Keep the Throttle On

We all have different ways to either cope or nail a workout. This morning, the mantra "keep the throttle on" got me through my 10+ mile run. If you've ever driven a motorcycle, or scooter, jet ski, or even a Go Car, you probably understand this analogy. The throttle is used to apply more gas to either accelerate or to maintain speed. When a scooter approaches a hill, if the throttle is kept constant, the scooter will gradually slow down as it climbs the hill. In order to maintain the same speed up the hill, one needs to "keep the throttle on". I did a hilly run this morning where the focus was to work the uphills and keep it steady through the flats and downhills. As the pitch of a hill increased, I had to keep the throttle on to maintain my speed. There was one pitch that was pretty steep and I was unsure if I was indeed keeping the throttle on, but my ascending heart rate popping out of my chest confirmed that I indeed was throttling. Mantras work very well with my obsessive/compulsive brain.

I need to keep the throttle on for one more week because this is the third and final week of my build cycle, and then some rest next week. There were definitely days over the past week when I questioned what the hell I was doing. On top of work and training, which is normally doable, I've got some extra stuff going on in my life that is making time management more of a challenge. One of the extra stuff involves playing in the kitchen and coming up with my own energy food, stay tuned.

Kaiser SF Half Marathon

The last two times I did this race, I had very bad cases of "race day illusion". As the name implies, race day illusion is a distorted view of what you can actually do verses what you want to do. For example, it's race day illusion that makes you blaze from the start trying to hold 6:00 minute pace for 13.1 miles, even though you haven't run any faster than 6:40 pace for only 7 miles. It's race day illusion that makes you try to beat that girl just because she is a girl, even though she is running at a ridiculously fast pace. The previous example also holds true for people you consider to look less fit than you, not wearing an outfit that looks as fast as yours, or people who don't look as pretty as you running. Race day illusion caused me to cramp at mile 9 the last time two times I did this race, forcing me to hobble the last 4 miles to the finish. It would not happen a third time.

From the start, I held a pace that I believe I could hold for the entire 13.1 miles. I floated when I could on the flats and the downhills, and I pushed, but not too hard, when I needed to during the uphills. I let girls pass me, unfit looking people pass me, people with weird painful looking gaits pass me, and I never let my ego sabotage my goal of properly pacing the 13.1 miles. Mile 8 was my first benchmark to tell me if I had properly paced the race. No cramping, right on, see ya later alligator. Mile 9 was the next hurdle, and still no cramping, I think I'm in the clear, no race day illusion here. Even with proper pacing, at some point, the race is going to hurt. It's a race. That point came at mile 10. As I felt the hurt come on, I started to take myself out of the race, out of the hurt. And I immediately heard Charisa's voice (and a faint Ian too) telling me it's supposed to hurt. And just like that, I got my mind back into the race, into the hurt. It felt good to be able to do this, to make the correct decision at a pivotal point, something I've not necessarily been able to do in the past. I stayed in the hurt and pushed myself to run the last 3.1 miles as fast as I could. A little after mile 11, I felt my calves twitch, uh oh. I switched my gait up a bit to put less pressure on the calves. After several tries of different gaits, nothing was really working. At mile 12, both calves seized up, but I kept running, as funny and weird as it might have looked to the spectators. One good thing to come from making those pacing errors in my previous two races, is that I learned how to run with cramped legs. Even with both calves cramped, I managed to re-pass two people, and finish the final mile (an uphill mile) in 6:35 or so. I'll gladly accept kudos.

My finish time was 1:23:47, only 7 seconds slower than my time from when I was 34 years-old, and in similar shape. I'm very happy with my result, considering that I've only been running three times per week and no speed work. I'm going to turn 42 this year and for the past several years, I've been using my age as an excuse for not running faster. I now realize that allowing myself to use that excuse the past several years has kept me from running faster. I may get faster running this year, or I may not, but I certainly am not going to continue holding onto that excuse. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I scoured but I couldn't find any from the race.

Float

Lately, the word "float" pops in my head during every run. "Float" also happens to be the same word the speedy ultra runners used to describe to me how they run the downhills so fast. As I prepare for the Kaiser SF Half Marathon this weekend, when I catch myself straining, I remind myself to float, especially on the flats and the downhills. I tighten my core, relax my arms and shoulders, and let my legs whip around, keeping my footstrike light and fast. And remember the golden rule of running: "Don't run as hard as you can. Run as fast as you can without straining."

