Train, Race, Repeat

Yankee Springs 50k Race Report

My vision was starting to get a little bit blurry.  My legs feel real slow.  "Rocks in a blender" I believe is the scientific term.  Hmmm I think I might be bonking...  Mile 28 of Yankee Springs 50k.  

Then, I thought, recruit your hip flexors, and psoas muscles, engage your glutes, access those generally poorly-used muscles.  My cadence came back, and I went from a slow jog to a slow run.  Finally I was moving at a decent clip again. 

Bloomington
Flash Back to 10 days prior, when I was running in 12-15 inches of snow in and around Brown County and Bloomington with Scott Breeden.  5 hours a day. 4 days in a row, in fresh, deep, snow.  Oh crap my hip flexors, psaos muscles and glutes aren't used to this kind of running.  Holy crap my feet are cold.  This is awful and great at the same time.  Scott and I both approached the week with super positive attitudes, and this helped us have fun (although occasionally I found myself in the pain cave).  We averaged 4 miles per hour, day in and day out.  That's saying something if you know Scott Breeden.  

Fun

European shoes were the theme of the week

It was a tough training weekend.  Bloomington had been hit with a megastorm and we were too stubborn to change our plans.  But, this was what I call "character building".  Will Snyder met us and shot some film, making us look way cooler than we are.  Tim joined us for a run and we skied/ran part of the tecumseh trail system.  But the theme of the week; run until your legs are paralyzed from lactic acid, never changed.  I honestly have no idea what aerobic system or particular type of training we were doing.  It was partly awesome, because with all the fresh powder there was no pounding on your joints, but it was terrible because working at max capacity I might have been hitting 12 minute miles.  And then, sometimes I felt like I was skiing downhill, with varying levels of control.  Anyways, I came back stronger from this trip than I was before making the drive.  So when I started bonking at mile 28 of Yankee Springs, I told myself, yeah this sucks, but I know what to do. 

SB and JC near BC

Making tracks

Yankee Springs 50k
After a great night of sleep, aided by a nice warm cabin and a few Lagunitas brews, I found a spot up near the front of the pack for the start of the 50k, motioned Ryan Case to get up near me, and then the gun went off and it was on.

Luxury epitomized

After nearly missing the first turn, Ryan and I found ourselves in the lead, scurrying down a semi-slick snow covered dirt road .  After surveying the trails that crisscrossed the road for flags, we finally saw some marking and jumped onto the single track.  I was a step or two ahead of Ryan, and was like oh crap I'm in the lead, what the heck do I do now?  Well logically, go really hard, like blow up pace, and then try to hang on. 

Then as if wearing jet-packs, a runner came up behind me and stayed there.  We chatted for a while about races we had done and were thinking about doing, he seemed like a nice guy, albeit, seriously fast.  We ran past Ben Vanhoose who shouted out some encouragement and took a photo or two and gave me a hard time about my pre race statement of "taking it easy at this race" which had totally gone out the window when I found myself in the lead.  I let Jordan know that if he wanted to pass me, just say the word and I'd let him by.  We ran together for a few more miles then Jordan smoked on by and I didn't see him again until the end of the race.

Me with Jordan right behind (photo Ben Vanhoose)

Deciding I would defend second and try to save face by running under the course record (3:50), I pushed the pace as hard as I dared.  I was totally overdressed and sweating a lot by the time I got through 10 miles.  Fumbling around with my had and extra coat, I eventually shoved everything into the back of my tights.  So if my butt looks big in some pictures, I have a legit excuse, OK?

I finished the first 15.5 mile loop in 1:51, which was pretty quick for icy trails I thought, but made no progress on reining in Jordan.  I quickly threw my extra layers by the drop bags (which I had not even bothered packing i.e. stupid move), desperately wishing I had a fresh bottle and a couple extra gels to grab.

Pain cave (Photo Mark Robillard)

The second loop was flying by, until I came to the hillier back half.  It seemed like someone made the hills a little taller on the second loop...  hmm strange.  And the trail was starting to get chewed up as 200+ people had now run through.  And the gatoraide I got at the aid station was too sweet.  And I had to pee.  And I only had one gel left.  And my toe had a blister.  See lots of excuses!

