Happy Thursday to you! I just wanted to take a moment to thank my athletes out there who are always logging sessions. I know it’s a chore most times. And I know I’m competing against Strava for your attention sometimes… so if that’s the case for you, just imagine me — the coach — as the equivalent of 100 followers! Maybe that’s not enough…

As someone who’s logged every which way there is over the last couple decades, I believe we’re better if we simply log… something. It’s a reflective practice that’s intrinsically linked to growth mindset.

If you’re logging, commenting, and rating your sessions 1-3, I have an excellent window into how your training’s going. It really helps me plan subsequent weeks.

Logging, like everything else in life, is about creating the habit. Repeat after me,

“The workout’s not done until it’s logged.”

I’ve been carrying that quote around in my head for ever. It works!

So, at the very minimum, just copy the planned session into Workout Log. Like I told my 7th and 8th graders when they were online with their camera off, “I need proof of life!”

Most days, though, I like to see not only the logged session, but some of your thoughts on how the session went. Good, bad, and ugly. Vent if you need to. Training logs are good for that sometimes; effectively processing some frustration, allowing us to turn the page and move on to the next session.

A logged session with just a rating, 1-3, is quite helpful too. Recall, a “3” is when there was more good than bad in a session. We tend to put up more 3’s in training when there is a purpose tied to the workout. For example, when you conduct an ELS session and you work mindfully to keep catching yourself unfocused, then REFOCUS, and tend to your “Easy, Light, and Smooth” running, you’re actively bringing your mind along for the ride. Boom, the run becomes a 3. Honesty’s the best policy though — I know I’ve had more 2’s and 1’s in the last few months. But success in sport like a sine wave with an upward facing trajectory.

Life is messy. Therefore, training is messy. We do our best, and try to move with the ebb and flow. Just like a sweet, little, rolling piece of single track in the forest.

The reflective practice of logging everyday is valuable, for both of us. It paints a clear picture of how things are going. Trends can be identified and we can work together to adjust the “dose” of training to ensure you’re in that sweet spot during any type of training week.

Lately, I’ve been logging all my sessions in a training log while I’m eating a post-workout meal. Seems to work pretty well.

So, log it, rate it, and make a few comments if/when you can. Excellence is a habit!

Coach

Okay, it’s 2020, I get it. Sometimes it feels like playing one-on-one against LeBron. But, today we RISE UP my friends, because it’s World Gratitude Day! That’s right, and I pulled my sports psych text off the shelf this morning just for you!

“Gratefulness is appreciating and being thankful for everything. Although many athletes demonstrate a sense of entitlement, we are not entitled to anything in this world. Entitlements are gifts from others; therefore, take no one or no pleasure for granted. Grateful leaders see opportunity where the entitled see problems and despair.”

According to Guy Raz, host of the podcast How I Built This on NPR, some of the best companies out there got started in uncertain times such as these. Talking about his book by the same name, Raz says, “If you can make it now, when things are difficult, you’re going to be able to handle anything the future may throw at you.” We might not hear opportunity knocking though if we’re breathing the air of despair.

Remember that line from Tin Cup, when Roy McAvoy (Kevin Costner) says “Define the moment… or the moment defines you.” Seems like there’s so much happening TO us right now. I keep going back to this George Sheehan quote I’ve used forever, late in races, when the going gets especially hard:

“There’s no excuse for not playing good defense.”

Just because you’re getting you ass kicked doesn’t mean you get to ease up and jog it in. There’s opportunity here, in the moment. You might feel horrible, but tell yourself, “THIS is what performing at my potential feels like.” I’m here to tell you, Einstein was right, “Full effort IS full victory.”

We might not be training and racing much this year, so playing “good defense” might just mean getting ample sleep, eating well, and maintaining some kinds of reasonable exercise routine. Remember to “take no one and no pleasure for granted.” And, of course, practice an attitude of gratitude, even when you don’t want to! Evolve rather than devolve. We’ll be back on offense before we know it. Bring it, LeBron!

