it was a span of... Maybe 20 feet? I grabbed the first bar and thought I was going to fall off immediately, my fingers had like no grip. But then I guess I grabbed farther on the next one and got it hanging on my palm more and I'll be darned if I didn't make it up, across the middle and again, about half way down the other side, but then I felt my fingers slip like a half inch too far and I was like "nope, I don't have the strength/grip to reacquire what I just lost!" and poof, I was down in the water again.
-Spartan... Like I said with those two exceptions, Spartan is WAY more upper body. I wasn't really sore at all after Mudder. Spartan took out my upper body for a few days. The monkey bars may have been shorter, but they also had a monkey bar cargo net, a big sand bag lift, atlas stone carry, log carry, cement block drag, barbed wire crawl, rope climb... Traverse wall... Probably others I'm forgetting.
On that note, rope climb. Yeah, Mudder gives you a wall next to the rope and I had no trouble climbing up over that(though it was a bit scary to realize you're about 15' up and just holding on to this rope and should you drop your grip, you're going to be lying flat on your back with nothing but a bit of mulch to cushion your fall...) Compared to Spartan's maybe 15' just vertical rope climb that I couldn't even quite get myself out of the water at.
Wall comparison.... Eh, hard to really compare. I think they both have the same sorts of variations... Mudders reverse inclined walls didn't have boards to stand on like Spartans, so I only made it over Mudder's walls on my own by standing on the supports on the side.
6' walls I made it over either way...
I think Spartan had like 8' walls that I had to get a boost to get over. Mudder I believe had like 10' walls, but with a 2x4 2' up which made them somewhat similar. I think I got over those by using the studs and center support as well. Can't remember for sure, cause I think I remember getting a boost over some walls as well, so I may be forgetting another set somewhere...
Mudder has some different maybe more fear oriented obstacles. I definitely felt more fear when I did walk the plank than I have on any other obstacle. I went right off, but it was a bit scary jumping like 15' above the water. And interestingly that one threw me off more than any other because it hit my nose/ear/inner ear thing and took a solid day before my head was clear again.
Arctic Enema was about what I expected. I was mentally prepared and not worried about it, but it still kinda took over the body a bit and took a bit of work to keep everything focused and moving and going under the water to get under the board took more effort than I would have thought, but it wasn't bad.
Electro shock therapy... I was apparently too ninja like and completely avoided the shocks! I half wonder if I should have gone back for the full experience! Mike said he caught a good one to the chest.
Oh, I'll also note that Mike made it across all of the obstacles without a problem.
Yes, there were like some 6' high round bales and I couldn't get over those without a hand as there was just about nothing for me to grab on or get a foot hold on.
And the mud mile was difficult sometimes just to find a foot hold, and after you did 5 of those 6' banks (and then again in the other direction a little later) you could definitely feel your legs!
And I thought for sure I'd fail Everest, but when we got there it was dry, so Mike went up without a problem, and even I ran right up the thing, but I couldn't pull myself up at the top and needed a couple volunteers to help me up.
I think that was most of it... In the end we came out about 2hrs, 40 minutes later. Considerably quicker than I had thought likely.
And as I had suspected, the Dos Equis beer at the end was about the best tasting beer I had had(since I don't really like beer at all).
Then we stopped by the Muddy wheaties tent. I had never even thought of chocolate milk on cereal! Which turned into us jumping on the trampoline for a chance to be on the Wheaties box. Well... They couldn't quite get me registered but we went on together, I kinda wondered how that was going to work. Sure enough, right after the short video they took I ended up getting thrown off the back of the trampoline! Ahh, it was a fun time!
Not sure if this motion jpg will show on here or not.
Did this one with my friend/neighbor/mechanic Mike. This was my first time having someone else to run with and was a lot of fun! I was kind of wondering how we would pace each other. Mike works all day with his hands, so I figured he probably had me beat on upper body strength, but he hasn't run as far/often/fast as I have, so I thought I might have him beat there.
As it turns out, we seemed to end up right about the same pace from what I could tell. Though he is taller which I hadn't really noticed until we were in this run and he would stop to a walk and I had to periodically bump up to a run to catch up to him since my strides weren't as long! He also seemed to have some advantage jumping to things, etc.
So let's see...
We got there about a quarter to 8 and figured we'd do the 9am wave. We were early but that was good, we got a decent parking spot that I think might not have been the full half mile distance from the starting line area. When we left, the other end of where people were parking was probably another quarter mile away across hay fields. We opted NOT to take the $5 each way shuttle. (:
Got our bibs, bathroom break and headed back to the truck to get ready.
I went with:
Fivefinger Spyridon shoes. Upped one size since I had a did lose a pinky nail on a 13 mile trail race with thin socks and I went with thicker Injinji knee high compression socks this time. I'm undecided on this at the moment. I think the socks were a good idea for protection, but the upped size Fivefingers feel a hair large and the straps definitely seem too long and at one point when I tried to re-tighten them after some mud/water, the straps seemed too long to be able to get a good grip with the velcro. Really thinking I would prefer the Spyridon LS. Not entirely sure which size... would be nice to get a good handle on this before Sept Spartans!
