Preparing for Mohican Trail 100 Mile Run

T minus 5 days until the Mohican 100.

Ok, so I'm kind of nervous... Actually, my emotions switch back and forth from being nervous as hell to complete panic mode to spurts of confidence.

Ultimately, I know I've trained as hard as I could have trained with out pushing myself to injuries. I'm confident that I can do the mental aspect of it. I'm also confident that my body can do the physical aspect of it. I guess I'm nervous about all the things that are outside of my control: Will it be scorching hot? Will the night be too chilly? Will my stomach cooperate? Will I get lost (new course)? Will my girls be at the finish line? What about blisters? Chaffing? Dehydration? Sleep deprivation? Hallucinations? etc...

Then I yell at myself: SHUT UP!

I can only trust that the training I've done up to this point will allow my body to finish. I can also put trust in knowing that I'm a stubborn mule when it comes to finishing something that I've set my mind to accomplish. I push myself too hard sometimes, and I think it is for this reason that I love running ultra marathons. Go hard or go home.

My Training
These last two weeks have been my taper weeks, so I've not run hardly at all. Usually I hate taper weeks, because I just want to get out and run. However, this time I was actually looking forward to it... I was starting to get burnt out trying to find time for my runs and planning my weekends around my long runs. In my peak weeks, I was running 50 - 60 miles a week. That's more than I've ever done before. I felt strong on those weeks, but was ready to bring the mileage back down.

My family has been doing my training with me. While I'm out on my runs, Jennifer's at home with the girls. I didn't feel so guilty when she was out on the town with the girls, because I wouldn't have to just up and leave while we're all sitting around enjoying each others company (yes, we actually do enjoy each other's company). :P I do feel sometimes that I've had to separate myself from the family a bit while training for this race. It's the one thing that I don't like so much about ultra marathon training. I'm sure there are ways that I could have fixed them, but ultimately it becomes a part time job. For this, I have to thank Jennifer for putting up with me and all those times that I said, "I'm going to go run". Which meant, "You're on your own for the next 2 hours with the kids". Thanks babe! <3

I did find that running early-early in the morning was the best all around answer for everybody. It helped me get out of bed and got my blood flowing immediately; it was a great way to start the day. I didn't have to try and squeeze my runs into the late morning or early evening hours, which meant they were open for "whatever". However, my biggest problem with early-early running is that I'm a complete night owl. I suffer from a mild case of insomnia. I can lay in bed for hours and be soooo tired, but never sleep. If you've never had this problem, trust me, it sucks! Therefore, running in the morning was hard sometimes because I'd go to bed around 10pm, fall asleep at 2am, and then still try to wake up at 5:30am and run for 2 hours before work. I did this for a while, but it put me into a zombie state after lunch. I must admit though, morning runs are very therapeutic and I will be doing more of them. :)

My Plan of Attack
The only way I can think to break this race down is to run the entire race in 6-7 mile increments. There is an aid station every 6-7 miles, and I know that I can 7 miles in my sleep, even on my worst day. If I keep this mental state throughout the entire run, there's no doubt I'll finish. I'm going to carry two water bottles at first, and then ditch one if it becomes too much of a hassle. I'm going to have a drop bag at the Covered Bridge and at the Start/Finish. In there I'll have fresh socks, vaseline, a thermos of home-brewed coffee, and a few other small things. I trust that the aid stations will have most of the things I would need (bandaids, food, water, etc..).

I'm running in my New Balance Minimus shoes for the entire race. I'm packing my VFF's just in case my body tells me to switch, but I'm leaving my Cascadia's at home. All of my training has been in my VFF's and my NB Minimus (more like running slippers). The fact is that I've not ran in "real shoes" in a long time, and my body has adapted to my new running style. Running in shoes actually hurts. I'm a minimalist runner, and I want to know that I can make the 100 miles as a minimalist runner. The longest distance I've ran in my VFF's was 38 miles. Last fall, I ran Oil Creek 100K in an old pair of Brooks Cascadias, but in hind sight I could have ran in my VFF's just the same. Fear won that decision and I opted for shoes... This year, I'm not letting Fear have a say. (remember: Stubborn Mule)

To make sure that I make it through the hardest miles, I've recruited the best pacer in the World: Jamie Farley. Farley is an up and coming marathon runner from the great state of Michigan. He and I are old college buddies. We are both hard-core metal-head / party animals, turned barefoot trail running geeks. I ran with Farley on his first 1/2 marathon back in September. He rocked it! I told him that if he signed up for it, I'd drive to Michigan and run it with him. He returned that favor and said that if I signed up for the Mohican 100 miler, he'd drive down to Ohio and pace me. Well, here we are! He will be helping me through my "unknown mental state" miles. He's probably going to join me around mile 75 - mile 80. I'm not quite sure who I will be by then, but his job is to keep me awake and focused on the finish line. When I cross the finish line, it will be a direct result of him pushing me and kicking my ass on the trail. Can't wait to run with this guy!

MOHICAN, HERE I COME!

The Untold Virginia Stories

As most of you know, I spent most of April and May in Virginia for work. I missed the family terribly, but got a lot of work done and was actually able to do most of my training with zero guilt of compromising my "family time". It was very much like the time Rocky went to Russia by himself to train for his big fight with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV...

Maybe? :) No, but seriously I did do the grunt of my training while in Virginia and came home about 10 lbs lighter. I ate right, ran hard, worked hard, and stayed busy.

So I guess the purpose of this post is merely to wrap up my time in Virginia. I got to do a lot of fun things, but pretty much stopped posting my experiences at some point. This will be a hodge podge post! Here goes...

Colonial Yorktown
We were very close to the old Yorktown. This place has a lot of history. This is where Cornwallis ultimately surrendered to George Washington in the American Revolution back in the 18th Century. We got to travel to the battle ground and see the mounds. The city has done a great job preserving the area. You could really feel the history there and could almost envision the battle taking place right in front of you.