 

 

 

In the book, What Doesn’t Kill Us, Scott Carney writes, “The anticipation of discomfort is almost always worse than the actual experience.” I was reminded of this, talking with The Mile 99 Podcast a couple weeks back, when discussing my unraveling at the 2018 Western States Endurance Run, where I got hung up at the Rucky Chucky aid-station at mile 78. I was a mess and, especially after the sun went down, I simply did NOT want to wade into—and across—the river. THAT was my biggest hurdle. Cold water’s been a nemesis of mine since forever. That day, I’d exhausted all my resources and I was on fumes. The actual experience of crossing the river, however, DID suck, to be certain, BUT, it was over quickly too. Once that mental hurdle was cleared, I was free to walk it in, avoiding the DNF.

Five hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: “My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.”

They say that worrying is a misuse of imagination. But worry seems to be wired into our DNA, even while psychology research tells us that upward to 90% of the things we worry about never come to pass. Especially these days, amidst all the actual calamity, we needn’t make things worse by dwelling on hasty hypotheticals. Take some deeps breaths and get super present with your thinking, your outlook, your overactive imagination. Proactively LIVE in the present FOR the future. The key is to CATCH yourself when you’re not in the moment, when you’re anticipating the worst possible outcome.

We’re not living IN these times, we’re living THROUGH them. We won’t just stand in the current of the times and let its current sweep us off our feet. We’ll move deliberately THROUGH this river, to the other side. Just gotta keep making that daily decision, to jump in and fight that current. We’ll emerge on the other side, stronger.

With three straight ultrarunning seasons in me, one thing’s increasingly clear: I’m at a point of diminishing returns. To continue improving I have to keep working on what I have control over, namely volume and intensity of training while exploring some shorter race distances to help build greater power and speed. In 2015, with two successful 100mi campaigns in the bank, I found myself in early November wondering where my desire to put up big weeks of training had gone. North Face Endurance Challenge… you temptress! Alas, there was little training mojo but in the words of Jack London, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Racing always seem like fun. Why not race more, train less and see if I can’t work on that power/speed development?!!

The overarching plan at the end of 2015 was to “get fast” so I could race my way into Western States 100 at either Sean O’Brien 100k in February or at Gorge Waterfalls 100k in April. All these years of racing, I know how to mix up a good training/racing cocktail to achieve my long-term goals. So I raced fast and often over a 3-week period leading into North Face. I was sure to chop the volume since the intensity went up. It was a lot of fun and I felt like the experience would serve me well in the long-term.

As luck would have it, my golden ticket to States fell into my lap in mid-November as a result of the work I did with Tahoe Mountain Milers at both Western and Tahoe Rim Trail last summer. So I no longer needed to race my in at Sean O’Brien or Gorge. Yet, I still wanted to race those events, and badly. That’s what we do—we sign up for event, train hard, taper, and go big (then repeat the cycle). All the while, health often gets taken for granted.

After North Face at the beginning of December I pretty much shut it down and really wasn’t doing much exercise at all in the weeks after. As a masters runner now, I’m realizing this is a very bad idea; I really need to keep moving. I need to ride the bike more and keep things lubricated. After a couple weeks I went out and did some short trail runs only to find my left knee was givin’ me hell. I experienced an intermittent sharp pain under my patella. It was there. It was not there. Go to the bike. Work it out. Mix the cocktail. Find the solution. Manage it. Run. Pain’s better! Okay, ease back in…

The injury litmus test I’ve always used is if the pain subsides as the run progresses, you’re probably good. If the pain gets worse, you got a problem and you should back off the running and accept you have an issue that needs attention. My knee pain subsided and I chalked it up to a weird niggle that ultimately seems to have originated from racing two tough 30k’s too close together back in Nov; then piling more stress on top of that in order to encourage increased speed and mental fitness for the spring. By mid-January, Sean O’Brien (SOB) training was finally starting to come together:  a 70mi week with 15,000′ of elevation, backed up with an 80mi week with 18,000′ of gain. No knee pain, but… was somethin’ still goin’ on in there??

I wanted to put up one more big week of training before taking a rest week and then sharpening the week into SOB. Monday came rolling around and I noticed some mild swelling. Hmm, not good. After having dealt with a different stress related issue in the same leg a year before, I knew the best path was to take the issue seriously and get some help sooner than later. After a week, the swelling was just about gone and things were looking good again.

