The scariest run of my life

    So I recovered from my back injury and have been attempting to get into a consistent training regimen.  Towards the end of February I went down to Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee with a couple of buddies.  My back wasn't exactly 100% but I was looking forward to the trip and didn't want to back out.  The athletic pubalgia injury was still present but not as terrible as it was.  A perfect mix to do some mountain running !!!
     We drove down from Indiana right to the park.  I did about 13 miles and climbed about 3600 feet on the first day.  My lower back was super tight on the climbs which caused me to take multiple forced walk breaks during the effort.  Snow was about three to six inches deep on average and some drifts were between one and two  and three feet at times.  I ran up a trail called chimney tops.  Named for unique rock formations at the top of the mountain.

      The trail was hard to follow since it was covered up by all the snow and I had to follow the footprints of my buddies who were ahead of me and, at times, the blazes painted on the trees along the trail.  The run was hard and my back stayed stiff most of the run.  At one point on top of the ridge by one of the chimney formations the snow gave way and my right leg shot down off the trail.  Nothing was there to land on and I suddenly found myself crouching with all my weight supported by my left leg with my right leg dangling down. I was on the verge of falling down about fifteen to twenty feet. There wasn't anything to grab onto and I found myself powering up with my left leg.  Kind of like an impromptu pistol squat.  I got my right leg on solid ground and a few seconds later realized how close I just came to being totally fucked.  Thank God for all those Bulgarian split squats my trainer had me doing at the gym.  I honestly think things would have gone horribly bad there if it wasn't for my leg strength and balance that kicked in at that moment.

Chimney Tops and the trail

     Thankfully the rest of the journey up and down chimney tops wasn't as eventful as those couple of seconds.  The formations were pretty awesome and the scenery amazing.   I mostly just followed my buddies footprints the rest of the way.  I eventually came out to a service road and a junction with another one after that.

I followed that down until I came to a junction with a trail.  A sign indicated that it was a mile and a half to the trailhead.  I kept following the service road for a few more miles until I was worried that my mileage would end up too high for the first day.  I decided to turn back and take the trail back to the where the car was.  Bad move.
     The trail was snow covered and I had to follow blazes.  Nobody had been on this trail to give me tracks to follow.  About a third of a mile down the trail, ice and loose snow hampered my progress.  My Altra lone Peak shoe's traction was useless.  I started sliding down the ravine every other step.  I resorted to a kind of reverse kick where I drove my heel into the ice and make steps.  The going was slow.  I had to cling to trees and saplings in order to keep from sliding down.  At one point I had to break a stick in two and use them to stab into the ice and snow.  At this points I was using all upper body to drive one stick into the ice, reach over with my right hand and stab the stick into the ice, reach over with my left hand and stab that stick next to the right stick, and repeat.  My feet couldn't get traction so I had to lay on the side of the hill.  I advanced this way for about ten feet or so.  The feat was straining the tissue of my abdominal injury.  The stinging sensation near my groin was familiar and was not comforting.  This sucked.
     When I got over a small hump in the trail, it become walkable again.  I contemplated keeping the two sticks just in case I encountered a similar section again.  I decided not to.  I pictured myself falling on them awkwardly and stabbing myself with them accidentally.  That's how my luck was playing out.
     I made slow progress sliding my way along the trail.  At one point I supported myself with a large stick to give me more stability.  This lasted a small while until I hit a slick patch of ice and found myself sliding down the ravine.  I slid about 6 feet then I stuck my right foot out towards a small tree to stop my momentum.  I hit the tree rather poorly and my big toe screamed at me !!!  At best I just jammed the piss out of it.....at worse I just broke my damn toe !!!  It hurt like hell.  I clung to the small tree and rested for a couple of seconds.  I had to climb up the icy edge to get to the trail on a compromised toe.  This sucked.
     About a three quarters of a mile down the trail I encountered some footprints and signs of a person or people falling.  Falling a lot.  Whoever the tracks belonged to, they were having the same traction problems I was having.  They turned around at this point and headed back towards the parking lot.  This was fortunate for me because it gave me some hint of where the slippy spots were.  The unfortunate thing was that there were a lot more slippy spots.  None were as bad as what I encountered previously though.  My progress was made worse by my compromised big toe.  Damn, it hurt.
     About a mile and a half to two miles down the trail I encountered a young couple coming towards me.  I greeted them and just as I was going to tell them about the suckfest they were heading for the young man asked me "Have you seen a set of keys on a red laniard?"
     "Nooooo,"  I said slowly.  I turned around and looked back the way I came and then at the couple.  "That sucks.  This way is no joke."
    "Yeah.  We might have dropped it along here," he said.
    "I'll keep an eye out for it and leave it at the ranger station if I find it,"  I said.  "Wow.  Good luck."  That sucks.  I felt so bad for them.  I immediately felt better about my situation.  This encounter meant I was closer to the parking lot....I hoped.  The trail became better and I kept an eye out for their keys.  I didn't find the keys but hoped that they did.

stream heading up to Chimney Tops trail

     I eventually made it back to the car.  The toe wasn't much of a problem, but that was probably because of a mixture of the cold from the snow and just moving on it.  I had just jammed the toe and had significant bruising.  Later that night I had a slight limp and hoped that things would be better on day 2.    

OPSF 5050.....or my beautiful disaster

   So the big day came for my first 50 mile race.  I spent the three weeks prior tapering and nursing a niggle in my left Achilles tendon.  I ran every third day and just tried to eat as much nutrient dense food as that I could think of.  I was sleeping well and even slept well the night before the big race.

     Race day morning my wife and I packed up the car and headed for the Rattlesnake Campground where the start/finish was in the Owen Putnam State Forest.  Race nerves weren't really present.  My wife found out that our friends camped out the night before with their kids.  Man, they had a sweet shelter with a propane fire, a generator, and all kinds of awesomeness.  The setup and the great company almost had me forgetting that I was about to tackle the longest distance I have ever attempted on a very hilly and muddy course.
     Then it was time to get to the start line and I saw all my running friends who were either running the 50k or 50 mile.  More hang out time with people !!! (For about three or five minutes anyway)  And then we were off !!!

waiting at the starting line photo courtesy of Terry Fletcher

     It was in the dark so headlamps were in use.  We didn't have to use them long....maybe fifteen minutes or so.  I had a plan to not start off too fast.  I wanted to do 12 minute miles most of the race.  Needless to say I didn't follow that plan.  It would be safe to say that I wiped that plan with my ass, pissed on it, then threw it out the window.  I was cruising along anywhere between a 9 minute mile to 11 minute miles for the first 8 to 10 miles.  Eventually I started to mellow out to my target pace.  At one point I ran with a fellow who was doing the 50k.  When he asked how I was doing I said "I'm going too fast.  I gotta slow down."  When I told him I was doing my first 50 miler he told me I was doing great. (He would go on to win the 50k race)  I felt great too.  That taper shit works !!!
    I finished the first lap (14 miles), had a quick aid station stop and chat with my wife, then headed back out for lap #2.  I kept my pace pretty consistently and the next 5 miles went by pretty well for me.  I came to the aid station B and saw my buddy and his girlfriend who were volunteering and headed for the out and back section of the course.

