Sunday, November 30, 2008

A Load off my Feet

Longtime readers will know that I've been having problems recently with blisters during trail ultras, and the other day I finally figured out why. My trail shoes are horribly, disgustingly filthy - some of them are so caked in mud that they are almost too stiff to get on my feet. I'm not surprised I've been getting blisters.

So I decided to do something about it, and put them all in the washing machine.

First I removed the insoles. Then I set the machine for cold water, put it on the delicate cycle, added about half a cup of detergent and let them go. All I can say is wow. They came out looking like new (especially my red Vasques). I stuffed them with newspaper and let them air dry. I tried out the Montrails this morning and they feel so much better.

And speaking of this morning, I got up super early to meet my buddy Roger for the 10 mile "hell hill" road run around Far West/Ladera Norte. Another guy called Derek joined us. He looked a little familiar and I soon realized that I had run with him for a loop of the Perdanales 12 hour race back in August (he ended up winning the race). We had a good run on what is fast becoming a favorite route for me.

Derek left after the road portion, but Roger wanted to run Kens. I was in two minds but figured I would probably run it anyway. Larry and Olga (who was visiting from Portland) joined us and we had a very pleasant time wandering around Bull Creek and exploring the "old school" route. I was glad I stayed for the trail portion.

So that's the end of my running for November. A very nice 36 mile weekend to round off a 216 mile month which I think puts me just where I want to be going into December. Next weekend is the Sunmart 50 miler (which kicks off the Texas Trilogy series) followed by the Decker half marathon the next day. Sunmart is one of my goal races - I'm feeling good and have a specific target in mind. By this time next week I will know more about where I really am.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Rocky Raccoon Course Change

For those of us who are running the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler, note that there have been changes made to the course within the last few weeks. The Lonestar Trail (Sam Houston National Forest) has been removed and the course now mirrors more closely the 50 miler (with the exception of an extra few miles on the Triple C trail).

Check out the pdfs for the 100 and the 50 for more details - I think I like it more than the original.

Creepy

There's just one word to describe this morning's run - creepy.

I had a 20 miler scheduled for this morning and wanted to get an early start so I got to the park just before 5am. There was a bit of fog but the first thing I noticed was the silence. Fog has a way of muting sound and the silence seemed absolute. The second thing I noticed was how dark it was. When I started running and switched on my headlamp, the air was so saturated that all I could see were little droplets of rain. Once I got out into the Country lanes the darkness really seemed to press in around me. I've run in very dark locations before, but this morning I felt uneasy for some reason.

Then the silence was broken by what sounded like gunshots - 4 of them - coming from the direction of the lane I was about to turn onto. I was considering turning around when a car came barreling down the road, heading away from the "shots". I turned my headlamp off and stepped off the road, but the car just zoomed past. So I waited for it to get out of sight, turned my light back on and just continued my run. I have no idea what was going on and the rest of the run was very uneventful, other than allowing me to bag 200 miles for the month.

Overactive imagination? Perhaps. For all I know it could have been some absurdly flatulent cows venting loudly, and the car may have had nothing to do with anything. But it was very "Hitchcock" at the time.

2008/2009 Training Season - Week 14

Saturday 11/29/08
road - 20 miles. Done - 2:55:08 (8:45 pace). Easy paced run in the fog

Sunday 11/30/08
road - 10 miles. Done - ran the "Hill Hell" 10 miler with Roger and Derek
trail - 6 miles. Done - ran Ken's with Roger, Larry and Olga

Monday 12/1/08
trail - 6 miles or rest

Tuesday 12/2/08
track - not done. Had to work - bugger!!!

Wednesday 12/3/08
rest

Thursday 12/4/08
trail - 6 miles

Friday 12/5/08
rest

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Turkey Trot and Deals that Rock

Happy Turkey Day. Being a Brit, Thanksgiving is a holiday I never had growing up and really don't know much about. I always thought it was a festival where the pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians before John Wayne shot them all. Nowadays it's a test of endurance that involves eating as much as possible before braving the shopping craziness of Black Friday. I will definitely do the former and studiously avoid the latter.

This morning I attempted to offset my gluttonous plans by running the annual Turkey Trot 5 mile race. Downtown was packed out with tailgaters for the UT vs Texas A&M football game this evening, and the air was permeated with the wonderful aroma of smoked brisket, BBQ and mesquite wood. I had arranged to meet a bunch of folks from work and we met up and goofed around before heading down to the start line at Trinity. There were a lot more people running than last year (around 12,000 I believe) and we should have gotten there earlier because we had no chance of getting anywhere near the front. We ended up way back in the field. Coming off the back of a 6:10 mile at the track earlier this week I had planned to try and run under 35 minutes and bag a sub-7 minute mile race, but I quickly realized this wasn't going to happen. Once the gun went off it took us a good 5 minutes to get to the start line, and I spent the first few miles zigzagging around walkers, strollers and dogs on really long leashes. They altered the course this year because of the football, and I soon found that it was a lot hillier than last year. It was also a lot warmer and humid, and I crossed the finish line happy with my time of 36:27 (7:17 pace).

