The Managed Bonk

Why Brazos Bend 100? After  Bigfoot 200   I wanted to do a faster race where I’d be able to, ya know, actually run!  Rob Goyen’s BB100 is one of the fastest around, and this year it doubled as the 100-mile Trail National Championship. As a bonus to USATF , I thought I’d have a pretty good shot of hitting at least the ‘B’ Standard qualifying time (16:10) for Desert Solstice Invitational next year, a 24-hour race around a track (I know...weird).  While I do love mountains and mountain races, I’m a relatively weak climber so I’m hoping these flat races may be more up my alley.  The ‘A’ Standard for Desert Solstice is 14:00, and I thought maybe I’d have an outside shot at it, although in hindsight seems maybe a tad aggressive. BB100 is 6 equal loops of 16.7 miles, and my plan was to start off at 8:00/mile, see how that felt, then let the pace bleed slower as it got hotter and more miserable.  After the gun I found myself in 10th, and I was tri...

I’m a month early in reviewing 2019’s training, but since I’m now starting a taper for my final race of the year, it’s time! I  ended 2018  having logged the fewest miles I’d ever run in a calendar year, since taking up this sport.  But I’d also just turned 40, and used the milestone birthday to turn the tide. As I prepare to run the Brazos Bend 100 on December 7th, here is my final moving average chart. 2019 The blue line looks back 13 weeks, and is a bit volatile - I think what it best reflects is that, week-to-week, it’s really hard to be consistent and motivated for an entire year!  I don’t think I missed a single run in the first 3 months of 2019, so that’s where it peaks (minus that one time I ran 200 miles in a weekend!).  I’m ending up at only 56.7 miles/week for the most recent 3 months; some of that low number is a slow recovery from Bigfoot, some is time off for a nagging Achilles, and some is just lack of motivation! The green line looks back 26 week...

Thursday, November 7 4:00pm - 1 week overdue.  At our birth center appointment, Carolina (our midwife) consoled Julie, who was worried there was no progress. Carolina did an exam, and was able to massage the cervix to try to stimulate labor. Friday, November 8 1:00am - 6:00am - Julie starts having early labor contractions.  I slept through them as Julie didn’t want to wake me up. 9:00am - Already timing contractions 5 minutes apart, and Julie is throwing up. We called Desiree, Julie’s doula, who brought her assistant Kaylee over to the house as well - both were life savers! Kaylee was always there for every contraction! 4:00pm - Once Desiree estimated Julie was in active labor (5-6 cm), and the intensity of contractions increased, we drove to the birth center. 5:00pm - Carolina confirmed it was time for Julie to be admitted after an exam between contractions. 6:00pm - 9:00pm - progressing right along, mostly in the tub!  Around 8-9cm by 9-10pm. PC: Desiree Sangiuliano-Jem...

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...