Burley Spudman Triathlon

Had a great race at the Spudman triathlon this weekend. Official times, race pics, and the like are still pending, but in the mean time, my unofficial times:

• Swim – 20:22 (1600 yards)
• T1 – 3:55
• Bike – 1:04:51 (40k / 25 miles)
• T2 – 2:33
• Run – 52:29 (10k / 6.2 miles)
• Total – 2:24:10

What an awesome race! With over 2,000 competitors, the Spudman Triathlon gets a huge amount of support from the local community of Burley. There were fans all along the bike and run courses, and a great, loud cheering section at the finish. This race was lots of fun, and I had a great time.

The swim was in the Snake River. This section of the Snake was pretty mellow, flowing along green grassy shores just outside of Burley. Though there was a current, it wasn’t too difficult to stay upstream of the buoys before the starting gun. The water was pretty warm (73 degrees according to my watch), but wetsuits were legal and probably assisted what was already going to be a fast swim. Once the race started, I focused on staying smooth and swimming with good technique, and in 20 minutes time I was already getting out of the water.

The swim to bike transition area was large, but I had a great bike location near the exit. In a short time I had my wetsuit off, bike shoes on, and was on my bike headed out onto the roads south of town. The bike course was fast and flat. It was basically a rectangle along rural paved roads, past farm fields, in the shadow of the Albion mountains. I kept my power even and sustainable, and covered the course with an average speed of almost 23 miles per hour. Tailwind mixed at 3 scoops per 25 oz bottle kept my energy levels and hydration up. Cloud cover was pretty constant and made temperatures a very manageable 75 degrees.

Rolling into the bike-to-run transition, I actually could not find my running shoes for about 20 seconds. After settling myself down I found them 1 rack away and got out on the run. The run started across a golf course fairway and then up a steep but short hill. The run then proceeded through a small neighborhood at the top of a bluff above the river, then across the railroad tracks and along rural roads and farm canal paths. I got my heart rate up to about 160-165 and basically held in that range for the whole run. Despite the cloud cover, temperatures on the run crept into the low 80s, and I had a hard time keeping my speed up with where I had been training. I tried dousing myself with water to keep my core temperature down, and took advantage of the water tenders and friendly neighbors who set up sprinklers along the course to stay cool. Just when I thought the run was never going to end, it was back into the neighborhood, down a short tree-covered hill, and across the grass to a rowdy finish line packed with spectators.

My training prepared me pretty well for the race, so there weren’t any really big surprises. My swim was solid, my bike was really strong and I’m thrilled with it, and my run was ok. Would love to see some improvement on the run, perhaps getting under 50 minutes, without sacrificing the bike performance.

If you’re ever thinking about doing a triathlon, I’d strongly suggest the Burley Spudman. It’s well run for such a large event, the course is fast, and the town really comes out to support the event.

I’d be wrong if I didn’t acknowledge the roles my family and friends played in helping me get ready for this race. To my friends who provided camaraderie, companionship, training, and encouragement, thank you. It’s awesome to have friends who understand the crazy that comes with this sport, and I’m enjoying seeing each of you on your own journeys this year.

My family has been awesome during this. They’ve endured a really long training cycle, some borderline obsession, a fair amount of gear hoarding, and plenty of schedule disruptions. Following all of that, they got to have (not enough) bad sleep in a hotel by the interstate, and still were there to greet me at the end, just to see me finish. Kathy and kids, I really don’t get to cross that finish line without you. Thank you.

How I’m Training

I’ve been planning for a while to post an update on my training plan – which really isn’t “updated” at all. Rather, I completely replaced what I was doing.  I’m going to start with some background, but if you’re interested in skipping straight to the plan itself, skip away.

Evolution of my thinking on training

The last time I did a training plan, I had very a very specific time goal in mind and only a vague understanding of how to reach it. I knew from reading blogs and online articles that speed work was important, and that increasing my long run was important, and that tempo runs were important… I read all kinds of articles on Runners World.com, looked at a variety of training plans, and shoved a bunch of things that looked promising into a format based on the Hal Higdon intermediate training plan that worked for me last year.

New Year’s Day 5k

Everybody loves a cheap race, right? Low cost is the main reason I signed up for the New Year’s Day 5k: $25 bucks is probably the cheapest race I’ve done in  a couple of years. I hadn’t run a 5k all year and I thought it would be fun to see if I could lower my time in that event the way I’d lowered my 10k just six weeks earlier. This particular race was sponsored by the local YMCA (which we just joined at Christmas), consisted of greenbelt trails along the river, and featured hot soup indoors afterwards, which is a nice feature for a January race in Idaho.

