Old Man Still running

New month.  440 miles last month, not bad, just 35 miles short of my biggest month, last December.  I'll likely have another 400+ mile month this month too.  Most runners start resting as winter approaches, I step it up.  It pays off later in the year.

Treadmill.  Wind outside is crazy.

Lunch - treadmill at work.  First time doing a punishing treadmill there.  Got the looks from others casually working their machines as I did steep inclines or fast paces.  I figure if I have to to treadmill work, it better hurt or it isn't helping.

Treadmill and a loop run on JRP and canal roads north of the Narrows (Point of the Mountain).

Ran 26, a marathon on the treadmill (21) and outside (5).  Ran it about 3:50 pace.  I got some new road shoes.  I'm amazed how much easier it is to run in new shoes that give proper support.  It felt very easy this morning.  Speaking of shoes.  For the first several years of running, I only had one pair of shoes.  When they wore out, I bought another and then wore those out.   I chuckled today looking at my pile of eight pair of shoes that I'm still running in, rotating for various surfaces, etc.  Pretty funny.  I guess I've finally turned into a real runner.

Well, I went over 100 miles again this week, my 4th straight week.  Never before had I run even two straight 100-mile weeks.  It is now feeling easy.  I'm just grateful that I can train high miles without any limiting injury.  I may be reaching a new plateau in my training.  I hope so.  After the run this morning I just didn't feel tired at all.

It was beautiful out by the lake this morning.  Stunning.  Crisp, cold, and bright.  I ran on trails out by the lake and the high reeds sheltered me from the breeze.  Flocks of geese kept flying overhead and I would stop to watch their beautiful formations and listen to their honks.  What a great morning to be out running.

Oh, also this morning passed my PR for miles in a calendar year.   Now I can take the rest of the year off.

Same routine.  Treadmill, JRP, and canals.  Cold wind today, but still nice.

Treadmill, 9 degrees F outside.

Moved into 4th on the blog top miles for the year.  That is where I'll likely stay.  I'll probably have a 400+ mile month to end out the year, but that won't be enough to catch anyone higher.

Treadmill, yuk.  Hated it this morning.

p.m. run on canal road in Riverton.

Wow, what a difference a day makes.  Felt great this morning.  Treadmill in the morning.

p.m. JRT near Thanksgiving Point and ran through developments. With the inversion and the funneled breeze, it was really frigid, even in the afternoon at the Narrows.  The river is already frozen several inches.  People have thrown down pretty big rocks that are sitting on the ice.

It was "Incline Friday" on the treadmill.  Pushed it so hard I was near tears at times.  Good stuff.

15 on the treadmill.  Once dawn arrived went out and ran seven on the JRP and Lehi roads.  Wow, it was cold!  My handheld waterbottle was freezing.

5th consecutive 100-mile training week.

p.m. 5 miles with the dog. 

Backing off on the training now, 17 days until ATY.   Ran on canal roads.

Was lazy yesterday and didn't run (actually too busy).  So this morning I punished myself with a tough incline workout on the treadmill.  Sweat was really flying.  Last year I didn't really start tapering for ATY until the 19th, so I'll probably keep putting up miles this week.  But if the weather gets nice, I'll be tempted to go on an adventure run.

p.m. random route in Riverton, canals and roads.  Big loop.

Treadmill.  Ran in the Altra Lone Peaks again.  I'm pretty close to concluding that this is a great shoe for those who are into the barefoot thing, but I would never attempt to run in ultra in them.  They would leave me with bad foot fatigue and I would worry about stress fractures.  But for training, I like how they can strengthen my feet if I stay on a soft surface.  There is just too much impact on my bad knee and my problem foot tendon when used on a hard surface.

p.m. JRP, canal roads, etc.

Treadmill.  13 days until the big race.  So far, not very sucessful in tapering.

My 6th straight 100-mile training week.  The string will break next week as I taper, but the following week could be a 200-mile week.  Hitting 500 miles for the month is likely.

