Nocturnal Mission

This was a normal week with an actual long run. Thursday's skies were pretty dark. There was a 30% chance for rain but 100% chance that I was going running. I started out with Liam. At 3 miles the skies cracked open and lightly coated us in cooling liquid. Momma got nervous when it thundered and drove out to pick my little running buddy up. Good thing, at 3.5 miles, all hell broke loose. At 4.75 I was pretty confident that I was going to be killed by lightening. I sprinted over to Theater Memphis and sought sanctuary with the actors. Jessica had to pick me up too. I am very thankful she is patient with me about these things.

This week's long run was much to far for Liam to tolerate. Jessica was home last night and wanted the family to hang out, so I couldn't run long last evening/night. She leaves for work at 6:10 am and is gone until 7:30pm. The only workable scenario was for me to substitute some sleep for some training.

At 1:35am I awake after some 3 hours of sleep. At 1:55am, I was lumbering down Robin Hood Lane in my reflective safety vest (complete with in-case-of-emergency information), a tiny LED flash light, and enough water for 8 miles. Its a balmy 84 degrees. This first bit was surprisingly lucid.

At mile 8, there is a 24 hour Mapco gas station that I have stopped at several times to replenish my water and use the restroom; but we all know about the best laid plans of mice and men (If not, Google it. You really should). The cold water is turned off. I filled my bottle with steaming hot water. This was exceptionally challenging. The cold water has never bothered me, but the hot water from the tap of a filthy road side gas station was stomach turning.

I made it back to the house at the "half-way" about 3:55am. I refilled my bottle with dilute Gatorade, shed my shirt, and swapped out for a dry bandanna. At this time it was 76 degrees and there was a soothing breeze. The arches of my feet hurt from mile 12-14 like every other long run and after that I was relatively comfortable. At mile 18, I enter into Audubon Park that offers a winding forested one mile loop adjacent to a golf course without any overhead lights. My LED scarcely lights the pavement 6 feet in front to me, beyond that, complete darkness. When you see nothing in any direction but the the next step in front of you, it allows you an unparalleled opportunity to assess oneself distraction free. The pain in my feet, from arch to toe tip was exquisite. Mentally I had already experienced the highs and lows and was stable at the moment. The sleeplessness added another dimension of exhaustion I have never otherwise experienced. I made it home at 20 miles for one more refueling and a short but poignantly painful last lap. I made it back at 6:00am. Just in time to speak with Jessica before she left for work.

Tomorrow, Liam and I are going to Shelby Farms for a few miles of easy jogging and to try out his new baby carrier backpack with a few miles of hiking. Until next week.

Hot weekend with Liam

This weekend is a step back weekend where I don't add any miles and my "long" run consist of two shorter back to back runs on Saturday and Sunday. Liam came with me on both days since Jessica was at work. Saturday, I got out there at 8:00 and was lucky to find a parking spot. There was some 5k for AIDS race going on. We ran for 1:45, I estimate about 10 miles. It was sweltering by the end. Sunday, Liam and I went mass and didn't get on the trail until 10:45am. We ran 2:15 and again I estimate the distance to be about 13 miles. It was freaking roasting. Liam was a trooper. I just lathered him in sun screen and bug spray and gave him some juice and he never made a peep. I ended up drinking just over a gallon of fluids and still ended up losing 4lbs in water weight after it was said and done. My legs felt good the entire time and with the exception of the imminent dehydration that was setting in, I felt really good. Time to rehydrate and rest up. Next weeks long run is really long. Until then.

Miles and Miles of Trails

Back to training at nearly full capacity! Today my culminated on a 20 mile run. I decided to run this one trails. Tour de Wolf trail at Shelby Farms was the choice; a 6.08 mile loop of nature. Staying off the pavement decreases the impact felt buy muscles and joints.

I am convinced that trails are much more challenging then road running. First, It had just rained. I expected some mud but thats ok. In this heat my shoe are seeping from sweat after 6 miles anyway. The terrain undulates relentlessly. The twists and turns test your balance and strain small stabilizing muscles and ligaments. The roots and puddles enhance the need for focus.

The run was at a slower pace then on the road, plus I walked up all the large hills.

The first lap was blissful and refreshing. I have never been on this trail and there is a lot to see. The entrance to the trail was a steep, slippery, rooty decent into the forest. The trail alternated between forest and open rolling glass lands.

The second lap was just ok. At 12 miles, no matter what, the arches of my feet start to hurt but it only last for about 2 miles. There were a lot of other runner and hikers on the trail for this lap and at the end of this lap I ate my only Gu.

The third lap started out great. The blood sugar spike from the Gu was rejuvenating. At mile 15, My blood sugar crashed and burned. This was ostensibly poor planning. You never ingest sugar then stop, the human endocrine system moves slow. You start by burning glucose in your blood, after some 30 minutes, your body, in an effort to conserve energy, switches to burning glycogen. After about an hour of sustained effort, you switch to burning body fat. After 2 hour of running, to insert sugar brings the cycle back to blood glucose. When its gone, its gone. With glycogen exhausted, you have to wait (suffer) until the body gets back to burning fat for energy. The sun was blazing at this point. In the forest, I had shade, but the rain was evaporating and the dense, wind blocking foliage was filled with a thick and almost misty humidity.

