High Five By 55

After having the good luck to grab a pair of these Saucony Endorphin Elite 2s from the tiny drop in June and sitting on these for nearly six months, I finally got to use them in a marathon on Saturday. And they are sublime, my absolute favorite shoe for the marathon so far. By a wide margin. Yes, exceptionally soft. And also very fast and efficient at any pace I've tried. The fit is very similar to the Saucony Endorphin Elite 1, which is mostly generous yet well held. The toe box is a bit less spacious than the 1, but only by the most marginal amount. Other than that, fit and hold are exceptional both through the midfoot and the heel. I came out of my marathon without a hint of a hot spot or blister or black toenail. My toes aren't even sore. The ride is weirdly forgiving. Run with pace, and it offers pace back. Run easier, and it rolls along efficiently and protectively. Get up on your toes, and you fly. Tire a bit and fall back on the heels, you still fly. Explosive, yet easy...

Saturday I ran the Jacksonville Marathon and am as pleased about how a race went as I have been in a long time. I think it’s safe to say this is probably as well as I will ever execute a marathon. I trained using a “old man” training plan designed to offer a bit more rest and recovery, but still pretty aggressive. I hoped to be able to run in the 2:54.xx range to bring me half way from my current PR to 2:50, which is the lifetime goal I’m chasing.  Training went well and I was pretty confident that I could run Jacksonville well. And run well I did, finishing in 2:54.46. I surprised myself. The weather forecast looked very nice a week before the race, then continued to fall apart as the race approached. 63 degrees and rising, few clouds, 90+% humidity, 16 mph winds were not going to make for ideal conditions. I decided the night before to go for my C goal and run conservatively, which was to take any PR. The B goal I had set weeks before was to run the 2:54.xx if weather was very go...

I shared that I got injured at Bighorn and ultimately didn’t finish the race. That sharing leads me to a thought I’ve been having for a while. The thought, maybe a wondering, is how long should one ignore pain in training or even in a race. At Bighorn, my injure occurred in the 18th mile. I remember it exactly even though there was no specific “event” that can be tied to the injury. Suddenly, while running a downhill section that was relatively smooth dirt trail, a severe sharp pain struck in my right foot. Right along the front external edge where the ankle and foot come together. So sharp I was seeing fireworks each time it struck. It only occurred while running downhill and only when my foot twisted a certain direction. I hadn’t stepped on anything at the moment it struck, hadn’t twisted my foot in any notable fashion, nothing really. Just sudden severe pain. I didn’t ignore the pain initially. I stopped and just sat on a rock for a few minutes absorbing it. Then I continued on expe...

I’ve gone silent here. Actually, I’ve gone silent in with any writing, really. I had a rough spring of waves of getting sick and then recovering and then almost immediately getting sick again. Four or five big waves. It was not fun. It put me in a real funk for many months. It’s not what led me to DNFing at Bighorn 100, but it certainly contributed. I was not as well trained as I would have liked to have been, which was in my head from the beginning of the race. But alas, I want to get back to writing. Writing is rewarding to me. I don’t need anybody to read it, I just need to write. Though when people read and comment positively, that makes me feel good, too. I want to get back in the practice of writing daily. Today I begin taking a stab at that. I’m thinking a theme in my next bit of writing is to explore some basic truisms or tenets of running, in particular mountain ultra running, I can lay out for myself to lean on when things get bad. What do I mean by this? I’m not sure. An exa...

This weekend was my big kick-off training weekend for the Bighorn 100 ultramarathon. I spent a week in Rapid City for work, and would be spending the holiday weekend there. That gave me the opportunity to get into the mountains a bit for some big training runs and hikes. And, boy, did the weekend deliver! I had initially planned to make the 250 mile drive to the Bighorn 100 course and spend a couple days recee'ing sections of the course. In particular, I was going to take on the big first 4,000 foot climb and then possibly drive out to the second 4,000 foot climb if I could figure out how to get there. However, when I arrived last Wednesday, it had started snowing. The snow forecast did not call for much snow either in Rapid City nor in the Bighorn mountains. But the forecast proved wrong, and the snow continued for 36 hours. What was expected to be just an inch or two of snow ended up closer to 10 inches. After much deliberation and speaking with more winter mountain experienced f...

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to hike and run in the Black Hills of South Dakota in relatively cold and dry air for a few hours. That also gave me the opportunity to test out the Airtrim Sports Mask I recently purchased. The Airtrim Sports Mask is a heat exchanger mask intended to warm and moisten air before the mask wearer breathes it. An interesting idea that would hopefully resolve one issue I have experienced when running high altitude ultramarathons in dry climates. And this trip to South Dakota would be perfect for this test, as I had just wrapped up with a head cold that had also getting into my lungs a bit, and having a way to possibly protect my lungs just made sense. The first year I ran Ouray 100, I dropped out of the race at mile 62. I was actually several hours ahead of the cut off and quite lucid and moving reasonably well. Well enough that the aid stations workers at the spot I dropped were doing their absolute best to get me up and out of the chair. But I wasn't ...