I followed through with my promise to myself and went in to see my sports doc and we hashed it out. “The x-ray looks good and I see no need for an MRI, but if you want one we can do it. Are you sure you wanna know what’s goin’ on in there?” We set up the MRI for later that same day. With Western States on the line, I needed to know exactly what I was dealing with, and if racing two tough 100k’s this spring was even in the cards.

This was 10 days out from Sean O’Brien. I had my plane tickets, car, and hotel booked. I was super stoked to race. My 3-month plan to arrive to Feb fast and fit looked like it had worked well. I would use SOB and Gorge as stepping stones to my States-specific training in May and June. Perfect! I asked my doc if I could go out and do my tempo run on the road before the MRI that afternoon. He said, “Why not?” The MRI would be what it was going to be anyway. Since I’d rested for a week and absorbed that last week of training I was on a tapered high starting this run. I zipped through a 14-miler on rolling country roads averaging low 6s the whole way—great! Average HR was in the high 140s—great! Green light for SOB 100k!!

My MRI revealed the following (see below). Everyone keeps telling me that it’s not as bad as it sounds. Well, I’m thinking, it doesn’t feel as bad as it sounds, so…

Moderate marrow edema within the anterior pole and body of the
patella likely representing stress related changes with stress
reaction/fracture. Additional probable stress related change involving the medial
femoral condyle and lateral tibial plateau. Focal deep chondral fissuring of the inferior central patellar cartilage.  Small joint effusion.

My doc went over my MRI results with me and suggested I take some time away from running to allow the knee to heal up. It was a bit counter-intuitive to see there was indeed, havoc going on inside my knee, yet I just had a great tempo run 2 hours prior with no issues at all. Well, what now?

In my early 20’s I drove my dad’s old Isuzu Trooper we got when I was in 6th grade. I put some big miles on that beast. By summer ’96 I don’t think there was a light on that dashboard that wasn’t illuminated. I drove it straight into the ground.

Clearly, ignorance wouldn’t likely lead to the bliss I’m seeking at the Western States 100 finish line in June, so just like that, Sean O’Brien was out (for the second year in a row). And after looking at at least a month away from running, so is Gorge Waterfalls. Trying to “force fitness” for Gorge—not to mention the stress of the race itself—could possibly lead right back to where I am now, or worse. I was bummed about SOB since I was looking to do well there, and Gorge, because I wanted to go back and improve upon last year’s performance. And yeah, it would’ve been cool to Top-2 at SOB and/or Gorge to prove—at least to myself—that I could earn my way in through racing, even if I no longer needed to do so. I’ll have to remain content with what I’ve done at the 100mi distance over the last 3 seasons. That’s confidence enough.

We play the cards we’re dealt. I’ve stopped running and have gone in to Santa Rosa Physical Therapy and got some great PT stuff to help balance me out since this is the second stress-related issue on my left side, along with some reassurance that I’m looking good for a full recovery in time to come back right and do a proper build to Canyons 100k two days before my birthday in May. Naturally, I’d love to come into States having raced at least one ultra. And I’m feeling the good mojo with Canyons—100k with 14,000′ of vert. If I can train properly and hit 70-80mi running with 15-20k’ of gain with no knee swelling, it’ll be game-on. Otherwise, more rest could be needed and I’ll have to come into Western not having raced, which though not ideal, wouldn’t be that bad as long as the training’s there in May/June. It’s all about the preparation. Ultimately, knee-be-damned; I’ll baby it now, but come the end of June, it’s go-time.

Things are progressing well. I’m doing the PT every morning along with yoga and foam-rolling. I’m practicing fast-hiking on trail with a 20lb weight vest a few times per week, spinning, strength training, and did my first century ride over hilly terrain last weekend. That was a nice 7-hr effort. No pain during and no post-ride swelling. Yeah, I’m missing trail-running but it’s a no-brainer right now to take the rest given my goals later this year.

In parting, check out this sweet vid from Ultra Muse from last year’s Run Rabbit Run 100. That was a crazy day where I just stayed within myself and allowed the race to come to me. Hoping to be back in September (knee willing!).

