I just completed my first race of the year, the Mt Diablo 50k. I was curious to see how far along I had come with my training and was using this race as a practice race to try to figure things out with nutrition, gear, pace etc.
The race for me was basically 3 parts. Miles 1-16, miles 16-25, miles 25-31. I’ll give a quick overview of each section and put my Things I Did Well and Things I Could Do Better below.
Miles 1-16
I started off a bit fast as I got caught up in the excitement and ran with Mark and Shyamal at various times who are at a faster pace than me. But I held back and let them go on and then got into a steady rhythm. One thing I wanted to work on was trying to overeat, or at least eat more than I typically do. So starting at the 30 minute mark I gobbled up some cacao date chews that were good when I bought them two months ago, but were now pretty stale. Who cares really. I ate something everything 30 minutes, usually GU gels or pbjs if I had some left from the last aid station. I drank 20 oz water mixed with Tailwind an hour. And 2 salt capsules every hour.
10 miles in I was just under 2 hours, which is great for me. I got a good second wind coming out of the 2nd aid station where a steady 3 mile climb followed. I felt good and just kept a steady uphill pace and passed a handful of runners, which felt great 🙂
Miles 16-25
The wheels started to fall of a bit here. Miles 16-19 is a steady climb to the first summit. Everyone was walking (hiking?) and I found I was gaining on people while power hiking which is something I’ve never done. Ann has me running on an incline treadmill 30-40 minutes every week and I think this really helped here. All was good until about a mile from the summit when my left quad started tightening up. I knew a cramp was on its way. I slammed a couple more salt pills, and after 15 minutes the cramp was still inevitable so I slammed another one. It helped a bit but the worst thing for a cramp is more uphill and that was what was ahead of me. Just before the summit it got so bad I had to walk sideways just to not use that muscle. I experimented walking backwards to see if that releived some of the pressure but no luck.
I pulled into the aid station and by now the sun was glaring down on us. I was treated to a spectacular sponge ice bath where an aid station volunteer poured freezing cold water on my head. I splashed cold water on my thighs and arms and felt like that helped cool my core a bit. I restocked all the vitals (GUs, salts, pbjs), thanked the volunteers and started back down the way I came up. The leg was still a bit stiff but within a half a mile it pretty much went back to normal.
But not for long. Around mile 20 was the North Peak of Mt Diablo. It was a short but precariously steep climb and return descent. I felt the cramp try to come out and play as I was climbing but luckily the climb was over before too long and it never peeked its ugly head. The descent was very tricky as it was loose rocks on a steep decline. This I’ve found is my kryptonite. I move so slow on this terrain and even with that pace I still managed to slip and land on my butt.
I thought all the climbing was done but it turns out we had one more climb, a 1 mile ascent into the 5th (of 6) aid stations. I felt good power hiking up this and once I got to the aid station I knew that it was all down hill to the finish line. I got another ice bath, drank some Coke (soooo good on a race), ate some watermelon and scooted out of there.
I was happy with my aid station efficiency. I only stayed for as long as I needed to and didn’t linger too long.
Miles 25-Finish
I was pretty exhausted at this point but knowing it was 6 miles or less to the finish was pretty motivating. I didn’t exactly fly down the remaining part but it was a strong steady effort. Again I got held up by a couple of steep loose rock descents (grrrrrr) which inhibited my pace. The views from up here were spectacular as we were pretty high up and had a 360 view of the entire area. That made the run that much better. And the final 2 miles was at really low elevation and we crossed our first streams of the day. With about .2 miles to go I saw one runner ahead of me and decided I would try to catch him. I barely missed catching him but I found a gear I didn’t think I had and cruised through to the finish line.
Final time 6:50. Woohoo!
Things I Did Well
* I ate frequently and was consistently over 250 calories per hour. Energy levels felt really strong throughout.
* I didn’t let myself get down at all when I got passed by another runner. I was just happy whenever I wasn’t cramping!
* I kept a steady ‘my race, my pace’ throughout the race.
Things I Could Improve
* I am not sure why I cramped and want to talk to Ann about that. I may have been dehydrated as I only had 21 oz of liquid on me and it was pretty hot out there.
* I need to work on running on a steep downhill with loose rocks. That slowed me down a lot.
* I think my quads could be stronger as that would help me power up hills quicker, maybe not cramp as easily, and finish the race quicker!
I was both disappointed and relieved when my name didn’t get drawn for Way Too Cool because I was not in any 50k shape at the moment. March all of a sudden crept up, and I am only recently ending my post North Face take-a-break approach to training.