The Year Can Only Get Better

Isn't it funny how when your life is going really smooth, the Universe decides to shake things up just to give you a reminder to always be grateful for smooth days. My reminder came upon my return from Maui.

First, I had to take BART from SF to the East Bay at 10:00 PM new year's eve, with my bags and my bike. I had to pass up two trains because there was not enough room for my bike amidst all the people taking BART to celebrate NYE safely. I finally rolled through the door of my house around 11:00 PM, and there were ants everywhere! I guess they found some food, and with me gone for 8 days, they took over the entire house. Upon further investigation, I also found a bunch of kleenex, toilet paper, and brown paper bags all chewed up and strewn in different places. I guess a mouse also decided to shack up in my place, leaving mouse turds throughout the house. I decided to tackle the problems the next day and I went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up to see that my left eye was blood red, and that I had popped a blood vessel or something. I stood in my house frozen for a bit, trying to figure out which problem to tackle first. I decided the best solution was to go for a trail run, to set my mind right for the tasks at hand. I went to turn on my car and it wouldn't start. I tried everything and realized that the battery was dead. Thanks for the reminder Universe, but isn't this overkill?

I set off for a run through the hood and 7 miles later, I arrived home with a whole new frame of mind. I just put the food away and thought, the ants and I will just coexist. The car battery? It's not urgent. I can live without a car for a couple of days, my entire life happens within a two-mile vicinity, gotta love urban living. The mouse? I searched the entire house and found a huge hole under the kitchen sink, most likely where the mouse is gaining entry. I McGyver'ed the hole and voila, all tasks done. A run can't solve your problems but it can put you in the right frame of mind to find solutions. I'm taking this lesson into 2013.

On Not Running

This year, I decided to take a month-long break from running, and my last run was on November 25. During this hiatus from running, I've come to learn how automatic my desires are toward running. So often, I found myself looking forward to a run after work, or excited to get out on an early morning run, only to be disappointed that I was not allowed to run. Like most runners, I think running is more than just running, it is freedom, and it is meditation.

I also realized how much running keeps my weight in check. In place of running, I've been doing a lot of weights. The weights sans running saw me tipping the scale at 132 pounds, about 10 pounds over my racing weight from a year ago. Though I do feel like I've gained more muscle mass, I also know that the off-season has been good and I've got some waist/belly fat to prove it.

I'm very much looking forward to starting my running back up on XMAS day, especially because I'll be in Maui! Bring on the heat and sun.

San Francisco 5K Turkey Trot

My little running spree concluded with a 5K turkey trot yesterday. My goal was to break 18 minutes, and practice some more pain management skills. Amy joined me and she brought her friends Jesse and Chenny along for the ride. They were there just to have fun, and I felt a bit sheepish because I wanted to do a proper warm-up, my dynamic stretches, and stride-outs in preparation for the "race". But the 24 year-olds understood this 41 year-old's need to break 18 minutes.

Half a mile into the race, I found myself leading the damn thing. Uh oh. But things felt good, I knew I was taking it out a bit harder but knew that I would settle into a pace. At about the 1-mile mark, this kid goes by me for the lead but after the initial pass, I noticed our gap remained the same. So began my plan just to stalk him. I started to hear footsteps from behind so I threw in a couple of surges, but the footsteps would eventually make their way back to my ears. At the two-mile mark, two guys pass me, and I assessed the situation. I was running at about 95% so I knew I couldn't push much more. They started to pull away and my initial reaction was to speed up. But then I could hear my high school cross country coach say, don't spike your heart rate chasing guys down, just steadily increase the effort. And that I did, and I reeled the fellas back, and together we pulled in and passed the first place whipper snapper

With less than a mile to go, it was the three of us running neck and neck. I asked myself who wanted it more? I demonstrated that I wanted it by pulling the two guys back. But I was now at about 99%, and I didn't have any more, just holding this pace to the finish would be hard. One guy made a case for wanting it more by putting in a surge and the other guy responded. I fell back, but they were still about 10 feet up. I decided to regroup, try to maintain the gap, and see if I could put in a kick with a quarter or so mile to go. To my surprise, the 3-mile mark appeared, and they too saw it, and began their kick. I responded but I didn't have it, and they got me by 6 seconds. So much for regrouping and planning a kick, the run was marked short at 2.84 miles. Damn it! Yeah, I can extrapolate and say 16 minutes for 2.84 miles would have me breaking 18 minutes, but it's just that, extrapolation. It's not legit. Foils, I guess the Universe just didn't want me breaking 18 minutes legitimately

Since yesterday was Thanksgiving, I should mention that I'm very thankful for my health, and to be able to train and race, and push my body physically. I'm also thankful for my family and friends, who make life worth living and fun.

