Friday, January 23, 2015

Ultra Balance

     Ultra fun? ultra regret? sometimes the balance between ultra running and trying to be an ultra father can be an ultra pain in the ass. The two things I love most in life are being a father and ultra running, they both bring me so much joy and I want to be the best at both that I can be. But you cant always have the best of both worlds, as my dad often sang to me "you cant always get what you want...". When it comes down to choosing between the two of course I put my family first. But is there a good way to have the best of both worlds, is there a good way to strike an ultra balance? I think so and although I am still working on getting that balance right I feel like I'm getting better at this trapeze balancing act called life.


      When getting in the large amount of mile required to train for a ultra event it is key to find time to run when it will have least effect on quality family time. First approach; two a days can really end up being a familiar friend, I often squeeze in two a days toward the beginning of my week because I don't have hours of free time to do long runs every day. Two a days while not as affective as long runs do a great job of training your legs to run through fatigue/tiredness required when training for an ultra event. I usually try a split my two a days into distinct workouts, for example I will run a speed session (treadmill or road) during the first run and then a hill workout (treadmill or trail) during my second run, these of course can be interchangeable. This not only breaks up the boredom associated with doing the same workout over and over again, but also helps train different muscle groups and strengths used in ultra running. I am lucky enough to have a job that grants me some flexibility in my lunch hours so I usually aim to run 45mins to an hour everyday at lunch, often at the gym (so I can take a shower afterwards) and sometimes on the roads (I can come back and change while applying liberal amounts of spray deodorant = hippy shower).
      Second approach; weekend longs runs are a staple in every ultra runners diet, weekend long runs are by far my favorite drug and is what got me to love running so much. I almost exclusively do my long runs out on the trails unless weather or injury decides otherwise. I accomplish my weekend long runs using a few different avenues; the first of which is waking up super early to get in the hours before the rest of the household wakes up. The second of which is waking up early every morning during the weekdays to get the kids ready for school, in return the spousal unit has agreed to let my have my weekend long runs. Sleeping in is a thing of the past!


      Another approach to balancing family and running, one I've only been partially successful with, is to include my family in with my running. Get your children to run at an early age, do they have a fun run available at your next running event? a 5K? The key is not to force running upon my family, running shouldn't be seen as a chore, its should be something they enjoy. My wife Desirae sometimes likes to run half marathons and go on hikes with me, so its definitely a bonus for my training getting her involved. My son CJ is big into sports and is really good at some of them but doesn't like to run as much as I had hoped he would, my other son Connor is in a wheelchair making it a little difficult for him to run. My family is very supportive of my running regardless and makes it to the finish line of almost all my races, they really are the best crew I could ask for. Hopefully with time CJ will gather more interest in running but until then I enjoy watching his love for playing sports. Another one of my goals this year is to push Connor in a wheelchair through a marathon/half marathon.


       That's pretty much the summary of how I get in runs without sacrificing quality family time, my ultra balance. I'm sure other runners have different approaches to the ultra balance, whatever works for them. The key is to put my family first, when all is said and done running is just a hobby for most us mortals, but family is my life, my job and my main source of happiness. There are many times I have had my running regimen put on halt/revised in the name of being a father and I'm okay with that. I just keep in mind there is always another day to run, another day to train and skipping a day or ten of running will not derail your success at an ultra race. No long run for me this weekend, I'm off to go enjoy my family before spending a week in Florida, till then a beer to celebrate and a trail to run..


Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Year in Review and a Quick Outlook for 2015

     2014 is over already!? Boy does time fly! I really had such a phenomenal year both in running and in my life in general, I will go over a quick recap of the running I did in 2014 and give a quick outlook of what I'm aiming for in 2015.I will do my best to keep everything in chronological order but I'm really bad with remembering specific dates and such, so bear with me. Sorry this blog post is a little late due to end of the year illness and a bad case of poison oak (more of that in an upcoming post). So sit back, grab some spiked eggnog and enjoy my journey through 2014!

