Forget the PR, Mohican 50K

Last weekend Gina and I ventured over to Ohio for a 50K at Mohican State Park. In one sense, it did live up to it's name, I didn't get a PR (although my PR is on a course whose measurement accuracy is definitely not certain). Challenging, yes - kind of, there were enough ups and downs to keep things interesting, obviously Ohio has limited potential for long ups and downs and I bet most of the longest ones are in this park. There was plenty of technical terrain (read: hand-over-hand root ladders) and beautiful landscape to enjoy. It is a very gorgeous park and the race course cut through the best of it.

The race course is best described as a 3-leaf clover with the starting point on the tip of one of the petals. We started just a few minutes after 8:00 AM on Sunday. 150ish runners took off over the dewy grass, around an orange pylon, onto an asphalt road for a short stretch an then we hit the trail section. Luckily, the RD's announced before the race his pet peeve: Mid to Back of the Packers starting fast then slowing to a walk on the first hill section. This can be a problem at some races, at Squaw Peak 50 in Provo, UT, I've ran the initial 2 mile bike trail at 7 minutes/mile and still hit a log jam once the trail section starts. Luckily, the RD announcement helped, I hit the hill on the trail section and just kept boogying.

The initial "1 mile hill" though from the pre-race instuctions did not quit live up to its name. It leveled out for long stretches in the middle and was never really steep, I mean it is designed for mountain bikers, there is only so much you can expect from that population. They cannot seem to build a trail that isn't somehow a Grand Prix loaded with tight unnecessary turns, log jumps and quick, short drops (they called these "dogs" in OK, I don't know if this was a OK thing or not). Anyway, I started in a pack of 4 runners, a group of 3 took off at the start and we never did see these guys again. Right before the 1st aid, I followed the runner ahead of me (Richard Cook, the winner of Oil Creek 100), who was following the runner ahead of him and we missed a turn. In about 10 feet we realized our mistake and made the quick turn around. I ran through the aid station for the most part, just pausing long enough to get my bottle filled, and left before anyone else from this little pack of 4. They left quickly too, but after another mile or so, I never saw them again behind me.

Aid station 2 is right at the center of the 3-leaf clover, the "vertex" as us math folk say. I crossed over a covered bridge, got my bottle filled again (all of the aid station crew were amazing, I never stopped, someone grabbed my bottle and filled it up whiel walking next to me, I've never seen such helpful aid station workers!) and helped out on petal #2. About a mile or so into this section, the trail made a left turn and started picking its way through a small creek bed, hopping over fallen logs, around boulders and to top out required a short hand-over-hand climb up a tree's root system that looked like a ladder designed for someone just in my shoes. A bit later, I popped out by a resort by Pleasant Hill Dam. There is a short (~¾ mile) loop around the resort before you start heading back to the central vertex. Right as I started the loop I saw the lead runner (who would eventually win) heading back. After I passed through aid station #3 and was heading back myself, I saw some of the group that I had been with before. I figured I had a bout 7 minutes on them, more than I was expecting, so I relaxed a bit as I didn't feel anyone breathing down my back and turned my attention to the three guys I knew were ahead.

Back at aid station #2 again, I started up the climb to the Fire Tower (aid station #4). I think this is the longest climb on the course, really the only time I felt like walking at all. When I pulled through the Fire Tower aid station, I was a bit disappointed as I still hadn't seen Gina and we had planned on her meeting me both at the Resort (which I cam through sooner than we planned) and at the Fire Tower. About ½ mile down the trail though I saw her waiting for me in a parking lot. It picked me up to see her, plus I could finally ditch the glooves and long-sleeve shirt I had been carrying around my waist for the last 8 miles. Of course, following a climb to something called Fire Tower is an equally long descent. This felt good and I worked the down hills, unfortunately, I didn't seem to make up anytime on the guys ahead of me.

One last time through aid station #2 and I had only a 4 mile segment left, mostly flat along side a creek. After walking for 2 minutes to let me legs get a break after the downhill section, I put my head down and went to work. I made it through the flat creek side section and got the cruelest part of the course, a steep ½ climb followed by an equally steep descent. Yeah, I walked most of this climb.

I finished in 4:31:30, a time I'm very happy with. My toes on the other hand, probably wishes I took the down hills slower, or moved up to size 11s.



RESULTS

GAP Itinerary

The itinerary is mostly done, I'd say about 95% complete. You can check it out with this link (it's a Google Spreadsheet):

GAP Itinerary

Looking at the itinerary I seesaw between thinking that I should run more each day and that I should run less. I guess that means things should work out. I figure that f I keep up a 5 mile per hour pace, that means I'll be running 9 hours a day. If I throw in a 1 hour lunch/snack break, that means 10 hour days start to finish. That doesn't really leave a lot of time left over. Still lots of mental game left to consider before the run even starts.