I lurked around the finisher's chute waiting for my friends and when Alan came through he ran to the car and brought back a thermos of Irish coffee. I swiftly realized that the emphasis was very firmly on the Irish!!! We had a few refills and very quickly we were feeling no pain. We stayed around and had a great time shooting the breeze until the last of our runners and walkers came through. It was a fun morning.

Once I got home I got my own BBQ going. Instead of turkey we're having pulled pork this year, which is smoking away on the old Weber as I write. I also found out that one of my favorite websites - deepdiscount.com - were having a great Thanksgiving sale on DVD boxsets. Two deals in particular stood out.

Jeeves and Wooster - the Complete Collection. This is a great British comedy series I used to love in the early 90s and the 8 disc boxset is a steal at $24. For those of you who are fans of House this is a very different Hugh Laurie, but one I am much more familiar with. In a hilarious adaptation of the P.G. Wodehouse stories he plays upper class twit Bertie Wooster. Stephen Fry is Jeeves, his "Gentleman's Gentleman" who continually has to bail Bertie out of various scrapes brought on by his own ineptitude. This is going to find its way into my Christmas stocking.

A History of Britain - the Complete Collection. I can't believe they're selling this gem for $12 - when I bought it several years ago it cost me at least three times that. Simon Schama is a natural born storyteller who brings history to life. Beautifully filmed and visually stunning with a haunting soundtrack from John Harle, this BBC series explores the History of the British Isles from 3500BC up to the 20th century. Schama's stories and ironic turn of phrase fit perfectly into the atmospheric settings and create a rich and compelling documentary. The boxset contains 5 discs and includes all 15 episodes from the series.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Slippery Slope

Marathonguide.com is a very dangerous site dear readers. To see exactly what I mean, read on.

I discovered a really nice little race called the Texas marathon that takes place on New Year's Day in Kingwood, Texas. It's a small town race that sounded like a lot of fun (with lots of personal touches) and I figured it would be a good primer for Bandera, so before you could say "Auld Lang Syne" I'd signed up for it.

While signing up, I discovered the race was part of something called the "Texas Marathon Triple". If I completed it plus the Surfside Beach marathon (in February) and the Seabrook lucky trail marathon (in March) then I would get some super nice goodies for completing the series. So before you know it I'd signed up for all three.

While signing up for Seabrook, I also noticed they had a "Trail Challenge" - run the half on the Saturday and the full on the Sunday. What the hell, I signed up for it.

So in all I signed up for three marathons and one half, all intertwined with my Texas Trilogy ultras. I remember deciding that I wasn't going to run the Austin marathon this year because it was only 7 days after the 100 miler at Rocky Raccoon. So I am sitting here wondering why I've signed up for a marathon that's only 6 days after the 100 and run entirely along a sandy beach.

I guess it all makes sense in a crazy world.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Spicy Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

I cobbled this together as a side dish tonight and enjoyed it so much I thought I'd better write it down before I forgot it. Fast and easy to make, these are the best potato wedges I've made. I was going to take a picture of them, but they didn't last long enough.

Yummy Spicy Baked Sweet Potato Wedges
(serves 4-6)
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)
1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan
Italian seasoning (to taste)
kosher salt
red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 400F

Chop the potatoes into thick wedges without peeling
In a bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, cheese and Italian seasoning
Dip the wedges in the egg and then dredge in the breadcrumb mixture
Arrange in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet or glass oven dish
Sprinkle with kosher salt and red pepper flakes
Bake for 25-30 minutes

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Not Much Ado

As the title implies, not much going on this week so here are a few random thoughts and goings-on from the Welshrunner chronicles.

I figured out on a Greenbelt run this week that when my headlamp gets so dim that I can barely see my feet, it's probably way past the time when I should have changed the batteries. After rolling my ankle twice you would think that would cure me of my Scrooge-like ways. The sad thing is it probably won't.

I bought a new book - Essential Abs - which contains a 6 week core workout program to help formalize some of my cross training. I started it off yesterday and while the central routine seems to be solid, the style of prose is very rah-rah. Lots of waffle about "the journey to buff city" - I think the author is in serious need of a slap.

