New strategy: No strategy!

For my last race (Skyline 50K) I spent a lot of time figuring out my strategy for what splits I wanted to hit based on my previous performances, determining exactly what pace to start out at, doing test runs at the pace to get a good feel for it.

I think this was part of my way of dealing with the unknown. 50K was an unknown distance for me, especially given the fact that it was on trails. There was something psychologically daunting about an "ultra marathon". I hadn't trained anywhere near this distance, so I wasn't completely confident in my ability to finish. Breaking it down by the numbers helped.

This time I'm not going to do any of that. It just doesn't seem interesting to me to do all the analysis. My approach is going to be simple. Go out slow slow slow. For me that's nine- or even ten-minute miles. Walk more of the early hills than in the past. Don't kill yourself on the downhills. Take in 300 or 400 calories per hour. Try to stay strong through the entire thing (unfortunately the old addage "it's a marathon, not a sprint" doesn't really apply). I'm going to try to look at this as a grand tour of the east-Oakland hills rather than a race.

Nonetheless, there are a couple of things I plan on doing that I've felt to be invaluable in my last two races. The first is to draw the course profile on my forearm in Sharpie marker, along with aid stations. For me this is a huge psychological help in that I can see what's coming up and steel myself for it, rather than coming around the corner feeling strong and slamming straight into a huge climb.

The second thing is to carry as much of my own fuel as I can manage. I love breezing through the aid stations, asking only for water, rather than wasting time looking for something palatable. It arguably might be more efficient from a running standpoint to depend on the stuff at the aid stations for part or all of my fuel needs, but I think it's just too much to worry about (Will they have what I'm looking for? What if they're all out? Everything I see looks nauseating, etc.) , I don't like stopping for any longer than I need to, and to be honest by the second half of my last race my thinking was pretty muddled. In a confused state, making no decision and going without food is easier than making a decision about what to eat, but has obviously disasterous consequences.

Two new things I'm going to try are Clif Bloks and Roks (see my last post) and a hat. The former seem like a pretty appetizing and cleaner alternative to gels, and the latter is just something I want to try to get used to. In long, hot races, a popular thing at the aid station is ice, meant for placing in your hat to help keep you cool. I've never been big on hats, but if it's hot in this or any future race, I just don't see a good alternative. This will also save me from the annoyance of sunglasses, which just bounce around on my nose and get blurred with sweat. I picked up a pretty cool hat from Zombie Runner for ten bucks. It's white, and has a built-in headlamp (might be handy for an emergency on an overnight run if everything else fails). It also says "Western States" on it... I was leary of buying it for this reason (I am not in the same league of folks who have run the Western States 100 mile run, is it bad form to sport this apparel?) but I reasoned that the hat will be a motivator for me while I'm running (to self: "you think this hurts? Think about what it's like to run Western States, this is nothing! Suck it up!", and: "if you ever want to run Western States, you had better learn to push through this!").

Okay, so that's all great, but the elephant in the room here is the fact that the race is freakin' 50 miles long. Nineteen miles longer than I've ever run before. Proportionally similar to Skyline in terms of climb and descent. I don't know what to make of this. If you told me at the end of Skyline that I needed to go 19 more miles I might have cried (I mean this very literally). Imagine the most gruelling workout you've ever done and add another 60% on top of that (that's precisely what it is for me).

I suspect that part of the reason I'm not doing much planning is because it will force me to face the realities of a 50 mile race. It's sort of like when you get hurt very badly (e.g. a visibly broken bone or gaping cut), there's that little guy in the back of your head saying don't look at it, don't look at it. If you're smart, you listen to that guy. Otherwise you go deeper into shock, which isn't likely to improve your situation. I think that little guy is helping me deny what's coming up in two weeks. I don't think I'm being melodramatic here... subconciously this is serious stuff!

As an illustration of this point, I'm going to steal a page from Dean Karnazes's book Ultra Marathon Man. In one chapter he succinctly and dramatically demonstrates the difference between Western States and the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon is somewhat notorious among marathons for a trio of nasty hills near the end that, paraphrasing Dean, have broken more than one runner. While Dick Collins is no Western States, take a look at the same comparison of course profiles in the chart below:



Holy cow! Don't look at it, don't look at it :)

My First Fifty-miler

Well, I did it. I signed up for Dick Collin's Firetrails 50 miler on October 10th. What am I getting myself into?