Coming into the start/finish aid station mile 14 photo courtesy of Terry Fletcher

     About a mile or two (around mile 22) into that section is when things started to turn to shit.  On one of the downhills my right knee decided it didn't like what I was doing.  The tendons just started to hurt with every footfall going down the hill.  I was kind of surprised by this.  I thought my left Achilles tendon would be the one to ruin the day.  I also didn't sweat it because I figured weird pains like this can come and go in a long race.
     I got to the aid station  C and two of my friends were there  with their little baby.  It was so cool to see the little guy.  He had on some kind of muppet fur onesie thing on which was cute.   I got some water and turned to finish the rest of the out and back.

second trip to aid station C  photo courtesy Terry Fletcher

      A little ways after the turnaround, a friend passed me.  We briefly talked and we headed our separate ways.  I turned around and yelled to him "Hurry up and catch me" or something like that.  I just wanted someone to run with and knew he should be able to catch up with the way my knee was acting up on the downhills.  The knee steadily got worse the next three miles on the way to the aid station where he caught up with me.
     We ran the next three miles to the start/finish area.  This section is the hardest part of the course.  I could still run the uphills but had to basically walk the downhills very gingerly. We ran together and made comments on how the muddy parts were getting worse and worse.  People were going to the edges of the muddy sections which were steadily making them wider and wider.  Good times.

me and my friend coming

 into the start/finish aid station Mile 28 Photo courtesy of Terry Fletcher

     We walked into the start/finish aid station (mile 28) and my wife tended to me.  She switched out the bladder in my hydration vest with a fresh one and tried to get me to eat solid food.  I can't remember if I did.  I might have drank some heed at the aid station.  (I asked what flavor it was first...I had a bad experience with some banana flavored heed at my last race....gross shit)  I kissed my wife and left the aid station with my friend.  If I remember right, he left with a mouthful of peanut butter.
     We ran together for a bit.  I tried to run the hills with a mixture of failure and success.  At one point we came to a decline and he bolted down and disappeared down the trail.  I hiked down and ran when I got to the bottom.  It was around this point that my shins started to get tight with slight twinges of pain.  It was about four miles to the aid station and there were few down hills left on this part of the course.  One was particularly bad and painful.  The trail was eroded from rain so it was pretty technical with the fallen leaves hiding things.  My knee screamed at me.
     It sucked, but it didn't at the same time.  My mood was pretty good.  The race directors sent out a facebook message earlier in the week that ended with "Flexibility is the word of the weekend"  so I was adapting.  The aid stations were full of good friends who encouraged me every time I came through.  I wasn't having the race I wanted but who was?  You take what the day gives you and you make it work.  I had plenty of time to finish and that was my goal.  Granted the goal was to finish uninjured but the knee pain wasn't getting worse.  I was getting close to the aid station and saw my friend who was volunteering at aid station B running the opposite way back to the start/finish.  She screamed my name and that brought a smile to my face.  I think it was somewhere around here that it started to slightly rain.  I just smiled and laughed to myself.  Rain would just be ridiculous right now.  Luckily the few sprinkles were all that would fall.
     I made it to aid station B and my buddy kept listing off things to see if i needed them.  Food, an extra layer of clothing, mittens, and gu's.  He's awesome.  Everyone at this aid station was awesome.  I think I ate some things and took two of the gu's and headed to do the third, and last, part of the out and back of the course.  
     I picked up the pace and wanted to get this section done as fast as I could.  About a mile or so in  my shins started to get real bad.  My run became a trot, then a walk downhill, then a run, then a trot.  I got a rock in my shoe and took my shoe off to shake the debris out.  As I tried to put my shoe on  my calf cramped up hard.  I struggled to get my shoe on through the cramp.  Good times. After what seemed like forever I managed to get the shoe back on.  My hands covered in mud.  At least I told myself it was mud.  These were horse trails so there is the possibility that I now had shit all over my hands.  The leaders of the race were starting to make their way back from aid station C.
      I made it to aid station C and turned around to go back the way I came.  The aid station was unmanned at this point.  I used some of the water left there to wash my hands off and headed back.  My shins were getting steadily worse.  I took more salt pills to see if they would help.  Running was beginning to be too painful so I would have to walk.  It seemed to take forever getting this section of the course over with.  Eventually I could see the road that marked the end of the out and back.  When I stepped on the road I turned around and flipped the trail off.  I would no longer have to run that trail today !!!  Or ever if I didn't want to !!! 
     Returning to aid station B, there were new volunteers and I was jokingly vocal about my dislike for the out and back section.  One of my friends there agreed with me and we smiled about it.  I ate a cookie or two and took a hammer gel while another friend was trying to get me to take in more calories.  Nothing seemed appealing to me.  I might have eaten a banana piece or something.  Off I went for the three miles to the start finish.
     At the start/finish aid station I changed shoes and socks.  This was mile 42.  Eight miles to go.  My wife opened up some baby foods for me to eat while another friend got me some mountain dew to drink.  I told my wife that I wasn't able to run anymore.  My shins were killing me.  She said "You can do this.  It doesn't have to be pretty"  Boy, it hadn't been pretty for the last 20 miles !!!  Ha !!!  I put on a rain coat and my wife stuffed a head lamp in my vest pocket.
     I started off for the last 8 miles running.   The little rest and food gave me some energy.  This lasted for about a half mile or so until my shins made me slow to a power hike.  I would hike to give my shins a break and then run as much as they would allow....then repeat.  Walk down hills, run as much as I could, but mostly power hiking. By now the sun had set and I was going by headlamp. I eventually made it to aid station B for the last time.  Another friend tended to me there.  I got some more salt pills and a cookie or two.  Loaded up with sugar and headed onto the course to do the last 3 miles.

coming into aid station B for the last time.  legs covered in a days worth of mud photo courtesy of Terry Fletcher

     I had time to finish in the race but, again, the next three miles were the hardest of the course.  It didn't matter though.  I could tell I was going to finish this thing.  All I had to do was gimp my way to the finish line.  I tried to run but just couldn't.  So I marched up the hill.  It was total darkness all around me.  I started to worry that my headlamp's battery would die.  Every time I looked up the trail and the light faded I freaked a little bit.  I would immediately shoot my head down and look at how bright the light was on my feet to convince myself that the battery was strong.

     The numerous mud pits along this section grew as the day progressed.  Not only did they get wider, but deeper as well.  The mud threatened to suck my shoes off my feet various times.  Several times I had to sit down and pull one of my stuck shoes out of the mud using all my strength.  It was brutal.  But kind of fun.  I just wanted to finish.  I climbed the last hill and fought through more muddy sections and could finally see the lights from the finish line in the distance.

      As I approached I saw two headlamp's and heard someone call out.m I yelled "Hello" and could recognize one of my friends voices.  I approached and ran the last bit through the finish line.  Everyone there cheered and congratulated me.  I almost cried.  I was really humbled by everyone.  I was humbled all day by the people involved in the race and those helping us in the race.  So many kind people just there to help others.  Friends stayed around all day just to see me finish.  I was really touched and don't know really how to express my appreciation.

     Overall this wasn't the race I thought I would have. I thought my knee pain would disappear and my shin pain was totally unexpected.  I guess if you do it right, your failures can be just as awesome as your successes.  My feelings have been conflicted on how to classify this achievement. 
     The best part, more than anything, was feeling the support and love from my wife and the the trail running community.  This day really spotlighted our little extended family both in The BARA (Bloomington Area Runners Association) and Indiana Trail Runners.

