Race Report: 2012 Santa Rosa Marathon

*OLD POST*

This is one of a handful of race/run reports that I wrote before I started this blog.

Raced Santa Rosa Marathon this past weekend, here's the scoop if you'd care to read:

Some of you might remember this post about my experience at LA Marathon this year, and my goal of a sub 3 hour marathon, so if you care to read, that will preface the first portion of this year in my running life.

Me:

27, Male, 6'1", 180 lb.

Preparation

After the LA Marathon and the disappointing result due to unforseen stomach cramps, I was pretty amped to get back on the horse and add more fitness. Tried to get an easy 3 in the Wednesday after the race, but my left glute (specifically what I think is the piriformis?) felt really sore, so they weren't the easiest miles I've ever run. Took another week off and tried for Wednesday the following week with similar results. I was on my bike putting in mileage and that felt good, so I left running at 1 run per week for the month after the race, and just hit significant bike miles until 2 weeks before a Half-Iron that I race every year. Took 1 whole week off of everything, then eased into the race and felt good, so I knew I could get back into it.

There were a lot of great suggestions for things that I could do to improve my fitness in the comments of my last race report and one of the most common was: more mileage. The thought was that peaking at a 62 mile week wasn't enough to hit sub 3. I took this to heart, looked around, and decided that I wanted to use Pfitzinger's 18 week/70 mile plan. Off the bat, however, I had to hack out 2 weeks because I didn't have 18 weeks. Additionally, my summer schedule of traveling was hectic to say the least, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to be as regimented as I was for LA, but this fit well with my attitude about my next cycle of training.

Before LA, I gave up everything, pretty much. Almost no partying, few missed runs, no biking...essentially I was a ghost to a lot of my buddies because I was sacrificing my normal social life for my running goals.

After LA, and the uncharacteristic elevated heart rate I exhibited, I tried to think of reasons that I would have been psyched out and over-amped about the race. One of the conclusions that I came to is that I was training too much 'by the book'. 'The Book' (mileage, long run tempo, speed work, etc.) is the gospel, but it's gotta be tailored to the individual, so I resolved to continue riding and give up less social events, but also retain consistency and diligence on the run-mileage and quality front.

The major changes I made to my training from the LA Marathon plan were as such: I rode by bike at least once a week for hard interval sets or long epics, not because I am a big fan of cross training or thought that I'd get injured, but because I love hammering on my bike, chasing breaks, Tour de France, blah blah most of you don't care. Despite the unconventional workout or two during the week, I kept my long run, and at least 1 tempo type run of medium distance (10-12). My favorite Pfitz workouts were the Lactate Threshold workouts such as '12 miles with 6 miles tempo'. I chose LT as my major focus, because keeping speed for 26.2 was the goal. The second major change was that, I added hills to my long runs, and more hill repeats in general. The idea here was to give me some more muscle strength to deal with inclines so that I would not burn as much of my tank on any hills or accelerations. The final major change was my long run pace. Several commenters in the LA report suggested that my long runs were too slow. I agreed, and decided to start my long runs around 8 min/mile (where I trained for LA), but end around 7 min/mile, or close to race pace. This helped simulate back end fatigue and holding pace through it (which would come in handy later).

Taper and Race

Nutrition during the week of race was pretty standard. Good balance of carbs, protein and fat. Pretty much staying healthy and working to keep the stomach healthy and muscle glycogen topped off. Race taper was not as standard. One of the suggestions from the LA Marathon report comments was that my taper was too long. I agreed with this as well, because I was feeling ancy going into the race. I feel like I should feel calm and rested, but not ancy, like I want to get more miles. I spend 9 days total in my taper, which included a 7 mile race pace run 8 days out, an 8 mile easy run 6 days out, a 4 mile run with 3x100m strides 5 days out, 5 miles with 2 at race pace, a rest day, 3 miles easy, and a rest day before the race. Lots of flexibility work, in there, but no stretching for the 2 days before the race in order to let the muscles heal fully (another lesson from LA: I felt like I had no 'pop', and I think it's because I stretched some/at all before the race, which has been shown to decrease performance).

Race day went off pretty well. Got up, ate 2 hours before the gun, got ready, drove to the venue with my buddy, warmed up, dropped a great pre-game deuce and cruised to the starting line with about 10 minutes to spare. It's a 1000 person race, and the park where everything was located was adjacent to the starting line, so it was easy to literally just step in with the faster runners at the line. Turns out the 3:00 group was the first group anyway.

When the gun went off, I hopped in with the 3-hour group and started clicking off miles. The pace felt fast, but I kept with it because I felt fresh, but when we hit mile 1 at 6:37, I decided to back it off to mid 6:40s. The 3-hour group moved up a bit, and I settled in pace next to another guy, who also was wearing a GPS watch, and we cruised along until the halfway point together. Joining us over miles 2-5 or so were several people, and we ended up in a group of about 5-7 people pacing for around the 3 hour mark.

At this point, my mind was clouded with doubt. So much shit can happen on the back stretch of a marathon (and at my experience level, I don't know enough to extrapolate my leg feeling in the beginning to what is going to happen at the end) that every little bit of fatigue I felt in the first 13.1 worried me. I was questioning how much of a suffer-fest it was going to be and thinking back to 8 miles of shitstorm at the end of LA (haha, I'm referencing LA Marathon a lot...can you tell I've only run 2 marathons?). Surprisingly enough, though, the first of two 13.1 mile laps was uneventful, other than I dropped the last 2 of my 4 salt tablets somewhere when I pulled out a Gu (buffered salt tabs: part of my stomach cramp mitigation plan). Luckily it was 55 degrees and cloudy for literally the whole race...awesome! While I'm on the stomach cramp mitigation plan topoic: the other plan was to drink an adequate amount of water. LA Race Report comments determined that I was probably dehydrated a bit and that I was not consuming enough water for sufficient gastric emptying, which cause my stomach lockup. I agreed with this diagnosis, so I planned in some H20 for the course. At mile 11 I grabbed a half bottle of Gu Rocktane drink from my friend. This is about 135 calories of electrolytes and carbs, so little more than 1 Gu, but in a more easily digested format. This was key.

I came through the first lap in the mid 1:29 range. This was slightly slower than I wanted, but still decent, and sub 3 was still in reach. At the halfway mark, I knew the guy I was with was trying to negative split to 2:55, so I let him go and started following my own pace. I dunno if a Gu kicked in or what, but miles 13.1 - 17 were CAKE. Felt super smooth and easy. I had never raced past 18 miles without a problem (in my extensive catalog of 1 marathon previous), so I was wary of my legs and stomach, but was feeling pretty decent. Hit the 18 mile marker and felt good, but was starting to feel a bit fatigued, so I decided to back it off a bit to mid 6:50s in hopes that I would prevent a blow-up and then have enough for a kick to make up the few seconds that I would give back. 18 and 19 were great: I ate another half Gu (started eating Gu by half packets and running with the other half to let it settle) and felt the energy kick in a few minutes later. At mile 20 I started feeling my legs talking back a bit and telling me that they were getting tired. This was to be expected, so I cashed another half Gu and went into pace lock in the 6:50s. At mile 22, I knew shit was about to hit the fan, but 4.2 miles is a suffer-fest, not an impossibility, and this was exactly to race plan.