Faster than Twitter, thanks to my beautiful, loving, and highly supportive wife Amanda for her thankless job [even from afar] as “First Responder.”  |  Thank you to Julbo Eyewear for the beautiful, functional, and comfortable sunglasses. It’s GREAT to be working with you!  |  Thank you to Hoka One One for your continued support and producing the best shoes out there—#LetsGoHoka!  |  Thanks to Inside Trail Racing for offering so many fantastic races in great places.  |  Thanks to Vitargo for the steady energy and SIMPLIFYING my nutrition.  |  Thank you Healdsburg Running Company for all the wonderful support. HRC rocks! | Victory Sportdesign produces the best drop-bags in the biz! | Thanks to Dave Townsend at Santa Rosa Physical Therapy for helping me keep the dream alive!

 

 

 

 

 

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All photos by Myles Smythe at Michigan Bluff Photography

Ahhh… back at sea-level now, decompressing from this weekend’s adventures at the TRT Training Runs. Inspired by Matt Fitzgerald’s book, Brain Training for Runners, I continue to build on last year’s TRT100 preparation. In Brain Training, Fitzgerald writes about the essential nature of doing in training—as close as possible to—what you’d like to do on race-day. Okay, so he only offers training up to the marathon-distance, but I’m adapting it a bit for my own intents and purposes. It’s my working hypothesis that, for me, there’s great value in covering the 50mi course at the basic intensity at which I’d like to work on game-day, with the same race process (gear, food, hydration, etc.). Having this experience fresh in my “brain” as well as my body—assuming I absorb all this nonsensical training, I’m hopeful I’ll be able to execute the way I’d like. We’ll see…

Last year at the same training runs, I’d done about 43mi on Sunday, choosing to exclude the infamous 6.2mi Red House loop and keep the day more manageable. This time around I simply threw in Red House for good measure. With the 2013 ultra-running season, as well the 2014 spring race season under my belt, I was excited to cap off my week with these runs up on the course I’ll be racing on on July 19th, confident I could “get away with it,” without significant injury risk. I’ll be honest, these last two weeks I’ve been more than stretching myself in order to create the opportunity to see exactly how fast, i.e., how efficiently, I can cover the entire 100 miles come July. Tahoe gods willing…

The above was my loosely-laid plan to follow up on last week’s 190mi training week with 40,000′ of gain. Initially, I was hoping to hit 150mi, but I had to go with my gut and ensure I trimmed the fat in order to preserve health. Monday became a rest day and I took advantage of that by using one of the massages my wife, Amanda, got me for my 40th birthday. The massage therapist wasn’t exactly impressed with what I’ve been doing to my body, imploring that I must return to many follow up visits! Thus, it was a fine way to start the week. Then, slowly easing into it with two active recovery runs (to see if the body was going to allow me to continue running).

To address the issue of diminishing leg-speed with all the Zone 2 training I’ve been doing, I added a 100mi-specific tempo run to the mix on Wednesday, again listening to the body, waiting for it to give me the “green-light” to work harder. It took a full 1.5hrs on Wednesday’s run at Lake Sonoma for that to happen. A cool motivator was doing the tempo from Wulfow aid-station on the Lake Sonoma 50mi course back to the finish line. Considering what I had in my legs from the previous ten days, I had to be happy with a sub-9min/mi pace for those 17mi. I’m hopeful that this Wednesday, I’ll see that pace improve a bit, at about the same intensity.

Preceding Sunday’s 50mi training run, I was pleased to make good time to Diamond Peak on Saturday, arriving there at about 2pm. I’d wanted to stash some water for Sunday and do the big ski-slope climb there a couple of times. Out of the car, I slowly made my way up to the top. I descended back down, had a breather and a gel, and did another ascent at about—what I felt was—my 5k race intensity. Just dying on the last bit that really pitches up, I arrived at Bullwheel having averaged only 13:09/mi for a bit over 26min of work (hey, it’s a ski-slope!). This little bit of intensity, coupled with Wednesday’s tempo, put me in an appropriate fatigued state, to run on Sunday. After all, running on tired legs is what running 100mi is all about, right? The reward for that “all-out” effort up Diamond Peak? Some solid active-recovery running from Bullwheel over to the Tyrolean Downhill, back to my car. An efficient 15mi effort with 4000′ of gain. And I got my water stashed!