Getting the best hug ever after finishing !!!  Photo courtesy of Terry Fletcher

   

General Bellyaching and Antsyness

     I've been getting antsy.  Normally I have Wednesdays off so I can do a long run as part of my training.  In the past month and a half I haven't had a Wednesday off.  My schedule has been disrupted by holidays and commitments I had made to friends running races or a mixture of tapering and recovering for/from races.
     I had a real nice rhythm going up until the DWD Gnaw Bone race.  Now it seems like my running and training have been wonky and inconsistent.  My weekly mileage has been fair.  I've gotten about forty miles a week for the last month or so.  I even managed to get about 57 in this past week.  Yet nothing over 13 miles.  This is a respectable amount but it seems like I had to beg, borrow, and steal for the time to get those miles in.  Nothing easy or relaxed in them.  This week I even got up at 5:30 am a couple of times to get some mileage in before work.  The runs were pretty good.  It was nice to know I can get an eight mile run in before work which is always a good option.  Maybe not ideal, but an option.  Perhaps the only solace in the week was getting 100,000' of elevation gain and getting over a thousand miles for the year already.
      Some of my antsyness could be the onset of summer and the heat and humidity that comes with it.  I don't know. It could be that I've been limited to running around the roads of the town I live in.  I just can't wait to get a day where I can get an uncompromised long run under my belt on a trail. Earlier in the year I had a great rhythm going and hope to get that going again.  Hopefully soon.

OPSF 5050

     So a few days after my last update (the one where I mention that I don't like racing towards the end), I went and registered for a 50 mile race that's taking place in my back yard.  The Owen Putnam State Forest 5050 is a trail race here in that is set to take place on November 8th.  The course, which I've run on several times over the past several years, is on public land that is primarily horse trails.

map of the Owen Putnam State Forest horse trails

      I like running the out there mostly because it's a challenging run.  Typically about three miles into my runs there I think "why the Hell do I come out here ?!?!?"   I haven't been too successful in getting anyone out there to run with me though.  I usually don't sugar coat my sales pitch about how hard the trail is compared to other local trails.  It's a rugged trail with multiple water crossings, steep inclines and declines, the trails aren't marked very well, it's very rocky, typically very muddy, there are sticks and branches everywhere, and tons of horse shit mixed in the mud. 
     There are steep hills meant for horse riders.  I guess horses would have an easier time getting up them.  If they were designed for hikers or runners, they would have incorporated some switchbacks to get up (or down) them easier.

my shoe the last time I ran at the OPSF

     Normally I get out there in the early spring because the foliage isn't as overgrown as it gets in the early to mid summer.  My last trip resulted in many scratches and my legs covered in mud and ticks.  Now that I'm registered for the race out there, I will probably try to make it out there more than I typically do in the summer. Knowing I have this race in November makes the humid training runs seem worthwhile.  I just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew making this my first 50 mile race.
   

What I've been up to.....or something.

So it's been awhile since I updated anything.  In the last few months I just decided to just run consistently.  I was running about forty to fifty mile weeks.  I was training for a 50 mile race but I injured my foot and that was pretty much the end of that.
     During my injury time I turned my attention to weight training.  I started learning how Bruce Lee trained for his sport and his methods became the inspiration for my training.  He had an insane training regimen with the philosophy that you should train every part of your body.  Now he was a martial arts fighter so this makes total sense for that.  I just want to run trail.  So I decided to focus my efforts on a weight training regimen that would help me become stronger and more injury proof.  Lots of core work and shoulder and leg strengthening.
     I came up with the training philosophy of "Train for nothing; be prepared for anything".  This was directly inspired by Bruce Lee.  I don't really like to run races.  I like training though.  If it wasn't for being registered for the Prairie Spirit run I wouldn't have minded being injured so much.  Weight training has been a good compliment to my running and a good substitution when I'm experiencing an injury.
    After several weeks my foot was healed and I started running again.  This was about mid March and I was advised not to run the Prairie Spirit run (by my foot doctor, wife and friends).  I then set my aim on a local race called "Dances With Dirt ~ Gnaw Bone".  I wanted to do the 50K or the 50 mile race there.  I did an 18 mile run three weeks from the event and figured the 50K distance would be a better fit.  The fifty miler would have been too much for me in hindsight.
    So in that month leading up to the race I started focusing on hill training.  I had to abandon any what little adherence to the Maffotone method I had in order to train the way I wanted.  This switch was inspired by a Bruce Lee quote:

     I see the Maffotone method as beneficial.I enjoy running hills and the Maffotone Method prevents me from doing that at my present fitness level.    Basically I don't have the patience to build my aerobic motor to get to the point where I can run hills according to the Maffetone method.  Another Bruce Lee quote that influenced me away from strict Maffetone adherence is "Obey the Principles without being bound by them."  So I decided to train by loosely following Maffotone's method but have fun training.  And for me, running hills and charging up them as part of my training is fun.
      The Gnaw Bone 50K came and went.  I had fun doing it and met a lot of cool people.  I went in wanting to run the course in under 6 hours and accomplished that feat.  I found out what weaknesses needed to be addressed but overall was pleased with my effort.  I had a good time but I still don't think I'm sold on running races.  I would just rather say "On such and such date I'm going to run 50 miles" and then train to do that.  I don't really need a t-shirt to commemorate the event.  Or a medal that will just lay around the house or something.  Or to spend a hundred dollars.
     Shortly after the GB50k a friend asked if I would pace him for a 100 mile race that he wanted to run.  It was about a month away and I agreed.  I had never paced anyone before so I had my work cut out for me.  I'm bad about my own nutrition and taking electrolytes and all that other shit while running.  Now I've agreed to help someone with their own nutritional needs while running.  We're fucked.   This race was the Mohican 100 that took place in Ohio on June 21st and 22nd.  I ended up pacing him for about 34 miles.
     I didn't really train for this.  I had just been consistent with my running so I was able to do the distance.  (Whether or not I did a good job pacing or not is another story.  I would give myself a C+)  This fit into my new "train for nothing; be prepared for anything" philosophy that I started following several months ago.  The 34 miles was a new distance PR by a little over an hour.  I did 33 and some change at the cancelled "Eight hours of Payne" non-event event. 
     The last several months have gotten me out of my routine.   I've had to request some weekends off, I had to taper for the Gnaw Bone and Mohican races, and holidays have thrown my routine off.  I had to struggle to run consistent with my normal Wednesday "long day" run being vacant.  I can't wait to get back in a good routine. 
     
    

Stupid mysterious foot injury

   The big race is aborted.  My participation in Operation: Double Secret Bigfoot is a failure.  I seem to have a possible bone bruise between my fifth metatarsal and the cuboid bone.  I don't know for sure because my doctor wants to rest the foot to see if the area heals and the pain clears up.  In the meantime, I have to wear a compression sleeve on my right foot.  I also have to rub some prescription strength bengay ointment stuff on my foot.  It burns just a little while it's on but luckily it's bad smell helps distract me from the burning sensation

please excuse my runner's toes

      .  The inserts kind of suck.  I've been wearing them a whole day.  My wife, who wears inserts, says it takes some time to get used to them.  "About two weeks", she said.  Fun.   I used to have funky feet as a kid.  I had to wear corrective shoes when I was about two or three years of age.  Thankfully, I don't remember ever having to wear them.  I remember going to the doctor about it but since I was a kid I didn't think anything about it.  It was normal.  Normal for me anyway.  I never thought about that time til now.  I guess the inserts having me thinking back to then.  I really don't remember any of it though.
     It's been a week since my last run.  That run felt good.  I went to McCormick's creek state park and ran a little over 5 miles.  I felt good the whole time with only a minor concern in my foot.  I didn't think anything of it since I knew I would be hypersensitive and mindful of my foot the whole time.  I ran, jumped and landed, and launched off rocks all without any pain or issue during or later that afternoon.  I came home and iced my foot just to be cautious.  I thought I was in the clear.
     Then the next morning I woke up to the same pain again.  I hobbled through my morning and was totally deflated and in a bad mood most of the day.  I called and set up an appointment with a podiatrist and just waited for the appointment day.
     So here I am writing this.  Part of me wants to go for a run, but there is the fear of aggravating the injury before it's healed fully.   But there's the fear and a plague of "what if's" that are going through my brain.  What if the inserts don't work?  What if I screw up the injury again like last week?  What if you're just being a pussy and driving yourself crazy for no fucking reason?  Things like that.

me driving myself batty with my "What if?" scenarios.

