Pick Your Poison

Well, not a whole lot to tell.  Got up really early, drove up to Horseshoe Valley, ran 50km of trail and up and down ski hills, drove home.  Here's a few details:

Wasn't planning to run very hard, Bear Mountain 50 mile is the following weekend so I'll save myself for that beast.  I ended up running the entire race start to finish with Chris.  Chris isn't running Bear this year, but he wasn't planning to go hard either so this worked out well..... or it would have if we stuck to the plan.

Started off at a decent pace, first few loops were easy, started to get tired on the 4th and final loop.  Chris said he was getting fatigued, as was I, but then he kept up a strong pace.  I said 'I thought you were fatigued?', he said he was but he didn't want the guy behind us to catch us.  I said 'That's called racing!'.  I think Chris has a problem.  Oh well, we kept up the pace and left Mr. Anonymous behind.  I would stop and eat at aid stations, Chris stuck to gels and kept running so I'd have to continually sprint to catch up if I stopped to grab food.  Great workout...

Finished about 40min faster than last year in 5hr 31min.  Loops were pretty consistant:
Loop 1: 1hr 18min
Loop 2: 1hr 21min
Loop 3: 1hr 25min
Loop 4: 1hr 26min

Went harder than we should have, I was pretty beat afterwards due to my usual lack of training, but this was also the first race of the season.  A smarter person would have hung back with Steve, he's running Bear with me the next weekend, he took his time and finished about an hour later in 6hr 30min or so.

Chris and Myself Post Race

Post race was fun, nice to see everyone for the first time this year.  Great meal served in a chalet, Steve brought beer to make it even better.  This race is always fun, great way to start the season.  Next up, Bear Mountain....

Morgan

Almost Ready!

Just a week and a half until Pick Your Poison 50km, looking forward to it!  Training has been going well, I feel great.  I still struggle to get enough runs in, but I've compensated by going hard and doing stupid things while training: Wearing a 20lb weighted vest around the house doing sporatic exercises (haven't run in it yet), carrying my dumbells on runs, doing crazy exercises in odd places (you'd be surprised what you can do at your desk).

This morning I did the stairs for 25min with my 2 ten pound dumbells, it's getting much easier than it used to be.  I remember the first time a few months ago when I did this, I had problems just moving across the 500 metres to get to the stairs!  It's not running with the weight, it's my arms trying to hold up the weight.  I thought I might have to start putting them in a backpack to get there.  This morning, it was no problem running to and from the stairs with the weights at all.  After 25min on the stairs, I ran back to drop off the weights, then ran another 5km feeling light as a feather!  Dropping 20lbs instantly does wonders for you!

Last Saturday was the real kicker.  I headed out to Sulpher to get a few loops in, I figured 40km if I was feeling up to it.  I was curious to see how I'd feel on a long run with my 4lb dumbells. I ran the first 20km loop with them in 2h 10min, decent time on a trail with hills carrying weights.  I grabbed some food from the car and decided I felt ok, so I brought them out with me for loop 2.  There's a few spots where you run past the same point, I figured if it was too much then I'd just drop them and pick them up later.  After about 30km, my arms weren't doing too bad but my knees were getting sore and my legs were tired (I usually bring Powerbar Gels and Electrolite pills for long runs, I'm haven't organized my shit this year and couldn't find either of them!).  It was getting tough to run, but I stuck with it.  Finished 40km with the weights in 4h 45min, I was exhausted by the end... Glad I did it though.  Previously, the longest I'd carried the weights was 13km, this day I did an additional 27km.

Carrying the weights plays with my mind a little.  I do feel lighter now when I run without them, my body is getting used to running 8lbs heavier.  I was worried that running with them too often might mess up my form, but my form sucked anyway so it might actually be helping.  It keeps me running at a slightly slower pace, so it stops me from taking big strides and landing on my heel.  Also does great for my posterior chain (aka my ass), my lower back and hammies have to work a little harder to compensate for the weight I'm holding in front of me.  I could put 8lbs in a pack or use a vest instead, but I really prefer the challenge and extra work of using my arms, great workout.

So, things are going well.  A week and half to 50km of the hills of PYP, then a week later the 50 miles of hills at Bear Mountain.  I really should take it easy at PYP and save myself for Bear, but it's always hard to do the when the race starts!  Maybe some fellow runners will knock some sense into me.  Or I bring the weights!  No, I think they'll sit this one out...

