Recovery... nope, progression run

For a few hours after yesterday's 20+ miler I felt pretty burnt out. I pretty much just laid around the house and ate. I have realized that I'm not fueling well enough on my long winter runs, although I bring plenty of food with me I don't actually eat much. Last year I started eating a lot of trail mix on my long runs, but it's hard to eat that stuff when you've got gloves or mittens on. For all of yesterday's efforts I only had one gel and one package of Power Bar Energy Blasts. My breakfast helped set me up to be fueled during the run but as soon as I stopped running I crashed pretty hard. I wasn't sure how I'd feel today but I was pleasantly surprised to find that there wasn't any significant soreness when I got up in the morning. The only issue worth mentioning is a little ache on the outside of my right foot, between the heel and the ankle bone, probably the result of rolling my ankle at some point (or multiple points) during the run yesterday.

I went out in the morning for an hour long walk with the dogs on Blackstrap Hill. It was a good way to loosen things up in my legs, and it also confirmed that I didn't want to try to run any of my local trails today. Lots of ice. So after bouncing around a few of the local road loops in my head, ranging from 5.5 to 10 miles, I came up with a new route I had never run before that worked out to be close to 11 miles, and deliberately included some good hills. The intention was to go out at an easy pace and see how things felt.

Things felt surprisingly good, so after 4 miles the run turned into a bit of a progression run (helped by a few downhill miles near the end). Miles 5-10: 7:54, 7:50, 7:43, 7:35, 7:13, 6:51.

A great way to end a pretty solid week. I started the week with a few easy runs to deal with a strained calf muscle resulting from the combination of last weeks long run, snowshoe race and then an unexpected plyometrics workout. Luckily the calf wasn't an issue at all this weekend so I was able to get in two quality runs.

time: 1:21:31
distance: 10.7 miles
pace: 7:37

weather: upper 30's, windy

gear: Brooks Cascadia (from 2008), shorts, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, 2x gloves, hat

Beautiful Loop + Lunchbreak Hill Repeats

Last week during the run on the Beautiful Loop with Zak I had the sinister idea of running the BL (15+ miles) and tacking on repeats up and down Bradbury Mountain at the end to bring it up to 20 miles. It was kind of a joke, like what's the most difficult 20 mile route I can come up with from Bradbury in the winter. I never expected so many people to think it was a good idea, or to tag along despite the fact that it clearly wasn't a good idea. Especially in the conditions we had today. Not that anyone knew what to expect, but given the conditions we had over the past few weeks I figured it couldn't be any worse. I was wrong.

Near perfect conditions for the first 5 miles

Fezzik, Crux, J-Rock, 6-Pack, Tenacious-Z, Scout and Squirrel (I just made up a few of those) were all at the park this morning and everyone seemed up for at least the BL, with most planning to tack on the hill repeats at the end. Things started innocently enough, and the combination of good firm snow conditions and 6-Pack up at the front lead to a pretty quick pace for the first five miles. But when we got to the power lines things went downhill pretty quick. The reason we only run the BL in the winter is because along the power lines the trail is dependent upon swamps and rivers freezing solid and being buried under many inches of snow. The recent warm weather we've had has caused both of those typical winter attributes to be non-existent.

The first watery challenge

For the entire 7+ mile stretch along the power lines we were constantly faced with puddles, slush, postholing, stream crossings and booby-trapped collapsing ice. All hopes of keeping our feet dry were soon lost and we pushed ahead at as quick a pace as we could maintain, we needed a little speed just to keep out wet selves warm. Of course, with all the obstacles we faced our pace wasn't actually quick at all, but the effort was certainly there. The first deviation from our normal course came at about 5.5 miles when we discovered the trail was completely submerged for at least 100 yards. The detour was along a less-well-traveled snowmobile trail through a swamp.

The usual route was severely flooded

Next up was the big river crossing at 7.5 miles which I knew was going to be a problem. Luckily we were able to bushwhack a route along the rivers edge until we came to a road that crossed the river not too far from the power line trail. This only required about 1/4 mile of breaking trail through 6" of crusty snow.

The past two weeks we were able to run across this river, but obviously not today

The hilly parts of the route were in pretty good shape, but every low spot was wet with frigid water lurking below a deceptively thin layer of ice, or free flowing water. At about 9 miles we deviated from the normal route in order to avoid what I thought was going to be another swamp, and this seemed like a good choice until we came to a stream at least 6' across. The banks were overgrown and supported a thin ice shelf that collapsed as you tried to leap across making it impossible to avoid water up to at least mid calf.

