(March 2014)....I have been pondering what I might say in a race report after
the Buffalo Run 100 miler on Friday. Since I did the race last year the
report will undoubtedly be a lot different. I have always hated when
ultra runners tell newbies, 'We are all an experiment of one,' which by all
accounts is true. The useful information an answer like this provides
however, is absolutely nothing! The reason I asked the question in the
first place is because I want to know what YOUR 'experiment of one' looked like
so I can start trying some things. Anyway, I have approached training a
bit differently this year and have been doing some things different hoping to
see some different results. Either way, I'll be back to report on MY
experiment of one so I can continue to figure out what does and does not work
for me.
The goal this year is to break 20 hours.
I
wrote this during taper week before running the Buffalo Run
for the second time. I ran 20:06 that
year and could see the finish line when my goal time came and went. It was a wonderful day and I had a great
experience with Michelle crewing and Christine Birch pacing. Sadly in the time following the race I never
did sit down and write a race report. When
everything goes as planned race reports are pretty boring.
…fast
forward to 2016. Everything went better
than planned so hopefully this won’t be terribly boring. I finished the race in 18:51 which was a 1:15
minute improvement over 2014. This is a
2 loop course so I am always interested in the first half versus second half
split over the same terrain. Comparing
the two times provides an objective determination of not going out too fast for
my fitness level, proper pacing, and mental toughness to keep pushing through
the dark hours all the way to the end.
This year I left the 50 mile aid station 8:42 into the race and did the
second 50 miles in 10:09. Since race day
this year felt much easier than both previous runs on this course I want to
focus on WHY it felt that way.
By
far the number one reason for my improvement was my diet in the months leading
up to the race. On January 4th
I went for a lunch run at work and checked my weight on the medical grade scale
we have at work. It wasn’t terribly shocking to me when it revealed I was
officially in the Clydesdale division at 202.5 pounds. November and December seems to be
my throw
everything I know about health and nutrition out the window, eat lots of
garbage food, and exercise less because it is so stinking cold outside phase. Rest
and recovery from a long year is important but no excuse to eat everything in
sight.
Thankfully
I have had success losing weight in the past simply by cleaning up my diet and
continuing to exercise at a normal level so I felt like it would be manageable
to get into shape by race day. The
horrible thing is dropping weight cuts into serious training time so if I can
avoid the holiday binge and bulge I would be starting at a much better spot
(next year). I started to get serious
with miles and began eating more thoughtfully using the diet that worked for me
in the past. That contained probably 60%
carbohydrate, 15% fat, and 25% protein.
Mostly whole foods, plenty of fruits / vegetables, and lots of bread and
pasta to keep my energy levels up. In
the past I have used lots of Splenda in otherwise healthy foods just to sweeten
them up. The sweet taste, even though it
doesn’t contain calories, seemed to stimulate my hunger and cravings for
sweeter foods too. Artificial sweeteners
have their own negative side effects and are not just calorie cutters.
By
January 24th I had lost 5 or 6 pounds which was solid progress for
roughly 3 weeks. On that day, I stumbled
across Jeff Browning’s blog report of his win at the HURT 100 in Hawaii. (Hurt Race Report) Jeff explained how he adopted the OFM (Optimized Fat Metabolism)
principles as a way to improve his race day performance. He is 44 years old and has been running
ultras since 2001 at an elite level so I imagine he has tried everything in the
book too. In the post he says he started
following this new style of eating 7 weeks prior to HURT and when I found the
blog post I was about 8 weeks out from the Buffalo Run so I figured I would
give it a shot.
For
those that know me, they will know that I am an experimenter, a tester, a
tinkerer, and a numbers nerd in training.
On race day all that goes right in the garbage and I just keep moving
forward. I often ask Michelle at aid
stations how I am doing and she will tell me to look at my watch with a puzzled
look on her face. I make a detailed pace
chart (mostly for pacers and crew) and wear a watch the whole way and often
have no idea how I am doing because I don’t look at either of them. When I qualified for Boston I had a solid
training plan that got me the result I wanted and then when I ramped up
training for Boston several months later I used a plan that was 100%
different. Michelle asked me why I
didn’t just use the original plan that got me there and my reply was...where is the fun in that? This is just one big science experiment to me
and over time I have whittled down what works and what doesn’t. When something doesn’t work I am always
prepared to accept total epic failure,
which happened at the Lake Lowell Marathon 2011 (pacing) and Wasatch 2015 (over
thinking the heat) to name a couple.