All systems go for Across the Years 48-hour run in 12 days.  No injuries.  Training for this event is pretty different.  The goal is to feel very comfortable running 10-12-minute miles forever.  I think I'm there.  I feel comfortable running 8-minute miles on the treadmill forever.   Also, I can now do a 15-mile treadmil workout easily without my mind going crazy, so the mental training is there for the continuous 1-mile loops.  With all the inclines, the hip muscles seem stronger.  Also I've worked the core, lower abs harder than ever.

Jay Aldous is running a 24-hour run today, invitation only event.  I think he should do fantastic.  It will be interesting to see how far he goes.

Tapering now, just staying loose and trying not to gain too much weight.  I put together a scatter graph of my last year's ATY 48-hour run to study the pace of my laps.  Each dot is a 1/2 km lap.  There are about 12 dots that are off the chart, slow, some long stops, 15-minute+.   Pace (Y-axis) is minute/mile pace.  It is interesting to consider, that at 160 miles, if I would have just walked a 15-minute pace to the finish, I would have reached 200 miles.  But I was hammered, it was very cold after that cold front came in.  So I quit for 4 hours until I decided that was stupid and went back out and ran 27 more miles.

Training for ATY is done.  No more will help.  Just staying loose.

Here is my seeded contender list for this year’s 48-hour Across the Years.  It is interesting to see that the top contenders are all over 50 years old.  It is an old-man’s event.  I think to be a contender to win this year, you have to have the ability to run a sub-22-hour 100-miler, and able to run a 110-mile 24-hour.  Most of the contenders will be starting on day two.  I will be starting on day one and need to post a big number to mess with their heads. Here’s the top contenders.

1.       Me (age 53) – Yep pretty bad picking yourself to win, but that keeps the pressure on me to dig in.  In my favor, I have the experience of two previous years at ATY, and the 48-hour win last year with 187 miles.  I know what it takes to reach 200 miles.   My training has been good these past couple months.  I have the fastest 100-mile PR in the field (19:46) and the highest PR for 24-hours (116 miles).

2.       Matt Watts (age 55) – Matt could put up a HUGE number.   His height and stride is perfectly made for fixed time races.  He has good ATY experience and won the 24-hour men’s division last year with 112 miles.  He is steady and never takes long breaks.  He isn’t speedy, will never run faster than 9:30 pace, but he is very efficient.  I’ve run together with Matt for many miles.  When he power-walks, I have to run.  On the downside, Matt tends to DNF often, but I expect him to go the full 48 hours.  He said he hopes to have a running gear at least for the first 40 hours, which for him is the ability to turn 11-12 minute miles.  Last year he started walking every step at mile 75.   Matt will start on day two, so he will have an advantage of seeing what I can do.

3.       Leon Rothstein (age 54) – At NorthCoast 24-hour in September, which is the premier fixed-time race in the country, he finished a respectable 16^th with 112 miles.  His PR is 116 miles.  This will be his 10^th fix-timed race, so he has a ton of experience doing them.  He will start on Day one with me.

4.      Kermit Cuff (age 53).  He has a ton of experience including a Badwater finish this year in 33:31.  In 2009, he beat me by an hour at Moab 100.  He has good fixed-time experienced with a 111-mile PR for 24 hours last year.  He’s a steady runner.  He will start on day two.

5.      Randy Ellis (age 59) – Randy finished a strong 3^rd last year with 163 miles.  So he has good experience and has a 24-hour PR of 112 miles.   He’s 59, so age could be slowing him down, but I bet on his experience.  He also will start on day two.

6.      Jamie Huneycutt (age 53) – Look for Jamie to win the female division.  Last year she finished the 48-hour run in 4^th overall with 155 miles.  In 2008 she finished with 160 miles.  She has a ton of experience in fixed-time races and has good speed.  She will start on day two.

7.     Tom Jackson (age 51) – Tom is a good friend.  He married the sister of my best friend from high school.  Tom has beat me in several 100s.  He has good speed but doesn’t go out fast. We ran the Plain 100 together for the first 40 miles or so until he crumbled on a massive climb.  I waited but finally went on ahead.  He continued on but DNFed during the night because he got lost.  He ran a good Western States 100 a couple years ago.  This is his first fixed-time race attempt and he jumped right into the 48-hour event after watching me do it on-line last year.  He’s a busy doctor, so at times doesn’t have enough training.

