Coming Clean: Reflections on the Second Half of a Disappointing Running 2014
It was a challenging second half of 2014, you might say. So much so I didn't have the heart to sit down and compose a blog post. Till now. After hopefully taking some small steps to right the ship and get back on track the last few months. So in the hopes that you can learn something even (mostly?) from the low moments, some parting thoughts on a year that I'm glad to have behind me in terms of major disappointments.
Bighorn 100 DNF in June: I was doing well through maybe mile 35, not far off last year's finishing pace. Not fabulous, but solid. When suddenly I just really lost energy and leg drive moving up beyond The Narrows aid station into the early hours of darkness, and then from there just really couldn't get anything back on through the night and up to the turnaround at Jaws at 48. I just bled time and got passed by lots of folks and lost faith and hope. I seriously contemplated just dropping at Jaws, knowing a finish was very unlikely, but I thought I'd give it a shot after eating well there. I hoped maybe the downhills would rejuvenate the legs. But when I couldn't generate a decent pace going back down to Bear Camp, I knew it would be a long slog back to Footbridge at 66 where I'd be timed out. In the end I was over an hour off that cutoff.
What went wrong? A few factors come to mind. First, I didn't feel as confident about my training going in, and felt a little under-raced. The weather-shortened Jemez meant all I had was a couple 50k's the last two months before the race. Second, I think maybe I was too stingy with the calories in trying the "small frequent bites" and Vespa fueling system. I think maybe I was getting only 150-200 per hour and 200-250 was more appropriate. I think also as I needed more I was maybe getting less as I absent-mindedly ate less often as the race wore on. Third, the pack change at Footbridge out was foolish, as it caused me to forget to switch my meds bag, meaning I didn't have my caffeine tablets and NSAIDs, which I take routinely every 5-6 hours. It took many hours to get caffeine at an aid station, and I didn't have a chance to bum any Advil or Tylenol till Jaws. I tried to convince myself it was all a mental thing and I could do without, but I think it got into my head just as much as not having the boost when I needed it affected me physically. Fourth, was I experiencing any altitude issues? Nothing overt, though I was struggling by an elevation I'd already been at early in the race. I still wonder what influence that may have had.
Summer training and Catoctin 50K: I only took a week after Bighorn, but eased back into training for a few weeks. The one tuneup race I could find on the path to Wasatch (which I'd gotten into last winter in the lottery) that worked in the travel schedule as Catoctin in late July, 5 weeks from Bighorn and 6 before Wasatch. The second half didn't go well. Things cascaded--I realized as I neared the turnaround of this out and back that the course was substantially long. Then I missed a turn which cost me the better part of a mile. And I slowed down. I was getting passed a lot. As I was starting to get it back together, I missed another turn along with a couple folks, this time led astray by someone who said they knew the course. At least I was able to kick it up a notch the last couple and finish like third to last. My time was about an hour and 15 minutes off my time there 5 or so years earlier, which was not encouraging.
I thought the August training went fairly well. A 10 hourish effort at Bear Mountain. A couple of mountain runs in Mexico. But I probably could have used a really vertical 50k, a session at Tammany, more vertical treadmill work, and I wished I'd gone ahead with the Catskill Escarpment training run I was planning. Turns out you can't get enough vertical training with Wasatch.
Wasatch DNF: Here the wheels fell off earlier, in the 20s, exacerbated by having to backtrack to figure out which way to go at a tricky run. My breathing started to feel very labored and I felt like I had nothing on the long climbs. I got it together briefly coming into 34, but a few miles later knew my chances of making the cutoff at 52 were evaporating. I sort of went into "get me to the next cutoff" survival mode. Things were made a little worse by not having a strong enough headlamp for that section and wasting time at another junction, unsure which way to go and waiting for the next runner.
What went wrong? Altitude, altitude, altitude! I really think for this one I'd want to acclimatize for a few days if doing it again. Ideally, it would have been good to get back from Mexico fewer days before the race to have some of those acclimatization benefits still in the system. Some of the training and prep stuff also may have factored into being not in 110% shape. And I think I may have been too sparing with calories again. In the end, I think I'd have to run a pretty perfect race and have some recent big mountain high-quality races/runs in my system to stand a chance. It's the single toughest race I've ever attempted (and beautiful). A many-time finisher whom I ran with for a while (and who helped me make that tricky turn) did make it to mile 94---I take some solace from that, with a sense it is doable.
