American Canyon 50K Training Week Four & Footfeathers Clinic

The Pirates Cove section of the Marin Headlands

Week four of AC 50K training was one of those "lost" weeks. I missed two hours mid week, but made up about an hour and forty minutes on the weekend. What resulted was a decent introduction to the back to back long run. Back to back runs on the weekends are a staple of the ultra runner. They really boost the time spent on your feet, and give you lots of experience running on tired legs. I felt the effect of a strong foundation of  base miles the second day, as my muscles outlasted my ankles and hips. More cross training and core work are on the horizon...

The week:

Monday: ~3 hours back country skiing with Twirly and friends

Saturday: 3:45 hilly run in the Marin Headlands

Sunday: 96 minute recovery jog

Totals: 29.51 miles, Elevation gain: 5,446', Avg HR 127

Tenessee Valley, with San Francisco's Sutro Tower in the far distance

Saturday's run in the Marin Headlands was spectacular, and once again provided a downpour to make things interesting. I drove to the Tennessee Valley trail head after attending a Footfeathers clinic on training for ultra distance races. Tim always puts on an entertaining forum, complete with anecdotes and plenty of laughs. Topics included periodization, heart rate specific training strategies and theories, training volume and specificity. It provided me some more insight into the method behind Tim's madness. And there was food.

I was able to snap a few photos during my race simulation long run before the rain began. My schedule called for 3 hours of practice racing. "Moving constantly, efficiently, eating and drinking" was the goal, although I began with 50 ounces of water when I should have had 70, and I stopped to take pics along the way (not likely during a race). The biggest lesson I learned was that my muscular endurance is good enough to outlast my joints if I bomb technical downhill too hard! I used Vespa again, and it looks like one every three hours will be a good consumption rate. I started bonking around three hours and ate an additional ViFuel instead of wasting a Vespa on 45 minutes of running. I refueled with a new drink, Cytomax Fruit Punch, and I think I have found a new favorite recovery drink!





Pirates Cove without my mug

Mount Tamalpais

The run ended up being 3:45 and bit over 18 miles. I was pretty wrecked at the end, but got in a 9 mile recovery jog on Sunday, thus beginning four months of back to back runs in preparation for American River 50 in April.

Here are the details from Saturday's adventure:

American Canyon 50K Training Week Three - Six to go

Week three of American Canyon 50K training saw the holidays come in with more weather. I got four days in between trips home:

Wednesday: 45 minutes at 9:00

Thursday: 60 minutes eat 9:00

Friday: 45 minutes at 9:00

Saturday: hilly 2 hours ~ half marathon pace

Totals: 29.38 miles, 2910'/3606' elevation gain/loss, avg HR 142

I am implementing a new fueling strategy during training, abstaining from calories for runs under three hours. The mid-week base runs went good, but my post workout recovery fueling on Saturday was a fail. After running down to the lake and back, and then down to Lower Scotts Flat Lake, then a couple of repeats on the dam, I only took in 4-500 calories. Despite grazing continuously at a dinner party that night, my blood sugar crashed and I had to take a nap. 

Looking past the holidays with no outstanding niggles, I am excited to continue Tim's plan. Next Saturday he is holding a clinic on Race Training at Sports Basement, which I will follow with three hours in the Marin Headlands. The downside is I probably will not get to see Twirly that weekend.

CIM Training Week Nine & Footfeathers "Eat to Win" Clinic

Dorks, posing. (Photo by Margaret Gagnon)

Week nine marks the beginning of my new training strategy: give in to being coached. Pretty liberating, I must say. The miles seem easier when they are imposed by a higher power. My first week with Tim has been my second biggest volume week of the year, and I feel awesome. He even had me walk one day! Check out the numbers:

Monday: rest day

Tuesday: 15 minute warm up, 40 minutes at half-marathon pace, 20 minute cool down

Wednesday: 60 minute MAF test

Thursday: walk 45 minutes faster than 14:00/mile

Friday: 60 minutes @ 9:00/mile effort

Saturday: 45 minutes @ 9:00/mile effort

Sunday: 20 minute warm up, 60 minutes @ 9:00 effort, 60 minutes @ 8:45 effort, 40 minutes @ 9:00 effort

Totals: 50.3 miles, avg heart rate 140

This approach is a shift from the Total Heart Rate Training program I have been using since my injury last year. Changing horses requires a change in paradigm, and although effort is not the same as heart rate, my starting efforts are based on the MAF test, and an effort-based program is better suited to the trail running I plan to be doing next year. Given the differences in trails, elevation and overall difficulty, learning to keep a steady effort will pay off if I can fine tune the process on the flat-lands and road races.