8. Luis Miral (age 37).   He’s a youngster, so a wild-card.  He has speed, an 8:03 50-mile two months ago and a 21:10 100-mile last year.  He lacks experience but could figure this out.  Look for him to keep pace with me for quite awhile on day one.

Easy treadmill.  Did some power hiking training, trying to get used to power walking at about 4.3 mph.   Lots of walking in ATY.

Long-range forecast looks perfect.  High 68, Low 43, much warmer than last year with 0% chance of rain.  Hope it holds.

Easy treadmill.

Easy treadmill.  Last day of running until ATY in six days.  I'll just do some power walking.  I need to try to heal up a bruised inner knee cap that has been a bother for a couple months.  It is managable, but gets painful running a 8:00 pace or faster.

OK, what are my crazy plans for 2012?   Most of it is tentative.  I've decided to skip Wasatch this year, and let someone else take a turn.  I have four finishes there.  It is fun to run with friends, but I can run that course anytime. 

February - Rocky Raccoon 100 - Going for my 5th finish and the 500-mile award. Last year I did very well, placing 3rd in my age group in that huge field.  I look forward to running again with Karl Meltzer (after he laps me).  I hope to run further with him this year.

March - Buffalo Run 100 or Barkley.  Barkley is the toughest 100-mile race in the world.  It really isn't a race because only a handful of runners have ever finished it.  It is more like a cruel self-supported adventure run.  I would be pleased to finish two loops, 40 miles.  With my experience doing solo-adventure runs, I think 60 miles is possible.   I need to decide by Sunday if I'm going to apply for the lottery.  Right now I'm leaning toward waiting until 2013.  Even seriously considering doing Barley is amazingly insane.  I have two friends who have done 60 miles of it who are pushing me to join then.

April - Grand Canyon Tonto Trail end-to-end.  I'd like to be the first person to run the entire Tonto Trail from Garnet Canyon to Red Canyon end-to-end, about 100 miles.  Others have backpacked it, but no one has been known to run the entire thing in one stretch without camping for the night.  Last year I did South Bass to Cottonwood Creek.   I'd like to go back and do it right.   This is all inspired by John Annerino's classic book, "Running Wild" when he ran through the Canyon several times.   But he never ran the entire stretch of the Tonto, he left it at South Bass.  Also, it took him several days to do the section I want to do in 30-35 hours.  To do this requires additonal 45 miles getting to and from the start/end points.  Crazy.

April - Salt Flats 100 or early May - Northcoast 24-hour (USATF national championships).  If I do very well at ATY, I'll be tempted to shift my efforts this year to fixed-time races.  It would be fun to run with the very elite runners at NC24.  I'd go if I think I could go over 120 miles.

May - Zion 100.  I would skip this if I go and do NC24.

June - Squaw Peak 50.  Going for my 8th finish

July - Grand Mesa 100

August - Skyline Drive end-to-end 100+.  Need to go finish that one.

August - Cascade Crest 100 (lottery).  I really enjoyed that race last year, super course.

September - Pace at Wasatch or Plain 100.  If I don't get into CC100, I may instead go do Plain 100 again.  I love that challenge and I know I can always do well there.

September - Bear 100???  I'll always be tempted to run it.  (if I don't run Plain 100)  I have six Bear finishes.

October - Pony Express 100 - What I may do, is run it the week before the race, running an end-to-end from Simpson Springs to the Nevada border - a much tougher course.

December - ATY???

I certainly will sprinkle in adventure runs along the way.

Absent this year is Bighorn 100 (6 finishes) and Tahoe Rim 100 (5 finishes)

Easy treadmill....well it felt easy.  A couple months ago, this would have been really hard.   I did seven miles, at an easy jog 12:00 pace, but it was at 20% incline (holding on to the front).  The machine thinks I climbed 7,000 feet.  Taper week of 60 miles.  Hmmm, earlier this year that wouldn't be a taper.