I slowed down quite a bit. 

At mile 28 I thought I was bonking, so I took my last gel and stopped for a quick pee.  I heard cheers not far behind me and knew someone was closing in.  I started running again. 

My vision was starting to get a little bit blurry.  My legs feel real slow.  "Rocks in a blender" I believe is the scientific term.  Hmmm I think I might be bonking...  Mile 28 of Yankee Springs 50k.  

Then, I thought, recruit your hip flexors, and psoas muscles, engage your glutes, access those generally poorly-used muscles.  My cadence came back, and I went from a slow jog to a slow run.  Finally I was moving at a decent clip again. 

I focused on accessing and recruiting these muscles for the last three miles and thought about how much easier this was than running in a foot of snow.  I crossed the line happy to have recovered and feeling good, thinking I was in 2nd, but at least under the old course record.  Then I found out I was 1st.  Apparently Jordan had taken a wrong turn (bummer) on the first loop and never caught back up.  So now,  I win, I guess, I still feel like I didn't totally deserve it.  And then Ryan Case came flying across the finish line only 50 second behind me, taking 2nd!  

Glad to be done

Ryan's wife Alaina came in soon after that, earning second female.  So they were 2nd male and 2nd female, too cute guys.  I know you planned it that way.  Our other cabin-mate Tim came running in soon too, and then we celebrated another Ultra well-run with a nice bonfire, some adult beverages and refueled with whatever was close-by.  The next morning we went for a nice shakeout run, staying in tight formation, herded along by Ryan and Alaina's sheep dog.

Get herded by Cody

Take home message
Train hard, recruit unused muscles, remember to use them when you race.  Never give up, you never know what might happen.   Running in snow is fun.  Always have fun.

Louisvilles Lovin' the Hills 50ish-k

To start off I will be frank.  What a great challenge.  Sometimes as an ultrarunner I look down on 50k with the idea that its a short race without enough true suffering.  This race is the brain child of Montrail runner Eric Grossman and you can tell this was designed by someone who likes a challenging course.

I have to give credit to Scott Breeden, who suggested I sign up for LLTH back in late december (?).  I saw that the race was a great deal (50$)! and I went ahead and registered without looking at much else.  In my usual procrastinating fashion, I finally started looking at the race statistics and reports the week before.  I read several blogs suggesting there was upwards of 7000 feet of climbing with an equal amount of descent.  Well ok, maybe thats why its called lovin the hills.  Then I noticed the fastest times were getting slower over the years...  Ok, so they added a few more climbs and a few extra miles to the course, sounds good to me.  Even then, some very good trail runners were posting 50k times in the upper 4 hour, low 5 hour range.  To me this says everything.  Its a hard race.  Well thats good, I like a challenge.

Friday morning I hit the road to bloomington to pick up LLTH vet Scott Breeden, and from there we made it to packet pickup with plenty of time to spare.  The race swag was nothing too fancy, but we did receive very nice sweatshirts and a new copy of the latest trail runner magazine.  The drive into Louisville had been scenic until we hit rush hour traffic, and then I had paid little attention to our surroundings, yet I was surprised by the lack of hills in the immediate Louisville area.  Scott assured me that they were there, I took his word for it, and we headed to the pasta dinner where Scott's buddy Beau Hollis met us.  We stayed at his place before the race, and he gave us the low down on what the course was going to be like and what we should expect for trail conditions.

After sleeping in a bed (maybe the 2-3rd time I've ever slept in a bed before an ultra), I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go.  I opted to wear the NB MT110s instead of a newly acquired pair of Asics Gel Fuji Racers, as I had only ran 7 miles in the Asics.  Beau lived very close to the race start and after a short drive I saw some nasty looking hills jutting out of the horizon.  Yup, this is going to be fun as I drove up a 2 mile long uphill to the race start, passing a trail crossing near the bottom of the climb.  We got to the race start with plenty of time to spare, stayed warm in the car, and before I knew it, it was time to boogie.

