The Managed Bonk

My only race of 2020 was definitely a memorable one!  With this being an end-of-qualifying year for the US 24-hour team, the Desert Solstice Invitational was absolutely stacked with talent.  Among the 18 men starting, I was a legit back-of-the-packer!  Zach Bitter, Harvey Lewis, Oliver Leblond, Nick Coury, Ryan Montgomery, Bob Hearn...(I could keep gong, world and American record holders all over the place!).   It was easily the most competitive 24-hour race on the planet this year, and somehow, I got a late invitation off the ‘B’ list in November, as other faster people withdrew. In summary, this race went absolutely NOTHING like I expected.  I expected a bunch of elites to run 160-170 miles, and I expected to run 150-something myself.  The biggest surprise to me was how absolutely punishing and difficult this track format is.  Runner-up surprise was the impact of the afternoon heat/sun. Will break the race into segments below. 0-3 hours  I’d pla...

My last post was almost a year ago, because that was when my last race occurred.  Then COVID happened, giving me an entire year to think about the train wreck that was Brazos Bend 100!   Here’s a timeline of 2020 from this ultrarunner’s perspective. Jan/Feb 2020 Life is normal.  Joe makes two big running goals:  #1 - Win a golden ticket race for Big’s Backyard Ultra and run the championship in TN in October. #2 - Run a 24-hour race and qualify for the US National 24-hour team. Mar/Apr 2020 COVID becomes a thing.  Freedom is replaced by Fear, as unknowns swirl regarding the virus and pandemic.   Goal #1 is canceled.  Joe focuses training on Goal #2. May/Jun 2020 The world is having a meltdown.  Love is replaced by Hate.  Racial unrest everywhere. Joe keeps training. Jul/Aug 2020 Political tensions begin ramping up.  Social media fans the flames. Joe keeps running.  Joe and Julie escape with the family to the mountains - same as every...

2019 Bigfoot 200. Race report:  What a weird, fun, painful, amazing experience.   206 miles and 42,000 ft of elevation gain, over ~58 continuous hours running ultra and beyond through the Cascade Mountains... I’ve been trying to get back into more competitive running this year, and wanted one big target race in late summer or fall, so I’d have something to work towards in 2019 as I got back into shape.  One at a time, I applied for 5 different, relatively popular northwestern / mountain-area 100-mile races.  Because of often remote locations and lack of infrastructure, the bigger trail ultras have to impose caps on field size (~100-400 runners, as opposed to popular road marathons in big cities that can accept 20,000+), so registration is often some variety of lottery process for the higher-demand ultras.  And one-by-one, I had to cross all 5 off my list (mostly lotto rejections).  The 6th race I considered was not a 100-miler, but the Destination Tra...

Recently, for anyone that follows the market, you might’ve noticed the recent  Death Cross  in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It’s where the black line crosses the green line Basically, it means we should all panic and sell all our equities if the average closing value of the last ~3 months becomes worse than the average over the last ~12 months, because the market is about to tank. I like to look at my training the same way - my Death Cross was in November 2017, between the Cactus Rose 100 Miler (win) and Bandera 100k (7th in the national championship) where I ran a decent, but not great, race.  If you bought stock in Joe, November 2017 would’ve been the time to SELL! Death Cross preceding the Joe Bear Market But, much like the current market, I’m trying to correct.  I also have one thing going for me that the market does not.  I just turned 40. On my 40th (actually 3 days prior) a group of us got together and ran at Bandera, which was the beginning of the e...