Never try anything new on race day!

I know, for most this is stating the obvious and as runners we hear it all the time. It doesn't necessarily mean we listen to the advice though. I've tried more than my share of 'new' stuff on race day. Most of it was clothing related.

When I ran my one and only Boston Marathon in 2005 I decided to wear a new pair of socks. Not just store-bought new but new like I never wore this type of sock ever in the history of the world new. I had trained through a pretty cold winter so a 70 degree sunny day on Marathon Monday was not what I was hoping for. The socks were some sort of double lined Coolmax sock. The double liner (and my foot) rubbed together like a couple of sticks trying to start a fire and by mile 7 I had to stop and take off my shoe and sock to check the damage. I already had a huge blister on my arch. I'll just say it was a painful 19 miles...I almost learned my lesson.

As I prepare for my longest (time and distance wise) event I've ever attempted, the brutally insane Jay Mountain Trail Marathon, the one thing I do know is don't try anything new. So I practiced and experimented in the relative safety of my local trails. I've tried the socks I want to wear, the shoes I want to wear and the clothing. I've tried the hydration systems as well (hand held water bottle, fanny pack and Camel pack). I've tried band aids and blister control patches and bug sprays. I've soaked my shoes and socks in the pool before my runs and then ran in every puddle, brook or swamp I could find along the trails to keep my feet wet. I must admit, this was a smart thing to do. I learned a lot about what might work and what clearly doesn't. I can't wait until Saturday!

Temperature goes up, miles go down

I hate running in the heat. Period. The end.
Any questions?

One of my favorite blogs to read is The Science of Sport which offers a scientific analysis of sports and sporting performance. Although it can be very technical at times, it does offer a lot of insight in to the science of sport, especially running.

An issue that I can relate to personally is muscle cramping and specifically cramps during endurance events or running in extreme heat. They had an insightful series of posts on 'everything you ever wanted to know about cramping but were afraid to ask'. I need to read it a few more times to grasp everything they had to say since most of it goes against everything we've been told (loss of salt or electrolytes lead to muscle cramping).
Read with an open mind. The data is very interesting...

Muscle Cramps: Part I
Muscle Cramps: Part II
Muscle Cramps: Part III
Muscle Cramps: Part IV
Muscle Cramps: Part V

There were a couple of other multi-post series on dehydration and running technique that I'll try to link to later.

Jay Marathon in 2 Weeks

The Jay "Marathon" is 2 weeks from today. Not sure why they call it a marathon since it is 33+ miles (53k for our metric friends). Calling it 'only' a marathon doesn't give this race the respect it deserves. I actually read a quote yesterday from the RD that said this was one of the hardest trail races in the WORLD! Now that's a bold statement. Maybe he could have mentioned that BEFORE I signed up :-)

It sounded like a good idea when I signed up for it earlier in the year. 2008 was to be my comeback year (having been out with injuries for most of 2007). I was also venturing into the dark side...you know, trail racing. Now I'm having my doubts about this race. The more I hear and read about it the more I think I'm in way over my head and most likely under-trained.
I'm desperately looking for a strategy that won't end in failure. The easy way (and I hear it all the time) is to say "I'm just going to have fun" or "I'm not going to race" or "I'm just going to take it easy". Probably all good advice but it's still a race and I just don't think I could take it easy. I'm sure the terrain is going to dictate what and how I do but I want to have fun AND push myself. The problem is I don't know how to do this on a race that most likely take more than 7hrs to complete.

Based on what I know about the course, this race is more of a very long technical hike then a running event, with monster hills, bogs, mud, sand and lots of water. Even the overall winner last year didn't break 10min mile pace. I haven't done an event (run, bike, hike or otherwise) that has lasted more than 2 1/2hrs for a very long time. Even with that I still feel I have decent endurance and can go slow and long....even really long.

I need to make sure I can control the blisters though. The longer the event the more likelihood I'll get blisters. I have yet to find a way to avoid them. This will be especially tough due to all the water. I had planned on using Moleskin on the known places but I wasn't sure how it would do with all the water. I just picked up a new product very similar to Moleskin but designed for wet conditions. I hope to test it out before Jay.

Deep breath...

Running on the 4th

My town (Merrimack) hosts a 4th of July 5k race each year, which has become quite popular. Surprisingly there aren't a lot of July 4th races to choose from in NH. Also surprising is the fact that Merrimack ONLY hosts one race for the entire year. Seems like there should be more....

I generally don't like 5k races, even ones which are 5 minutes from my house. So I had to make it a challenge just to commit to running. While running the day before I told myself if I ran the last mile of my training run under 6 min pace then I would run the Sparkler 5k. Ran 5:15. Crap.

Nice day for racing though. A little rain, temps a little cooler than normal and a nice 8am start. Sweet. I had a decent race, happy with my results. The last time I ran this race I ran 18:04 (back in 2005). This year I ran 18:08. I got passed by 2 of the 3 masters in front of me during the last 1/2 mile or so. I need to work on my kick (or lack there of). I used to be pretty confident in the last mile or so of a race. Now I just try to hang on and not fall apart. Good race overal.

Ticks, horse flies and mosquitos oh my!

