Race Report: Caumsett 50K, 2010 edition

So as I said in Monday's post, it wasn't until Saturday night when I decided to run the Caumsett 50K the next morning. My plan up until that point was to volunteer, but since I hadn't arranged a commitment with the Race Director, I wasn't bound to anything. My last-minute reasoning for running was pretty sound, if slightly risky. Three weeks from Umstead and I have a decent base but very little in the way of long runs. Getting in a 31-miler will certainly help if I don't hurt myself and I can recover completely. Neither of those two factors was a given.

* I was still feeling the hamstring. There seemed to be a significant possibility that I could re-tweak it again, which would be bad. On the other hand, this was a really good opportunity to test it, and see if it would be a problem at Umstead. As it turned out, it had my attention in the first 10K or so, but was never painful. I never even felt it in the last 80% of the race.

* When I ran this asphalt course last year, my knees hurt for a week. I definitely want to be 100% recovered and fresh on March 27, and only 20 days separate Caumsett and Umstead. Time will tell if this was a good idea, but the early indications are good. On Monday (the day after), I ran 6 miles on a track at 11:20 pace and felt great most of the way. On Tuesday I ran 3 asphalt miles and was only tired because I pushed the pace a bit with 10:10 miles.

I thought I could PR in this race, so on Saturday night I pulled out the calculator and determined a per-lap pace that went out several digits, based on the 11.78xxxx laps of this 2.3xxxxx mile course, which I pulled off the race's web site. I came up with numbers that would be mentally fun to keep track of. But when we arrived on Sunday morning, we found that they changed the course to ten even laps of 5K. Initially annoyed that I'd have to do some re-calculating, I realized that this actually made things extremely simple. My goal time was 6:47, 407 minutes. Divide that by ten. Easy. I'll round down to a 40 minutes per lap goal.

So I get there, meet a bunch of friends, and get started. Here is a lap-by-lap report of what happened.


The starting line

Lap 1 - 35:33
I started off cold, probably the least-dressed person in the course - a tank top and shorts. No hat, sleeves, or gloves. I warmed up pretty quickly, and chugged along, slowly.

Lap 2 - 35:12
My fastest lap, It wasn't until now when I realized that I was slow in lap 1. I really got into a zone.. and cruised.

Lap 3 - 36:08
Still cruising, but coming out of the mental zone (nothing good lasts forever.) Still, I felt good and by the end of this lap I was 20 minutes ahead of PR pace.

Lap 4 - 39:16
This was the same as lap 3, but with a short bathroom break.

Lap 5 - 41:05
The hills were getting predictably longer, and my pace slowed. I wasn't alarmed by just how much my pace slowed until I came through the starting line and saw a 41-minute split - with no bathroom break. I wasn't feeling hungry or bonking, but I also wanted to stay ahead of my nutrition - and I thought it would be wise to eat half a PBJ here. I regretted that damned PBJ for the next 3 hours.

Lap 6 - 39:03
Alarmed by the slow pace, I pushed here and got a better time for it, but the rumbling in my stomach was building and definitely had my attention at the end of the lap.

Lap 7 - 49:22
Now 21 minutes ahead of PR pace, my stomach was in complete rebellion. I took a gamble by returning to "The Throne", to try and improve my situation. I lost the bet, with no significant improvement and a loss of 7-10 minutes.

Lap 8 - 51:17
My slowest lap, I walked it holding my stomach almost completely. It was here that I realized the reality that there would be no PR today. My entire 21-minute advantage against my PR was lost in laps 7 and 8. Damn that PBJ!!

Lap 9 - 45:14
Time turned out to be the remedy I needed. My stomach started to recover a bit and by the end of this lap I was run-walking again.

Lap 10 - 42:54
I felt pretty good at this lap, and finished strong.

So, there you have it. Half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich probably made a 20-minute difference in my time.

I just discovered a picture of me running it on Scott Dunlap's blog. To my knowledge this is the only picture that exists of me in this race:

You can clearly see me wearing yellow in the background


New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

Spontenaity (or, Caumsett 50K quick update)

On Saturday night I decided to run the Caumsett 50K the next day.