The last 4.2 were indeed a blur of suffering and pain, but in the best way, as many of you endurance athletes know. My MO for the 10k distance is: start at race pace, finish at race pace, if I'm not in immense pain, I probably didn't run fast enough. I don't mean like, 'Ow, my achilles tendon hurts' pain, but like 'Fuck this. This sucks. All I want to do is stop' pain. So I knew I could hang for 4.2. Mile 23 was a bitch. More pain. Mile 24 also sucked, as did mile 25. These miles were an exercise of focusing only on not dropping pace, not stopping, and keeping the mind in a motivated, angry place, which is where I like to be at the end of a race. My friend decided to run with me for a couple miles, from the 22 marker to the 24.5 or so point, but she's not really a 6:50 runner, and after I told her to stop talking a couple times, she was happy to just cruise along with and then send me on my way while she headed to the finish line. When I hit mile 25, I knew it was time to kick, but a 'kick' at this point was digging deep not to fall apart. I felt like I was killing it at about 6:20 pace, but in actuality, it was about 7 min pace, haha. I hammered hard home, crossed the finish line (passed a dude with about 5 meters to go in the finishing chute) and proceeded to lie down like a snow-angel to re-align myself with reality. Best feeling: finishing after 4 miles of suffer-filled hammering and the legs no longer having to move. Final time ended up being a 3:00:36. 36 seconds off of sub 3. I averaged 6:54 miles and needed 6:52 miles...haha. I can't be disappointed though, because I went all out and executed the plan well, so I guess it's just gonna come down to next race. Boston registration is in 3 weeks, so I'll try to register for that and maybe break 3 at Boston? What better of a place to do it!

Post Race

Not much to say about technical stuff post race, really. I felt good. Took a shower, drank wine and beer with an older runner named Steve who was cool as shit, and then went home and ate a burger and milkshake. Today I'm sore, but otherwise feel awesome.

Actually, I do have a few things to say about my training. Though I went pretty 'unstructured' this time around, and it seems to have paid off, I think a little more structure to the unstructuredness would have helped. I never really knew where I was and didn't have any benchmarking to gauge my progress, so I wasn't as confident going into the race as I could have been.

Race Nutrition:

• Half Bottle of Gu Rocktane Lemon/Lime
• 3 Gu Vanilla Bean
• 1 Gu Rocktane 'Red' (whatever flavor that is)
• 1 Sleeve Tropical Punch Clif Bloks at the starting line
• Lots of water
• 2 Salt Stick Tablets

Race Course:

2 loops on a pretty much flat 13.1 mile out and back. A few annoying hard 180 degree turns to go under bridges or up ramps, but otherwise pretty beautiful fields, vineyards and a creek the whole way.

Race Report: 2012 LA Marathon

*OLD POST*
This is one of a handful of race/run reports that I wrote before I started this blog.

Raced the LA Marathon on Sunday, so here's some deets about my preparation, the race, and some post thoughts.

I've been running for about 5 years, the last 4 or so have been more serious, but I don't have any high school or collegiate history of pure running, so it's been a process.

Pre Race

I decided last year that I wanted to go sub 3 in a marathon this year, and 18 weeks seemed like a good amount of time to prepare for it, so I followed Hal Higdon's Advanced 1 plan to add some structure to my normally unstructured mileage. My long runs were at around 7:45 to 8 minute pace, tempo around 6:20, and track repeats at 6 min pace (Yasso 800 pace). I peaked in training at about 62 miles per week, with a couple weeks in the mid fifties and a few weeks in the high 30s to high 40s. I'll post my training log when I get home, can't access imgur at work.

I hit my last long run 3 weeks out from the race, and it was a smooth 20. Felt great, nutrition was solid, and finished feeling relaxed, so I was ready for a recovery week, and 2 weeks of taper. Recovery week was around 42 miles with a solid hill workout in the middle of it, first taper week was 30 miles with a set of 90 second 400s in the middle, and race week was 12 miles, pretty much all easy with a few 400m shake outs on Tuesday and full rest Thursday/Friday. Thurs/Fri/Sat consisted of a lot of time with my legs up on the couch reading, to make sure they were resting and loosening up.

Nutrition-wise during the week, I focused on carbohydrates like pasta, and potatoes, protein like chicken, and some fruits and veggies, like salad, banana, apple, and OJ. I made sure I had enough food to eat any time that I felt hungry, and made sure my meals consisted of at least a source of complex carbs and a source of lean protein. My calorie consumption seemed reasonable without being ridiculous, in terms of how full I felt and how often I was hungry. I haven't even counted calories, so no quantitative data on that front. I also carried a water bottle around with me everywhere I went to make sure I followed a diligent hydration plan, but I pretty much do this anyway.

Race Day

Race Day at LA Marathon is brutal if you don't stay at a hotel or have friends to drop you off. It's point to point, so you have to park at the finish and take a shuttle up to the start. The race starts around 7:30 and the last shuttle leaves for it's 45 minute journey at 5:30. I arrived early and got on the 4:30 shuttle, so I ended up sitting around for about 30 minutes until I began my warmup at 5:45. Luckily it was recommended to bring throwaway jackets/pants that they would donate for you after the race, so I was plenty warm (it was about 40 deg F outside).

Warmup consisted of a lap around Dodger Stadium, 4 sets of strides, some dynamic stretching, and another lap. Then I checked gear and got into the starting corral with about 45 mins to go.

My nutrition plan was as such: 6 gels total, 1 20 mins before gun, 1 20 mins after gun, and every 30 from there on out. This had seemed to work for me on a 30k trail race I did in January. They had water every mile, so I opted to drink a gulp of water every mile to try and stay hydrated but not have to pee.

After all the starting hoopla and a lot of too-loud announcer babble (speaker was literally next to my starting corral, and had to be loud enough for 23,000 racers to hear...ugh), the race set up to go approximately on time.

Gun went off and I started settled in to what I felt was a decent pace. The start is a short uphill followed by a couple miles of steep downhill, so I was trying to dial my effort (heart rate) to match my flat race pace miles that I did during training. This seemed to work OK, but my first mile was 6:14, followed by a 6:27, but my heart rate seemed to be at a reasonable level, so I was OK with going that quickly. The course flattened out midway through the 2nd mile, and I tried to settle onto a 6:45 or so pace, but it felt a bit difficult. Additionally, I felt drowsy. I decided that I was just cold from the downhill (at this point I was wearing running shorts, singlet, headband and gloves) and pushed through, but my heart rate was not settling out, and the uphill had started around mile 3.5.

