DNFing

After three weekends in a row of racing I'd not been running well at all this week and things didn't look promising for Waldo 100k. But with hardly any running and plenty of rest for a few days I hoped I'd pulled a quick recovery off.

Hal Koerner and Joe Uhan were DNSs but with on-fire, new Dad, Timmy Olson, and a host of other fast guys (see irunfar), plus forest fire diversions to make the race 65.6 miles long, it was bound to be a fast race. So I couldn't avoid giving it a good effort, since it's a fantastic course and race director, Craig Thornley, had pulled out the stops to adjust the race at the last minute.

Unfortunately I felt lackluster on the way up the starting ski slope but cruised down the other side and was with the leaders at the first aid station. That seemed like a good sign, but I felt like a drained battery after that point and by about 13 miles I was as tired as at the end of a 100 miler, just without the soreness. Walking and taking on food and drink didn't help so at 20.5 miles I stopped.

Excuses aside, DNFs don't ever feel good, but I know it's important to pick and choose the hard efforts, both from a mental and physical recovery stand-point. This one should have been a DNS but I do have trouble saying 'no' to races, especially ones I know are excellent and have beautiful courses. I feel like I'm in great shape right now but I needed an extra week to recover for this. Hal's illness and Dan's post-WS fatigue made them make the smart choice...but they didn't get to see the view from Fuji Mt just after dawn (I still don't regret giving it a go as you never can tell when a good day may materialize). 

The coming weeks are busy with more races, so a DNF was a better option than grinding out a 15-hour finish just to prove to myself I could. Just a shame that the bad day had to be for such a fun event. 

As I write this in front of the TV, the runners are reaching the later miles and several people will gain a spot at Western States. Jacob Rydman started off leading and looks good for either the win or an entry spot, at least. Course record holder, Joelle Vaught, was in 5th overall at 44.7 miles so she should punch her ticket for the Big Dance too. Good to catch up with and make new friends on the trails today and as soon as I dropped I switched to 'fan mode' to follow it on Twitter and ultralive.

Full results and a race write-up on irunfar.

Rocky Raccoon 2012 Recap

I'd set high goals for myself this year at Rocky Raccoon 100 as I thought there was only one thing to try to do after last year went so well - really go after the clock. Normally this is the opposite of what I do since I firmly believe that your best time in a race is usually from sensible pacing so that you don't slow down much or at all, as I mentioned in a previous post.

But it's a game of odds regarding maximizing your chances at a good run. So to go after the most ambitious target required more of a risk and that's what I decided was worth trying. I had A, B and C goals - 12:32:04 (World Best), 12:44:33 (Course Record) and 13:16:02 (previous Course Record), all of which were ambitious. And I thought that I'd need to go through the end of lap two at 40 miles in 4:50 (last year 4:54) and lap four at 80 miles in 9:50 (last year 9:58) to have a shot...not easy on the trails on a good day.

Race morning started and there were thunder, lightning and possibly the Mayan calendar's predicted end of the world. It was hard to tell with all the rain. Hal Koerner, Karl Meltzer and myself started off at the front in the dark first few miles, with Karl having to stick close since his headlamp was weak and he couldn't see the trail well without our lights.

The start line. Photo: Drymax Socks

By the DamNation aid station at 6.2 miles we also had Oswaldo Lopez running with us and it stayed like that for the first lap, with Oswaldo on my shoulder then the other two just behind. Great to meet him more after seeing his great win at Badwater last year first hand. 2:27 for lap one put us on target, but it felt fast, partly due to the mud. Oswaldo and myself had broken away slightly, then I sped up to go through 26.2 miles in 3:10 on my own, three minutes ahead of last year and flying along feeling good.

Oswaldo Lopez. Photo: From Oswaldo's Badwater-style crew.

Hal Koerner charging in the lead on lap three. Photo: Drymax Socks.

Me on lap three. Photo: Drymax Socks.

Karl Meltzer. Photo: Drymax Socks.

Sabrina Moran racing to victory. Photo: Drymax Socks.

Liza Howard before she got injured. Photo: Drymax Socks.

By around 30 miles I caught glimpses of Hal behind and the legs were starting to feel some fatigue. Even with the surface water, the course had been fairly easy to run on in lap one, but by lap two, 680 people had churned it and it was slippery. I could tell I was slowing and Hal caught me just before the end of the loop with us going through 40 miles together in 4:55, just over a minute off last year and too slow for my A goal given I wasn't going fast at that point.

Karl was barely behind us and both he and Hal went past me within the first couple of miles of lap three as I focused on nutrition to help me feel normal again. Even with some walking breaks, I couldn't get back up to the pace I needed and by 50 miles I felt my left hip flexor was very sore. All that sliding over the mud must have strained it more than normal and I soon started limping. By Park Road aid station at 55.6 miles, Hal was 14 minutes ahead and Karl around 5 minutes, but I couldn't run properly and walked parts of the next section to the loop finish.

At 60 miles I had my trusty pacers from last year (who'd done a great job of getting me through aid stations to that point very quickly), Paul and Meredith Terranova. So I ate some food, had a stretch and decided to start out the next loop and hope for an improvement. All (good) time goals had gone from my mind, but if I could only limp then I knew it'd be stupid to do it for over 40 miles and make things much worse. By the 63.1 mile aid station I decided to call it a day, over nine hours into the race. But somehow running through puddles and mud hadn't caused me any feet issues so I know I can trust my Drymax socks - that was something that had concerned me as a potential reason for slowing down.

Hal went on to win in a mightily impressive 13:24, faster than his 13:26 in 2011 and Karl ran 10 minutes quicker than last year, in 14:17. Oswaldo had dropped off a lot but came back for 3rd in 14:30.