Switching
up the diet, race day nutrition, and electrolyte intake felt like I might need
to be prepared for total epic failure…Maybe.
So
the OFM plan, as I saw it, was pretty simple.
I ate limited carbs and trained my body to utilize fat for fuel. By limited I mean between 100 grams and 150
grams per day. This isn’t a crazy low
Atkins type diet where you get 25 grams a day and have to avoid all fruit and
some vegetables. I roughly ate the same
calories as before but just swapped the carbs for fats. My macronutrient levels were around 20%
carbohydrate 60% fat and 20% protein. My energy levels were constant without
insulin spikes and crashes from grains and sugars. Recovery from harder workouts was better
since I was removing a number of foods that cause inflammation. Once my body was learning to
utilize fat for fuel I didn’t feel like I got to the ravenously hungry stage
like I do when I was burning up all my blood sugar on my daily runs.
The
way I trained my body to utilize fat for fuel was to run aerobically almost all
the time. At this lower intensity fat
can more easily be metabolized. Over
time your aerobic pace increases at the same intensity. Running above the aerobic pace will just burn
more and more blood sugar. I started all
of my weekday runs fasted in the morning and never took calories during the
run. Once I finished I would go to work
and then have a regular breakfast afterwards.
My body was now required to access fat for energy and not just burn the
breakfast in my stomach. On long runs I
would just take water and electrolytes for the first several hours to kick start
the fat burning and then use Tailwind manage my energy levels after that. During the initial transition it sucked
because my body was going through chemical withdrawals from lack of sugar but I
knew it would pay dividends if I could stick with it.
The
weight continued to fall off through February and early March. I was feeling awesome and getting in some big
miles at the same time. Usually losing
weight means being in a calorie deficit and feeling deprived and run down. I felt completely the opposite. I had more energy than I have had in a long
time and I was excited to get out and get the training done every day. By race day I had lost over 25 pounds. The week of the race I cut the exercise back
to nearly nothing and continued to eat the exact same diet right up until race morning.
The
Wednesday before the race I contacted Mike Shuman at Shu’s Idaho Running
Company and he gave me a deal on some Vespa. Vespa is supposed to promote fat burning so I
figured I would go ‘all-in’ on this crazy science experiment. I have used Vespa at races in the past when I
had a good result (Western States 2014 and Buffalo Run 2014) but I never had
the diet to go with it in the months leading up to race day. When your body is trained to utilize fat
through your normal daily diet Vespa is much more effective so I wanted to test
that too. Mike contacted Peter Defty at
Vespa and Peter sent me an email with some guidelines on how to use it most
effectively. Essentially take one 45
minutes prior to race start and hold off on taking calories for up to 2 hours
to get your fat burning in high gear.
After the initial 2 hour window, fuel as needed and take a Vespa every
2-2.5 hours. I diluted the concentrate
into a 10 ounce water bottle at hour 2 and slowly consumed it over 30
minutes. I repeated this every two hours
during the race.
Not
consuming calories in the beginning was where I was sure the total epic failure
would start. It seems reasonable in
training long run but to start a race that will take most of a day with no
calories, hmm? This goes against
everything I have ever done in a race but I was committed to the process and
followed it.
Aside
from the change in eating and weight loss the other thing that helped me was
cross-training. Every year I say I am
going to cross train and every year I don’t.
I was committed to making this the year.
I signed up for the St Luke’s Weight Loss Challenge this year for a
little motivation. People who lose 5% of
their body weight and keep it off for a whole year are eligible for a ‘Keep It
Off’ cash prize next year. I have been
volunteering at the challenge kickoff every year since 2011 and never thought
to enter myself since I don’t have much to lose. While I was there this year I signed up for
Idaho Athletic Club for 20 bucks a month.
My cross-training has consisted of spin class several times a week for
an hour usually followed by the stair climber (which is a total ass kicker) for
30 minutes and then sitting in the dry sauna at 185 degrees. The sauna is partly just relaxing, partly
teaching my body how to sweat efficiently, and mostly mental training. I also went to an occasional yoga class and
did body weight workouts at home (push up, sit up, squats, lunges, planks, and chair
dips).
