Gusher Gallop

This was my second 5k after returning from a long layoff. The first was the Redbud which was literally my first time at running 3.1 miles in over 4 months. Today's event was held at Lake Hefner and sponsored by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. They put on a great event. My goal for this race was to beat 24 minutes which would have been a 50 second PR from my best 5k (which was the last 5k I had run almost a year before). I felt good and for once focused on pacing. I kept my friend Reese in sight but tried to stay 200 yards or more back knowing he was quite a bit faster than me. Towards the last third I really found myself using my watch to measure pace because I found myself appearing to slow down time wise without feeling like I had dropped the pace. I was really struggling the last K to hold on in heavy headwinds and was closer to the finish than I realized. Once I realized how close I was I began to sprint for the line around the last turn. I finished in 23:09 so I'd say it was a good run and you certainly blame most of that on my faulty "runners math" in the last 1/2. After the event I got the opportunity to reconnect with some Friends and stayed for the breakfast and raffle. Overall a great event and one that further instilled some much needed confidence after a long off season.

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

My friend Karrie tricked me into running 12 miles last weekend. This represented further than I had run all year cumulatively! Since I had just ran 12 in 1:45 without much issue she convinced me to join her with her 4:30 pace group for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.
On the morning of the marathon I ALMOST wished I was running the full marathon. The weather was perfect. In fact at one point Karrie suggested I run the full marathon and I almost acquiesced. Holding me back was the belief that without enough mileage buildup I was likely to face a connective tissue injury that would door more than hobble me for a few days afterwards. This was the first race I remember ever going out slow and sticking to my pace plan (again thanks to Karrie) and at the 1/2 way point when the full and half marathon runners diverged I knew I could make up some time on the back half. Up until ~ 6.5 miles I was dead on the 2:15 pace and once I split from the pace group I made up almost ten minutes in the back half to finish in 2:05. This was also the first time I finished a race with lots of energy left over and feeling great - this convinced me physically that what I had always known intellectually about pacing was very important and something to focus on this year. This run really made me excited to run again and based on the results decided to run the Andy Payne marathon 4 weeks later.

2008 Training Plan

After a 4 month layoff I am recently back to running. The layoff was not related to an injury but none the less, after 4 months I need to work hard to get back into race shape. My plans are to try and get a much mileage I can at an easy pace. In order to do this and keep specificity for ultramarathons (specifically longer than 50k) I am doing my runs a few days per week but keeping the runs an hour or longer during the week and 3 + hours on the weekend. With longer runs and more recovery time I may suffer at shorter distances but believe I will get the most bang for the time I have to spend for ultra distances.

2007 Sunmart Texas Trails Endurance Run

I finished up the year with the Sunmart 50k in Houston Texas. As many of you know Sunmart is the largest Ultra in the US. This race definately taught me a few lessons most importantly not to eat too much the night before or morning of a race and the value of perserverance. The former speaks for itself but the latter may need a bit of explaining - about 7:00pm the night before the race I felt unusually tired. At the time I thought this was a good thing since there was a 4:00am wakeup to make the hour long shuttle to Huntsville state park to the starting line (next year stay in Huntsville) by any means by the time Maurice and I got to Huntsville raceday I just wasn't feeling great. I thought if I start out fast and get away from the early congestion maybe I can get some early quick miles in and shake this funk. Okay in retrospect that sounds down right dumb but many times when I don't feel 100% if I put a few quality miles in I will start to feel better and can slow down into a nice rythym and just keep going. Well I had a great 10k split for the 1st out and back but just didn't feel well still. At this point I started to get dizzy and very nauscious - thinking this was just stomach bloat I kept up a strong power walk with occasional running breaks and consume lots of antacids and carbonated drinks at the aid stations. At one of the aid stations on the course is a 4 mile out and back and then you continue on the bigger loop back to the start. I missed this section first time around and new something was wrong when I passed my friend Maurice before the end of the first of two loops. It was hugely demoralizing to have to do an extra four miles the second loop. At this point I kept thinking if I can just feel better and start running I can still make a sub 6 hour finish. Unfortunately I never did feel better and ended up power walking the last 20 miles. While my goal had been a sub 6 hour performance, I was plenty happy with 6:57 given how I felt. Truth be told if I would have been at home where I could have just gone home this would have been a DNF for me - but as it was I still had to wait around for the final bus back to the hotel. My buddy Maurice fared much better and finished strong and provided great post-race moral support for a less than perfect race experience.

Speed Goat Hill Running Techniques

Karl Metzler and Scott Mason show how its done ....

2007 Tri-Okc Fall Classic Duathlon

This course being a regular ride of mine was definitely in my favor and helped reinforce that I should ride foreign courses at least once or twice if possible prior to a race for the strong psychological advantage it provides.