Water crossings became frequent and it was impossible to maintain warm feet

By about 10 miles into the loop 6-Pack decided he had enough messing around and needed to get back to the park, this run was taking too long, not to mention the unpleasantness, so he headed back along the roads. A mile and a half later Fezzik realized the wisdom of 6-Pack's decision and took another road back to the park. Squirrel and Scout were a ways behind so the four of us that remained together kept a tight group until we reached the School at the base of Lunchbreak Hill. We all agreed that runs like these would be no fun if undertaken alone, but as a group we're able to both push each other and find the fun in what could be seen as difficult circumstances.

Thermometer read 30 but it felt warmer, by the time we finished the run it was definitely in the high 30's

As if the first 14 miles of our run weren't enough of a challenge we paused at the bottom of the hill before undertaking what we all knew was going to be a brutal finish to this long run. Four times up and down this 3/4 mile hill, that climbs over 300 feet, would give us the mileage we needed to get over 20 for the day. We agreed to take the hills each at our own pace and regroup at the end, and not surprisingly Crux took off in the lead while J-Rock, Tenacious-Z and I stayed pretty close together.

The first time up we were breaking trail but most of the climb was runnable with only a few fairly short sections requiring walking due to the combination of a steep grade and crappy footing. Much to our dismay the trail had many wet spots and keeping warm feet continued to be an issue. At least working hard up hill generated enough heat to stay warm, the trouble for me was keeping my feet warm on the way back down. I ran as quick as I could on tired legs on the way back down, which actually became harder as the temperature rose and the snow became more slushy and slick. I think it was on our second time down that we bumped into Scout and Squirrel on their way up for the first time. I was impressed that they had toughed it out for the complete BL and had begun to tackle the hill repeats with smiles.

SportTracks calls the total elevation gain 1,900', RunningAHEAD calls it 3,100'

Despite the fatigue we managed to keep our uphill splits fairly consistent: 12:00, 12:30, 13:00 and 12:00
I wasn't hitting the lap button on my watch so this is an estimate based on the GPS data. That sounds about right based on the way it felt, a bit tougher for each consecutive climb from 1-3 and then we pushed it hard, or Tenacious-Z pushed us hard, on the last one. By the time we made it down to the parking lot I was totally done in. Absolutely nothing left. But it actually felt good in a way to push myself to the limit without ever crashing during the run. Crashing afterwards is OK. That's what Edna & Lucy's is for. The hot capicola sandwich, french fires, giant homemade doughnut and coffee, helped bring me back to life, although I was walking pretty funny for a while afterwards.

A few modifications to the regular route were required due to flooded areas and unfrozen rivers

Unfortunately the boys and I left E&L's before the girls showed up so we couldn't swap tales of our struggles, I'll just have to read about them later.

time: 3:43:55
distance: 20.85 miles
pace: 10:44

conditions: atrocious! some decent snomo trails, lots of postholing, water crossings, swampiness and slush

weather: lower-upper 30's, sunny

gear: Inov-8 Oroc 280 with screws, sock liners, wool socks, tights, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, 2x gloves, hat, Nathan HPL #020

Bradbury Squall Race Report

I arrived at Bradbury just before 8 AM to help mark the race course, it was about -5 degrees. At one point I had visions of running the course as I marked it, and even though I felt pretty good following yesterday's 3 hour run I opted to walk the course as I set out the arrows at all the trail intersections. This was a good final preparation for my own race since it gave me the opportunity to see exactly what kind of conditions we'd be racing in later.

Considering the amount of snow we've received so far this winter the conditions looked great. There had been enough traffic on the course to define the route without it becoming too hard packed or any wider than single-track. Snowshoe racing is the most fun when it's on narrow trails, otherwise it's just hard work. When the trails are narrow and you've got deep powder on either side you really have to race strategically, think carefully about when to pass, when to surge and when to relax. Of course, there really isn't any relaxing in snowshoe racing, it's all hard work. In Jeff's race report he talks about trying to find the sweet spot between redlining and falling off the pack.