     It's a relatively minor injury that happened to occur at an unfortunate time in my training.  There are people in this world with a lot worse injuries and conditions than me.  I'm being kind of a dipshit about this whole thing in the grand scheme of things.  It's been frustrating but I've been keeping myself busy with weight training, stretching, and yoga.   To keep my cardio fit I've been riding an exercise bike.  I have no idea what I'm doing on the thing though.  I rode 30 miles on it and then 18 the next day.  My quads were tired the whole ride of the 18 miler but it was better than just sitting on my ass.
     The race I've been training for isn't going to happen for me.  I don't know how I feel about it.  I've had plenty of time to consider the possibility of not reaching the starting line for the race in the last couple of weeks.  Unfortunately I have gotten used to an injury taking me out of a race in the short time I've been back running.  I have a very small success rate when it comes to signing up for a race, training for it, and making it to the finish line it seems.  Anymore I'm getting the pessimistic mindset that any race I pay to enter is going to be a donation and I'll get to run it if I avoid injuring myself.  I don't know how healthy this is but I get a small amusement out of it.
         Part of me wants to blame winter for this, but could I just have a flaw in my running footfall? There is obviously something wrong with my foot caused by how I land on it.  If there wasn't a mechanics flaw, then how did the injury occur?  Could it be that I've just been getting lucky so far and my increased mileage brought the problem to light?  I have no idea.  Could the injury just be shitty luck and a fluke?  I have no idea.  Could it be that all the running I did was on roads and not trails?  I have no idea.  Is it better that I get to rest through winters last hurrah with an injury rather than through spring?  Probably.  Was I ready for the race?  I don't know.  My last big run was the catalyst for the injury, so it's hard to tell.  All of this has shaken my confidence.  They say that a lot of endurance running is mental.  I'm wondering if I have the mental fortitude to keep at this.  This injury has me wondering if I have the physical fortitude to keep at this as well.  I know this will all change when the smoke clears and I'm back to training for some race that, hopefully, won't end up being just a donation to some race director.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.

thanks for reading this 
 

Tecumseh Trail marathon

    So, the big race that I was trying to come up with a strategy for got cancelled due to severe weather.  The county that it was being held in was under an "emergency travel only" advisory for the day of the race.  I spent the Friday before securing rides, car pooling rides,  accepting rides, and offering rides.  Then at about midday Friday the race director and the Hoosier Hills Hikers Council made the announcement that the race was cancelled.
     No biggie.  My race entry was deferred from last year. To be honest, I was just glad to make it to "race day" uninjured and healthy.  That was my Tecumseh victory !!!
    

Post injury and Pre race concerns.....or something

     So I got over my strange injury.  My doctor had me not run for two weeks.  It really wasn't a big deal not running.  I just turned my focus to strength training three times a week for the two week period.  Instead of hitting the trails and roads, I hit the gym.  Ab wheel work, weighted planks with a 45 lb. weight on my back, box step ups holding a 50 lb dumbbells in each hand, resistance band movements, wide grip pull ups. rear foot elevated split squats while holding a 45 lb plate, squat rows with a ginormous resistance band, etc....  My plate was full while I was on doc's orders not to run.
     I felt like my foot was fine about a week and a half into the "rest" period.  I figured it wouldn't hurt anything to just not run the whole two weeks.  I was more than content on putting my focus on the anaerobic work outs that I was replacing running with.  When the running moratorium ended I drove to McCormick's Creek State Park to give myself a nice soft trail to run on. I went six and three quarter miles and the foot was fine.  The next day I did a run around my neighborhood on roads and my foot was fine.  I was back !!!
     The first week back I did about 34 miles total.  My legs felt stronger from all the weight work I did in the layoff.  I gained strength and I was running up hills with less fatigue.  The first couple of runs showed that my aerobic base suffered a little but my anaerobic running was improved.  I started to abandon the heart rate training I had been doing all year on my long trail runs and run by "feel".  I kept doing runs by heart rate on my road runs though.  I figured three runs a week on roads and then two on trails without the HR alarm would be good.  My aerobic base was improving.  I was knocking a minute or so off my mile time while my heart rate was staying at or below my set rate (143 bpm).  My second week back and I did over 49 miles.  Not a twinge from my injured foot.
     I've ran this way for the past two weeks. Heart rate alarm on roads, no alarm on the trails.  This was great and freeing, but then I stumbled upon a website called "the sock doc" by a doctor that does all kinds of articles and work with aerobic conditioning. http://sock-doc.com/2013/09/aerobic-endurance-superiority/
http://sock-doc.com/sock-doc-training-aerobic-intervals/These articles have caused me to rethink my training strategy and return to the aerobic building training I've been doing up until the brief injury.
     Which brings me to my current conundrum.  On December 7 I have a trail marathon coming up. It's the Tecumseh Trail marathon.  A point to point run on some hilly trails here in South Centrail Indiana.   Part of my thinking during the two long runs on the trail without using my HR alarm was that I would run the race by feel.  Now I am second guessing this plan because I wonder if it would be wiser to stick to the HR training and continue to develop my aerobic base.
     I just want to run the race for fun anyway. The Tecumseh Trail is a trail I've always wanted to run and a point to point supported run on it will be awesome.  I just don't know if I want to have my garmin watch buzzing the whole time because I'm pushing my HR too much while climbing a hill.   I can always take the hills easy instead of attacking them though.  Part of me wants to challenge myself and my discipline by running the event aerobically though.  Then the pressure of failing myself through a lack of self-control will be there.  Gah !!!
     I guess my problem at this point is physically I'm more than capable of doing the distance.  My last long run of 18 miles I did on an empty stomach and didn't "bonk" or even come close. Mentally I'm a fucking wreck for this.  I've been flip flopping on tactics ever since my foot injury cleared up.  I don't have anything to prove except to myself.  Man, this is why I hate races !!!  Why do I even do them !?!?  After this race my schedule is clear and I really don't have any desire to sign up for any because of the brain fuck the preparation this race is doing to me.
     So basically I have a little more than a week to decide if I want to use this race as an opportunity to stick to my aerobic building training or run the race by "feel".  I have no idea what "strategy" to go with or try to come up with a happy hybrid of the two.  Honestly, I just want to get this thing over and done with, take mental notes of the terrain so I have a better idea of the area for runs there in the future, and just get back to training without all this bullshit of an organized event.  Oh, and have fun.
    