UA Compression shorts, UA Running shorts, UA Coldblack shirt, UA trainer fingerless gloves, bandaids on the nips, Glide a bit on the feet, Spibelt and took my Fitbit One and old Boost Hydro phone in LokSaks in the Spibelt to track the run.
So we thought we had time still, but then they said the 9am wave was leaving. When we headed up for the 9:20 wave we'd realize we probably did still have time, it seems they have a pre-starting line holding area where they keep people until like 10 minutes before, then you head up to the starting line, spend another 10 minutes there or so and THEN leave. As such, we were at the back of the 9:20 wave pre-holding area and I started Runkeeper on my phone, and it was apparently 9AM, but it was 9:20 when we actually left to start the run.
Overall? I dunno, I feel I can only compare it really to the harder races I've done. One being the 10 mile Pfeiffer Nature Center Trail race that was wicked hilly. The other being the Tuxedo Spartan Sprint which was 4.5 miles on ski slopes.
So...
Mud:
-Spartan really wasn't that muddy at all. Yeah, there was some, but not a ton of it. Though I ended the race the dirtiest of any race I've done.
-The trail race had a light amount of mud throughout the entire race.
-Tough Mudder definitely had the most mud, deeper, pits of it, mountains of it to repeatedly climb over, etc. Though it seemed to be placed out so that by the end, I was the cleanest of any of the OCR's I've done and not soaking wet.
--From what I could guess, this may have changed if you did the legionnaires loop and more likely, ran Sunday. We were only in the second wave and you could see the paths were muddy and getting worse. I can only imagine after everyone ran Saturday, let alone on Sunday when it was raining!
Running/lower body:
-The trail race pretty much was the hardest. It was a number of times up and down maybe 400'+ hills, one of which they had a rope to help you go up, and generally everyone was running as much as they could. This one left me a bit sore afterwards.
-Spartan was definitely second. The slopes were similar in height to the trail race, but ski slopes, so some were significantly steeper, but usually not quite as far/high at once as the trail race. And of course it gets broken up by stopping to do obstacles.
-Tough mudder was EASY in comparison. There were only a few hills and of those, only about twice maybe was there anything that was even a real hill. There was like one steep climb(I think they called it the cliffhanger as an obstacle) and it was a steep hard climb, but it wasn't as steep or as long as the majority of the trail race or Spartan was. I think we were only going up it for a couple minutes at most.
Upper body:
-Well, probably obviously the trail race was the easiest, since other than the rope or scrambling for a grip on a steep section or two or pumping your arms, there isn't really any upper body used.
-Tough mudder ... OK, I was gonna say it was easier than Spartan and it was for sure, but I'll add that it was a bit different....
They had parallel bars that were long and went up maybe a few feet, then back down. I wasn't sure I would make it at all, but I did actually get about 75% of the way before I just kinda ran out of enough strength to keep it and I was in the water. That was definitely more taxing on my shoulders than any other race I had done.
The other one they had was the monkey bars. I think Spartan's were maybe unevenly spaced, but they weren't as long and they weren't as elevation changing. And they didn't seem as slippery. I made Spartan's monkey bars. For Mudder, there was again maybe a few feet elevation change up then back down and it was a span of... Maybe 20 feet? I grabbed the first bar and thought I was going to fall off immediately, my fingers had like no grip. But then I guess I grabbed farther on the next one and got it hanging on my palm more and I'll be darned if I didn't make it up, across the middle and again, about half way down the other side, but then I felt my fingers slip like a half inch too far and I was like "nope, I don't have the strength/grip to reacquire what I just lost!" and poof, I was down in the water again.
-Spartan... Like I said with those two exceptions, Spartan is WAY more upper body. I wasn't really sore at all after Mudder. Spartan took out my upper body for a few days. The monkey bars may have been shorter, but they also had a monkey bar cargo net, a big sand bag lift, atlas stone carry, log carry, cement block drag, barbed wire crawl, rope climb... Traverse wall... Probably others I'm forgetting.
On that note, rope climb. Yeah, Mudder gives you a wall next to the rope and I had no trouble climbing up over that(though it was a bit scary to realize you're about 15' up and just holding on to this rope and should you drop your grip, you're going to be lying flat on your back with nothing but a bit of mulch to cushion your fall...) Compared to Spartan's maybe 15' just vertical rope climb that I couldn't even quite get myself out of the water at.
Wall comparison.... Eh, hard to really compare. I think they both have the same sorts of variations... Mudders reverse inclined walls didn't have boards to stand on like Spartans, so I only made it over Mudder's walls on my own by standing on the supports on the side.
6' walls I made it over either way...
I think Spartan had like 8' walls that I had to get a boost to get over. Mudder I believe had like 10' walls, but with a 2x4 2' up which made them somewhat similar. I think I got over those by using the studs and center support as well. Can't remember for sure, cause I think I remember getting a boost over some walls as well, so I may be forgetting another set somewhere...
