Nothing to see here

Well, I had intended to eventually write up a "real" report of my experiences at the Coyote 2 Moon 100 miler this year. I generally set myself the deadline of "by my next race" to write something. However, with my upcoming race plans being altered (more on that later), I don't know if I will ever get around to writing anything meaningful. Furthermore, it is still hard to put a positive spin on the race since I spent a full 2 of the 4 weeks after the event sick. So, in order to just get something up here on the blog and move on to other topics, I am cutting and pasting some stuff that I posted on the Runner's World Forum after the race.

The good news is that this will be the first time I truly meet my goal of not writing up a report that is almost as long as the race that inspired it. Enjoy!

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OK, here is my full-fledged race report in pictures. I'm following the maxim that if you don't have something nice to say, say it with cute little yellow emoticons. All times are approximate.

Please excuse the lack of normal post-100 miler whitewashing since I am still fighting the chest-cold that hit me mid race, I've yet to convince myself that all the misery was actually a fun and challenging adventure. I'll write up a more revisionist, positive and exciting report next week when my overactive imagination has recovered and is able to cover up the actual memories.

Fri. 7am - Arroyo Grande:

Fri. - Ojai:

Fri. 11pm - Start:

Sat. - top of Horn Cyn:

Sat. 1:30am - Sisar A/S:

Sat. 4:00am - Top of Topa:

Sat. 5:00am - Descent to Rose:

Sat. 7:00am - Ascent from Rose:

Sat. 9:00am - Lion A/S:

Sat. 10:00am along ridge:

Sat. early afternoon - steep descent to Rose:

Sat. afternoon - steep ascent from Rose:

Sat. late afternoon - Rose to Howard:

Sat. later - Howard to Gridley top:

Sat. evening - Gridley Top:

Sat. 7pm - Cozy Dell:

Sat. 7-11pm - Cozy to Gridley:

Sat. 11pm - Gridley Top:

Sun. 12:30am - Gridley Bot:

Sun. 1-3:30am - Climb:

Sun. 3:40am - Gridley Top: Thanks Carol!

Sun. 3:40-6:30am - along Ridge: Freezing!

Sun. 6:45-7:54 - Final descent:

Sun. 7:54am - Finish:

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Oh, and here are a few more snippets posted in response to questions/comments by others. Maybe shedding a little light on the more cryptic messages hidden within the emoticon jungle above...then again...maybe not.

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I'm not really sure if I actually "picked it up" during the race, if I didn't totally recover from the cold I had a week before or if something nasty just got into my lungs. All I know is that starting around 10am Saturday morning I felt like dung and then began coughing up chunks of lung cheese (it was too solid to be lung butter) from about 7pm on.

I think the only saving grace at that point was that, having been awake for 36 hours already, I didn't have the mental capacity to properly talk myself into dropping from the race. However, I do remember at one point wishing that I would trip and fall before the next aid station so I would have a legitimate excuse to DNF. Alas, its not logically possible to "will" oneself into an accident--at least not for me. The 4 hour trip up Cozy Dell is not one I want to repeat.

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On the climb up from Gridley Bottom, my mind was pretty much complete mush. I mean, I couldn't focus my brain or my eyes and the things running through my head were completely random and out of my control. I was literally dreaming awake as I stumbled and weaved my way up trail.

As an example, one of the tidbits I recall was some sort of infomercial for a fake product called "New, Industrial White". I don't know what it was supposed to be, but apparently it is "better than blue or red!" Get an idea of the sort of state of mind I was in here?

At any rate, about 1/3 of the way up, Carol Cuminale comes up behind me and offers to stick with me up the hill as I sounded like I could use some company. She took the lead and I followed trying to keep up a coherent conversation so my brain wouldn't feel the need to create one of its own. With her help, I finished that climb in around 2-1/2 hours--much better than the 4-hour nightmare coming up from Cozy Dell.

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Unfortunately, as I sit here with a nasty cough and stuffed up head thinking I should really be back in bed, I am afraid it is closer to the latter. At least it will force me to rest for a while and let the rest of my body recover.

Actually, I'm a little surprised I finished as well. I think its partly due to the dishonesty of friends who refused to tell me how bad I really looked during the race. A couple of people told me after the race that I had looked pretty bad. However, what really got me was when my two buddies BOTH called me on Monday morning to "check up on me" and make sure I hadn't keeled over in the middle of the night.