Training Log for 09June2014

Yeah so, pleased that the body is somehow holding up (knock on wood) and I was able to hit almost 150mi w/ just about 30,000′ of elevation gain for the week. The key, for me, surely, was having those training runs on the weekend to look forward to, since my motivation does wane in the midst of this once-a-year, insane, 3-week training block. Now, just one more week to go until a joyous recovery week!

Strava’s June Monthly Training Series (MTS) continues (for only one more week for this old man). As I stated in my last post, I use the MTS only as a motivating tool, being cautious of the very real tendency of mine to do too much (understatement, yes, I realize that). Still, I like the challenge the MTS presents and getting to follow—and sometimes chat—with other like-legged runners from around the globe. Hey, normally when I participate in any other month’s MTS—if I actually check—I’m in 3,567th position, or thereabouts. Like I’ve said, we want Strava to work for us, not the other way around. Know thyself and above all else, keep it fun! 😀

A HUGE thanks to George Ruiz and his awesome crew for again hosting the fantastic TRT Training Runs. The volunteers at the aid-stations and the finish are enthusiastic all-stars! ALL I could think about those last, long 4mi, as I descended from Snow Valley Summit back to Spooner, was the promise of hamburgers and beer at the finish. And within minutes of stopping my Garmin, that’s just what I had. Maybe THIS should be my nutrition plan on race-day…

😀

Greetings from 10,000′ (or thereabouts). Making my way back to Pennsylvania for a funeral this week. Didn’t start the day off well, missing my flight out of Oakland by two lousy minutes, which had me sitting around grading science tests for three hours hoping that I’d snag a seat on a connecting flight in Phoenix on the hot-standby list. If that TSA line just wasn’t so dang LONG checking in in OAK!! Or, if I hadn’t stopped at Starbucks on the way down. ERRGH!!

I made the 90min flight to PHX so it was back on hot-standby for me for a few more hours while the US Airways guy, Dave, juggled passengers around going to Pittsburgh. It was looking really good there, up to the absolute final moment, and boom, I’m not going anywhere. Stupid stand-by. Stuck in Phoenix?! Steve Miller Band’s “Keep on Rockin’ Me” annoyingly playing in the back of my head.

This day’s like a good ultra gone bad: I’m on-course, then miss a turn, then back on again, but behind. Then Super Dave, tapping away furiously on his keyboard while talking with 26.2 people at once asked me if I wanted to go to Boston, AND if I could run fast.

I had 2min to fly over to another gate (but didn’t have time to sync satellites on my Garmin, so no Strava upload, sadly). I think I had a good sub-6 pace going through the terminal, (kind of like trail-running, with all the bobbing and weaving). I even got some claps, compliments on my form, and a few “Go Runner!” cheers from limping, “Boston-Strong”-clad runners/new arrivals, just off the plane from the Boston Marathon. So that was pretty cool to have that additional support. Could’ve used some cow bell though…

Yeah, so about 800mi out from Boston now I am. Haven’t been there since crossing the finish-line in ’03, the same year I moved to CA. Did not have a good day (the slowest of my three Bostons). Some days are better than others. Like my grandmother used to say when I was pouting about something as a little kid, “Cheer up. Better days are coming.”

Amanda’s been home, at CTU Headquarters, tracking bags, making calls, booking hotel rooms, and generally doing what Chloe O’Brian from “24,” does for Jack Bauer, (when HE misses a flight by 2min). Sh*t Happens (saying coined by Forrest Gump, you’ll recall).

Flexibility, you may realize, is huge in our training and racing. In fact, it can be THE reason we’re successful or not. As in life, in the middle of a hard training week, or in the middle of a A-Pri event, we sometimes have to adjust our goals to best suit the day, we have to listen to our bodies and effectively deal with issues as they manifest themselves, inevitably, in one form or another.

With the help of our support teams we’re better able to maintain faith that things are going to work out, eventually. I saw a quote on Facebook when I was eating a $250 salad in the Phoenix airport today. It read, “Being positive won’t guarantee you’ll succeed. But being negative will guarantee you won’t.” When I first saw that this morning I dismissed it with a few choice words in my head, while knowing full well how true it is.

