Track Etiquette

Stay in your damn lane. It seems so obvious and intuitive to me that this is the right thing to do to me that it kills me when people don't do it. I was doing mile repeats the other day and two women were walking with iced Starbucks in lanes 2 and 3. The track rules posted by the school clearly state that slower runners should be in the outer lanes, but it wasn't that crowded and I figured perhaps they wanted an accurate measure of their distances, so I was just happy they weren't in lane 1. I came around on my second lap and they were in lanes 3 and 4, which I thought was strange but it didn't impact me. Then on my third lap I went into the first turn and realized that they had moved into 1 and 2. WTF? If it was just one person I wouldn't have minded going around her, but it really throws your stride off to suddenly have to look over your shoulder and then move out 2 lanes. They left the track for a bit while I was resting, but then came back on my second repeat and the same thing happened. This time I caught them on the straight. I yelled "track" as I was approaching and they assumed I wasn't talking to them, then I yelled it again. They jumped out of the way and looked pretty pissed off about it.

Afterwards I apologized for scaring them and tried to explain that they needed to pick a lane and stay in it, but mostly I just got blank stares.

Other things that bug me at the track:

People who bring their kids and don't teach their kids what to do. Little kids do stupid things at the track. It's not their fault, they just don't realize the danger they're in. Kids like to race you, which means they run in front of you in your lane. You have to be very careful when going around them because when they hear you getting close sometimes they make a 90 degree turn and cut across the track. Kids also like to run straight at you, head on, which wouldn't be horrible except that it's distracting and I'm terrified that one will trip before veering off and I have to fall to aviod trampling them. The worst is when there is an older and a younger sibling, and the older sibling is doing something stupid but knows what to do to avoid getting run over, and the younger copies what the older is doing, except for the part about avoiding getting run over.

People who walk or go slow in the inside lanes when there are faster runners out. I don't mind this so much as long as it's a concious decision. If someone wants to run a tempo run and is slower than me, I get that, and I don't mind it, I can choose another lane or go around them if it's crowded. It bugs me though when people run in pairs and take up two lanes to do this , especially when I'm trying to do a tempo run. But most people are happy to move outward if you talk to them.

People who take a lane that's obviously in use. There are 8 lanes. There are three people on the track. You're clearly not faster than me. Why are you trying to Bogart my lane?

Okay, enough complaining. Back from vacation, did my last full intensity workout today: 3 x [100m, 200m, 400m], resting as long after each interval as you took to complete it. Tomorrow I will do just a crossfit warmup, Thursday an easy 1.5 mile run at an 8:30 pace (to dial-in my starting pace), Friday a rest day, and Saturday a 3/4 mile run at 8:30, just to keep the legs loose. Sunday is the race! I'm starting to get excited.

One Week to My First 50K

On vacation in Michigan now. Feeling reasonably good. A minor nagging chest cold that I hope resolves itself. I think going Paleo for the last month is really keeping it at bay. A little nervous.

What I'm Worried About

Three weeks until Skyline. Here are the things that I think pose the greatest risk to my finishing:

Going out too fast

This one seems like a no-brainer, but in all the excitement of a race it's hard to not go out faster than your ability proscribes. You're in good shape, you're running at a pace substantially slower than you would run say, a 10K, you can't imagine that such a slow pace could possibly tire you. That's on mile 5 or so. By mile 14 you start to think that maybe it wasn't such a good idea going out so fast. At mile 18 you're cursing yourself, and at mile 20 you completely bonk, as in moving-faster-than-a-slow-walk-is-no-longer-possible bonk. That's happened to me before. It takes experience and/or discipline to stick to a realistic pace in the beginning. As this is a new distance for me (especially on dirt), I'm lacking in experience and will have to rely on discipline.

Fortunately there are a few things to help me out. In my armchair recon of the course I’ve learned that the first three miles are flat on pavement, and that every quarter-mile is marked. That will help me dial in my target pace early, and stay there hopefully until I get into a good groove. Also, in my previously pace-finding exercise (see my “How Fast” entry), I figured out that I should be targeting about an 8:30 pace over the first six miles. That includes some smaller hills, so I should be targeting a bit faster than that on the flats. But I’m going to hedge a bit, just to be safe, and go out at an 8:30 pace, maybe even 8:40. That’s about 2:08 or 2:10 per quarter-mile.

Lastly, I’m going to do my track warm-ups from now on out at precisely 8:30 so I get a good feel for the speed.

Heat

The average high in Castro Valley is 76 degrees in August. The 10 day forecast, which goes out to July 21 also shows a high of 76 degrees. If that holds I think it's pretty manageable. More than a few degrees hotter than this though and I could be in trouble.