Take Care,

Morgan

Back to Running

Finally ran last night after exactly 3 weeks with no running.  I was free last Saturday to run, but antibiotics were just starting to kick in and I didn't feel up to it.  I feel fine now, so last night I headed out for a very hilly run with my two 4lb dumbells to make it a little tougher.  I felt great after 3 weeks off!  Some sore muscles and arms weren't used to the weights anymore, but after a few days it should all be fine.  Time to step it up, less than 4 weeks to Pick Your Poison 50k and 5 until Bear Mountain 50 mile.

Being off for 3 weeks does have it's positive takeaways (everything does actually).  It reminded me not to take being healthy for granted and to stay off my ass.  It gave me time to reflect on training and how I'm doing things:

Short Runs: I haven't been doing fast road runs, been focusing on hilly trail runs with weights, stairs, or both.  Maybe too much? There will be long flat or long incline/decline sections at Leadville, but my runs have been focusing on gnarly, hilly trail and stairs.  I've been carrying dumbells on the trials, which adds to the difficulty and is much more taxing, but it does make the runs much slower.  These are great, but maybe I should add in some more road or flat faster runs also.

Long Runs: What long runs?  It's hard for me to fit them in, but I'll need to get creative and make sure to get more in going forward.

Nutrition: This is back on track.  During my break, I attended a conference which meant 3 buffet meals a day, plus a drinkfest each night, not good.  That was temporary, but I was also letting my regular nutriton slide, but I put a stop to that a week ago.  No extra pounds will be coming with me to Colorado! In fact no extra pounds will be coming with me anywhere soon....

Strength Training: This had been going great pre-break, during my 3 weeks of stupidity I did none.  Back at it now, but I need to focus more on running.  There have been times during lunch at work when I'd hit the gym instead of running, I'll be more concious to run instead and do strength training at home with kids when I can't run.  I bought a 20lb weighted vest the other day, I've been wearing it around the house while doing my usual pushups and squats, my kids think I'm nuts.  They're usually right.  I told my daughter I'm going to pick her up from school wearing the vest to embarass her, I think I scared her!

Races:
I looked into switching dates around so that I could do a 50 mile race in Ontario in May (either Seaton on May 12 or Sulpher on May 26), but my ex wasn't able to switch weekends with me due to her work functions.  This meant the only option for me to do a 50 mile race would be Bear Mountain on May 5th.  The actual race at Bear Mountain would be my pick out of the 3, but the timing is bad (1 week after Pick your Poison) and location is in the Catskills in NY, an 8hr drive which means a hotel and a day off work.  No choice, so Bear Mountain it is.  I signed up for it the other day, should be a fun trip as a few of us are going now.  JD, Carlos, Steve and I have signed up for the adventure, still waiting on Chris to decide and possibly Kendra.  Should be fun!

Not sure what to do about Pick Your Poison on Apr 28th yet.  It's a hilly course, which is great, but being 1 week before Bear means I'll need to decide what distance to do.  A smart person would opt for the 25k, so I'll likely do 50k and not run it too hard.  Last year I signed up 3 days in advance, so I'll worry about it later.

Current Plan:
So, current plan is basically train as hard as I can right up until about 2 days prior to PYP, then take it easy during the week between the races, then go hard at Bear Mountain.  With Bear being right at the beginning of May and no other races fitting into my schedule, I'll have 6 weeks until Mohican 100 on June 16th.  Plenty o' time to rest, go hard for a few weeks and rest again before 100.  So I guess everything is on track for now...

Morgan

Ooops.... Forgot I'm in Training!

Well, I'd planned to take a down week, that has somehow turned into 2 weeks of nothing!  2 weeks ago, I had my kids for the last few days of March Break and couldn't run.  No biggie, I went hard leading up to it and had planned a mini-break/recovery week.  After March Break, I had a business trip to Cancun for a few days with NO free time.  I brought my running gear along, never left my suitcase.  3 days of buffet meals, no exercise.  The one window of free time we had, my boss decides to have a meeting!  It was a meeing over beers in the Mexico sun, so I wasn't complaining.  When I got home, I then had the kids for the next 4 days, so again, no running!

I finally had some time Sunday evening, I had planned to head to Sulpher, but mid-day I felt slugginsh during a hike with my kids.  We headed to the trails where I trained for HURT, I showed the kids the Stairway to Hell, the old steps I used to run up and down.

My Kids Getting Ready for H.U.R.T. in 2022?

Anyway, I felt crappy so I decided I'd just run in Erindale Park and skip the drive all the way to Ancaster.  Then a little while later when I dropped off the kids I felt even worse, now I'd decided I'll skip the run entirely and go for a bike ride instead.  By the time I got back home, I was full on sick and I flopped on my bed and fell right to sleep at 5pm.  Sick on Monday, stayed home from work, it's now Tuesday night and I'm still recovering but feeling pretty crappy.  It's now been 2 full weeks with no runs, or exercise at all really.  No exactly the plan.