Feels like I'm in the best shape of my life right now....pretty sad since I'm 53.  Been working on my core for the past month or so because those really long runs can kill the lower abs.  Did more situps in one stretch this morning than I ever did as a kid.  Also been doing weights, working on "arm swing" muscles.  They feel stronger.   With all the miles I ran over the past couple months (850), it is interesting that I've gained 5 pounds.   I think it is muscle, so no biggy. 

Well, I think I'm ready.  Just relax now.   For Across the Years, they will have real-time results and webcams, but may not have the mail delivery set up this year.

Power walking.  Across the Years weather will be great, a little warm, but fine.   Sunny, High of 69 and low of 47.  Quite a change from last year, high of 51 low of 28 and cold rain.  Field for the 48-hour run is much larger than last year, 46 runners.

No running today, no running tomorrow, but then on Thursday....    I think I still have a very good chance at being on top of the mileage board for the week.

All packed and ready.  Bummed out that I am about 8 pounds more than my lowest race weight, but I suspect I'll lose much of that pretty fast.  Excess fat to burn for that length of time is fine.

I'll probably run Hokas the whole way.  I've done plenty of experimenting with the shoes, finding the right insoles, making adjustments, etc.  They should work.  Just in case, I'll have three other pair of shoes...ha, ha.

It is going to be sunny and hot, high of 71.  Hopefully all the indoor treadmill I have been doing at 70+ degrees has helped my body adjust.

The online results and webcast will be at: http://aravaiparunning.com/avr/ultracast/   For the webcams, I'll be wearing a yellow shirt during the day and a blue jacket at night.   I may start with my coonskin hat.

You can also send me rude emails from this page.  They print them out and put them in my mail box.

For fun, son Kevin and I will be going to the Phoenix Suns vs. Philly 76ers on Wednesday night.

All ready to go. Webcast for Across the Years will be at: http://www.aravaiparunning.com/avr/ultracast/   I'll be in the first wave (Dec 29) of the 48-hour runners.  Second wave starts on Dec 30.   All the 72-hour runners start on Dec 29, and each day 24-hour runners start.   There will be about 100 runners on the one-mile track tomorrow and about 125 runners on the track on Friday.

Looking at the race history for the 48-hour run, there have been 246 finishers over the years.  The fewest miles were 21, the most were 248 (world class runner John Geesler).   Only ten runners have beat my 187 miles last year, and only one runner over 50 years old has beat it.  The record for over 50 is 214.

Here’s the "short" report on Across the Years 48-hour run.   The loop we ran on was a nice 1.05-mile wide dirt trail through through the Dodgers Spring Training facility.  There was about 100 yards of pavement, not really a problem.  The course was certified using the shortest possible route which generally was impossible to do with all the turns.  I think I averaged about 1.07 per loop. 

I always start out pretty fast, and sure enough I completed the first loop ahead of all the other runners (24-hour, 48-hour, 72-hour).  I lapped my first runners on my second  loop.  Many would walk every step.

At the end of each loop, we could see a real-time board that would show the latest runner passings, so I could check on my pace and a few other runners around me.  Unfortunately they never displayed a leader board for us, which made it hard to tell where our competition was.   If I wanted to know for sure, I would complete a loop behind a person and then check out their mileage and pace on the board.

I believe I held the overall lead on mileage for quite a few laps.  As I had predicted, Luis Miral, a young, fast, 37-year-old in the 48-hour race was keeping pace with me and he eventually went ahead and lapped me.  I was never concerned, knowing that he had never gone over 50 miles before.   And sure enough, later in the day he disappeared off the track for awhile.   But the overall leader in miles was Joe Fejas, in the 72-hour race who was going out at a blistering pace.   Wow!  He would go on to finish his first 100 miles in about 17:12, and run 133 miles on his first day.

