My Best Husky Impression

Now that it has been more than four months since my race and this has been 90% written for a few months it seems about the right time for a blog entry...

On January 9th I did a race very different than anything else I have attempted before. I headed to northern Wisconsin during the coldest time of the year to race 80 miles across a frozen snowmobile trail. The Tuscobia 150 has two distances, 80 miles and 160 miles. This is the first year it was not 75 and 150 so the name has not yet changed. There are three divisions, bike, ski, and run. A race like this has some mandatory gear requirements due to the extreme conditions. The required gear that I carried is:

Big Agnes Hahns Peak SL -20 Sleeping Bag

Big Agnes Air Core Insulated Mummy Sleeping Pad

MSR AC-Bivy

Reflective Vest - I chose one with a large front pocket to hold all my food.

3 Red Blinkies to Deter Snowmobiles from Running You Over

Black Diamond Polar Icon - I like putting the batteries on my back instead of head and four lithium AAs last all night.

Titanium Esbit Stove - The lightest possible stove to melt snow for water in an emergency.

Esbit Tablets

Toaks Titanium 550 mL Pot - Lightest possible pint pot

Stormproof Matches

Lard - You are required to finish with 3000 emergency calories. Most people take a jar of peanut butter. I chose 334 grams of lard since it is the lightest possible 3000 calories.

The required gear keeps you from freezing if you have to stop on the trail. Of course the goal is to keep moving and finish the race. Here is the rest of my gear/clothing:

Northern Sled Works Racing Pulk - The same thing every man asks for on his 30th birthday.
PVC Poles - Homemade with eye bolts on the end caps. Crossed for more control.
Old hip belt - I bought an old pack for $5 at a garage sale years ago and ripped off the belt.

Black Diamond Z Trekking Poles - Helps to keep moving forward with less than ideal footing.

Salomon Skin Pro 3 - This pack fits very compact against my body so it fits nicely on top of my base layer and under my jacket. Wearing this water pack inside my jacket keeps it from freezing.

Generic Fleece Facemask

Smartwool Neck Gaiter - Can rotate it as it freezes up.

Outdoor Research Svalbard Beanie - Has windstopper material around ear band, very warm.

Icebreaker Sprint - I am in love with merino wool as a base layer. There is no other option in my mind.

Marmot DriClime Jacket - My favorite running jacket. It is all I need on top of my base layer down to zero degrees if I am moving well.

Patagonia Nano Air Hoody - This is the best overall jacket I have ever owned. It is a great insulation layer to add when I start slowing down. It is very lightweight and has a great hood.

Westcomb Shift LT Hoody - A hard shell when things get wet or I need extra wind protection. The Neoshell is very comfortable compared to some other materials.

Brooks Running Mittens - I have had these a long time. They have been repaired at least once, but they are warm by themselves down to zero when running a good pace.

Outdoor Research Alti Mitts - The ultimate mittens. Just the Gore-Tex shells are really warm. Add the Primaloft inners and you should have toasty fingers in temperatures well below zero.

Icebreaker Oasis Leggings - Once again merino wool as the baselayer.

Nike Drifit Running Pants - I have had these for ten years.

Marmot Stretch Fleece Pant - Insulation layer to add when it gets cold or I slow down.

The North Face Thermoball Snow Pant - This is the emergency insulation layer if I need it. It results in less mobility though.

Smartwool Ultralight Sock - Merino base layer of course.

RAB VB Socks - Pretty much a plastic bag. It creates a warm and sweaty micro-climate for my feet.

Woolie Boolie - These are the socks I run in year around and I use them as my insulation layer.

Asics GT 1000 3 GTX - The Gore-Tex version of my tried and true running shoes. This keeps my insulation layer dry from the outside while the VB sock keeps it dry from the inside.

Outdoor Research Wrapid Gaiters - Keeps snow from getting to my ankles.

IceSpikes - Ten of these in the bottom of each shoe guarantees no slippage.