Had I decided to do this before Friday's blog post, I would have posted my traditional "race preview" thingy then. It would have said something like this:

* My last chance to get a long run in before Umstead
* I think I can PR.
* I want to test my fitness for Umstead.
* I want to test some race strategies for Umstead.
* I'm a little worried about my hamstring.

I'll post a full report on Wednesday, but here's a quick update:

Finished in 6:55:08 (my watch's time.) I can't claim to have run a very smart race, and I thus spent missed my goal of a PR by about 8 minutes, but overall I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of great friends. My hamstring had my attention in the first 10K, but it was never painful. After 10K I never even felt it.

By the way, ultrarunning is a small world. I think I knew half the people who were there.


New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

"Maybe you should take a day off"

The wisdom of maintaining this streak has been questioned by People Who Are Smarter and More Experienced Than Me, especially with the hamstring issue I experienced last week. Normally, because they are People Who Are Smarter and More Experienced Than Me, I'd be inclined to take their advice but in this case the streak has taken on a significant amount of meaning to me and my psyche.

While I won't deny that being qualified for membership in the United States Running Streak Association appeals to me, the primary purpose of it has grown out of that rather superficial goal into something larger, and in two ways.

The expected way
I'm 33 years old, and I've come to the conclusion that, no matter what it is, if I do it in moderation, I lose interest and ultimately fail. Don't ask me why, it appears that it's just the way I'm wired. I can give you example after example of how my life is like that.


Moderation didn't get me there

So in the past, I have had a number of 5 and 6 day per week training schedules. None of them worked more than a few days. However, 7 day training schedules, for some reason, always last longer. And the longer the streak lasts, the more incentive there is to not miss a day.


Not a 5-day per week training log

The unexpected way
Every now and then, I get notes like this:

"Steve, way to keep up the streak!!!! Impressive. You've inspired me to start a walking streak. On day 15 of one mile and 3 pullups a day! Thank you!!" (This particular one is from Dusty)

It's so rare that I feel like I'm honestly motivating someone to do something. I'm so happy for those people that I feel responsible to them to keep it up, thus developing a rather unique mutually beneficial dynamic - I motivate them, which motivates me, which motivates them and others, etc. The benefit to maintaining this kind of dynamic should be obvious - when I don't care about the numbers anymore, when I don't care about the results, I still care about the people.

The consequence

There's another aspect to this that's harder to explain. There's an intrinsic feeling of "I'm a runner, that's who I am" that is starting to develop. Without forcing it, "I run, I run every day, nothing stops me" as a self-image is taking root. Does that make sense? Anyway, even if I disregard the practical matter of maintaining a consistent schedule, and even if I disregard the social matter of mutual motivation, I still have this primal need to go out and run, every day. It's like checking email, which I've been doing every day for years. It's gotten to the point where I check email immediately when I wake up, even before going to the bathroom. I feel wrong if go more than an hour without checking it. Running is becoming the same way - and I feel like that's a good thing.

So sorry, People Who Are Smarter and More Experienced Than Me, please don't be offended, I'd love to take your advice, but I have to decline.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

Ultrarunning Haiku Slam 2010

I was super-surprised last night to receive word that I had won a haiku-writing competition.

What?

Exactly.

To be fair, this was rather informal and low-key, and done over an email list. There were about 50 entries, and I wrote and submitted three Monday afternoon after work, while Alexandria and Joe were out. When I saw the competition, I never thought I had a chance. So when I received word that I not only won first place but also honorable mention, my exact words were, "no way!"

My prize is a $25 gift certificate to ZombieRunner, probably the best running store around. (:

The winners of the ultrarunning haiku slam contest are announced!
Thanks to everyone who sent in a haiku and participated!

Steven Tursi gets first place, with his "one hundred miles..." Michael Vance gets second place with his "Spiderwebs". Steven Tursi's "we hear all the time..." got honorable mention.

The winning entries are listed below.

I will be in touch with both of you off-list about prizes from Zombie Runner and Alenepastels.

Thanks! And thanks to the generosity of Don & Gillian from Zombie Runner for prize donations!

