My Track Record

Phil has been in good spirits for most of our vacation week here at my parents' house in Rutland, Vermont. He was crying pretty hard a couple of nights ago, but he calmed right down when my dad did a banjo-and-vocals rendition of "Hobo's Lullaby." I thought that it might be just a coincidence until Dad achieved the same results the next night with "Midnight Special." Reaction to my a cappella versions of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Blackbird" has been more equivocal, but overall, the little guy seems to be a fan of live music. I think he even made the "raise the roof" gesture with his hands during one of Dad's performances.

Posted by crowther at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Disclaimers

(1) I'm not a coach.

(2) I no longer have time to read the exercise physiology literature, as I once did, so my training program is not particularly "scientific."

(3) I've been doing ultramarathons for less than three years, so I'm not an expert on them.

(4) What works for me won't necessarily work for others. (As the ultra listserv people like to say, YMMV -- your mileage may vary.)

Ultramarathon training principles I regard as self-evident

(1) Long runs, up-tempo (faster-than-race-pace) runs, and speedwork are all useful.

(2) Key training runs should mimic the terrain of the goal race. Train on pavement to race well on pavement, train on hills to race well on hills, etc. (You know, like, d'uhh....)

(3) Long runs should be used to determine your nutritional needs during races. Figure out what works for your body in terms of fluid, electrolyte, and calorie replacement.

Other conclusions I've reached through trial and error

(1) Long runs are best done at race pace. Before my first two 100Ks, I did my long runs at slower than race pace; in both of those races, I faded badly over the last 30K or so. Before my last 100K and last 50-miler, I did my long runs at race pace or faster; both of those races went well. Guess which approach I'll be using next time?

(2) Single long runs are better than back-to-back not-as-long runs. Some people like to do a fairly long run on Saturday and another fairly long run on Sunday, the idea being that their bodies adapt to the high mileage without being damaged as much as they would by a single super-long run. This may or may not be true. However, when I'm preparing for a race, I gain confidence from simulating that race as closely as possible -- i.e., by doing individual long runs that are 60-70% of the race distance, not by doing two shorter runs and hoping that they "add up" to being prepared for the full distance.

(3) Once every other week is a good frequency for long runs. Since I do them at race pace, I need several days to recover from them. Scheduling them a couple weeks apart gives me time to recover fully, then get in some high-quality fast running before the next one.

(4) Higher weekly mileage helps keep the weight down. It's been said that a high volume of aerobic training increases muscle capillary density, mitochondrial density, blah blah blah. Yeah, fine, whatever. For me, the story may be as simple as the fact that my appetite does not scale with mileage, so increasing my mileage decreases my weight (by a couple pounds) and therefore makes me faster.

Gory details

(1) A summary of my training and racing data is available in the following Excel file, which I update periodically: www.running-blogs.com/crowther/Running2Excel.xls. Note the five separate worksheets: intro, races, workouts, weekly, monthly.

(2) The day-to-day details tend to look like this.

11/6: Ran home from work (6.5 miles), then 0.9 miles with Lucy (who is not much of a runner but still needs some exercise). A typical commuting day, meaning that I wore a light backpack and ran at about 7:00-7:15 per mile.

11/7: Ran to work (6.5 miles). Later, 0.9 miles with Lucy.

11/8: 7.4-mile warmup from home including form drills and strides. 4 x 1 mile around the Montlake Fill loop (5:17, 5:18, 5:18, 5:19) with ~500m jogs in between. 3.0-mile cooldown to work.

11/9: Ran home from work and then with Lucy (7.4 miles).

11/10: Ran to work, with six 30" pickups in the middle. Later, 0.9 miles with Lucy.

11/11: Ran from home to Green Lake via R&T (~8.35 miles in 53:50), six laps of the 3.22-mile outer loop (20:02, 21:21 [bathroom stop], 19:39, 19:57, 19:51, 20:50 [bottle-filling stop]), and back home (~8.35 miles in 52:10; overall, ~36 miles in 3:47:40.) Then 0.9 miles with Lucy for a grand total of 36.9 miles.

11/12: Ran the 2.5 mile loop with Lucy, then the 3.4-mile 15th/14th loop. Mileage this week: 88.

11/13: Ran to work, etc. (7.5 miles). Later, 0.9 miles with Lucy.

11/14: Ran to work (6.5 miles). Later, 0.7 miles at work. Later, ran home (6.5 miles), doing the Roanoke-to-14th section as a tempo run (22:08).

11/15: Ran home from work via Health Sciences, then with Lucy (7.6 miles).

11/16: Ran from home to the arboretum (6.3 miles including form drills and strides). 2 x arb mile (5:28, 5:35) with 2' jog in between. Wanted to do five repeats but was completely hopeless; maybe I need a few easy days. 2.8-mile cooldown to work.

11/17: Ran the 2.5-mile loop with Lucy.

11/18: Ran a Lake Union loop from Recycled Cycles with E-berg (6.8 miles).

11/19: 5.9-mile warmup from home. 3 x arb mile (5:17, 5:23, 5:18) with 2' jogs in between. 2.5-mile cooldown to work. Later, 0.9 miles with Lucy. Mileage this week: 63.