Now I can finally get to the start of the race. Most people stay in the town of Rice Lake where the race finishes. At 7:00 AM a bus takes the 80 mile racers to the town of Park Falls. After just over two hours the bus arrives at the start and everyone has time to get organized in the school gym before the 10:00 AM start. At the race start I believe the temperature was in the teens which would be the warmest it got for the race. The race starts for a little stretch through town and you are quickly on the beginning of the Tuscobia snowmobile trail. The trail is groomed and packed down by snowmobiles which makes for a good surface for dragging a sled. The fat tire bikes took off and were out of sight quickly. The few skiers mingled in with the runners. I was averaging 12-13 minute miles while alternating jogging and walking. The first 34 miles went very smooth and I averaged 13:48 over this stretch. At 34.75 miles is the only checkpoint of the 80 mile race and I arrived there around 6:00 PM. Kendra and Carson were there to greet me.

I knew from here on out I would only slow down now that I had been dragging a 21 pound sled for 8 hours and it was already getting colder so I took advantage of the warm building at the checkpoint to put on my Marmot stretch fleece pants under my running pants. I also made sure my nano air hoody was strapped on top of my gear for easy access. I ate a grilled cheese sandwich, refilled my snacks (nutty bars and little frozen wienies), and refilled my water bladder with my VegaSport electrolyte mix. 18 minutes had passed quicker than I realized, but I headed out to take on the remaining 45+ miles.

After getting the body heat back up, my body started to get tired as expected and I started to slow down. The body temperature drops with the lower effort level so I put on my Patagonia Air Hoody and Arctic Mitts with the inners. The temperature outside was dropping quickly and there was also a little breeze. My miles were now between 17 and 20 minutes each. While the mitts were keeping my fingers warm, I was struggling a bit when I had to take them out of the mitts to eat, drink, or adjust clothing. I wish I had put everything on and arranged it nicely while in the building because right now my facemask/neck gaiter/hood were a frozen twisted mess and I did not want to remove my mitts long enough to fix it. I really wanted one more warm place to stop and collect myself. I knew the town of Birchwood was my best bet, but I did not have it in me to get out my phone's map I prepared to check the distance. So I kept trudging along hoping every light in the distance would be Birchwood. As it got later I knew my chances of getting into a building were slim since the pizza place and gas station/convenience store had closed.

After what seemed like an eternity I reached the town of Birchwood after 3:00 AM. When I saw the owner of Paul's Pizza Den waving me towards his restaurant I was beyond excited. There was a 160 mile biker currently stopped there that was having issues keeping his toes warm. The owner proceded to give me a hot chocolate that was heavenly at this point. I took off most of my clothes and rearranged them nicely, tucking them in appropriately and getting everything just right. I drank and ate since I had been avoiding that to keep my hands warm. After about 30 minutes and a big thank you I packed up and headed out again. In the time I was there several others had also stopped there for a break.

Immediately after leaving I felt rejuvenated and put together a few good miles. Then my body remembered exactly what it had been doing for the last 19 hours and once again things slowed down. My back was getting pretty sore, pulling the sled was putting stress on places I do not normally have issues with when running. At this point the wind chill was also approaching negative 30 degrees. These last 16.5 miles were tough. I did not eat or drink anything and just kept moving fast enough not to turn into an icicle. My average pace over this section was around 20:00. The official finish is inside of the KOC hall since nobody wants to sit around outside. I finished with a time of 23:09 which was good for 5th place. 20 of the 36 runners to start the 80 mile finished.

Afterthoughts:
My gear all worked out pretty well. I would like to perfect a way though to eat a few more calories while keeping even my arctic mitts on. This was a new challenge and a way to actually get excited about winter and snow. I learned a lot and there is a lot of room for improvement if I decide to do the race again. I already promised Kendra I will not be doing the 160 next year.

Since I took so long to make this post I am already two weeks out from my next race, the Kettle Moraine 100 mile run on June 4th. Training has gone very well and I will try to get a race report out a little quicker this time.

Marquette and St. Pats

After the Ice Age Trail 50k in May I felt like I was in excellent condition to have a great year. Eight days later when doing my next long training run (a marathon on the track) I was finishing the run hard at about 6:30 pace 25 miles into it and there was a snap in my left calf muscle. Immediately I could hardly walk. A week later I still was having trouble walking and I found out that I had a tear in my calf muscle.