I'll try to get back to it tomorrow.  I've got the kids next few days, but I'll get some lunch runs in and get back to am and pm workouts.  In my current condition I really don't feel up to it, hopefully tomorrow I can get back to it.

On to my next problem, upcoming races (which I don't feel ready for btw). Pick Your Poison 50km is 4 and a half weeks away.  Sounds good, but I had hoped to do Seaton 50 mile 2 weeks after that, but due to scheduling looks like if I want to do a 50 mile in May, it will have to be the much tougher Bear Mountain.  2 problems here: It's 1 week after PYP, so I need to decide whether to skip PYP (which I was really looking forward to), or take it easy and do it with a back to back weekend of Bear Mountain right after it.  The other deterrent is Bear Mountain is in Southeast NY State, 7 to 8hr drive away, which means a day off work, over night at hotel, blah, blah.  Seaton would have been in Pickering 45 minutes away, could sleep in my own bed!  So, no idea what I want to do now, but Bear Mountain will sell out soon so I need to make a decision.  Ugh.

In the meantime, I better get back on the horse, already put on a few pounds in the last 2 weeks of nothingness.

Still winter....

Well, got some good training in last week.  Started bringing 2 x 10lb weights with me to climb the stairs, did 20 minutes and almost passed out.  Awesome.  Got a good upper body workout in, got a good medium distance run on Wed night (15k) and a longer run on Sunday (33k).

Went out to Sulpher Springs on Sunday.  It was all packed snow, but in the sunny areas it was a slush/mud mix.  The shady areas were usually icy.  I did the first 20k loop pretty hard, just over 2 hrs which is decent in these conditions.  After that I was drenched with sweat and freezing!  At the car I switched my wet shirts, hat and gloves for fresh clothing.  I normally don't sweat that much in the winter by I ran hard.

I had planned to do another 20k loop, but I already arrived later than planned and I was heading up to Guelph right after the run to visit friends so I cut the 2nd loop short to 13k.  I took my time and enjoyed it, stopped to take some pics of the local wildlife.

Look behind you!

I went up and down JT hill 4 times, it was pretty much all ice.  I'd have to grab trees on the way up and down to stay upright.  On one of the descents, I slipped an fell back but landed with my hands behind me and slid, so the next time I did it on purpose.  When I got to the iciest part, I squatted down with my hands behind me and slid down the hill, much safer than running down an ice hill!  All in all, a good fun run.

Yesterday, I weighed myself for the first time in about 2 yrs, not sure why.  I can tell just by my belt size that I've been carrying some extra insulation, but I was at 175!  Last time I weighed myself (summer 2010) I was 165.  I'll get to work and plan to be 165 at the most for Leadville.  Carrying and extra 10lb for 100 miles in the mountains would not be smart.  I won't wait for Leadville, I'll take care of this right away.  So what did I do yesterday to get started?  I took the day off of course and relaxed!  I had planned to hit the gym at lunch but work got in the way.  Then I planned to go for a light run in the evening, took a nap on the couch instead.  Ok, start today!  Work got in the way at lunch again, but I did hit the stairs this morning.  I felt much better on the stairs, not even close to passing out!  Running with the weights to and from the stairs was noticably easier too.  Did 20 minutes again, but it went by fast, I'll increase the time soon.

I'm away on business Wednesday to Friday this week in Vancouver.  I though I'd give the Grouse Grind a try, but then I remembered it's winter!  I'm told it's closed, but forcast is rain the next few days and wouldn't be that enjoyable.  I don't have much free time, so getting a run in is unlikely anyway.  This will be a low mileage week, but I did 73km last week (compared to my usual 15k lately), so no biggie.  I'll fit a long run in next weekend.

And Here We Go.....

Well, 6 months from this week is Leadville.  4 months from now is Mohican.  Nuff said.  I've been easing into things, adding more trails, more weight sessions, eating better, but time to take it up a notch.

Saturday I had a great run, 20km in hilly slush.  I went to Rouge Valley, but it was a snow/rain mix of crappiness.  I'm still not used to the Rouge, I never seem to know which way I'm going.  I was attempting to run north, which went well for a bit, but after 4km I wound up back where I started!  Awesome.  So off I went again, this time managing to head in the right direction.  Very slow, very wet and some parts icy.  The farther north I went away from the lake, the more it turned to snow instead of rain.