I hit the 10k mark at 42 minutes even which felt good because the end of the course featured a lot of false flat and some big downhills, so just under 7 minute splits over the initial hills seemed reasonable. Soon after this, however, I got passed by a 'Sub 3' group from a local running club, and decided to hop in a draft down Sunset Blvd. which was a little windy. This only lasted for about 2 miles, or just after the 9 mile mark, because they were clicking off 6:40 pace, which was not going to be sustainable for me, and we hit 9 miles just over 1 hour in.

I let them go, and kept on trying to click off between 6:50 and 7:10 miles, depending on the slope of the course. I hit the halfway mark at 1:28, and had just started to feel like this was about to turn into a sufferfest. My heart rate was still 8-10 BPM too high (higher than similarly paced 10 milers in training), and my legs were starting to show signs of cracks. I had already made the decision that I was gonna hit splits and make 3 hours, or blow up in epic fashion trying, so my race plan was to keep it up until blowing up. And that's pretty much exactly what happened.

Mile 17 started to get hard, but it was uphill, as was some of 18, but my splits were 7:14, 7:09 so I was relatively on track still. Mile 19 is where things started to fall apart. Pushing through leg pain and burn is nothing new to me, that's pretty much par for the course if you wanna be a fast runner, I suppose, but I had never had stomach problems before, and my stomach started to cramp, hard. I was starting to have trouble breathing because of the cramping, but I pushed through 19 at 7:40, but 20 slowed to 8:40, and I had to stop for a few seconds to try and shake out the cramps because it felt like my stomach was getting stabbed, which made it really tough to breathe.

If you've ever been in that situation where you've got a long way to go and you're in a lot of pain, you know the feeling of thinking, "Shit, this is gonna be a really shitty portion of time." 10k of pain feels like forever, haha. Nothing of note happened in the last 6.2 of the race except that I either had to walk/run or stop to let the cramps subside. I was pissed. Mostly because I thought I could handle any pain running would throw at me, but the stomach cramp/breathing thing was a new one, and I did not handle it well. I at my 5th Gu over the course of a mile or so, but I couldn't handle the 6th later on.

I knew I had no chance at 3:00, but I thought if I could close just under 8 minute miles I might hit 3:05, but after 20 went by at 8:42 and 21 went by at 9:04, I kept having to revise my estimated finishing time. What ended up getting me is that a guy I know, who I'm faster than, had run a 3:30 at California International last year, so I didn't wanna get beat by him, even though I was in the midst of an epic blow up. My last miles were between 8:45 and 12 minutes, depending on the terrain, but I clocked in around 3:26 at the finish.

Post Race

I stumbled forward for a while, got the medal and heat blanket, etc. but the water and nutrition were a long city block from the finish, and it took forever to get there. I drank some water and ate a couple bites of a banana, which did not sit well, and my abs started to cramp/spasm, which was an interesting feeling.

Finally made it to my car and home, slept for like 2 hours and then mowed down a Chipotle burrito, followed by a burger and fries about 4 hours later.

Monday my legs were a wreck. Hips hurt, quads and hams sore, back hurt, felt like an old man, haha. Went for a 2 mile walk after work yesterday, and now today feel a lot better, but am gonna stay off running for another day and maybe try a couple miles easy tomorrow.

The whole experience was humbling to say the least. I was confident that I could hit 3, even though LA is not the best course to do it on, and I had my ass handed to me. It was an epic though, and I've thought a lot about it in the last couple days. What can I do to avoid these problems in the future? How can I avoid stomach problems, etc. For one, I think I need more miles. High 30s for off weeks and a peak of 62 seems like too low. In hindsight, Hal Higdon is known for his philosophy of undertraining, so perhaps I should have hopped up to the Advanced 2 plan, or looked at other plans like Jack Daniels or Pfitzinger.

On a more holistic aspect, I took this race more seriously than I've taken any race since I was racing bicycles super seriously 10 years ago. I didn't drink alcohol for 2 weeks before hand, my taper was huge, comparatively, to any other tapers I've done for past races, and I had everything planned out, splits, nutrition, hydration, etc. One of my friends suggested that I had taken it too seriously and perhaps I was over-amped and under-stoked, which could have caused the elevated heart rate that I didn't see in race pace training runs, and have subconsciously affected me. I don't know if that is the case, but it could be, so maybe I will take a slightly more relaxed approach to my next race.

Next race I think will be Santa Rosa Marathon in August. It's flat and fast and the date gives me a month of recovery from this race followed by 16 weeks of training to prepare for another sub 3 bid.

Feel free to provide feedback. I'm all ears for improving my training and racing.

Race Report: 2012 Steep Ravine 30k

*OLD POST*
This is one of a handful of race/run reports that I wrote before I started this blog.

I always enjoy reading others' race reports so I thought I'd throw a race report in about my 30k trail race from Saturday. I'm not a great writer, but I'll do my best.

Pre-Race

I've been working towards going for a sub 3 marathon at the LA Marathon this year, so it seemed like a good idea to throw in a 30-ish kilometer race somewhere in my training to substitute for a long run and mix things up a bit (running in west LA is not the most interesting spot, though it is pretty during sunsets!). Additionally, I wanted to add some hills into my training because I need to go 11+ miles to get any sustained climbing into my runs, so for shorter, after-work runs, I've often been relegated to flat or nearly flat runs.

Mileage-wise, I've been hovering in the 50/week range, on my way up to 60 and change for my peak week. Since this race wasn't a peak race, I was planning on training straight through the race with 1 rest day before hand, which happened to coincide with my normal rest day (Friday). Unfortunately, on an easy 5 on Wednesday, my hamstring locked up painfully, which has never happened before, so I sacked Thursday's run as well to stay on the conservative side. Ice, Compression and Aleve were part of my Thursday/Friday regimen. Friday night I flew into town and ended up getting to bed some time around 1am with a set time of 5:45am wakeup for the race. This didn't really worry me because I've heard 2 nights before the race is really the most important night to get good rest anyway.

Race Day

My usual race day meal is a toasted bagel and peanut butter + coffee at least 2 hours before start. Pretty simple and worked out as per normal...this has been my race meal for about 2 years, so it's pretty dialed in. Headed up to the race I was pretty stoked since I hadn't raced in more than 2 months, but I didn't get any pre-race jitters, which was interesting. The whole affair was pretty laid back: checked in and picked up T-Shirt at a picnic table, warmed up a bit and hit up the starting line (after taking 1 gel) and there were only about 450 racers between 5 distances (7mi, Half & Full Marathon, 30k, 50k). I had opted not to carry water, but to carry gels and take them at times 0, 0:45, 1:15, 1:45, 2:15 with a target of less than 3 hours to finish.

The 'gun' went off and the 30k and 50k racers started out up the hill. The first 3 miles to the first aid station were straight uphill and the pace was slowish, but the course was gorgeous! Wide open fields or up a steep creek ravine covered in moss and huge trees. Not being a trail runner, I was not used to the slow pace, but I had just watched some heli shots of the North Face Mont Blanc race where the best guys in the world were walking up portions of the trail, so I realized that this was necessary for most of us mortals and even some of the best as the distance and grade got larger.