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I promised myself if I had any inclination to return to that event it would be on the other side of the table.

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Unlike most races where I swear off repeating them immediately after only to come back around after a few days to wonder how I might do it differently next time, I can still hold to my sentiment for this race. If I want to head down to Ojai next year, I'll volunteer. If I ever feel the need to put myself through a similar experience to this, I will just keep myself awake for 48 hours straight and then see how many times I can run up and down Mission Peak. I think it makes about as much sense.

Plans and Contingencies

The Coyote 2 Moons race will start in just about 3 (and a half) days and my plans are still up in the air. I'd like to claim that as the reason for not having any of my gear together or drop bags packed, but, unfortunately, that is due to my normal procrastination.

I did spend some time putting together a ridiculously complex spreadsheet. It's broken into segments based on the maps from the race website. Each segment is further split into the major climb/descent in feet and distance covered with a time estimate for each. This is then summed up to provide a time estimate for each segment. This, along with an estimate for time spent at the aid station, is added to a running total in terms of both hours and date/time for the race. My estimate came out to a final tally of 33:25 for the race which is pretty much what I ran last year. I should transition from night to day during the first visit to Rose Valley around 7am and then back to night at Cozy Dell around 8:30pm. I should be able to get away with just two drop bags since Rose Valley is visited twice (second time around 2:30pm) and Cozy Dell shares a bag with Sisar Junction (shouldn't need it). There is no reason for me to need one at Howard Creek (4:30pm), but I may possibly throw something small together for Gridley Bottom (1am).

While I may not have gotten my stuff together, I should be able to spend less time doing so now that I have such a wonderful plan. Well, that's the theory anyway. Alas, always the engineer, more time spent planning than doing.


So, back to the original subject of why my plans for this whole race my either undergo dramatic alteration or dissipate completely. The fact is, there are just some things more important than running around in the mountains for two days and nights. OK, maybe there are a lot of things more important, but very high up on that list is my family. You see, my son's high school basketball team has done quite well during the post-season. They won the Central Coast Section and are now in the State Basketball Championship Tournament. There first game is Tuesday night against Newark Memorial. Newark is the city adjacent to Fremont and my son is friends with more than half of the team. Newark is a strong team who recently upset #1 ranked DeLa Salle in the North Coast Section tournament. However, I think that we match up well and it could be a close match. It will definitely be a fun one to watch. If we get past Newark, we have to face defending state champions McClymonds of Oakland on Thursday night. That will be a tough one. If we somehow manage to knock them off, we will be in the Northern California finals on Saturday playing to be in the State Championship game the following week.

Sorry for the foray into high school sports for those who read this blog for the running, but things like this get a proud dad pretty excited. I know it's not college ball, but this is our own smaller version of March Madness!

At any rate, this is how I see my contingency plans laying out right now.

• If Freddy's team loses Tuesday night, I head down south on Thursday as planned staying with my buddies Harry and Beat at my house in Arroyo Grande then heading down to Ojai for the race Friday morning.
• If, however, he wins the game, I will not be joining them in Arroyo, but will pass my keys to Harry and let them know they'll hear from me Friday morning.
• If his team loses on Thursday night, I will head down south on Friday morning probably making the entire trip to Ojai in one go. I'll miss the lunch, but should be there in plenty of time to check-in and try to get some rest before our 11pm start time.
• If, The Bells pull off the huge upset Thursday night then my son is headed to the finals and I am not going anywhere. It's possible I'll be too exhausted from yelling my lungs out, but I am thinking that I may try a solo 100K out on Ohlone Friday since I've already taken the day off. While I don't know that I'd give great odds on this possibility, it is occupying my dreams more than the race at this point.

So, there it is. I will know more tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. If you find yourself in the south bay tonight with nothing to do and think that watching some great high school basketball sounds like an interesting diversion, stop by Bellarmine Prep High School by 7pm and cheer for the team in white!

Dumb Ass 50K

It's sort of like a Fat Ass 50K only unplanned and stupid.


OK, so I actually did plan to run at least a 50K today. Astute readers will note, to the right, the date listed next to the Sequoia 50K in my 2009 Plans. I am not an astute reader. Apparently, not even of my own writing. That's where the "stupid" comes in.