The fartherst point north I reached, I had to cut across someone's property to try and find a trail.  This was a bad move, halfway across their property I suddenly heard a deep loud barking!  I didn't even look, I just turned around and sprinted back, then across the field beside the property (still hearing barking behind me), then through the edge of the woods to a schoolyard I'd passed earlier.  It had a fence with a gate, so I waited at the gate figuring if the dog was nuts enough to still be chasing me (now over 100 yards away from their property), then I'd close the gate and stay in the schoolyard.  Well I waited a few seconds and didn't hear anything so I figured I was ok.  I got impatient and re-entered the woods to head back south along the trail, the opposite way from the area of tresspassation (I just made that word up).  Right away, I heard the dog barking RIGHT behind me!!  WTF!?! I took off like a guy being chased by a dog in the woods, I went flying down the steep trail, actually hoping the dog might wipe out trying to chase me.  I just kept sprinting like mad for a few minutes, I'd gone off the trail and made my own now, but eventually I couldn't hear the barking anymore. Great workout!  On the way through this area earlier, I had noticed large dog foorprints in the snow, but there were no people prints to be found.  Now I knew why, this hellhound must roam these woods eating people and covering their footprints.

Run went great, but due to getting lost and purposely heading off the main path in search of hillier trails, it was very slow taking almost 3hrs to do 20km.  I managed to stay upright until the 19.2km mark, I slipped on my ass and back, sliding down a muddy hill.

Now back to the Joker, time to get to work.  My first race is looking like Pick Your Poison, a 50km up near Orillia at the end of April so just over 2 months away.  I did this one last year, but signed up a few days before the race without training so I'll do better this year.  Lots of hills, good.

I also bought some 10lb weights to start hauling up and down the stairs.  I'm going to skip right past the 5lb and just get right to it.

6 months and counting!!!!

2012 Plans and Leadville

Well, now that's it's Jan 1st....wait...I mean Feb 13th, I should start laying out my plan for the year.  It basically revolves around Leadville 100, The Race Across the Sky. 

Back in December, I was tinkering with my plans for 2012 trying to decide what to do.  Last year I didn't make plans until the spring and by then all of the races I looked at were sold out.  This year I have bigger plans, so I knew I had to get on it by Jan 1st.  I had enough qualifying points for UTMB in France, but I thought I should get an altitude race under my belt first, plus this would be a huge expense.... maybe next year.  The thought of Hardrock briefly crossed my mind, but it's a little over my head (not that that would stop me).  Then I noticed the lottery and registration closed in early December, so that was out of the picture.  Back in November I put my name in the lottery for Western States, but didn't get in.  So 2 other races on my list are Leadville and the Canadian Death Race.  CDR is only 125km, but it's got some altitude and is a tough race.  The problem is, it's a logistical nightmare.  It's in a small town about 6hrs west of Edmonton, with all hotels already sold out (there's something like 1300 runners, and like 3 hotels).  Leadville is about 2.5hrs west of Denver, has something like 300 runners, plus this is way higher on my list anyway, so we have a winner!

Here's weird part:  Once I made my decision, the first thing I did when I got up on Jan 1st was sign up for Leadville.  Actually, first I peed, then signed up for Leadville.  I might have had breakfast first too.  Well, sometime on Jan 1st, relativily early, I signed up for Leadville.  I had emailed a bunch of hotels in the weeks prior, so I'd know if there was even any space to book a room as everything seemed sold out.  On Jan 3rd, I called a B&B that had room and grabbed one.  I wanted to print up a logo for Leadville as a motivational reminder, so I went to Google images to look for one.  When I saw a Leadville logo and clicked on it, I was taken to a blog, which turned out to be Chris' blog!  Chris was one of the runners I went to Oil Creek with in Oct.  I checked his blog to see why he had a Leadville logo, turns out he, Steve, JD and others had all signed up for Leadville back in Nov!  This was great, I was totally planning to go alone and now these guys would be going too.  I emailed Chris to let him know that I was going and where I was staying.  Then a few minutes later JD sends Chris an email to say he just got a call from a hotel they were waitisted at and they were now confirmed, it's 1 block from where I'm staying.  A weird series of events; I went from going to Leadville by myself staying at a B&B to now having a bunch of others I know there, 1 block away.  In addition to Chris, Steve and JD, also going will be Carlos and Kendra.  I haven't met them but I'm sure we'll recognize each other from the OUS races. By Jan 5th, the race had sold out.