Here are some pictures from our visit:

Yorktown Pub
If you go to Yorktown, VA... Eat at the Yorktown Pub. It looks like a little hole in the wall (and I guess it is), but it is really good food and has a great environment by the water. We gorged on seafood (I had shark for the first time) and we all drank some local beers from the area. Highly recommended!

Norfolk Naval Port Beauty

This whole area is beautiful. I stayed in Hampton, VA (near Newport News). Norfolk, VA was a few miles south of me, and Yorktown and colonial Williamsburg was a few miles north of me. The Chesapeake Bay was a few miles directly east of where I was. While my immediate location was mostly the business district of Hampton, I had all kinds of beautiful places surrounding me.

One evening we took a bottle of wine and our appetites over to a colleagues house and enjoyed an evening of laughter and delicious food at Ian and Sandra's house. Before dinner, Ian and I took a walk down to a local store to get some more wine and I couldn't believe the beauty of the area. There was literally a HUGE battleship parked about 500 yards from their house. Needless to say, I took a bunch of pictures and soaked in the moment. The sun was going down and the weather was perfect. If I had to live in the city, this is where I would live. Here are some pics to try and put it into perspective (noting: these images do it NO justice):

Haunted Williamsburg, Virginia

On May 13th (ie. Friday the 13th), we took a haunted tour around old Williamsburg, VA. The tour started at 8pm sharp and went into the night. It wasn't as "scary" as I wanted it to be, but I guess I had a different type of "ghost tour" in mind. Our tour guide (Fred I think) took us around the streets and told us of various stories of the area. Yes, people have seen activity in these areas, but (no) we saw no action. :) The tour took about 1.5 hours and we learned quite a bit about the area. Unfortunately (almost a month later), I've forgotten most of the information. :) If you find yourself in Williamsburg, VA and have an open evening, I recommend taking the Haunted Williamsburg Ghost Tour. It was fun and very informative.

Terry Simpkins

One evening last month, we all went to a colleagues house for dinner and drinks. Ok, lots of dinner, and lots of drinks. The gentleman's name is Terry, and his wife's name is Fred (short for Winifred). Terry is one of those guys that when you meet him, you won't soon forget him. His voice is distinct and his character is hard to match. I doubt Terry ever meet a stranger that he didn't like. He's just a great guy and fun to be around. It is always fun to talk with him too because he will bring out some crazy phrases that make you stop and think. Things like: "This thing was no bigger than a pimple on an elephants ass" or "This gal would cut off her nose to spite her face to prove a point". :) These are actual sayings that I heard from this man. He treats everybody with respect and stops what he is doing to help me when I have moments of unclarity with the legacy system I'm coding against... yes he's an old school punch-carder that understands "geek-talk".

Anyway, the reason for his mention here is that he accomplished an amazing feat a few years ago. While we were all sitting on the back porch enjoying his and Fred's company, he began to talk about his "motorcycle ride to the arctic circle" on his Gold Wing. He started in Virginia and drove up across the United States, up to Alaska and into the Arctic circle... Then he stopped for gas, turned around and drove back. Wow! He did all of this to raise awareness for an amazing cause: Inoperable Brain Tumors.

Here was his ride (sorry, camera phone):

There is a story that I found on the internet that tells about it here:

Remembering Matthew: Motorcycle Ride for Awareness

It was neat to hear all of the stories from his trip. He said the Arctic Circle was the scariest part of the trip and he almost laid his bike down with only a few hundred miles of his destination (in the middle of nowhere). That would have been bad. Anyway, I just wanted to share his story, because it fascinated me as an "endurance junkie". I couldn't imagine enduring that much asphalt on two wheels for all those weeks.

Mariners Museum Park

This is a location that was about 7 miles from my hotel. One Saturday morning, I set out to tour the park on my long run. I was scheduled for a 26 mile run. The plan was to run there, explore for 12 miles, then run back. Of course, I picked the hottest day of my stay to do this. The run to get to the park was mostly busy roads. I was able to run along a paved path for about 2 miles, but after that, I was dodging oncoming cars and running along grassy embankments to avoid getting hit.

Of course when I got to the park, it was all worth it! The entrance alone was worth it:

Once inside the park, I found the 5 mile loop that weaves in and out through a cacoon of trees alongside the lake. The entire loop was padded with crushed limestone, so my VFF's were a perfect choice. The trail was exactly what I'd hoped it to be.

Along the loop there were about 15 total bridges. Some were more extravagant than others, but each had their own beauty that let them sit right into the trail. I'm very happy that I was able to see this park before I left Virginia. Thanks for the recommendation Terry. :)

Here are some random pics that I took on my run:

Conclusion

I had a great time in Virginia. A lot of work got done, and I was able to see what it is like to live out of a hotel. :) I kind of liked it, but at the same time it was boring and mundane. I couldn't imagine how horrible it would have been had I not been able to come home those two times in the middle of the 6 - 7 week stay. Virginia is a beautiful place and I'm very grateful that my job has allowed me to travel there to work with such great people.

Springing Back Into Minimalist Running

Get it? Spring?... :P No, but I've dropped the heavy shoes again, and I'm a 100% minimalist runner.

It's been a little over 2 weeks since I've switched back to my VFF's and my New Balance Minimus shoes. My feet and legs didn't miss a beat over the winter months. I've not been suffering from the lower leg pains that I experienced last year when I started running in my VFFs. Muscle memory at work here, I'm assuming. (?)

This past Friday, I took an 8 mile fun run with my buddy Eric @ Dillon State park. On this run, my new Minimus shoes gave me some nasty blisters due to the fact that I didn't wear any socks and we sloshed through some mud early into the run. When the shoes came off, I had some bright-shiny blisters on the tips of my middle 3 toes on both feet, and some nasty blisters on my heels from the back of the shoe. I put socks on after that run and had to grin-n-bear it the rest of the evening.

On Saturday morning, I met my good buddy Farley up at Mohican and we ran the Orange loop (15 miles).