1,000 mile mark

     So I hit the thousand mile marker for this year.  This is something, at the beginning of the year, I wouldn't have thought possible.  I spent most of the first three months of this year with a diagnosis of athletic pubalgia.  In simple terms, I had a soft tissue injury in my groin area.  More specifically I had small micro-tears in the tissue that connect my abdominal muscles to the front of my pelvic bone.  I couldn't run twelve feet without sharp pain occurring in my lower abdomen.
    Sometimes the pain would go away after a hundred yards or so and I'd continue my run.  When I had runs like these I would have the shooting, sharp pains tenfold about twenty to thirty minutes after the run was finished.
     I got this injury sometime late last September.  I went on a long run in Brown County State Park and around the twenty mile mark my adductor muscles (especially the one in my right leg) got extremely tight.  As I was running up the Hesitation Point trail, I stubbed my toe on a rock which pitched me forward.  When this happened my back bent backward and I overstretched my abdominal muscles.  This movement combined with a real tight adductor muscle caused an unknown amount of minitears along the pelvic bone where a lot of connective tissue happily live.  I yelped at the sharp pain and called it a day.
     Then I got rearended in an automobile accident about a week later.  A few days after the accident,  I ran the Knobstone half marathon and I injured my right foot.  This was basically an overuse injury.  So I couldn't run for the next couple of weeks.  All the while the more serious injury was present but kind of in the background.  I couldn't run because of my lame foot so the injury was never irritated.  After three weeks, I started to slowly get back into running.
     By this time, the Tecumseh Trail marathon was coming up and I went on a long run at the Paynetown SRA to see if the marathon was even doable.  After about ten miles my adductor seized up and I had pains going from the back of my knees to my belly button.  Not good.  Luckily I was able to defer that race entry til the next year.  The injury was still present or reoccurring after a month.  Also, not good.
     So I went to Dr. Michael LaGrange (a local family medicine/ sports medicine doctor).  He diagnosed me with athletic pubalgia.  I was prescribed anti-inflamatories and physical therapy. I went into physical therapy with the knowledge that if it didn't work surgery might have to be an option.  Physical therapy started in January and, something I didn't know at the time, would last for three months.  Every Wednesday I would go and have my abdomen stretched and then I slowly progressed to balance exercises and then to strength building exercises.  Every other week I would come home with a sheet or two of things to do that would strengthen my core muscles.  Some of the exercises would trigger pain, others not.  Some of the simpler planks would trigger pain while more difficult plank exercises wouldn't.  The therapists were perplexed.
     I would diligently do the exercises.  Every morning I would wake up and do some before work.  My boss gave me permission to do sets at work if time allowed.  I would do more exercises after work.  Then on Wednesdays I would get new things or modifications of old ones.  I started to progress and heal quickly.  The therapists even commented that I was a fast healer.  They did caution me that rest was just as important to the injury as the exercises I was doing.  My motivation was to avoid surgery at all costs.
     So this was my routine at the beginning of the year.  In the spring I started to do slight jogs.  If I had a small twinge of the pain, I would stop.  Some days I would run a mile, other days I would run ten feet.  Eventually I worked my way up to a mile every other day.  Then I made it to two and then three pain free miles.  
     It was around this time that I started heart rate training.  I would run but keep my heart rate under 145 beats per minute.  If I was running too fast my heart rate monitor would beep and I would have to slow down or even walk. but mostly walk.  My aerobic threshold was super low.  Which was good because this new way of training kept me from overexerting my healing body.  I slowly rebuilt my endurance in a new way and was soon running for an hour to an hour and a half.  The heart rate training kept me at a snail's pace but I was seeing improvements.  My pace was increasing but my heart rate was staying the same.
     A few weeks into running and at the beginning of heart rate training my therapists discharged me.  They put me through a battery of tests and were satisfied with my progress.  It was strange.  I spent every Wednesday for the first three months of the year going to see them at ten a.m.  And then I was done.  I graduated.  What was I to do?  Go for a run !!!
     This injury was a game changer for me.  I realized that I liked trail running enough that I didn't even flinch when it came to the work needed to get myself back to running.  I never thought twice about not doing the work.  I couldn't run and I wanted to run. (I also wanted to avoid surgery)  I wanted to be on the trails in nature.  I never thought of what I did as work.  In a way the exercises were medicine.  Now I see them as preventive medicine and I'm a better runner for continuing to do them.
     I've been thinking about those first few months at the beginning of the year a lot this past day.  I've run a thousand miles since then.  In those miles I've run two half-marathons, a full marathon, and a 50k ultramarathon.  Training weeks included twenty or more mile long runs in 1000% humidity.  During some of these runs, which would have been miserable for me a year ago, I would find myself smiling.  I was and am happy to be doing what I'm doing. 
    Would I go back and do it over again?  If I could avoid that injury all together, would I?    The injury, the physical therapy, the frustration, and fear.  I think I would.  That experience has made me a stronger person both mentally and physically.   I've changed my eating habits to make myself a healthier person and not just a fit person.   I am grateful for that injury though I would never have thought I would think that about it then.

Let's all go to Hell !!!