US Half-Marathon Race Report

I got some nice feedback and advice before the race, and after reading them, I decided to just stop thinking about the race until race day: goals, pacing, outcomes, strategy, all of it. Thanks for taking the time to send advice and thoughts.

I arrived to the race site and I realized that I had forgotten to bring gels, boy, am I out of practice. I actually thought I might be able to do the race without any gels, I'm so glad I didn't go with that thought, as you'll understand further down the race report. I explored the nearby Safeway and to my luck, not only did they have gels, but they carried Clifbar gels!

It was a freakin' BEAUTIFUL day for a race, in one of the most beautiful city in the world! There was no fog, clear blue skies, and the temperature was in the low 70s...in NOVEMBER! Gotta love CALI and its Indian Summer!

The first 6 miles were pretty schizophrenic with me vacillating between being conservative and backing off, and trying to race with the pack. Thus, I kept dropping back, and then coming back onto the group. As I was running out on the Golden Gate Bridge, I made a decision to race, knowing well that I was running a bit faster than my fitness. At mile 9, I felt my calves twitch, uh oh. I looked at my Garmin to check in and saw 6:20 pace, right on, my dream pace for this race. At mile 10, I took a salt tablet and my second gel (Did I really think I could do the race without any gels?), and hoped the nutrition would kick in for the remaining miles. Both calves cramped at mile 10.5, and I changed my gait to take the pressure off the calves and relieve the cramps. From then on, it was crisis management mode with deep breathing, a heel striking gait to relieve the cramped calves, and waiting, and praying for the nutrition to kick in.

I wanted so badly to hold onto the 6:20 pace and the resulting 1:23 finish time. This would be a near 2-minute PR on this course from four years ago, and proof that at 41 years-old, I still had it. But the nutrition never kicked in and the calves never loosened up, and I watched the group I was running with for the last 10+ miles pull away. I was no longer racing, but instead, surviving, and trying to diminish my losses. I told myself to keep running, no matter how ugly and awkward it looked, and that walking would be a sure way to bring down that 6:20 average. I looked down at the watch with two miles to go, and saw 6:24 pace change to 6:25. Two things struck me during those final two miles: how I managed to keep running (well, more like a fast hobble) with two cramped calves, and how nobody was coming up from behind. I finally got passed in the last mile dropping me from first in the 40-49 age-group to second. I wanted to suffer in this race, and that I did. My finish was a bit embarrassing but I got some redemption, when the announcer recognized my name and said, "Kiet Tran just finished and now he's going to swim 2.4 miles and ride 112 miles." I made sure to milk that. I finished in 1:25:19, averaging 6:31s, jut 30 seconds off my time from four years ago. I spent today looking for another half-marathon in the next two weeks, this race left me thirsty.

Realistic Goals

Since my post about embracing the hurt that comes from attacking the run, I've gone out and done just that, attack all of my runs. But I have to admit, I kind of mentally broke down this morning waking up knowing that I had to yet again, attack another run. I just didn't want to hurt again. I've been sticking to the run plan I've had this entire year, run every third day, with a couple of every second day runs thrown in. This plan has a lot of built-in recovery, and is low mileage, thus, I need to attack every run. On days that I'm not running, I either bike or swim, or do both. Attacking every run puts you at risk for mornings like I had today, where I dreaded getting out the door because I knew I had to suffer. In order to actually get out the door, I told myself to just run, and if I feel like crap, just get the miles in. Most of the run was mediocre, but during the last three miles, the mind and body were slowly willing. I pulled off some 6:20s and a 5:44 mile at the end, due to a nice negative grade.

