The Managed Bonk

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...

On August 9th, I’ll line up to run a 200-mile race in Washington state.  For some reason. How do you train for a 200-miler?  I have no idea - my guess is you probably can’t  really train for it.  But since Julie and I tend to take all our yearly vacation days in the summer (always heading to the cooler mountains), I weaved some “training” into that. First was a trip to the San Juan National Forest.  Julie and I joined some good Texas trail-running friends and we spent our time between 8500-13,500 feet, doing some amazing hikes and runs. Julie and I on Devils Bridge trail (PC: Joe Prusaitis) Some ridge between Horsethief and Bear Creek My “long run” that week was a 23-mile, 8.5 hour, 3-peak / 6200’ vertical gain journey from Ironton to Silverton. After a long, arduous week at work (actually only 4 days, thanks to Independence Day), it was time for another vacation.  This time we took the kids to Glacier National Park; it was my first visit and it will defini...

🎶  I’m only happy when it rains  🎶 Before long races, Julie and I scroll through the Sirius channels to make sure the last song we hear before getting out of the car isn’t a crappy one, because you risk getting it stuck in your head for the next several hours.  Sometimes you can replace it in your head, sometimes not.  For the 3-loop Hells Hills 50 miler, I had a nice R.E.M. song for loop 1, but it was replaced by a song from Garbage -  Only Happy when it Rains  - in loop 2. Loop 1 started in the 5am darkness, in some nasty, humid, stale air (dew point was about 70 - yuck).  Steve Moore, Matt Smith, and I took off together, with me in front as the singletrack started.  As one might expect, it was a slow start, but after a few miles their headlamps started drifting back.  By the time I hit the first aid station after mile 6, I couldn’t even see them.  I usually run better races going my own pace versus pack-pace anyway, especially in ul...

A little over a year since I finished my last ultra, Tarawera 102k, I’ve finally finished another - Tinajas 50k. Julie and I both love Colorado Bend state park - they have some of the more technical and challenging trails you can find in Texas, deep in the heart of the hill country.  I ran this race 2 years ago in its inaugural year there, and won it with a 4:15.  Yesterday, I pulled off the win again. With a 4:15. This year I was a lot less confident in my fitness level. I took it out responsibly and easy, but found myself in first place pretty quickly.  In general, I was still pretty gun shy about actually racing.  I let myself stretch out the legs on some of the wide-open downhills but mostly kept it at what I’d call an anti-bonk effort level. I did get passed by a relay team around mile 13, but other than that, my biggest challenge was GI-related.  Despite several fruitful trips to the toilet before the race, I had a sneaky fart that I should not have truste...

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...

30, 0, 21, 25, 25, 2. Those aren’t my lucky lotto numbers, that’s my weekly mileage for the 6 weeks leading up to our Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim trip (R2R2R: Grand Canyon’s South Rim to North Rim, then back to the South Rim - 45-50 miles).  So with a whopping 17 miles/week under my belt, and Julie doing marginally better, we set off anyway on this adventure with our beloved Rockhopper crew. I couldn’t believe how many of us converged together at the Grand Canyon.  I’d estimate 30 Rockhoppers (my counting skills have atrophied) from 4-5 cities around the country, as many friends have moved from San Antonio recently.  On Friday, a group of us did some light sightseeing around the Rim trail. I like how GC doesn’t coddle people with a bunch of railings Sheila, Michelle, Tom, Chris, and Julie Saturday was the big day.  Around 4:20am, about 10 cars drove around the Do Not Enter gates to drop most of us off at the South Kaibab trailhead.  When we opened the door, we heard a ran...

On Saturday 6/2/18, I ran a trail half-marathon as past of the Tejas Trail Running Festival.  I had no business running any kind of race, but it was free since I’d won it the previous year, so, meh... I ran it.  Most of the fun in attending the festival is hanging out with the trail running community and swimming at Krause Springs anyway. Krause Springs Kids Run Our Favorite Hammock Julie participating in a panel of experts  As far as my Half, it took 2:00; it’s a tough course in the heat but my full marathon last year on the same course took about 3:50, so, notsogood this year..  I still have obviously not gotten back into real training since Boston.  Actually, this was my longest run since Boston. But this made me put an analytical eye on my training.  Part of what I get paid for in my day job is analytics, so I did some quick analysis on myself.  To me there are 5 major drivers of success in distance running: 1. Mileage 2. Mileage 3. Mileage 4. Spe...