Heavy training without a taper the week of the race didn't seem to be a factor at all.

For those who weren;t there lets just say the wind was challenging. 25+ MPH gusts blew us all over the course. Anyway enough whining and on to the race report...

After the starting gun sounded I hit the first two run miles in under 14 mins and left transition about 30 seconds ahead of pace.

I knew the bike course would be tough as the wind was blowing SxSE meaning that the majority of the course would be headwind or crosswind with very little precious tail wind. I felt good on the bike and for the first time started to develop a bit of competitive demeanor. I didn't like being passed on the bike and tried to take back any positions I could. About 4 miles into the bike course I reached for my bottle of Heed to take in my first calories and fluid of the race - about that time someone passed close on the right and surprised me - there went my bottle - luckily for calories I had a gel in the back of my jersey. I came to the turnaround at just over 34 mins and was hoping for some water but no luck. I knew I would have to ride strong on the backside as the wind would be even more challenging on the return. Things were going well as I came within a mile of the bridge that marks 3 miles to go when I slipped my chain and had to dismount losing several places and momentum just prior to a windy section of the course. At this point it was tough and frustrating trying to get my momentum back but I kept repeating "the bike is where you win or lose this race" and kept going. By the time I approached the dismount line I was starting to feel really thirsty but cautioned myself about drinking too much as I have learned from other races I am definitely prone to stomach cramps if I drink more than a mouthful at a time.

I exited transition approx. 3 minutes off goal time, took one sip of water and began my run. I definitely could tell I had had a tough bike and while ;bricks in the last few weeks had improved my running of the bike, I had yet to run off the bike this tired. I just kept my head down and engaged in a little self talk to keep myself going. By the turnaround point I knew I couldn't make up the time I had lost on the bike and was running closer to 9:00 miles that the 7:30s I had hoped to run.

As usual in the last quarter mile I found my fire once the finish line was visible and sprinted across at 1:19:21. I finished with just enough "gas in the tank" to realize I could push harder and improve my times next race but not enough left to lessen today's achievement.

Overall a great race and the experience of running hard all week and even doing hour and a half brick workout the morning before race taught me that my training plan is working for me and building the endurance and recovery I need to go on to more challenging events.

2007 Turkey & Taturs 50k

After the exploding potato to start the race, we took off at a good pace for at least 25 yards, until the real entrance to the trail became bottlenecked. I remember thinking at the time, hey I always start out way to fast so this is a good change.

The first few miles were uphill and I took them at a fairly restrained pace until the crowds thinned out after the first aid station at the top (mile 2.5). From this aid station it was an immediate rapid and rocky descent and I remember thinking - this is going to be fun going up on the second loop (and it was).

After this descent I began running with Rockelle Frazier who obviously had far more trail running experience than I did and was eager to share her knowledge and experiences. In fact Roquelle was actually doing this as a training run for the upcoming ultracentric 72 hour race. She was a strong runner and fearless on the downhills. Overall great company and glad to have made her acquaitance.

The run to the next aid station at mile 7 was my favorite part of the course. It mostly wound up on turkey *mountain* but had lots of runnable transverses and its share of rocks. At some point during this stretch I was startign to realize the terrain was much more extereme than anything I had trained one.

According to the blog of Carey Smith who finished third it was ....

"this trail was VERY TECHNICAL meaning extremely rocky and rooty; it
required your full concentration at all times and was similar to
running through a field of softballs. From this standpoint it was the
toughest course I have run to date."

And for another opinion to make sure Carey and I aren't just whiners, it was described this way by Gabe Bevins who finished 4th on his blog

I remember the course being rocky and very technical but it was even worse than I had remembered. The course had a few really long and steep hills which were mostly out
in the open but other than that it was mainly extremely rocky terrain
with short ups and downs.


more coming soon....

Hotter Than Hell Weekend 2007

The weekend started with a nice ride around the bike trails in Wichita Falls on Friday. After that we were treated to a wonderful dinner by our host Yvonne. During the weekend Yvonne provided plenty of home cooking of the "Just like mother used to make variety" as well as a wonderful home into which she welcomed us with open arms.


Race day morning started with a line up on Scott street with 12,000 other bikers. Wow, definitely a first for me to be riding in close proximity to that many people - or at least for a few minutes. A few minutes after the start I flatted two tubes at mile 3.

By the time so nice mechanic had loaned me a spare inner tube, I had to race to catch the SAG wagon and spent the next 30 minutes passing people on roller blades or bikers with blue jeans and platform pedals

Ultimately I caught up with some friends and and finished the ride strong with an average speed of 18 MPH. Not exactly the norminator but knowing I had a half marathon the next day I felt pretty good about it.



