With the addition of 2 Ultra Marathons in this calendar year, I have decided to revamp my training regimen. The last time I took my training more serious was from December to February. The focus then was on functional strength, mixed with a little running. I would use the weight vest to do my run/lunge/burpee regimen. After a bunch of leg injuries, I ran less and less....then being in a car accident in April I had to give up upper body workouts, road biking and running. As the pain weaned, I started to mix some of those back in for training, which allowed me to do okay at the Spartan beast in Utah and the 50k.
I have created a new running and strength training schedule that I have been trying out this week. The training was going well until the day after a strength training session in the gym.... trying to run 5 miles the day after a first day back in the gym in over a year was not the best idea. My running form was really sloppy and I may have worsened some of my leg and foot injuries. It is too painful to even foam roll right now!
Taking 2 days now to focus on core strength and flexibility. I plan to go for a tough running session on Saturday with people doing the Cuyamaca 100k.
Should be a great weekend if my legs and feet hold up! Looking forward to try out the new Camelbak and possibly shoes, if they show up in the mail on Friday :-)
It is hard to know where to begin on this write-up. The Cuyamaca 3 Peaks 50k race this last Saturday was quite the event! Me and my friend Jeremy got to the race at around 4:50 am to ensure we got a parking spot. It was great to see off the early start group at 5am, but we were a bit jealous of the extra hour of cool weather running they were going to get. After checking in, we spent the hour leading up to the race by eating snacks, stretching, and applying sunscreen(first time I have ever applied sunscreen in the dark.) We also got to enjoy a beautiful sunrise over Mt. Laguna.
This was the first race since I began running last November that I had no projected time of completion or if I would even be able to complete it. For those unfamiliar with how far the 50k distance is, it is just over 31 miles. This particular one, has 6288 feet of elevation gain and a total elevation change of 12,585.
With a 10 hour cutoff it seemed almost impossible with those extreme inclines. The longest hike I had ever done was 22 miles in one day and the longest trail run I had completed was 12 miles. Given my conditioning, this was obviously a very ambitious and what many would probably consider a very foolish attempt at one's first Ultra Race. Nevertheless I lined up toe to toe at 6am with some of the best and most experienced Ultra Runners in the area.
We were off! In the cool of the morning we got a nice 3 mile warmup around Cuyamaca lake and through a beautiful valley with tall grass landscape before hitting the first major incline, up the back side of Stonewall Peak. After switching from running to my fast hiking pace, I caught up with my friend Jeremy on the incline. We hiked up to the top together and were already sweating profusely. The first decent of the race was glorious and a great chance to catch our breath. After hitting the bottom of Stonewall we came to our first aid station at mile 6.7 . What a difference in aid stations between a regular foot race and an Ultra race. The assortment of snacks,fruit, gel packets and drinks were plentiful. The volunteers were also the best and most helpful of any race I have been to. After tanking up at the station, we decided to continue running together to the next station. We made impeccable time through the Azalea fire road trail up Middle Peak and down it to the 2nd aid station.
Jeremy kept telling me that he was in a world of hurt and he was not looking too good. I was still feeling very good at this point after the very long downhill and did not want to waste much time resting. Here came my first big mistake of the race......I had the young girl who was volunteering fill up my camel back for the hardest section of the race that was to come. My mistake was that I left the bladder squished in the pack with all my other stuff and thought she overfilled it, so I emptied some out so I could drop my electrolyte tablets in it. I told Jeremy I was going to start the incline back up the hill we just came down and I left in a hurry. About halfway up from the Half Marathon checkpoint and 1 mile into the 6 mile uphill section I ran out of fluid. After scratching my head for several minutes wondering why I was sucking air, I realized the mistake I had made. There was no way that I was going to turn around so I had to push through the next 5 miles of incline in the humid heat. I was feeling great climbing back to the top of middle peak and running down it to the Cuyamaca peak connecting road. When I reached the interchange I was approached by an old lady who told me I had gone the wrong direction and was suppose to turn off of the big Middle Peak incline before reaching the top. She goes on to tell me as I rejoined the correct trail that I probably added about 1 mile to the race..... JUST GREAT was what I was thinking!! Just what I needed as a amateur Ultra runner.... more distance!