 LEADVILLE 100 Trail Race:


Leadville has always been at the back of my mind since I got into running.  Before I'd even run a 50 mile race, I read the book 'Born to Run', and in the mille of the book there's a recount of running Leadville and I was smitten.  This is a race with lots of history going back to the beginning of modern ultrarunning (notice I threw in 'modern', I'm sure people ran great distances to escape sabre tooth tigers and invading aliens thousands of years ago). It's starts at 10,200 feet in the town of Leadville Colorado, drops down to a low point of 9,200 feet before climbing up to 13,600 feet.  It's an out-and-back course, so once you're done the first 50 miles, you get to do it all again in the dark!




THE PLAN:

Oh shit. I need a plan.  Basically, I'll likely run a 50 miler at either Seaton or Sulpher in May, then Mohican 100 in June, then I'll have 2 months to recover for Leadville in August.  I thought Chris, Steve and JD would be running Mohican 100 also, as some of them have some unfinished business there from last year, but they have switched to Laurel Highlands 70 mile instead.  Doing Laurel would be the smarter choice, so I'll make the dumber choice.  Laurel is 1 week earlier, so it's an extra week to recover, plus it's 70 miles as opposed to 100 miles.  Mohican is hilly and I'm told can get very hot (as it did last year).  My son's birthday is the weekend of Laurel, so no choice here.  I am a little worried about recovering enough or getting injured, but really I could trip off a curb and get hit by a rickshaw tomorrow, so I'm not going to worry about the race or rickshaws.  I'll also do the usual Ontario Ultra Series races, mostly 50kms, during this time.

TRAINING:

Better start!  6 months sounds like a long way off, but Mohican is only 4 months.  Unlike Oil Creek last year which I was grossly undertrained for, I plan to be in top shape for Leadville.  If not, this race will kick my ass and I won't finish.  I'll revert back to my HURT training, lots of hills and stairs, weight training and maybe a little running here and there.

Running:
As usual, my schedule makes any high mileage plan a challenge, so my shorter runs will be much more intense to make up for the lack of mileage.  I'll stick to mostly trails with lots of hills.  I'll need to get some interval and tempo runs in to increase my V02 max, as this is really the only way to prepare for running at altitude when I'm at sea level.

Stairs:
The race reports and blogs I've read on Leadville have me dreading the big climb up Hope Pass, lots of stairs are in order.  I'll do like I did for HURT, I'll progress to carrying weights up and down the stairs with me.

Strength Training:
I'll step this up big time.  Basically 2 upper body sessions per week, 1 leg session (or 2 if I missed any stair workouts).  Core gets thown into both workouts.  Untracked will be lots of pushups, pullups, squats and crunches thrown in during spare time.

Cross Training:
Lots of stationary bike when I have the kids, I'll start using the pool at the gym, mountainbiking once the snow melts, hiking, and soccer starts in May.

NEPA (non excersise physical activity):
Do everything the hard way.  Take the stairs, lots of time on my feet, stay active.  My daughter hasn't walked up the stairs recently, she just stands at the bottom and says 'Leadville', then I carry her up.  She turns 8 this week, keeps getting heavier!

Nutrition:
I had a combo at Harvey's the other day, consisted of a grilled chicken burger on whole wheat bun, salad as the side and apple juice to drink.  Need I say more? A little while back I started to look into superfoods, this was more in an effort to just eat even better than I already do, mainly for health reasons.  Each day is filled with lots of fruit and veggies, lean meat, green tea, healthy nuts, Acai juice, fish oil, flax oil and a multivitamin.  I've even stopped drinking diet soda, because really what the hell is aspartame anyway?  Lots of juice and water instead. As usual, protien shakes after each workout or run. I don't plan to be carrying ANY extra weight up and down the mountiains in Colorado if I don't have to.

Motivation:
Not a problem, I'm super excited to do this race.  I just finished re-reading 'Born to Run', now I want to do this race more than ever.  My kids know all about it and are excited too.  They have been trained to just say 'Leadville' whenever they think I'm being lazy.  I've printed Leadville logos for the fridge and at work.  I've got a Leadville course map on the wall at work along with an elevation chart.  I've also printed a huge 4ft high course map which I hung in my living room, my girlfriend is not impressed with my decorating taste.

LET'S BOOGIE!!:
Well, let's do this!  I know when I trained for HURT, I was SO focused and determined that I was mentally done a few weeks before the race.  That was only for a few months, so I'll have to be careful not to burn out as I've still got 6 months to go.  I'll enjoy it, get some runs in with the other runners.  It will be nice to chat about training for the same race, never done it before alongside other runners, should be interesting but also we can motivate each other.

My main concerns that I'll keep researching more are running at altitude, the water crossings, and the drastic temperature changes.  I'll chat with others about it to get their perspective.

Take care,

Morgan