I didn’t rest of taper for this event, and in fact ran 5.5 medium-effort foothills miles the day previous, so nothing about the effort felt easy. My legs and lungs kept saying, “I’m tired” so I used my heart rate to gauge if I had effort left to give.  I did not have enough “push” to track down the fellow in front of me for the last mile, but in the end the effort was enough for a new PR by about 57 seconds (22m:13s) and first place male 35-40, 14th place overall.

My certificate from the 2016 New Years Day 5k.

One of these days I’ll actually train specifically for a 5k and see how fast I can really go.

Results

Official race results
Time: 22m:13s (PR)
Age Group (35-39M) 1/10
Gender Place: 10/91
Overall Place: 14/260

Struttin’ For Stuffin’ 10k

Haven’t posted in a while but wanted get something out there on today’s run. I’m pretty pleased to have broken the 50 minute mark in the 10k, AND I placed first in age group, third male and fifth overall. Pretty fine results, I think.

My certificate from the 2015 Struttin’ For Stuffin’ 10k.

Results

Official race results
Time: 48m:18.6s (PR)
Age Group (35-39M) 1/5
Gender Place: 3/26
Overall Place: 5/117

My Son’s Fishing Pole

Here’s a rare attempt at “daddy-blogging”.

My son kept his end of a daddy-son bargain for three days in a row, earning three consecutive stickers on his chart. This accomplishment (and trust me, it’s a big accomplishment!) merited a reward – his first fishing pole.

We headed off this afternoon in search of his reward. I posted a picture of his anticipatory smile on facebook, to which my wife replied that he’d be asleep before we made it our destination.  She is a very astute woman.

Son on the way to pick out his first fishing pole

He did indeed fall asleep in the car. I kept him awake with witty banter until we got to the interstate, and then he was toast. He only got 5 minutes of sleep before we got to Cabellas.

Cabellas, by the way, is nirvana if you’re a kid. It’s pretty cool for adults, too. There are so many different tents in which to crawl, a fire pit with a fake fire, and reminders of the outdoors galore. A big game display in the middle of the store features elk, deer, grizzlies, polar bear, musk ox, a wolf, and even a few little guys like an otter and a skunk. “Daddy, why aren’t they moving?” “They’re display specimens, son”.  Thank goodness I didn’t have to explain any further.  Because other than that, if they so much as flinched they would terrify a store full of Sunday afternoon shoppers, son.

The end of the store near the fishing gear has two huge aquarium tanks. One features all the warmer water impoundment species, like bass, crappie, and the like. The other tank contains cooler water and shows off trout, salmon, and relatives. My son got to watch a turtle poop in the water, which was something I’d never seen either.

The actual shopping for a fishing poll was just a tour of the fishing section, during which I replaced all the gear that he dislodged.  We settled on a “Cars” themed fishing rod (Shakespeare brand) with practice casting weight, and a tackle box. Hopefully it will last a while. I was hoping for Zebco, but alas, their kid’s offerings are aimed at eight year olds and up.

New rod and tackle box in hand

Fishing pole in one hand, tackle box in the other, we proudly left the store. This time there was no sleeping on the drive.

Casting the day away.

By the end of his first practice session, he was casting to the end of the line on the reel. I’m looking forward to the first fish, already.

2014 Year in Review

Since I did a 2014 goals post, shall we do a 2014 year in review? We shall.

Family Life: Baby girl arrived in April and has been a delight. We are probably as well-adapted as any parents of two little children could be. Check!

Homebrewing: Got new tubing for cold-side beer movement. Brewed a porter, bought a keg, and kegged the porter. So, two goals down out of five. I did not find time to brew a beer fir baby girl’s arrival. I actually only brewed once during the whole year, rather than once a quarter, and I did not enter a single contest. Ah well. It has been nice to have homebrew to drink again, and kegging is well worth the expense.