Due to my tender blisters, I decided to break out the old black VFF KSO Treks that I got over a year ago. They have 500+ miles on them, and they stink like hell. They're falling apart but they are still amazingly comfortable. I glided through the forrest and only kicked a few roots and rocks on this run. Farley wore his Merrell Trail Gloves and had nothing but great things to say about them. They looked pretty comfortable and he claims that they are indeed extremely comfortable.

Side Note: Remember the last time I met with Farley, we ran into a fellow named "Last Place Jason". Farley recognized him from the Huaraches Google Group, and we stood around and talked to him for a few minutes after the race. At that time, we only knew him as "Last Place Jason". He was (and still is) a huge advocate of barefoot running and all things "minimalist". Anyway, (long story short) it turns out that he recently became the official spokesperson for Merrell Barefoot running. Oh and he has a real name too: it is Jason Robillard. :) I thought it was pretty cool to see a true success story from a great guy.

Check out some of his work on the Merrell Barefoot Training site.



Anyway, back to the Mohican run, this was the farthest that Farley has ever ran, and he rocked it like a trail pro. I think he has the taste for Mohican running now. :) It's quite addictive. He stated that most of his runs are flat, road runs around his neighborhood. This was an insanely hilly, single track trail that weaved in and out of trees and up and down hills the whole time. He admitted that he was a bit concerned after the first 2 miles. Of course, the first two miles of this run was all uphill and pretty slow going. However, once we got to the top of the hill and settled into a nice pace, our conversation allowed the time to pass pretty fast. I totally enjoyed this run and can't wait to run with "Brother Farley" again soon.

My Mohican Marathon

Today I ran my longest training run of the year. I ran my very own private marathon at Mohican State Park. This was my last (and longest) training run before the 2010 Indian Run 60k, in 2 weeks.

The night before, I headed to Newark and called my buddy Dan to see if he wanted to join me on a night run. He was in town for the weekend so we met up and ran 7.5 miles around the west end of Newark with our headlamps. I wore my VFF's even though my feet were still pretty bruised from last weekends run @ Mohican.

This morning, I woke up around 5am and got everything ready to head up to Mohican. Due to my bruised feet, and painful stroll around Newark last night, I decided to run in my Brooks Cascadia 5 shoes today. I've only wore them 2 or 3 times this summer, so they still kind of have the new smell. I used my CamelBak since I was going to be running solo and didn't feel like dropping water at various locations.

The plan was to park at the covered bridge and keep a gallon of water in my car for refills as I came back through off of each loop. I made it to Mohican State Park around 7am and found that the covered bridge was still under construction. This forced me to drive around the construction to the back side of the bridge and drop a gallon of water. Due to the construction, I decided to focus all of my running on the Orange loop. This little "water drop" detour took me about 30 minutes.

I made it back to the campground A parking lot and started running towards the covered bridge. This was a 4 mile run along the river. It was very early in the morning and the river had a nice fog hovering over it. It was very relaxing! When I made it to the covered bridge, I didn't fill up my CamelBak, because I hardly used any water after only 4 miles. I simply turned around and headed back to the campground A parking lot for a total of 8 miles.

When I got back to the car, I packed a bunch of nutrition bars for my 15 mile loop around the orange loop. I headed up the switchbacks along RT 3, and took a relaxing stroll through the woods. I came upon a few mountain bikers and hikers along here, and nothing too adventurous happened. I just let my mind wander from thought to thought as I shuffled over the roots and rocks.

I made it to Hickory Ridge and kept on moving. I didn't even stop to get some fuel or anything, I just strolled right on through. Somewhere after here, I turned on my iPod and listened to some music. It helped me to pick up the pace a little bit. It's amazing how music can take your mind off of the mundane "left, right, left, right". I had a few startling moments as bikers would come up behind me and yell right before they got to me. I think I yelled at one dude (politely of course) about it. It would be much better if you yell when you see me up the trail rather than waiting until you get 4 feet behind me and say "COMING THROUGH".

Towards the end of the Orange loop I ran into a Mohican runner named Ron, but I forget his last name. I'd seen him at various races here at Mohican, and we were both wearing our "Forget The PR 50K" shirts. We looked like twins. :) We traded greetings and kept on moving; he was going the opposite direction anyway. I made my way down the backside of the Orange loop to my gallon jug of water and filled up my CamelBak. It was pretty low by this point and the warm, crisp water tasted great actually. I decided to crush the gallon jug and stick it in my backpack so that I didn't have to drive all the way back around just to pick it up.

Now it was on to run along the river one last time. I'm sure the campers thought I was crazy, as I saw most of them early in the morning as they were creeping out of there tents, and here I was still running around by myself in the mid-day heat. The good thing about running this river section 3 times today is that it's no longer a sore spot for me to run along the river. I used to always dread this section because it's so technical and slow at spots and the North Rim Trail is a killer. It's no longer a bad section for me and I forced myself to appreciate it today. :)

When I got back to the car, I chugged some gatorade, ate some of my packed lunch (PB & J, Cheez-Its, Granolla bars, etc..). I was at mile 23 or so by this point, so I had 2 miles to go. My goal today was to run 25 miles... I then got to thinking, why not just make it a marathon!? I thew my CamelBak on again and headed down to Campground A. On my way down there, I saw Ron walking through the campgrounds as it looked like he was pretty well spent from his run today. I slowed down and walked with him for about a mile. He took me on a path I'd never been on before. It was great! We traded stories and talked about various things. It's amazing how many people we both knew, and even more amazing that we'd never (officially) met one another until today.

Around mile 25, I told him I was going to head back to my car and call it a day. I did just that. My walked turned into a jog and I jogged the last 1.5 miles back to my car to a make it a full marathon. I actually ran 26.24 miles, so if you want to get politically correct, I ran an Ultra Marathon today. :) Time to taper...

Red/Green Loop at Mohican

Yesterday was my longest long run of the season since my Forget The PR 50K. That race put me in a hospital boot for a week due to my poor approach to being a "minimalist" runner. Basically I had got my VFF's, decided I was going to run in them, and did. I didn't do any of the prep work that went into transitioning from a shoed runner to a barefoot runner; I just did it. Oops.