But now…
I am about to kick off my 2015 ultra marathon training season. Up till now I’ve ran 35 times and 265 miles this year, and that was to maintain at least some level of mid-distance running. I’d say I’m currently at a 3 hour running time limit before things begin breaking down.
I signed up with Ann Trason and she’s made a workout for my first two weeks. Today is the first day of my training plan and it was upper body and 12-14% inclines on the treadmill. This second exercise is for practicing fast hiking on a steeper uphill. I started the incline 12% and increased it .5% every 7 minutes. My heart rate was in the mid-140’s in the first half of the workout, then at the higher inclinations they were low-150’s.
I stepped off the treadmill after 30 minutes and was drenched. I’m not used to sweating that much while running. The wicking clothes have gotten so good we’ve forgotten what it feels like to sweat. Or maybe it’s because I’m not pushing myself hard enough to sweat 🙂
I’m excited to have a training plan to work off of. Aside from giving clear structure to my overall training plan, I’m looking forward to learning a lot from Ann about lots of things ultra running related.
Day two training, 60 minute morning run with a handful of 45 second acceleration bursts. Yoga in the evening.
If you’d like to follow my workouts, I’m on Strava.
I recently got a very bad case of poison oak. My face swelled up to the point that my left eye was nearly shut for two days. My fingers had tiny mountain ranges of blisters of varying color from clear to orange to red. There was a lot of itching, scratching and general discomfort and one of the worst things about having poison oak is you can’t get comfortable anywhere because you don’t want to get the oils on your furniture.
My girlfriend and I turned to Google to try to figure out how to solve this problem and we found lots of articles and opinions, some seemingly helpful and several contradicting one another. This made it quite frustrating since what we wanted was a DO THIS AND IT WILL STOP set of instructions.
So in this post I want to highlight some of the things I did that I thought helped a great deal.
– Air out the blisters. Do not cover them up. I had been covering my fingers with gauze while in the home and with gloves when I left the house. Then on Sunday I decided to just let them ‘air out’, uncovered, while I watched football. Within a few hours I noticed them starting to progress through the cycle much faster. They started ‘weeping’, or oozing oil which they hadn’t done the prior two days.
– Stop the spread! The good news is you can’t spread it from the oils coming out of the blisters. It seems (depending on which articles you read) that you can not transfer it from your body to another body part. It must come from contact with something containing the poison oak oil.
The bad news is wherever it is, it is probably still there. I was being very diligent about covering up my exposed skin so as to not get my blister oils onto the furniture or around the house. But I kept noticing new blisters, usually as tiny dots, were still appearing in several areas on my body. We determined that the couch was the most likely culprit as we were always sitting on it, and just last weekend we were laying on it while watching tv. That would seem to explain how it got on the sides of my face, and my right arm, and why new blisters kept appearing, because I was always sitting on the couch.
We put Tecnu ivy scrub on a cloth and scrubbed down the couch and washed the pillow covers TWICE in the wash on the HOTTEST cycle. Wash that urushol oil away!
– Itching. You’re not supposed to do it but sometimes you just can’t help it. I found taking a hot, hot shower and pointing the shower head right on the blisters was therapeutic. It itched intensely for a few seconds then went away. Do this a couple of times a day as needed. I once woke up at 3 am just clawing at my arm and decided to jump in the shower. I slept like a baby after that.
In late February I was invited to join a group who would be running the R2R2R in early May. That gave me around 10 weeks to train and ready myself for what would be a self-supported 50+ mile ultramarathon. I hired a coach, Tim Long, who drew up a training plan that had me running almost every day of the week. I could feel myself getting stronger especially in the uphills and with my endurance, but even with that, I was not prepared for what the Grand Canyon would throw my way.
Our group of 15 flew from San Jose to Phoenix airport Thursday morning. We rented a couple big white vans and loaded them up with groceries from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s before starting the 4 hour drive to the Grand Canyon and our camp site, a few miles from the trailhead.
Loading up at Whole FoodsLanded at PHX
We went to sleep around 10 since we had a very early start the next day. I filled up my hydration pack and laid out my running clothes in my tent so I could get started as quickly as possible. I even put in my contacts before going to sleep so I wouldn’t have to do that in the morning.
3:30 a.m. – I am up before my alarm goes off. I lay in my sleeping bag just a bit longer. I grab my phone and check on the Warriors score. They won, beating the Nuggets and advancing. Good start to the day.
4:45 a.m. – We were still at the camp. We had wanted to leave by 4 but through a series of events that didn’t happen. And when we were ready to leave, I somehow couldn’t find my hydration pack! I scoured the campground and finally found it in my rucksack in the van. Stressful start to the run. But finally we were off.