Miles 15-16 were horrendous, but stabilized there after.

I made it back to the car after the 3rd lap and at 18 miles was still feeling pretty good. Very hungry, my tank was officially on E but the legs were strong. I ran out and back for the last 2 miles.

Trail running is easier on the legs and the scenery was nice change of pace. I may have to make this a more regular occurance.

Training Woes

The training has been going ok. My mileage has increased from mid-30's to very close to 50 miles per week and I suffered my first set back at this high mileage. My weekly totals over the last 3 weeks are 45, followed by 47, and last week I only did 27. The training strategy I am employing contains 3 medium length (10 miles) on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and long runs on Saturday AND Sunday...pushing Liam in his stroller. I must have added to many miles to quickly.

Any time I add miles in training my muscles get "tweaky." That is, just on the verge of injury. In my opinion, that is where you want to be stress-wise to adapt to longer distances. My Achilles tendon has been tweaky all last last week. I made some adjustments in my stride to baby the tendon and this biomechanical mistake led to a real injury...shin splints. Instead of gutting it out through the pain I took my weekend runs off this week in hopes that I can get back on track and avoid further injury.

Why Ultra?

The reasons are not so simple. I have no idea. I have been running for "fitness" since early 2004 at 19, in an undergraduate, post high school athletic glory days (152lbs), freshmen 15+ slump.

My first race was the Louisville Half Marathon on 04-24-04. My longest run before that was 7 miles. Needless to say I hurt myself that cool April morning. The thrill of crossing the finish line was indescribable. The limp I carried for the next two weeks I had EARNED. I wanted more.

Several Half marathons later, it was clear that the next logical step was to go the full distance. In October of 2006 I ran Chicago (with bronchitis). At the mile 13.1, I was plodding along next to a young lady also in her early 20s, when an older lady pulled by us exclaiming "Half way there kids!

Instantly, my reply was a raspy, quiet, almost beneath the breath, "F*********ck! The pain, the difficulty, the training was more than twice as challenging as for half, but so was the reward. I graduated a few month later and confounded my training.

In 2007 I was accepted into the Southern College of Optometry (170lbs). I still occasionally jogged but there were plenty of months that the running shoes lay in the closet. In 2008, I was married, studying a lot, and faded into a life full of unhealthy habits. I was eating food that was convenient, and running was not the type of "fun" I wanted to have during my very limited spare time (185lbs). These bad choices and scale weight haunted me. The phrase "fat and happy" is an oxymoron. Then, something spectacular happened. My wife, Jessica announced she was pregnant.

There was a lull, a lag period where the magnitude of this information couldn't be felt or at least fully appreciated. But in the summer of 2009, Jessica's belly and my son's fluttering feet inspired me. I was about the be a father. Someone, who through no choice of their own was about to have no other option but look to me as there most immediate male role model. I have to be superman. On 07/01/09, I embarked on a fitness expedition. I ate impeccably. NO high-glycemic carbs...ZERO. I ran to the best of my ability. Running on zero carbs is an awful experience. Most days my heart would burn like it was building lactic acid but the results were coming so I kept going. About 10 weeks into training, when the taste of bread was just a distant memory, I hit my goal weight. 160lbs. I ate a whole medium pizza in celebration.

This is the point when almost all "diets" fail. What do I do now that my goal has been reached? It was the answer I found to this question that lead down the path toward an ultra. Raise the bar.

I was in the best running shape ever. My son, Liam, was still 2 months away. The goal changed. I wanted to hit my wrestling weight of 152lbs before he was born. Training for the St. Jude Marathon was going to take me there. I wanted Liam to never know me as the fat slob I was. Liam came early but I still made it. The new, lighter, me finished the Marathon 2o minutes faster than my first. What now? Keep going.

My next race was the first time I have experienced an Ultra style event. The 2010 Swamp Stomper. It offers a 25k and 50k. I did the 25k because the prospect of going further than a marathon still sounded pretty stupid to me at this point. This was my first trail race and it lived up to its name. The first 4 miles was 4" of standing water. The next 8 undulating miles was sloppy mud, the last 4 was back through the standing water. This was the hardest race Ive ever done. Even in flat, paved marathon condition, there was no way I could have done another lap. Hanging out the finish line some hours later the 50k winner crossed the line. The race director said, "Congratulations! Is this your first Ultra win?" With no heavy breathing, he calmly replied "No."

It was this exchange that changed my perspective. I have to do this. Why? I still have no real answer. Maybe just to see if I can. Maybe for the pain and the pride that comes with it. Maybe because that's where the bar is sitting at the moment. Maybe to demonstrate to Liam that through effort, all things are possible. Its all of these things at different times, when I'm searching for inspiration to hit the road for another long run.