Alene


Steven Tursi #1

one hundred miles
turns out to be much more than
fifty miles twice


Michael Vance #2

Spiderwebs glisten
in pre-dawn glow, that's the cost
of early trail runs


Steven Tursi's

We hear all the time
"I don't like to drive that far"
used to be funny.

also gets honorable mention...

I really appreciate this! There were so many great entries. Here are some of my favorites:

Bill C:
Bliss on single track trail
Concrete hurts my knees so bad
No more death by road

CAP:
My thighs are burning
But feet are numb from the snow
That’s a good trade-off

Paige T:
Dear Perpetuem,
You taste so good going down
And give me great burps!

Brian P:
thrown down like a rock.
the eyes, too late, discover
the goddamned tree root.

Michael V:
Boss - "why run fifty
when you can drive?" Me - "I think
you have that backward"

Michael V: (this is my personal favorite of all of them)
I hate myself for
singing Miley Cyrus while
running up mountains

Thomas B:
Thirty miles later
They'll never know how this feels
Pleasantly tired

Fuzz M:
Thirty miles to go,
Blisters keeping me awake,
Pizza sounds good now.

Fuzz M:
Bananas or GU
They both make me have to poo
Trees are fertilized

Jason E:
man, I feel like crap
I could run like this for hours
man, I feel like crap

(As you can probably tell, I'm a fan of the funny ones..)

Thanks, Judges and ZombieRunner!!


New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

February Recap and March Goals

February:
Ran 28 out of 28 days in 29 distinct workouts
Total Mileage: 111

2010:
Ran 59 out of 59 days in 61 distinct workouts.
Total Mileage: 223

February was a mediocre month. I managed to maintain my running streak but every other goal was missed for one reason or another. Here's what the goals were and my miserable excuses why I missed them:

1. Run a mile every day - I did this
2. Complete a run of 40 miles - The run that was going to be 40 turned out to be 27
3. Complete two more runs of 18 miles - Fatigue kept me from doing this last weekend, and a nagging hamstring kept me from doing it this weekend.
4. Four ascents of bear mountain - I did one, the day before a snowstorm, and there's just been too much snow to do it since. Of course, snow doesn't stop some people, just me.
5. Run 6 miles on the days after the 18s - I didn't have the 18s to do this in the first place.
6. Nutrition goals - Let's not even go there.

So it with that downright depressing bit of news that I go into the month of Umstead.

Goals for March

1. Run at least one mile every day.
I am currently dealing with a hamstring "tweak" that occurred on Thursday's two-a-day run. I have no idea what the problem is, but the consequence has been I've been running very slow and easy. I was supposed to run over 30 miles this weekend, I ran 6. Everything above ten minutes per mile. Fortunately, it seems to be improving in spite of my running on it - I think I'm lucky. Having said that, maintaining the streak might actually be the hardest goal of all, because running a mile straight on Monday March 29th after the 100 is going to be painful.

2. One long run of 18 miles
I would say two long runs, but it really depends on how the ham feels this upcoming weekend. If it's good, I'll go long then, and have a second long run the following weekend. If it doesn't feel good, then I'll have no choice but to do just one long run on March 13 or 14. That is two weeks out from Umstead, so it will be my last chance to get significant miles.

3. Three ascents of Bear Mountain
I expect the temperatures to warm up a bit which will allow me to hit Bear mountain a few more times. I feel comfortable doing them as late as 7 days before the big day. I had once ascent this last month and it was amazing. Definitely want a repeat or three.

4. Log everything I eat
Last month was a complete failure in this regard. Needs to change this month.

5. Don't quit at Umstead
Either finish, or miss the 26 hour 87.5 mile cutoff. I'll be disappointed if the latter happens, but at least I won't have quit. I will write more about that as the month progresses.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

Listserv Gold V - "Activation Energy"

Time for another edition of Ultrarunning Listserv Gold, a semi-regular feature of this blog where I quote something I found inspiring, interesting, or generally valuable on one of the various ultrarunning email distribution lists I subscribe to. To view all editions of ULG, please click here. This particular one comes from the yahoo group, where you can subscribe at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/ultrarunning/

Gordon C and Mike M on "Activation Energy"

Gordon writes,

After all of these years of running (45!) I have learned (but often forget) one immutable fact: You never know which runs are going to be great and which awful or which are going to fall somewhere in between (the vast majority fall here), until you do it. I cursed getting dressed out, tying on my Nikes, digging out my rain shell, and sloshing down the low fairway grass, and then near the end, the sun broke out, the sky was an incredible late evening blue-purple and 72 minutes had passed in the blink of an eye.