As the half-marathon draws near, I find myself more anxious about my goal. I'm trying to nail down exactly what it is that is making me anxious, and I think the culprit is that I feel like I'm going to fall short of my goal. I think this mostly stems from the fact that my goals almost always have to do with me trying to chase my PRs. And that rather than setting goals based on my current training/fitness, I set goals based on my lifetime PRs, which is okay if I took up sport 1-3 years ago. But I started racing more than 25 years ago, and in my prime, I set PR's that really are unrealistic for me to continue to try and chase down as I get older and older. Reality is I'm 41 years old. I got some nice perspective tonight when I came across this quote by Ken Glah, a former pro who has finished 28 consecutive Kona races:

You have to set your goals based on what your training is, not what you did 10 years ago. And I think the higher you were at some point in your life,, the harder it is to be more realistic with those goals.

I need to be realistic.

Treadmill Love

With a half-marathon coming up, I'm spending some quality time on the treadmill. Tuesday's run was active recovery working on turnover, a perfect sesh for the tready. I did one of my favorite workouts, progressives. I started with a mile at 7:30, then 2 miles at 7:03, 3 miles at 6:52, 2 miles at 6:44 pace and then a half mile warm down. If you run on the tready, make sure you put the incline between 1.0-1.5 to best simulate road running. Besides being able to work on fast turnover without taxing the muscles, the tready is a great way to practice mental toughness. There is always a moment when my mind tells me, "I can't hold this turnover, I'm gonna roll off", or "It's too hot, I need air", and I really need to work through these thoughts. This is good practice for those race day negative moments. And finally, I noticed that when my hips started to fatigue, the treadmill would start to shake more when my technique fell off. This was great feedback and reminded me to focus on good running form, and to not let my hips drop and sway too much.

Libby and Neil had a layover on their way to Auckland, New Zealand for the World Championships. They must have brought the hot and sunny weather with them from Florida, because it was a cracker of a day in SF. I took them to all of my favorite spots including: a walk through the Mission, lunch at Samovar, and we basically saw all the sights along the Escape from Alcatraz bike and run courses. And to keep their stomachs full and happy for the 12-hour flight to NZ, I introduced them to the bread pudding at Tartine. Good luck Libster! It's no ironman so I expect you to redline it the entire time. And I'm including the video of my skydive over the Remarkables in Queenstown, there is no better view if you are going to jump out of a plane.

Run Attitude

When I first started racing triathlons, I was a poor cyclist, and I always looked forward to the run. I would get off the bike and try to chase down as many guys as I could, no matter how much it hurt. I am amazed at the level of hurt I could sustain on the run. I totally embraced it. When I watch strong runners like Craig Alexander, Kelly Williamson, and Mirinda Carfrae race, I totally see their willingness to suffer on the run to catch anyone and everyone. They too totally embrace it, knowing it's their weapon, and they gladly put themselves in the hurt box.

But as my cycling improved, my attitude toward the run somehow changed. I no longer attacked the run like I used to, and instead, I would run safe or tentative, trying to maintain my position, rather than working to improve my place. And I just couldn't dip as deep into the well. For some reason, almost every run I've done in the past two weeks, my thoughts go to this place.

My goal at last weekend's race was to take a step toward trying to change my current run attitude to more of what is used to be back in the day. I think I was successful for the first 2.5 miles, but after, I reverted back to my tentative, play-it-safe attitude. I couldn't sustain the "attack" attitude, but it was a step in the right direction. I signed up for a half-mary in a month's time, and my training will include taking more steps toward regaining my run attitude.

I'll leave you with a swim set that makes 1000 yards go by awfully fast. Swim a 1000 broken down as: 50 all out, 50 recovery, 100 fast, 100 moderate, 200 strong, 200 moderate, 100 fast, 100 moderate, 50 all out, 50 recovery. Pop your head up and site at each distance and get your splits. Pull one round and swim one round.

Enjoying the Run

Somehow, my stint in Europe improved my run fitness. All I know is that the week I came home from Europe, I went out for a 10+ mile run, and finished it seeing 6:30 average pace on my Garmin. Since then, I've repeatedly seen numbers that confirm that I am indeed pretty fit on the run. But aside from numbers, I've really enjoyed running lately, mostly because my form and stride feels so much more like it used to back in the day when I was a "runner". But this feeling didn't come back overnight, but rather, something I've noticed improving starting the beginning of this year. I suspect my break from racing the ironman distance (less biking, less long and slow training miles) is a major contributor to my improved run feeling. But I also attribute it to doing more single leg squats. Yes, like everyone else, I too am praising the single leg squat, the "it" girl of endurance sports this year. Supposedly single leg squats both strengthen your hips and increase their flexibility. Over the weekend, I got a clue as to how weak hips affect my running.