My plan was to get in at least 40 miles on Saturday by repeating a stunt I pulled last year of running to the start of a 50K race and then running back to my car afterward. I did this at the Skyline Ridge race covering 49 miles in the process. This year I was going to do the same at Sequoia which starts in Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. I'd never been in that park before, but I know the adjacent Redwood Park (also used for the race) quite well. Sitting with the trail map, I had worked out about a half dozen different options for pre- and post-race distance ranging from under 4 to more than 9 miles.

Being so familiar with the trails, I decided I would just play it by ear deciding on a final route based on how early I managed to get up and get myself there. I ended up waking pretty early and arriving along Skyline Blvd by 6:30am. I decided I would head out along my favorite Golden Spike Trail which hooks up with the West Ridge to cut all the way across the park. This would give me at least 7.5 miles including the route down to the race start. I'd printed out maps, but, as I often do, I forgot them at home. I figured by the time I arrived at unfamiliar trails, I would have course markings to help guide my way.

It was about half way along the West Ridge where I first began to wonder. I knew I was on the course, but saw no little colored ribbons. I thought that maybe they were just marking the course this morning. Perhaps I'd even bump into someone along the way. It wasn't until I ran right passed Moon Gate (and had to do my first backtrack of the morn) that I first became suspicious. From there, I was lost. Leaving Redwood, I had no idea in which direction the trailhead leading into Joaquin Miller lay. I ran one way, then the other only to finally confirm with a local resident that the first direction was, indeed, correct. By the time I found something that looked like a trail entrance, the race start time was already past. However, at this point, I was pretty sure something had gone wrong on my part. No markings. No Moon Gate aid station. Maybe the race was on Sunday?

I found the criss-crossing trails in Joaquin Miller quite confusing. They were beautiful, to say the least, but confusing. Despite the lack of any evidence of a race underway, I was still rushing around in a near panic trying to find where it was supposed to have started. The idea of taking it easy had been put temporarily aside. I eventually found the area, deserted as it was. I decided to take a short break and pull out my Blackberry to fire a quick message to Sarah at PCTR. She not only confirmed that I showed up a week early, but sent me the info copied right from this here blog. Ah well. It was an amazing day so I decided that I would just run as much as I could. Luckily I had my pack with me and at least enough electrolyte and calories for a few more hours.

I decided I would follow the path of the main race loop as much as I could recall and try to get in a full 31 miles after exploring this new park a bit further. I'd already logged more than 12 in my wanderings. So once I headed back into Redwood Park I would just have to head back to the far side of the park and could get the miles in by taking the long route back to my car.

In the end, I had a great day and managed my supplies very well returning too the car a half hour after slurping down my final 100 calorie gel. One extra little lap near the parking area rounded my mileage out to just over 31. It wasn't quite the 40+ that I had planned, but I did get an extra 1000ft of climbing beyond what the race listed and still finished in around 6-1/2 hours. Sure, that wouldn't normally win any 50K race, but, hey, I finished an entire week before anyone else!

Views of the wondering:

Satellite View

Street View

Elevation View

Return to the hills

I ran with my mistress this afternoon. No, I didn't bump into Olga at yet another race. I'm talking about my long-time, on again, off again, tumultuous affair with one Miss Shawn Peak. She was quite angry with how long I'd been away and simultaneously tried to knock me over and give me frostbite. I tried to explain my absence, but she was in quite the gloomy mood. Her sister Allison looked just as angry so I passed her by and just went for a short trip to the Peak family Monument. I also visited their friend Sue Knoll who offered a bit warmer reception, but I really couldn't stay long as I had business to finish up with the Peaks.

OK, bad puns aside, I had great success with my first hilly trail run in more than 3 months. I started from my house and ran the roads up to the Stanford Ave staging area before heading up the Valley View Trail to Horse Heaven. I didn't actually hit Mission Peak right away, but headed straight over to my favorite trail that connects with Monument. I then went up to the main peak on the return before heading down the back side for a trip to Sunol and back. It was fabulous to return to my "backyard" trails. It was cold and VERY windy in parts, but the rain didn't arrive until I was all done. That always happens when I am prepared with my rain jacket. The only bad part was the inevitable 3.5 mile return home on roads. I always regret that bit when I chose not to drive. Maybe I should carry a pair of skates and stash them somewhere near the parking lot.