Saturday ended with a relaxing dip in the pool and off to bed at the late hour of 9pm - did I mention I was tired. By any means, The alarm went off far too early Sunday morning and we were off to the Wee-Chi-Ta trail half marathon.

It was still dark as we started off onto the Wee-Chi-Ta trail. This is a mountain bike trail that started behind the MPEC center. After 400 yards on concrete we cut off to the grass and eventually into the woods. At the aid station approx 1/2 way I was feeling strong at under an hour (for me a very good time).

Unfortunately this was one time when I didn't bring my own nutrition and had the choice of either soy joy (too hard on the stomach) or candy (too many single sugars). I opted for the Gummi bears and unfortunately paid for it the rest of the run and most of the day. By any means a fun run and a fun trail and I felt good to be able to do 2 events in 2 days.

While the events themselves were great - the best thing about the weekend was having such a wonderful host. Did I mention that Yvonne was a wonderful cook as well as great company. The generosity of someone to open their house to a stranger for a weekend and be at the finish line to cheer them on - what a great experience!

Next stop Turkey Mountain

Du Draper Twice - Lake Drape Duathlons

The on road event on Sunday was my first duathlon. What a lot of fun and quite a bit to be learned. Mostly

• Ride more hills in training
• Don't overhydrate
• PRACTICE running off the bike MORE

Regardless of the lessons learned I had a great time and can't wait till the Fall Classic in October

RD Brett Sholar and family did a great job of managing races in 2 days

Green People 07 Trail Run

What a great event with a great bunch of people. What else can I say. I can't quite call this my first trail race since it was totally laid back and casual (and that's a good thing) so how about first trail event. I had an opportunity to meet and join the Oklahoma Trail Running Association - what a great bunch. RD Katherine Cranwell had petitions to make Oklahoma a cool city (I'm sure there is a joke there some where but seriously this is a good thing). Keith had the beer and Dave's son grilled hot dogs. And at the end there was a poker game (each lap earned you three cards). I had the chance to run with a lot of great folks including the OTRA (http://www.oktrailrunning.com) who hosted the event, the Oklahoma City running club (http://okcrunning.org), the Oklahoma City Triathlon Club (http://www.triokc.org) and the Tulsa Area Trail Ultra Runners - AKA Taturs (http://www.taturs.org) and make lots of new friends.

Overall an extremely fun event that whet my appetite for more trail running. I even won something at the poker game - though I still think Brett should have took it all home with his 7 aces (thats what happend when you get 21 cards).

Oh yeah - I also had my longest run ever at 16 miles - thanks to my wife and son for cheering on Team Daddy, Brian from the Taturs for talking me through the half way point with stories of the Barkley that made this event seem tame and Brett (OTRA, Tri-OKC, etc..) for keeping me going that last lap.

Bricks

with the Draper Duathlon (my first DU) quickly approaching I thought maybe it's time to start practicing running after coming of the bike. Did my first brick this weekend by running 2 miles, jumping on the bike and riding a loop around the lake (~ 9 miles) and then running 2 miles.

Biking after running isn't bad at all. All I can say about running after biking is J E LL O.

Hopefully practice makes perfect cause I've got lots of room for improvement.

The Long Run

Finished my first semi-long run yesterday. 9.something miles around lake Hefner trails. It may not be an ultra but it made me proud considering 3 miles was a challenge just a month ago. I must say it was ill fated though ... ran out of water, couldn't read the mile markers and my watch/HRM died. Oh and did I mention shin splints. Irregardless it let me know what is possible and that I can go longer. We'll see if I can improve my time next Saturday!

First Trail Run

4/21/2007

So I ran my first trail today. Much like my first road race I was left wondering "Why hadn't I done this sooner"? The boredom and monotony I sometimes feel on the road or the need for extra motivation like an iPod was completely eliminated by the views at the Bluff Creek trails just 2 miles from my house. Could this be the start of something beautiful?

First Race

Ok, so 8 weeks into a "10 week till your first 5k" I decided to run my first race. Or should I say the 25 mph winds, rain and near freezing temps for the Redbud Classic bike ride promted me to hit the 5k the next day when the weather was closer to 70 degrees. I was pretty nervous because I hadn't yet run 3 miles at any kind of race pace. Wish I would have done much sooner. With over 5000 runners I could have floated through 5k on the excitement in the air. Overall a great event. Unfortunately I left my chip at home AND forgot to stop my watch as I crossed the finish line so I don't have an exact finish time but had a blast anyway!

Starting Out

So this is the blog of an overweight, out of shape, corporate type with aspirations of becoming an endurance runner. As a new husband and an even newer father I decided I should live forever. I also have come to the conclusion that I will never be able to take enough downtime to backpack across 50-100 miles of wilderness in a stretch so maybe I should just run them. A long way to go but hey you have to start somewhere.