3 Race Reports, and Yes, I'm Still Alive.

So, it's been a little while since my last post. Fear not, I'm still adhering to my normal diet and training (hopefully, I'll have a post on that shortly!). But life's been a little busy, what with our little girl Eleanor, my wife, Sarah, and my business, One Line Coffee, taking up quite a bit of time!

Anyway, I thought I'd give a quick rundown of my three races spanning February to May. None of these could really be termed a “success”, but I thought it would be good to share, nonetheless.

First, I ran the Run For Regis 50K back in February. I was really excited for this race, especially coming off my Rocks and Roots win back in January. Unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be. I caught a flu bug about six days before the race. The good news? It forced me to taper a bit going into the race. The bad news? Definitely not recovered by the time the race started. I was really looking forward to “racing” this one, but once out on the course, I just found I couldn't push at all. I could run comfortably, but it seemed that anytime I tried to push (ie, run up a hill, push to stay with another runner), my body just shut down. In addition, I just didn't feel good. The course has a 8 mile loop done twice, and a 5 mile loop done three times. I came back to the start/finish with the intention of dropping out after 13 miles, as it just wasn't much fun. Well, Sarah sort of yelled at me to get out there, and pretty much ignored my quibbling. So I trudged forward. I ended up hiking all the uphills, and running to a 3^rd place finish at 5:02:xx. I was happy I could manage that time without pushing, but disappointed that I couldn't run the race I wanted to. Ah well. Such is life. I am glad Sarah didn't let me quit, as I did get some confidence from the finish.

Second, I ran the Forget the PR 50K at Mohican State Park in April. I was again really excited for this race. I've always heard good things about this race, and I've run many times at Mohican, and enjoy the trails. Prior to this race, I had really started focusing on my 24 hour training, so I had pretty much stopped running trails. I knew I was really undertrained on hills going into this, so I went into this with the idea to compete as best I could, but to not beat myself up too much if I couldn't hang at the front.

The race started off pretty good (other than the fact I completely forgot to grab my Garmin and my S-Caps! Oh, well, just another hurdle to deal with). I let a few faster guys go ahead, and latched on to a good runner I know from Granville, Kevin Motsch. I stayed maybe 50 meters behind, just taking my time and running comfortably. After a few miles, I came up on Vince Rucci, another good runner I know, and ran with him for a while, still with Kevin in my sights. Unfortunately, disaster struck.

I do have a slight history of missing course markings, and it happened again. This one I felt bad about, because I really took Vince with me. Sorry, Vince! We crossed a river, and on the other side, instead of going left, we went right. Unfortunately, after about 50 meters, we met up with a part of the course we had already run, so we started seeing course markings again. I thought we were still doing great, until I came to a distinct turn that I recognized. I stopped for a minute, let Vince catch up, and we decided that we had taken a wrong turn. We decided to continue forward, and just follow the course. Since I didn't have my watch, I don't really know how much further we ran, but I talked to Vince after the race, and he seemed to think we added on around 3 miles.

Well, after I got lost, I picked up the pace, and started pushing. I got to run some great trails, and enjoyed the course immensely. The aid stations were great, and I decided I just needed to not be angry at myself, enjoy the day, and try to have as much fun as I could. I ended up finishing somewhere around 13^th, in 5:26:xx. I definitely crashed a bit in the last 3-4 miles, and was probably running 12:00 miles at the end. Knowing this, I really feel I could have run around 4:50, maybe faster with some competition. I was pretty happy knowing this, especially given my lack of hill training. I definitely will be back next year for this race, hopefully with a bit more course specific training!

My last race was 50's For Yo Momma, in May. I was going for the 50 miler, and again, I was feeling pretty good going into this race. My training, while not perfect, had been going pretty well. I'd been averaging around 45-50 miles a week, and felt pretty good going into it. Again, I was definitely undertrained on hills, but I knew this course was a bit flatter than Mohican, so I was hoping I'd be OK. Well, I wasn't.

Basically, I crashed. Hard.