Ryan and I finished the course marking around 9 and had plenty of time to get everything else set up. It wasn't long before our dedicated crew of volunteers showed up, undeterred by the frigid temperatures, and all of a sudden we were ready for a race. It has been great to see how Trail Monster Running has grown over the last few years, I'm lucky to be part of such a dedicated group of runners and to know that I can count on my fellow team mates to come out and help make our events successful.

One of the great things about having so many competent volunteers, not to mention the fact that Ryan is the race director for the snowshoe races, is that I actually had time to relax before the race, and get out for an easy warm-up run with Emma. The warm-up was much needed since I had been outside for nearly three hours, and even though it had warmed up into the 20's I was feeling a bit chilled. When I got back from my warm-up I had a few last minute things to attend to and I actually forgot to pin my number on. At least the volunteers at the finish line know who I am.

Due to the lack of snow recently there hasn't been much time for snowmobiles to get out and pack the trails, and even though we prefer to run on narrower trails it's nice to have a wider area to start. We lined up on a section of snowmobile trail about 5 feet wide, and with a few more runners than last year I knew that it was going to be a crazy start so I positioned myself in the second row behind Judson Cake and Matt Lunt. All around me were my bad ass training buddies, Andy, Jeremy, Chuck, Jeff, Jamie... this was going to be a fun race, but these guys were going to make sure I worked hard.

photo by Kate Hanscom

The first 1/3 mile of the race course is on a flat and fairly wide trail packed by a little snowmobile and a lot of foot traffic. Perfect for a race start to allow for a little jockeying for position. I was in third place for the first 100 yards but soon got passed by Jeremy and then Andy. That seemed about right, I didn't really expect to be ahead of either of them, I just hope that the rest of the pack didn't come up on me so quickly. The next 1/10 mile starts to climb and remained well packed, but before the half mile we were on single track and continuing to climb. Krista's trail had only seen about three passes through the fresh snow before the race so this was without doubt the most sluggish part of the race. This is also where there is the potential to totally blow your wad if you go out too hard, it's so easy to redline when you're running uphill through deep powder, and so hard to recover from that over the rest of the race.

Judson, Matt and Jeremy were out of sight, but I was starting to close the gap on Andy. I could also hear someone right on my heels and I soon learned that it was Chuck, we exchanged a few words and I announced when we had reached the highest point on the course, about halfway through the Krista's loop (just past 1 mile into the race). I was right on Andy's heels and I had been thinking about passing him but this was one of the most difficult places on the course to overtake another runner. Passing meant stepping off the beaten path into 7" of unpacked powder, not at all easy to accelerate through. I have seen failed attempts at passing in snowshoe races, it can be pretty ugly if you get it wrong. I needed to make a move soon because Chuck was close behind and I knew he wouldn't be afraid to make a bold maneuver now that we were on a downhill stretch. The trail twisted back and forth between trees and buried rocks, there was a lot more than just powdery snow to contend with when you tried to plan a pass. When I saw a slight clearing up ahead I knew that was my best chance to go for it. I called out "On your left Andy" and took a few giant strides to surge past. The downslope helped carry me forward and I managed to get around Andy and back onto the trail just before a large pine tree that could have ended my race had my timing been off.

I knew it was going to be hard work trying to stay ahead of Andy, but I figured that running single track is one of my strengths so I really pushed the pace throughout the rest of Krista's to try and get some distance between us. Once on the Tote Road I eased up a little, the next half mile or so was flat and pretty straight which makes it a lot easier to catch and pass people so I kept an ear out for the sounds of anyone coming up behind.



By the time we hit the Boundary Trail, just after 2 miles, I could tell that someone was closing in on me but I didn't dare look back to see who it was. We were now on a long downhill stretch and the last thing I wanted to do was take my eyes off the trail. I thought this downhill stretch might be another opportunity to put some distance between myself and whoever was right behind, but that didn't happen. On the big steep, icy drop on the back side of the mountain I opted to stay left and cross the rock wall that paralleled the trail in the interest of avoiding the ice at the bottom. I heard Chuck say something about my choice of route and I could tell there was someone else right there with him. This turned out to be a waste of time and energy and my chasers almost caught me.

Knowing that there was about 1 mile left in the race I worked hard to make up for my mistake. There was one last climb ahead and this was where I got passed by Stephen Wells at last year's race. I was determined not to let that happen again. I scrambled up the hill as fast as I could manage, and as soon as the ground leveled out I really put the hammer down. There was heavy breathing behind me but it started to fade, or perhaps was being drowned out by my own gasps for air.

