Back to Back Race Weekend

There are NO Dummies Guide to running back-to-back races- believe me I checked :) I must say I could NOT have completed both races without the help of my close running friends. These close friends aka "Dawn Patrol" we complete most of our training runs during the week prior going to work or taking the kids to school. The Dawn Patrol shows up on time and most of runs are based on time- and always trying to mix things up based on our race schedule. We have a interesting cast of characters but at the end of day we all support each other.

The day of Twin Peaks 50K was really cold there was another race that same day 50Miler race. At the end of the day I was happy with my 50k performance. Lisa K, Molly, and Kim F, pretty much stuck together for most of the race it was a great support system. As the we starting to go downhill with 7miles to go, Molly and Lisa had a surge of energy that I could not match. I decided to finish at my own pace knowing I had another trail race the next day. My main concern after crossing the finish line- was walking around for 15min or so, and have my recovery drink and stretch. I rushed home to shower as I was hosting a Pre-Race dinner at Pizza place within a 2hr time span. This pre-race dinner was with my 5K Begging running group that had their first 5k called Santa Run in Tustin. I wanted to share my story of the 50k, and get a chance to break break with their families. Many of the people were very excited about their first 5k, I tried to harness that energy to get me motivated for my 15K the next day. After dinner I went to bed at 7:30pm and set my alarm for 5:30am....
I felt pretty stiff in the morning and started my normal routine, which includes coffee :)
Then I made plans to meet with Julie at fashion island to carpool to the race site. It was freezing cold at the start, I told so many people about this race it seemed like everyone was there with fresh legs. BTW this was my first trail race with a timing chip. The first hill felt really bad, my legs were saying "STOP" but as soon as I started to get warmed up the pain went away- There was this 1 mile climb called "i think i can" and i went up slow and easy and started to pass many walkers. Passing people on the uphill gave me added incentive to keep running faster, the competitive juices were flowing. At this point my main goal was to reach Molly (dawn patrol member) she had promised to be at the ridge park and cheer us on. She was there with her kids and gave me a much need boost. With 3 miles to go it was all down hill. I finished strong went back home and crashed for the rest of the day.

2 days and counting

What started out as some crazy idea several months ago is about 2 days away. I signed up for the twin peaks ultra 50k and xterra crystal cove 15k which takes place the day after twin peaks. My game plan is to be able to survive the weekend to blog about it next week. In the months leading up to this weekend. I have used hammer products as part of my training regime. Hammer has an extensive knowledge base and expert phone consultants to answer all of your questions. One of my main concerns going into this weekend is sleep and recovery. I posed a question a week ago to the hammer nutrition forum, the topic was my pre-race meal. Due to my early start on sat- my plan was to wake up at 2am and have my usual bowl of oatmeal and coffee. I had this routine down since my training for Ironman Brazil serveral years ago and it always worked. Why? beacuse I would swim for 90min first thing in the morning and it would be difficult to have food. I found that having a small serving of oatmeal worked for me for my long extended master swim workouts. I simply carried that routine over to my ultra running. I was told many years ago about the 3hr rule prior to your training or races, but never really understood why. Here is link to the article that explains in detail why. http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=ARTICLE&ARTICLE.ID=1279 So this past week- I went with the option of getting more sleep and skipping the oatmeal. My biggest fear was running starving with the empty stomach feeling. I must say I did not feel that all on Tuesday and today.
So here is my menu.

Pre-race-

3am- Wake up

Coffee
4 Hammer Endurolytes prior
3 Hammer race caps supreme
16oz of Hammer heed

Race Start at 5am
3 Hammer Endurolytes per hour for 7hrs
1 race cap per hour
1.5 liters of Heed in camel pack (refill with water at aid stations)
26oz of Hammer perpetuem batter- (14 scoops)
6 hammer gels

Post Race
2-3 scoops Hammer Recoverite mix (drink on my way home)

Repeat on Sunday

But modified for only a under 2hr race

I will post my evaluation of how everything went in my next post.

Holcomb Valley 15 mile Trail Race Redux

This was my first race since Leona Divide about 6 weeks ago. Within those past 6 weeks I have been suffering from a IT Band issues. About 6 days prior to big bear I started to feel better. I had a aggressive treatment program, I guess my body just needed a rest.