I was in a walking boot for two weeks. By early July I was starting to go on progressively longer walks for exercise working up to 20 miles by the end of the month, but running was still resulting in pain in my calf. I had already registered for the 100k at the Marquette 50 trail race in mid-August and it was obvious at this point that attempting the race would not be a good idea for my long term goals this year so I recorded my second DNS. This brought my total to 15 ultra registrations resulting in 13 finishes and 2 DNS.

My training since mid-August went very well at a slower pace so I registered for two races this fall/winter. First was the St.Pat's 24 Hour Race in South Bend, Indiana. I was surprised at how well 5 hour training walks (around 14:00 pace) translated to being able to increase my long run mileage much faster than normal. My last five long runs going into the race were 35, 40, 40, 31, and 40 miles around 9:00 pace and they felt pretty good. I was doing minimal running between my long runs since I did not seem to be recovering from those long runs quite as quickly. I knew I was not in as good of shape as I was last year, but good enough to get a race in this year.

In 2014 I had a nice and steady build up to my 24 hour race.

In 2015 I had to reset after my injury in May and had limited training mileage.

There was one area where I did more training than previous years, and that was my nutrition. I have flirted with a lower carb diet in the past, but this year I was much more serious about it. I ate a low carb high fat diet where I kept between 30-50 grams of total carb most days. In the last 2 weeks that dropped to about 10 grams of carb per day. My diet was made up of mostly vegetables, meat, cheese, eggs, and salad dressing. My carbs came from vegetables and beer that I did not give up until the final 2 weeks. I had trained my body to be a much more efficient fat burner in hopes that I could drop my in-race calories to prevent stomach issues. I did still eat my sugary foods on my one long training run per week at the rate of 75 calories per 5 km which was my goal for my race.

The St. Pats 24 hour run is set in South Bend, IN at a county park where we did a 5k loop on trails as many times as possible in the allowed time. It was a relatively cold weekend where the temperature would not reach 50 degrees during the day and the race website posted afterwards that the temperature reached 24 degrees at night. At the start my 5k loops were landing in the 27 minute range which was a little quick, but I knew I had time to settle into my pace closer to 30 minutes per 5k. There was nothing to note through the first 100k (62 miles, 20 laps). Everything to that point was on point. Every lap I had eaten half of a nutty bar. Every fourth lap I drank 2.5 oz of VegaSport Energizer drink while I drank 2.5 oz of VegaSport Hydrator the other laps. These are sports drinks without sugar that I have grown to enjoy since I like having the flexibility to keep up my hydration and electrolytes independent of sugar intake.

This is the point of the race where I started to feel the lower training volume start to impact my race. My laps slowed down quickly and by 100 miles I slowed to a crawl and got cold quickly since I was still just wearing a very thin jacket. I took some time to warm by the fire, got some warmer clothes on, and walked most of the last 20k.

I added some short laps at the end to finish with a total of 115.7 miles. I finished second overall to Shan who completed 124 miles. Overall I was happy with my race. I knew I was slightly under-trained compared to last year, but I was very happy with my nutrition in this race. I consumed a total of 2287 calories during the race which is less than many folk eat on a normal day. I think less is better in terms of keeping my stomach happy when running. I consumed 4023 calories in my 24 hour race last year. Running primarily on fat seemed to keep my stomach in a much happier place. I am curious to see if my legs were in better shape if I could have maintained my pace on the lower calorie intake. Here is the breakdown of my calories:

During the late stages of the race my plantar fasciitis, that had been worse this year than normal, really flared up. My feet were pretty torn up for a couple of weeks. After a couple of weeks I needed to get training again for the winter race that I referenced. I was signed up for the Tuscobia 80 mile race in northern Wisconsin in January. I will make another post with that story.

Snow and the Ice Age

As normal, in the weeks following my last race of the year in September I look for the next big race. While doing so I came across a couple of races very different than anything I have done before. The Tuscobia Winter Ultra and Arrowhead 135 are ultra marathons in northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota respectively. They are held in December and January. So they are run on snow and temperatures are often below zero. Tuscobia has 35, 75, and 150 mile options while Arrowhead is 135 miles. After reading many race reports from these races they had piqued my interest.

In these races you are required to carry winter survival gear so that you can be safe if you need to stop for a period of time. Required gear includes a -20 degree sleeping bag, insulated air pad, bivy sac, a stove, and several other items. Most people on foot at these races (you can also bike or ski) pull a sled to hold their gear.