When all was said and done, the total was 27.35 miles with over 5400ft of climbing. My goals was to get do somewhere between 25 and 30 miles and I couldn't have come too much closer than I did. I wore my heart rate monitor to force myself to take the pace easy and the result was a nice 6 hours 13 minutes on my feet. The calf held up beautifully. The HRM really helped to keep me disciplined and I was still able to lose myself in the run especially on the downhill bits where I didn't have to worry about my effort level.

Strictly speaking, to follow Maffetone, you should not do any high intensity running during your base building and that includes hills. Basically, your heart rate is one of the best measures of effort and if you cannot keep it within the zone you are either running the hills too hard or are on hills that are just plain too steep. However, being as I am scheduled to do a 100-miler that includes over 28,000ft of climbing in just over a month, holding off on the hill training is not an option. My plan was to still keep my effort level fairly easy, keeping my HR in zone as much as possible. I gave myself a little extra room on the hills trying to maintain 150 or below. I knew that if I just let myself push it that I could still keep a reasonable average (it was 141-bpm for this run) since the downhills will make up for the uphills, but that isn't really in the spirit of base building. So, I set some rules for myself.

I did allow for an exception if a hill was simply too steep, I would ignore my HR, but switch to power-hiking. Even though it would sometimes raise my heart into the upper 150s, I know that it is crucial to work on hard uphill walking for my 100s. Experience has taught me that if I walk easy on the uphills in training, that come race day I will walk even easier (aka: very slow). I worked on finding a strong, maintainable effort on the hills and also focused on my breathing patterns to keep my HR in check. It didn't go too well in the first few hills, but by the time I was coming up from Sonol, I found a good rhythm. I also re-discovered my uphill shuffle and worked on transitioning between shuffle and hike as the incline changed.

All in all, I am calling it a successful return. I feel that I am on my way, but still need a few more good, long runs and some work on the very steep hills. Mission peak has a couple of short (.25mi or so) beasts that are like 30%+ grade. I am going to work out a loop that goes up these and down a smoother path to set up some repeats.

Some words about numbers

I love words, playing with sentence structures, teasing semantic overtones, reveling in the subtle shades of meaning from choosing one word over another. I can spend hours obsessing about the phrasing of a single sentence. My more serious posts to this blog can sometimes take days to complete. I've even one that's months old still siting in the queue, unposted, unfinished. No doubt, I've been accused of exhibiting a certain pedantry.

Numbers as well. With numbers my tendencies tend towards a sort of compulsiveness. I've been logging my runs since around 2000. Before that I wasn't consistent (or confident) enough in my running to track it because once its recorded, it's later reviewed then manipulated, analyzed and, ultimately, judged. Time, distance, pace, elevation, calories. Splits, averages, fastest, longest, most, best...worst.

The first few years I maintained written logbooks, but eventually moved to an electronic one. I was always meticulous about recording my runs. If I didn't have my log with me on a trip, I would record the time and distance on some random scrap of paper. Miles would be calculated from maps or estimated (roughly) in their absence. Online mapping software was my best friend. Before a run I'd use it to explore possible routes and alternatives; afterward, I'd retrace the precise path I had taken. I was actually fairly resistant about getting a Garmin for some time. I always said it was just one more thing over which to obsess. But, secretly, I think I really enjoyed the process of adding miles up on the map--mentally re-living the run along the way.

Eventually, I gave in to the GPS. After all, I am a gadget lover as well. Simplicity of recording meant more time for post-run analysis. With programs like SportsTracks, I could review trends: daily, weekly, monthly. I could even generate custom reports; my obsessive nature delighting in the minutiae. With such tools, I can now figure out the difference between my average pace on Wednesday afternoon versus Thursday evening runs over the course of a given year! What more could I as for?

I, similarly, had an initial aversion to using a heart rate monitor (HRM for the initiated). If I already spent way too much time checking the watch for my current pace, distance and accumulated time, I would likely become downright rediculous wirh yet another number to track while out on my training runs. Then there's the whole bio-feedback angle where the very act of worrying about my HR can make it go up. But, alas, I committed to follow the Maffetone equation and keep my heart from beating more than 145 times every 60 seconds during my base building phase. There was pretty much no way to avoid adding yet another electronic device to this normally simple sport, further feeding my obsession with a constant stream of numbers.