I was doing my long run on Saturday, and the weather was atypically warm for San Francisco. I took off my shirt, rolled it up and wrapped it around my waist tucking the ends into my shorts (you know, what you see real runners do). My shirt stayed in place, with the ends tucked neatly in my shorts throughout most of the run. The plan was to run 12 miles thus I didn't carry any water and only one gel. But I got ambitious, tried a new route, and found myself bonking the last two miles of a 14+ mile run. But more importantly, during that bonk, I noticed the shirt jostling, and loosening from the shorts repeatedly, and I constantly had to tuck it back in. It then dawned on me that my hips were fatigued, and as a result, they were becoming increasingly unstable, and bouncing more and more. The increased bounce led to my shirt jostling loose. I focused on stabilizing my hips with each stride, and sure enough, my shirt jostled less and less. And stabilizing my hips during these "bonked" miles not only decreased the jostle of my shirt, it also saw me bring back down my pace per mile. So, if you've got an ironman left this season, you're gonna want some strong and stable hips that last 10K of the marathon.

And finally, I leave you with some pictures from Stockholm and St. Petersburg.

The Spring in My Step

Or rather the lack of spring in my step is what I need to rectify. I was doing a run last week and as I ran up and alongside another runner, he picked up his pace to stay with me. Running side by side allowed me to compare and take note of our run gait, and I immediately noticed how much more springy and more lift he had with his stride. I had him on turnover and that's how we managed to stay in sync pace-wise, but definitely not stride-wise. I suspect he is a college-aged runner not only because I was running through the CAL campus, but such a springy gait could only come from someone with youth on his side. As I age, hitting the number 41 this year, I notice more and more factors working to bring down the spring in my step, and I'm speaking literally here as in my run gait, but I'm sure figuratively there are such factors as well. I've lost flexibility and muscle mass in my old age, and both contribute to the decline in my spring. To make matters worst, I've been racing the ironman distance the past three years, and the key to a fast ironman marathon is consistent fast turnover, and not spring in your step. But since I'm racing short this season, I need to find the spring in my step.

I've been focusing less on turnover and more on bounding during my runs. I exaggerate the bounding even more so when I'm running up hills. I also focus on getting more lift and more distance out of my rear push off leg, while getting more knee-lift out of my front leg. I gotta be careful and ease into it because the last thing I need is a stress fracture. I'm already noticing an improved distance per stride after three runs, as demonstrated in a drop in pace at the same heart rate/effort. As an old fogey, I have a harder time holding onto muscle mass so not only do I need to hit the weight room more frequently, I have to back up each weight session with proper nutrition, like a big glass of chocolate milk or putting glutamine in my smoothies. After two weeks, I've already noticed an uncomfortable tightness in my speedos, and the scales confirm more junk in the trunk. I hope to run into this guy again in the next couple of weeks and if all goes well, we'll be going stride for stride.

Life Clues

This past weekend, I was taking a crossfit class when I told the instructor that I was a triathlete transitioning to ultra running, and he responded by saying that marathon racing destroyed his sister's heart. Yesterday, I opened the XTRI website to find a story about a 40 year-old triathlete who died suddenly after running the Pittsburgh marathon. Hmmm...is the Universe conspiring to scare me to quit on this ultra running thing? Or is it just the car phenomena, where when you buy a certain make of car, you suddenly begin to notice that specific make everywhere. Am I just looking for reasons not to run? I do believe that life gives you clues, and I've always been pretty good at picking up on the clues.

I now think the bloody piss incident was a wake-up call of sorts. I only took one week off post IMCA and I was back at it, training for the 50-miler which included crazy things like back-to-back 30+ mile runs totaling 8000+ feet of climbing. Post 50-miler, I gave myself one week off and I was back at it running crazy miles again for the Strava 100-Mile Run Challenge. I was running one afternoon and my friend Chris, who did the 50-miler as well, pulled up along side me in his car and shouted, "Kiet, you gotta give your body a break!" As I look back on my actions, I now think that I, unknowingly, was trying to make up for a disappointing triathlon season. The crazy subconscious things we do to ourselves. In my mind, the crazy and extreme miles would lead me to redemption. I was toying with the idea of racing a marathon, doing the North Face 50-mile Challenge, and yes, I was even contemplating the Leadville-100. But the bloody piss incident and the numerous life clues gave me a good slap in the face. Also, several people emailed me and the word "balance" came up a lot. There will not be a winter marathon, nor another 50-miler, and there will certainly not be a Leadville-100 for this body. What there will be is a lot of rest and recovery, which I began this past weekend with a nice trip down south where I did not swim, bike, or run. I get it now.