First aid station had salty snacks, water and gels, so I snagged a couple dixie cups of water, a few goldfish crackers and started the descent of the other side of the hill. The view was incredible!! Sweeping view of the ocean and hills on a crystal clear day...amazing! This combined with the downhill and I started to pick up the pace and settled in on a smooth 7 min pace down the back of the hill. Chatted with some runners and reached the bottom where we had a pretty flat out and back to the turnaround followed by a flat section through a frost covered valley trail. Flat is my game, so I found a solid rhythm and was able to hold low 7s or so.

This is where I started to notice my right hamstring tightening up a little, but I figured I could push through. This section was also interesting because I had pretty much entered no-mans land. I didn't see anyone for maybe 2 miles, but the course was well marked, so I felt OK about it. After the turnaround (thought I had about 9.3 miles to go) I had picked up the pace a bit to start gaining some time back after my relaxing run over the first half of the race. For those of you who haven't trail raced...it's awesome!! The first 10 miles blew by and I didn't even notice it. This has never happened to me as a road racer!

Once I hit the climb, I saw a few guys in a pack and slowly moved past them on my way up. I didn't see anyone else after that until I had rejoined the half marathon course and was nearing the top of the hill. This is also when I noticed that my legs were pretty tired. Not bonking tired, but heavy nonetheless. I was super amped when I hit the top of the hill because it was over a 1000 ft. of elevation downhill to the finish, but legs were even more angry, so I focused a staying calm and smooth to keep efficient. The downhill was actually rather uneventful, though again it was through gorgeous terrain and again, my right hamstring was getting quite tight. I linked up with a half marathoner who was headed down to the finish as well and we started cranking out the last portions of the course. I don't like to 'waste gravity' when I'm descending, so I was cranking out a pretty solid pace while letting my weight pull me down the hill but it was definitely taking a toll on the legs. I realized with about a half mile to go that the race was not 18.6 miles, but 17.4 miles so I hammered to the finish line for a total of just under 2:42.

I went for a warm down after snagging some sweet treats (cinnamon rolls!) at the finishing table and when I got back my buddy was standing there holding up a 1st place medal for me! I had won my age group and got 5th overall in the 30k!

Post Race

My legs hurt for a full day after the race. The climbing and the downhill pounding really took their toll on them! I iced the hamstrings and hit the foam roller and stretching pretty hard for the next 48 hours and them seem to be OK now, though 10 miles on Monday was perhaps a poor decision. Overall, I was satisfied with my performance, especially because I had pretty much trained through the race. I am quite happy that I kept the first half of the race relaxed because I felt like I had an almost perfect amount of reserves left over for the last climb and descent. After my buddies finished, I mowed down on a breakfast burrito and went home to take a nap. Was my first trail race but certainly won't be my last, such a fun run!

Lessons:

1. I wear Yankz (elastic laces) on my shoes, a habit left over from my triathlon days. These do not hold your foot tightly on steep descents, so I got a lot of toe-bang into the front of my shoe...laces would have been a better choice.
2. Even though it was cool out and there were 3 aid stations, I think 1 bottle of water in a hip pack could have helped my performance a bit by evening out my hydration.
3. Thin gloves for the early portion of the race would have been nice. My thumbs were freezing!

Training

After running seriously, but without much structure, for a couple of years (since 2008) I decided to add some structure to my training and chose to loosely follow Hal Higdon's Advanced 1 plan for my sub 3 hour bid at the LA Marathon. I ran a marathon after work about a year ago (was on a 20 miler and decided to push the turnaround out to 13.1) but I've never raced a marathon with a taper and nutrition and whatnot, so I don't know what to expect out of myself. Hopefully the next month and a half will go well!

Longest Training Week M - 5 easy Tu - 10 W - 6 easy Th - Hill/Track/Tempo day, alternate weeks F - Rest Sa - 10 Race Pace Su - 20 smooth

My long runs are at 7:30 to 8:15 pace, easy are whatever I feel like slower than 8 min pace, tempo is 6min pace, track intervals are 6-10x800m @ 3min or less w/ 400m recovery, and race pace is 6:45-6:50 pace.

Questions

A few people were wearing tights and a lot of people were wearing compression socks. Does anyone have experience with these items? Do they help with the pounding on the descents?

I wear road shoes because that's what I own, but most people were wearing trail shoes of some kind that looked a little bigger and bulkier. What are people's thoughts on these vs. lighter 'trail racing' shoes like the NB 110, vs. road shoes? I feel like if I had laces on, I would have been fine...anything I'm missing?

Thanks for reading!

Race Report: Kodiak 100 Ultramarathon

Race Report: Kodiak 100 Mile Ultramarathon

I spent some time up in Big Bear Lake, CA running the Kodiak 100 Mile Ultramarathon on September 19th.  It was a pretty rad, brutal, intense, and rewarding experience, so here’s my race report.  I apologize in advance: I’m an engineer, not a writer.  If this reports were done with numbers then they'd probably be of a higher quality. Enjoy!

The Race

I hadn’t been this nervous for a race in a long time, if ever.  I started getting butterflies 2-DAYS before the race...ridiculous!  I could tell I was getting amped up, and I was confident in my fitness, but the daunting task of covering 100 miles and the atypical noon-time start, meaning that I would be running through an entire night and into the next day, were having their effect on me.  This was my first 100-miler and it was not known for being an easy one.

The Kodiak 100 course actually looks soft (as mountain 100s go) on paper: 100 miles, 15kft. of climbing.  What this doesn’t show are the steepness of some of the climbs, and the steepness/technicality of other climbs and descents.  Some of this course is not runnable, not because it’s too steep, but because it’s too steep and covered in a loose sheet of melon-sized rocks that make it a scree field from hell, haha.  The aptly named ‘Deadman’s Ridge’ would take its toll on many runners.

Anyway, the race was to start at noon on a Friday.  The weather was perfect, 75 degrees (F) and sunny with a low in the low 40s overnight: that’s a pretty good way to split the difference between too hot in the day and too cold at night!  When the gun went off, all 56 of us took off up the first light climb of the ‘Parade Lap’: a lap up through a neighborhood and then back down through the edge of Big Bear Lake Village and some cheering crowds before we get dumped off onto a fire trail climb.  Almost immediately the guys that everyone expected to win and a few ladies took off up ahead.  I settled in to an easy hike/climb, running when I could and hiking when my heart rate would start to creep up.  I was running with a few guys and we were chatting about various stuff, race strategy, the course, etc. (Neto and Lenin, good dudes!).  At mile 6 or so we topped out the first section of climb at the Grandview trail junction and headed off for some rolling single track on Big Bear’s epic Skyline trail.  Originally made as a mountain bike trail, it was designated multi-use and is now a great running trail, definitely worth running the length of (on fresh legs…).  I met a dude named Jason on this section who is a local and was a veritable encyclopedia of area trail knowledge.  Talking with this guy made the first 19 miles go by quickly.  The Skyline trail dumps the runners off into the Moonridge neighborhood and we came through the 2nd aid station at about 12 minute avg. pace...waaaaay too fast.  Everyone in our little group noted this to each other, but we kept going at this pace...nice job all around.  The next 7 miles were some road and fire trail into ‘Camp 1’.  The Kodiak 100 designates 4 major aid stations/crew access points as ‘Camps’.  Though Camp 1 was supposed to  be at 16.8 miles in, my watch read 18.8 miles as I cruised up...hmmmm.  Here I met the only member of my crew to have arrived yet, Chris, who filled up my fluids and gels, and gave me the equipment that I needed for the climb (wind shell, trekking poles, headlamp in case I wasn’t back by dark).  At this point I was attempting to drink 1-2 bottles of TailWind an hour and the switch to gels/water until the next aid where I could fill up on TailWind again.  So far I had only had some minor issues taking 1 gel, I think because I was full of TailWind at the time, so I was feeling OK about my nutrition strategy.  I left Camp 1 at 3:40pm.