Anyway, I had trained all summer in my VFF's and it has really changed the way I run. I'm still slow, but I'm a more elegant slow now. I now land on my forefeet and watch my every step. I now lean forward with my ankles after Dan told me about some "Chi Running" book (which I still need to read). I really believe that I can run farther and less strenuous in my VFF's than I ever could in my shoes. Yesterday was my day to prove this point.

Dan (ma dood) was gonna run with me on this run. I had sent around an email earlier in the week to invite other runners, but nobody responded except for Dan. I decided to arrive at Mohican a little early so that I could drop water at Rock Point and and a few other areas. I got to the area around 7:15am and went looking for where I thought Rock Point might be. I drove around for about 20 minutes and then ran into Rob, Michelle, and Terry & Mark Lemke. I asked how to get to Rock Point and Rob told me that I was pretty much off course. He gave me directions and I started heading that way. About that time, Dan called me and said that he tried to get down to the Covered Bridge, but it was blocked off. I told him to meet me at Bridle Staging area, so I headed there to meet him. By this time it was around 8am. Dan and I drove to Rock Point to drop water, then to the Fire Tower and again where the Green loop crosses over RT97.

Old pic, but I didn't have a camera today

We got back to the Bridle Staging area around 8:20am and started our 21 mile journey through the woods. This was the first time I'd been on the "official" Red loop in a very long time. I think the last time I was on this was when I ran with Nick, Bret, and Luca sometime last spring. I forgot how cool this loop was. We did the river crossings and the water was pretty low on most all of them. The last water crossing was pretty deep and Dan tried to keep from getting his feet wet. It backfired and he actually got more wet than I did, but he spent more time doing it. :)

We arrived at Rock Point and chugged our water. Dan fixed his feet for a few minutes, then we began on the Green loop. The last time I ran the "official" green loop was at last years 50 miler. We ran into a few horseback riders and a few donkey riders as well. :) It got pretty sketchy after crossing RT97. We made our way up the hill after the road crossing and then trekked down some gravel roads to the "big hill". This is where I got a little turned around. I wasn't sure exactly which way to go, so we ventured down each of them only to realize that I STILL didin't know which way to go. We picked one and stuck with it and it turned out to be pretty close (if not exactly correct?), for we were able to make our way back to the FireTower after some long journeys along the gravel roads.

I must pause and mention that VFF's and large gravel rocks don't get along too well. My feet are pretty bruised today from walking on the gravel for so long. I'm sure Dan was a little frustrated as to how slow I had to move through here, but I (truly) couldn't go any faster. Each step hurt pretty bad. This is the one downfall to my VFF's and I may have to do some research to see if there is going to be many gravel roads at Oil Creek. If so, I may need to incorporate my Cascadia's on some of the sections...

After the FireTower, Dan and I were pretty spent. The heat was getting to us and we were drenched in sweat. Luckily the water that we dropped at the FireTower was still pretty cold so we took turns dumping it on each others head. It was so cold that it actually took my breath as it hit my neck. It definitely helped and I could feel my core cooling down after this. I'm sure the people that were playing football there thought we were quite the spectacle. :)

We journeyed from the FireTower down to the Covered Bridge and I had to hobble over more gravel through here. After the gravel sections, I was able to run, but it was a slow-go on each service road we came to. It kind of sucked actually. Regardless, we made it to the covered bridge and kept right on trucking up the road to the beginning of the Red loop. The Green loop was officially conquered and now we just had to tie up our loose ends on the Red loop. It was a 3-4 mile jog (uphill) to the Bridle staging area.

We journeyed up the hill and had to pause every now and then to allow the Mountain bikers to pass us. We did that about 7-8 times and then we were able to split off of the mountain bike trail and onto the horse trails. The horse trail was a bit more steep, but we weren't surprised by fast riding mountain bikers anymore; a welcomed change. We made our way to the section that follows RT97 back to the Bridle Staging area and I had gotten a 3rd (maybe 4th) wind. I picked it up a bit, even though the balls of my feet were pretty bruised from those damned rocks. We got back to the car with 20.37 miles. I think I did screw up the course somewhere before the FireTower, but I didn't care at this point. :) Our map can be found on my BuckeyeOutdoors.com.

Upon arriving at the cars, I toweled off my sweat, changed my clothes and then we sat in the shade to chug some Gatorade and gorge on some cold Pizza. Thank you, Dan!!

Buckeye Outdoors Plugin Update

If you are a user of BuckeyeOutdoors.com, then you should know that there is a new update to the SportTracks Plugin. Ben and I met last night and fixed many of the problems that have been reported by users over the last couple of months.

Last night's fixes include the following:

Timeout Issue is Fixed
There were many cases where a user would try to sync a workout and the program would throw an exception that says it timed out. This was fixed.

Invalid Category is more forgiving now
We had a slew of users reporting errors to the list that said the category was Invalid. You would get this error when you would use a category that was not recognized by BuckeyeOutdoors.com. For example, if you had a category inside SportTracks labeled "Hiking"; this is not a valid category on BuckeyeOutdoors and would throw an error.

When this would happen, it would throw a very unforgiving error that would stop the entire sync process and force you to fix it before moving on. Now, you simply get a red X with an error message, but the sync will still continue to process the other workouts.

Start Date Configuration
There were problems displaying the correct StartDate configured by the plugin. While the underlying value may have been set correctly, the display would always show a different date. This issue is now fixed, and the display will always show the correct StartDate that you configured using the plugin settings page.

Overall Plugin Refactor
It should also be known that I updated the underlying architecture of the plugin quite a bit to allow me to begin adding unit tests. For those that don't know what this means, it basically means that I'll be able to catch bugs in the plugin much sooner and much easier. :)

To get the latest version of the plugin, read this post on the ZoneFiveSoftware.com forums. Or you can simply watch this video tutorial: BuckeyeOutdoors Plugin Walkthrough

Four More Days

Four days and counting until the 20th Annual Mohican 100 Trail Run!! Though, I'm only running the 50 miler this year, it's great to be a part of this ultra tradition. I've been tapering for way too long now and I almost feel like I'm untrained after all this non-running. I'll get a few miles in today and a few more Thursday, but nothing too strenuous; I want my legs to stay uber fresh for my race.