I've discovered that while camelbaks are ok for training, when it comes to races I really prefer handhelds (though I wore my old fuelbelt for last week's marathon). The only problem is that when you're carrying two bottles it's kinda difficult to tear open gel packets. The solution I found was to use a gel flask and this little device that clips into your shorts and solves the problem - brilliant. I was a little dubious because the clip looked a little bit flimsy, so I experimented with it on my long run yesterday and it worked great. I barely noticed it and was able to get at the flask while still holding both handhelds.

Had a nice run with Clea and Pancake at Walnut Creek this morning. It was good to catch up and the miles flew by. However, Walnut Creek is a very strange place at 5:30am on a rainy Sunday morning. When I pulled up there were several cars there, and several guys sitting around on park benches looking at each other. Thought I'd wandered onto the set of Blind Date, and I was very glad when Clea arrived.

And finally, Gavin came up to me this morning and requested to be put into timeout. When asked why, he informed me that he was planning on being naughty and wanted to get the punishment out of the way first. A new concept in rule enforcement - do the time and then do the crime. Needless to say, he was thwarted.

2008/2009 Training Season - Week 13

Saturday 11/22/08
road 20k - done. 1:38:02 (7:54 pace)
Essential Abs workout - done. Week 1 day 1

Sunday 11/23/08
trail - done. Did an enjoyable 8.5 miles at Walnut Creek with Clea
weights - done. 30 minute aerobic weights workout

Monday 11/24/08
weights - done. Arms and shoulders
Essential Abs workout- done. Week 1 day 2

Tuesday 11/25/08
track. Done - did cutdowns. 1600m, 1200m, 800m, 400m with 200m recovery between. Felt good and managed a 6:10 mile

Wednesday 11/26/08
Rest

Thursday 11/27/08
Turkey Trot 5 miles. Done - 36:27 (7:17 pace). A lot hillier than last year and jam packed. We got stuck near the back and spent a lot of time zigzagging around walkers, dogs and strollers. Still a fun race and a nice little workout though.

Friday 11/28/08
Trail. Done - 6 miles at Walnut Creek in 58 minutes. Very warm and humid - I was soaked.
Essential Abs workout - done. Week 1 day 3.
Weights - done. Circuit training.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

On a (Rock 'n') Roll in San Antonio

Well this morning I ran the inaugural San Antonio Rock'n'Roll marathon. I didn't do any of my usual marathon preparation because it was supposed to be a training run. I did not taper, did not carb load, and ran a fast (for me) 10 miler with my group the day before. I must admit, I was kinda curious as to how that would affect my run.

Something came up at the last moment and Nancy and Gavin could not make the trip, so yesterday I drove down to San Antonio by myself. My old Ford Explorer has a tape player in it, and I found some classic "Status Quo" tapes which had me singing along all the way to San Antonio. I felt so relaxed and happy by the time I got to the hotel, it was a very good omen.

As soon as I checked in, I headed over to the expo to pick up my packet. Oh man, it was packed. And what really annoyed me was that they were selling "finisher's shirts" there. Now call me old fashioned, but I think that's something you should have to earn. I mean, you haven't even run the race yet. I quickly got out of there.

Had a nice supper at the Spaghetti Warehouse (I got to eat in the "tram car") and headed back to the hotel. I missed having my family with me, but it did give me the chance to sit quietly and meditate for about half an hour before I turned in for the night. And I slept so well.

The cold front that came through Austin on Friday (with all the high winds) hit San Antonio on Saturday, but this morning dawned cold and still - perfect running weather. And after feeling slightly crook all week I woke up feeling great. Things were starting to fall into place - I began to get the idea that this was going to be a good day.

Since there were so many people running this race, they had divided us up into corrals - around 30 of them, each holding about 1000 people. You were assigned to a corral based on your estimated finishing time and they were each released a minute apart. I had estimated 3:45 when I signed up back in February so I was assigned to corral 5 with the 3:45 pacers. It was a great way to stagger the start, but I'm pretty sure many of the folks lied about their abilities - I passed quite a few walkers in the first mile.

Still, this was supposed to be a training run. I'd been telling myself that all week, and I believed it - right until I crossed that start line. Then I set off like the hounds of hell were after me to chase down the 3:40 pacers. I caught up to them at about mile 2 and ran with them for a few miles. They were a lot of fun, but I decided I wanted to run my own race and hit the gas. I figured that as I was obviously unable to hold myself back, I was just going to go with it and see how long I could go before I bonked (I love to experiment like this).