The subsequent section is a 12 mile out-and-back to the peak of the highest mountain in the Big Bear valley, Sugarloaf.  It’s a great trail and I’ve hiked it before, so I knew what was in store for me.  All the hiking over the summer (see the Training section, below) helped me a TON, as the Sugarloaf climb is in no way comparable to the climbs on the JMT, especially without 30 lbs. of gear, food and water on my back.  I cruised up this, being sure to climb within myself and not run up my heart rate.  I was pretty surprised that I was gaining on people while I was hiking, but I guess my long legs are good for something other than getting stuff off the top of the refrigerator.  About a mile or so from the top, I saw the leader coming back down and he was flying!  I gave him a few woops as he passed and continued on.  I didn’t see the 2nd place guy until the false summit, and subsequently didn’t see anyone else until almost the top.  About about 9700 ft. I could feel the altitude in my legs, which didn’t want to respond as well, and I was feeling a little empty in my stomach.  I was realizing that it was going to be hard to take down 2 bottles of TailWind an hour! I took a gel to deal with the empty feeling and continued on the last 200 feet of ascent.  The guy at the top told me that I was in 12th place or so while I took another gel, and this worried me a bit.  My lack of experience (none) at the 100 mile distance had me worried that I was going out too hard, especially when the 2nd place guy from last year was in that last group that passed me!  Coming back down I again tried to run within myself, be efficient and not blow up my quads with 75 miles to go.  This section of the course was the most beautiful by far.  It was sunset, and the golden light was shining across the ridges and trees, lighting up the landscape...gorgeous!  I had my phone in my chest water bottle pocket so I had to snap a pic at one point...haha, poor race form, I know, but it was too good to pass up!

Mile 27...Gorgeous!

My only goals for Sugarloaf were to run within myself, and not fall.  I seem to be catching toes on descents lately, so I was worried I’d take a digger onto some scree and wreck myself early.  Luckily, I was able to maintain attentiveness and I made it down to Camp 1 intact and in the light, around 6:50pm.  Here, again, Chris set me up, I changed shirts for the night (ditch the sweaty shirt to stay warmer), threw on arm warmers, packed gloves, and switched out my straw hat for a Buff to keep my ears and head warm. I quickly downed some broth with what appeared to be sweet potato in it and then took off around 7pm.

The next section of trail is about 18 miles long and is all fire road with the first section being a climb to Deadman’s Ridge.  I had prerun this over Labor Day weekend, so I was thrown off a bit when the course as marked was different than expected.  Turns out that the markings were vandalized and the officials had to remark it literally as the leader was running through!  Good on them for prerunning the course in a moto to make sure the runners knew where to go!

Sunset from Deadman's Ridge

This climb is pretty mild, but portions of the fire trail are rocky...just pure rocks about the size of large gravel and up.  I hiked this stuff up to the ridge and began to traverse the ridge, running where I could and hiking anything too steep.  The ridge dumps the runners down a steep, steep loose rocky descent that winds down to another fire trail.  Lots of sliding!  I took it slow when necessary and otherwise trotted down.  The fire trail is rolling and I swear I saw a reflective backpack moving about 50 feet up from me, but when I hit the trail, there was no one in sight.  I kept going and maybe twenty minutes later realized that who I had seen was the 2nd place woman, Gwen.  She seemed like she was doing OK, but slowing down a bit from her earlier speed.  We chatted a bit, she chided me for already being in arm warmers and gloves and after about 5 or 10 minutes I started to pull away on a climb and never saw her again.  At a major junction, I saw another runner ahead, and a few guys hanging out cheering people on from their jeep.  They looked like they were having an awesome time drinking beers out in the high desert! I guess they were friends of another runner and wanted to cheer him on in a lonely section.  This section descends on another fire trail to yet another wide open, flat, boring fire trail.  I hate to say it, but this is by far the worst section of the course.

On the flats, I started catching some people from the train of guys on Sugarloaf.  Some were hurting bad, and some were just cruising.  I was moving along because I was absolutely bored, tired of running flat, smooth, wide-open fire trail, and ready for the next climb!  It’s funny how a climb becomes better than flats or downhill...haha, but at this point I didn’t know how bad the flats would get me later!  I ran/hiked with each guy for a bit to see how they were doing and maybe raise their spirits if they were down, but would eventually bid them well and move on up the trail.  Finally, I rolled into Camp 2 around 11pm.

Feeling good at Camp 2.  Mile 49. Photo courtesy of Amber Wilson.

At Camp 2 the remainder of my crew (Ryan, Amy and Amber) had arrived and so all 4 people were hanging out with a buffet of gear laid out, a chair for me, and some tunes pumping from a JamBox!  As soon as I rolled in they took my bag and started refilling gels and TailWind.  I was done with my 2 bottles of TailWind-an-hour strategy, as it was making me feel pretty crummy, but I realized too late that I had meant to tell them no more TailWind, and I missed them filling the first bottle, so I got 1 bottle.  No matter, 1 bottle was fine and I replaced the calories with gels in my vest.  I downed a protein shake and a homemade rice bar (the best! from The Feed Zone Cookbook!) while I was in the station.  Gear-wise, I changed out socks (I wear Injijis so I don’t have to tape up my toes, because they rub each other raw on long runs), put on my wind shell, and changed out headlamp batteries for the upcoming 6.5 hour (anticipated) length section in the dark.  My crew had my race vest ready to rock, so I threw it on, downed some hot broth and headed out!  I was feeling pretty solid at this point and was actually excited to press on past the halfway point.

A note here on having a crew: I came into this aid station kind of bored, tired of running flat, and overall just feeling a little bit down about the section that I was running and a bit wonky from my nutritional woes.  It sucked to be locked into a circle of light on a boring fire trail.  Seeing my friends and talking to them, resting in a chair, and eating food lifted my spirits and turned my mental attitude around completely.  They took care of everything that I could write down beforehand, so I could focus on taking care of my own needs.  They were amazing!  The music pumping from the JamBox and made the mood of the aid station bright!