Starting at 4:30 a.m.
-4.4 to 0 Miles – We were 4.4 miles from the S. Kaibab trailhead. Seven of us would attempting the R2R2R, Shyamal, Fernando, Yann, Mark, Dan, Calvin and myself. We left camp and made our way to the S. Kaibab trailhead. The sun was already starting to come up as we reached the canyon and saw the first signs of the sun as it touched the very top of the canyon.
As we ran along the top of the rim to the trailhead, across the way we saw the silhouette of the north side, a distant reminder of where our journey would be taking us today. As we ran the sun revealed more and more of the canyon and soon we saw the outline of the gorge that would be our path for the day. It looked long and very, very far down.
Sunrise, sunriseMore than ready to start
0 to 4 miles – “I’m in a candy store!” By the time we started down S. Kaibab at 5:30 a.m., the sun had fully lit up the trail and we stashed our headlamps. I seriously considered hiding my headlamp near the trailhead to save on carrying the weight. Very luckily I kept it on me, not knowing that I would desperately need it later. What was once a big black hole in the ground had suddently became a stunning and vast expanse of towering red rocks and as we got lower, green expanses of various vegetation and cacti.
I love downhill trail running and the first five miles were pure joy, steep switchbacks that changed from red rocks and red sand at the start to pale brown sand as you approached the river. In the back of my mind I knew I should take it easy and save my quads but I had been waiting too long to do this run and I said the hell with it. Fernando flew way ahead and was a speck below me before too long. Dan described it best when as he was running full speed downhill he yelled out ‘I’m in a candy store!’ Exactly.
Fresh mule shit on the trail was an early indication that we were going to come upon the mule train before too long. A few miles in I saw the pack of mules moving along the trail below me. As I reached them, the lead mule rider stopped the train to allow me to pass. Luckily I caught them right before the bridge since the bridge is too narrow to pass them and would have halted me for at least ten minutes.
Greener as you get lowerMule tracksMule train below
4 to 14 miles – I arrived at the river and soon after, Phantom Ranch, and took stock. I was feeling good but knew I had run too hard and already started feeling my right hip tightening. I stopped at Phantom Ranch to refill my water and happened to catch Fernando just as he was starting off again. I met a couple from Chicago who were also running the R2R2R which was also their first ultra. I would see them off and on the rest of the day.
Around mile 6 the trail leads to the narrowest part of the canyon, and you feel like you’re being swallowed by the canyon as you are winding your way along a trail running between two tall, sheer rock faces. I would look forward to this later on the return as a shaded escape from the sweltering afternoon sun.
My right hip was still talking to me so I stopped and stretched it out and just stretched my legs top to bottom. Amazingly when I started up again I felt completely fine. I was encouraged. I crossed several bridges as the narrow canyon followed the Colorado River north.
Shyamal, Dan and Mark
14 to 23 miles – “I want to go home”. The narrow canyon eventually opened up to a wide expanse of a valley with a continuous but gentle climb. I refilled my water at Cottonwood campground and the Pump House, the latter being the last refill station until reaching the North Rim.
The rest of the group had caught up to me by this point and together we started the endless ascent to the North Rim. Living and training in San Francisco, all my training had been close to sea level. So when we started climbing up to (eventually) 8,000 feet, my body was like ‘dude where’s the oxygen?’ As we got higher up, each breath got harder and hiking up was the best we could do, especially knowing that we still had 30+ miles to go today.
The sun was also starting to heat up and combined with the altitude made for a very tough climb. We rested a couple of times, and at one point, probably a mile or so from the top, as we were resting in the shade, breathing heavily, Mark looks at us and says “I want to go home.” We were all thinking the same. We carried on.
The endless climb to N. RimLooking back south
North Rim! – We finally reached the North Rim around noon. The endless climb did indeed come to an end. There were patches of snow along the side of the road as it was a bit cooler here than where we had started. And we received an unexpected pleasant surprise. There was drinking water! We had heard the water was turned off and we would have to go an extra mile to refill but instead we refilled at the top and celebrated our ascent with Clif Bars and other such trail running delights. I met a father and son who had been hiking and camping since March 18, hiking the Arizona trail from Mexico to Utah. Very cool.
At this point I felt great. Lots of energy, thrilled to be done with the climb and I would have been fine ending the run here. Except, we still had an entire marathon left to run to get back. So without wasting too much time up here, we got back on the trail.
Resting at North RimSnow on the north rim
23-31 miles – I once again decided to run down the trail from the rim because a) it’s fun and b) I wanted to get down to lower altitude. My inner quads began cramping. I stretched them out and that didn’t seem to help much so I popped a salt tablet. That did it. I would end up repeating this every half an hour or so as my quads would continue to threaten to start cramping the remainder of the run. The last thing I wanted to do was be stuck in the Grand Canyon under a hot sun not being able to move.