The start was a little confusing as the 15 mile and 50k runners all start at the same time.  I ran quite a bit harder than I knew was wise for the first 2-3 miles, but I really wanted to get out in front of anyone who may run slower on the technical long downhills.  Pushing some of this section I noticed my heart rate edging near 180 bpm.  This would be a constant theme throughout the day.  After about 5 miles I rolled up to the first aid station, Beau had been meeting Scott (who was battling with the leaders all day) at each aid station, and was still at this one.  He suggested I was 4-5 minutes behind them, which surprised me a little bit.  Later I found out they didnt really start pushing the pace until mile 13 or 14.

I had begun picking off a couple 50k and15 mile runners who had started out too hard and were hurting pretty badly.  At the second aid station (~13 miles) I noticed that one runner was gaining on me.  I found that surprising and decided to run a couple climbs hard and see if I could dismay his attack.  He was having none of it though and soon caught up to me, and suggested we run together for a little bit.  I chatted with him for a few, found out his name was Harvey Lewis, and after running with him for a while, I could tell he was a strong and smart runner.   Later I found out from Scott, he is an animal with several low 17 hour 100's to his credit as well as a Badwater finish.

Anyways, I ran with Harvey for probably 3 hours, and it was great having someone to talk to, he was a super nice guy and had a great hill strategy.  One thing that I noticed was that he was easily running away from me on the technical steep downhills.  That was a little surprising to me, as in the past very few people have been able to out downhill me.  I found that the MT110s are not the perfect shoe as the upper seemed to stretch out a little bit and the thin firm midsole did not allow for serious downhill bombing.  At one point I overfueled or underhydrated and found myself with a slight stomach cramp.  I was running in the high 160s low 170s all day long and this likely was too high of  a HR for one point when I ate a cookie, drank a swig of coke and then tried to eat a gel. 

On the return trip from the final 15 mile out and back section I started to feel the implications of running at a high HR for 4 hours.  I tripped, caught myself before I fell, took another 10 steps and tripped again and went down.  Nothing serious, and I popped back up and continued running.  Then maybe 5 minutes later, I tripped again.  I decided it was time to slow down a little bit and collect myself for the remaining run.  After slowing down for a little bit, my stomach crap disappeared and I felt reinvigorated.  I started running the climbs again, slow and steady and passed a couple runners on two steep inclines and even caught back up to Harvey, even if only for a moment.

After passing the Bearcamp aid station, the last portion of the race is essentially a very long climb until you reach the finish. However, it was not super steep and I surprised myself by running almost the entire way.   My GPS read almost 31 miles and the finish was not yet in site, after cursing once or twice, I remembered everyone was probably feeling the same way, and pushed on.  I ran the last climb, saw the finish line and ran across in 5:23, good for 6th place and a free Montrail hat.  Everyone's GPS had come in at a little over 33 miles, suggesting the course was a good deal longer than advertised.  Scott had finished in an incredible 4:53, and he also reported that he had trouble keeping up on downhills in the MT110s.  After getting some homeade soup, Beau and his friend Patrick took us to a fantastic BBQ hidden away in the countryside and then we went back to Beau's for showers before Scott and I headed back to Bloomington.

My overall thoughts about this race:  1)  It is the hardest 50k I have ran (by far).  2)  It is well organized and well planned.  3)  There was a battle for places 1-3, but also places 4-9 were only about 10 minutes apart, suggesting that there were a lot of strong runners with a ton of guts. 4)  The people were all very friendly, and it seemed like a family reunion for many runners.

From L to R.  Me, Beau, Scott.  Post race (photo Beau Hollis)

Final stats:
Avg HR:  171 (woah)
Fuel:  1 Peanut butter Gu, 1 Turbo Chocolate Cherry Clif shot, 1 Roctaine Gu, 1 package Margarita shot blocks, 1/2 package of lemon-lime shot blocks.  1 S!Cap and 3 bottles of water.
My GPS deleted the data I which I was very excited to look at :( but the elevation profile below is from last years race, which was a touch shorter, with apparently 1 less climb.