Without any liquid to rehydrate and cool my core temperature, along with the temperature climbing outside, I was in a world of hurt and started to become delirious. I trying to force myself to hike as fast as possible to make it to the top. I must give thanks to 2 people that gave me a sip of their water on the way up.... it may not have cured my dehydration but it was just enough to give me the drive to push hard to the top. After a hard climb through very rocky/boulder terrain , I finally had the 3rd aid station in sight. A big banner stretched across it saying "The Beach." I was a bit delirious but I remember a girl in bikini running down to me with a cup of water. That was the best cup of water I have ever had! My memory of the top is a bit blurry, but I remember eating a popsicle, being misted with water by some guy and having them take care of all my hydration needs for the next section.
On the road again.... I hit the trail really hard on the way down Cuyamaca peak and felt unstoppable. Another run caught up to me on the downhill, Jeff was his name. I had just looked at the time on my cell phone for the first time, 10:30!! I was only 4.5 hours into the race and at over 21 miles in! I had to have him check his watch to make sure I was not imagining the time I had just seen. The time was correct, only 10 miles to go of mostly downhill and flat sections. I was on track for a 6 or sub 6 hour finish! I was so encouraged by this that I took up an even faster pace with Jeff down the hill. After reaching the bottom of the mountain and entering into a campground area I noticed we hadn't seen a trail marker in awhile. We were so focused on our speed and conversation that we didn't bother to check for them every few minutes. We continued on for a bit more and confirmed we were indeed on the wrong trail after talking to some of the campers. I suddenly felt like I just got punched in the stomach....two wrong turns in one race?! Trying to stay positive, we hoped that we had just missed the trail by a little bit, so we trekked up a bit higher up the steep grade and asked some more campers if they had seen any runners, they hadn't. I was feeling defeated but I was not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I remembered that the day before I said my goal was to just finish; this was still easily attainable despite the setback. I have not yet been able to confirm the length of the detour, but I know the detour cost me about 40 minutes and about 20 positions in the race.
mile 25:
After finding the split in the road we missed, I joined back up with some people I had passed earlier in the race before each detour. The trail was extremely rugged through this section, very overgrown with various plants and there was some felled trees across the trail. I was doing well and running at a very fast pace with my new friend John until I ran out of water again. I barely made it to aid station 4 before I collapsed to the ground in a squatting position. Even after tanking up on lots of liquids and getting sprayed down with water, I was not the same after this station. It was mile 25.3 and there was only about 6.5 miles to go, but my body was broken when I stood back up.
station 4:
I was at 5 hours and 45 minutes coming into this station and still confident of a sub 7 hour finish. An hour and fifteen minutes to finish out a fairly easy 6.5 miles on Cold Stream trail, around base of Stonewall peak, and along the shores of Cuyamaca Lake. After crossing Highway 79 I attempted to jog but my body just wouldn't have it! The hamstring tendon behind my left knee felt like it was about to rupture and both hips were burning with every step. So I spent the next 3 miles hiking as fast as possible before I got extremely frustrated......... I still had boundless energy but my tendons and supporting tissues were not conditioned for this extreme distance. I decided it was time to take out the iPod and crank up some motivational tunes. I went with "Impossible" by Da'Truth. The music helped my mind be distracted from the pain and I was able to run again, at a very fast pace! I cranked out about 2 fast miles on the trail, passing 3 people, until the pain couldn't be ignored anymore. I was next to the lake and had less then a mile left, but it was now almost impossible to just walk.
With the end in my sights now, it helped me push on to finish this thing. It was a very emotional end for me since I was fighting extreme pain and dehydration. I joined up with the wife and my family before the finish line and went back into a strong run with her to finish off the race.
Total distance(w/detours): ~34 miles
Official Finishing time: 7:19:01
Placement: 40th
The experience was truly unforgettable and I'd do it all over again once I am healed up ;-) The people I met were really nice and all had great stories to swap about other Ultra races they had done. The Ultra Racing community appeared to me as the closest knit in the world of running; I really like that aspect of it!!
I guess now is a good time to announce my running and racing goal of 2013. After careful consideration of what I'd like to achieve physically, I have decided I want to compete at the Leona Divide 50 mile race in April 2013. This is quite a step up in distance from the 50k, so I had better get off the computer and start recovering and training right now!
Me and my friend Jeremy White departed San Diego at 6:20 pm on a plane to Salt Lake City, Utah. After a short 2 hour flight, 1 hour time jump,1 hour drive, and a pit stop to stock up on food supplies for before and after the big race the next day, we arrived at the hotel around 11pm. My race was only 11 hours away at that point! We finally got into the late check-in safe and parked the car in the correct area. I finally got to bed around 12 am , giving me a 6 hour window for sleep in an unfamiliar bed/surroundings. Needless to say I did not sleep much with the anxiety of having to be at the race at 7am for Jeremy to check in at the volunteer tent.
6 am came very fast after a night of restless sleep! I decided for the first time ever before a race to forgo a normal breakfast and stick with a few protein bars and some salty snacks. Never a good idea to try out new things on race day! After about a 45 minute drive we made it to the race grounds. The temperature was great in the morning time and the race grounds were in a beautiful location. Soldier Hollow, in Midway, Utah, home of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Since we had gotten there 3 hours before my race, I spent the time checking everything out in the area. I did some practice climbs on the traverse wall that was set-up to make sure I still had the technique down from the last time I was on one 5 months ago. I also got to meet 2 of my favorite Spartan athletes, Hobie Call of http://conqueranycourse.com/ and Margaret Schlatchter of http://dirtinyourskirt.com/ They both were getting ready for the 8:30 am Elite heat and didn't have time to chat it up, which I totally understand. They were both still kind enough to let me take my picture with them :-)
While Jeremy was starting to volunteer, I spent the remainder of my pre-race time talking to other racers and warming up with lunges and hip mobility movements. My race gear ended up being running shorts, calf compression sleeves, quad compression sleeves,KT tape on left knee and a 50 oz Camelbak. I went against the advice given by Spartan staff in a pre-race email about wearing a shirt to retain water from the mudpits to stay cool in the extreme heat and went with my usual decision of not wearing shirts for obstacle races. 10 am heat was up and my pal , TC, in full Spartan armor gave an awesome pre-race motivational speech. It was one of my favorite motivational speeches with a "Spartan" twist.
Skip ahead to 2:19 for speech:
Everyone was extremely pumped up and started off very strong. I went with Hobie's race strategy that I overheard and started off at how fast I think I will be going 3/4 into the race. After analyzing the terrain from what I could see, I decided to go with a pretty quick pace. I had started a few rows back from the front of the line but I quickly caught up with the front 5 runners after about a half a mile. I remembered each of them so that I could know how my standing was in my heat throughout the race. The first leg of the race I was battling it out with the top 10 people. We all were taking turns at being faster and passing one another. There was a girl and a guy who kept catching up to me and passing me on the running sections between obstacles. I was able to blast past them easily on the obstacles. The first set of obstacles was some small 4 foot walls, some you had to climb over, some through and some under.
I started to have trouble breathing on the very first leg of the race, this may be due to the high elevation, the heat, or the poor air quality(wild fires and dusty /dry conditions). But because of it , I developed a very dry throat and had trouble drinking any liquids. Fluids felt like razor blades going down my throat!! I started to get a slightly negative attitude that I was going to finish poorly and not be able run the whole thing.
The race was shaped like a clover, in that there were 3 loops, all of which took you back to the start/finish area. They did this mostly due to the relay event they had going. After the finishing the Spartan "Pancake" carry (fancy sandbag), I started the 2nd leg of the race. That is when I realized, as dirtinyourskirt.com put it in her recent blog, "This was truly a runners race." I wasn't going to be expending large amounts of energy going up goat hills, but instead will be greeted with more of the same rolling hills throughout the race. Once I got my head right and was more optimistic about having a good finish, I really started to speed up and leave the competition in the dust. After the dizzying climb to the top of the rope obstacle, I never saw the girl and guy that were trailing me earlier, for the rest of the race.
I really started to have fun with it, I was feeling so good cruising past everyone from the earlier heats. Almost every single person I passed that had been out there a few hours, were all giving me motivational words as I passed them. It really caught me off-guard since no one did this at the Spartan Super Race in Temecula,Ca. Their words really helped me on the uphills after completing some of the more difficult obstacles.
The first barbed wire crawl really had me beat up, there was no dirt or sand left, but instead just big sharp rocks. I was not able to roll or crawl on my stomach under it because my camelbak getting snagged on the wire every few seconds; another contributing factor to its difficulty was due to the hose operator spraying water directly at my face for more then half of the crawl, so I couldn't see where I was going!
I continued to cruise the trail with the same few guys the entire time, joking around with them. We basically did every obstacle together!
Most tiring obstacle of the day: was a new one where you had a rubber band around your legs holding them together and you have to bunny hop into a long sea of tires that were too small to even fit my feet. I kept tripping up in them as I tried my best to center my feet so I didn't fall on my face.
The most unique obstacle of the day: Cargo net climb that was anchored up onto a bridge. You got to climb up the net to the top of the bridge and there was a tire suspended from a rope on the other side that you had to pull up to the top and back down before you were able to continue your run.
Fear of heights need not apply obstacle of the day: The rope climb was so high above the mud pit that I am guessing that a lot of people either did burpees or took a really long time to climb it with cautiousness . It was not one you could fall off of without sustaining serious injuries.
The race was going very fast for me up until the last half mile. The last half mile was harder for me then the rest of the race because of the obstacles that were packed in there. The first was the artillery range fire. My first mistake of the race was following my running buddy and opting to do burpees without even trying the shot. Pounded out 30 burpees as a penalty, or I should say the burpees pounded me. About 20 yards away was the dreaded spear throw obstacle. I took my time to line up the spear, but I went wide left and missed the target completely. 30 more burpees! This time the ground where we were doing them was very thorny and the set took a very long time. From there was a short run to the traverse wall. After choosing the first wall I realized it was a bad choice. Person after person was falling off of it... I got to about the middle when I realized why they were falling off. The hand grips in the middle were insanely far spaced apart and made for an interesting climb across.
Luckily I avoided the 3rd set of burpees in a row!!
The last obstacles from there were another 8 foot wall and a long barbed wire crawl. The crawl was very backed up and took me about 5- 10 minutes to get through it. I then finished strong through the gladiators and across the finish line!
Placement:
81st overall out of 2100
81st for the men of 1679
16th for age group
Time: 2:12:29
Currently Ranked 69th in the Global ranking series for the year!
It was a fantastic race and was filled with good memories. I highly recommend everyone to do it next year! We finished the night out by having dinner with the Warrior State of Mind team. Met lots of great people and got to swap Spartan racing stories from this race and others.
With the addition of 2 Ultra Marathons in this calendar year, I have decided to revamp my training regimen. The last time I took my training more serious was from December to February. The focus then was on functional strength, mixed with a little running. I would use the weight vest to do my run/lunge/burpee regimen. After a bunch of leg injuries, I ran less and less....then being in a car accident in April I had to give up upper body workouts, road biking and running. As the pain weaned, I started to mix some of those back in for training, which allowed me to do okay at the Spartan beast in Utah and the 50k.
.gif)