My
race day nutrition plan was 200 calories of Tailwind per hour and 1,000mg of
sodium per hour. 200 calories of Tailwind had 606mg of sodium so I supplemented
with S-Caps to get me to 1,000mg. I
think in past races I was not getting enough sodium and I also sweat more than
any other human being I know except maybe Dave McKinnon. I took several V-Fuel gels or Honey Stinger
waffles with me throughout the day to help me get between longer aid station
stretches and washed them down with a small bottle of straight water. At aid stations I took several bananas, a few
cups of ginger ale and coke, and potato soup at mile 70. Twice on the course Michelle made me a bacon
avocado pepper jack cheese tortilla wrap which was amazing. The first time I took it I took a big bite
and the tortilla was too much so I licked all the good stuff out and tossed the
tortilla. The second time I didn’t even
bother with trying the tortilla. I just
sucked up the middle and pitched the tortilla again.
Race
morning was typical compared to my other experiences there. The race starts at noon and the sun was
shining with a cold breeze blowing. I
tried to stay in my jacket as long as possible because I knew I would be taking
it off at the start. Michelle, the all
knowing, always reminds me that no matter how cold I feel at the start I will
be hot 5 minutes later and then be grouchy that I had to carry a jacket for 20
miles. Today was no exception.
The
cruise up to the first aid station was a bit of an eye opener. I found myself running more uphill sections
than I normally have in the past but with a controlled effort level. I chatted and ran with Jeremy Suwinski for a
couple of miles until we hit a big downhill and he dropped me like a bad
habit. After the first aid station I was
in sixth place and didn’t get passed for good by anyone after that. I did swap positions with the leading woman a
couple of times and Uli Stuwe and I swapped positions around mile 35 briefly.
At
the first aid station at Elephant Head the race director Jim Skaggs has told us
in the past we could choose to either do 1) a short out and back or 2) a 5 mile
loop that drops into the valley and climbs up switchbacks back to Elephant Head
first. Both options return you to the
Elephant Head aid station and then you just do the other option second. When I got there the first time the aid
workers said it was ok to pick either one but they preferred I do the out and
back so they didn’t have to remember who did what (which is totally
understandable). I thanked them for the
advice and took the 5 mile loop instead.
At the front of the pack the out and back is clogged with people on the
way back which I completely avoided by going the other way. It worked for Karl Meltzer in 2013 and I did
it this way the last two times with no congestion. I was the ONLY person who went the other way
at first. I know I wasn’t in the lead
but looking out in front of me and looking behind me and seeing no one at mile
6 was a pretty cool feeling. Uli was the
second person to go this way and killed it on the downhill to get within
eyesight. He would be within 100-200
yards of me for the next 40 miles.
Once
I got back around the Elephant Head I started down the out and back while all
the aid station workers told me I was going the wrong way and that I needed to
back toward the start! I am they guy who
didn’t do the out and back remember? (Kind of funny) Once I returned, I headed down toward the
start with the leading woman Melissa. We
cruised and chatted but neither of us was in a terrible hurry.
I
blew through the 20 mile aid station in quick time after refueling. Michelle told me Garrick, who would be my
pacer from mile 50 to the end, asked if I was doing ok since I was walking the
uphill out of the aid station. She said
she assured him that this was normal and good strategy at this point of the
race. Others in front of me and behind
me ran the whole thing, which isn’t long but in a 100 miles this one wasn’t
worth running to me.
Mile
20 to 33 was fairly uneventful. It is
flat rolling terrain that makes you want to run the entire thing but I was
already mixing in walking intervals to stay fresh. Mile 33 is the Ranch aid station and the only
thing I really needed was a sleeveless shirt.
I was getting a bit chafed from the tank top (which I never wear in
ultras) plus it was getting a bit cooler so it was worth the time to get it
on. I normally encounter darkness just
after the Frary aid station at mile 39 so I put on a long sleeve shirt and took
my headlamp. Having done the race twice
before it was nice to see where I needed my headlamp compared to prior years
which was about 3 or 4 miles later than usual.
I was through the Bridger Bay aid station at mile 46 and around the end
of the island at mile 47.5 by the time I needed a headlamp. I had been chasing one of the most amazing
sunsets ever and found that when there is sunlight I can actual run that rocky
section pretty good! Both previous runs put me in the section in the dark on
both loops.
I
arrived at the mile 50 aid station about 20 minutes ahead of my 2014 time and
felt really great. I felt like I had
held back more than in previous years with a better time. The OFM, Vespa, nutrition, and electrolyte
plan all seemed to be firing on all cylinders.
Garrick was excited to jump in with me and I was excited to have
him. When I have run closer to the front
of the pack usually means lots of long solo miles. When I have been middle or even back of the
pack there always seems to be someone to talk with. Dudes at the front aren’t terribly talkative.