Maybe I can run around the tarmac tomorrow morning since I’m staying at the hotel at Logan International tonight. It’d be nice to capitalize on all this “Boston Strong” energy and get a workout up on Strava before catching my flight to Pittsburgh, where of course, I first qualified for the Boston Marathon, all the way back in the 20th century (circa 1999). Things are coming full circle (with a few tangents thrown in for good geometric measure) as I write this forming an arc over the US.

In conclusion, remember that flexibility is key, and remaining positive when under the gun of adversity may ultimately encourage stronger performances in the future. A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. Probably made an angry, frustrated sailor, on the way to being skilled.

Also, trust that things are going to workout. In the middle of an Ironman, or an ultra-run, sh*t can look really bad. Listen to that inner athlete in your head, and not what your body’s telling you. The body will always want to quit. Trust things can turn around when/if you get present, take a mental inventory, point positive, and keep on gettin’ down the road, trail, or sky as the case may be.

Plus, always remember that the most challenging days always produce some funny stories we can share with our friends while at 10,000′ (or thereabouts).

Every once in a while it’s fun to throw caution to the wind and just see what you can do. If you’re training for a one hundred mile endurance run, it’s probably a good idea to pump up the volume for a few weeks in training in order to get the body—and mind—ready for the big dance. As my favorite saying as of late goes—No Challenge. No Change.

Last week was my “Run DMC” for 2013, that is, last week I ran the most amount of miles with the most cumulative elevation of any other week of the year. The “DMC” in “Run DMC” stands for Days: Many. Consistently. During a Run DMC, you set a training goal that is “crazy smart.” To the outside observer, they’d be quick to dismiss you and say stuff like, “Dang son, you so crazy” or “Whoa sucka, that’s wack.” These folks think you have a screw loose. Little do they know that you’re a flash endurance sports wizard and can rock a training week jam like there’s no tomorrow. You know how put it together and make it flow, slow and low, and with some tempo.

I conducted my Run DMC last week, the week of June 3rd. Normally, I train in hours, not miles, but during a Run DMC, I like to go old school. So, I set the stage to run 150 hilly trail miles with about 30,000′ of elevation gain. I naturally like running long, that’s what I’m good at so that’s where I have the most potential for improvement. Yeah, weaknesses can be strengthened but we’re always going to grow most in the areas where we’re strongest. Why? Because we like doing stuff we’re good at! Thus, I figured this goal was crazy smart. It might not actually be that crazy to another runner who’s stronger, faster, and/or more talented than I. Likewise, it may not be that smart for a different runner to attempt my specific Run DMC. You have to know yourself and create challenges that excite YOU, and won’t leave you injured on the other side.

I’d come off Silver State 50 miler in good shape. I’d set my year up so that I could essentially rest the final two weeks of May, absorb Silver State, finish the school-year, and enjoy my students. So, I’d come into my Run DMC and find myself with two weeks of rest in the bank, it’s June in Sonoma County, and I’m out on summer vacation. With my teaching schedule, it’s best for me to do my A-Race of the year in later July so I can take advantage of training and weather in June. The Tahoe Rim Trail 100mi/50mi/50k is a battle I pick because it falls at the perfect time of year for me—lots of time for a healthy, fun build and time to fully recover before heading back into the classroom in August.

The Tahoe Rim Trail 100 (TRT) is an especially awesome trail running event, celebrated on pristine trail surface between 6000-8000ft elevation in Lake Tahoe. I’ve run it in 2009 and a little better in 2010. Of all the events I’ve ever done, TRT’s my favorite because of the venue’s astounding beauty and the challenging nature of the distance, terrain, and competition. Now I can’t expect to improve over my 2010 performance if I don’t shake things up and train differently, that is, training crazy smart. My Run DMC last week simply set the tone for the rest of my TRT training this month. Here’s how it played out [see training log below for reference].

Long Run. When doing a Run DMC or any bigger training week I prescribe to an hard/easy approach, keeping the easy days easy so the harder—quality—days can be harder, or higher quality. We want a nice return on our training investment so we gotta go easy when that’s the most appropriate thing to do. Ration energy accordingly. Just as success in a 100 miler is about being steady, so are these long runs.