So I upgraded my winter running gear and covered a couple hundred miles this year on the coldest days of the year pulling a 20+ pound sled behind me. I ended the winter doing a 62 mile "run" with my sled. I learned a lot this winter, more to come on this topic next winter season. It was nice for once to actually have a reason to look forward to snow.

My PVC pole and sled contraption that I used this winter.

This is what I look like after a run in below zero temperatures.

As the snow melted I started ramping back up the mileage with a similar approach as last year that worked very well. I built up to 10 miles twice during the week and a run of a marathon or longer each weekend. I ran beat my marathon and 50k PR in training runs without destroying myself and felt really good going into my first race of the year, the Ice Age Trail 50k.

The Ice Age Trail 50k is on some nice and hilly trails in the Kettle Moraine Southern Unit. 266 runners registered for the race, but based on the results the turn out was closer to 200 runners. The course is a 13 mile out and back followed by two 9 mile loops. As the race started it settled down quickly to a few of us out front a couple miles in and I found myself leading the race at 2.5 miles in after the lead runner took a 10 yard detour the wrong direction. I was not pushing it, just keeping around 7:20 pace like I wanted to. At 6.5 miles I hit the turn around and saw that I had about a minute on the two guys behind me. By the time I finished the 13 mile out and back my average pace was 7:15 per mile and I felt great.

The trail is nice and wide for the two loops, and the first 4 miles of that loop are not that hilly. I was cruising on this section without feeling like I was doing anything I would regret later. I had no idea how far back second place was, and I wouldn't until I could see him. The hills on the back side of the loop are steep but they felt manageable. I saw no signs of the guys behind me on that loop. My pace for the 9 mile loop had dropped to 6:56 per mile. At the end of the loop I wouldn't say I was fresh, but I was still feeling good for being 22 miles into a 31 mile race. My son Carson was there ready to hand me a hand bottle as I dropped by hydration pack going into the last nine mile loop.

The kids waiting for me to come around at the finish of my first loop.

The beginning of that last loop once again felt great as it does not have many steep sections. Once that back section arrived I was around a marathon into the race and the legs started cramping. To prevent my body from locking up completely I focused on a consistent effort level which was a bit lighter than what I had been doing. The whole time I am just wondering if someone is going to catch me since I was slowing slightly. One last GU gave me a little boost as I pushed through those last hills and I made it to the finish at 3:43:04 with an overall pace of 7:11 per mile and a first place finish. This race was my fifth trail 50k race and was my best time by 23 minutes.

I am very happy with the result of this race. I think my pacing was good, even though I ran the second 9 mile loop almost four minutes slower than the first loop. I found out after the race that I actually increased my lead by over seven minutes on that last loop. Only 16 of the 195 finishers ran that second loop faster than the first. It is a good thing I did not know about my lead, otherwise it would have been very tempting to slow down. Since this race has a larger and more competitive 50 mile distance it has a great sponsorship from Salomon and I got some sweet prizes for my finish in the 50k which included a new hydration pack, an awesome collapsible hand bottle, and a new pair of shoes.

My legs were in rough shape only for about an hour after the race, then I was walking around just fine which is unusual for me. I am normally a complete mess. This is in line with how much quicker I have recovered from my long training runs this year, I don't know for sure why recovery time has dropped so much for me. I did not have a hobble in my step at any point in the days after my race.

Next up is the 100k at the Marquette 50 Trail Races in August. That looks like some gnarly trail. Devil's Lake is going to get a few more visits from me this summer to get in some major hill and terrain training.

Data from the race:

First 13 miles: 1:34:26, 7:15 per mile
First 9 mile loop: 1:02:25, 6:56 per mile
Second 9 mile loop: 1:06:13, 7:21 per mile
Total 31 miles: 3:43:04, 7:11 per mile

Lead after 6.5 miles: about 1 minute
Lead after 13 miles: 2:07
Lead after 22 miles: 6:11
Lead after 31 miles: 13:25

Food before the race: Plain Bagel, Banana, 4 oz Gatorade
Food during the race: 4 GU, water
Food after the race: Fruit, Heed, Brat, Chips, Cookies, MKE Session Ale (great post race scene)

Official Race Results

Taking Advantage of a Second Chance

I arrived in Ottawa late Thursday night just after midnight for my second attempt at a 24 hour race. This time I did not have the stomach flu, I was healthy. Since my failed race attempt 4 weeks prior I had done a couple of 40+ mile runs and a two week taper. Everything felt like it was in order this time as I arrived. I spent Friday going to Walmart to get my needed food/supplies and then dividing it into 50-75 calorie portions that I would consume during the race. After eating my traditional pre-race meaty marinara pasta from Pizza Hut I went to the dome where the race is held to pick up my packet.