     So last May my wife registered us for the Running Fit Dances With Dirt 50k race in Hell, Michigan as an anniversary present.  I've spent the whole time since training for it.  Training that seemed like every other long run created a new distance personal record for myself.
      The race was supposed to start at 6:15 am but I think they started it about five minutes early.  We were walking from the car when we could hear the announcer counting down from a minute.  Shit.  I fiddled with my headlamp to get it to the setting I wanted as I trotted toward the start line.  I can never get the headlamp's setting right on the first try and I've owned it for over a year.  Then I had the realization that I hadn't turned on my Garmin GPS yet.  I turned it on as Erin, Chris,and I got to the group of runners waiting for the start.  The race started just as we got there !!!  We were off and running while I kept checking the GPS to get the satellites for me.  The first and second bars kept alternating between full and empty.  I then made the decision to just step off the course and stand still til the signal locked in.  After about ten seconds (or forever) satellites were locked in and I was off.
     Then after the first incline my heart rate buzzed for me to slow down.  (I set my heart rate at a higher level for race day....or so I thought)  So I ran a little ways up the hill and stepped off the trail again.  I scrolled through the menu and got to where I needed to change things, except the number I wanted was correct.  I would find out much later there after the race that there is a separate function that I needed to change also.  So I said "fuck it" and just figured I would just go on.
     I started out a little too fast.  I was trying to move up the hill by slightly running past people who were walking up.  Between the early start, not finding my satellite signal, and the HR thing I felt that I had to make up for lost time.  I tried doing that but then some common sense came in to remind me that I was running in the dark on a trail with a headlamp on.  Dodging tree roots and other debris while three feet behind another runner was new territory for me.  Yet kind of awesome !!!  I instantly thought to myself "Holy crap.  I can totally do running like this in the fall and winter !!!  ADVENTURE !!!"
     Things were going well for a couple of miles.  I was pushing my pace a little harder than I should have but I was starting to settle in.  I was getting used to the headlamp and found that using it wasn't going as treacherous as I imagined it would be.  Then at about the three mile to four mile mark I settled in the back of a line of runners with a loud, not saying anything interesting chatterbox of a girl. She wouldn't shut up or say anything of any interest to anyone except her friend who shared and encouraged her use of uninteresting subjects to talk about.  The line of runners was about ten or so deep on an almost impassable single track trail in the dark.  I was in Hell !!!  We came to a flat part between inclines and the pace picked up until we came to another incline.  I immediately decided to pass the group and the girl's friend said "We usually save that kind of burst for the last mile" to me as I passed them.  Remembering the phrase "My mother always said if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it at all"  I laughed it off and launched up the incline looking forward to the promise of a peaceful run.
     This was the first time I had to run with the headlamp without anyone in front of me.  It wasn't any different than running in the daylight.  I could see debris, roots, and rocks on the trail just fine.  I had no idea what the forest looked like beyond the range of my headlamp, except dark.  Though the sun was rising and natural light was becoming more plentiful.  The trail came to a road and the first aid station was there.  I didn't need anything at this point and the course continued onto another incline.  I chose to walk up while I stowed my headlamp into my camel back.  My heart rate was too high anyway so this would give me a chance to calm down.
     The course continued through some inclines and declines.  There were even some boardwalk parts that were mildly slick from the week's rain.  After a couple of miles I came upon a group of four guys and kind of settled in behind them.  After about five minutes of being behind this group the trail crossed a dirt road.  There were no flags marking the course.  No flags anywhere.  We all came to a stop.  I figured it would make sense that the course would continue on down the trail we were on.  We got about three hundred feet in and two runners were coming towards us.  "This isn't the way" one of them said and we turned around toward the road.  When we got to the road a group of three runners were coming up from a bend down the dirt road.  They met up with us and said there weren't any flags that way.  Another guy and I went back the way we came to see when the last marker was.  We found it about a hundred yards back so we knew we hadn't missed a turn.  Then we decided to continue down the only way nobody had gone.  I thought about staying at the junction for my wife.  I didn't know if she was with anybody or where she was. The guys continued down the road and I reluctantly went with them.  The road went down a way and then came to a T.  Another runner came and he had a map.  He and another guy figured out where we were and we ran down the dirt road.  We were clicking at a decent pace when the road took a bend and we followed that to where there was a small parking lot with a trailhead.  A trailhead that wasn't marked with any course flags.  Adventure !!!  I then decided that I was going to really break that distance PR.  Maybe even make it a self-supported fifty miler if we stay lost enough.
     So the map came out again and someone decided to back track the way we came.  We got about a half mile up the road when a truck came by and told us the course was back up the road.  We thanked the guy and continued up the road.  Then another truck came.  One of the guys from our group knew him and he told us to get in.  Myself and two other guys jumped on the lowered tailgate while the other guy rode shotgun. We sped down to the road where we should have taken a turn.  (Later I learned that the driver was Randy the race director aka The Head Goat.  So catching a ride wasn't illegal !!!)
      We clicked along for a bit and I kind of felt a pressure lift off of me. I was relieved that we were back on track.  I was also relieved that some subconscious pressure I was putting on myself about getting a "good race time" was gone.  Now I just had to worry about if my wife was still on course or if she got to the junction after it was remarked.
     We thanked Randy for the ride and we started moving at good clip down the road.  My garmin was set to vibrate and I could feel it on my wrist warning me that I was above my desired exertion.  (I was so grateful to have this new model.  Normally the deedle~deedle~dee ring of the old HR would have driven me into a fit of Incredible Hulk rage by this point.)  Up ahead I saw a runner that I thought was my wife.  As we got closer I shouted out her name and was right !!!  She turned around and said "Oh, did you get lost?"  I sure did !!!   I asked her what mileage she had and she was about 3 miles behind what I had.  Three mile detour !!!  She was running low on electrolyte pills and asked how I was doing with my supply.  I hadn't even touched mine so we switched containers since I always forget to take the electrolyte pills anyway.    We ran together for a little bit and then I said goodbye as I started to pick up my pace to rejoin the rest of the "Got Lost Boys".
     The course went from road to trail and came upon a horseman's camp where there was an aid station set up.  I grabbed some orange slices and some water and headed up to a trail.  Then I saw Ben and Stephanie waiting up the hill with their dog, Toby.  Ben rode up with us while his wife drove to meet us in Hell.  They were there to hang out and offer any help the three of us may need on the course.  I told them about getting lost and how I was just gonna concentrate on having fun and working on a now 34 mile personal record distance run.  They had asked where Chris was and I had said that I hadn't seen him.  Then I was wondering if they missed him or if he got super lost at that junction.

     I continued on the trail.  At this point in the race other runners were getting spread out and it was starting to turn into a nice run.  I was experiencing a weird twinge in my right heel/achilles tendon all week.  It was letting itself be known for the first nine miles but that had disappeared without notice somewhere in the last few miles.  I was in good spirits and started enjoying the scenery around me.  There were great wetlands and more boardwalk parts of the course with elevation changes.  Nothing major just some small hills here and there.  The course was leading up towards an aid station that was set up as an out and back.  I was starting to see some of the group of guys I had got lost with coming from the aid station.  We were giving each other high fives as we passed and kind of laughing.  I hung out at the aid station while talking to a support crew worker while he filled the bladder of my camel back.  Headed back the way I came and gave more high fives to other members of the "Get Lost Boys"
     I came out and hit the horseman's camp again and reaffirmed which flags I was to follow for the rest of the race at the aid station there.  There were more inclines but nothing bad.  I took my second vespa and electrolyte pill as I power hiked up a hill.  The pace and the terrain of the last few miles were starting to push my calves a little much.  I didn't want to risk another calve seizure like I did at the Eagle Creek Marathon so I knew I had to power hike the hills for awhile.  (Something I should have been doing anyway)   More miles went by, the course turned to some bushwhacking, went down a steep incline (which took its toll on my quads) and then up the climb known at "the stripper pole".  It was steep but not very long.  I got to the top and started to laugh at the awesome absurdity that the climb was.  Adventure !!!
      The course continued and along the way I started running with an older mustached gentleman doing the 50 mile race with his wife.   He offered me the advice that you want to walk the uphills, run the downhills, and run the flats.  This strategy was saving my calves from cramping up.  We were soon joined by another runner who was also an experienced distance runner.  The two of them chatted while we ran and I gladly ran along with them.  We would come to an incline and power hike up and then cruise down.  At one point the mustached man stepped off the trail and said that this was a good spot to wait for his wife.  I thanked him for his advice and said goodbye.
     I ran along behind the other guy and we encountered the first water crossing.   I got in and the cold water felt awesome on my pounded feet.  We crossed and the trail turned into a slight high grass bushwhackesque part where we were gaining ground on a lady.  She stepped aside to let us pass and my running buddy kind of slowed his pace with the lady's.  I said a brief goodbye and continued on alone.  I came to another water crossing, plopped in, and came out to pass another lady emptying stuff out of her shoe.
     Just after that the course took me into a creek where it had us running up it.  Not only was I running through it, but also hopping over downed trees and other shit.  There was a bend in the stream and the course kept going with the creek.  It fluctuated between being ankle deep, to knee deep, to waist deep.  I'm six foot three if that gives any idea of depth change.  At one point I passed a runner who was gingerly going through the water.  I passed him and turned around to look at him and he made an odd sound.  Turns out he was deaf and had a confused look on his face and was pointing at the bank of the creek.  I went to where he was pointed and gave him a thumbs up.  He started my way and then I turned and took some steps in the knee to thigh deep water.  Then I stepped on a rock and lifted up about six inches.  When I put my foot down I hit a hole and my right shin crashed into a sharp rock and I fell in the water.  Holy shit did it hurt !!!  I just got up and continued toward another bend in the creek and then diagonally toward a pink trail marker with a photographer.  I headed up the bank and saw Satan !!!  He welcomed me to Hell and there was an aid station there !!!