The plan for Saturday is to just put one foot in front of the other until I cross the finish line. I'm going to pack everything with me in my CamelPak. This will include a change in socks, my calorie bars, my S! Caps, and various first aid supplies for the dreaded bloody nipples, blisters, chaffing, etc... My goal is to not mess with a drop bag if possible. I had considered packing a drop bag to hold an extra pair of shoes for the final road section, but I think I'm just going to trust the ol' ASICS for the full 50 miles. My biggest fear is that the change in the sole contour that late in the race would be more of a problem than a luxury. I don't know though, my mind may change as the date inches closer(?). For now the plan is to go out light and come back even lighter.

I truly can't wait!

The Dreaded Taper

This is my second week of tapering and I usually dread these times because I want to be out running. However, I gotta say it's kind of worked out OK this time. Last week, I got real busy with work and haven't really had time to get out and do any long runs. This last Sunday I forced myself out the door after a long crazy weekend and got in a meezly 6 miles. Tuesday I did 5 miles quick miles and yesterday I did a very (very) slow 3 miles just to get the blood flowing. I'm scheduled for a 7 miler today and will probably do it later this evening. Tomorrow, I'm going to do an easy 5 and then just relax and do no running over the weekend.

Next week, I plan to do two early runs in the week and then let the legs fully rest until Saturday... where I will be putting 50 long miles on them. I ain't scurred either! I'm actually excited to see how bad it's going to hurt. As my Dad says, "I must be a glutton for pain." :)

Good luck to all of my friends that will be running the full 100 miles!

Trained

I’m as trained as I’m going be for my first 50 miler in 3 weeks. Yesterday, I met Nick up at Mohican for 30+ miles of hardcore hills (my longest training run ever). We met at 7am with no cars in the parking lot but ours, and off we went. Be sure to read Nick’s story about his experiences with the Mohican hippie’s. :)

We started on the Red / Green loop very slow and kept a nice steady pace up the hills. I’ve done part of the Red loop before and part of the Green loop before, but have never ran either loop the full distance. The Red loop is 8 miles and the Green loop is 13 miles. I’d heard rumors that the Green loop is the meanest of all the trails at Mohican. I was destined to find out just what that meant today.

What started off to be a very chilly morning, turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day; perfect for running in the woods. I’d told Jennifer that I was going to be running most all day today, so there was no hurry to get back home like I usually do. The Red loop was pretty easy for the most part. My legs were still pretty fresh and my water and fuel intake was going well. By around 9:30 we had hit Rock Point and we started on the Green loop. Immediately I was loving it because this was all going to be “new trails” for me, and I love that!

I really enjoyed these loops. There were a total of (I think) 3 river crossings and the river was cooold each time we crossed. At one point, I had water up past the knee caps and it felt good to give the calves a nice ice soaking as I made my way across. I also got to see how big that darn hill is on the Green loop and… man! It was a big one. Apparently the 100 mile runners will have to make that climb twice; ouch.

Around 12:30, we got back to the covered bridge. 21 miles were in the bag and we just had another 10 or so to go before calling it a day. Both Nick and I had empty stomachs and were drained of energy. Therefore, we hoped in the Jeep and headed up to McDonalds for some gorging. On our way back, Nick drove me through the road sections of the 50 mile course and I couldn’t believe how much road we’ll be running on; ~20 miles. It helped to see the road sections, because I decided to bring my old Cascadia 3’s for the road sections since they are on some pretty rocky roads. I’m going to set a drop bag at the first aid station inside the forest and switch to my ASICS trail shoes. I’m going to set another drop bag at the aid station outside of the forest for my 10 mile road trek back to the finish line with fresh socks.

After we got back from McDonalds, we headed up the Orange loop (one of my favorites). Instead of doing the full 15, we did a 10 mile version of it to get in 31 miles. I finished the day around 4:30 and headed home for some yummy burgers on the grill that Jennifer had cooked. My legs were pretty sore the rest of the evening, which means that the run was a great training run. I gorged at the dinner table, chugged two huge glasses of rich chocolaty milk and then chilled on the recliner the rest of the night with Daizi while Jen ran to town for the evening.

26.2 Miles of Training Today

I ran a marathon today. Only it was a training run, not an actual race. I'm preparing for my first 50 miler next month at Mohican! Today was scheduled for a 22 mile run, but I turned it into a 26.2 mile run instead since my week was crazy with work and I missed a 4 miler earlier in the week.


Actually, there was a big (loosly) organized set of training runs at Mohican this weekend for all the runners, and I had planned on going up yesterday morning. I'd looked forward to it all week, but the way that my week unfolded, there was no way I was going to make it up to Mohican early Saturday morning. Instead, I just ran a nice 4 miler yesterday and then did my epic run today.

When I woke at 11:30 am, this morning, I knew that it would have been very selfish to take off out the door and miss the day with my girls, so I planeed to hang out with them til about 5pm then do my run into the night. As it turned out, I didn't get to spend much time with them anyway, because I went to a friends house to help her with a computer problem. I tried to take the girls with me, but Jennifer insisted that they were fine here at the house with her.

I took off out the door at exactly 5pm. With me, I had my Camelbak loaded with 2 liters of icy cold water, I had both of my water bottles full of Gatorade, and a whole bunch of calories in my pockets and in the backpack. From my house I went to Marie Hickey Trail (2 miles), and did a single loop around it including Oak Knobb Trail (2.5 miles), then headed back down the road (1.5 miles) to Canal Lock Trail (0.4 miles). After Canal Lock Trail, I ran to the Blackhand Gorge bike path (0.4 miles) and ran the entire 4.25 miles to the end. Along the way, I ran Quarry Rim Trail (0.6 miles) and Chestnut Trails (2.0 miles). By the time that I had gotten to the end of the bike path, my watch was showing 12 miles.