Much better than what I deserved. Thank you for my blessings.

Mike responds,

Well said! I too am a runner of long tenure, now into my 37th year of running (and into my 15th year without missing a day) and I too STILL struggle with what I call the 'activation energy' issue.

In a chemical reaction, many times when you mix two reactive ingredients together nothing happens - they just sit there. Until you add a small amount of what is called 'activation energy' - it's like the spark that turns the starter on a car's engine. It might be some small amount of heat, or a spark - whatever - but this small amount of 'activation energy' added into the mix kick-starts the chemical reaction and then the reaction takes off and proceeds to completion on its own, without any further energy input. But without the 'activation energy', the reaction would never get started.

In my running, I have to use a small amount of 'activation energy' to kick-start my fat dead a$$ out the door and into the first half-mile. I'm often grumpy and mumbling vulgarities as I shuffle off, but four or five minutes into the run my 'chemical reaction' kicks in and suddenly it's just not 'difficult' anymore, and I begin to smooth out and my breathing gets stronger and regular and I relax and really enjoy the physical movement and activity. Often, by the middle of the run I've picked up the pace significantly and by the finish I'm steaming in, hitting on all cylinders and having a wonderful time. I nearly always finish with a big smile on my face, and I'm ALWAYS happy that I mustered the 'activation energy' to get started.

I hope to never lose those feelings...

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

I'm not picking my nose

Nope.



I'm merely blowing a snot rocket.

Honest.


photography by Carl Cox Studios

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

Tough Mudder update, and I compare it to two others

On the topic of "obstacle-course" races (for lack of a better term)...

Update on Tough Mudder



Two weeks ago, I posted about the Tough Mudder trail run, and some copy they had on their site:

Marathon running is simply bad for you – FACT. The human body is not designed to run 26 miles straight over hard ground. Unless you are an Olympic athlete, road racing is a guaranteed way to say goodbye to your knees before you hit 40.

They appear to have updated their site.

Marathon running is simply boring – FACT. And the only thing more boring than doing a marathon is watching a marathon. Road-running may give you a healthy set of lungs, but will leave you with as much upper body strength as Keira Knightley. At Tough Mudder, we want to test your all-round mettle, not just your ability to run in a straight line getting bored out of your mind on your own for hours on end.

Well, aside from calling their opinion "FACT" (they couldn't manage to leave that word out), I do appreciate that they removed misguided medical advice from their site and replaced it with an editorial. Having said that, I want to point out two observations:

1.) I happen not to find marathon running boring, nor do I find watching marathon running boring. This coming from a guy who's been diagnosed, as an adult, by two different psychiatrists, as having ADD. (This is not an argument, but a statement of opinion.)
2.) It's a shame that they have to promote their event by putting down another.

I was reading a little more, and saw this interesting quote:

Is Tough Mudder really the toughest race on the planet?
Tough Mudder is the toughest one day endurance race on the planet for participants who have neither the time nor inclination to dedicate their life to competition.

I wish they hadn't added the words, "to competition" to this, because they compared themselves to races that are obviously more difficult - but they don't know enough about those races to know that most entrants are not competing against the others. That's thus just a statement of ignorance. Given the rest of the copy on the site, I shouldn't be surprised. However, let's remove those two words. Without "to competition", there are two key words.
1. "Inclination" So this is the toughest race that exists for lazy people?
2. "Time" I don't have the time to dedicate my life to ultra running, yet I somehow make it work.

I am really discouraged by thw race's web site. The race promoters just don't seem to have their hearts in the right place. Thanks, but no thanks.