Two-time defending champ, Liza Howard, had led for much of the day in the ladies' race but had to drop at mile 80 with a foot and shin injury to leave the way clear for Sabrina Moran to win by a huge margin in 17:06.

Full results and splits here. Congratulations to all the finishers (and starters).

Joe Prusaitis and his team put on a great event with fantastic volunteers and I can't fathom the effort it takes for the runners out there for up to 30 hours of rain and mud (I've still not done more than two thirds of a day on my feet!). I'm happy that I went for the record but learned that maybe less than perfect conditions on the trail should have made me adjust the goal. I think Hal, Karl and Oswaldo would all have run marginally better times if we hadn't started so fast and I'd have probably finished too, but that's hindsight for you. Next year...this is always worth coming back for.

How long does it take to recover from a 100 miler?

The French Trail, which was missed today due to the weather.

How long is a piece of string? Well, all I know is that three weeks isn't enough for me to be back to 100%, although I did feel fairly good yesterday doing a marathon pace 5k within a longer run.

However, today I thought I'd see how my legs felt post RR100 by running the PCTR Redwood Park 50k. Not racing, but instead getting in a decent-paced long run with all the benefits of aid stations, organization and an incentive to get out of bed earlier than if I'd tried to do it all on my own.

So I lined up with everyone else in the 50k, 30k and 20k races (the 10k option starts off in a different direction but the three longer races followed the same loops as the 50k) in the cold and clear skies. There was a winter storm overnight, but the snow was restricted to higher altitudes than the 500-1,500ft elevations of the race, so we just had mud and a slight course alteration during the middle 10k loop.

But even a minute into the race I could feel my legs weren't fresh at all. So I decided to see how it felt and not go too fast, but just enjoy the scenery (which is great through Redwood Park). Seemed like a good idea until I got caught up running in a small pack and accidentally went through the end of the first 20k lap in 50k CR pace.

Over the middle 10k loop (before the repeated 20k loop to finish) I slid around in the mud, especially on the climbs, and found myself running completely on my own. I felt a lethargy in my legs which was obviously a hangover from the 100-miler and it wasn't dissipating. And even though I could run at a decent speed it didn't seem like a good idea to wreck my body with an ultra. 

So instead, at the end of that loop I decided to call it a day and just have a decent 30k run and allow my body to recover much more effectively. I think it did about 2:17 for that distance, which was a few minutes ahead of the 30k winner and the rest of the 50k runners, so wasn't exactly the easy jog I'd planned on anyway.

A DNF is never positive, but I'd not aimed to race anyway and the whole point was to get a training run in. Whether that's 30k or 50k, it had to be dictated by the good old 'listening to the body' tactic. A shame, but I learnt my lesson after racing too soon after Western States and hope I can have more intelligent recovery now and avoid the overtraining I ended up with last year...mind you, I need to run a reasonably fast marathon next week in Napa then Way Too Cool a week later at full effort. Will have to play that all by ear.

Today was a good day for a trail run and the full results will be posted here soon: http://www.pctrailruns.com/event.aspx?dtid=4646

Learning to DNF - Redwood 50k v2

I think the smartest running decision I've made was to DNF Rocky Raccoon this February. I can now appreciate that much more now I really see what it feels like to be overtrained.

I thought I'd give the Redwood 50k a go this weekend even though I know I should be resting. Even though resting should only include very easy jogs every few days, I somehow thought a 50k on medium trails would be possible if I just took it easy. Maybe I'd even win since it's not generally a competitive race so nine minute miling generally is enough.

Since I've always been able to run a lot of races without too many negative effects, I thought the same would apply after my first 100 miler, but I should have allowed a bit more time to recover after Western States. I only had one weekend off before racing again, which was basically stupid. Even when I aim to run a race easily, I often push a bit too hard and that was the case then. I ran a half at full effort when feeling sore, then a 50-miler the next weekend at a reasonable effort, followed by all out at the San Francisco marathon (tired again) and then the next weekend was the Skyline 50k, which I ended up running hard towards the end when feeling tired again.

The Lore of Running by Tim Noakes  has been very useful in understanding the physiology behind running and overtraining in particular. To most people, what I just tried to do was obviously too much, but I've got away with a lot so was willing to try it. I'll be more conservative in future, but only slightly. One thing which I've always gone by is I race according to how I feel and I've managed to avoid overtraining that way, but only just. A 100-miler needs a little more respect than a weekend off racing and I'll bear that in mind next time. Although, in fairness, I only ran the half because I felt ok to run, even though I shouldn't have raced it for the unnecessary win.

Anyway, I decided to drop after the 20k loop of the 50k today to allow for the recovery I obviously need. I ran the same course in May the day after a harder 50k and the week after the Miwok 100k yet it felt easy then. Today I went at the same speed (slow) but it felt noticeably harder. And that was after easy running for the two weeks since the Santa Rosa marathon (which also has a slight effect on my tiredness still).

Overall it's difficult to work out exactly what screwed me up, but the cumulative effect of so many hard efforts covers it overall. So after three miles today I just decided to jog, cruise in and call it a day at 12 miles instead of 31. I won;t run again until the Lake Tahoe triple on Friday and will see how I feel there since I really don't want to give up on that, since it's so fun. Mind you, I was really enjoying jogging through the fog and rain at Redwood Park today. I also really wanted to keep going since it's such a pretty course, but I had to drop to make sure I'd start fixing my heart and legs.

So now I know that five more days off running won't heal me, according to Noakes. Six weeks is required or more. So maybe I'll have to drop next weekend again, but I really hope not. I have to go for the really important races (the North Face 50 mile final in December then the Phoenix marathon in January) in a few months and if that means not running for six weeks then I'll do that, but someone may need to use a strait jacket to help me restrain myself.