At this point, I was feeling fine. Both of my gatorades were empty, so I was just carrying empty water bottles, and my Camelbak was still about 1/2 full. The sun was on it's way down, so I stopped for a minute and pulled out my reflective gear and my head lamp since I was going to be going through some wooded trails on my way back through. I had lost my bandanna somewhere around mile 7 and I was going to back track a bit to see if I could find it laying on the ground. The headlamp got turned on about mile 15 as I was entering Quarry Rim trail again. I was very happy that I had remembered to pack my headlamp because it got D.A.R.K. once I got into the woods again.

From the bike path, I ran back to my house. My bandanna is lost, but I'm going to take a quick 2 miler back down to Canal Lock trail tomorrow to see if I can't find it. Anyway! Whatever!! So when I walked in the back door, my watch was reading 18.78 miles, which meant I still had 7.42 miles to go before I was done. I came in the back door and Jennifer warmed me up a quick cheeseburger that she had cooked on the grill, and filled up my water bottles for me. I love her! I was in the house for about 2 minutes total and started up the hill with 1/4 of a cheeseburger hanging out of my mouth. I grabbed my iPod while she was warming up my burger so at least I had some tunes to help the last few miles go by faster.

The remaining miles were all done around the loop that I keep nicely cut on the back of my property, and is strictly for running purposes. :) It's about a 0.18 mile loop, so I have to run around it about 6 times for a mile... Which, by my calculations, means that I ran in circles a lot. :) When I was done, I was (still am as of right now) pretty well spent. The entire run took me about 6.5 hours and I did a lot of (fast) walking towards the end. I know that today's run, including the fast walking, will prove to be very valuable on June 21st.

To sum this post up, today was the longest training run I've ever done. I feel kind of cheated that I don't have a shirt, a plaque, or a medallion to show for it, but that's part of the package I guess. :) Next weekend, I plan to go up to Mohican and run my first ULTRA training run. I'm looking to do 30 miles and then begin my 2 week taper for the race. I'm actually excited about running these long distances. You wouldn't beleive how much code I figure out in my head on these runs. :)

Running the Trails at Salt Fork State Park

Yesterday I met up with my running buddy, Kim at Salt Fork State Park for a trail run. We had a blast and only got turned around once. The agenda was to go out and do 18 miles then come home and relax. The day didn't quite unfold that way though. We ended the run with a nice, slow paced 14 miler and great trail fun instead. Kim posted an entry about the run as well, so be sure to check it out.

I left the house at 6:15 am to meet up with Kim by 7am. As it turned out, the 40+ mile drive turned out to be a little over an hour and I was fashionably late. I made sure everything was ready by the time I got there (watch on, gel packs in pockets, sweat rag, etc..). That way I could just hop out and take off when the car was parked. As it turned out, Kim didn’t care, she was still getting ready anyway.

It was pretty windy and a little chilly starting off, but once we got moving it was absolutely perfect weather for running. About 1 mile into the trail, Kim stated that she left her Garmin on the car. She is so laid back; I would have spazzed out and sprinted back to the car in fear that someone would have taken it. She impressed me with her “eh… so what” attitude. :) She set it on her hood to let the GPS sync with the satellites and then when we took off, she forgot it. Luckily we had my Garmin so we could keep track of our mileage and time.

The first section was all bridle trails and there was a lot of mud. The feet got wet immediately and it was a lot of slow stepping through this section. It was a great way to start a long run (slow and muddy). Love it! After the bridle trails we made our way to the hiking trails. The ground was a bit more firm through here and it was mostly running through the woods.

Salt Fork trails are absolutely beautiful. We ran through some nice hilly areas and it was picture perfect scenery every way we looked. The best part was when we ran beside the lake. I had no idea Salt Fork Lake was that big. It helped that the skiers and speed boats weren’t out yet, as it really added to the vibe having a calm lake that early in the morning.

As we were making our way through the trails, we kept coming up on the “purple loop” which led us both to believe that there is a main jugular trail that goes through all of the little side trails. That’s a pretty cool feature if you ask me. It would allow us to eliminate all the road running and just stay in the woods. Maybe next time we could test that theory.

About 9 miles into our run, I needed to refill on my water bottle so we stopped at one of the campground restrooms. This is where entered our time warp. We started back down the road a little way and found a path, we were just chatting along and then all the sudden we both recognized a big rock. We stopped for a while and tried to make sense of it, but couldn’t… Then we started heading back up the hill and got to the road. Without knowing yet where we were, we kept heading the same direction (left). Then about 1/4 mile down the road, we realized that we were going the opposite way. Still unsure how it happened, we gave into our senses and turned around. Once we got back to the restrooms we realized what we did and continued on. It’s always an adventure with Kim! :)

I also learned on this run that there have been Big Foot sightings at Salt Fork. That got me looking into the woods a little deeper as I ran once I found that out. Apparently they have bigfoot conferences at Salt Fork once a year and people come from all over the country to talk about Bigfoot. Unfortunately, we didn’t see him… :P However, it was nice to know that we were in good company out there in the wilderness. :) At one point I think we ran across some bigfoot droppings at one point though. That or there was a huge (bigfoot sized) horse that really had to go…

Anyway, we had a great run and I got to run on some new trails. They were all new for Kim too, so it was a double win for the day. When we got back to the cars, Kim’s watch was still on her hood! The good news is that somewhere between 7am and 11:30am her GPS had synced with the satellites. :)

Having great company to run with helps the miles go by so fast. Before I knew it, I was running late back to my house to spend time with the girls. On my way out of the park, I pulled off 5 ticks! 2 were attached and 3 were working their way up my leg. My skin felt like it was crawling all the way back home, but when I got home and in the shower, there were no more.

Perfect Saturday / 50K Sunday

Beautiful Saturday
I had a blast today. Jennifer took Lizzie with her along with her Mom & Morgan to a horse auction in Columbus. I got to keep Daizi and Jazzy at home with me and we all worked in the garage all day. Daizi swang on the swing most of the day and pal'ed around with Jazzy around the farm. It is so cute when they play nice with each other. They did all day today and acted like good friends, instead of siblings. We're lucky to have such good kids.