I realized over the weekend during an amazing run around Tamarack Lake, full of sunshine but with temperatures cool and in the 50's, that Forget the PR 50K is coming up in 2 weeks, the Pittsburgh Marathon in 4 and the GAP in 7. Spring is moving along full force.

Finding Mile 0

Gina and I took the opportunity during a trip last weekend to DC to help Ramiró (Gina's dad) move into a new apartment to check out some of the sights along the GAP and some of the places we will travel through during our trip. It got me really excited about my upcoming run. There is going to be some beautiful scenery, remote passages and lots of lonesome trail.

Our first stop was in Cumberland, Maryland. This is the transition point from the Great Allegheny Passage from Pittsburgh to the C&O Towpath leading to DC. We were able to use the Trail Book to navigate through Cumberland to find the trail at the terminus of the C&O canal.

One direction: Cumberland -> Pittsburgh:


Then turn around: Cumberland -> DC:


This point is 135 miles from Pittsburgh and 184 miles from DC. From there we passed by several of the exits from I-68 and I-70 that Gina will take. After we helped Ramiró and Gloria move, we spent some time searching out "Mile 0" in Georgetown and the beginning on the C&O canal. It was a good thing we had the guide book, for being a national landmark, "Mile 0" is not easy to find. It involves navigating around a large boat house and walking around past a fence. We walked out a bit parallel to the canal. It was really cool to see all of the old locks. I'm excited to experience the history of the canal and the passage on our journey.

I started working on the itinerary of our trip last week during my spring break. I got a good start, but didn't quite finish. I should be able to finish this week and I'll provide a link to the spreadsheet. It's a Google Doc, cool, I'm high tech.

Hill Running

One of the biggest changes in my running since the move from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania is the continual presence of hills. In Norman, I had to hunt out hills. They are possible to find. On the east side of town, many of the country roads are filled with slow rollers as you make your way out to Lake Thunderbird. Additionally, there's Mount Scott by Lawton, but that is a 90 minute drive. In Meadville, it's more of a hunt to find the flat ground. For some visual aids, here are the elevation profiles of my "staple" run in each location.

"Easy Plateau" in Meadville:



"OU7" in Norman:



Be sure to note the scale on each graph, they are not the same! That huge hill around mile 3 of OU7, really is only 35', where as the last 2 mile climb of Easy Plateau goes up over 400'. So how do my times compare? (Both routes are about 7.2 miles)

• Easy Plateau: (21 runs from 11/09 to 3/10) average time: 56:57, pace: 7:55/mile, best time: 53:00
• OU7: (64 runs from 10/07 to 7/09) average time: 53:48, pace: 7:28/mile, best time: 48:00

The reason I'm thinking about this now is due to the training program I got from Runner's World SmartCoach for the upcoming Pittsburgh Marathon. I used my recent 10K time (38:08) and a current workout load of 51-55 miles to get a moderate training program for the marathon, which is 8 weeks away. The program suggests doing easy runs at 7:37 pace and long runs at 7:37 too at the beginning and dropping these down to 7:33 by the end of the program. Initially, I was a bit worried, since 7:37 is faster than my current easy run pace. But then I started analyzing this more throughly (OK, looking for excuses is probably a more accurate description), "This training program is probably written for someone who runs on flat surfaces." So when I went back to my training log, and saw that my times in Norman are about on par with these times, I felt my confidence return. However, there are hills in Pittsburgh...



For those of you wondering about GAP updates, I received the tour books and maps in the mail this week and just started putting together an itinerary for the trip. So hopefully next week I have some more information on this end.

On an aside, with the warmer weather, Gina and I have been firing up the barbie lately. We started using a recipe for pineapple from the current issue of Runner's World. In the magazine it calls for baking slices of pineapple brushed with butter and brown sugar, but we've been grilling it with great results. The first time we capped it off with ice cream, last night we capped it off with some vegan chocolate cake that some friends brought over. Mmm ... tasty.

St. Patrick's Day 10K

On Saturday Gina and I made trip up to Erie to run a local 10K. It was put on by the Erie Runner's Club and hosted at Presque Isle State Park. The race course primarily was an out and back along the thin neck of the peninsula with a short out and back blip at the finish. Warmer temperatures over the last week vanished before the weekend leaving us with rain/fog/mist and temperatures in the 40s. However, the warmer air stayed around long enough to melt the snow so at least we didn't have to fight the ice and slush as we did at the 5 mile race held at the same place on New Years.