So, I've been monitoring my heart rate, trying to keep it below 145 bpm while maintaining a consistent (but, hopefully, increasing) pace. At least in these initial weeks, my pace and average HR vary quite a bit based on a number of factors that I can't always identify. Basically there are good days and bad. I've been looking for a way to compare workouts so I can look for a general trend. My idea was to simply multiply HR in beats per minute (bpm) by pace in minutes per mile (mpm) to come up with the metric of beats per mile. I could then compare the results of this function from one run to another as a sort of index.

The problem with this function is that HR doesn't necessarily rise linearly with pace. So, for example, if my average HR at 10-mpm is 140 and at 9-mpm its 150 then the I get values of 1400 and 1350, respectively. Further, the reality is even more dramatic as my HR seems to go up more slowly as my speed increases, at least to a certain point. After that I, need to work much harder for increases in pace. However, this point, the functional minimum (or the point where the first derivative equals zero for the mathematically inclined), is well above the 145 recommended max HR. I could conclude that I should just try to run as close to 145-bpm as possible in order to optimize this function within the limit. However, this is not only difficult to acheive in practice, but probably goes against the spirit of Maffetone. The idea is to keep all your running below a certain effort level, not to target a particular average while pushing the pace.

I suppose I could just try to minimize my total heart beats over a week, but then my distance is pretty variable so perhaps I could just look at the average per mile. However, even here, weeks with longer runs will tend to skew the data as my HR is higher for a given pace late in a very long run and, therefore, not comparible to the measure added up from a few shorter runs. There are also runs with my wife where I go at her pace so my HR will tend to be much lower overal than if I were just running at my own pace within the zone. No, the only thing to I can do is compare workouts where my HR is at near the same average and see if pace is increasing over the weeks (or conversely compare runs where the pace is similar and see if HR is decreasing). There's no need for my beats per mile metric if HR (or pace) is kept constant.

Oh well, at least I can have some new useless facts with which to waste time. My heart beat 98,560 times while running the last week. Fascinating. This does bring me to one last thought which is the concept of "lifetime heartbeats". As runners, we are often confronted by sedentary people who offer up some dubious criticism of our sport generally as a rationalization for their own lack of fitness. Usually its something about ruining our knees, being hit by cars or eaten by wild animals. However, chief among these absurd claims has to be the assertion that "we only get a certain number of heart beats in our lifetime." The idea being that we runners are going to die sooner because we are using up our heart beats at a faster rate.

Let's enter the couch potato's fantasy land and grant this claim at face value. The average male human resting heart rate is around 70-bpm. Mine is about 48. Let's assume that when not sleeping our fictional sloth manages a modicum of exertion--getting up to go to the fridge, walking to the car, moving between cubicle and elevator, etc.--and manages a weekly average of 75-bpm (we'll put mine at 55). A week has 24*7=168 hours. On a good week (when not racing a 100 miler), I will get in 11 or so hours of running. Let's say that I work pretty hard and have an average HR of 150-bpm for my runs. That would be 11*60*150=99,000 beats while running. The rest of the week would total 157*60*55=518,100 beats for a total of 617,100 beats for the week. Now, our sedantary man in that same week will have accumulated a total of 168*60*75=756,000 beats. Even on a week where I ran a 30hr 100-miler with an average HR of 140 (no way I could keep that high in a 100), my total would still be just over 700K.

Now, tell me, who is going to use up their heart faster?


After all this data gathering and post-data gathering analysis, there is really only one inexorable conclusion. I am, quite likely, borderline OCD about certain things (I can hear you laughing, honey, but its a big border, OK?) The only cure I've found is to lose myself in a very long run on a remote trail somewhere with the GPS serving only its most vital function of reminding me that I do, eventually, need to return home (and letting me know just which way that might be if I need it).

Does this race make my ass look fat?

The Fremont Fat Ass 50K has been a great way to start the season the past two years and I still wanted to be a part of it this year even if I wasn't prepared for the full distance. With my long bike rides, I felt my aerobic condition was fine. The question was more about how much pounding my calf could put up with. My goal was to just run for 2-3 hours, perhaps 15 miles or so. I would still be aiming to keep my heart rate under 145bpm so I would start with the back-of-the-pack runners. It would be nice to go at a more casual pace and socialize after pushing it last year to finish under 5 hours.