About mile 11 I spotted a spectator waving a large Welsh flag. I yelled over a few sentences in Welsh as I ran past, which I think startled him :-)

About mile 20 I realized an odd thing. I wasn't going to bonk - in fact I felt great and really fresh. I had hit a really good rhythm and was motoring along with very little effort. I guess this was the training run I was looking for after all. I'd been singing along to the live bands all day, and slowing down to dance/run when approaching ones who were playing songs I liked (I know, a big dork, but it was fun). By mile 20, I realized a lot of my fellow runners were really struggling, so I stopped dancing (though I kept on singing along) and instead got out my fishing rod and starting reeling people in. I passed a lot of folks who were really slowing down and a bunch of people who were cramping. About mile 24 I started to kick for home. A mile later I blew past a good buddy of mine - Ed - who is a much faster runner than me. I checked to see that he was OK before carrying on. I have never ever beaten Ed before (usually he's out of sight), but I was in the groove, cruising and still had a few extra gears if I needed them. Right at mile 26, we took a right turn and there was a big hill that ran for the last 0.2 miles. I didn't feel as if I'd even run a marathon and kicked hard to power up the thing, passing another 6 or 7 weary looking people on the way. I crossed the finish line feeling as if I'd run an easy 5k. But I hadn't - I'd run a marathon in 3:36:59 (8:17 pace) - a PR by over 12 minutes, which was very nice. I was even more pleased with my splits which were very even.

It was one of those perfect days when running is easy - my best (and easiest) marathon by a long shot. I was not sore at all - no post-run Frankenstein walk for me today. I just gathered up some refreshments and jogged back to the hotel to drive back to Austin and get to work. No aftermath whatsoever - I wasn't even stiff getting out of the car. I can only put it down to the back-to-back long runs I've been doing for the past few months. I guess when you run a marathon virtually every weekend, it gets easier after a while.

Things I learnt from this race: it was a day where I was very much in the groove, but I also helped that along by planning out the race and being smart (for a change). I was much better on nutrition - took some gels every 5 miles and religiously alternated water and sports drink at the water stops. I was very relaxed throughout the race and tended to zone out for miles at a time. I also enjoyed the scenery - the packed downtown section was nice, but I liked the more serene tour around the missions.

I also learned something I already knew - I am competitive. I may pay lip service to taking it easy, but in my heart of hearts I know that when it comes down to it, I'm gonna go.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

2008/2009 Training Season - Week 12

Saturday 11/15/08
road - 10 miles. Done - 1:19:55 (7:59 pace). Meant to be an easy paced run before tomorrow's marathon, so why didn't I take it easy?

Sunday 11/16/08
road - San Antonio marathon. Done - 3:36:59 (8:17 pace). Perfect run - felt great, very even splits, finished feeling fresh with plenty left in the tank.

Monday 11/17/08
rest

Tuesday 11/18/08
track - speed work. Done - 3 mile repeats at 6:30 pace. Felt really good tonight.

Wednesday 11/19/08
trail - done. Did 4 repeats on the Hill of Life and then another 6 miles night run around the greenbelt with some friends.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Welshrunner Through the Ages

What would you have looked like if you'd been born in another era? Well, this website gives you the chance to find out by letting you upload a photo of yourself and superimpose it onto a yearbook photo from another year.

So I figured I'd try it out, and here's what I came up with:

2008 - the Original. This is the photo I uploaded to the website. It was taken earlier this year after one of my races.

The 1950s. Well knock me down with a squashed banana, but this actually looks like an old photo of my dad. Very worrying.

The 1960s. Oh dear, can anyone say Austin Powers? Hopefully nothing more than a drug-induced hallucination, this is a horrifying look at what might have been. Yeah, baby.

The 1970s. Almost an improvement on the 60s, here are the "silly 70s". I can but hope that I have that much hair when I'm in my 70s.

The 1980s. In the history of humanity, there have only ever been two things that mankind has sought to completely eradicate - the smallpox virus and the mullet. Here you can see why. Just think, while you're reading this some poor dad somewhere is trying to explain to his kids why this crime against fashion was ever cool

The 1990s. Not much better, especially that second one. Luckily for me, my hair is curly so none of these ridiculous styles are possible.

Getting Ready to Rock and Roll

Haven't been feeling great this week - sore throat and just kinda achy and lethargic. Hope I feel better soon because it's a big weekend - I'm doing 10 or 11 miles with the group tomorrow morning and then Sunday I'm running the inaugural San Antonio Rock & Roll marathon. Looks like it's going to be a zoo - sold out with 35,000 runners. I just found out today that I need to work on Sunday afternoon, so no post-run concert for me. I'll be heading down to San Antonio tomorrow after my run for packet pickup (no pickup on race day - we're spoiled by the ultramarathon race directors).