Silly Mountain Madness DNF: From DNFing on one of the toughest courses out there at 100 miles to DNF'ing in your backyard at a garden-variety 50k....c'mon, get real, Scott!
Bighorn 100 DNF in June: I was doing well through maybe mile 35, not far off last year's finishing pace. Not fabulous, but solid. When suddenly I just really lost energy and leg drive moving up beyond The Narrows aid station into the early hours of darkness, and then from there just really couldn't get anything back on through the night and up to the turnaround at Jaws at 48. I just bled time and got passed by lots of folks and lost faith and hope. I seriously contemplated just dropping at Jaws, knowing a finish was very unlikely, but I thought I'd give it a shot after eating well there. I hoped maybe the downhills would rejuvenate the legs. But when I couldn't generate a decent pace going back down to Bear Camp, I knew it would be a long slog back to Footbridge at 66 where I'd be timed out. In the end I was over an hour off that cutoff.
What went wrong? A few factors come to mind. First, I didn't feel as confident about my training going in, and felt a little under-raced. The weather-shortened Jemez meant all I had was a couple 50k's the last two months before the race. Second, I think maybe I was too stingy with the calories in trying the "small frequent bites" and Vespa fueling system. I think maybe I was getting only 150-200 per hour and 200-250 was more appropriate. I think also as I needed more I was maybe getting less as I absent-mindedly ate less often as the race wore on. Third, the pack change at Footbridge out was foolish, as it caused me to forget to switch my meds bag, meaning I didn't have my caffeine tablets and NSAIDs, which I take routinely every 5-6 hours. It took many hours to get caffeine at an aid station, and I didn't have a chance to bum any Advil or Tylenol till Jaws. I tried to convince myself it was all a mental thing and I could do without, but I think it got into my head just as much as not having the boost when I needed it affected me physically. Fourth, was I experiencing any altitude issues? Nothing overt, though I was struggling by an elevation I'd already been at early in the race. I still wonder what influence that may have had.
Summer training and Catoctin 50K: I only took a week after Bighorn, but eased back into training for a few weeks. The one tuneup race I could find on the path to Wasatch (which I'd gotten into last winter in the lottery) that worked in the travel schedule as Catoctin in late July, 5 weeks from Bighorn and 6 before Wasatch. The second half didn't go well. Things cascaded--I realized as I neared the turnaround of this out and back that the course was substantially long. Then I missed a turn which cost me the better part of a mile. And I slowed down. I was getting passed a lot. As I was starting to get it back together, I missed another turn along with a couple folks, this time led astray by someone who said they knew the course. At least I was able to kick it up a notch the last couple and finish like third to last. My time was about an hour and 15 minutes off my time there 5 or so years earlier, which was not encouraging.
I thought the August training went fairly well. A 10 hourish effort at Bear Mountain. A couple of mountain runs in Mexico. But I probably could have used a really vertical 50k, a session at Tammany, more vertical treadmill work, and I wished I'd gone ahead with the Catskill Escarpment training run I was planning. Turns out you can't get enough vertical training with Wasatch.
Wasatch DNF: Here the wheels fell off earlier, in the 20s, exacerbated by having to backtrack to figure out which way to go at a tricky run. My breathing started to feel very labored and I felt like I had nothing on the long climbs. I got it together briefly coming into 34, but a few miles later knew my chances of making the cutoff at 52 were evaporating. I sort of went into "get me to the next cutoff" survival mode. Things were made a little worse by not having a strong enough headlamp for that section and wasting time at another junction, unsure which way to go and waiting for the next runner.
What went wrong? Altitude, altitude, altitude! I really think for this one I'd want to acclimatize for a few days if doing it again. Ideally, it would have been good to get back from Mexico fewer days before the race to have some of those acclimatization benefits still in the system. Some of the training and prep stuff also may have factored into being not in 110% shape. And I think I may have been too sparing with calories again. In the end, I think I'd have to run a pretty perfect race and have some recent big mountain high-quality races/runs in my system to stand a chance. It's the single toughest race I've ever attempted (and beautiful). A many-time finisher whom I ran with for a while (and who helped me make that tricky turn) did make it to mile 94---I take some solace from that, with a sense it is doable.
Silly Mountain Madness DNF: From DNFing on one of the toughest courses out there at 100 miles to DNF'ing in your backyard at a garden-variety 50k....c'mon, get real, Scott!
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