Yesterday evening, I went on my normal Monday afternoon run. A really easy 10k loop with some strides near the end to work out some of the stiffness of the prior day's long run. I have two loops I alternate between for this run, both chosen because they leave from my house and minimize the number of roads I have to cross. I've run this run probably hundreds of times at this point, rarely with any kind of incident. Yesterday was not one of those hundreds of runs. Yesterday, I got hit by a car on my run. I want to be clear, this was not the movie style getting hit by a car at full speed while I cross a street. But it was very close to that, and a bit of reflexive action on my part is the only reason I was not injured more than a bit of shoulder soreness this morning.  I've had many close calls with cars on runs. And they are almost exclusively the same situation. I'm running up to an intersection or driveway or some other location where traffic is interacting from two dir...

I may have found a common factor, a known gastrointestinal distress factor, in the marathons where I have experienced the need to stop and poop. Maltodextrin! From what I understand so far, there are good reasons many engineered nutritional products use maltodextrin as the primary carbohydrate source. However, there also seems to be some research that suggests for some people, maltodextrin basically acts as a laxative.  When I first considered this, I thought maltodextrin wasn't a common factor. At Miami Marathon, I used UCAN Edge gels which do not use maltodextrin. However, I also relied on the on-course hydration drink, Gatorade Endurance. Gatorade Endurance does use maltodextrin. In a potentially frustrating twist, Gatorade Endurance actually works for me quite well. I can drink it for hours and not get sick of it. It doesn't cause me any nausea. It has functioned well to keep me hydrated and not apparently short on electrolytes. I've really liked Gatorade Endurance. How...

As I've turned my attention to Bighorn 100 in June, I have wondered what to make the focus of my preparation. I had decided early in this project that I wanted to give each Hardrock qualifying race a very specific purpose, some area of weakness or lack of knowledge I could build on while training. I have not been quite sure what I wanted to make the focus of Bighorn 100 and had even kind of decided just to make it a kick off to the project without any real focus. Just do good training, plan well, and have a good day and night out on the course. I think I'm going to scrap that plan. Of course, I'll still do all those things. But I have such a glaring area to begin working on that I think I'll make it not just the focus of Bighorn 100, but of 2024 in general. Nutrition. Both race day nutrition and general training nutrition. The Miami Marathon experience of a week ago really drove home how much I need to work on this. At marathons, I'm struggling with GI distress. At ...

My Miami Marathon pacing experience has put me in a place I have rarely encountered since beginning running in 2016. I am completely and totally devoid of motivation to run. I'm so bummed by the entire experience that I just don't feel like heading out the door right now. This is not an uncommon experience for runners as I understand it, but it has been uncommon for me. In fact, I can't remember a single time in at least the past 5 years when I've felt this way. Sure, a day here or there where I didn't want to run crept in. Or a series of days where I wasn't super excited about it, but still mostly wanted to go. But this time is different. This time I really don't want to go run. So I'm going to just go with that for a little while...sort of. I have a dog that needs his exercise and loves running, so I'll run with him daily. But I'm not going to do any specific training, at least for a few days, perhaps even a few weeks. I'll let the funk be ...

The Miami Marathon. It's by far my favorite marathon to pace of those I have run. I love the course. I love the energy. I love the people. I just love it. And I've been looking forward to pacing at the Miami Marathon for months, almost as much as I looked forward to my own race at California International Marathon last year. But, alas, I had my worse performance as a pacer ever at the Miami Marathon yesterday. A truly shitty day. One that has me questioning marathoning (and definitely pacing) until I figure some things out. (Warning: poop content begins below. I meant "shitty day" quite literally. No photos, though.) I was set to pace the 3:20 group at the marathon. This is the fastest group I had ever paced, and had only done it once before. On that prior attempt, I missed my time slightly, as I had to make a late 24th mile emergency porta-potty pitstop and just couldn't catch up in the small amount of course left. But I had no concern about the pace for the Miam...

I seek adventure. I seek journeys. I seek experiences. A big reason I do any of this running from 5ks to mountain ultramarathons is this pursuit of adventure. And yes, a 5k can be an adventure. An internal one. But an adventure nevertheless. And in some respects, among the hardest I've tried since it's just me against myself. But mostly I'm seeking adventure in grand places, preferably with pleasant company. Though I very much do also like to spend time alone. This High Five By 55 idea is really the pursuit of the grandest adventure and journey. It's not about completing any single race. It really is about the journey that prepares me to get to that race. And that race my never happen. Who knows. The ultimate practice I want to take out of this project is remaining focused on the journey instead of any discrete step. I wrote about Bighorn doubts yesterday. That's focus on the discrete step. It's okay. I should have doubts. A mountain ultramarathon is never easy ...