When I started on the garage at 1pm, it looked like an endless job; it was a complete mess with boxes and crap everywhere. Now it's nice and open with all the crap put where it needed to be. Mom and Dad came over for a bit and I drank a beer with "Pop". I'm anxious to get back to the garage soon and finish it up and start tinkering again. Warm weather does this to me. It's so nice to just crank up the IPod and stay busy while my girls run all around riding their bikes. So long winter!!

Mohican Forget the PR 50K
Tomorrow is my big race day. It's my first ultra of the year and I think I'm well trained for it. I'm not at all nervous about the distance this time. Last year I was so nervous before each of my big races. Mainly because I didn't know how the mileage would act on me, and I had set little goals for each one. I have no goals for this race, other than to have a great time and finish! I feel like I'm well trained and I know what I'm getting my self into. My biggest fear is that I haven't ran since Sunday and my knee has been acting up a bit the last two weeks; even going upstairs and on some days. Believe it or not, I'm almost anxious to just start running though and just ignore it. I know if it get's too bad, I'll just run until its numb. :) It worked on my first marathon (actually, I think it's the same knee??). :O Whatever, it'll be a total stress relief once I get moving tomorrow. I've had a bit of stress this week with a big project I've been working on. I plan to just zone out and put one foot in front of the other until I cross the finish line.


Well, the girls are all fed with nice yummy soup in their tummies, and I'm almost done charging the Garmin, I guess it's time to start thinking about sleep. If only I were tired... I'll probably just go in and lay down in bed with the girls and watch funny videos. I told them that they can sleep in our bed tonight since Jennifer isn't home yet. We're all gonna watch AFV until we fall esleep. They're pretty excited about that. :) The race starts at 7am, and I have a 1.5 hour drive to make tomorrow. This means, that I'll have to wake up early enough to eat a nice relaxing breakfast and drink some coffee before heading out the door. I'll probably set the alarm for 4:00 so that I can make sure I have everything packed and ready to go.

Next post will be my race report. :)

SportTracks Plugin for BuckeyeOutdoors.com

Hot off the Press!
The BuckeyeOutdoors.com Plugin for SportTracks is now available for download!

This was a project that Ben (the BuckeyeOutdoors.com admin) and I started almost a year ago. It started off as a cool concept that Ben's online users wanted. Ben posted a message on his forums asking for help, I then found his post requesting a .NET geek and responded... the rest is history. We quickly realized we both went to the same school, we graduated a year apart. We've been developing this plugin at various bars and coffee shops all over Columbus ever since. :) What a small world!

Here is a quick video that I put together to show you how it works:


[Full Screen]

Who Should Download this Plugin?
Here are some bullet points that may help you decide if you are a good candidate for this plugin:

• Do you have a GPS watch (ie. Timex, Garmin, Suunto, etc..)?
• Do you like to share your workouts and/or routes with your friends?
• Do you hate entering the same information twice?
• Are you tired of dealing with the canned applications that ship with your GPS watch?

If you answered yes to ANY of the above, then you should check it out. If you use SportTracks for your training application, or if you use BuckeyeOutdoors.com as your online training log, then you should absolutely checkout this plugin.

What is SportTracks?
SportTracks is the one stop shop for everything about training (whether you're a cyclist, swimmer, runner, etc..). If you don't use SportTracks then I highly recommend that you check it out. I found out about this application from my blogging buddy, Jamie (the MaineRunner). Since he turned me on to it, I've never looked back. One of the key features of this application that I discovered very quickly was that it offered the ability to install plugins for it. The app was written in .NET and the creator of this application was brilliant enough to open up the API to allow geeks (like myself) to interface with every aspect of the data. The result is literally a framework for interacting with anything and everything about your workouts and outdoor activities.

What is BuckeyeOutdoors.com?
BuckeyeOutdoors.com is an online social networking site and a FREE training log site that is creatively designed to help you:

• Be flexible by supporting all types of Endurance sports and methods of training.
• Track your progress with precise reports and graphs.
• Track your diet and hydration with our database of foods.
• Design your own INTERACTIVE Training Plan or import others.
• Form your own Community TEAM and stay in touch with fellow trainees no mater where they are
• Create and share your own favorite training routes or easily confirm your distances.
• Meet online within our Forum or use the Find a Friend Feature to see who is training at your level.
• Post your training and race data on your favorite Blog site with Sidebars.

There are no catches or strings attached! BuckeyeOutdoors.com is just a site that was built to give back to the online community!

Conclusion
Please check the BuckeyeOutdoors.com Plugin that we've created. If you do download it and use it, please provide feedback (good or bad)!

Mohican Training Run

I had another great run at Mohican yesterday. Nick and I were supposed to meet up and run the Red and Green loop. However, there were a few last minute changes (ask Nick for details) :) and we decided to do "Plan B" and run with the Forget the PR 50k runners. Rob had scheduled a familiarization training run for the runners of the upcoming race. Everything, worked out great, and I was happy we resorted to the Orange loop! I'll probably end up doing Red / Green blindly at the 50 miler this summer. (?)

Michelle, Nick, Sorry?, Paul, Cheryl,
Me, Mark, Rob, Traci (I think), and Don

I knew this was going to be a fun run for me because we were doing the Orange loop backwards. I've ran the Orange loop 3 or 4 times now and I've always run it the other way coming from the Covered Bridge, up and around to Campground A. This time we met at the Campground A area and headed up into the forest to the Covered Bridge. Looking at the map below, we started at the 'Start / Finish', ran to Aid Station #1 (which I missed), then to Aid Station #2, then back to the 'Start / Finish'.


