"50k is only 5 more miles than a marathon - that shouldn't be too hard". That's what I have told a few people about what I am expecting on race day tomorrow. Of course I have been kidding when I have mentioned it. Because quite honestly I have no idea what an extra 5 miles is going to be like.
The Devil Mountain Ultra 50K race is in Pagosa Springs and has 5000 +/- feet of elevation gain that includes Horse Mountain (approx 9900' elevation) and the race namesake - Devil Mountain.
I have really been looking forward to the race - the curiousity of running further than I have ever before, and how that is going to feel. Having no idea how long it is going to take me to complete it (Goal #1).
My mind has been occupied with race strategy (I must, must, must start out slow), with potential (I would like to win an age group award) and even the weather - overnight low tonight is supposed to be in the high 20's, warming to low 60's.
I'm excited, nervous and ready to just get out and run - and enjoy the experience.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Of course I run off course
I don't think that I am directionally challenged - or I did think that. Now I am wondering if I am not only losing my marbles, but I am losing my bearings.
Last Sunday it was during a race - on a course that I have run before - where the pre-race instrucions were simple: "run with the reservoir always to your right". Of course 7 miles into the race I was off course, nowhere near the reservoir, instead on a game trail, waist deep in tall grass, waking up wild turkeys who clearly had not seen any other people that morning. I was definitely where I should not have been. It ended up being a 1 1/3 mile detour.
Then there was today, somewhere between Manitou Springs and Crystal Park, when I was surrounded by nothing but scrub oak, not a trail anywhere close to me, sort of knowing how I got there and kind of knowing where I needed to be going. Only I couldn't. I heard a voice somewhere nearby yell out to me: "You're trespassing! Turn around and go back".
I thought about dropping to the ground and hiding. I couldn't see who was yelling at me, but they could clearly see me - hopefully not through a scope. So I turned around and went back, I think. I found a trail, sort of. I meandered around trying not to trespass, trying not to be seen, trying to run. Eventually I found a paved road and made my way back to Manitou Springs. I had 10 miles, a few scratches and over 2 hours on the legs.
I was a little frustrated and needed to run some more in a familiar place. 2 reasons: I wanted 22 miles on the day for my last long run before the 50K in 10 days. The other reason: I needed to prove to myself that I was capable of running and not getting off course.
So I ran up Barr Trail to Bob's Road and back. It's a trail that I have run on dozens of times before, one that I am familiar with, I have a comfort in knowing where it goes, how it goes and how long it goes for.
I got my 22 miles for the day in. I ran / walked / hiked / wandered aimlesly for 4 1/2 hours. I gained about 5200' feet of elevation. By the time I was done I found where I parked. I found my car keys. I then found my way back to my apartment. I was in familiar surroundings - not off course any more.
I have a big race coming up, I don't want to get lost and go off course on that. It's not something to really plan for, but it is now certainly occupying space in my already occupied mind. I was reminded today and last Sunday to pay attention to where I am when I am running. I should look around and enjoy the scenery but also keep track of the track I am on.
If I see a bunch of wild turkeys again or if I hear a booming voice yelling at me for trespassing - it is possible that I am having a directionally challenging moment. I think it was Hansel and Gretl that left a trail of things behind them so as to know where they were. Maybe I should do that to.
Last Sunday it was during a race - on a course that I have run before - where the pre-race instrucions were simple: "run with the reservoir always to your right". Of course 7 miles into the race I was off course, nowhere near the reservoir, instead on a game trail, waist deep in tall grass, waking up wild turkeys who clearly had not seen any other people that morning. I was definitely where I should not have been. It ended up being a 1 1/3 mile detour.
Then there was today, somewhere between Manitou Springs and Crystal Park, when I was surrounded by nothing but scrub oak, not a trail anywhere close to me, sort of knowing how I got there and kind of knowing where I needed to be going. Only I couldn't. I heard a voice somewhere nearby yell out to me: "You're trespassing! Turn around and go back".
I thought about dropping to the ground and hiding. I couldn't see who was yelling at me, but they could clearly see me - hopefully not through a scope. So I turned around and went back, I think. I found a trail, sort of. I meandered around trying not to trespass, trying not to be seen, trying to run. Eventually I found a paved road and made my way back to Manitou Springs. I had 10 miles, a few scratches and over 2 hours on the legs.
I was a little frustrated and needed to run some more in a familiar place. 2 reasons: I wanted 22 miles on the day for my last long run before the 50K in 10 days. The other reason: I needed to prove to myself that I was capable of running and not getting off course.