I need to keep my eyes on the weather. If it's going to be a scorcher I'll lower my target pace by an average of a full minute-per-mile. I will run with two bottles all day instead of one in for the first half and wait-and-see for the second. Also, I've been trying to get some hot training days in, and days with an extra layer on to simulate more heat.

Injuries

Either now or before the race. I'm most worried about rolling an ankle during the race, or breaking a fall with my face or something. Neither one of those things has happened to me in a long time, so as long as I stay alert I think I'll be okay. As for getting injured training I think all you can do is listen to your body, make sure you're lifting safely, and don't be scared to take a rest day.

Digestive rebellion

I've heard this happens sometimes, though usually on longer races. I've continued my one gel every twenty minutes regimen for longer training runs, and that still seems to be treating me okay. We'll see if the same holds true with the sixteen-plus I plan to eat during the race. If I do start to get nauseous, my reaction will depend on how far into the race I am. In the last three miles you just suck it up. In the last fifteen miles, you spend some extra time at the aid stations trying to pick some things that you think you can hold down, and slowing your pace in hopes of recovery.

Destroyed quads

I would have ranked this higher a few weeks ago, but I've been working some downhill training in this past week and I think it will really help. I'm confident that if this happens it will be in the second half and I'll just need to walk all of the hills from there on out.

Blisters

Haven't really had a problem with this lately. I wear double-layer socks and put body glide between my toes. I don't have much experience with fixing blisters once you get them... I'm just going to put some duct tape and extra body-glide, neosporin and a needle in my bag. I've usually been able to run through minor blisters in the past.

That's about it I guess. There's always the chance of some freak incident, but you can't really plan for those anyway.

First Muscle Up!

Holy cow, I did my first muscle-up last night! A muscle-up is an exercise where you start hanging from gymnasts' rings, you do a pull-up to a dip and end up with your arms locked out and your torso above the rings, and it's a heck of a lot harder than you'd think it would be. It's pretty standard faire for gynmasts, but a significant accomplishment for us mere mortals. It's a big milestone for crossfitters. I'm stoked!

Henry W Coe State Park

My friend and coworker Brian (and incidentally the guy who talked me in into giving ultra running a shot) invited me to join him and his friend Jay up at Coe. Brian has done several ultra events and at least one 100M that I’m aware of. Jay is training for the Tahoe Rim 100M and Brian is going to pace him. It was cool to spend a little time with guys who have actually been doing this for awhile.

Their goal for the day was to get some miles and some heat training in… they planned on doing 3 different loops of downright nasty hills for a total of 30 miles. After spending some time on those hills myself I can only say that I’m very impressed.

My goal for the day was to answer the question of whether it’s the downhills or the uphills that are killing me (see my Almaden Quicksilver entry), so I planned to do a couple laps on a single steep hill, starting with the downhill first.

I hooked up with Brian and Jay after their first lap (about 8 miles in). I think I earned my keep by bringing out the chocolate covered espresso beans, they seemed pretty excited about that, and Jay related some Western States lore about how these potent treats saved Dean Karnazes one night. We power hiked together up Lyman Wilson Ridge Trail, a gnarly 1.5 mile climb with a 19% grade. I was thinking that they seemed a little tired, but I wouldn’t truly understand this until later.

I was fresh, so the climb was an nice and easy warmup for me. At the top Brian and Jay continued on for their second loop and I popped a gel and started my descent. My approach to downhill running is to just go as fast as I can manage, which is pretty fast when it’s not too steep and my legs are feeling good. 19% is too steep, and I was surprised to see how quickly I got tired. I’ve been reading some tips online for how to run downhill efficiently, but nothing seemed to obviously help that much. By the time I got to the bottom I was running low on water and needed to go back to the parking lot to refill. While I was still going reasonably fast on the grade, I slowed to a pretty pathetic pace on the half-mile flat road.

After filling up with water and popping another gel (my secondary goal for today was to see how my stomach handled the three-gels-per-hour menu I plan to use at Skyline) I felt a little better and my run back to the base of Lyman Wilson Ridge Trail was a little faster. But on my second trip up the climb I understood why Brian and Jay had seemed a little tired. I was spent! I had anticipated running up most of this climb the second time, but I couldn’t manage it. But part of distance running is learning to keep going though the pain, so I power hiked it a second time, though with far less gusto than the first trip. When I got to the top I popped gel number four and started back down at about half the pace I had done the first time. The slog back to the car this time was, well, a slog. It was hard to keep going.

I was a little despondent after I had finished. This workout really handed it to me. If I get destroyed so easily on 8 miles, how will I make it through 31 at Skyline? All of the excuses I could make about today, it was hot, this was a really steep hill, I got a nasty abdominal cramp on the second downhill, all of those things could be part of my race and it would be stupid to discount them.

A couple of hours and two cups of coffee can do wonders for one’s perspective. I learned a lot today. First, I’m not nearly as strong a downhiller as I thought, and this weakness could jeopardize the rest of my performance at Skyline. Second, my body handles gels pretty reasonably, at least for an hour and a half of hard exertion. Third, I really need to remember to be sensible about my expectations. Why did I think I could run up a 19% grade? That’s just silly.

So, to sum it up, for better or worse I answered the question I wanted to answer today. Time to get some downhill miles in.

Inspiration

I saw a great poster yesterday. It was a photo of a woman running alone along a remote and dramatic stretch of road, and I wish I could remember exactly what it said, but it was something like “Running never gets old because I like the woman I run with”.

I’ve never seen anything that captures so accurately and succinctly the way I feel about running (I mean besides the fact that it portrays a woman and I am a man… the poster wouldn’t have worked with a guy anyway). For me running is a solo activity, but it’s not a lonely activity. I like the occasional group run or going to the track with Jen but, and perhaps it’s because I’m naturally pretty introverted, running by myself on trails is one of the most enjoyable things that I do. I empathize with what the poster says about self reliance and motivation, but also about enjoying one's self, one's own company, even through challenges.

Whoever came up with this poster (presumably it was somebody at Brooks Sports, Inc.) really understands something fundamental about running. Or maybe he/she just put some words together and got lucky. I don’t care, I’ll take it.

How fast?

The training methodology that I am using (Crossfit/Crossfit Endurance) emphasizes strength and shorter, faster runs. The biggest drawback to this methodology, in my opinion, is that I have no idea how fast I can/should run Skyline.

I’ve run enough races and workouts between 5K and 10K that I know about how fast to start out those distances. The correct pace just feels right. Sure, I might be off by 10 seconds-per-mile, but more often than not it’s just an indication of how good my legs are feeling that day. But the longest training run I ever do is 15K, and I do that less than once a month. The only time I run farther than that is in a race (my last was the Mt Diablo 25K on June 6).

Of course I’m competitive (at least with myself) and I don’t want to turn in a slower time than I am really capable of. But the real fear is that I start it off too fast and the last ten miles are excruciating, (or simply not achievable). I’ve been in this horrible place before in marathons, and I can tell you that it’s not a fun way to run a race. That conflict between ambition and ability that all athletes face is particularly troublesome in endurance races: going out too fast can easily mean a DNF.

What makes this process even harder for trail running is that a 50K on a flat and rolling course is a completely different race than a 50K that goes up to the top of a mountain and back down.

What I do have to go on is my previous performance relative to my peers, as well as my peers’ previous performances at Skyline. Fortunately most races post results online, and the Skyline 50K in particular is organized enough that they report split times at every aid station. Why is this useful? Well, it makes it easy for me to estimate what my time is likely to be if I run a reasonably good race. I do this as follows:

In the Mt Diablo 25K I placed 43rd overall. There were 182 finishers in that race, which put me at about 23rd percentile (23% of the racers finished before me). If I look at the 2008 results for Skyline, there were 120 finishers. The person at the 23rd percentile in that race was someone by the name of Adrian Jue, who finished 28th at 5:12:20. If I look at the 2007 results, the person in the 23rd percentile was Layne Kemp, finishing in 4:57:35. A quick glance over previous years shows that most of the times are in this range (except for 2005, perhaps it was really hot that year?).

From this I can speculate that I should target finishing in the 5:00 to 5:10 range. But how do I break this down further? If I take a look at the split times for 2007, I can see runners’ times at each of 6 aid stations (plus the finish). I want to be hitting the split times for the people who run at the pace I’m targeting, so I’m looking for folks who finished in the 5:00 to 5:10 region. Another piece of data that is provided is the person’s current place at the station. This is important because I want to use times from runners who gradually improved their overall place throughout the race. Why? Because I’m guessing those folks that are getting passed in the last half of the race are in pain and are not running the race they wanted to run. I know this race is going to hurt, but I want it to hurt on my terms, not on the course’s terms.

So I pick five or six of these “well-paced” runners and average their split times to get a sense of where I want to be. Now I have a rough plan for my race that I think is reasonable and has decent level of granularity. If I had more data on myself, I would use it, but given what I do have I think this is pretty good.

The most important thing to keep in mind with this sort of analysis is that it was all based on statistics (hand-wavy ones at that). And the thing about statistics is that while you can be reasonably sure that things will work out the way you’ve predicted, some percentage of the time you’ll get burned (just look at the 2005 results). So it’s important that I continue to keep my eye on the weather forecast, ask myself how strong I’m feeling as the race approaches, and have a backup plan in case things aren't feeling right out on the course.