I started out running along with Drs. Cynthia and David, two PhDs who work in the patent law industry. Having had to deal with software patents from various fronts in my job, we had some very interesting discussions. About half way to Coyote Hills we came upon Jim Winne. Jim has an arrythmia condition and was having some heart rate issues this day. He said it was common for him and he would be fine so long as he kept his HR below a certain level. He was doing so with frequent walk breaks. He said he was probably going to turn around early and asked us to let Catra know if we saw her.

Since I was taking it easy anyway, I decided to just stick with Jim. If he was going to turn around early then it would be good incentive for me to do the same. Besides, it's always interesting spending time with some of the people who have been around this sport much longer than I have. Despite the slow pace, we were approaching the entrance to Coyote Hills before we knew it. I told Jim that this was pretty much the last chance to cut it short and he said he was going to go ahead and finish the whole thing. I decided I'd better stick with him for safety sake. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! OK, the truth is I am just too pig-headed to stop. If Jim was going to finish and my calf was feeling fine, then how could I turn back early?

As we made our way to the water stop at the Dairy Glen area we caught up with Linda McFadden and Barbara Elia who had started early. I ran with Linda for a bit at Coyote Two Moons last year and Barb, well, you can't really run ultras in the Bay Area for long and not know who Barbara is. I've seen her at so many races that I've joked that maybe she just runs from the end of one to the start of the next. She has been running ultras since I was in high school and has probably run more miles than just about anyone on the planet. I ended up sticking with Barb for the remainder of the race. I've talked with Barara before, but this was the first chance I have had to spend extended time hearing about all of her amazing experiences.

I finished the race in 6:37 (nearly two hours slower than last year) and my average HR was 144. Ron Duncan, whom I'd met two years ago at this race, came in first and was kind enough to go out and buy pizza and beer for everyone behind him. No that is a tradition that I think this race should adopt! My calf felt fine the entire race and the only pain is from being out of conditioning. After running with my wife for a little under 10 miles more on Sunday evening, I still feel fine. For some reason, my thighs are actually the most sore and there is a pain in my left glute that will need some work this week. I guess that is sort of par for the course. Besides, I know I can be a pain in the ass to my wife with my running obsession, it's only fair that I should end up with one at the end of one of her runs.

Happy Returns

I am happy to say that I just completed my first week of consistent running since my injury. I ran a total of 22 miles from Monday to Monday all at a very easy pace. The longest outing was just an hour and a half, but I have done bike rides of 3-1/2 hours and 4 hours the past two weekends to keep up my endurance. I've also continued the exercises given to me by my physical therapist and I have had no pain in the calf at all. This next weekend I am planning to attempt my first long run. I may join the Fremont Fat Ass 50K, but don't expect to run the entire distance. Maybe something in the 2-3 hour range. I will either do a bike ride on Sunday or a shorter run with my wife depending on Saturday's results.

The following weekend is the PCTR Race Series Awards Ceremony in Walnut Creek. While I didn't win any awards (I only ran one race in the series anyway), I'm going to attend because it promises to be fun. I am going to ride my bike to the ceremony and back. The ride I did this past weekend was a test of the route. I started too late and had to jump on BART in Pleasanton after 57 miles because it was getting dark and the last thing I wanted was to try to ride on Niles Canyon Rd. after dusk. Based on this ride, I expect the entire 72 mile trip to take about 5 hours. I will leave from Fremont BART around 6am and then head back out after the ceremony at noon. I've plotted the route I plan to take on Google Maps.

So far, this doesn't really stand as a training plan, but if I get through these next few weeks I will feel confident enough to put something more formal together. Stay tuned. I'm back. Hopefully, I'll have something more interesting to write about soon.

Phasing into races

After successfully completing two very easy 3 mile runs, I am ready to cautiously declare myself as having returned to running. The real question is how things will progress from here. I'm hoping that my 3-1/2 hour bike ride last weekend is a sign that my endurance is in reasonable condition. My runs have been at a VERY slow pace, like 10+ mpm on flat terrain. However, this actually fits with my original plans. My goal for the early part of this year was to execute a real base building phase which I have never really done in a formal manner. I planned to use the Maffetone approach which has me keeping my maximum HR at 145bpm. To assist with this, I have changed the default display on my Garmin to display heartrate in place of pace while running. Of course, since it still displays time and distance, I can obviously do the calculation in my head. However, it should cut down on my tendency to constantly monitor my pace and to focus more on heartrate.