     My calf was killing me so this caused me to have no use for any water or food.  But there was some sort of festival going on.  There was a cool rockabilly band playing.  Not only were they a rockabilly band but they were some sort of evil lyrics of death rockabilly band !!!  Totally fucking awesome !!!  The course took me by this event (Which I later found out was called "Hell Fest".) and there were all kinds of pimped out hearses in the parking lot and goth type people everywhere.  Cool as shit.  My shoes had managed to pick up every sharp piece of debris while I was in the water.  I stopped, untied them, and dumped water and other torturous devises out of pain out of them.
     Then the course turned uphill on a dirt road and I power hiked up.  I could tell that I was starting to compensate for my bashed shin.  I think I had nine miles to go at this point. The course turned from the dirt road to more trails and slight bushwhacking.  I could still hear the psychobilly band playing off in the distance as I maneuvered through fallen limbs and trees on this stretch of the course.  My lower back also started to cramp up from having to constantly duck from the foliage.  After about four or five miles the back of my right knee started to get a sharp pain in the tendon.  I knew it was from compensating for my bashed shin.  I had also realized that I tied my right shoe lace too tight and it was squeezing the top of my foot to the point of discomfort.  I stopped to loosen it up and the pain relieved instantly.  Despite all this discomfort:  We must keep going.
     The terrain was still quite pretty.  There were pine groves, abundant hardwood trees, and great wetland areas.  The boardwalk sections of the trail had great views of marshes and ponds.  After one incline the trail came upon a section of the forest that suffered a fire in the recent past.  There were new growth smaller trees whose leaves were starting to change colors.  Towering over these were older, taller trees that survived the fire but were proudly showing off their scars.  The sun was coming through the field and it was probably one of the most amazing scenes I have come upon.  (I wished I would have brought my camera, but I got the feeling the fall in the water would have ruined it.  But really, I doubt a photo would have done any justice)
     Not too long after this I came to the trailhead and was at a road.  The lady there said "Just follow those flags there.  Just a half mile to go."  I thought that couldn't be right.  I should have about three miles to go according to my GPS.  But what did I know.  The course was now on grass and heading slightly downhill !!!  I got my second wind and pushed through all the annoying little niggles from my lower back all the way down my right leg and kicked it into gear.

     As I came to the bottom of the hill I saw Ben and Stephanie there.  They were cheering me on and snapping pictures.   When I got by them I saw Chris cheering for me and taking pictures as well.  It was good to see him !!!  I wondered how the race went for him.  (Turns out he finished ninth overall and won his age group !!!  Later, I busted his chops a little about this being a "training run" for him,  He's a powerhouse.)
     I was chugging along and almost overran the chute.  As I went through my GPS read that it was just over 30 miles for the event.  Not the 34 I was hoping for, but I finished relatively unscathed !!!  I walked through and people were handing me shit left and right.  Banana, bottle of water, heavy ass finishers medal.  A lady with a clipboard asked my age.  When I told her she said I placed fifth in my age group.  "Are you shitting me?!?!?!?"  I asked.
     "When have I ever shitted you?" she asked back.  She had a good point and I didn't have the energy to argue.  The she handed me a pretty nice pint glass that was my age group award.  Yay for me.  More shit to carry !!!  Placing in my age group didn't even seem like a reality the whole race.  That was a cool bonus.
     As I exited the area Ben and Stephanie came running up with a giant fat head picture they made of me and my dog.  This was the most awesome thing ever which made me love these two even more.  What great friends !!!

          I checked out my shin and I could see blood coming through my calf sleeve.  The others could see a raised bump on the profile of it.  I could feel muscle groups starting to unnaturally contract so I walked around as a form of a cool down, took off my shoes, and waited for Erin to come in.
        She came in and we found out that she placed fourth in her age group !!! All three of us were winners !!! (If you'd like you can read her race report at her blog here:   http://persistentrunner.blogspot.com/  She's a lot better than me at this so it's worth your while.) .

     Overall, I had a great time.  I gained more experience during the race and got to pick my friend's brains about long distance running racing and training afterward.   The race course was way shorter than advertised, but since I got lost I ran close to the distance I was hoping to accomplish.  I managed to be more disciplined than my last race and I hope to build on that.  (Building the discipline will, hopefully, enable me to thwart any major or minor injuries which will let me run more....unlike last year)  If I could change one thing it would be to redo the first ten miles where I was running harder than I should have.  I think if I would have power hiked the inclines I wouldn't have risked taking my calves to the edge of cramping.  Nevertheless  I accomplished more than I intended to do and got to know my friends a little bit better in the process.  Awesomesauce !!!

Taper musings

     My summer training for my first 50k is over.  The race is several days away and I'm in the middle of tapering for the big day.  I enjoy training for sure.  In reality, maybe I just enjoy running.  I especially enjoy trail running.  Trail running gives me time to be away from people and offers me a form of meditation.  The solitude of nature is my escape.
     I'm looking forward to the 50k as an adventure.  Traveling to a different state to run different trails and running the farthest I've ever run before is more appealing.  I'm not interested in beating anybody.  I want to conquer the distance not my fellow runners.  Last year my emphasis was on running both far and fast.   I think my past emphasis on times and placing brought out competitiveness that I am trying to avoid at this stage of my development as a long distance runner.  Being competitive led to nothing but injuries for me last year.  I have too many plans coming up this fall and being injured is not one of them.
     I'm holding onto the idea of this event as as adventure.   I want to appreciate my surroundings while running this new distance.  Running farther than I have ever run before has been my focus and fascination this year.   Running in Ohio and Kansas and around Indiana has been a blast while pushing myself physically as well as mentally has been fun.  
     I have been reading about different Buddhist philosophies and experimenting with meditation.  Incorporating these thoughts and ideas into my life and running has been fun and challenging. The last few months have been an experiment of discovering things that have been useful.  The months have also been a time of scrapping the things that haven't been useful.  All of these things I've been learning, discovering, and inventing are puzzle pieces that I have been trying to fit into a picture of what I hope will make me a better person and runner.  Hopefully, the journey to Michigan and the 50k experience will help me discover more pieces of the puzzle that will help me understand what I have been developing and searching for.
     
  

The correct word is tortoise, but I call them turtles

     I like turtles.  Nothing gives me a surge of happiness like seeing a turtle on the trail.  I sometimes gauge my runs a success or failure based upon a turtle sighting.  This may seem totally ridiculous, and it is, but not to me.  For instance, I did a 22 mile run in Brown County State Park this past week.  It was an okay run but I was kind of disappointed that I hadn't seen a turtle.

At one point I came to a bend in the trail and spooked a deer that was knee deep in a small pond.  It jumped to the bank and watched me as I slowed down to a stop and took a couple of photos of it.  The young little guy eventually gave in to it's suspicions of me and took off and disappeared into the forest.
     Deer are always fun to come across though.  Most times they see me first and all I get to see of them is their white tails taking off away from me.  But the deer have nothing on turtles.
     I can't explain why turtles always get me excited.  In some bizarre way I see them as kind of the spirit of the forest.  As if I have the forest's blessing to be there.  This may sound weird, and it is, but I came up with this idea during a long run.  A long run on a hot, summer day.  Do I really believe this?  Not really but maybe.  I usually come up with some kooky ideas on my long runs.
     But the turtles are always a morale boost to me.  On the long run I did last week I hadn't seen a turtle for 18 whole miles and then "WANG !!!"  there was one in the trail in front of me.  I immediately got excited and got a second wind.

I took a couple of pics of the guy, thanked him, and was on my way.  I was actually rejuvenated as I continued down the trail and finished the last four miles.  My run was instantly a success.  It honestly was.  It was my first successful long run without discomfort since pushing myself at the Eagle Creek Marathon a few weeks back.  And most of all :  I had the forests blessing !!!

I usually carry a small digital camera with me on my runs and I've taken lots of turtle pics this summer.

Overall, I've had good training runs this summer but I've always been more pleased when I do encounter a tortoise.  Though I like to call them turtles.