Running: I didn’t get into Robie Creek, but I ran the Les Bois 10k anyway and improved my time over last year.  Didn’t get a chance to get revenge on the High Desert Half Marathon because the organizers didn’t organize it again this year.  I built my own training program and trained hard for the Sun Valley Half Marathon and came home with a PR. Nearly ran myself into the ground with that training plan.  Despite that, I ran the River of No Return 25k just two weeks after Sun Valley. Beautiful course that has my appetite whetted for (maybe) the 50k version in 2015.  For kicks, I ran the McCall Trail Running Classic 20 miler about a month later. It was after that event that I declared myself over-raced and under-trained. I committed myself to building a solid base of mileage and spent most of the late summer and early fall running slow, easy mileage.  I ran the Payette Lake 30k as an easy paced long run, and had a great time. I skipped all of the races in October due to work travel, so I didn’t run the Barber to Boise. It still sounds like a great course; maybe next year. I set a 5k PR running Boise’s Turkey Day 5k and a 10k PR running the Hot Chocolate Run to close out the year. I ran slower, and further, in 2014 than before – and in the end it made me faster.  Isn’t that something?

Final running stats for 2014: 226 runs; 1276 miles; 114,773 vertical feet ascended; in 223 hours 43 minutes

Didnt run Robie, but ran a “Hipster Robie”. More climbing, more distance, more pain, less cost. Photo Credit: Cory Harelson, http://eat-climb-run.blogspot.com/

Skiing: I made the most of the XC ski lessons that Kathy got me for Christmas, and had a blast skiing until the snow melted on Bogus Basin and it was time to run again.

Enough groomed classic track to stay busy all winter.

Avoiding Inury: I managed to avoid further running injury until basically the last two weeks of 2014.  At this point I may be dealing with a little plantar fasciatis.  The jury is still out at this point.

It was a full year – but a great one! Thanks for following along.

2014 Lifetime Turkey Day 5k Boise

I hadn’t run a 5k race since the same event last year, and hadn’t raced a distance shorter than a half-marathon since June. I have been training steadily and with purpose, for 4 months now following the McCall Trailrunning Classic, and have managed to stay healthy running six days a week. The bulk of my training mileage is very slow; my goal is to keep my cadence up (over 175 steps/minute) and my heart rate in zone 1 or zone 2 (50-70% of heart rate reserve).  This works out to roughly a 10 – 11 minute per mile pace. I am only doing speedwork every two weeks or so, and most of those runs are lactate threshold runs near my 10k pace (8m:20s/mile).

All of that prologue is just a really long-winded way to say that I haven’t run fast in a long time. I was actually starting to miss it, and I looked forward to this race to see if I had gotten faster even while not training for speed.

My strategy was to run the first mile strong, take it slightly easier for the second mile, and then close out strong, with a finishing kick for the last 400 meters. I think I nailed it – I had so much energy left for the finishing kick that I actually surprised myself a bit.

Splits:
Mile 1 – 7m:30s
Mile 2 – 7m:39s
Mile 3 – 7m:17s
Last 400m – 1m:23s (5m:32s/mile pace)

2014 Payette Lake Run

The Event

Circumnavigating its namesake lake, the 30k variant of The Payette Lake run is something of an Idaho institution. It’s been run on the iconic shore of McCall, ID’s focal-point lake for 37 consecutive years or so. The Boise Area Runners (BAR Meetup, BAR Facebook) club with whom I thoroughly enjoy running were making a weekend out of the event for a second year in a row, which sounded like great fun. Even if the run was a total bear, the company would be fun.

This race was on my list last year, but ill-timed wildfire assignments (are there well-timed wildfires? Maybe, but they don’t call us to manage those) left me poorly prepared. Looking back, I had run all of 42 miles in July and 28 in August 2013; not exactly the solid base mileage numbers needed to tackle 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) in one shot. This year I was heading into the race in a much better place, having run 97 and 111 miles for the same months a year later.

McCall Trailrunning Classic – Race Report

The McCall Trailrunning Classic was described to me as a beautiful course and a great place to try my legs at a 20-mile distance. It certainly was beautiful, and really hard over those 20 miles. I am glad that I had done the River of No Return 25k in Challis a few weeks prior, as well as a handful of longer training runs. I had to dig deep on this one.

The course begins at Jug Mountain Ranch, a golf and mountain biking club on the western edge of the “Long Valley” in which McCall, ID sits. JMR is a fantastic location and a gracious and accommodating host for an event like this. They opened their clubhouse to runners, had the nicest bathrooms that I will probably ever get to visit prior to a race, maintain a great trail system, and allowed about 300 runners to just take over their parking for the better part of a day. If anyone who reads this is associated with JMR, THANKS! GREAT JOB!