Another difference in the program Tim has laid out for me is my pace. The intensity and effort on my 3 hour run was a change in that instead of holding a steady heart rate and getting progressively slower over the length of the run, I held a steady pace/effort and let my heart rate climb as the run progressed. This mimics races better than the former method, and I feel like it is one of the more positive changes Tim has thrown at me. I learned a lot on that one long run (20 miles in three hours), such as I don't need as much fuel during training as I thought.



Footfeathers and Lucho dish it out (Photo by Margaret Gagnon)



The week was highlighted by a Footfetish, err, Footfeathers clinic, "Eat to Win". As with past clinics, we met Tim in the Marin Headlands at the Tennessee Valley Trail Head on Saturday morning. He brought with him a guest speaker, Tim "Lucho" Waggoner, to talk about nutrition, which Lucho has dialed in over a 25 year (minus a break or two) career as a professional endurance athlete. His bio from Ultimate Direction:

"Triathlon and Ultra-marathoning 15 time Ironman. 16th over-all and top amateur at Ironman Hawaii in 2000. USAT Triathlete of the year in 2000. 12th professional at Hawaii in 2002. US Ironman Champ in 2004. 2:30 marathon at Denver. 6th place at Leadville 100 run in 2010. 8:37 at Leadville 100 bike in 2011. [Won] Leadman in 2012."

Bottom line: bad-ass who has figured out how not to bonk! He also happens to be down to Earth and an all around nice guy:

The clinic was two and a half hours of anecdotes, information and questions & answers. Pretty informal overall, and Lucho turned out to be like Tim in that he is a "do as I say, not as I do" sort of coach. Some things I took home:

• Food falls into two categories: fuel for training and nutrition the rest of the time
• Personal experimentation is required to find out what works, as we all are different
• We don't need as much carbs as we might think
• Better to focus on protein and fat
• Carbs should be ~40% of daily calories during base training, up to 80% during peak
• Immediately after a workout, avoid protein and fat until liver glycogen is replenished
• Switch to 4:1 carb/protein after initial carb replacement
• Try to eat 4 or more hours prior to workout
• Salt capsules might help with GI issues
• During exercise, 1g carbs/lb of body weight/hour is optimum
• Start simple, then get complex with fuel strategies
• Fat and protein inhibit carbohydrate uptake
• During recovery, max carb uptake is 80-90 grams/hour, some proteins can only be absorbed at 2.8 grams/hour
• It can take 20-24 hours to completely replenish glycogen stores
• Daily protein intake should be about 1 gram/kilogram of body weight/day
• Race night dinner should be 12 hours prior to race start
• Carb loading should be achieved by maintaining steady diet and tapering
• No fuel is necessary if workout is sub MAF or less than 90 minutes
• Some fuel/nutrition options:
• Master Amino Acid Pattern
• Co Enzyme Q 10
• Maltodextrin plus sucrose and beet extract as gel replacement (liquid)
• V-8 is a good addition to the drop bag

There was much more information thrown around, and some good discussions covering common maladies. A lot of my opinions and observations were reinforced, and I really enjoyed the experience and the group. I'm beginning to know people by name, largely due to Margaret Gagnon's compulsive photography and Facebook tags!

How else would we wrap up an eating clinic? (Photo by Margaret Gagnon)

CIM Training Week Two and Footfeathers Clinics

Tennessee Valley, photo courtesy of Margaret Gagnon

Week two of marathon training is in the books, and my fall racing schedule is getting into full swing. Last week's scheduled runs went out the window due to, well, life, but I feel like it was good training none-the-less. I had two short runs planned for Tuesday and Thursday, but neither happened. Six miles Monday, seven miles Thursday went well, but a long run of 13 miles planned for Saturday failed to fully manifest.