Michelle
got me all reset and we were off into the night. I told Garrick before the race that I wanted
him to kick my butt up the first big climb so we stayed focused and saved some
of the chit chat until we crested the top.
In past years I think I was relieved to be done with the first lap and
craving someone to talk with and settled into shuffle mode for a while. I wanted to avoid this since there are other
easier running sections to catch up on.
When we got to the aid station the volunteers told us 3rd and
4th place were just ahead and not looking great. (I wondered if they
told everyone that just to get them fired up.)
I passed Jeremy back at mile 40 when he was having some issue with his
legs and he was walking the downhill. I
honestly thought he was toast and was stoked to see he got it turned around and
finished not too long after me. Garrick
and I caught up to Melissa who was in 4th and Brandt who was in 3rd. Brandt won the 2015 race in just over 17
hours so he was obviously not having a good day. He was walking and later dropped I
believe. Melissa would go on to take the
win for the women in just over 21.5 hours.
Now
I find myself in unfamiliar territory. I
am in 3rd place and feeling competitive which never happens. What’s worse is I have 40 miles to go and I
am sort of waiting for this perfect day to start falling apart. I had been diligent to stay on top of my
calories and nutrition throughout the day and now it seemed even more critical. I was telling Garrick on our descent down the
backside from Elephant Head just before mile 60 that in 2013 I told friends I
had hoped to be at mile 60 around midnight when Jeremy Haddock was my
pacer. Amazingly I looked down at my
watch as it rolled over to mile 60 just a few seconds before midnight. I was wondering how I was doing this year so
I flipped my watch over to the time of day and we hit mile 60 this time at
10:46. That got me fired up to see I was
an hour and fifteen minutes faster and still feeling great. We put our heads down and hit the uphill
grind on the switchbacks pretty hard and then crested out on the side hill
section a couple of miles before the aid station. I was lamenting how great I was feeling and
how the day was cruising right along…no sooner than the words left my lips I
was face down in the rocks for the first time all day. We got a good laugh out of it since there was
no damage done and continued on.
After
a quick final stop at Elephant Head we rolled down the hill to the start finish
at mile 70. I saw Quentin Barney in the
tent and said hello. We had passed
earlier in the day when I was in 6th place and he knew that I was in
3rd at the moment. It was a
pretty cool moment to hear him telling the people around him how strong I was
looking and moving right up the field. I
am often sizing up the other runners on the out and back sections but have
never stopped to think how I might have looked to them. I felt like a rock star but tried to be happy
and have a smile and wave for every person I came across. I even ran off trail to make sure some kids
got a well deserved high five! Waiting
for hours on end for dad or mom to fly through can be exhausting for kids and love
seeing them out there even if they aren’t mine.
Again
we walked the uphill out of the start finish and then began the long cruise along
the Mountain View trail. About mile 72
around 1:30 Garrick comments about how great the day is going and how we are
cruising along…BAM another face plant in the rocks. Again, no damage but from this point forward
we agreed not to use the ‘C’ word.
Cruising is not usually the first ‘C’ word that comes to mind so we got
some funny looks when we told the story later!
From
the start/finish at mile 70 to Lower Frary at mile 78 we averaged an 11 minute
mile. I was still running almost
everything and having to add strategic walking breaks because I didn’t want to
blow up the last 5 miles. I felt great
but was sure if I kept running everything would crumble. In retrospect, I should have run more but in
the moment I had no idea that I would be able to hold on until the end. We averaged just under and 11 minute pace from
there out to the Ranch at mile 83 and were passed by the first and second place
guys who were on their way back. They
both looked solid and I was able to get a rough estimate of how far they were
ahead. The leader was 5 miles ahead and
2nd was 2.5 miles ahead. Even
though this is an eternity in most races, in 100 miles this is literally
nothing if things start to hit the fan.
I have seen people go from rock star to death shuffle very quickly
before and a 5 mile or 2.5 mile gap can disappear fast. I didn’t worry about them and tried to focus
on controlling what I could control.
My
WORST section by far in the previous two runs here has been from the Ranch at
mile 83 to Lower Frary at mile 89. I am
not sure why though. It’s far enough
that you aren’t almost done and the terrain is quite repetitive so just when
you think you are at the last turn in the trail before Lower Frary…you
aren’t. It is a little disheartening at
times. This time was different. I was still taking prescribed walking breaks
and averaged 11 minute miles again. In
2014 I was dying in this section and trying like crazy to hang onto 14 minute
miles. This is the point of the race
where OFM and Vespa made a world of difference.