Council Mountain across the long valley, from the climb.

The River of No Return 25k – Race Report!

Over the weekend, I completed my first race over half-marathon distance, the River of No Return Endurance Runs 25k. I had a blast!

The race was well organized, from the pre-race communication through email and Facebook, to the pre-race meeting and bib pick-up, to the race-morning timing chips and start, all the way through to the well marked trail, smooth-running aid station (only one on the 25k course), and finish line refueling / relaxing / celebration.  Race swag included a great shirt (“Run Fast, Everything Else Here Does”), day-glo technical fabric hats, and a unique sandblasted finishers award.

I rolled into the little town of Challis, ID (pop. 1081) and found the high school just a hair before the 6pm start of the pre-race meeting on Friday night. Race directors Paul and Neal talked us through the particular challenges of the course, the dos and don’ts, timing, and logistics while including some “wolfish” humor.  It seems that the pre-race communications contained enough teasing about the carnivorous canine inhabitants of the River of No Return Wilderness that a few runners asked if they could pack heat during the race!! Paul assured us that no such protection was necessary, but that you could consider yourself lucky if you saw, even for a moment, one of the notoriously elusive wolves now known to be established in the far hinterlands of the race area.

Following the pre-race meeting, I had a nice steak and potato dinner with a fantastic apple dumpling dessert at the Y-Inn cafe. I’m not sure that the townspeople of Challis were quite ready for a herd of hungry runners storming into town, but the service was quick and efficient and the food delicious.  I swung back by the high school,  picked up my race packet, and got intel from a local runner on camping areas near town. I ended up camping along Mill Creek on the Custer Motorway, right alongside the final stretch of the 100k course. It was cool, clear,  and dark at elevation which made for some great stargazing before turning in for the night. I must have imagined hearing the howling of wolves over babbling Mill Creek as I drifted off to sleep…

 

Campsite along Custer Motorway in Salmon-Challis NF

Sunset from Pine Summit in the Salmon-Challis National Forest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I awoke early the next morning and broke camp feeling rested and ready. After driving to the race site, I downed a bowl of oatmeal with a banana and coffee, picked up my timing chip, and made final preparation for my run. I only had about 5 mins to spare so I was really thankful to have packed my race vest prior to leaving home. I had time to fill my handheld water bottles and, before I knew it, the mortar sounded (yes, a real mortar) and we were off.

Wait for the mortar… yes, you heard that right!

Early: We did a 3/4 lap around the Challis High school track and then off down the pavement for a short bit before switching to an ATV track alongside US 93 highway. I had to battle my impulse to run fast – there was so much energy running in the group. I kept trying to dial it back, dial it back, knowing that the hard stuff was soon to come and if I ran too hard early it would be tough to control my heart rate during the climb.

After three miles we entered the Lombard Trail system, a set of ATV trails run by a state and local partnership. At this point the trail began to climb steadily, entering a canyon. I followed my pre-race strategy of walking the steeper hills, though despite this strategy I soon found my heart rate exceeding my aerobic zone threshold. There were a few runnable stretches here, and I made the most of them before climbing steeply for a mile to leave the canyon behind and entering a bowl-shaped valley. Ahead was a steep climb, wrapped with a switchback nearly 1000 feet up.

Looking up at the switchback nearly 1000 feet above.

Middle: It was on this climb that I actually passed a few other runners. I was able to keep my heart rate down by power hiking the grade, over a mile at about a 20min pace. Halfway up the climb, we passed the turn off back to town and began the “out and back” portion of the course.  I ended up falling in a with a husband and wife team, Jordan and Laura, and made good time hiking and chatting a little. The heat was getting intense and it was getting to lots of runners. Once up on the switchback that I had seen a few miles earlier, I was able to resume running as we finally climbed over a saddle in the ridge and into the next drainage.

Looking down from the switchback at the trail 800′ below.

Once over the saddle, the trail sidehilled in an undulating sort of way along the northeast slope of Blue Mountain.  Finally, there were occasional trees and shade! I cruised into the shaded Birch Creek aid station and munched on a few m&ms and had a piece of banana.  The aid station was really well stocked with all manner of performance foods. The nice volunteers offered to fill my bladder bag, but I declined the offer, “knowing” that I had enough water left for the descent (oops).  I headed out of the aid station after no more than a 2 minute rest, eager to begin the descent.