Mudder has some different maybe more fear oriented obstacles. I definitely felt more fear when I did walk the plank than I have on any other obstacle. I went right off, but it was a bit scary jumping like 15' above the water. And interestingly that one threw me off more than any other because it hit my nose/ear/inner ear thing and took a solid day before my head was clear again.
Arctic Enema was about what I expected. I was mentally prepared and not worried about it, but it still kinda took over the body a bit and took a bit of work to keep everything focused and moving and going under the water to get under the board took more effort than I would have thought, but it wasn't bad.
Electro shock therapy... I was apparently too ninja like and completely avoided the shocks! I half wonder if I should have gone back for the full experience! Mike said he caught a good one to the chest.
Oh, I'll also note that Mike made it across all of the obstacles without a problem.
Yes, there were like some 6' high round bales and I couldn't get over those without a hand as there was just about nothing for me to grab on or get a foot hold on.
And the mud mile was difficult sometimes just to find a foot hold, and after you did 5 of those 6' banks (and then again in the other direction a little later) you could definitely feel your legs!
And I thought for sure I'd fail Everest, but when we got there it was dry, so Mike went up without a problem, and even I ran right up the thing, but I couldn't pull myself up at the top and needed a couple volunteers to help me up.
I think that was most of it... In the end we came out about 2hrs, 40 minutes later. Considerably quicker than I had thought likely.
And as I had suspected, the Dos Equis beer at the end was about the best tasting beer I had had(since I don't really like beer at all).
Then we stopped by the Muddy wheaties tent. I had never even thought of chocolate milk on cereal! Which turned into us jumping on the trampoline for a chance to be on the Wheaties box. Well... They couldn't quite get me registered but we went on together, I kinda wondered how that was going to work. Sure enough, right after the short video they took I ended up getting thrown off the back of the trampoline! Ahh, it was a fun time!
Not sure if this motion jpg will show on here or not.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Run or Dye
So we did the "Buffalo" (Actually in Holland, NY) Run or Dye. One of the Color Run clones.
Comparison:
Color Run was downtown Rochester city streets.
This Run or Dye was starting on a Nascar track(though it seemed rather small for that), then off doing some zig zags next to the track, then off into the woods where it was basically trails and mud. Then through a junkyard, more zigzags next to the track and back onto the track to finish. Interesting.
It was fun though. The usual "awww"'s constantly as MaKenzie was running. I continue to be amazed at her skills. She can run quite well, and even in the woods where there were roots sticking up all over, I was cringing, but she ran right over them without a problem!
During the Color Run she ran just about the entire time. This time she was asking for me to carry her maybe half the time off an on. She does seem to enjoy being carried while I run! And we got a faster time!
Oh and it was WICKED humid for Run or Dye. I was completely drenched in sweat.
As in the Color Run Kenzie went through the color stations on her own and waited for color and went and got more herself. Though, at the color run, she's scrape some off the concrete after the end of the color station, this time it was in the woods and they had marked the trail with powder, so she was frequently trying to pick up purple color from the muddy woods which didn't work quite as well!
Kenzie also picked up some awesome purple hair at the first station, I loved it.
And she was acting all tired towards the end and had me carrying her and she started asking a bit for water and Mommy and so I was running while carrying her, but I guess she was just thirsty. As soon as she got a bottle of water, then she was off trying to run down the track instead of going up the stairs to get to Mommy!
So in all? It was a hot sticky mess, but it was awesome because Kenzie was great and those are pretty much my favorite times! (: LOVE HER!
Comparison:
Color Run was downtown Rochester city streets.
This Run or Dye was starting on a Nascar track(though it seemed rather small for that), then off doing some zig zags next to the track, then off into the woods where it was basically trails and mud. Then through a junkyard, more zigzags next to the track and back onto the track to finish. Interesting.
It was fun though. The usual "awww"'s constantly as MaKenzie was running. I continue to be amazed at her skills. She can run quite well, and even in the woods where there were roots sticking up all over, I was cringing, but she ran right over them without a problem!
During the Color Run she ran just about the entire time. This time she was asking for me to carry her maybe half the time off an on. She does seem to enjoy being carried while I run! And we got a faster time!
Oh and it was WICKED humid for Run or Dye. I was completely drenched in sweat.
As in the Color Run Kenzie went through the color stations on her own and waited for color and went and got more herself. Though, at the color run, she's scrape some off the concrete after the end of the color station, this time it was in the woods and they had marked the trail with powder, so she was frequently trying to pick up purple color from the muddy woods which didn't work quite as well!
Kenzie also picked up some awesome purple hair at the first station, I loved it.
And she was acting all tired towards the end and had me carrying her and she started asking a bit for water and Mommy and so I was running while carrying her, but I guess she was just thirsty. As soon as she got a bottle of water, then she was off trying to run down the track instead of going up the stairs to get to Mommy!
So in all? It was a hot sticky mess, but it was awesome because Kenzie was great and those are pretty much my favorite times! (: LOVE HER!
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