Eagle Creek Trail Marathon as training run....or My failing success

     I ran the Eagle Creek Trail Marathon as part of the training I've been doing for a 50k coming up this September.  My goals for this race was to finish, finish uninjured, work on nutrition, and gain some long distance race experience.
     I thought I would have had more anxiety the night before.  I got an email confirmation earlier in the night that my deferred entry for last year's Tecumseh Trail marathon was made active for this year's.  (I was in a car accident and beset with other injuries last fall.  Luckily the Tecumseh race allows deferments in such events.)  The excitement at this news pretty much wiped away the slight nervousness.  This allowed me to get a decent night's sleep !!!
     I wanted to have a solid race.  I also have been struggling to find things to eat while running.  Fueling while running has been a struggle for me.  I follow the Whole 9 nutrition plan so eating a lot of "normal" runners fuel isn't in the equation.  I've never had shot blocks, goo, or gels of any kind in my endurance training. During the marathon I took pitted dates with roasted almonds in them.  They were a complete fail.  The date portion was too big and I chewed forever.  Then I used up way too much water to try and get them down.  Luckily, I also had two lara bars with me.  I ate a blueberry muffin one and later forced myself to eat a quarter of another.  Overall, I don't think I had enough food while running. Still something I need to work on.
     The other issue I had was my pace.  I started out way too fast, but it felt good.  I started the first half ranging between eight and a half to ten minute miles.  I train by doing Maffetone heart rate training. This enables me to run ten to twelve minute miles while staying in an aerobic zone.  This enables me to use my body fat as fuel (a near unlimited fuel source) as opposed to my glycogen stores (a very limited fuel source).  I dropped the heart rate for the race.  I did bump up the heart rate alarm on my Garmin watch just to kind of give me an idea of where my effort was.  The alarm was mostly ignored during most of the race.  Another failure.
     The first half was pretty uneventful.  At the beginning I passed a lot of people on the uphills and then on the downhills.  I was kind of surprised at how the group I was in used a lot of their quads to brake themselves on the downhills.  I like to use gravity to speed down the declines in a kind of controlled recklessness.  It's safer than it sounds, but it sure beats using up all that energy to gingerly go down hills.  I just thought it was odd that I was the only one in this group of runners to go down hills this way.
     As I came upon the half way mark of the race (which went through the finish line.  The course was a horseshoe shaped lollipop that was a half marathon distance long)  I saw that my half time was two hours and six minutes.  I wasn't sure if the pace I was doing was going to be sustainable.  I hadn't really trained myself to put this much effort into this long of a distance.  So far the only issue I had was running in the open field with the sun beating down on me.  Temperature wise it was a great day for running, though the humidity was high (almost 100%).
      Everything was going smoothly and I was still maintaining my pace. It was around this time that I had the failed date and almond experience.  There was a half marathon taking place as well and I was starting to see friends running that race coming in the opposite direction.  Each friendly face was a good morale boost.  At one aid station, my friend Christy (who I thought was out of town) was there to cheer everybody on.  That was a great surprise and an amazing morale booster !!!  (I think I might have told her that multiple times later in the day)
    Somewhere between miles 16 and 18 my left calf started acting up.  I could feel it going right to the edge of cramping up and just staying on the verge.  Then the feeling would go away.  Then the feeling would creep back up several minutes later.  Again, my calf felt like it was flirting on the edge of becoming what I knew would be a painful Charley horse then it would go away.
     Around this time I started to drink the electrolyte drinks at the aid stations to see if they would help with the issue with my calf.  I had took an endurolyte pill at the beginning of the race and sometime during the race.  I figured drinking the liquid form couldn't hurt.  I kept hoping for an aid station with a banana but that never happened.  I figured the potassium would help.
     As I came into another aid station it happened to be the one where Christy was at !!!  Yay !!!  I downed two cups of blue electrolyte and maybe a cup of water and was on my way. (My Camel bak ran out of water about three miles ago)   About a quarter of a mile down the trail I had the thought that I should have left the empty pack with Christy.  D'oh !!!
     Shortly after leaving the aid station my calf flared up worse.  I stopped for a hot second to stretch the calf which helped immensely.  The uphills were aggravating it and, as an extra bonus, I was starting to feel nauseous. I never use any electrolyte drink with my training, I blamed this feeling on the blue fluid.  So now I was faced with the dilemma of continue to drink something that may or may not be keeping a potential cramp at bay, not have a cramp but puke my brains out, or continue drinking the blue stuff at the aid stations (and risk puking my brains out and having a massive Charley horse at the same time)
     My pace was starting to suffer but not too much.  I was dropping down but persevering. I only had about five to six miles to go.  I knew that if I made it to the causeway bridge part of the course I would be homefree.  The bridge gave my calf some relief as it was on a decline heading towards the finish.  Then as I hopped the guardrail to get to the trail portion of the course my calf cramped as I landed.  I immediately flexed my towards towards my body and the cramp went away just as quickly as it appeared.
     It was around here that I got Johnny Cash's song "25 minutes to go" roiling through my head.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVxQcsdpWI (here's a link to the song)  I couldn't remember most of the words but the countdown chorus part was going through my mind.  At one point I came out of the forest onto a service road portion of the route and momentarily bent down to stretch my calf.  Looking up, I saw my wife and our friend Heather coming in the opposite direction.  I was so glad to see them !!!  I told them about my calf as we high fived each other.  My wife asked where my heart rate was at (which was at 145 bpm at the time)  Looking back the issue with my calf was slowing me down to my aerobic zone, which might not have been a bad thing.  I exited the road and was back on the forest trails for another couple of miles to the finish.
     I came upon the field with the finish and was glad to be there. I got my finishers medal and knew that I had to keep moving.  My calf was tightening up and taking the rest of my legs with them. The growing unpleasantness in my legs was making me wonder if I had injured myself.   I walked to the car and sat in the driver's seat and started massaging and stretching my legs.  I was totally zoning out and gaining some relief from my messaging.  I don't know how long I sat there but after a while all the pain had subsided.  I grabbed a coconut water from the cooler and downed it fast.  Then walked back to the finish line with the cooler.  I saw that my finish was 4:26:13 and was 20th place overall.  I only lost 13 minutes compared to the first half which surprised me.
     Overall, I completed most of my goals for the race. I managed to finish and finish uninjured which were major pros.  (Though I was really scared at the momentary tendinitis that I experienced soon after finishing)  I think I had more cons than pros though.  I would say the few pros out weighed the cons.   I failed at keeping my competitiveness in check.  The calf problem, I am guessing, stems from starting the first half of the race at an effort that I wasn't trained at maintaining for a whole marathon distance.  I think if I would have been about one or two minutes slower per mile on the first half I might have avoided that problem. I also failed at my nutrition conundrum. (I don't know why I can't get this down !!!) My two liter hydration pack didn't last over twenty miles.  I was even drinking at most aid stations.  I do have a three liter pack that I might have to switch to for the 50k race. (But the 50k race is in late September where the cooler temperatures will mean less water consumption) I was surprised at my placing and my finishing time though.  Those last two things are what makes this training run a failing success.  I'll take it !!!

By the Numbers

Distance: 26.2 miles
First half time: 2 hours 6 minutes 26 seconds
Second half time:  2 hours 19 minutes 50 seconds
Average pace:  10 minutes 2 seconds per mile
Time: 4 hours 26 minutes 16 seconds
Fastest mile: 8:48 (mile 7)
Slowest mile:12:01 (mile 25)
Average Heart Rate:  154 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate:  172 bpm

Nutrition
Breakfast:  Scrambled eggs with chia meal, cherry tomatoes, black olives, avocados, and pickled okra
Race:  One and a quarter blueberry muffing lara bars and one date stuffed with two roasted almonds.  two endurlyte capsules

Gear:

Shoes:  Altra Lone Peak 1.5
Socks:  Injini midweight black socks
Clothes:  Nike running shorts, Muzuno compression calf sleeves, buff, and Nike BARA singlet
Other:  2 liter Rogue Camelbak, amphipod belt, Garmin foreunner GPS watch with heart rate monitor