       January started off with me being sick, yeah happy New Years! I seem to get sick the same time every year, I bounced back from sickness super quick and got down to training for the Bandit 50K and more specifically Western States 100. Ever since I had found out I got into WS 100 through the lottery I had WS fever, it was my #1 priority all year. I also had a goal of going sub 5 at Bandit 50K so I did a lot of training on the Bandit course in January and February. I felt super good going into Bandit and everything went my way, I had a great race and ended up 3rd place overall and 1st in my age group at my hometown race in 4:33:50!

      After Bandit I took sometime to bump up my mileage and focused on WS training as much as I could. Two "hiccups" along the way felt very work related. Hiccup #1: When everyone at work knows your a runner they want you to represent the business name for them, my boss's rotary club puts on a 10K race through Westlake Village every year and he begged me to run it (cant say no to the boss man). Okay I don't really like short races but lets see how my speed work is coming along, I really didn't push it too hard and cruised into a 2nd place finish with a 39:15. Hiccup #2: Work decided on doing Corprate Games this year and of course I was nominated to run the 5K race, I found out that I'm really not too fast but still managed to bring home a bronze for my work in a time of 19:26.
       Next up Leona Divide 50 mile, after running this race the year prior I thought this would be a great race to train on for WS. The course ended getting altered from the previous year due to fire that burnt a good part of the course last year, yeah me, I get to run a lot more elevation (around 9500ft-10000ft gain) on this new course.  I was in top shape going into the race but had a foot issue  where the top of my foot would start throbbing at about 10 miles in (think it was a new shoe issue). Sure enough at mile 11 at a huge downhill section of the race my foot starts throbbing with pain, after many thoughts of just ending my race I went on and pushed through the pain. The pain finally got a little more tolerable around mile 20 and I ran a solid closing half of the race. Running 7 min/miles the last two miles of the race I came in 8th overall at a pretty competitive 50 miler with a time of 7:48:12.

        Road trip!! Brett (my good friend) and I decided that there would be no better way to train for WS then to train on the WS course itself. I highly recommend the WS training runs on Memorial weekend for not only WS runners but for everyone. What a great weekend of trail running, friends and beer. The first morning started with a 32 mile run through the canyon section of WS and was both humbling and gorgeous. After beers at the Auburn Ale House and a good night sleep it was on to 18 quad pounding miles through the Cal street section of the WS course. I met a lot of elite runners and got a good taste of what to expect race day, yes I'm going back this year for more.

        The time has come, the big dance has arrived! this is the moment I've been training up to for months and have been dreaming about for years, the Western States 100! Desirae and I headed up to Squaw a few days early to have some time to prepare for relax before the race, Squaw and the condo we rented were amazing. Desirae ran the Montrails 6K uphill challenge that takes you up to the top of Escarpment (the first 3.5 miles of the race) I was super proud of her! WS ended up being the highlight of my running career so far, everything about it was magical. I ended up having an amazing race and a life changing experience coming in 48th overall at the most competitive and first 100 mile race ever with a time of 21:14:23. Spent the next week in San Francisco recovering from WS where I even squeezed in a run through the beautiful Marin Headlands.

        After a few months recovery from WS I had an itch to test out my new found speed gained from training for WS and I usually run a marathon once a year, I really enjoy the certain type of pain associated with a marathon. I had a goal of qualifying for Boston even though I had no intention of running it this year, a 3:10 is what I needed in my age bracket. It was tough finding a marathon at this time of the year but I stumbled across the Ventura Marathon. Despite being a super boring and fairly low key marathon it was flat and fast. Even with the 2 min bathroom break at mile 10 I came in at 3:01:08 good enough for 24th overall and a BQ.

       The best ultra and highlight of my year was getting married to the love of my life Desirae and merging our two families into one. This event was akin to an ultra marathon in many ways, a relationship takes hard work, patients and persistence to make it to the end, even through marriage this ultra marriage never ends, its the longest ultra run ever! But I got the best reward for this unfinished ultra with two of the greatest boys I could ever ask for: CJ and Connor. We got married 10/10/2014 at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach on a gorgeous day at the beach and I even manage to get in a run that morning to shake out the nerves. This day was by far the best highlight of my year and my life!