We had the day off Wednesday and I took a trip down to the courthouse and got my speeding ticket dismissed - hooray. We then decided to try a new restaurant for lunch - the "Fujian Grand Buffet" - which recently opened in the building the "Old San Francisco Steakhouse" used to occupy. The lunch buffet was a little more expensive than usual, but there was a lot of choice. You paid as you went in (which made sense seeing how large and busy it was), and they had at least 10 buffet tables, along with a decent sushi bar and a mongolian grill-style noodle bar. The dishes were mostly ok - nothing special - with the exception of the crab rangoon which was excellent. There was nothing particularly Fujian in style, but my main problem was the lack of labeling throughout the buffet. About 1 in 4 dishes were labeled, so you were never really sure what you were getting. The place was packed full of people, and maybe it was just me but it seemed as though almost everyone in there was as wide as they were tall.

Not a bad place, but I don't think we'll be going back any time soon.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

All The Gear And No Idea

I am a dirty girl!!! Ok, let me back up and rephrase that. I went to the "dirty girl gaiters" online store and bought two pairs of gaiters. These are great little devices that help keep dirt, mud and stones out of your shoes while running trail, and a lot of my friends have recommended "dirty girls". After I got divots taken out of both my heels at Cactus Rose, I decided it would be a good idea to invest in these for Sunmart, Bandera and Rocky. Don't go all Freudian on me, but my choices were "Hog Wild (b&w)" and "Lime Gatorade Hurl" (though I wish I had picked "the wall" now).

And speaking of feet and blisters, I have decided to try pre-taping my feet for the longer races (past my usual "oh, I've got a blister. Let's slap some duct tape on it"). I did a lot of research online and found a number of articles on feet taping by Denise Jones and John Vonhof. They seemed to favor Elastikon and Micropore tape, using Tincture of Benzoin as an adhesive. So a quick trip to zombierunner.com and I will soon have a whole bunch of taping supplies to experiment with.

I've also been trying to figure out what type of gel works best for me. I've had good results with both Crank Sports e-gels and Hammer Gels. The only problem is that I'm usually too lazy to use them - too messy and far too much fuss. Then I noticed at Cactus that John - my runner - was using big containers of hammer gel (called Hammer Gel Jugs) - and squeezing them into flasks that he carried with him. "A ha" thought I, "that could be the ticket for me". So I bought a couple of jugs, along with some gel flasks and holders (to clip onto my shorts, armband or handheld). Let me just say that Hammer Nutrition has some of the best customer service I've experienced while shopping for running gear (to rank alongside Drymax socks and runningwarehouse.com). They responded to my questions promptly and made me feel as if I really mattered. I just got notification of my order and they have also thrown in a whole host of freebies including 3 different flavored gel packets, samples of heed, recoverite and perpetuem, some energy bars and a free gel flask. These guys rock. If you've never shopped with them before, click on the referral icon (in the menu to the left) to get 15% off your first order.

The two flavors I got were orange and Espresso (for the latter stages of races when I need that sudden shot of caffeine). I steered clear of the vanilla because I have plenty of vanilla flavored Spiz. If you use Hammer gels, what is your favorite flavor?

Anyway, enough shameless plugging. Yesterday I decided to make up for my lack of miles this weekend by doing a nighttime traverse of Ken's followed by a road run around the hills of Ladera Norte. I sent an email out to the HCTR list to see if anyone was interested in joining me, and Henry and Naresh both bit. We had such a good time. Ken's looks so different after dark and none of us had run it at night. We did a little bit of "exploring" (ie getting lost) while nattering away. The night was still and humid and we all wondered where "winter" had gone. Coming back along the flats, I hit a nice rhythm and fell into that elusive groove where running is easy. We got back to the cars, switched out to road shoes, topped up our water and set off into the hills. Midway through the run, the rains came together with a lovely breeze - it felt terrific and refreshed us. We stopped after climbing to the top of one of the hills, turned around and enjoyed the view of the city at night.

It was a great run that reminded me of all the reasons I enjoy this sport: good scenery + good company + good friends = good times

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Training with Gatti

The first year I trained for the Austin marathon Mr Gatti's pizza was my motivation. For every new distance I ran (and before that point the longest I had run was 10k) I rewarded myself with a Mr Gatti's pizza that night. I vividly remember being at mile 16 of my first 30k and promising myself 16" of pepperoni, mushrooms and Italian sausage if I could only run those last few miles without stopping. It worked too.