Going into this 15mile race, I wanted to see if it was possible to run faster than I did last year. This year I finished at 3:17, last year I finished at 3:01. I must say I never really got into a running fluid while sucking wind. Yes the thin air did get to me this time, I had headaches and my legs felt tired. Once I figured out I would not come close to breaking my time from last year, I began to relax and stayed within the moment and enjoyed the awesome views of the lake and mountains. I will return next year to break the 3hr mark I promise.

Thursday Update

I am using the next few days to rest up for a long month of racing.
Oct 6th Xterra Trail Race
Oct 14th Long Beach Half
Oct 27th Xterra Trail Race
Nov 10th Saddleback Marathon

These races should get me fully prepared for the Back-to-Back races in Feb, Twin Peaks 50K and Pacific Shoreline Marathon.

Holcomb Valley Recap

Holcomb valley 15 mile trail race.

I had originally signed up for the 33mile race, but at the last minute, changed my mind to race the 15mile option. I am happy I did.

After running the Shadow of the Giants, I thought it would be wise to not overdo it and run a good solid race with the 15mile option. Between the shadow of the giants and Holcomb I only ran once. I went to big bear on Saturday, and stayed at a local hotel. Other club members from the OCTRAIL club also stayed at the same hotel. I felt well rested going into the race.

Race morning, I set the alarm for 5am, and went to the local am/pm for a hot cup of coffee. Wow I did not realize how cold it was outside, I had the shakes… I noticed there no cloud cover, which told me that will be very clear and hot.

I arrived at the race site, and chatted with the other runners that were doing the 33mile race. 30min later our 15 mile race started. This was my first trail race where they put us in waves. I was of course in the last wave. The race course was very rocky or technical at the start which reminded me of one of my local training runs at Modjeska canyon trail.

At the 4 or 5mile mark it opened up onto a smooth rolling fire road. I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. I tried to maintain a constant pace throughout, I noticed plenty of free range horses out on the field and I forgot where I was for a while. The course was well marked if you follow the arrows. Towards the end I realized I could break my 3hr goal. I couldn’t open into full stride going down a rocky single track, just too risky. I was using this lady way ahead to help me pace myself in…Then I passed here, BUT now I was in the front with about 1/2mile left I was lost track of the arrows and orange ribbons. Going into the parking lot of the finish I was supposed to make a hard right, well I went straight. They lady I passed said I was going the wrong way, at this point I was way off track. I finished at 3:01, now knowing the course next year, I should shatter that time. This particular race was very well supported with volunteers and post race goodies. I recommend this race to anyone considering do a short trail race in the mountains.

Lake Hodges Ultra 50K and some change...

Quick Race Overview-

Lake Hodges (this is a musical slide show by one of club members) is located about 1 hour south of Orange County.

Morning lows was in the 40’s and quickly reached to the upper 80’s with no cloud cover. The terrain was mixed with some single track and wide trail roads. The total elevation climbing was close to 5,000 feet. My finish time was 7hr10min, not necessary the time I was aiming for but read below to see how the day unfolded.

Very interesting race, I went into the race feeling pretty good. My left hamstring pull went away after some aggressive therapy and the application of the STICK. After talking to several other athletes about the hamstring, I came to the conclusion it was due to my weekly track workouts and running in the same direction. However, my 5 year old decided to get sick (excessive coughing) on Wednesday and me being the hypochondriac that I am started to freak out…I started using Germ X etc… so I wake up Saturday Morning at 2:30am for my pre-race meal, and I have a scratching throat L. I tried to keep a positive spirit about it, but just a few races ago at the LA 5K, I just remember feeling like crap for the 5K let alone a 50K. Moving forward, I ran a couple of errands prior to meeting Kim at 4:15am. I decide to refill my doctor prescribed “Vitamin I” IBUPROFEN, I am so happy I did (more on that later).