After a few little ups and downs the course comes back to the Northern Loop trail where the race started and we returned to packed snow for the last 1/3 mile. The trail remained flat to the finish so I put on an early sprint and hoped I could maintain it to the end. There was no way I could hear anyone coming up on me over the sounds of my own footfalls and breathing, and if anyone had come up I don't think I could have managed to give anything more. Luckily it was enough and I managed to hold off the chasing pack by about 30 seconds.  I didn't even have a chance to catch my breath before a steady stream of Trail Monsters came in. A good day for the team.

splits: 10:05, 9:15, 8:57, 7:35 (pace for 0.62 miles)

time: 33:00
distance: 3.62 miles
pace: 9:08
place: 4/40

FULL RESULTS

conditions: packed powder, mostly single track, still a bit soft

weather: mid 20's, sunny

gear: Inov-8 F-lite 300, Atlas Run snowshoes, sock liners, wool socks, tights, long sleeve top, short sleeve top, gloves, mittens, hat

Beach Run

Today's run on the Beautiful Loop was kind of like running on a beach. Except it was 10 degrees, and snowing. But the snow was the consistency of beach sand. I guess since most people were planning to run the snowshoe race tomorrow there wasn't a very big turnout for our Saturday run this week. Just Zak and I, and luckily we had the same plan.

The Brad received about 7 inches of snow on Thursday night, and I assumed that the snowmobiles would have been out on Friday to get the Beautiful Loop packed down for us, but the snomo community kinda let me down. Many parts of the loop were only packed by one or two snowmobiles, and a few short sections hadn't seen any traffic at all. It made for another very challenging run, I estimate that in good conditions we could take at least 1/2 hour off our time for the loop, or about two minutes per mile. Compared to last weeks run it was at least less painful running, no postholing through a layer of ice with each step, but the softness of the snow required a lot of extra energy and our time was only a little faster than last week.



It did occur to me during the run that despite the lousy conditions it could have been much worse. I wondered how many different snowmobilers had to come out and ride various parts of the Beautiful Loop in order for the whole thing to connect. I'm fairly certain that no snomo'er starts at the park and completes the loop they way we do, so I'd guess it takes at least a dozen different people riding different parts of the loop to make it complete. And they pretty much did this within 24 hours of the last snowfall which is pretty darn good for us.

There were only three areas along the route where the packed track diverted significantly from my planned route, and at least the snow was light enough that it wasn't too hard breaking trail through 7" of fresh powder. The result of course was that my feet did get a bit wet, and despite wearing gaiters the snow managed to work it's way into my shoes and collect around my toes. I've realized that the Roclite 295's are a little too porous for snow running. I wasn't aware of having cold toes during the run, but once I changed in to dry socks and shoes afterwards, and the blood started flowing again, I could feel the burn that indicated a mild case of frostbite. By the time I got home and took a shower the end of one of my big toes was black and quite painful. Last year I got mild cases of frostbite on several occasions and it seems that the more it happens the more likely you are to get it again.

Speaking of cold... I found a neoprene sleeve for my CamelBak hose that Chuck gave me a few years ago, and it seemed to work pretty well to help keep the hose from freezing during the run. I also filled my bladder with hot water, and after each time I took a drink I blew a little air back into the hose to clear the water out. The only issue I had was that there was just enough water in the mouthpiece for it to freeze right away. I tried to take my first drink about 8 minutes into the run and it was already frozen. I stuffed the end of the hose down the front of my jacket and this was enough to thaw it out and keep it from re-freezing during the rest of the run. Maybe one day Nuun will make an antifreeze drink mix and I won't have to go through such lengths to keep my drink from freezing on such cold days.

The worst part of the run, or best part of the training depending on how you look at it, was the run up Lunch Break Hill at the end. Snowmobiles only go about 1/4 of the way up so most of the climb we were breaking trail. Killer. The run down the Terrace Trail from the summit was fun, not much foot traffic so it was a little slippery but I love running fast down that hill, especially in the snow.