To update you, I did go for a run on Thanksgiving morning, and I only made it one mile before I had to turn around. I definitely injured something "down there". But I'm happy to report that each day feels better than the previous day so I'm going to just go with it. The doctor said to give it two weeks and this is the second week. With the extra time on my hands, I'm learning new forms of distractions. TRX is not a word, really?

Pissing Blood

Yep, I'm going there...don't read on if you don't want details. It was high school sectionals and my teammate Eddy was vying for an individual ticket to the state championships. I remember finishing and seeing Eddy, who was still foaming at the mouth, being escorted by two teammates because he couldn't stand on his own. As we were moving Eddy, he told us he thought he pissed his shorts, and we all looked down, and to our horror, we saw his blood stained shorts. We were all so caught up on Eddy's HK (hard-kore with a "k" because it's much harder than with a "c") factor that we didn't even bother to think this actually might be a medically serious issue. Well, Eddy turned out to be okay, and from that day, Eddy set the standard for being HK.

I've vomited during and after races, passed out, suffered from hypothermia (funny story here), had multiple IV's, and even had my entire body under ice to bring my core body temp down, but I had never peed blood...until yesterday. I did a 19-miler, to break a hundo for that damn Strava 100-Mile Run Challenge, and since it was cool day, I decided not to carry any water (foreshadowing). At about the 11-mile mark, my back started to ache but I was averaging a good pace and I really wanted to PR this run (once again, damn you Strava). The back pain got progressively worst and then I started to experience some lower abdominal pain, but both were manageable. I thought the aches and pains might be due to one primary focus I had on this run: to run with better mechanics, specifically tightening my core to increase knee lift and stability. I got back to my car and headed off to the pool for a shakedown swim. I went to take a piss and OMG, saw nothing but red, actually, it was more like a red wine color. It just kept coming and I thought the red color would soon fade but the entire duration of the piss was the same red wine color. Initially, I panicked, but this was quickly replaced by pride. After almost 25 years, I finally met the Eddy standard for being HK.

But more seriously, piss in the blood is fairly common with runners, especially after a long run. It's called hematuria and it is usually no cause for alarm, just an empty bladder being irritated by all that jarring. I'm choosing to think this is what happened with me because my second urination was all clear (pun intended). However, since then, I've had frequent urges to pee and am thinking I might have given myself some type of infection, which I guess can happen from a bleeding bladder. I'm gonna drink lots of water and cranberry juice, and if it doesn't go away in 2-3 days, time to visit the good ole doctor. Hopefully, my meeting the HK standard won't come at too heavy of a price, crossing my fingers. No pictures...were you expecting some?

Strava Bringing Back the Love

If you are not on Strava.com yet, giddy up! As the post title eludes, this little gem of a site makes running (and cycling) very very fun. I only recently started using Strava when they launched their run site, but I will definitely be using it for cycling when I start back up again. After a run, I download the data from my watch onto the site and voila, I get some awesome analysis including mile splits, zone levels, elevation, heart rate (if I wore a heart rate monitor), and PR's for different segments (400, half mile, mile, 5K, 10K, etc...). But the reason why I keep coming back to Strava is the KOM or King of the Mountain feature. Strava tracks times from different users who run the same routes and ranks the runners. The runner with the fastest time for a section, say a particular hill climb, is declared the KOM of that section. My OCD/type A self hearts the KOM challenges.

On Monday, I knew I had a good run in me because I was feeling tapered from my rest post 50-miler. I was a man on a mission, I wanted to win the title of KOM for the Strawberry Canyon Connector, a title that has eluded me in the last five or so attempts. I definitely was feeling good, and if you look at my data, you'll see that I hit PR's for every segment of the run except one. The instant I walked through the door, as with every run since joining Strava, I downloaded the data from my watch onto Strava. I was in shock when I saw that I had failed to take the KOM title, finishing second. What!?!?!?!? I felt awesome and killed myself to get up this 200m or so 15% grade section. I was devastated but upon further investigation of the section, I realized the KOM was for running DOWN this section, not up. WTF? How can you have a KOM for running down a hill? Thus, on every run, I had been killing myself running up this thing when I should have been killing myself running down it. Looks like I'm going to have to create a segment for a KOM running up the connector. Bring the love back to your running and riding, and get yo butt on Strava. If you do, hit me up so I can follow you.