Purple flowers on North Rim
31-40 miles – on to Phantom Ranch. The trail flattened out and by this point the sun was baking the valley floor to over 90 degrees. I was struggling. I was tired. Not even bonking but just tired. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to find some shade and take a nap. I figured that wasn’t the best idea in the world and so I kept moving, albeit at a slow pace. I did find a shady little alcove beneath this massive jutting rock and sat down for two minutes. A couple of runners from Colorado passed me as I was sitting here and I wondered how long it would take me to finish if I couldn’t run again.
I felt slightly rejuvenated after this break and when I got on the trail I started running again and even managed to get to sub 12 minute miles, which for me at this point in a long run is great. I would eventually even pass the two Colorado runners again. That’s what I love about ultras, that one minute you can feel so tired and done and the next minute somehow finding some new energy to get you going again. I ran with the goal of reaching the narrow canyon as I knew that would be a reprieve from the glaring sun.
I stopped at a stream and soaked my head in cold water. Two minutes later my hair was bone dry. The sun was not messing around today. I reached the narrow canyon and let out a big ‘wooooo!’ as I knew I would be shaded for a couple of miles.
I met a woman headed in the other direction with an entire mountain bike strapped to her back. I asked her where she was headed with it and she replied she was headed to the North Rim. I told her she was crazy. She smiled and said ‘Thank you, sir.’ So polite too.
Phantom Ranch has a canteen and I had brought $50 along to treat myself to some goodies if I decided to. As I reached Phantom Ranch I saw a few runners enjoying ice cold lemonade, the condensation on the clear plastic cup a sure sign that the beverage was ice cold. I was too late. I had arrived at 4:10 p.m. and the canteen had closed at 4. I was mildly crushed but that became my new mission: to get some lemonade.
Bridge from Bright TrailSwitchbacks going up Bright Angel
40-49 miles – Bright Angel trail up to South Rim. I didn’t hang out too long at Phantom Ranch before starting up again. The remainder of the run was 9+ miles with about 5,000 feet of climbing. I still had a ways to go. I ran out of Phantom Ranch but by this point running was little more than walking with some heavy arm swinging to try to generate some more forward momentum. Didn’t matter. I was moving forward.
I crossed a long bridge and reached the Bright Angel trail and started my ascent. It was a long, windy series of switchbacks. Lucky for me the sun had descended beneath the nearby peaks and the trail was shaded. I heard and saw no one and wouldn’t again until nearly the end. I ran the flats and hiked the climbs which were the majority of what was left. I thought of where I could get lemonade when I reached the top.
I had not expected to need it but given the late start we had in the morning and the fact that it was getting dark out, I reached in my bag for my headlamp. Before long it would be completely pitch black out and climbing would have been a real challenge without light. I pulled up my compression sleeves for added warmth as the temperature began to drop. What was interesting is that in some parts of the trail there would be these warm spots, like the warm air had been trapped there. A few steps later and it would be cold again. Maybe I was hallucinating.
Getting dark out
I had stopped eating Gu as I was sure I would throw up if I tried to. I did keep hydrating and never stopped walking. All of a sudden out of nowhere a runner reaches and then passes me. He had been one of the lemonade drinkers. Sometimes it pays to be fast. Not being able to see the top of the canyon to see how much more elevation I had yet to go, I just kept going one foot in front of the other, hoping I would reach the top before I got too cold. The temperature really started dropping and I was wishing I had brought my wind jacket. Again, didn’t need it in the morning and didn’t think I’d be running this late.
Then as if angels were singing above, I heard voices from the trail just above me. I was confused. And then I saw a house. I turned the corner and lo and behold it was several members of our group who had run the rim to river earlier and were now patiently waiting for us slow pokes dragging our butts up the last climb. They were prepared with pizzas and Coke. I still couldn’t believe I was done but I was. Finally. The second endless climb had in fact, ended.
I walked with Sarah and Robyn to their car as the rest of the group waited for the remaining three runners. Mark and Dan had finished nearly an hour ahead of me, while Shyamal, Calvin and Yann were still enjoying life in the canyon. I began shivering in the car and Sarah literally gave me the jacket off her back. Thanks again Sarah!