Back on the downhill section from the saddle I began refilling my handheld flask with water.  I had been measuring from my bladder bag into a pair of 8oz flasks; one for plain water, and one for Nuun.  This approach lets me monitor my fluid consumption- otherwise you have no idea how much is left in your bladder bag.  However, running must really sapp my math skills, because it didn’t occur to me that 2×8 + 4×8 = 48 ounces of water… out of a bag filled to the 60 oz line, that didn’t leave much left. I found my bladder emptied with only 4oz of plain water and 7oz of Nuun, and 5 miles to go. Not dangerous, but inconvenient.

Downhill to the finish: Blame it on the altitude, or the heat, but I really struggled with the last 5 miles.  I only got passed once in this section, and really didn’t see many other runners, but I had lots of problems keeping my heart rate down, and had to stop for brief walk breaks often. Mile 10 wasn’t unpleasant, it was flat and well marked, but I was feeling gassed. Miles 11 and 12 consisted of “goat trail”, steep, narrow single track and crumbly-rock ridge descents. It was a mental exercise to watch foot placements through this section. Once at the bottom, it was all paved road downhill into town.

Narrow single track down with Challis in sight.

At this point I was trashed enough to have to take walk breaks on a gentle downhill paved road, which was a little demoralizing. I took to running until my Garmin buzzed at me having a heart rate over 170, then walked until it descended into the 150s, then beginning to run again.  Funny enough, the only person to pass me on the pavement was the eventual winner of the 50k. He was running around 6:00 mile pace when he passed me, I bet- but he was taking walk breaks, too! That helped me feel a bit better.  The walk-run strategy, plus energy from a few cheering residents as I ran through downtown Challis got me through the final few miles until the announcer’s voice calling out in the stadium helped me power through to the finish.

Everyone at the finish was great. Someone handed me a water, a finisher’s hat, and directed me to the water fountain to douse my head. Afterwards I got to pick out my finisher’s trinket, a sandblasted river rock.  Watermelon and cantaloupe made great immediate refreshments, and the BBQ chicken was awesome. I met some great folks from Stanley, chatted with Daniel from California (still doing long distance trail races at 70 years old), and tied in with some friends from the Boise Trail Runners facebook group as we cheered the finishers from the 25k and 50k for the rest of the afternoon.

Next Time

Prepare better: I’m sure the elevation had something to due with my heart rate staying higher than I would have liked, but I think I needed to have slept and rested a bit more going into this one too.  I targeted the Sun Valley Half Marathon just two weeks prior to this race as my spring goal race, and it may have been a bit of a stretch to tack this burly race on so close on the heels of Sun Valley. I was pretty light on my running the week prior to this race (just 8 miles) but ran 42 miles the week following Sun Valley. In addition, I just didn’t do a good job managing my schedule at home, and probably averaged close to 6 hours of sleep during the previous two weeks. Fix that, and I bet I go into the race with a more rested, more capable body.

Start slower: For these longer races, I’m going to need to do a better job of watching my HR, keeping my pace down early, and saving energy for effort on the downhills. Allowing my ego to run the first 3 miles isn’t going to help deep in these longer races.

Get Stronger: Hill climbing requires strength, and so does maintaining form when tired. I started the year with plans to focus on core strength, but as my running picked up, I dropped the strength portion of my plan. I plan to take a running break here in mid-summer, but will add strength training back into my routine. When I do resume a training plan for the fall, trails and hill repeats are going to be a much greater part of the plan than they were in the spring.

The Wrap-Up

The River of No Return 25k was every bit as tough, and as fun, as promised. I am thrilled to have completed it in just a shade over 3 hours. It’s safe to say that I’ve been on a bit of a runner’s high for the last few days.  Next year’s River of No Return Endurance Runs are scheduled for June 20th. Now I just have to decide if I’m headed back for the 25k, or will I step up to the 50k?

2014 River of No Return Endurance Runs 25K (6/21/2014)

Official race results
Chip Time: 3:02:31
Age Group (30-39M) 9/16
Gender Place: 26/46
Overall Place: 42/113

Other Race Reviews From This Event: (all J names?)

Jeremy Humphries won the 100k: StayVertical

Jayk Reynolds Lived this 100k Ultra

Jeff Black remembers the 100k

Jodi and friends ran the 25k with me