So I ran up Barr Trail to Bob's Road and back. It's a trail that I have run on dozens of times before, one that I am familiar with, I have a comfort in knowing where it goes, how it goes and how long it goes for.
I got my 22 miles for the day in. I ran / walked / hiked / wandered aimlesly for 4 1/2 hours. I gained about 5200' feet of elevation. By the time I was done I found where I parked. I found my car keys. I then found my way back to my apartment. I was in familiar surroundings - not off course any more.
I have a big race coming up, I don't want to get lost and go off course on that. It's not something to really plan for, but it is now certainly occupying space in my already occupied mind. I was reminded today and last Sunday to pay attention to where I am when I am running. I should look around and enjoy the scenery but also keep track of the track I am on.
If I see a bunch of wild turkeys again or if I hear a booming voice yelling at me for trespassing - it is possible that I am having a directionally challenging moment. I think it was Hansel and Gretl that left a trail of things behind them so as to know where they were. Maybe I should do that to.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Pony Express Trail Run
This is a lap around the Rampart Reservoir near Woodland Park that I ran 2 years ago, that was cancelled last year due to the damage along part of it caused by the Waldo Canyon Fire.
It is advertised as a 15 mile race, but everyone I checked with had it at 14 1/3 miles - or thereabouts - with one guy getting lost and getting almost 15 miles in.
And then there was me - I did the deluxe tour. More on that later.
Only 40 people started the race, my guess is due to all the rain in the past week, and potential for more on Sunday. Every time there is a flash flood warning they close Highway 24 - the most direct route between Colorado Springs and Woodland Park. For the morning though, the weather was decent - although true to form, by mid afternoon the road was closed down due to the rain again - but by that time I was home.
With 40 people in a race it was a fun and friendly atmosphere - in the pre-race anouncements, one note stood out: "Make sure the lake is always to your right". Sounded like a good bit of common sense.
My plan was to try to maintain an even tempo throughout the race of 9 minute miles. It was to be my second to last long run before the 50K in 2 weeks. I have no idea how I will do on that - so I have not been working on any speedwork - just working on trying to maintain a steady pace - especially on long runs.
The first 1 1/3 mile is all downhill, dropping a few hundred feet - takes us to the waters edge - before then settling in to circumnavigating the reservoir in a clockwise direction. There are very few flat sections, lots of water crossings, mud, a section where we ran across the dam road - and rolling, rolling, rolling terrain. Overall about 1100' of elevation gain though, so it was a great place for a steady tempo run.
After running the lap we would then return back up the 1 1/3 mile to where we began. I had this in mind throughout and wanted to bank a bit of time for this to get in under my goal time of under 2 hrs, 15 minutes - which was a 9 minute pace throughout.
At the start I tried as hard as I could to stay slow and easy, wanting to not go faster than 9 minute miles - so as a result, a mile in I was only ahead of about 10 people, possibly less. No worries though - I wasn't racing.....yet.
1 1/2 miles in we came to the first water crossing - wet shoes, mud up the legs. Although I had not thought too much about what the course would be like, I immediately was happy. I love playing in the mud.
As the miles and rollers progressed I was passing people. The reservoir has lots of coves that wind around the perimeter - so it was easy to look across and see other runners ahead. I thought about taking mental notes of other runners ahead of me to see what kind of gap they had - but reminded myself again that I was just out to run and stay steady.
I had settled into a comfortable 8:45 per mile pace in the first 1/2 dozen miles - it just felt so comfortable and maintainable, so I went with it. I thought ahead of the last uphill 1 1/3 mile and figured I would lose some steam up that, but would worry about that when I got there.
About 7 miles in I looked to my right across the bay and saw a group of runners ahead - my guess was about 30 to 40 seconds. They were walking up a hill. I thought it wouldn't be long before I would catch up to them. I kept on going straight ahead and the next live thing I saw - several minutes later - was a group of wild turkeys - directly ahead of me on the trail. Whaaaaat? Surely if that group of runners had just gone through the turkeys would not be there, would they?
Besides, the reservoir was still........right.........ummmm......there???? Where was it again? I couldn't see water. I was following a trail up through a meadow - sure it wasn't much of a trail, it was narrower than I was on a few minutes ago, but it was still a trail. Sort of. The fact it was leading me into waist deep grass that clearly had not been trampled on by runners was my final clue that I had gone off course.
But hey, I saw some wild turkeys - that was fun. So I turned around and backtracked, finally getting back to the trail proper. As I rejoined the trail I ran into another runner whom I clearly confused as I was now running the wrong way. I stopped, looked to my left and there was the right trail. So I turned and off I went, mentioning to the other runner that I had taken a detour (Which ended up being 1 1/3 mile round trip).