Well, this morning I woke up with a stuffy head (and probably running a fever) and really didn't want to get up to run. If I wasn't coaching a group I would probably have stayed in bed, but I got up and ran a so-so 13 miles. To add to that, the weather has suddenly turned cold (it was 38F when we started). Do I feel guilty about not doing more? Heck no - I think I've done enough over the last month and was probably due a break anyway (especially with the San Antonio marathon next week). When I got home, I listened online to the BBC's radio coverage of the Wales rugby team playing the world champion South Africans. They lost 20-15 and wasted a great chance to win the game in the last minute, which didn't make me feel much better. By this afternoon I was enjoying my own little pity party when Nancy suggested we pick up a Mr Gatti's pizza for supper. Ah, she knows exactly how to cheer me up (even when I don't). I haven't had one for over a year and some comfort food sounded like an excellent idea. Let me tell you, it was every bit as good as I remember. The day I don't enjoy a Mr Gatti's pizza is the day I know I'm really sick.

And on a completely different note, here's a tip for all you linux users who have a hotmail account. You may find that the new version of Microsoft "windows live" blocks you from creating or replying to hotmail messages under linux. To get around this, you have to fool hotmail into thinking you are running windows by using an agent switcher. See this article on how to do it.

2008/2009 Training Season - Week 11

Saturday 11/8/08
road - 13 miles. Done - 1:48:40 (8:22 pace). Woke up with a stuffy head and just felt a little off. Didn't want to go run and wished I could stay in bed, so I just did the 13 with my group. Not a bad run, but felt harder than it should have.

Sunday 11/9/08
trail - 6 miles. Ran Ken's with Larry K. Nice steady run - finished in just under an hour.

Monday 11/10/08
trail - 5 miles. Done.
road - 6.5 miles. Done - ran with Henry and Naresh. We did our first nighttime traverse of Ken's loop and then switched into our road shoes and hit up some of the Ladera Norte hills. Nice enjoyable run with good company.

Tuesday 11/11/08
track - speedwork. Not done. A hailstorm and torrential rain stopped me from going to the track, so I did 50 minutes of aerobic weights instead.

Wednesday 11/12/08
trail - tbd

Thursday 11/13/08
rest

Friday 11/14/08
rest

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Lazing Around

While lying on the couch last night and eating my third piece of Halloween candy, I wondered if I might just be the laziest ultrarunner in history. I mean, sure, I like to get out there and run, but whenever I hear stories of people who spring up in the morning, jump out of bed and lace up their running shoes with grins that wouldn't be out of place in toothpaste commercials I realize just how much more I prefer lazing around eating chocolate (Twix is my favorite) and watching mindless TV. That's probably reason enough to make myself get up and get out right there.

Anyways, I finally got round to uploading some of our Halloween night pictures.


Batgavin does the rounds


Enjoying the haul and waiting for trick-or-treaters. We set up camp outside and dragged out the jukebox. Gavin seemed to enjoy handing out the candy even more than collecting it


Gavin resting after a good dance


Nancy opens a bottle of "Vampire" red wine while the jukebox pumps out Jace Everett's "Bad Things" - very appropriate


Gavin and Daddy in the Batcave


Even ace crime fighters need their bedtimes but this one didn't want to go inside and fell asleep where he was. Daddy carried him to bed later - still dressed as Batman.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Bonfire Night


Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot.
We see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Tonight is Guy Fawkes night (or bonfire night) in the UK when we set off fireworks, build bonfires and burn the unfortunate Mr Fawkes in effigy. In the week leading up to November 5th, kids around the country will make a stuffed "Guy" doll and wheel him round the neighborhood asking "penny for the Guy" (kind of a trick or treat thing). Poor old Guy then goes on the bonfire. But where did this odd tradition and behavior come from?

Back in 1605, things were not so good for British catholics. Elizabeth I had died but her successor James I was no less tolerant of their religion. For them it was worse than the Thatcher years. So a group of disgruntled catholics got together over a few beers after the football one night (proper football that is, the one you play with your feet) and came up with a great idea - they were going to blow up Parliament, thus getting rid of the King and all the members of Parliament who were making life so difficult. They even came up with a great name for it - the Gunpowder plot. Brilliant.

Throughout the summer of that year, the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder and hid them in a cellar they rented directly beneath Parliament. After all, who would ever suspect a bunch of shady characters wheeling in barrel after barrel of gunpowder? Apparently nobody. One of the conspirators - Guy Fawkes - was given the job of watching over the stash and lighting the fuse before fleeing overseas and spreading the good news. Happy days. It is believed he got this job because of his military experience with explosives and because of his magnificent moustache. Me, I think he just drew the short straw.

Unfortunately, one of the other plotters was not the sharpest tool in the box and sent an anonymous letter to his friend - Lord Monteagle - warning him to stay away from Parliament on November 5th (there are many theories as to who the letter writer was, but nobody really knows - the letter can be seen today in the National archives). The warning eventually got to the King, and his soldiers searched the cellar in the early hours of November 5th, apprehending Guy Fawkes at the door. A few days of enthusiastic torture (fetch the comfy chair!!!) and out popped the names of the other conspirators. Fair play to Fawkes though, he held out for four days while being subjected to unthinkably horrific tortures such as the rack, the manacles and non-stop Barry Manilow songs. This allowed the other conspirators time to flee. Unfortunately they didn't get very far and were either killed or captured in a siege at Holbeche House in Staffordshire. Those lucky survivors were then dragged through the streets of London to be gruesomely hung, drawn and quartered. This happy reunion included the unfortunate Fawkes, who was so crippled from the torture he could hardly climb the scaffold. Still, at least it wiped the smirk off his face. On the plus side, he was at least allowed to keep the magnificent moustache. In fact, it was put on display. Along with his head. On a spike.

The night he was captured, Londoners lit bonfires to celebrate the safety of the king, and the tradition has continued through to the modern day, though the more cynical of us sometimes wonder whether we are celebrating the foiling of the plot or honoring his attempt to blow up the Government :-)

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Pacing Cactus Rose

I had a busy weekend of running. Got up early on Saturday morning to go run with my group up at Brushy Creek. I had promised myself that I would hold back as I was going to be pacing a buddy at the Cactus Rose 100 miler later in the day, so I ran in the middle of the group and waited at the turnarounds to sweep the last runners. Finished a nice 13 mile run in 1:52:19 (8:38 pace).

Hung around and chatted for a while before jumping in the car and rushing home to get ready for the drive to Bandera. Obviously I was in a bit too much of a rush as I got a speeding ticket. Whoops.

Anyway, we got down to Bandera around 2pm and set up our tent by the Equestrian aid station, as the runners would come through here twice per loop. Cactus Rose is described as "a nasty rugged trail run: No Whiners, Wimps, or Wusses We give Bonus Points for Blood, Cuts, Scrapes, & Puke" and the course certainly lives up to that description. It consists of four 25 mile loops with every other loop run in the opposite direction.

I saw my runner, John Sharp, come through a little later at mile 45 and he was looking strong, so we drove down to the lodge to watch him get his 50. He said he thought he would need me later that night, so we drove back to Equestrian and Nancy went into town to pick up a pizza. I decided to hang around in my running stuff in case John needed me earlier. Sure enough when he came back through at mile 55 he was ready for me, so I geared up and off we went.

John had pushed a good pace for the first two loops and wanted to continue this for the third loop. He wanted to maintain a good pace on the flats and fast march the hills (and there are lots of them). We fell into a good conversation for the 5 miles that brought us to the Nachos aid station and here we caught up to another runner - Mike - who tagged along with us. He was from Detroit - we started talking away and everything was looking good. It had gotten dark by the time we got back to Equestrian so I filled John's bottles and made sure he had everything he needed before we set off for the nasty hills that led the way to Boyles. Somewhere along the way Mike forged ahead of us and we continued on at our own pace.

Boyles aid station had been adopted by some friends of mine - Jeff and his girlfriend Cheri. There were some long tough climbs on the way to Boyles and we were glad to see them (Jeff and Cheri, that is, not the hills). Again I made sure that John had everything he needed and we set off to Cairn's Climb. This is probably the toughest climb in the park and we plodded along steadily before clearing the hill and finally finding some room to run for the last 2 miles to the lodge aid station and the end of the loop. These last few miles were good because we could see the lead runners coming the other way, and somewhere along this stretch we caught and passed Mike.

We spent quite a bit of time at the lodge as John had hit a bit of a low point. He drank some Ensure and I mixed some Spiz into one of his bottles, while Mike came and went quickly. I was eager to get us going too because the aid station was warm and lighted - far too tempting to stay put (as one or two runners already had).

Almost immediately we realized that John had a problem. All the energy he'd had on the previous loop had gone and the liquid calories that had worked well up to now were no longer cutting it. To add to this, he had blister problems, stomach issues, his feet were hurting and we were about to reverse the nasty climbs of Cairn's and Boyle's Bump. The Boyles aid station was a long 5 miles away and we were reduced to a walk. The first solid food we would come to was the pizza Nancy had bought back at Equestrian - a good 10 miles away (Cactus Rose is a self provisioned race - the aid stations supply only water and it is up to you to pack anything else you may need in your drop bags). The night had turned cold and we noticed it even more as we weren't running and had just come out of the heated aid station. Well, the first big climb soon fixed that little problem so we resolved to walk/run as best we could to Equestrian and reassess things there.

I tried to steer the conversation away from running to try and distract John from the problems he was having, but he was 75 miles into a gruelling 100 miler and feeling it. On the other hand, John has the ideal temperament for a long distance runner and a great amount of determination and bravery. It was a beautiful clear night and at several points we stopped to rest and turned off our headlights to enjoy the mosaic of stars.

It took us a long time to get to Boyles, but sure enough Jeff and Cheri were there waiting. They took real good care of us and refilled John's bottles while I rummaged through his drop bag for Ensures and gels. Their good humor and back-and-forth banter lifted our mood and we set off for the long walk to Equestrian.

As we walked through the night, this felt like the longest 5 miles either of us had ever experienced. I could tell that John was spiralling downward, and tried to intersperse brief periods of running (where the terrain would allow), but he was really struggling. By the time we descended into Equestrian, I was worried we may not leave.

I got John sat down and he removed his shoes. He had several blisters that needed to be taken care of, but in the meantime I ran off to our tent and grabbed the pizza along with some homemade pasties and kolaches I had brought with me. I got John to eat some of these and realized that he was in no shape to run the remaining 15 miles in his current condition. There was no danger of us falling foul of any cutoffs, so I recommended he take a short nap and then see how things looked. I also realized that I'd been so intent on making sure John had everything he needed that I hadn't been taking anything other than water and pedialyte myself. I remedied that by wolfing down the remaining pasty.

When he woke up, John almost convinced himself to drop. We talked quietly about this, and Lynn Ballard came over and joined in. Between us we convinced John to carry on, especially as it was getting light outside. While he worked on his feet, I got us all loaded up and ready to go. Lynn took me aside and told me to keep a close eye on him.

We had spent about 2 hours at the aid station but the first light of a beautiful dawn made everything seem so much better. Whereas I didn't feel I could push John much the night before because he didn't have anything left in the tank, now that he was fed and rested it was a different story. I decided that I was going to go "Drill Sergeant" and really push him to the finish line.

"John," I reasoned, "it's f***ing cold out so we're not doing any of that walking s**t. If we're going to go, we're going to f***ing run".

Yes, very subtle I know, but it had the desired effect. John responded with all the guts and determination that I know he has and we set off with a renewed energy and a good jog/run. I promised that we would take walk breaks (and power walk the uphills), but when I said to run we were going to suck it up and run. I also made a point of making sure that he was drinking enough. Fair play to John, every time I demanded a run he responded. I broke the remaining run down to sections - we were going to run aid station to aid station - there were 2 of them left plus the finish line. We made excellent time out to Nachos, passing a couple who had left Equestrian ahead of us in the process. The next section back to Equestrian was a little slower because of the number of uphills, but we still ran a considerable portion of it. Just how John was able to do this is beyond me, seeing the state he was in a few hours earlier.

We did a quick "in and out" at Equestrian and headed off for the last 5 miles to the finish line. There was a nasty surprise in the form of the steep climb up and down "Lucky Peak" at mile 98, but John powered through and crossed the finish line just shy of 31 hours. His dog Lacey ran out and joined us for the last half mile.

It was an interesting weekend. I have never been a pacer before and enjoyed the experience. It is like seeing a race from a different perspective - you're running in it, but your focus is on your runner and making everything as easy as possible for them. I also got in a nice 45 miles of "time on feet" on the Bandera course. Of course, John made it easy for me too - he is a real character and tons of fun to run with. It seemed that we talked about everything under the sun, from religion to philosophy to movie quotes. Afterwards he wanted to give me his Cactus Rose shirt as a thank you for helping him get to the finish line. Of course, I couldn't accept it (I settled for a cold beer instead) but it shows the kind of big hearted generous character he is. It was an honor to help him get the finish.

He is planning on pacing me at Rocky Raccoon and I couldn't think of anyone better suited to drag me kicking and screaming to the finish line.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

2008/2009 Training Season - Week 10

Saturday 11/1/08 - Sunday 11/2/08
road - 13 miles. Done - ran with the group at Brushy Creek. 1:52:19 (8:38 pace)
trail - 45 miles. Done - paced John Sharp for the last 45 miles of Cactus Rose

Monday 11/3/08
rest

Tuesday 11/4/08
track - 4 x 800 repeats with 200 recovery. Done - 3 minutes apiece.

Wednesday 11/5/08
rest

Thursday 11/6/08
tbd

Friday 11/7/08
rest