Normally at the end of an ultra I have been consuming 300+ calories of
straight sugar per hour and not burning any fat. I get dead heavy legs and a crazy sugar
induced brain fog. I had zero symptoms
like that this time around.
The
one negative thing that happened was that I started to suck at math, which
never happens. Garrick says to me just before
we get to Lower Frary for the final time at mile 89, I know you didn’t want me
to tell you how good you were doing, but DUDE YOU ARE FREAKING KILLING IT! Hmm, really?
Yes, if you can run the final 12 miles in 2:40 you will get under 19
hours! Hmm really? No BS, I honestly had no idea where I was
time wise. I knew I was doing well but
didn’t want to jinx it. Garrick and
Michelle had been crunching numbers throughout the day and I think they were
convinced I had a shot of getting under 19 hours when we were at mile 70. Garrick put that tidbit in his back pocket
until just the right moment which would have been a great motivator if I would
have been able to do some simple math.
Here is how my brain approached the situation at mile 88 at 4:20 in the
morning –
240
/ 12 = 11 minute miles ?? (What? Seriously)
Hmm,
that sounds really hard even though I have been holding a solid pace. Whatever…it is what it is. I’ll just run as hard as I can and see where
the chips fall.
(Just
for the record here is the correct calculation performed at mile 0 at 2pm on a
Tuesday)
2:40
= (2 hours x 60 minutes) + 40 minutes = 160 minutes / 12 miles = 13:20 minute
miles
It is probably a good thing I
sucked at math at that exact moment because I may have dropped into death
shuffle and never came out if I had thought I could go slower than I was. As it was, we averaged just under a 12 minute
mile from mile 89 to 96 that even included climbing up from Mountain View trail
to the road and stopping to say hello to Christie and April on the trail. Garrick had been experiencing some issues
with his hips and legs tightening up on him.
With less than 5 miles to go you are in eyeshot of the finish area right
down the hill. One of my motivations to
run hard at the end is to work over my pacers, which doesn’t happen very
often. I told him he could just go to
the finish if he wanted to and I would finish up on my own. He gave me a big HELL NO and said something
like he would run until his leg fell off but he wasn’t going to miss the finish. That is exactly what I wanted and needed to
hear so we pushed on to the final aid station at mile 96. We left at 6am almost on the dot and my math
whiz skills came back to me, 60 minutes in 4 miles. Easy, we can do that! We managed a respectable pace, dare I say ‘cruise’,
through the rocky end of the island. I didn’t want to say the ‘C’ word out loud
and enjoyed the amazing moon set to the west of the island across Salt Lake.
We made our final approach to
the big white tent at the finish with the usual fanfare of a 100 miler,
none. It was about 6:40 in the morning
and there were several campers who were out getting a fire started and making
breakfast. A car or two passed by getting ready for the 50k start in an
hour. I asked Garrick to run ahead and
let Michelle know I was coming and to get a good picture. He told me he was giving me all he had at the
moment which I was happy with. The
picture would have been terrible anyway in the total darkness. I began reflecting on what it took to get to
this point and all the sacrifices people made to help me get to this moment in
time which is always a bit emotional for me.
We strolled up and I whistled really loud to stir up the raucous crowd
of…1 (the timing guy) and Michelle heard me and came out. We hugged and then had to go inside to tell
them I was done.
Garrick and I found a chair
pretty quick and began sharing the events of the day with Michelle and
Hannah. It was still dark outside which
was one of my goals and then tent was filled with people for the 8am 50k which
was another one of my goals. I thanked
Jim for another great event and snuggled up to a space heater with some of his
home brew. One of the funniest moments
of the day was while I was sitting there someone asked me when I was heading
back out thinking I had just come in from mile 70. Umm…no, I’m done! I found out later that I ran the second 50 miles in the same time as the two guys ahead of me which was a great feeling too. Having a great first half doesn't mean a thing in a 100 miler if you die at the end.
Huge thanks to Michelle who
has the crew thing down to a finely tuned machine and for putting up with me
through all the training. Hannah was a
huge help ferrying the car back and forth at aid stations that were crew accessible
but required you to park a way down the road.
Garrick for pushing himself to his furthest run ever to support my crazy
goals. Tailwind, Pearl iZumi, and Vespa
all helped me get done feeling awesome too, thank you.