Picture inside the Louis Riel Dome where the race is held.

I have to say I was a bit concerned when I saw the track, it was not at all like a normal high school track. It seemed much more stiff, but there was no point worrying about that now. I talked to some of the other racers who all knew each other since the Ontario ultra circuit is fairly small.  I would know many of them better after spending 24 hours on a track with them!

I woke up on race morning after probably sleeping only 5 hours due to excitement/nervousness. I arrived at the dome plenty early, set up my table and cooler with my goodies, and sat around until 15 minutes before the race. At this point you must meet your lap counter. Yes, a person counts your laps for you. This event is put on by the Sri Chinmoy marathon team and it is an endurance event for counters as well. I had two counters that each did 12 hours. Each lap around the 400 meter track you have to wave, make eye contact, or something to make sure they saw you. We took a picture and then we started. Two minutes later I had seen the entire course.

Everything I hoped I needed to run for 24 hours.

Picture of everyone starting the 24 hour race.

I started at my planned 8:00-8:15 pace while walking one lap every twenty minutes. So I would run two miles and then walk a lap. While walking my goal was to eat 50-75 calories and drink. During this time period I settled into third place, Ian and Victor were in first and second.  Both of them were running at a faster pace and also not taking walking breaks so their lead grew quickly. I knew these runners and others had much more impressive prior results than I and it was a long race so I promised to myself not to worry about the standings unless things get interesting towards the end.

They took most of the pictures in the first hour when people were still smiling.

This track is inside the Louis Riel Dome. Unfortunately it was unseasonable warm and sunny so the dome heated up. I heard it reached 76 degrees, which is not too bad, but it was very stuffy. The same as how it feels in a tent on a sunny day with the windows closed. As it heated up my stomach started to turn around 5 hours into the race and I knew I was getting dehydrated. Hours five through seven were not very pleasant and my pace had now slowed to around 9:00 per mile while running much earlier than expected. Hour seven I stopped eating solids and started only drinking Gatorade. This started to turn things around for me and by hour 8 I was feeling good again. I started alternating solid food and Gatorade every twenty minutes. I kept going between 9:00-9:15 pace while running because it is was what felt good at this point. By the 12 hour mark I was at 72.5 miles which was about two miles short of where I expected to be. At 9 hours and 13 minutes Victor stopped since he was no longer on pace for his age group world records that he was attempting. So at this point I was in second place.

This is the leaderboard (in km) they updated very frequently throughout the race.

At hour 12 my stomach once again was not great, but I continued alternating electrolyte drink with solid foods on each of my 20 minute breaks. I had expected to switch to a walk break every 15 minutes at hour 10, but my legs still felt as good as they can after running 70+ miles so I kept up the 20 minute intervals. By 14 hours in both my stomach and legs were feeling the best they had since 4 hours in. I knew there was a good chance I could have been moving very slowly at this point of the race, but instead I had logged 83.5 miles and running 9:00-9:20 pace presented no problems. So I kept clocking out unexpected miles. At the end of 15 hours I was now ahead of my expected distance already and still feeling much better than expected. I wouldn’t say my legs felt exactly fresh, but nothing was preventing me from continuing to run. At 15:18 Ian hit 100 miles and stopped. At this point I was in first place of the people still on the track, though I knew it would be at least a couple hours until I reached 100 miles.

Hours 15 to 18 I kept very steady running around 10:00 pace for 1.5 miles, then walking a lap. During hour 16 I switched from electrolyte drink to Coca-Cola. I was alternating around 8 oz of coke and half a nutty bar at each of my walking breaks. At 17:07 I hit the 100 mile mark and officially was now leading the race. I can’t say I felt good at this point of the race, but better than expected. I was focusing on 20 minutes at a time.  Each 20 minute interval is much easier to manage than thinking about 7 more hours of running.

