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...

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...