There was some confusion at the start. People lined up were previous races start, which turned out to be about 200 feet up course from where the real start was. The race director marched everyone back the 200 feet through the parking lot to the real starting line. The back of the pack stopped at the starting line once they reached it and created a mass of runners lining up between cars. I ended up having to start a few rows back from the start and when the race started had to slip by several folks to get out front. By the time I broke free of the main pack, the lead and chase pack were already a couple of hundred feet ahead and making ground.

I set a solid pace and starting picking off runners. By the half way point, I had moved up to about 10^th place. The wind blew in our faces on the return leg. I turned my hat around (aerodynamic!) and tried to keep the same effort and focusing on picking off more runners. I kept sliding by more runners and moved into 4^th place with about ½ mile remaining. I finished strong, but I don't have a kick. At the end I felt like I still had gas in the tank and should of pushed it harder throughout the race. This time was about 17 seconds off of my PR, but with the weather I still think it was a good effort.

time: 38:09
pace: 6:09/mile
place: 4/257
age group (30-34): 1/11

Gina ran strong too and did get a PR (54:21). I was able to run the last ½ mile with her and enjoyed watching her pass some folks and keep her foot on the gas. No news or information on the GAP, hopefully I'll have something next week. Spring break is the week of March 22 - March 26, the plan is to write a working itinerary that week. I'll post whatever I write.

FULL RESULTS

Run the GAP

So it has been a while, been a long while in fact, almost two years since the last post. As you can probably guess, a lot has changed. Most notably my wife, my dog and I moved from our beloved Oklahoma to Meadville, a small community in northwest Pennsylvania where I began working at Allegheny College last fall. We bought a house, shoveled lots of snow and also bought a car. There have been a few races in there. Most notably the Heartland 100 through vast Flint Hills of southeast Kansas during Fall 2008 and the Oil Creek 100 through Oil Creek State Park, the birthplace of America's oil addiction, right here in northwest Pennsylvania this last fall.

The sun came out a few days ago, broke through after a week of overcast and snow showers. We spotted some new growth on the trees this morning, spring really is right around the corner. With it comes a new opportunity and a new challenge for Gina and myself. The last week of May I am going to run from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington, DC. There is a 330 mile bike trail connecting the downtown area of both cities, 145 on an old railroad bed from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD, the remaining 185 on the C & O towpath along the Potomac. Historic, Washington path in reverse. It's called the Great Allegheny Passage. Our plan is to take 6-7 days, that means about 47-55 miles a day.

That's the big impetus for starting the blog again. I plan to blog about my training, itineraries and the actual run after it happens. Here's a few links to check out with info about the trail.

• The Allegheny Trail Alliance


• Linking up


• The Yockatomic Trek

Running in the wind

It's official, I'm now truly an Oklahoman. Last Tuesday I was entering my run info into my training log (it's online through Runner's World magazine, there's a link on the right to my log) and was wondering whether or not I should check the box labeled "windy". I couldn't remember so I went to NOAA's website to see the weather history. Apparently, there was a 30 MPH southern wind, with gusts close to 40 MPH. Really? I hadn't even noticed.

Here's a few tips I've picked up for running in the Oklahoma winds:

Plan your runs so that the wind is at your back for the second half. Although if you do this in Norman you end up running south, headed straight for the waste water treatment plant. Raw sewage and a stiff headwind don't go well together.

Run early in the morning when the wind is not as strong. Translate: only a 20 MPH wind, not 25 MPH.

Try running through wooded neighborhoods. However running through an older neighborhood with large trees when there's 40 MPH gusts isn't exactly relaxing when you see 5 inch diameter limbs littering the sides of the roads.

Which brings us to the best advice about running in the wind:

Suck it up and enjoy it anyway. You're not going to be able to change the fact that it is windy, so just tuck your head down and keep putting one foot in front of the other. What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger.

I apologize to all my usual readers (which I was informed by a friend this last week is now up to 3) about not keeping up with my weekly posts. Hopefully you'll give me some slack, I got married, summer school started up, and all the other little things that make up a week. My running should get back into rhythm this week and with a little luck, so should the weekly entries.



Running moment of the week: Thursday afternoon I slipped in an unplanned run around the Sutton Wilderness Area. It was hot, humid and I was pretty slow but it felt cleansing, like a good sweat in a steam room.

5/26 - 6/1
total miles: 51.0
time: 7:02

May miles: 206.0
YTD miles: 1151.7

Running moment of the week: After a real hard demoralizing run yesterday, Maia and I had a easy recovery run up at Lake Stanley-Draper up in OKC. We ran along the dirt road on the east side of the lake. It's closed in spots to vehicles so I let Maia off leash and just let her trot next to me. She'd push me on the downhills and I'd have to be a cheerleader for her on the uphills.

6/2 - 6/8
total miles: 45.1
time: 6:01

YTD miles: 1196.8