I woke up at 4:30, piddle-farted around in and out of consciousness til about 5:30, when I officially woke up. Of course, I made my coffee. Then I scarfed down a quick bagel and headed up to Mohican. We all met up and started off for the trail at 8:10. Immediately I was right in the middle of the front runners and the "back of the pack" runners. It was kind of nice to be running by myself actually. I mean, I do it all the time, only this time I was at the beautiful and trecherous Mohican running by myself. This run actually built my confidence up and I truly feel I could come up here and run it by myself anytime now; at least the Orange loop. :)

There were a few times where I crossed paths with Nick and I saw Rob once or twice as he was going between the two groups. However, I was not relying on them to tell me where to turn. Typically, I rely on one of them or Kim to keep me on course so I don't get lost. This time, I knew to just follow the signs for "MTB100"; they are posted at most places where the trail splits.

Somehow, I completely missed the Hickory Ridge aid station. I thought I had been running for a too long at one point and knew I had passed it. All the sudden I run up on Nick, and asked him about it. He said it was about 2 miles back. Apparently I turned left when I should have turned right or something. The good news is that I got a little extra distance in. We synced our watches and I had 7.4 miles and he had something like 7.2. Whatever, I didn't need a refill or a break by that point anyway. It felt good to just be out on the trail running.

More time goes by and more trails are consumed. Then, by about about mile 11, I'm starting to bonk. I went reaching for my other gel pack, only to realize I had only brought one gel pack! Unfortunately, I had consumed it at mile 4. I was sure I packed 2, but apparently not. This meant that I had to go 4 more miles with no fuel and I was on empty. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

As I rolled up on the Covered Bridge I saw Nick for the last time and he pointed me to the (obvious) water jugs. :) I filled up my two water bottles and headed down the Hemlock Gorge Trail. This is a beautiful trail that follows the Mohican River for about 2 miles. Absolutely gorgeous... and pretty technical at parts. This meets up with the North Rim Trail which goes along the Camground A site. I think I might have screwed this route up because I remember there being a really steep climb on the end of this section. However, I didn't see that at all on this run. I think I know where I screwed though, so next time I'll be sure to keep going strait instead of turning right. Besides, I was spent on this one anyway and McDonalds was calling my name. :)


After my run, I stood around to talk with Mark Carroll for a while. He and I talked about various races and our goals for 2009. Mark was there on my very first Mohican run (along with Nick, Kim, and Rob). I'll never forget it! I showed up for a 15 mile run with a bunch of people that I'd never met. I had never heard of organized trail runs before that run. The only way I found out about that particular run was because I had subscribed to Trails and Tribulations podcast, and one of the hosts of that show was Kim! Somehow, I found her blog and she posted something about a training run up at Mohican. I thought... what the hell, and the rest is history. It was great to see Mark again. Apparently, we've crossed paths at a few races (Pinckney Trail Marathon & Indian Run 60k) and we didn't know it until afterwards. :) Great seeing you again, Mark!

Before heading home, I stopped at McDonalds and devoured a BigMac value meal in record time. When I got home, Jen and I took the girls up to Blackhand Gorge and we walked 2 miles while the girls rode their bikes. What a perfectly perfect day!

Training Progress and New Shoes

My training is moving forward. This week is proving to be very good, but man... last week was a horrible week of training. I think I accumulated a total of about 20 sloppy miles all together. :(

While I could rattle off a bunch of excuses to myself about why I didn't get them in, the reality was that I simply didn't make time to get out and run, and avoided getting my miles in when I had the free time. I procrastinated until the last possible hour every day and by the middle of the week, I felt overwhelmed. I tried to cram in my miles and this led to a slight pain in my right heal come late Sunday night when I was trying to do my long run. I put my long run off all day on Sunday until it was about 8 pm and the sun was going away for the night. I got my water bottles filled and even went so far as to create a playlist of various podcasts. After I had procrastinated long enough, I headed up to my hill on the back of my property to run in circles for a few hours. About 4.5 miles into my 20 miler, my right heal started hurting really bad, so I listened to my body and hobbled back down to the house. I was pissed at myself because I knew why it hurt; my training was sucking.

So, whatever... I put last week behind me and this week is a new week. On Monday I felt good, so I decided that this week, I'm gonna keep to simple flat surface running to prevent the foot from really getting injured. It's worked as far as I can tell. All this week I avoided the gnarly terrain and focused on just putting one foot in front of the other. I'm back baby. :) One thing I did notice from doing all this pavement pounding is that I'm in need of new shoes again. I know because my knees and hips are yelling at me.

Tonight, I went to FrontRunner and treated myself to a new pair of trail shoes. I tried on all kinds of shoes and decided to get the ASICS Gel-Trabuco® (Black/Onyx/Mustard). It was a toss up between these and the North Face Chin Scrapers. These ones fit the best and had more mesh to let my feet breath. I've never owned a pair of ASICS and I'm surprised at how light and fluffy they feel. :)

FrontRunner Testimonial
Also, I realized tonight that I will be a lifelong customer of FrontRunner. My last 4 pair of trail shoes have all come from here, and each time I go in, my experience is better than the time before. Tonight sealed the deal for me and they will be getting my business as long as I'm buying shoes and as long as they are in business.

Of course, I've tried purchasing my shoes at other running stores, but I always wind up back at FrontRunner. They always take their time with me and custom fit me into the shoe that is perfect for me. It helps that they are all avid runners in there and each of them are extremely knowledgable and outrageously friendly. Last time I went in I met a guy named Mike and he remembed me by name tonight. He said "Yeah, you're Luc the trail guy". I was totally shocked that he remembered me! This time I dealt with an older guy named Kevin and we sat and talked for almost an hour. If you've never been there, I encourage you to give them a try. They're all high class people... Tell them "Luc, the trail guy" sent you. :)

Anyway, I'm anxious to get my new shoes dirty tomorrow. I'm taking a run with an old friend who decided she want's to get into trail running. I'm gonna treat her to a slow tour through Marie Hickey trail.

Oh yeah, I'm heading to Mohican again on Sunday to run the Red/Green loops with Nick again. We're hoping we'll have more success this time, than we did last time. If you're free on Sunday, you should come join us. It's supposed to be beautiful this weekend; great time for a trail run.