My average pace per mile time was now up to 8:55. Still no big deal, I really wasn't bothered because this was still just a fun long run I was on. I did dial up the effort a bit and before long I was passing people again. Sure it was the same people I had been passing before - but we were all having fun.
I now had no idea how many people were in front of me - so I thought that it would be fun to just see how many I could pass, all the while trying to maintain the steady pace - which I had got down to an 8:50 average by the time I hit the dam road (with 5 1/2 miles to go).
I was still running comfortably, eating my fig newtons and swedish fish (my new favorite running fuels) and every now and then I would come up and pass someone. Many of the people I passed would ask if I had already had passed them - and I replied that yes I had, but had taken a detour - "the reservoir was supposed to be on our right, right?"
We continued on, going through about a mile or two of burn scars - sad - but some low level vegetation was starting to grow back. Still running through water and mud, I was in a great mood and this kind of running is a lot of fun to me.
As we neared the end of the lap of the lake and turned onto the 1 1/3 mile long road section back to the start, I saw another runner about a half minute ahead of me. Good, someone to try to pace off and catch. I was still at 8:50 average and felt good - so I put my head down and gradually began to reel her in.
But she was determined, cause she had seen other runners ahead and was chasing them. I eventually caught up to her, but in the process we both passed 4 other runners in that last stretch. As I caught them I actually got faster and dropped the average per mile a couple of seconds.
Crossing the finish line in 2 hours 17 minutes - taking about 8 minutes off my previous time that I had run the race. Surprisingly I had managed to pass about 2 dozen people after my detour and ended up in 10th place overall. My first top ten finish ever that I can remember. Sure if I didn't get myself lost I might of actually come in 5th or 6th - but I really didn't care.
It was a fun, muddy, long run that I had completed while maintaining the same steady pace throughout. Goal achieved. Plus I got to see a bit more of Colorado in my 15.6 miles - along with some startled turkeys out for a Sunday morning stroll.
It is advertised as a 15 mile race, but everyone I checked with had it at 14 1/3 miles - or thereabouts - with one guy getting lost and getting almost 15 miles in.
And then there was me - I did the deluxe tour. More on that later.
Only 40 people started the race, my guess is due to all the rain in the past week, and potential for more on Sunday. Every time there is a flash flood warning they close Highway 24 - the most direct route between Colorado Springs and Woodland Park. For the morning though, the weather was decent - although true to form, by mid afternoon the road was closed down due to the rain again - but by that time I was home.
With 40 people in a race it was a fun and friendly atmosphere - in the pre-race anouncements, one note stood out: "Make sure the lake is always to your right". Sounded like a good bit of common sense.
My plan was to try to maintain an even tempo throughout the race of 9 minute miles. It was to be my second to last long run before the 50K in 2 weeks. I have no idea how I will do on that - so I have not been working on any speedwork - just working on trying to maintain a steady pace - especially on long runs.
The first 1 1/3 mile is all downhill, dropping a few hundred feet - takes us to the waters edge - before then settling in to circumnavigating the reservoir in a clockwise direction. There are very few flat sections, lots of water crossings, mud, a section where we ran across the dam road - and rolling, rolling, rolling terrain. Overall about 1100' of elevation gain though, so it was a great place for a steady tempo run.
After running the lap we would then return back up the 1 1/3 mile to where we began. I had this in mind throughout and wanted to bank a bit of time for this to get in under my goal time of under 2 hrs, 15 minutes - which was a 9 minute pace throughout.
At the start I tried as hard as I could to stay slow and easy, wanting to not go faster than 9 minute miles - so as a result, a mile in I was only ahead of about 10 people, possibly less. No worries though - I wasn't racing.....yet.
1 1/2 miles in we came to the first water crossing - wet shoes, mud up the legs. Although I had not thought too much about what the course would be like, I immediately was happy. I love playing in the mud.
As the miles and rollers progressed I was passing people. The reservoir has lots of coves that wind around the perimeter - so it was easy to look across and see other runners ahead. I thought about taking mental notes of other runners ahead of me to see what kind of gap they had - but reminded myself again that I was just out to run and stay steady.
I had settled into a comfortable 8:45 per mile pace in the first 1/2 dozen miles - it just felt so comfortable and maintainable, so I went with it. I thought ahead of the last uphill 1 1/3 mile and figured I would lose some steam up that, but would worry about that when I got there.