Was It A Test?

On tap today was a 50K race in prep for my 50-miler in two weeks. Going loooooong is a bit weird. If you run 3-4 miles the day before to loosen up for a half-marathon, does that mean you are supposed to run about three times as much for a 50K? Well, that's what I did yesterday, I ran 12.5 miles as my pre-race "loosen up" run, because I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I wasn't quite sure if I should be doing the race because I caught a bad cold on Tuesday and was knocked out until Thursday. Come race day, I felt much better but I still had some congestion in the lungs, and I usually don't mess around with lung stuff. The Universe must have picked up on my hesitation because I arrived to the race this morn, and learned that the race director and his crew pulled a no-show. No check-in, no aid stations, nothing but crickets. About 10 minutes after the scheduled race start, and a lot of denial, runners slowly set out to run the unmarked and unmanned course in the Santa Cruz mountains. Of course I followed, I was getting my long run in damn it. There were several wrong turns taken, but with each mistake, there was a fellow runner present to point me back in the right direction. There was a waist deep river crossing. There were no aid stations. But all of us runners took care of each other, offering others what little food or water they had. In the end, a group of runners and I managed to squeeze out 29 miles, just 3+ miles shy of the intended 50K. The camaraderie was amazing, and though I would have loved aid stations and a chance to race, this experience was nice...quite nice actually. If this was a test, we all passed today. Oh, sorry for the lack of pics lately, I'm still working on getting a new camera.

Half-Assed

In the past two weeks, I've learned you can actually get a lot of training done even if you are half-assed. My buddy Chris, the one from Clif Bar and who I lost as an ironman training partner when he and his wife decided to have two sons, has been trying to get me to do a trail run race with him all season. Now that I have time, just my luck that it's a 50-mile run with 7800' of climbing. But like I said, I'm half committed...I'm not signed up for the race and I'm just going to see how the "training" goes.

On Tuesday, I finished a 17-mile run, making it 39 miles in three days, and I immediately thought, "How the hell am I going to run 50 miles in one sitting!?!!?" I was thoroughly satiated by the end of the 17-miler, and to think that I would have to continue for another 33 miles, I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I still can't wrap my mind around it, so I try not to and just run as long and as often as I can, without making it feel like "training".

Logging in all of these run miles, without cycling, makes me think about the cycling/running balance. I know that cycling inhibits running and thus, it's important to always make sure you are cycling as much as you can without inhibiting your running. I started my 17-miler on the third of three consecutive days of running, and based on triathlon training, I was expecting dead legs and a very slow run. I purposefully did not allow myself to check my Garmin, and just ran on feel. Feel alone felt pretty good. Finally, I succumbed and checked at the 5-mile mark and I was averaging 7:09 pace, hellz no. The run was fairly hilly and when I was done 17 miles later, my watch read 7:15 average pace, I let out an even bigger hellz no. Not only am I reminded of how good you can feel running without cycling, but I'm also amazed at what you can accomplish half-assing something.

Running Attitude

Years ago I was training with a running group in San Francisco and came across this coach named Jack Daniels. Yes, his name is really Jack Daniels. That alone made him stand out. I never saw or met Jack Daniels but every week, we would get an email with these awesome workouts. Turns out Jack Daniels really knew his stuff, and it is from him that I adopted my running attitude:

"Don't run as hard as you can. Run as fast as you can without straining."

The difference between running hard and running fast without strain is subtle to some, but clearly different to those who "get it". When I read this quote, dark clouds parted, the light came shining through, I heard angels singing and doves were flying everywhere, I think you get the point. Running as hard as you can will most likely lead to injuries, while running as fast as you can without strain will most likely result in fast and efficient running. If on every run, you only push a pace that is still smooth and strain-free, running will be fun, no matter how fast. And the only thing that should be hard is your breathing when you're doing those fartleks, hill repeats or track workouts. Find your running attitude this season.