Homebrews On Sierra Azul

I decided to start making my own energy blocks because I'm dissatisfied with what is available on the market, but it turned out to be a disaster. In the past I've been using Accelerade or Accelerade gels as my energy source while running, but the stickiness is just a pain. It gets your water bottles dirty, you end up spilling it on your shirt, your hands get all messy. And I bet that volunteers at aid stations don't appreciate being handed a gooey water bottle. Energy blocks are easier to deal with because it's like carrying around gummy candies, much easier to manage, and incidentally less nauseating after several miles on the trail.

Shot Bloks, made by the same folks who make Clif Bars, are the only energy blocks I've tried, and I really like them. The problem is that they have no protein. Studies have shown that protein taken with simple carbs both aids in the absorbsion of water and inhibits muscle damage from extended efforts. Accelerade is the only major sports supplement that contains the proscribed ratio of sugars to protein, but Accelerade only comes in powder, liquid, or gel (no blocks).

I started experimenting a few weeks ago with a gummi bear recipe I found on the internet. It's basically like Jello, only with more flavoring (Kool-Aid) and less water. These turned out pretty well. A little chewy for exercise, and protein only from the gelatin, but not bad.

Next I made Knox Blocks from the recipe on the back of Knox unflavored gelatin, only I used Accelerade instead of fruit juice. These also turned out well, and one step closer to getting everything in the correct ratio.

I reduced the water content and increased the Accelerate content until I got pretty close to the caloric density and consistency I was looking for. They tasted good (if a little chalky), but would be easy to carry and eat on the go. The recipe was as follows:

Sprinkle 2 envelopes of unflavored gelatin into a quarter cup of cold water. In a separate pan, bring three quarters of a cup of water to a near-boil, and add four scoops of orange Accelerade powder and stir until it's dissolved. Then pour the Accelerade mix into the gelatin mix and stir for five minutes. Pour this into a container with a flat bottom and flat sides, put in the refrigerator for 3 hours. Cut into pieces and Voila! Home made energy blocks.

There's one problem with this recipe, which you might have guessed.

On Saturday I met my friend and adventure racer extraordinaire Andrew for a point-to-point run through Sierra Azul. The plan was to do the ~11 mile section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail from Lexington Reservoir to Hicks Rd. by Mt Umunhum. I proudly packed up my energy blocks and we started off.

The first part of the trail is a brutal climb up out of the reservoir basin. It was pretty hot and I was struggling to keep up. On the bright side, my blocks were working well. I did notice that they seemed to be sweating a little bit, and were wet and sticky on the outside. I figured I could fix that in the next batch with some corn starch or something.

Andrew at the top of the first climb.

The trail goes over steep rolling hills after that, and I felt strong on the downhills and flats, but still struggling to keep up on the climbs.

Me struggling to keep up.

About one hour in I pulled out my second pack of blocks, and my god, what a mess! I had a zip-lock bag full of blocky orange soup. I was able to rescue a few blocks that hadn't yet completely melted, but the next time I pulled the bag out it was hopeless. It could only have been eaten with a spoon. So much for avoiding stickiness.

Andrew on the downhills.

I decided to complete the run without fuel. We only had about 45 minutes left, so really not a big deal. But I was upset that my grand hope to mix my own energy had literally melted away.

On the way back I was thinking about where I would go next with my energy blocks. I just didn't have a next step, and was worried that without industrial equipment I wouldn't be able to make something usable. It was just so frustrating that with all these innovative products out there there were no gummy chews that included sugar and protein.

We went up to Zombie Runner in Palo Alto because Andrew wanted to look at some compression tights (for preventing blood from pooling in the legs during long events), and I came across a relatively new product from the Clif Bar Company, Clif Roks. Wow, these were exactly what I had been looking for, small protein "candies" in enticing flavors that can be used to supplement Shot Bloks.

It's funny how sometimes you have to go through a process before you find out that what you are looking for is right in front of you. Shot Roks have apparently been around since September, 2008, but I've never seen them, or did and thought they were something else. In any case, I have a deeper appreciation for the alchemists at these companies that create performance nutrition products. I was starting to believe that any jerk with a stove and the ability measure ingredients could easily make these things.

On a side note, I finished the run pretty strong, and the best news is that my IT band didn't bother me a bit. Which means I don't have any more excuses to not sign up for Firetrails (almost 5 times as long as this run we just completed!) Hooo boy...

Andrew used his GPS phone to create a profile of our run. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/ALOF8