Anyway, back on track, I headed across Highway 18 and down the road a short ways to Jacoby Canyon, which is the 2nd major climb on the course.  I was immediately too hot for my wind shell, but I didn’t want to stop, so I kept moving up the climb for as long as I could.  I was still hiking the steeps and running anything that let me run at a low heart rate, and I came upon another runner.  I realized as I moved up next to him that is was the guy who got 2nd the previous year.  He said he was having a tough race, which makes sense because he’s a fast, strong runner and it did not make sense that I should be passing him at mile 49.  I found out later that he had just raced the North Face TDS 3 weeks prior...what a beast!  I wished him the best as he stopped to take off his wind shell, and moved on, and I actually ended up taking my shell off a few minutes later as well.  I passed a really nice French woman named Gratienne on this climb and exchanged a few words with her.  She was very nice and seemed to be in control of her race.  I eventually moved on at my very slightly quicker hiking pace.  This climb went by quickly and I was deposited onto the Northern ridge of the Big Bear valley.  In this time I had hit the 50 mile mark, which was great, and helped me switch gears, mentally.

An interesting quote that I read before the race was, “In the first 50 miles, don’t be an idiot.  In the last 50 miles, don’t be a wimp.”  I don’t remember who said it, but it kept echoing in my head throughout the race.  I had also heard that running a good 100 miler is a test of your ability to suffer in the last 50 miles.  Both of these bits of information referenced the last 50 miles as a time of pain and a time to push through the pain for a good finish, so I took this to heart, haha.

On the ridge, my legs were feeling really good, power-wise, but they were aching.  This ache was causing me to not want to run, even though I was having no trouble keeping my heart rate low and was climbing and moving at a good speed.  At this point, I pretty much assumed that this is what running 100 miles was like and that I should push through to keep moving well.  Nutrition was working out OK, but my stomach wasn’t overly excited when I would introduce another gel into it.  In previous races, I hadn’t had trouble, even out over 50 miles into a race, so this was a little worrisome, but I knew that I needed calories, so I just plugged away at my food and tried to deal with the discomfort for as long as it lasted.  This resulted in a lot of water drinking to try and help digestion, which I guess sort of worked, but not for all that long...

The Camp 2 to Camp 3 stretch has 3 aid stations, I believe at around 9, 13 and 20 miles into the 26 mile section section.  I passed a guy Dan about a mile or two before running into the first aid station and he seemed like he was doing OK.  This seemed especially true when I saw a headlamp coming into the aid station as I was leaving!  In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t him; it could have been the #1 lady from the Jacoby Canyon climb.  She seemed like she was going strong and steady from what she said.

The aid station captain told me that I was in 5th place...WHAT??  I was surprised to say the least.  I did not feel like I was traveling quickly.  This added an interesting aspect to the race because I had previously not cared what placing I got, but the idea of top 5 was enticing.  I quickly put it out of my mind, but the idea of top 5 would continue to lurk there, scratching at the back of my mind, encouraging me to go faster.

The next section featured rolling, smooth fire trail and 1 short, steeper climb and descent over the side of Delamar Mountain.  By this point, my legs were aching much more, and my stomach was really not excited about gels.  At one point I had to stop and take a few breaths with my hands on my knees to avoid throwing up a gel I had just taken down.  Positive self talk was definitely happening… “You’re OK, dude.  You’re OK!” I hit the climb, hiked it up, and tried my best to run down the back, but my legs were really hurting with each step, so it was tough to get a good rhythm going on the steeper stuff (note: in real life, this descent is screaming fast and totally runnable, but 60 miles in it was ‘steeper’, haha).  I was really excited to hit the bottom of the descent and run the half mile or so the the next aid station.  I think it was Krissy Moehl who said that she runs into every aid station smiling to give herself a huge mental boost, so I ran it into the aid station wooping and smiling at the guys.  I filled up one bottle of water and took down another gel while standing there and talking to Beto, the aid captain.  He was a chill dude and talking with him definitely lifted my spirits!

I pushed out of the aid station and up the hill onto Snowslide road, which is a long, dark, lonely section of fire trail.  For some reason, maybe it was the wooping or the contact with someone during the long dark night, but I immediately felt AWESOME!  Legs were still firing but the ache was gone! I took this as the cue to put in some work (take what the course gives you…), and starting consistently running and getting some miles checked off.  There’s only really 1 strung out ‘climb’ on Snowslide, and I hit the top of that feeling good.

Unfortunately, this is where I also started to unravel a bit.  The course markings went a different direction than I had pre-run, and the markers began to get spaced pretty far out.  It’s also like 2:45am and I’ve been running for almost 15 hours.  So I’m continuing down the fire trail, and I start to second guess my navigation and if I missed a turn because I haven’t seen a course flag in a few minutes.  Of course I see a flag a few minutes later and everything is OK.  But then it happens again, and again, and again and I think about what if someone vandalized the course markings here and is sending me off to bivy out at a loggers camp and suffer through the night halfway to Victorville??  All ridiculous crap, but happening in my head nonetheless.  Then, with all the mental shittiness that is happening, my stomach starts to lock up on gels.  It starts with not being able to digest a gel for 20 minutes, meaning that I reallly didn’t want to take another gel (I was at 20 minute intervals pretty much all day once I stopped the TailWind).  I forced one down and it almost came right back up, and this pretty much ended my calorie consumption for the next hour or hour and a half.  Not eating, feeling lost, and getting tired (sleepy tired), I was at a pretty low point.  I tried all sorts of mental games to snap out of it, but it was not happening.  To further complicate this, the sliver of a moon had come up, and I kept seeing it out of the corner of my eye and thinking that it was another runner coming to get me and pip me for my top 5 spot!  I would turn and look and laugh at myself, get annoyed and keep moving.  Over and over.  This is also ridiculous because it’s my first 100 mile race, I’m 70 miles in at 4am or whatever time it was, I have no idea how strong I will be for the last 30, and I’m worried about 5th place at a tiny race...quite silly.

Back outside of the crazy lockbox of my brain, my GPS said that I should have hit the next aid station already, but the mileage kept clicking off.  This did not help my mental state...I was spiralling pretty badly.  Finally, I see a light in the woods and it’s the aid station approaching.  What should have been mile 68 was at mile 71.  I had already accounted for the extra 2 miles going into Camp 1, so it was actually only a mile more than expected, but in my state, this mile seemed like an eternity.  I ended up not taking in any calories there or filling up water because I knew that I had only 5 or so miles left to get over the hill and into Camp 3.  I just said what’s up to the aid station captains and took off after a brief 20 second breather and collecting myself with my hands on my knees.  I knew the route to Camp 3, and the 4-5 miles, and I was ready to sit down in that camp chair!

I ran the hill down through the Green Valley campground and Green Valley and began the climb.  17 hours and 10 minutes into the run, however, and my Garmin died...what a jackass! This thing is supposed to last 20 hours!! Oh well, still haven’t figured that one out yet, I even made sure to turn it on only 10 minutes before the race started!  So I tried a gel, which worked out well enough, and climbed the hill.  The descent is actually mostly single track, which was fun although steep enough to hurt a good amount.  I was able to see a headlamp beam a few switchbacks down, so I pushed through the pain and tried to move quickly to the Camp.  I ended up catching the dude in front of me about 100 meters from the camp, said an exhausted “What’s up” and rolled in to meet my crew.