I have a semblance of a race schedule set up for the first part of the season. However, already, two races have are off. We cancelled our trip to Disneyworld after me being sidelined by my injury and my wife's training going south after a November illness. The next target for her is Big Sur which is supposed to be beautiful. I am still in Coyote Two Moons and am remaining hopeful that my progress will allow me to join the fun an luncacy of that race again. With an average pace of 3mph, it really is more like a long hike where I run the downhills. The only other possible race before then is Sequoia which I will treat as a training run. It is pretty tentative at this point as my son has a potential playoff basketball game that night and we also have a weding invite for the same day. Will play that one by ear.

After Coyote Two Moons, I plan to finally run the Diablo 50m since it doesn't fall on my wife/mother/nephew/mother-in-law's birthday weekend. Those two races should get my endurance up. I then want to have a "big" month of May before tapering for States in June. I didn't get into Miwok this year (no 3-peat for me) so I will look for another race in early May. Options include the following:

• 5/2 - Sycamore Canyon 50K or Wild Wild West 50K
• 5/9 - Quicksilver 50m or PCT 50m
• 5/16 - Bishop High Sierra 100K or 50m

I'm leaning towards one of the 50 milers as all of the above except Quicksilver would require travel and I don't like to travel for anything shorter than a 50m. PCT or Bishop would add in some good altitude training before the Western States Training Camp, but Quicksilver is the easy choice. I plan to keep Ohlone and Mt. Diablo 50K events on my schedule, but plan to keep them as training runs to be followed by my taper.

After States, I really have not firmed up any plans. I have some ideas of other 100s I'd like to do, but will probably be limited to those that do not fill early. I will likely return to Javelina again and consider making a streak of it. However, I really can't look that far ahead right now. I am most focused on the immediate comeback. I will do my first run of an hour or longer this weekend. I will also probably do another long bike ride to keep the endurance up. It really is day by day at this point.

"...moving fast and efficiently, breathing calmly, monitoring himself so as not to get into oxygen debt as he fought gravity to the top. His sure feet knew the trail so well, every rock and root, twist and slant, that he felt he could close his eyes. But he didn't. Every path, no matter how well known, contains the unexpected."

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The path is in sight.

After many fits and starts, entire pain-free weeks followed disparagingly by short test runs that ended in calf-seizing setbacks, I finally went to the doctor. He referred me to the very knowledgeable physical therapists at Elite Sports Physical Therapy. During my first consultation my therapist, Jacon, confirmed what I had suspected, but also explained something that had remained a mystery to me. It certainly appeared to be a fairly severe calf strain. However, the reason I have been having so much trouble recovering from it is that I have been fighting against the body's natural healing process.

When the body heals a wound, scar tissue develops around the site to help promote healing. It was explained to me that it works somewhat like a cast holding the injured fibers together. The problem is that scar tissue is inflexible and doesn't necessarily align with the movement of the muscle. This means that as you try to come back from an injury you are often working against the scar tissue (especially if you are trying a little sooner than you should). Not only does this explain the occurrence of re-injury, it also explains why I was experiencing the "cramping" feeling whenever it happened. My calf muscles were basically pulling against the scar tissue that were holding the injury in place.

My rehabilitation involved some ultrasound and soft tissue work to break up and help re-shape the scar tissue along with exercises that increasingly load the muscles to both strengthen the supporting areas and help align everything with proper movement. It started with seated toe-ups against pressure from my hands, but quickly progressed to body-weight versions. Combined with this has been a number of single-leg balancing exercises performed on spongy blogs that reduce impact, but also really work all the stabilizers on the outside of the legs. The one-legged jumps were the final test and I could really feel it in the legs as well as the hips. I am going to incorporate all of these into my normal routine going forward.

So, the end result of all of this was that yesterday I got on the treadmill. I ran at an easy 10 minute-mile pace while Jacon watched my gait. He showed me a couple of stretches to help with some tightness that might be causing a slight outward rolling on the injured side. I went less than a mile, but felt ZERO tightness in my calf or pain around the inujured area. This was a first as when I did the previous tests on my own I always felt tightness at the start (foolishly convincing myself that it would go away upon warm-up). The only thing I did feel was a in my shins, but this was most likely due to the 50-mile bike ride I did on Sunday. In the end he gave me the go ahead to start running.