         That's it... enough running races this year, time for some recovery and getting back to enjoying the trails at my pace... or so I thought. I was eyeing The inaugural No Name 5030 for a few months and thought it would be awesome to race on the trails I run at a lot during my lunch time. After some poking and prodding from friends and family I finally pressed the registration button. I was not feeling top form at all coming into this race so I had zero expectation of doing good, I was just going to go out there and have fun. Well hell! fun it was, winning a race for the first time ever in a time of 4:17:16!

        Time for my pacing duties to come into play here as I paced Brett into a sub 24hr Javelina Jundred finish, I had a great time road tripping to Arizona and hanging out with Bretts crew/family. I got to run 30 miles through the desert starting as the sun went down and through the night, the desert at night is truly a magical place. Was proud of Brett as he hammered his way into a 22:46:43 finish!

        Community support is what I'm all about, what better way to support the local trail running scene and community then running the White Bull Winter Trail Series. A series of four races about 5 miles in length each turns out to be uphill speed work. It was a great series of races with a lot of good people and local runners, I had a chance to test myself on a lot of the climbs I will be encountering on the Bandit course this year. I won the first two races (Tapo Open Spaces and Long Canyon) and came in 2nd for the final two races (Marrland and Chumash) putting me squarely in first place position overall with a cumulative time of 2:27:20. 

  • 02/16/2014, Bandit 50K, Time:4:33:50, 3rd overall, 1st age group
  • 04/04/2014, Westlake 10K, Time: 39:15, 2nd overall, 1st age group  
  • 04/16/2014, Corporate Games 5K, Time:19:26, 3rd overall, 2nd age group
  • 04/26/2014, Leona Divide 50 mile, Time 7:48:12, 8th overall, 1st age group
  • 05/24-25/2014, Western States Training Run
  • 06/28/2014, Western States 100, Time: 21:14:23, 48th overall
  • 09/07/2014, Ventura Marathon, Time: 3:01:08, 24th overall, 8th age group, BQ
  • 10/26/2014, No Name 50K, Time:4:17:16, 1st overall, 1st age group
  • 11/08; 11/15; 11/22; 12/06, White Bull Winter Trail Series, 1st Tapo Canyon, 1st Long Canyon, 2nd Hot Dog Hill, 2nd Chumash, 1st Overall
Ultrasignup Rank: 85.88%

http://2014story.strava.com/video/3834144?shared

Progress Summary Report for runinaround
Count: 445 Activities
Distance: 3,504.58 mi
Time: 524:16:29 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 304,033 ft
Avg Speed: 7.2 mph
Avg HR: --
Avg Run Cadence: --
Avg Bike Cadence: --
Calories: 234,932 C

     Here's to hoping 2015 is as successful if not more successful then 2014 was for me, as we roll forward into 2015 my main focus will on Angeles Crest 100. I will start the year off running my favorite 50K the Bandit and I hope to be able to podium again this year, although I have doubts about beating last years time. I have also signed up to run PCT 50 miler as a mandatory 50 miler for AC100 and as a good training run for said race, my goal is to run under 8 hours, if that's good enough for a podium finish, awesome, if not, no worries. I will definitely be going back to Western States Training camp this year with Brett and I will be pacing him during his WS 100 effort. I would like to traverse the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica mountains through the entire 68 miles as a fun run and training opportunity. As far as the rest of my racing/running schedule goes I will wait to see what adventures might come along and just play it by ear. I will definitely be writing up more race reports and random running blog posts throughout the year. So stay tuned and join me along the adventure that will be 2015, till then a beer to celebrate and a trail to run..

  • 02/15/2015 Bandit 50K
  • 05/09/2015 PCT 50 Mile
  • 05/23/2015 Western States Training
  • 08/01/2015 Angeles Crest 100 Mile