I can't say why. There's no good reason for why. There's plenty of time to get ready. Yet I find myself with deep doubts and misgivings about being ready for Bighorn 100 in June. Once I'm done pacing Miami Marathon this Sunday, the training will very much focus on being ready for Bighorn 100. And I'm not racing the event, not trying to meet any time goal. I just want to go to the race, finish the race, practice being challenged and trying to remain comfortable in discomfort for a long period of time in the mountains. Yet, I'm really apprehensive. More apprehensive than I was the second time I prepared for Ouray 100, a significantly more challenging race.  Perhaps it's because I will not have run a 100 miler in nearly 2 years by the time Bighorn rolls around. Maybe it's because I'm using a lower mileage training plan, though that's also what I used for Ouray. Maybe it's because I've kind of taken a lackadaisical approach to planning for th...

Yesterday I paced at the Vero Beach Half Marathon. I do really enjoy pacing even at a smaller race like this was. A little local thing, not a huge field, but a bunch of people just trying to have a good time and see what they are capable of. And me there to help a few of them along. It was a rather cold morning for South Florida, 46 degrees at the starting gun. It made for a perfect morning to run hard, though a very chilly one to be pacing at an easy pace. I was unusually untalkative during the run, though I think that made sense. When pacing a marathon, I try to engage my group with some simple dialog. Nothing requiring more than a two or three word answer, but a little chit chat. I didn't do that yesterday. And the truth is, at half marathon pace, holding even a short conversation shouldn't be very manageable.  The course was pretty, though a bit windy with lots of twists and turns through a variety of neighborhoods. Not a course I was going to memorize ahead of time. It als...

A random thought this morning. I don't want race swag. Not a t-shirt. Not a medal. And absolutely, positively not all the other bric-a-brac that's often found in the race "swag bag."  As I type this, I have most of the race bibs from races I've participated in hanging behind me. 50 race bibs. 50ish times I've been given a shirt and a medal or buckle. And 50ish times I've gotten a bunch of other chachkies that generally went into the trash within 24 hours.  Of those 50 shirts, there might be a dozen I've worn more than once or twice and half a dozen I actual like. The rest might have gotten used to paint in or as a rag or worn once during a training run and left somewhere when it was removed as I got too hot. The medals and buckles, there's a grand total of one I give a darn about. The rest sat in a a bag for months and years until I recently hung them up in my running gear closet, where they still are largely hidden away and unseen. It all feels so...

Today I've woken up extremely sore. Mostly in the butt, but in the legs in generally. I haven't done any training that is particularly intense. However, I have layered on a bunch of new types of stress really quickly. I think this is the culprit. I had been in a pretty rhythmic training structure for several months. Easy run, hard run, easy run, hard run, rest, easy run, long run. Repeat. The body was pretty accustomed to that rhythm. But in the past few weeks I've layered on some light strength and stability work and I've added recovery yoga (which is still pretty intense for me) and a weight vest when walking the dogs and, in the past week, incline treadmill hikes. None of that which very much volume and none of it with terribly high intensity. But all of it is new to my body after months in the previous rhythm. Maybe it was all layered on too quickly. So, this morning I skipped the strength and stability workout. This evening I'll still run, but I may not do the ...

This week I'll be pacing a half marathon in Vero Beach, Florida. Next week, I'll be pacing at the Miami Marathon. I enjoy pacing very much. In many respects, I enjoy pacing much more than I enjoy racing. Whether it's formal pacing like I'll be doing the next couple weeks, or acting as a pacer to a friend or stranger at an ultramarathon; I feel great satisfaction and reward in pacing. Far more than I do in the vast majority of races I run. Oddly, I also feel stronger and better prepared when I pace than when I race. That's rarely a true statement. In just about every case I can think of, I would have been better prepared in almost any race than any pacing gig. Yet, on the day, pacing feels way easier than racing ever does. Yeah, some of this has to do with pacing generally being done at a pace that's much easier than I would race. That's true often, particularly in marathons and shorter. But not necessarily in ultramarathons. And even so, pacing feels easier....

Well, it took me all of one day to fail to write daily in this space. Damn. Well, I'm back today. And one of the themes I'm really working on right now is simply accepting everything as a practice. I'm practicing writing here daily. I have not perfected that, so I move along and continue practicing going forward. And I forgot to write yesterday because I ran during the time I have set aside to write instead. It's not a time I normally run, but I had an aerobic threshold drift test on my training plan to do and wanted to do it during a comfortable weather window. So that's what I did. I think I'm okay with putting actually running ahead of writing about running.  This was the second time I've done the aerobic threshold drift test. And the second time it did not go correctly. The idea is to run for 60 minutes (after a long 15-20 minute warm up) trying to hold a target heart rate believed to be one's approximate aerobic threshold heart rate. If done at the ...