For me, this was time to reassess my game plan.  I felt pretty bad both mentally and physically, and wasn’t sure what I needed to snap out of it.  Did I need more calories? Real, solid food? Ginger Ale? A nap?  I think my pacer Ryan sensed that I was in a state of confusion, so he handed me a water bottle of protein shake and told me to start drinking. Amy and Amber wrapped me in blankets because I had started to shiver, and Chris was working on nutrition and grabbed me a ginger ale.  After trying to work through some drink/food relatively unsuccessfully, I decided I wanted to reset with 5 minutes of sleep, so I asked the crew to wake me in 5.

Ryan enjoys some fun while Peter sleeps!
Photo courtesy of Amber Wilson.

I think they were going to let me sleep 20, but I woke up on my own 15 minutes later to Amy saying, “Not it on waking him up!.”  I knew things had changed because my mind felt GREAT! I was alert and ready to go, the sun had come and lightened things up, and except for the stiff legs, the dark places of my run through the night seemed like a distant dream.  I was immediately out of my chair and into a new shirt and then back on with arm warmers, gloves, wind shell and a new, fully charged Garmin.  I ditched my headlamp and snagged the straw hat, pounded some more protein, half a race cake, and headed out with my pacer Ryan.  He’s a fast dude and was ready to get me to the finish.  My crew had switched out my bottles of water for Skratch Labs, which is good shit and very easy on the stomach, so I had 2 bottles of that and a reservoir of plain water.  I left Camp 3 at 6:30am (30 minute stop or so, I think).

Dudes are ready to leave Camp 3! Photo courtesy of Amber Wilson.

The next section of the course is by far the crux.  A bit of trail, a steep 2000 foot descent over 2.5 miles to get down to Bear Creek, and then a nasty 3000 foot climb over 6 miles to get out.  I hiked the descent to save my legs and 2 guys blew by me going Mach 20 down the trail.  I wasn’t sure if they were positions 3/4 that I had maybe passed in the aid station, or if they were coming in hot from behind or what, but they were looking good, and I wasn’t about to try and chase them...the descent is steep and not to be trifled with.

Sunrise! Photo courtesy of Amber Wilson.

Anyway, once at the bottom, I was in the zone.  Hiking poles and 8 days on the JMT made me feel like I could climb well, and I did.  I passed those two guys back in the first 0.75 mile of the climb, and continued to hike hard all the way up.  This climb is NOT easy.  It’s thin, at times extremely steep and loose, sometimes exposed and a bit sketchy.  I felt like I was kick-stepping the trail to gain traction at some points!  So I listened to my legs, and climbed within myself, but hard, all the way to the top.  At the top, there’s some flatter stuff that leads into the aid station, and my legs started to REALLY hurt.  It’s a tough pain to describe because it’s not searing or sharp, it’s just this deep ache that makes my brain say ‘STOP MOVING!’.  Again, I thought, “This is what running a hard 100 is like.” so I pushed through it and ran when I could taking some walking breaks as necessary.  At times there was probably more walking than running, but I was making an effort to do it the other way around.

Finally, I got into the aid station at what was supposed to be mile 83.  I had a new Garmin on now, but who knows what mile Camp 3 was actually at, so I just went with official mileage from here on out.  The aid captain said that I was in 4th, which was cool news, not that I was really ‘racing’ per se, at this point, but it satisfied my competitive desires.  My pacer filled me up with water and I ate a rice cake.  At this point, I was taking down a gel every 25 minutes and drinking Scratch at some rate, which would end up at around 250-300 cal/hour.  When I rolled out of the aid station, I was feeling again not so good in my legs, but I seemed to have plenty of power to spare, so I ran/walked as much as I could, trying to woop and holler to get myself pumped up and running through the beautiful terrain, to not much avail.  The next section of trail is back on the Skyline trail at the western end of the trail.  This trail is RELENTLESSLY rolling and curvy, which would be great if I was fresh, but was total hell when I was feeling so much pain.  The views were spectacular, but I couldn’t even appreciate them with how bad I felt.  It seemed like it took forever (it probably did take forever at 15-20 min/mile) to hit the aid station at Grandview, and I knew that the distance to Camp 4 was going to be long again.  Ryan was working with me to try and get my splits down to 15 min/mile to gain ground on 3rd place, who was reportedly not doing so hot, but I wasn’t really able to respond with much speed.  I tried to run when I could but the descent was beating on me, so I was reduced to a fast walk at times, and a pretty normal walk at others.  The fire trail descent turned into asphalt and my watch clicked over 90 miles with the aid station nowhere in sight...sigh, I was again pretty beat down, mentally, and was not happy with not knowing how far I had to go until I could sit down and take some Tylenol.  Meanwhile, a really nice dude that I had passed back in the mile 40 area or so came *blazing* by me!  I wished him well and he said, ‘Let’s get this to the barn!’ and disappeared around the next curve.  He was looking fresh and ready to smash the last 10 or so.  Well it turned out that this section was about 2 miles longer than advertised, so I came sauntering (ehhh, more like hobbling?) into Camp 4 at around mile 95 or so.

As I walked in, I was told that the course had been adjusted because last minute changes had lengthened the early portions, so they hacked off 6 miles from this section.  I was pretty stoked at not having to do 10 more miles, but my crew cautioned me to treat the final section as 6 more miles instead of 4 to manage my expectations.  Sounds good to me!  I sat down, drank protein, took Tylenol, drank Red Bull, ate a rice cake, and re-sunscreened.  Ryan was intent that I was not going to lose another place, and I said, “OK dude, when this Tylenol kicks in, let’s throw down!”  I was in pretty good spirits with my feet up and taking in nutrition and pain killers and seeing all my friends!  We left Camp 4 around 1:30pm I think.

Almost done! Camp 4. Photo courtesy of Amber Wilson.

It must have been the fastest acting Tylenol of all time because I was in and out of the aid station in 10 minutes, and I was already feeling amazing.  The last climb is 2 miles long and around a thousand feet and we clicked off 17 and 16 minute miles while hiking.  Certainly not fast for a runner, but for 96 miles into a race, I was stoked with anything under 20.  The climb then dumped onto a fire trail that I had climbed in the beginning miles of the race, and I knew I was close.  I started running the trail and taking some minimal walk breaks.  Ryan thought we could make it in under 27 hours and was pushing hard, so I followed.  With a few exceptions of pain shooting into my quad, I felt really solid here as we approached the descent.  We picked up the pace to 11 minutes, then 8:30 and then 8:20 for the last 3 miles!  The last half or quarter mile is downhill on road and I was ecstatic!  I ran into the finish area and gave my crew and pacer a huge sweaty, smelly hug!  Final time was 26:52.

The finish line and crew that made it possible! Photo courtesy of Amber Wilson.