I did 3 miles last night at a very easy pace with my wife. No tightness. No Pain. No calf seizing up. Everything felt good. I'll probably do a couple more easy runs this week and then do about 6 or so this weekend to see how it holds together approaching the one hour mark. I'm going to keep it on the flats for now, but returning to the trails in the near term no longer seems a fantasy.

I will most likely head up Mission Peak once I feel strong enough for the hills. Being as it is so familiar to me, it has stood most clearly in my mind when I imagine being back running on the trails.

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"Kim was, as always, utterly happy while running, in accord with nature, in harmony with the universe, in touch with the truth that was in him, full of love for all creatures, even the lowliest insect."

- The Holy Man by Susan Trott

Not yet

I've not written lately due to my injury. That sounds a bit silly since its my leg and not my fingers that are the problem. However, my compulsive nature mixed with my tendency towards hypochondria means that any writing I do whilst laid up, runs the risk of coming off like one gigantic whine fest. Consider yourself warned.

Somewhere during those final miles at Javelina I made a sacrafice without realizing it. Apparently, my left calf was the offering that the running gods demanded in exchange for meeting my time goal. It has now been a full three weeks and I still cannot run on it. That isn't to say that I've not made the attempt. Then again, perhaps I'd be closer to fully healed had I done otherwise.

After a little research, I am pretty sure it isn't a stress fracture since the pain is on the side and back of the calf. If it were a fracture, it would have to be the more rare fibular type rather than the much more common fracture of the tibia. I'm pretty sure it is just a calf strain. However, that "just" is a bit of misnomer as these strains can come in varying degrees of severity, as I learned. A "grade 2" strain can take 5-8 weeks. I don't think it could be a "grade 3" as that seems like it would entail a much more intense level of pain than anything I have been experiencing.

There wasn't any traumatic event during the race which caused this. However, I do believe that there may have been such a few days after. My calves were extremely tight after Javelina, especially the left. I had promised myself to take a full week of recovery before attempting to run. Stupid is as stupid does and about mid-week after the race my legs were starting to feel a bit better so I tried a little test. It seemed harmless at the time. I was just going to run a little bit down the hallway at work. A few steps into it and that characteristic "pop" was exactly what I felt in the back of my leg. This was followed immediately by two other sensations. First, a much more intense pain in the calf similar to a severe muscle cramp. Second, the immediate, sinking feeling of what an idiot I was. From that point on any "toeing off" action allowed me to revisit these two direct results of my inability to follow even my own rest plan.

It responded fairly well to ice and even better to message. By week three after the race, I started on the stationary bike which felt pretty good. I did a little walking on the treadmill and even some very easy jogging. It was definitely feeling better and I could even hustle up stairs without felling like I was going to send it into spasms of pain. I had planned to wait until the following weekend to test it on a real run. That runner's amnesia I've mentioned before may be useful for getting through the pain of an ultramarathon, not so much for recovering from an injury.

Thursday night I was feeling so good I went out for an easy 3-miler. Everything felt tight during the first mile or so, but it loosened up after that. The calf still felt "tentative" at best. After two and a half miles, I had concluded that it was only "OK" and that I would give it a couple of more days of full rest before trying another run. Then, about 1/4 mile from home, it completely seized up again. I believe my evaluation of "Steve, you fucking idiot" was actually audible this time. The only upside was that, afterwords, I did discover a few spots to massage on the side of my calf that, while very painful, definitely loosen things up.

More ice, more rest, more massage. This past weekend was spent back on the stationary bike. I did an hour and 45 minutes on Sunday night. I never thought that the treadmill ever look so inviting. As a reminder to myself, I am copying the rules for "when you can return to normal activity" from the sports medicine section of about.com below.

• You are pain-free.
• You have no swelling.
• You have full range of motion (compared to the uninjured side).
• You have full or close to full (90 percent) strength (again, compare with the uninjured side)
• You can jog straight ahead without pain or limping.
• You can sprint straight ahead without pain or limping.
• You can jump on both legs without pain and you can jump on the injured leg without pain.