Immediately after the race, I just thought I might have gone out too fast, but looking back now, I think it was a combination of things that caused me to suffer my first ever DNF. Here's what happened:

First, my fueling might have been fine with adequate training, but not for the effort I was putting out. I decided to try Vespa for the second time (I used it at Mohican), in combination with Generation UCAN. My energy levels were pretty good, until I ran through my glycogen stores. Let's list out the specific mistakes I made:

1. I think I was a little overambitious thinking that I was ready for a 50 miler on only 45-50 miles a week, even with several 30 milers and 50K's over the past few months. I really needed to be around 60-70 miles a week to be comfortable here.
2. The course definitely had more hills than I realized, and I ran far too many of them over the first 30 miles. I ended up going though 50k in under 5 hours, and as I got to the end of loop 4 of 6, I was having problems with just keeping running, even though I was sitting comfortably in 3^rd place with a pretty large gap between me and 4^th. I had burned through my glycogen stores, and I blew up.
3. When I came around to the main aid station at the Start/Finish, I knew I needed to eat some carbs. I walked over to the table, but nothing looked good. In addition, I still was so dedicated to my ketogenic diet that I disregarded common sense, and decided to take another Vespa and UCAN instead. Of course, this wasn't nearly enough carbs to get me going again, and I ended up walking a mile out, then walking back to the Start/Finish, and dropping out.

At first, I was wondering whether I just wasn't tough enough to finish, and whether I really just needed to suck it up. After all, I hadn't run anything over 50K since Old Dominion nearly 2 years before, so maybe I just forgot how hard it was. But now, 3 months later, I think I DNF'ed simply because I was sort of an idiot. If I had just eaten a bunch of cookies, or chips, or anything, really, I probably would have gotten a second wind, and had been able to finish. So, I learned the important lesson that it's more important to be pragmatic in a situation, than to be stubborn as hell regarding diet.

Since May, I've taken time off from racing, and just focused on (mostly) steady training. The NorthCoast 24 is coming up in a few weeks, and I'm starting to feel ready for it! My next post should be coming up in a few days to talk about the last couple months of training, my fueling strategy for the race, and what my goals are.

Until then!

-Dave

Rocks and Roots 50k Race Report

Well, life's been busy, but I figured I needed to post something, and a race report seemed like just the trick!

So, one of my private goals for this year was to do something that I'm not sure I've ever done: win a race outright. I've never been the fastest runner, or even what I would consider a fast runner. But, as I continue down the path of a ketogenic athlete (being in ketosis for around 18 months now), I find my training going really well, and my pace and ability is far exceeding anything I've been able to do before. Could this be the race I achieve my goal?

I started regular training again back at the beginning of September after quite a while of running maybe 25 miles a week. My goal for the end of fall and winter was to keep up a mileage of around 50 mpw, but with a good amount of hills and tempo. I've been pretty successful in that, and other than a bout with the flu at the beginning of January, I've felt incredibly healthy.

Coming into the Rocks and Roots 50k on January 12, I gave myself a couple taper weeks, with maybe 35 miles 2 weeks out, and 15 miles the week of. I tried to just cut miles, but keep running at my normal pace. I was feeling healthy and ready!

For my nutrition for this race, I decided to simply use Generation UCAN. For those not in the know, UCAN is an extremely long chain carbohydrate, which easily passes through the stomach, and then slowly breaks down in the small intestine. It basically gives your body a slow drip of glucose, without stimulating an insulin response, which allows your body to continue burning primarily fat. I don't use it in training, but I've found that it helps me push harder in races, and delays the onset of fatigue. I ingested 2 packets of UCAN prior to the race, diluted in 16 ounces of water, and made up another 4 packets, each mixed into an 8 ounce bottle of water. In addition to the UCAN, I also had S-Caps in my bag at the Start/Finish. The course is a five loop course with 95% on single track, so I would be coming back to my bag every 10km. I would take a dose of UCAN whenever I felt like I needed it. I also decided no to carry water, as the farthest we'd go between aid stations was around 4.5 miles. This ended up working out fine.

So, for the two days prior to the race, we had an unseasonal warming trend, which basically turned the course into a mud pit (I'd like to talk about the environmental ramifications of running this race at the end of this post). So, I had a couple pair of Inov-8's dug out from my collection, including my Bare Grip 200's. I sort of have a love/hate relationship with these shoes. The traction is absolutely phenomenal, and they've definitely given me an advantage on particularly muddy/snowy courses. However, they literally have no midsole, so wearing them for more than 10 miles or so is just hell on my feet. I'm used to wearing more minimalist shoes, but these are crazy, especially on a technical course!

Because I didn't want to wear these shoes for the whole time (and I hadn't yet seen how bad the course was), I started off in my Inov-8 Trailroc 245's. I was hoping the traction these shoes would provide would be enough. We all crowded the starting line, and we were off! This race had finishing distances of 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k, and 50k, so the 30-50k runners all left at 7:30, while the 10k and 20k runners left a half hour later.

I didn't want to go out too fast, but I also didn't want to be stuck behind a bunch of people when we hit the single track, so I followed a guy and was in second when we entered the woods. I went through the first mile in 7:45 or so, which I thought was really reasonable, given the fact that the course was pretty muddy already. I got passed after only a mile or so, first by a guy who was running pretty quick, and then by another kid. I had no idea what distance they were running, so I let them go, and focused on running strong and comfortably.