After Thoughts

It was a hell of a time out there!  At the finish, I tried to drink a beer and tried to eat a sandwich and failed.  My stomach was still not too happy with me so I took small sips and didn’t eat anything.  My crew and I chilled in some camp chairs and ate while cheering on more runners coming in from both the 50 and 100 mile races and then I went and took an hour long nap before the awards and belt buckle ceremony.  I was really impressed with some of the 100 milers who came in after me.  Some of them were close behind for the whole race, but maybe just far enough back that I didn’t see them, but some were waay back in the beginning and made up lots of time throughout!  I have so much respect for all runners in a 100 miler, but especially those who can dial themselves back and lay down a successful race with a fast finish.  Great job!

A lot of things happened in this race that I didn’t really talk about above.  I was shooting for 300-400 cal/hr and with only minor exception, failed completely.  I think somewhere in the 300-350 range is probably my max, so I may actually dial it back and go for a more reasonable 250-300 cal/hr if my future long runs prove that it’s sustainable.  Up until now, 300 seemed like the minimum acceptable that my body would handle, but I think I may be better at fat metabolism or something nowadays, who knows?  Also, I used 2-in-1 shorts, (North Face BTN Long Haul) and even though I had never had chaffing issues in runs up to 40 miles, I had chaffing issues during this race.  I was applying vaseline like crazy from the start all the way through and it didn’t seem to help...hmmm.  Maybe I’ll try some jammer-style tight shorts or something like the ones I’ve raced in previously (Saucony AmpPro2 have been awesome!).

Also, I said this before, but seeing my crew at each Camp was amazing.  They brought me back from the dead and got me to the finish.  They helped me get what I needed, and were always smiling and positive which affected my attitude greatly.

Training

I’ve been ‘racing’ Ultramarathon for less than a year now, though I’ve been putting in ultramarathon mileage for a couple years now (started off my ultramarathon career with a brutal R2R2R in the Grand Canyon in 2012).  Before that, I raced a few marathons, and triathlon for a few years.  I think I’ve got about 6 solid years of training under my belt with about 2.5 of those being serious about running.  I’ve used mileage buildup training plans (Pfitzinger! Great stuff) and less formal approaches before, and as I’ve run more distance, I’ve gravitated away from the pure structure of training plans to a more holistic approach of just running a lot.  In ‘Unbreakable’, Geoff Roes relates that he dealt with some really poor race results and mental issues when he was trying to train hard and structured, and goes on to finish his thought by noting that when he instead got out into the mountains every day and just ran, his results improved.  I related to this sentiment, and embraced it with my training this time around.

I raced a 68-mile race in March of this year with almost as much climbing as this race claimed, so I felt like I had a pretty solid base under me to start.  Through April I ramped into the Wildflower long course triathlon, raced that, recovered, and went on to continue running through May with various runs up to maybe 20 miles and 4000 ft. of vert in the mountains.  At this point I was mostly focused on rebuilding from race to race, and less on any kind of mileage buildup, but I also had a secondary goal to train for that would arrive sooner than Kodiak: the John Muir Trail!

In July, my roommate and I hiked the 220 mile John Muir Trail in 8 days.  This trail puts up somewhere between 40kft. and 50kft. of ascent over this distance and spends a considerable amount of time above 10kft. altitude.  It’s gorgeous and a tough hike, and we were out there to take in the beauty and also tackle the distance in fastpack-ish style.  So, leading up to this adventure, I was running a lot of hills but also spending a few weekends out doing some shakeout backpacking trips with some similar ascent values.  A week before the hike I ‘mini-peaked’ at a 70 mile week in 5 days of running.  10/R/14/10/R/24/12.  This gave me a week to rest for the hike.  The hike was amazing and tough as promised, but I held up well and we actually got from Happy Isles to Whitney in under 168 hours, but we still had to hike down to the portal.  This week of hiking was pivotal to my training, though I don’t think I knew it at the time.  As mentioned in the race report, the hiking confidence was quite beneficial to me tackling the toughest portions of the Kodiak 100.

The week after the hike I rested.  No running at all.  I had lost over 5 lb. in 8 days from the hike and my legs and feet needed the time off.  At this point I had a little over 6 weeks until the race, so I needed a good 4 week training block to seal the deal on my mileage.  As promised, I just got out into the mountains (Santa Monica mountains, near my house) almost every day and just ran as much as felt good.  I ran a ramp-in week around 45 miles and moved into a few weeks near or above 70 miles.  There were a couple of key training ideas that I threw into these weeks:

1. I recently moved and joined a running club of trail runners in my new location.  During the once-a-week morning run, I ran with the fast guys to get some harder hill time in these shorter workouts.  I felt this would help my climbing strength and speed.
2. I wanted to run a back-to-back at least once.  If you don’t know, a back-to-back is a long run on both days of the weekend.  These are mostly to teach the muscles and mind to perform well on tired legs, but I felt like it was necessary to get one in, if for no other reason than that I’m a novice 100-miler and the experienced guys seem to do it.
3. I wanted to hit at least 40 miles in one run.

I managed to get these all packed into those last 3 training weeks with a 30/20 back-to-back, and a 40-mile pre-run on the course over labor day weekend.  I’m not sure that I’d really recommend a 40 mile training run, or doing the double in the way that I did.  I raced the Bulldog 50k on a Saturday a month out, and was feeling good, so I pushed it hard.  This left me pretty smoked for a 20 miler the next day...oof, the last 8 miles of that were tired!  This pretty much shot my running for the week.  My quality and volume were both down because my legs were trying to recover from the back-to-back that I ran too hard.  I was barely recovered in time to head up to Big Bear the next weekend for Labor Day to get some prerunning in.  An easy 10 on Friday, followed by 40 on Saturday and 6 on Sunday left me feeling destroyed that week.  Luckily, this was 3 weeks out so I could start tapering.

My taper style is pretty abrupt, so I decreased mileage to weeks of 26 miles (partially so low to recover from a week and a half of killing myself from Bulldog to Big Bear) and 35 miles with some higher intensity hill running.

The week of the race I actually only ran twice for a total of 9 miles.  I hadn’t planned on this but with work/shopping for race food/cooking race food/preparing race gear, that’s how it worked out.  Lucky for me, the 3 weeks of decreased volume seemed to pay off and my legs felt solid heading into the race!

Gear List

-Assorted shirts (North Face, C9 by Champion, some shirt from the Santa Barbara Marathon)

-North Face Better Than Naked Long Haul Shorts

-Injiji Original Crew Socks (Pink and Green)

-New Balance MT810v3 Shoes

-CamelBak Ultra LR Vest w/ Podium Bottle & Podium Chill Bottle

-Salomon S-Lab Gloves

-Pearl Izumi Arm Warmers (Bomb proof! I've had these for maybe 13 years)

-North Face Verto Hooded Jacket

-Super Sweet Straw Hat that I got at Ross for 6 bucks

-Full Length Buff

-Oakley Radarlock Glasses

-Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS Watch w/ HR Monitor