11/20: Ran home from work (6.5 miles).

11/21: Ran to work (6.5 miles). Later, ran from work to Chris' house (6.3 miles), including one hard lap of the 2.8-mile Green Lake inner loop (15:00) in the pouring rain.

11/22: Ran to to work (6.5 miles).

11/23: 26.0 miles at Green Lake -- 8 laps of the 3.22-mile outer loop plus a tiny bit more. Did the eight laps in 2:41:10; splits were 19:47, 19:40, 20:43, 19:55, 21:25, 19:55, 20:28, 19:18. Slow laps included bathroom stops. Ran a couple miles with Matt Messner toward the end.

11/24: Ran home from work, then with Lucy (7.4 miles).

11/25: Ran to work (6.5 miles). Later, 0.9 miles with Lucy.

11/26: Ran home from work via a "scenic route" (11.0 miles) in the pouring rain, including 3 x ~800m in the I-90 tunnel with ~400m jogs in between. Then 0.9 miles with Lucy. Mileage this week: 78.

As for cross-training, I don't currently do any, aside from about 35 miles per week of not-very-fast cycling -- mostly commuting to and from work.

Posted by crowther at 8:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

At the opening horn of the Sunmart 50-miler, the two Russians (Oleg Kharitonov and Denis Zhalybin) and the Italian (Giorgio Calcaterra) immediately charged into the lead while I followed at a discreet distance. In watching them from behind, I soon noticed several things. (1) Their pace was solid but not suicidal -- perhaps conducive to keeping the pack together for a good long while. (2) The Russians were wearing full-length tights, which seemed like a bit much for the south Texas weather. (3) None of the three were carrying fluids. (4) None looked very smooth on the trail, stepping gingerly over the roots and proceeding cautiously down the short, gentle downhills.

This last point particularly intrigued me. When I do trail ultras, I tend to be respected for my road speed but hampered by my poor trail-running technique. This situation was completely the opposite: I had the least impressive road credentials of the four of us but (apparently) the most trail experience.

Anyway, I was running comfortably, enjoying the fact that I was in such distinguished company.... And then, about 3.5 miles into the race, the three foreigners went off-course. This part of the course is an out-and-back section on a dirt road, with an aid station just beyond the turnaround point. A few seconds ahead of me, the trio continued straight past the turnaround and past the aid station, as if heading for the Interstate. After confirming with a volunteer that I was indeed at the turnaround, I yelled out, as loudly as I could, "Oleg, Giorgio, Denis -- turn around!!!" But they just kept running.

Another volunteer was dispatched in an all-terrain vehicle to chase down the wayward runners. Meanwhile, I headed back onto the course.

I spent the rest of the 12.5-mile lap, the first of four, wondering how long it might take them to catch back up to me. But by the end of the lap, my split time of 1:23:20 gave me a four-minute lead (as determined at another out-and-back section). That seemed pretty good! For lap two, I decided to try to maintain my cushion, so I ran a bit more aggressively and was rewarded with a 25-mile split of 2:46:00. Now my lead was seven minutes, but I was no longer feeling very fresh. I intentionally slowed down during lap three to reduce my chances of blowing up, and I finished the lap with a cumulative time of 4:12:25 and a 13.5-minute lead over Kharitonov. Calcaterra was even further back, and Zhalybin had now dropped out with an injury.

At this point, I recalled that the three-fastest 50-mile times in Sunmart's 17-year history were 5:20, 5:33, and 5:38. The first two were clearly out of reach, but I ran the last lap pretty hard in hopes of beating the 5:38. I did back off in a few rooty sections because I was feeling slightly lightheaded and didn't want to trip, but I ran an impressively fast closing mile (if I do say so myself) and finished in 5:37:39. Kharitonov wound up 2nd in 6:00, with Calcaterra 3rd in 6:11 and Hal Koerner 4th in 6:14. The top female finishers were Anne Lundblad (6:33), Kami Semick (6:42), Tania Pacev (7:15), and Christine Crawford (7:29). Complete results are available from DoIt Sports.

The Sunmart trophy is very beautiful but monumentally impractical. It's a bronze statue of a stallion that's about 1.5 feet long and 1.5 feet high and weighs 43 pounds. I wonder how many have been dropped over the years by weary runners with no upper-body strength. It will be interesting to try to get it onto the plane tomorrow.

A bunch of thank-you's are in order here: to Roger Soler, John Welch (who provided the photo below), the Sunmart volunteers, and everyone else who makes the event what it is; to my Houston-based aunt and uncle and their daughter, for helping me out in numerous ways; to my wife, for letting me train for and attend the race; and to my aunt Beverly, for helping my wife with Phil while I was away.

Posted by crowther at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Former marathon world record holder Steve Jones was the guest speaker at tonight's pre-race banquet. He spoke briefly and then fielded several questions, including one about his diet during his peak racing years, which he described as working-class "meat and potatoes" fare.

After the dinner, we had a conversation during which, in passing, I lamented my lack of sprinting speed.

A while later, just before we parted ways, the marathon legend offered a final unsolicited tip: "Don't eat anything green." Then, with a wink, he added, "That's why you're so slow."