I basically followed a guy who looked around my age (32), maybe a little younger. Bald guy in red shorts with a hydration pack on. I wasn't running on his heels, but just kept him in my sights. The first lap flew by, but I could already tell that the course was getting torn up, and we were at the front of the pack! Our second loop through would be after about 400 runners had hit that trail, as the 10k and 20k fields were much larger. At this point, I knew I'd be changing shoes after the first loop, even though it would cost me a couple minutes.

I got back to the start line, having run the first loop in just under 54 minutes, which I was happy with, given the conditions, and the fact that I ran it pretty easy. I ripped off my 245's, put on my Bare Grips, and off I went! Luckily there was only about a quarter mile of pavement, because these shoes are NOT meant for roads.

With the extra traction I got, I was feeling pretty fast. I know that during my shoe change, the guy in the red shorts, and another runner (whom I talked to for a bit, from Youngstown) were out ahead of my, putting me in 5^th at most (since I didn't know who was running the 50), so I put my head down and just ran! The next two laps were probably my favorite two. I was still feeling nice and fresh, I had good traction, and while the course was still slow because of the mud, I was managing it well. During these 2 laps, I managed to climb up into 3^rd place. I still had no idea where the 2 folks ahead of me were, and no one at the Start/Finish was shouting out places!

I was feeling surprisingly good at the start of the 4^th loop, but the course was a disaster. The footing was getting really bad, and any runners I came across were just slogging away as best they could. Most were simply hiking at this point. Quite a few runners asked me how I could run through this stuff... thanks, Inov-8!

About half-way through, fatigue started creeping up on me. My shoes at this point probably weighed over a pound each with all the mud clinging to them, and lack of firm traction was starting to take its toll on my ankles, hips, and hamstrings. I pushed through the 4^th loop, grabbed another UCAN, and headed out on the final loop. There's something very lifting about getting onto the final loop of a multi-loop course. No matter how far you've gone, knowing that this is your last time through can make it much more bearable.

That being said, this loop was tough. It was all I could do to simply keep running. I still had no idea what place I was in, and so I just kept running hard. But at this point, running hard entailed about a 10:30 mile pace. I mean, we're talking about 4-6 inches of mud on about half the course, and there was really no way around it. In addition, I was a little worried, as I felt the first twinges of cramping early in the loop in my right calf, and later in my right hamstring. Luckily, I had popped a couple of S-Caps right before the last loop, so as these started kicking in, the cramping subsided. So once again, head down, and move forward.

When I finally popped out of the single track, I had about 600 meters of grass left to run, and I could not have been happier. I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was stop running. I ran through the arch, and bent over, hands on knees. 4:54:17. Done.

After standing like that for a couple of minutes, the race director (Jeff) came over and asked if I was OK. I told him I was fine, just tired! He asked if I was done, and I told him I was. I inquired as to my place, and he told me he wasn't sure. He looked surprised that I had finished the 50k! We walked over to the timing computer, and as he looked at the results, he said, “Actually, I think you might have won...”. I tried not to get too excited until it was official, but he confirmed it a minute later. 1^st place! Woot!

I couldn't be happier with my race, given the conditions. That time is actually a PR for me, which is crazy considering how tough course conditions were. My goal for that race (had conditions been better) was 4:30, and I think that I gave an equivalent effort. It turns out that the two runners ahead of my had run the 30k, though I'm not sure if they dropped to that distance, or intended on running 30k from the beginning. I found out later that I actually almost caught them at the end of the 3^rd loop, finishing 30k less than 2 minutes behind them.

Overall, this was a very successful first race of 2014, and hopefully the first of many. A big thank you to Fleet Feet for putting on the race, and to all the volunteers who made the race possible. Without you guys none of us would ever get to do what we love!

Before I sign off here, I'd like to issue an apology to the Central Ohio MountainBikers Organization. They are the group that maintains the trails at Alum Creek, and I can say without hesitation that we destroyed that trail. There was a huge outcry following the race, and rightfully so. As trail runners, we have an obligation to our environment to maintain our trails, and to make mature decisions regarding their use. I have no excuse for being a part of the people responsible for the destruction of the trail. I should have know better. I am taking responsibility for my actions, and have already put in some trail work to fix the trail, and I intend to help out some more. I encourage everyone who ran the race to consider helping out! You can find out about trail maintenance days here.

Anyway, next race up: Run for Regis! See you there!

-Dave