of bones and blood and nerves and dirt: 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The first brief (overdue) update and a mini race report

This is the super truncated version of a race report I quickly created for my running group. I had hoped that by now I'd have created a full-fledged, true to form, long winded report by now, but I simply haven't had the time. Today, I'm home sick, so that has magically afforded me time, but my brain is not quite there so for starters, I'm going to cut and paste my short running group report.
Hope y'all enjoy.

So, here's the real basic update. I haven't had enough time away from
work to update my blog since I returned from my vacation this summer,
and I'm hoping to find the time today to actually write a true-to-form
long-winded race report. But, for now, here's the truncated version.
JJ100 was my first attempt at a 100miler, and it couldn't have been a
better place to do such a thing. The Coury brothers really did an
excellent job RD'ing this event, and rolled quickly with the punches
of hackers busting into their website and had their ultracast site
redirected and up and running for friends and families to watch as
events unfolded. (Hackers, seriously? It's not like this site had
anything to offer so far as financial gain went, so seriously?
Hackers?!) Anyways, enough of the hackers.
It was fantastic to see all the TTR folks out at the race, and some
other Phoenix runners whom I'd met at other ultras. My folks were also
able to come out to the race and cheered me on for 2 separate laps
(the transitions into 3and 4). I was quite impressed with the TTR
runners out on the course, everyone I saw looked amazing; Dallas, Ken,
Harry, Mike- I know there were others, but those are the faces I
certainly recognized each loop as we passed each other. In the aid
area Kristi and Renee were holding things down, always supportive and
asking what I needed. Bob tried to get a kiss from me on one of the
loops, I think he was jealous that my folks got kisses and he didn't.
Maybe at the top of the hill at Old Pueblo, okay Bob? Maryalice just
laughed at it all.
So, the meat of it: my race was going really well. I dressed up as Luke Skywalker
and ran with a light saber the whole way. Legs felt good,
feet felt good, mentally I felt good. So why didn't I finish the full
100 miles? Heading out on the 4th lap I was starting to get concerned
about making the time cut-offs, but was determined to keep moving
until somebody told me I had to leave the course. I got to the first
aid station and kept with the same strategy I'd been using the whole
race: grab a couple things and go. I'd been eating real food the whole
race, still hadn't ingested any gels, and didn't plan to until the
last lap- and only then if necessary. Nutrition was going really well,
and I was running strong as a result. I have some pretty serious food
allergies, so I generally carry the majority of my food with me. This
race was no different, but one thing I know I can generally count on,
and enjoy, at the aid stations are the boiled potatoes. At the 1st aid
station on loop 4 I looked at the plate with the potatoes on it and
saw they were sitting right next to some quesadillas. The logical
piece of my brain told me to play it safe and not eat the potatoes.
The larger piece of my brain told me it would be fine and I was being
paranoid, surely there was no way the cheese from the quesadillas
could have contaminated the potatoes. Well, I think I should have
listened to the logical side of my brain. I ran into Renee about a
mile or so from the aid station, and I was just starting to feel a
little rough. She was awesome and encouraging, of course, and I kept
moving towards Jackass Junction. And then, the Dark Side found a home
in my gut. There was no amount of Jedi powers that would fix this
situation. I was running and puking the whole way to Jackass, couldn't
even keep ginger down. Tried some coke and my own gluten-free pretzels
from my drop bag at Jackass, that stayed with me for about half a
mile, and then I got sick again. This continued for the rest of the
loop. By the time I got into headquarters I was so spent, and
literally running on empty, it just didn't seem feasible to head out
for loop 5 without potentially doing some serious damage. So, I called
it quits at the 100K.
Next year. I certainly plan to come back for some personal
redemption.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Running in circles...

Summertime in the Old Pueblo

So far the majority of my summertime recreation plans have been foiled, due to the insane dry spell we have had and even more incredible fire danger. My hope of escaping the heat and frolicking about the peaks of the Santa Catalinas have been shutdown, but I've been making the best of it. If nothing else, if I ever decide to run Badwater, I'll have certainly logged some heat training hours. I've got my sights set on the Javelina Jundred, and I refuse to let my training slack. I even made a new training calender...maybe I'll share some pics of that in another post.
Anyways, the primary problems I seem to run into are as follows:

It's wicked hot, did I mention that? The lows have been hovering around 78-80 degrees. That doesn't even happen until about 2-3 in the morning. And then, by the time the sun is up for about an hour, it's already pushing mid 80's/low 90s by 6:30 am.
I really prefer to run on trails, but the trails are very hot, and exposed. If I want to run them at night when it is slightly cooler, I have to worry about the wildlife. Based on all the scat I've seen during my early morning shorter trail runs, the mountain lions are doing really well in my neighborhood. This makes me happy, but it doesn't have me chomping at the bit to go solo, at night, on their turf just to run in weather that is a few degrees cooler.
I can't just go for a run around my neighborhood on sidewalks and such, because I live in the desert. Literally. Same wildlife issues. Plus, nighttime is when all the critters come out, rattlers, mountain lions, coyotes, etc. I don't really want to get bit/stalked/eaten. Just not on my to-do list.
I could bike into town to run around a neighborhood, but please refer to #2.
Managing my shorter runs is not as difficult as my long runs. My short runs are covered largely by my commute to and from work. Its the long ones that are tough. If I wait for it to cool off, its dark.

Enter the personal challenge

I feel at home on a trail. I love it when I see more animals than people. It's just what I like. So, knowing that I had 18 miles to run yesterday, and a full day of work, and no real option of getting that run done on the trail, I had a bit of a dilemma. What to do? I would already be in town for work, so I could have come up with a run around the neighborhood, including the A-mountain and Tumamoc for an extra challenge...but I had already spent 2 hours working up an incredible sweat loading and unloading straw bales for the garden. I was trying to find a way to get the miles in, but not annihilate my quads. Oh, and my garmin is currently on the fritz, so I was also trying to figure a good way to keep my distance accurately logged.
I don't know if you know this, but many schools have these things called 'tracks'. Apparently, lots of people run on them. Sometimes I use them as a form of torture with speed workouts, but other than that, I often forget that they are there. I realized, a track workout was the perfect answer. I could start around 6, be finished by about 9, I could keep track of my distance, and I could challenge myself to focus and not create excuses of why I had gone far enough before I had met my distance goal.

72 laps

72. That's how many times I would have to run around the track to get 18 miles done. 72. I got to the track, I put on my shoes, no one was there, and I started running. around 5 miles in a family of four showed up. They all walked at their own pace around the track, occasionally jogging for a bit. At about 9 miles, they left. The track was all mine again. Then a couple showed up. Same deal, walking around the track, chatting with each other, doing their own thing. 10 miles, a family of 5 shows up. 3 kids, aged probably 3, 5 and 7, that would be my best guess. The mom walked around the track, part of the time talking on the phone. The dad walked/jogged with the kids, all together, then individually, as the others would rest, then had them race some 100 meter sprints. The sun was starting to go down, and I was excited to be about 2/3 done. After 12 miles I took off my shoes and walked for a mile. Then, the sprinklers came on in the western side of the infield. This was great, because it sprayed just enough onto the track to be really refreshing. I ran 4 more miles on the track barefoot, and the last mile on the infield. 72 times I went around that circle, and I never lost track of my end goal. There wasn't any bargaining, any rationalizing why I could cut things short, just me, in my head, running around in circles.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

A Visual Feast

The Pictorial Companion to My Very Own Forest!
Okay, so just remember, these were all taken at best guess, as there was no viewfinder on the camera I was using. That being considered, I think these turned out pretty well. Hope you enjoy.