Kim and I started our trek down south to San Diego, then she mentions she forgot her handheld bottles which is kind of ironic because on her pre-race list on her blog, that is the first thing on her list…hmmm. We arrive in plenty of time, and I told her to park in the area where the RD tells us NOT to park. After figuring out that we were not supposed to park there we opted to park at the entrance of the START/Finish area. This was the best spot, we decided to organize the back of her vehicle to spread out our extra nutrition/lubes etc…I went into Triathlon mode of setting up my transition area. Kim had mentioned how cold it was, I had no clue what she was talking about, I had on my full on Fleece jacket and pants on. She mentioned it was 43 degrees out, and started to kind of worry because all she had was a tang top and no long sleeve. So we walk over to the start to pick up our bag, and who do we see CHAZ man. He sees Kim and mentions that he has a long sleeve technical shirt from the OC Marathon, that has been sitting in his car for a couple of months. I had no idea Charlie had a mobile Self Storage? (If I remember correctly he had 8-10 5Gallon water jugs from the last ULTRA in Twin Peaks.) I have never seen Kim so happy to hear such great news, Funky smell or not she was pumped. After picking up our packets, I noticed someone from my sponsor Aquaphor. We were a little surprised to see each other; we both didn’t think there were many ultra runners in our sponsored team. She kind of got me to think about doing a 50mile race. We exchanged each others personal info, and I am sure we will become great friends. Jill had mentioned she had signed up for

SJ50K, please send her some LOVE if you see her on the trails. I was really impressed to see a lot of familiar faces at the race from our club OCTR.

More on the race, the RD started to shout out last min instructions at 7am, race started a little bit after 7:20am. About a 1.5miles in I hit my right big toe on a rock in a weird funky way. I started to feel a throbbing sensation due to the friction of my top foot, where my big bone meets the big toe bone. It was really swelling, I remember

having this feeling, last year when I was breaking inn a new pair of shoes, and it actually rubbed so bad it ripped off the skin. I did not want to say anything to Kim, at that time, I was just happy to be walking up the hill. On our way back, on the first leg, she had bent her ankle in a weird way, and we both started to walk and jog. I finally spilled my beans and told her I was in bad shape. My goal was to get to the drop bag zone, we finally made it, and I

quickly rushed to see the damage. It was clearly getting bad, bright cherry red, I quickly got a tube of aquaphor and put about 3 table spoons on that area. I also took in 3 nice “Vitamin I” tablets; Kim had one as well for her ankle. I also had some packed some extra goodies for backup. I included some samples of Bonkbreaker which I sampled at my recent 10K. I wanted to see how they would hold up in the heat pressed between my shorts. They rocked! The consistency was there and the Peanut butter and jelly as very tasty. I also packed ROBO

espresso cookies; the cookies packed a nice jolt high. We both quickly went and continued our journey to the east side of the course. After about 20 mins we were both feeling very loose…I had forgot about toe area and

her ankle was feeling better. We arrive to the first aid station as iMichelle is on her return. Oh yeah quick up date on the temperature it was 85 degrees bright and sunny it felt like 90. I started to scream out to Kim it is freezing out here! We both started to chuckle hoping in some weird way we would get cooler. The volunteers were fantastic at each aid station, very informative and kind. Both Kim and I were very surprised at the 2^nd aid station, we were told that the turnaround point is another .5miles away… I think I almost lost it…that was the longest .5miles, we reached the final turnaround, I took the liberty of having several servings of HEED. Then we

ran into fellow group members Paul, and Nattie. I was surprised to see Paul without his Photo Tripod. He had mentioned he had a sore ankle and was not feeling too good. Nattie, looked fresh like she just started the race. The four of us start to chat a bit and walk as a group. Both Paul and I were struggling to keep up with Nattie and Kim while they were walking. Kim was a life saver during the run, turns out she does shoulder massages. I was in bad shape after holding 1.5 lb water weights for over 6.5hours. Both shoulders were in KNOTS, I asked Kim

to use her elbow to apply pressure to the knots for relief, and to squeeze my shoulders. God Bless her, she is strong.

So we arrive to the last aid station, I turned about and Paul took off like he stole something, and Nattie as right

there with him. Perhaps I was at the aid station too long sucking down more HEED. Kim and I continued to

pace each other, we had noticed that there one other athlete that would pass us, then we would pass her. This battle would continue for the last 3.5 miles. Kim gave me the orders run ahead to catch her, it was a small victory in a very long hot day. Kim had her sister waiting at the finish line, they were kind enough to get a us big gulp

coke at the extra mile. I quickly took off my shoes to inspect the damage. It was still swollen and tender, I think it will be good to take it easy for a while. I am not sure what race to tackle next, but I know it will involve running.

My focus this season is to improve my running performance. Thank you for reading, and see you at the races…