Now hopefully I didn't overdo-it before tomorrow's snowshoe race. I never planned to taper, but I certainly don't want to suffer through it any more than one normally suffers in a snowshoe race.

time: 2:57:15
distance: 15.71 miles
pace: 11:18

conditions: loose, light snow, on not-well-packed snowmobile trails

weather: overcast & snowy, light wind, single digit temps

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 295 with screws, sock liners, wool socks, tights, long sleeve top, short sleeve top, jacket, gloves, mittens, buff, nathan HPL #020

Breaking Trail

Part one of preparing for the snowshoe race that I'm not really training for was running the course 4 times in two weeks, part two was getting out and actually running in my snowshoes. Yesterday's run almost doesn't count as a snowshoe run because the snow was so hard packed. Today was a different story thanks to about 6" of fresh powder falling overnight.

So I say that I'm not training for the snowshoe race, I guess all that means is that overall my training is leading up to something much bigger, and there will be a number of smaller races along the way that I'll do as part of my training for the Peak 50 miler in May.



There's no such thing as an easy workout when you're breaking trail in snowshoes. Although my pace was slow the effort was significant. I parked at my local Hannaford and jumped onto the River Point Trails, and I wasn't the first person to get out there today but I did make it farther than the other tracks I found. And in this kind of snow one set of tracks doesn't constitute a packed trail.

It was a fun run and felt good to get my local trails packed down a bit.

time: 46:45
distance: 3.77 miles
pace:12:25

conditions: fresh light powder over a crusty base

gear: Inov-8 F-lite 300 with Atlas Run snowshoes

Another Double Squall

I met up with Jeremy today at the Brad for a run on the Squall course. The plan was to do one lap in snowshoes and the other without. With the limited snow we've had so far this winter and recent rain Ryan and I were uncertain about the status of this weekend's snowshoe race, so a little course recon was called for. I also wanted to get in another couple laps of the course to help prepare myself mentally for the race. Over the past year I've had a handful of PR's and I attribute that largely to being better prepared mentally.

We decided to run the first lap in snowshoes, I guess to get the hard stuff out of the way first. The trails were packed from a lot of foot traffic in the park so snowshoes weren't really needed. Even on Kirsta's which received very little traffic (Danielle & Mindy were out earlier in the week and were likely the only ones to set foot on the trail since the previous snowfall) the snow wasn't very deep and there was a layer of crusty ice on top of the snow. We kept the pace pretty easy and conversational and talked a bit about our race plans. Since both of us are training for ultras in the spring we both agreed that while we planned to do all the races of the Bradbury Mountain Snowshoe Series they were really just part of the training and not major goals in and of themselves.



We finished the first lap in a little under 44 minutes, a little fast for an "easy" snowshoe run but like I said, the trails were so well packed that snowshoes weren't even needed, so it was just like running with a little extra weight on our feet. We took a few minutes to switch into regular shoes and then headed back out for another lap. This time around we maintained about the same effort and finished the course in about 42 minutes. It's a good thing snow is expected tonight, the course really needs it.

Now that I've run the Squall course 4 times in the past two weeks I feel pretty good about how to race it, I just hope I've got some energy left after my planned long run on Saturday.

time: 1:18:26
distance: 7.32 miles
pace: 10:43

weather: sunny, low 20's

conditions: hard packed snow, ice

gear: Inov-8 F-lite 300 w/ Atlas Run snowshoes lap one, Inov-8 Roclite 295 with screws for lap two.

Local Snomo Trails

I had thoughts about doing a double today. It was Mindy's fault since she suggested doing hills mid-day, even though we didn't end up running together I still got out around 11:30 with Jeff, James and our dogs. Since the weather forecast was calling for rain later in the day I thought it would be a god idea to get the dogs out while it was still nice and sunny. We headed over to Hardy Road to check out the snowmobile trails on Leighton Hill (part of Blackstrap Hill).



We got in a nice 5.5 mile lolipop loop on mostly well-packed snowmobile trails, at a nice easy pace. As the afternoon progressed and the weather got worse the idea of running for a second time today, in the dark and rain, became less appealing and I easily convinced myself that it wasn't necessary.

I recently starting using RunningAHEAD as my training log, but I still miss some of the features of Sport Tracks which I had been using for years. The interactive maps from RA are pretty cool, as well as the ability to schedule workouts, and share training logs online. I miss the elevation profiles from ST though, the one on the map above needs to be refreshed each time you look at it in order to display something closer to reality, the default display is way off.

time: 56:19
distance: 5.49 miles
pace: 10:16

conditions: snowy trails packed by snowmobile traffic, loose under foot

weather: low 30's, mostly sunny

gear: Inov-8 Roclite 295 with screws, wool socks, tights, 2x long sleeve tops, gloves, hat