About 7 miles in I looked to my right across the bay and saw a group of runners ahead - my guess was about 30 to 40 seconds. They were walking up a hill. I thought it wouldn't be long before I would catch up to them. I kept on going straight ahead and the next live thing I saw - several minutes later - was a group of wild turkeys - directly ahead of me on the trail. Whaaaaat? Surely if that group of runners had just gone through the turkeys would not be there, would they?
Besides, the reservoir was still........right.........ummmm......there???? Where was it again? I couldn't see water. I was following a trail up through a meadow - sure it wasn't much of a trail, it was narrower than I was on a few minutes ago, but it was still a trail. Sort of. The fact it was leading me into waist deep grass that clearly had not been trampled on by runners was my final clue that I had gone off course.
But hey, I saw some wild turkeys - that was fun. So I turned around and backtracked, finally getting back to the trail proper. As I rejoined the trail I ran into another runner whom I clearly confused as I was now running the wrong way. I stopped, looked to my left and there was the right trail. So I turned and off I went, mentioning to the other runner that I had taken a detour (Which ended up being 1 1/3 mile round trip).
My average pace per mile time was now up to 8:55. Still no big deal, I really wasn't bothered because this was still just a fun long run I was on. I did dial up the effort a bit and before long I was passing people again. Sure it was the same people I had been passing before - but we were all having fun.
I now had no idea how many people were in front of me - so I thought that it would be fun to just see how many I could pass, all the while trying to maintain the steady pace - which I had got down to an 8:50 average by the time I hit the dam road (with 5 1/2 miles to go).
I was still running comfortably, eating my fig newtons and swedish fish (my new favorite running fuels) and every now and then I would come up and pass someone. Many of the people I passed would ask if I had already had passed them - and I replied that yes I had, but had taken a detour - "the reservoir was supposed to be on our right, right?"
We continued on, going through about a mile or two of burn scars - sad - but some low level vegetation was starting to grow back. Still running through water and mud, I was in a great mood and this kind of running is a lot of fun to me.
As we neared the end of the lap of the lake and turned onto the 1 1/3 mile long road section back to the start, I saw another runner about a half minute ahead of me. Good, someone to try to pace off and catch. I was still at 8:50 average and felt good - so I put my head down and gradually began to reel her in.
But she was determined, cause she had seen other runners ahead and was chasing them. I eventually caught up to her, but in the process we both passed 4 other runners in that last stretch. As I caught them I actually got faster and dropped the average per mile a couple of seconds.
Crossing the finish line in 2 hours 17 minutes - taking about 8 minutes off my previous time that I had run the race. Surprisingly I had managed to pass about 2 dozen people after my detour and ended up in 10th place overall. My first top ten finish ever that I can remember. Sure if I didn't get myself lost I might of actually come in 5th or 6th - but I really didn't care.
It was a fun, muddy, long run that I had completed while maintaining the same steady pace throughout. Goal achieved. Plus I got to see a bit more of Colorado in my 15.6 miles - along with some startled turkeys out for a Sunday morning stroll.
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| Photo: Tom Dewane |
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Falcon Trail - clockwise PR
Soggy conditions underfoot this morning - but I love running in this weather - if I am wearing enough clothes. I thought today I was wearing too much, by the time I was done. I was soaked from head to foot and mud socks were in full effect also.
I went clockwise and wanted to get after it - but was actually feeling a little sluggish throughout much of the run. I think that is likely a result of a lot of miles under the belt in the last few weeks. Conditions probably slowed me down a little bit too - but not too much.
Stream crossings were much higher than I have seen before, one was even an inch over a bridge. Fortunately the trails are mostly sand and granite - rather than mud - so not a lot of sticking to the bottom of the shoes.
60:53 to the half way point, which is faster than I have done before, but in order to PR an overall fastest time I needed to be under 60 minutes. I had some good reserves in the tank though and pushed the second half and finished with a 1:53:55.
That's a new clockwise PR - about 4 minutes faster than my previous best, and 65 seconds off an overall PR. So I am happy with the effort and the result.
I went clockwise and wanted to get after it - but was actually feeling a little sluggish throughout much of the run. I think that is likely a result of a lot of miles under the belt in the last few weeks. Conditions probably slowed me down a little bit too - but not too much.
Stream crossings were much higher than I have seen before, one was even an inch over a bridge. Fortunately the trails are mostly sand and granite - rather than mud - so not a lot of sticking to the bottom of the shoes.
60:53 to the half way point, which is faster than I have done before, but in order to PR an overall fastest time I needed to be under 60 minutes. I had some good reserves in the tank though and pushed the second half and finished with a 1:53:55.
That's a new clockwise PR - about 4 minutes faster than my previous best, and 65 seconds off an overall PR. So I am happy with the effort and the result.
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