My pace was strong, but the heat of the day was getting to me immediately.  We had almost no shade at all on the entire course.  It got up to about 71 degrees, but it felt like 85.  My early laps were fast, I didn’t record my first lap over 10 minutes until mile 18.  Laps over 11-minutes started to happen at mile 25.  For each lap, I could stop at my personal aid station to grab something.  I probably stopped way too often, but it was nice to have anything I really needed so close.   My son Kevin crewed me for the first day and even made a pizza run.   I know that watching the race really got him excited to start his own race, the 24-hour, the next day.

I hit the marathon distance at 3:54.   I knew that this pace was slower than last year when it was cool and slower than my pace goal, but I was still pleased with how things were going.  I hit the 50K mark at about 4:48.  With the heat of the afternoon my lap times were creeping over 12 minutes.  I reached the 50-mile mark at about 8:32, much slower than planned.  Around 72 miles, I passed Luis and was in 1^st place in my race.  But later on, I discovered that Tracy Thomas was a little ahead of me.  I got all confused with the color the bibs and though she was in my race.  I guess that was good because it motivated me to push harder.  But she was in the 24-hour race and quit after 12 hours with over 70 miles.

Sure enough, Luis started to fade.  How was I doing against the other 48-hour runners?  As far as I could tell, my buddy, Tom Jackson was in 3^rd place, leading another pack of runners.  Tom and I have been good friends for years.  He’s married to the sister of my best friend growing up.   For the entire two days, we helped each other, ran with each other, encouraged each other.  When I hit 50 miles, Tom was about 5 miles behind.   My lead over Tom would grow to about 11 miles.   So as Luis faded, my lead grew and grew.

I reached the 100K mark at about 11:03.   I told Kevin to post that on my Facebook, mentioning that I had only thrown up three times so far.  The sun had gone down and the temperatures dropped.  I started to feel much better.  I was only 23 minutes behind my goal pace.   Runners started to disappear from the track for the night as they turned in to sleep, but about half of us continued on.   I was one of the few runners actually still running.  

During the night, I focused on reaching a Personal Recrod for the 100-mile distance.   Between 10:00 and 11:00, I found great speed.   I clocked several laps under 11 minutes.   It was great fun to run that fast and I was getting lots of comments from the others I was passing who were plodding along.

Since this is the short version, let me make it shorter.  I reached 100 miles at 19:40.   I had beat my PR by three minutes!   I was finally ahead of last year’s pace and back on my goal pace.  By the 24-hour mark, I had reached a PR of 117.80 miles, more than a mile ahead of last year.  I knew that this was a huge number to put up the first day, far more than all the 24-hour runners.  In the 48-hour race, Tom Jackson was in 2^nd place, nearly 11 miles behind.   As we ran with each other, we both thought that lead would hold up.  Could I hit 200 miles?   I was in great position to do it.

But things started to crumble around me by noon.  The heat of the day slammed me.  I had also changed into my road shoes, a big mistake because my feet had swelled and the shoes didn’t fit.  By the time I changed into my third pair of shoes, some bad blister damage had been done.   I used up a lot of time doing foot care for the rest of the race.   Kevin was doing great in this 24-hour race and reached PRs for all his distances.   At times our pace was about the same and we could run with each other.

For much of the afternoon, I went very slowly and runners around me passed me over and over again asking if I was OK.   At about 3 p.m., I stopped at the air-conditioned restroom and ended up just lying on the floor for about 15 minutes trying to bring down my body temperature.  As the sun was going down, I concluded that this just wasn’t working right any more.  I couldn’t continue doing 18 minute laps and hope to win this race, so I stopped to try to take a nap in my tent.  I put in ear plugs and rested for more than an hour.  Feeling somewhat better, I hit the track again at 6 p.m.

I now had less than a two-mile lead over Tom.   He was going strong, doing sub-15 loops.   I had to stop again to do foot care, and finally Tom lapped me again and took the lead at about the 145-mile mark.  I knew that it was his race to win now. 