An alternative - the Warrior Dash



On Thursday, out of the blue, a friend sent me a link to another, very similar race - The Warrior Dash:


As that picture indicates, every race entrant gets a T-shirt, medal, and .. a "warrior helmet".

Go to their FAQ page, and you find a completely different attitude. Tough Mudder seems to want to make themselves seem hardcore. Warrior Dash just wants to be fun. Look at this sampling of q&a's from their site:

q. Why do we get warrior helmets?
a. They’re awesome.

q. What if it rains?
a. Better yet.

q. How do I train for Warrior Dash?
a. 1. Day one: run as far as you can. Go home. Day two: do the same thing.
2. Find the dirtiest pond in your neighborhood and snorkel in it - in your slippers, without goggles.
3. Practice your climbing and crawling skills at your local jungle gym. Ignore the small children and parental glares.
4. Do not shower or shave for weeks in order to obtain a true Warrior look.

As far as I can tell, curiously absent from this site is any attempt to compare itself to any other race. It doesn't try to tell people why it's better than marathons, it just gets the point across - hey, this is a race, it's not going to be easy, but it's going to be fun.

I think I'll probably do it.

The ultimate



Of course, none of these races hold a candle to the Pittsfield Peaks Death Race. I've written about it before on this blog. Now in its third or fourth year (I think), the Race Director famously designs the ten-mile course to be "uncompletable", and yet every year, one or two people manage to finish it. So each year, he's made it a little harder to finish. If you want to truly understand just how difficult a "tough guy" race can be, go to that site and see what he puts competitors through. It's pretty impressive.


New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

Joey's Yellow Belt Test

Here is a video from Wednesday night:

If you can't see the video, please click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOM_MMW3Gf4

He also got to break a board:



New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

Run Report: Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, February 15 2010

Bright and early Monday morning, fifteen of us showed up at the Croton Harmon train station. After a few hellos, we took off, 14 running 3½ miles north towards the New Croton Dam. Alone, I started south, down Route 9 for a little less than a mile before turning right on the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail.



I really enjoyed the trail, but there are two things that I'd like to point out if you're considering it:
1.) A map is critical. There are portions of the trail where the easement no longer exists, and you have to walk on nearby streets to cover the gap. It isn't always clear where to go.
2.) When there is snow, expect 0% of the trail to be plowed - and for good reason: If it was plowed, this mecca for cross-country skiers would be worthless.

In the morning, the hard snow was mostly OK to run on, especially where it was well-tracked by hundreds of walkers and skiers over the weekend. But by 11am, the sun had really softened things, and even where it was well packed, every step would sink or slip a little. It really sucked a lot of energy out of me.



Besides the snow, the run went rather uneventfully. Three faster runners who broke ahead of the main group caught up to me in Yonkers, where they finished their day. After that, I was alone until south of Van Cortlandt Park, where I stopped and waited for five remaining runners to catch up to me. I ran out of water a few miles before and was starting to feel a little dehydrated, no biggie. Energy was really depleted though.

For nutrition, I had 1600kCals worth of almonds (of which I ate about half), a couple of PB-cracker packs from Joey's lunch rations, and some perpetuum. I also had a 100-oz camelback filled with water. Some of the perpetuum went into that initial cache of water. By the time I was in the Bronx, I needed some quick calories, so while I was waiting I slipped into a pizzeria and had two slices and a coke, which made an enormous difference. They arrived a couple of blocks away while I was starting my second slice, so I ate it as I went to join them. At that point we decided that we wanted to forget the Aqueduct in NYC and take the fastest route to the library, so I led them to Broadway, where we ran together, as a group, over Spuyten Duyvil into the northern tip of Manhattan.

By now, it was obvious that I wouldn't be able to keep up with these faster, lighter runners. I had run 27.3 miles at that point, half of which was through wet, heavy snow, from Croton-Harmon to Manhattan. I was satisfied with my day and didn't want to hold anyone up. So I bid them farewell, and jumped on a train to Midtown where we met on the steps of the Public Library, site of the original Croton Dam.

We had beers and burgers and took the train back up, and went home. It was a great day.




All photos were shot by Tony Portera

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time