Gettin’ my lemonade! – I was starving and I wanted some lemonade. Forget recovery shakes, protein, whatever else you’re supposed to have. Robyn drove us to the cafeteria that was thankfully still open for another hour. I must have looked like death because people kind of eyed me funny as I walked in with a sweat stained tshirt and chocolate Gu marks on my shorts. I was giddy, I was tired. I ordered a burrito and then filled up a large cup with ice cold Minute Maid lemonade. It more than hit the spot. We drove back to camp and I sat in the van, wrapped in my sleeping bag and eating my burrito and drinking my lemonade. I was happy. I was done.
Panoramic from the South Rim
Shyamal showed up within the hour. He had returned on the S. Kaibab trail and then run to our camp. He was so nonchalant about the whole thing you’d think he had just run a 5 mile easy run. But Calvin and Yann were still nowhere to be found. Around 11 p.m. a couple of folks went to contact the park rangers to let them know we still had two people in the canyon. Meanwhile, Amy, Tom and myself threw a couple of sleeping bags, and some food and water in the van and drove out to the trailhead to wait for them. As we were driving we saw two people stumbling on the side of the road. There was no doubt who these were. We threw the doors open and Calvin and Yann jumped in (more like crawled in). Mission accomplished. What an adventure.
Conclusion – the real conclusion here is don’t believe anything you tell yourself at the end of a run. While I was doing the endless climb up Bright Angel at the end I told myself I never needed to do this again. But now a couple of days later, all I think about is seeing the morning sun filling up the canyon, the amazing group of runners I ran with, running in the valley over rolling hills, speeding my way down the South and North rims. And I have to say I could definitely see myself doing it again. I would prepare for the heat and altitude more. I would start earlier. I would not eat Amy’s Chili for dinner the night before.
But I would still fly down the starting trail down to the Colorado river because that was just too much fun.
A visual recap of the rim to rim to rim run we did this weekend. It was the hardest run I’ve done. I was not prepared for the altitude or the midday heat in the canyon floor. None of us really were but it didn’t make the run any less fun. What an adventure. When I finished I told myself never again but now that a few days has passed, I kind of want to go again.
I was looking for some running motivation at the start of the year. I enjoy races but I don’t need to do them very often. So when I was invited to run 46 miles in the Grand Canyon I said heck yeah! That was end of February. With just over two months to train for a long self supported run with 11k feet of elevation, I decided I should hire a coach. So I’m working with Tim Long who is putting together a training schedule that has me running nearly every day, and pushing myself harder than I have ever done. The workouts can be exhausting but it feels good after.
Last week I had a 4 hour run with hills on the schedule for Friday. I drove up to Pantoll Station on Mt Tam and ran four very strong hours down to Stinson Beach and back up Steep Ravine. Then down the super fast and fun Ben Johnson trail before climbing out the Lost Trail and finally, ending with a nice climb on the Dipsea. I felt really strong throughout the run even though I was trying to set a vigorous pace. I drank a lot of water and took a Gu every 30 minutes. This is new for me as I’ve always done every 45 minutes. The 30 minutes makes a *huge* difference for me. I didn’t feel very sluggish and felt alert and awake the whole drive home, and stayed out late that night. I felt great!
I like this chart because it clearly shows I’m spending most of my time in zone 2 which is where I want to be during a long run. Zone 2 Fat Burning
Today’s training called for 6 x 4 minute hill repeats. Luckily I live close to Divisadero and Lombard which is at the bottom of a steep six hill climb. I ran hard the whole 4 minutes and pushed it the hardest on the 4th interval. You’ll see this at the 40 minute mark. I was pretty spent after that as you see my hr didn’t get back to 160 in the last two repeats.
I like the charts. The first is the hill elevation profile. It’s like a dragon’s mouth. The second is my hr overlayed with the elevation. Cool stuff!
I’ve always used plain hemp powder as my protein source in my morning smoothies, but when I ran out I decided to try out Plant Fusion. I’ve read that you ideally need a blend of protein sources to create a complete protein (getting all the essential amino acids) and Plant Fusion has that, whereas hemp on its own does not.
And I just ran out of spirulina and decided to try a new brand Pure Hawaiian. The first review on Amazon is very longwinded helpful. It seems like Hawaiian spirulina is more nutritious and flavorful. Who knew? The protein concentration is much higher ~3x in this brand than the previous one I had.
I added the protein and spirulina to my staple other smoothie ingredients including one banana, fresh oj, coconut water, chia seeds, maca powder, pineapples and strawberries (frozen), cacao powder and agave nectar and Udo’s oil and gave it all a whirl for about a minute.
The Result
Wow! The taste was amazing but what stood out even more was the grittiness I had gotten accustomed to from the hemp powder was completely gone. The smoothie went down very smoothly (like it’s name suggests it should) and made for a refreshing morning post workout drink.
run baizel, run! 