Moving to the top of the leaderboard as I surpass 100 miles.

I slowed a little more during hours 19 and 20. My pace was now between 10:00 and 10:40 per mile. At this point my goal of 120 miles was just about locked up so I had two new motivators. I would be lying if I said at this point I didn’t want to win the race. Galya was in second and he was running at a consistent pace so I knew it would take a good effort over the last five hours to keep the lead. Second, I wanted to try for 131 miles which is five marathons.

For the first 40 minutes of hour 21 I started to slow more now closer to 11:00-11:20 per mile while running with a very slow walk on my walking laps. I think Galya noticed I was slowing and he picked up his pace. My 8 km lead quickly went down to 5 km. At this rate I knew he would catch me quickly so I now dug deep and put together one more hour of running around 10:00 pace for the running portion of each twenty minute interval. This hurt, a lot. By the end of that hour my lead was back up to 6-7 km and Galya seemed to slow now as well. From here on out I just tried to maintain something that resembled a run, but it was not pretty. My “running” laps were now approaching 16:00 per mile. At 23 hours and 22 minutes I hit 131 miles to mark my five marathons. I managed two more miles over the last 38 minutes to finish with a total of 214.18 km. That is 535.5 laps and just over 133 miles. My average pace, including walking, over the 24 hours was 10:49 per mile.

Left of me is Baladev who was third and right of me is Galya who was second.

Four hours after the race I was already going through US customs at the Ottawa airport. I was wondering how it would go since I was stumbling around, dehydrated, and exhausted from sleep deprivation, but there were no problems. I made it home that night where Kendra had my recovery plan already started for me.

Pumpkin Oreos are key to proper recovery from running 24 hours.

The race went much better than I expected. There were a lot of things that went well.

Stomach: While I had my stomach issues, I was able to take corrective actions each time before allowing any of them to really slow me down.

Feet: At the end of the race I only had one very small blister. My strategy of putting on dry socks and shoes every six hours with a new coat of Vaseline on my toes seemed to do the trick.

Legs: My legs held out a lot longer than I thought they would. I do feel like I entered this race in the best shape of my life for a long flat race, but I had no idea my legs would still function at a real running pace 20 hours into the race.

In my first three races that were longer than 50 miles I was not able to meet my original goal, this is the first time that has happened. I feel the biggest reason is just experience and making better adjustments both during training and during the race. I am pretty excited for what I can try to accomplish in the coming years.

The official results can be seen at http://ca.srichinmoyraces.org/node/6973/previous-results/2014.

And now for my favorite part of running a track race, the data. I have every lap time recorded on my Garmin Forerunner 220 that I uploaded into Excel. First is a simple breakdown of my 5 marathons. I was surprised to see that marathon 4 was actually faster than marathon 3. While I obviously slowed down, I was expecting to slow down much sooner and at a more rapid rate.

Next are by calories consumed by food and per hour. I am amazed by how there is a different food at every race that ends up being my go to food. At Leadville it was watermelon and soup. At this race it was coke and nutty bars.

That is 10 of the 12 bars that come in a pack of nutty bars.

This shows the number of miles per hour while only counting completed laps. This is much more consistent than planned or expected.

And the graph I am sure everyone was waiting for, a scatter plot of each lap time with a line for my cumulative average lap time. You can distinctly see my three shoe changes which were the only laps over 6 minutes. There is also a distinction between my walking laps and running laps. The few falling in between were running laps with a bathroom break. That is until the end where things slowed down.


And the last graph show my cumulative average lap time plotted against the expected times I had mapped out before the race for 120, 125, and 131 miles. Once again, I was much more consistent than I thought would be over most of the race.


Aftermath: I was pretty well dehydrated at the end of this race and was not able to eat much until a few hours after it ended. Full meals did not all settle for a couple days. My legs were absolutely destroyed the day I finished the race and the next day, but by the third day my walk was almost normal. Now, five days after the race, I feel like I am mostly recovered for every day purposes.

For the next couple of weeks I will purely rest. Then I want to focus on strengthening surrounding muscles even more than last year before building back up to a high volume of running. I am likely running the 50k in May at the IAT50, but I have no defined plans yet after that. I am sure I will find something. Let the off season begin!