I knew my race was just about done.  My lap times were going over 20 minutes.  At one point I threw up very violently, leaving me with a very sore stomach.  This had been about the sixth time I had thrown up.  I just couldn’t stand the heat.  I had told many runners that I would take the cold rain from last year any day.  They would look at me like I was crazy.  I also had some terrible knee pain, my ITB.  When I would stop at my aid station, it would be terrible to start walking again and would take about ten minutes for me to find a running gear.   It was really frustrating.

Drowsiness slammed me.   One runner mentioned that I looked like a drunk.  I was stumbling along, my head would droop down and I would weave back and forth.  My pace was very slow.

Finally at 8:30 p.m., I was finished.   I had reached 150 miles and that was fine.   I got in my tent and called my wife to say I was done.   Kevin was still going strong and hoped to reach 80 miles.  I again put in ear plugs and tried to find sleep.  It was terribly uncomfortable to be a sweaty mess in my sleeping bag, but I didn’t have the strength to go out and try to wash up.   Rest came, and I must have found a little sleep because the hours passed quickly.

Finally at about midnight, I saw a shadow on the tent.   Kevin was making another visit.  I took out my ear plugs and asked how he was doing.   He was slowing and had made a visit to the warming tent.   Again just like last year, I quickly decided that it was stupid to quit, so I got up and got ready. It helped that I hated to lie in my sweating mess. It took me a half hour to get ready because I again had to change into yet another pair of shoes and do careful foot taping.   The crew next to us was surprised to see me getting ready to leave again.  One lady had mentioned to Kevin that she was very worried about, that I looked terrible.  Kevin told her not to worry, that it was normal.  One major problem was that I caught a cold the day before the race, by Day 2 it had worked its way into my lungs so I was hacking up stuff, making gross noises.

I was back at it and felt 100% better.   My stomach was finally OK again and I could run.  I soon was running sub-11-minute loops which was a huge difference compared to most of the others plodding along at 20-minute loops.  I got lots of compliments.   It was super fun and I was so pleased to feel well again.   Where was Tom?  He wasn’t on the track.   Since they didn’t have a leader board, I didn’t know how far ahead he was.  Could I catch up to him?   Maybe there was still hope.   But several laps later, I caught up to him.   He had been taking a nap in the warming tent.   I was at 157 miles, he was at 172 miles.  That was discouraging to here, but we focused on how far Tom could get.   He thought he could still get into the 190s.   I encouraged him on.  There were a couple day-two starters that could catch him, but I told him that in most years if a runner goes over 180 miles, he wins.  Tom said I looked much better, that the last time he had seen me I looked very pale.  Tom is a doctor, so knows his stuff.  We both concluded that I must have had a bad fever.

My motivation and leg pain took a hit and my laps slowed.    I knew there was now no hope in getting the win.  So I just tried to enjoy the rest of the race and see how many miles I could do.   Kevin had turned in, had reached 62 miles, a great effort.

My pace for the rest of the race was better than Tom’s, I did lap him a couple times, but he was solid.   As dawn arrived, we ran several laps together.   Others came out on the track.  Kevin appeared with his clothes ready for a shower.  I told him to put that off, come and run several more laps.   He did and reached 66.    Tom reached 187.95 miles, just a little further than I did last year.

The morning was beautiful and I had great fun talking to other runners and joking with them.  My last two lap times were respectable, 15:42 and 14:35.  I reached 174.30 miles, very respectable, I’m pleased.   Still, only one person older than me had run more miles than that at ATY-48. 

That last 24 miles took its toll.   My right leg was in rough shape, injured.  I had just tried to shut off the pain.  It looks like it is a combination of my bad knee, ITB, and very sore upper calf muscles right below the back of the knee.  At the airport, Kevin and I were quite the sight.   We both could hardly walk.  Doing it again, I should have just asked for a wheel chair.   I could hardly walk at all, in terrible pain.

Once home, I felt worse than I had after any race.   My body had been slammed by heat, miles, and terrible leg pain.    24 hours later I feel much better but still can hardly walk.

Looking back, it was a little disappointing, but I know that any distance above 100 miles is a mystery.   Tom was able to handle the heat and sleep deprivation better than me.  I’m now convinced that I need to plan for at least a 4-hour rest and just schedule that into my plan.