Mix Master. Variety is the spice of life and I simply must run in different places to keep my sanity. Also, I like to run loops whenever possible. So for my Run DMC I book-ended my weekday running with long runs at Lake Sonoma on Monday and Friday. This loop is not only picturesque and fun, but I’ll bank about 5000′ over the my 26mi loop. These two runs alone account for a third of my Run DMC elevation.

Tempo. I built some tempo into my Wednesday–midweek—longer run at Sugar Loaf Ridge State Park. Sugar Loaf has the most similar terrain and inclines I’ll see at TRT so I’ll be running there a lot during this month. In just a 20mi loop, I can net 6000′ of vertical. Because I was concentrating on volume last week, I didn’t want to do a lot of tempo because too much intensity with very high volume is a recipe for disaster, and I have a lot more running after my Run DMC. Thus, I only had about 40min at tempo effort (1800′) where I pushed it up to the top of Bald Mountain, where I subsequently bonked and could not push to tempo later ’cause I didn’t bring enough calories. Tomorrow, I’m heading back, setting up my own little aid station atop Hood Mountain and see if I can rack up about 10,000′ of vertical. l definitely need a few of these efforts in my legs for TRT, which has about 25,000′ of vertical over its 100 miles. We do reap what we sow.

The Triple. The triple run on Sunday is inspired by fellow ultra-runner Duncan Callahan. A few years back, when I was learning how to prepare for a 100 mile run, I was intrigued to learn Duncan would conduct three runs in one weekend day. I’ve adapted this approach into my own training. I set out to do three 3-hour runs, one in the morning, one in the mid-day heat, and one at night. This way I can most simulate what running all day at TRT will be like without actually running all day. I gave myself four hours in between runs which might sound like a lot but with commuting, ice-baths, eating, and relaxing in between, the time goes fast. It panned out pretty well. The middle run went a little over so the last run didn’t need to be so long. It was kind of nice since I only needed about 10mi on that last run to hit my Run DMC goal. It was also nice to see my wife, Amanda, periodically instead of leaving the house at o’dark 30, run for eight hours and come home and be catatonic for the rest of the evening. Breaking up nine hours into segments throughout the day was really pretty tolerable.

Recovery. On Tuesday and Thursday, I’d do two shorter runs at an easy pace, to help keep the volume up without all the fatigue from running longer. Normally, I train is Hokas, but last week was special. I did all my running in a totally awesome pair of Adidas Superstar 80’s, which feature premium buttery leather uppers, 3M black stripes and heel tabs which pay tribute to DJ legend Jam Master Jay, complete with 1986 ankle signatures and dookie chain lace jewels. Pretty nice ride but I have to say, I love my Hokas more.

A Run DMC is best conducted during a week where you’re off from work. This way, you can train relatively stress-free. I might be out of school, but I’m still working a few hours everyday talking with and developing training plans for athletes I coach. But still, I can do that from home on my laptop in the backyard. During a Run DMC you want to wake each day without the use of an alarm clock. You want to take ice-baths after every long run. I grabbed a 20lb bag of ice after my second run on Sunday and jumped in the tub with it for 10min. I think it made a significant difference in how my legs felt for the night run. Tip for the ice-bath—fill the tub with cold water. Get in. Then bring in the ice.

I use compression tights after bigger efforts. I try to foam roll everyday and work on stuff that hurts. One thing about a Run DMC is that you’re training so much that you might just find that most if not all of your issues seem to vanish since you’re so loose from training. Of course, this is a temporary state but it’s sure nice while you’re in the midst of it.

Cycling. Saturday was really the day that held it all together. Getting on the bike and just spinning really helped the legs recover and prepare for a busy Sunday running. On Monday, post Run DMC, I was pretty wiped out, and ended up taking a full rest day, as planned. Today, I got in my scheduled two 75min runs and the legs are goin’ okay. Now lookin’ forward to a big day climbing tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes…

Overall, the Run DMC was a success and will surely be remembered when I toe the line next month at TRT in my fly new pair of Superstar 80’s. Game on >>> 😀

Run DMC (Days: Many. Consistently)