It's been a few weeks since I spent any serious time running in the woods, now I know why. I decided to go for a trail run in Grater Woods in Merrimack this morning. It felt like I was running in the Amazon. There was a heavy fog and high humidity (although the temp was only 65-70). I was dripping wet after about 5 minutes of running. Anyways, the plan was to run from the new middle school over into Amherst and explore the trails near Pond Parrish Rd. These trails (and woods) are still new to me so I haven't quite figured out the trails yet so every once in a while I stop to get my bearings and check my GPS watch. The problem is when you stop it's like a mosquito pit crew jumping the wall. They seem to come out of know where. They don't seem to bother me 'while' I'm running but boy, if you stop you risk bleeding out. So, no brainer, I decide to move on and guess my way instead. That's when the next insect assassin decides to attack..the horse fly (or some annoying close relative). These things amaze me. They have this ability to fly in circles around your head...while you're running. Think about it, how the heck do they do this? I'm running at 7mph or so and they're flying around my head. So first they need to fly as fast as me (I know, it's not that fast). But how do they hover AND fly at 7mph? On top of that they seem to know exactly where my hand, hat, water bottle or anything else in my hand seems to be coming from. I don't think I've ever made contact with a horse fly, ever. The other thing is they follow you for MILES. After about 2 miles of running I couldn't take it anymore. Between the horse flies and the rain forest like conditions I just wasn't having any fun so I turned around and headed back to the car. That's when I noticed (felt) the trifecta of this group, the tick, stuck to my lower leg. I HATE ticks. They totally freak me out. I brushed it off but it never really feels like it's gone. I got back to my car soaking wet, did a quick 'tick check' and headed home. While driving home I felt something moving on my leg. Figuring it was sweat rolling down my leg I pretty much ignored it until I finally extended my leg and saw another TICK. Damn little blood suckers. I stopped the car, got out and started brushing everything off like I was on fire. Man, I HATE ticks.
I'll stick to the roads for a while.

June Update

It's been a while since I posted last on the blog. June has been a little hectic and I haven't found the time to post about some of the happenings over the last month or so.
At some point I'll post a bit more info on some of the races but for now here's the summary post:

Volunteered at Pack Monadnock 10-mile Race. Someday I'll actually run this one.

Traveled to Wisconsin for 5 days to run in the Madison-Chicago 200 Mile Relay. My team place 5th overall. Lots of stories from this one.

Had a birthday and thought I was 45 (I'm not, I'm only 44).

Ran in the Mt Washington Road Race. I had an ok time (1:30) but was not satisfied with my result or effort.

Ran in the 1st two Mine Falls 5m Trail races (held every Monday night for about 10 weeks this summer).


In addition I've been working on my relay teams website and hope to have that completed in a few days.

Uncanoonuc Mt....times two

My friend Dan and I have been talking about doing a trail run on and around Uncanoonuc Mt in Goffstown. Actually there are two mountains, North Mt and South Mt and both are nearly identical in elevation (approximately 1320 ft) and about a mile apart as a crow flies. The plan was to cover as many of the surrounding summit routes and hit both summits in a single run. Unfortunately we never really found any decent trail maps of the area, just an old map from the 1930's when they used to have a snow train to the summit. The others were mountain bike GPS maps from various riders. We printed out what we had, packed our GPS watches along with a compass and headed to the Base Rd parking area below South Mt.

We headed up South Mt. first via the Summit Trail (or U.S.C. Trail on the old map). Very steep climb but it didn't last too long. We didn't follow it to the summit though, opting for a side trail labeled 'Walker' as we approached the summit. The trail gently traveled around the NE side of the mountain before hooking up with the Incline trail just short of the summit. It did offer nice views to the NE of downtown Manchester however.

View of Downtown Manchester from Walker Trail.

Incline Trail on South Mt.

We then turned right and headed up the last bit of the Incline Trail. Once at the summit we looped around once looking for the Eastside Trail. Not sure if we found it or not but after a VERY steep decent, we did find an awesome single track around the south side of the mountain, eventually hooking up with Summit Rd. A quick trek down the road to the powerlines and we were off on our next trail, following the lines for nearly 2 miles.


Powerline Trail

At this point we went on a several mile detour (aka lost), eventually coming out on a residential road. We were looking for a cross trail from South to North Mountains. After stopping and asking a neighbor for directions, we headed up Mountain Road and eventually found the trail we were looking for: Dorsey Ravine Trail. We followed this trail all the way to the summit. Stopped for a quick snack, snapped a couple of pictures and off we went down the other side of the mountain, hoping to find the infamous cross trail back to South Mountain.

Dorsey Ravine Trail on North Mt.


Near the summit of North Mt.


View of South Mt. from the summit of North Mt.

Shortly after passing a beaver dam and pond we can across a familiar sign: Bickford Lookout. Actually just Bickford was familiar since we saw a sign for Bickford Trail back at the start of our run earlier this morning. We must have finally found the cross trail. After taking a short detour to the lookout and taking the picture below we headed back to South Mountain.

Bickford Lookout

In all we traveled just over 10 miles, with nearly 3,000 ft of elevation gain (and 3,000 ft of elevation loss). All in all a pretty good workout for a couple of hours.