Posted by crowther at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Phil currently breast-feeds about once every three hours. After his 2 AM meal last night, he woke up crying at 5 AM -- right on schedule. However, the milk didn't placate him. He kept right on crying.

It was rather unnerving. Among the various methods for soothing a baby -- giving him his pacifier, swaddling him, picking him up, rocking him, changing him into dry diapers and clothes -- feeding him is the one option that always works. Until now. Now what?

Did he have a fever? No, his temperature was normal. I took him to the living room, re-wrapped his blanket, and set him down on a pillow while I pondered my next move. He immediately stopped crying, went back to sleep, woke up late for his next feeding, and then suckled happily as usual.

I suppose the message here is that Phil is starting to become less predictable -- less like a pet and more like a person. A tiny, uncoordinated, inarticulate, gluttonous person, but a person nonetheless.

Posted by crowther at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Sunmart 50-mile and 50K races will be held on December 9th at Huntsville State Park outside of Houston. The courses are fairly flat and nontechnical, so they favor those with good legspeed. Below are the 50-mile entrants who, according to this blog, are most likely to place "in the money," which goes four deep ($1000 for 1st, $600 for 2nd, $400 for 3rd, and $200 for 4th).

MEN

1. Oleg Kharitonov (age 38; from Russia). Set a world track record of 11:28:03 for 100 miles in 2002; other PRs are 2:17 for the marathon (set last year) and 6:29 for 100K. At the Comrades Marathon, has placed 4th in 2002, 2nd in 2003, 3rd in 2004, 2nd in 2005, and 1st in 2006. If the weather is good, should have a shot at the $1000 bonus to be awarded for a new course record (currently 5:20:25, set in 2000 by former Comrades champ Charl Mattheus).

2. Denis Zhalybin (age 26; from Russia). Ran the second-fastest 100-miler ever in 2002, finishing just 1:29 behind Kharitonov. Tied with Kharitonov for 2nd place at the IAU World Cup 100K in October and has a 100K PR of 6:36. Once covered 93,247 meters during a six-hour indoor event, which must have been fun. Another legitimate threat to break the course record.

3. Giorgio Calcaterra (age 34; from Italy). A late entrant who effectively replaces American Howard Nippert, who has withdrawn due to illness. Calcaterra is a 2:13 marathoner who, according to David Monti of Race Results Weekly, recorded 16 sub-2:20 marathon finishes in a single year (2000). More recently, has run 6:45 for 100K and led much of this year's World Cup race, completing the first 50K in 3:09 before fading to an 11th-place 7:04. Surname can be translated very roughly as "crowded terrain"; may indeed find the trail a bit crowded, since nearly a thousand runners will attempt either the 50-miler or the 50K.

4. Greg Crowther (age 33; from Seattle, Washington). Lacks the credentials of the three above but did run a 6:59 100K in February, becoming only the second American to break the seven-hour barrier since 2002. (The other is Nippert, who's done it three times.) Marathon PR is 2:22. Like Calcaterra, is relatively new to ultramarathoning, having run his first 50K in September of 2004. The sole representative of the Seattle Running Company at this year's event, since 2005 champ Phil Kochik won't be defending his title, 2004-05 runner-up Hal Koerner has left the SRC to start his own running store, and 2004-05 50K winner Uli Steidl is vacationing in Kenya.

WOMEN

1. Anne Lundblad (age 40; from Swannanoa, North Carolina). Like Nippert, has run many of her best races at the IAU World Cup 100K, placing 6th in 2004 and 2006 (the latter in a PR 7:47) and 2nd in 2005 and leading the American women to the team gold in 2005. Named USATF's female ultrarunner of the year for 2005. In addition, has won the last three editions of the sporadically contested national 50K road championships: in 2001, 2004, and 2006.

2. Kami Semick (age 40; from Bend, Oregon). Won eight ultras in 2005, including the Helen Klein 50-miler, where she set a blazing course record of 6:13. This year, ended Nikki Kimball's seven-year trail ultra winning streak in August by defeating Kimball at the national 50K trail championships, then placed 11th at the World Cup 100K in October with a time of 7:56. Marathon best is 2:53.

3. Connie Gardner (age 43; from Medina, Ohio). Knows her way around the Sunmart course as well as anyone, having won the 50-miler in 2002 and 2004 while placing 2nd in 2003 and 2005. Her best time here is 7:14. Copped the national 100-mile trail title in February at Rocky Raccoon to go along with her national 100-mile road trophy from 2003, when she was USATF's female ultrarunner of the year.

4. Tania Pacev (age 47; from Littleton, Colorado). Despite being well into the masters age bracket, has been the overall female winner of four marathons and three ultras this year. In 2005, clinched the United States women's team victory at the World Cup 100K with a 9th-place 8:29.

Invited 50-mile runners besides those listed above include Eric Bindner, Scott Eppelman, Mark Godale, Jim Harrington, Andy Jones-Wilkins, Hal Koerner, Kim Martin, Ragan Petrie, Roy Pirrung, Bob Pokorny, and Todd Walker.

Posted by crowther at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)