Jesse, me, Tim and Kara overlooking the Tiburon Peninsula,
photo courtesy of Christopher Himmel

Twirly hopped on a friend's boat to help crew a sail from Alameda to Half Moon Bay early Saturday morning, so after I dropped her off at the marina, I headed to Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands for the first of two weekend running clinics hosted by Tim Long, of Footfeathers Coaching. I had attended one of Tim's hill running clinics over the summer and felt that the tools he provided were paying off during training and racing, plus he's a really nice guy and we have some common interests besides running (beer and food). Saturday's clinic was Race Planning and Preparation. He had some help from Kara Teklinski presenting the material, covering a bunch of topics: studying the course, race logistics, crew/pacers, race reports, travel and tapering. He handed out samples of the very tasty Vi Fuel energy gels, a new sponsor for Tim, and after the clinic the group headed out for a run. Some turned back early, but four of us ended up doing a conversationally comfortable ten mile loop and about 2000 feet of elevation before heading for some seafood and ridiculously large beers served in quart mason jars at fish. in Sausalito.

Race Planning Clinic, photo courtesy of Margaret Gagnon

I am considering hiring Tim as a coach after the marathon, as I begin training for the American River 50 Mile in April. I have always enjoyed planning my own training, but as I make the transition to longer races, I feel like some guidance will keep me on track and provide some accountability in my training. However, at the conclusion of our ten mile run, I wanted to get the other three in to complete my 13 miles I had planned. That's when Tim the "enabler" showed his stripes as he told me and Kara (who he already coaches) we could just "make them up tomorrow". So much for accountability. It did show his flexibility, of course, and it also got us to the restaurant and giant beers faster!

Masochists, each and every one, photo courtesy of Margaret Gagnon

Sunday morning's Hill Running clinic was in Tennessee Valley, also in the headlands just north of Rodeo. Tim had originally planned to hold the clinic on the Coastal Trail as it climbed out of the valley towards Pirate's Cove, arguably the prettiest trail in the headlands. Kara and I were part of a group who left the parking lot a few minutes behind the large group Tim led down the valley, and after we were separated, there was some confusion about where Tim took the group. While I had planned to tack on the 8 miles I had omitted for the week, I had not planned to run 5 miles up the wrong trail while missing the first half of the clinic, but that is indeed how it played out.

Me on the left, Chris Wehan (4th place Miwok 100K) on the right,
photo courtesy of Margaret Gagnon

All was not lost, as I won an American River 50 Mile Endurance Run Patagonia tech tee from Norcal Ultras in the raffle at the conclusion of the clinic. That makes two raffles in a row where I have won AR50 gear. I feel the running gods are calling me to this race. Still seven months away, I have a lot to focus on before then.

After the clinic, I packed up the Tacoma and drove south to the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club to meet up with Twirly and the rest of her crew for the annual Labor Day party. This morning I got an easy six in along the beach in a dense fog. Coastal California running has so many faces; I truly love the diversity available within an hour of where we have Kuani moored. I really feel blessed.

Next weekend is the Run for Hunger 10K in Nevada City. A Gold Country Grand Prix race benefiting the local food bank. The following week is the Giant's Half Marathon, which finishes on the field at AT&T Park. I have been planning to use the Giant's race as a training run, but Twirly and I have been invited to crew aboard another friend's sailboat for the following week. We'll be scuba diving most days, and I am not sure how much of my training schedule will be practical. After speaking with Tim, I am leaning towards racing the half marathon, and then using the week spent sailing to rest, with a few progression runs when possible, and of course, getting that long run in (which will be 16 miles that week). I'm excited about the whole trip, but the idea of a 16 miler on Catalina Island has got me looking for just the right route.

The month finishes with another Grand Prix race, the Cystic Fibrosis 5K, and then the Bizz Johnson 50K is the weekend following. Four races in five weeks with a week of diving and sailing thrown in for good measure. Some say I'm living the dream, but I say I'm simply living the life my dreams have chosen for me.

Some Garmin data for the curious: