Race Plan

The Crackhead has asked those of us running R&R to write a race plan and submit it to him. I thought I'd like to put mine up in my blog so I'll have it to review down the road. I'll share it.

“Our mindset in the moment creates our experience.”
A Race Plan, by Thomas Armbruster

The week of the race coincides with “Month End”, which is a labor intensive, stressful period of time at my job. In order to offset this process and not allow it to overly affect my race week, I will devote a large amount of time on the 1st & 2nd of November to finishing as much as possible before leaving on Thursday the 3rd. When I leave the office to head to Savannah, I will completely check out and leave all of my work at work. I will also use the previous weekend to relax and catch up on any lost sleep. I have been getting 8+ hours as of late and do not feel that lack of sleep will be a factor.

While on taper, my nutritional focus will remain on the healthy side. Good carbs, lean proteins & minimal fats. I am keeping in mind that now that I am tapering, I will not require as many calories. I don’t want to continue eating like I am running 40+ mile weeks when I am NOT running 40+ mile weeks. The week of the race, I intend on “topping off” the carb levels, but not gorging. A little extra good carbs each day, whole wheat pastas, brown rice & quinoa.

I have had my race splits printed out and posted on my cube wall so I see the times and am very familiar with the timing breakdown. I also plan on either making a “timing bracelet” or writing certain splits on my hand for race day.

We will arrive in Savannah on Thursday, we will be staying with my mother in law for the night. 8 hours of sleep.

Friday, before checking into the Westin, I will review the race map and try to drive as much of the course as possible, running the tangents in my mind. I will eat small healthy meals throughout the day, knowing that anything I consume up to 12 hours before the race will be of no use to me. I will get my packet at the expo and lay low for the remainder of the day. I’ve already told my wife I would like to eat dinner early & turn in 9pm at the latest. She may spend some time with friends…I’ll be going to bed.

RACE DAY!
I plan on getting up between 4:30 & 5 am. 16oz of water immediately.
I’ll either get coffee from the lobby or make it in my room, depending on hotel service. ( I will know the answer to this by Friday) This is a pre run ritual. 8-12 oz of coffee with breakfast to “get things moving” Breakfast will be a whole wheat & egg Sammy. Quiet time in the morning to center my thoughts. Review the race map and timing splits. Visualize the course. Run the tangents. Stay centered and “in” each mile.

Shower & prepare to get to the ferry, I will have my race gear laid out the night before. Shorts & short sleeve shirt. Visor. Sunglasses(?) BIB. Do not forget bib. Garmin & HR monitor. Gu’s (2 reg, 2 Rocktane) & a water bottle to drink pre-race.

I would like to leave the island by 6am, I’ll be close enough to the water ferry that I can monitor the lines and decide if I need to cue up early or not. Depending on the weather I may have throw away clothes to wear before the run.

Getting to the staging areas, I will find my corral but not enter. I don’t want to be penned in too early, knowing once I enter I may not be able to leave. Finding out this info will be helpful. This early time is when I will meet up with others and chat. Ideally, I will run a warm up mile with Tom around 7:00am. Follow it up with a few striders to feel the effort, but not too hard. Finish w/u by 7:15 and move into the corral. This is when the focus begins. Visualize the race. Run the tangents. Know there will be times when it hurts and I will want to quit. Make the decision ahead of time that when it happens, I will NOT give in to the pain. Run each mile, one at a time. Remember that “everything changes, the next mile may be different” “Relax & Move” When it gets hard, focus on form. “Relentless Forward Progress.”

Grab a water at every stop. No need to drink entire cup, drink when thirsty.

Just before the race I will say the Serenity prayer and ask for guidance & strength and for everyone to run a safe race within their ability.

Go Time.

Easy, comfortable. Don’t get caught up in the moment and try to jockey for too much position. I can’t win the race in the first mile, but I can blow my race. Remember I have a slow start built into my pacing. 8:19 for the 1st mile, 8:17 & then 8:16. By the time I get to mile 3 I should have plenty of room to run.

Grab a water at every stop. No need to drink entire cup, drink when thirsty.

25 minute 5k. Relax.

Mile 5 – 41:20. Take a GU

Mile 7, 57:42, heading into downtown, enjoy the crowds, smile. Feel the positive energy. Use it to my advantage.

Mile 10 – 1:22:04. Take 2nd GU

Mile 11 1:30:08…full splits from ½’s. I shouldn’t be hurting at this point but will be jealous that all of those people get to go that way and I have to get on the Truman and run all the way the fu@k to Pearl’s Elegant Pelican. It will get lonely. Stay in each mile. Get off the Truman & enjoy running through Daffin Park. Enjoy the crowd. Smile. Positive energy.

Mile 15 2:02:10. Take 1st Roctane. This is the 1st sub 8 mile. We are working now. Relax

Run past SSU. Stay focused. Remember the countless speed sessions you ran with the Hammer at the track. Cuss him out for not being there.(j/k) Stay positive.

Mile 18 2:25:57. Say goodbye to the Marsh. We get to go back into town now. We are still holding in the 7:50’s. Relax and move.

Mile 20 2:41:41 Last Gu. Time to HTFU. This is what we’ve worked for all summer. 40+ mile weeks. Double speed sessions. 160 miles in September. You are ready. Let’s work. One mile at a time.

2:49:30 5 miles left. We will get to see Jim & Stewart’s band. Hopefully this will give a adrenaline push. 40 minutes left.

Remember Hal Higdon’s quote “Concentrate! You can't reach your potential if you drift through your races”

2:57:18 4 miles left - This is going to hurt. We are going under 7:50. HTFU. Fast is sexy.

3:05:05 Less that 30 minutes left.

3:12:50. We get to get off the Truman. 2 miles

3:20:34. Last chance for glory. Leave it all on the course. Feed off the crowd. Pass 5 runners before the turn to the park.

Make a right and leave it out there.

3:29:56

It's not you, it's me....

I'm going to have to talk with my "other lady" this evening. I need a little space, some time away. A break.

It's not her fault, she is always there for me. Never judging me for what I wear, how I smell, or how much I may sweat on her during our time together. Even though she is constantly causing me pain, I always come out the other side stronger.

I do love her.

However, we've been seeing each other a lot lately. A LOT! Twice a week. More than an hour at a time, sometimes close to two hours. I need a little time to recover.





So, today I make my last trip to the track. Yasso's. 10 x 800 @ 3:28.

Then I break the news. I'm torn. Should I tell her before or after? One last go around for old times sake? Or just tell her and leave, a clean break?

Rock & Roll in 15 days. Bib # 2081; corral # 2!

Let's do this!

Odds & Ends

R&R Savannah is less than a month away! Training is starting to wind down, or maybe I should say it's in full swing??? I still have several key workouts left on the schedule. This weekend I will be running back to back half marathons. Saturday I will run the pacing for the 2nd half of the marathon (goal time 1:42:53) and Sunday I will run the 1st half pacing (goal time 1:47:06). It is still a little wierd to see it on paper. Let's consider a few things: My half marathon PR is 1:48:xx, which I set in March of this year. Soooo, my 2 half mary tests this weekend will be faster than my existing PR. Granted, I know I am currently in better shape, lighter & faster than I was in March, but still! The crackhead has some interesting training ideas.

We will follow up this weekends half mary's with another 3 hour LSR next weekend. The following weekend I will run an 18 mile pace run, following the pacing for the marathon. Then TAPER! At this point we will assess all of the data and decide what my chances are of running a 3:29:59 in Savannah. I'm a little nervous. This is becoming very real. Crunching the data, looking at pacing & HR info - I am real comfortable at a 8:20-8:40 pace. My HR stays real constant in a high Z1, low Z2. An 8:20 doesnt get me sub 3:30. My fitness at 8:00 m/m is rapidly improving, two weeks ago, I ran my last 8:00 min pace run of 10 miles. Avg HR was 146, low to mid Z2. So, it's getting there, the question is will it get there in time?


I had my first running dream last night. Well the first one I can remember in a long time. Seems I was running the Pinhoti 100 miler, which I actually do intend on running in 2012. Well I got to the top of Bald Rock, about 40 miles into the race. At the aid station, we had a cooking challenge! Turns out you had to prepare a dish and present it to the celebrity guest judge before you could continue on. Gordon Ramsey was the guest judge. I prepared a delishious oven roasted Chilean Seabass with a sweet potato puree. I think I also sauteed some squash or cauliflower. It's a little fuzzy. Anyways, Gordon seemed pleased with my offering and gave me 3.5 out of 5?!?! Enough to allow me to continue on with the race. To tie it all together for you, dear reader, I think the key to staying ahead of the sweepers at Pinhoti is to get through Bald Rock before the sun goes down. Going through "Blue Hell" in the dark is incredibly slow. So I think this is why I dreamt about that. Several of my friends will be toeing the line at Pinhoti the same morning I will be toeing the line at R&R. I guess we know where my thoughts are these days.

Rock & Roll Savannah

...a huge road mary & a return to Savannah is on the horizon.

Yesterday marked 2 years to the day that I ran my first marathon, the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks, Alaska. What a great race. A lot has changed in my life and in my "running career". I have since run several marathon & ultra distance events. I have moved from Savannah to Atlanta and have deepened my love for trail running. I never vowed to "never run a road mary" but didn't really see one in the future anytime soon.

That was until they announced that Competitor was going to bring it's Rock & Roll Marathon Series to little ol' Savannah, Jaw-ja. Hmmm, inagural road marathon in the town that I have grown to love and call "home"? Yeah, where do I sign up? Early estimates had 12-15,000 runners filling our city streets. I guess the powers that be grossly underestimated the Siren like power of a super flat course in a city known for it's debaucherous St' Patrick's Day parade and celebration. The race was capped at 23,000 runners and sold out 2 months before race day. I will admit that I had a hard time coughing up over a $100 to enter (this is double/triple what I usually pay to run a trail ultra) however, you only live once and my Sweet Boo wanted to make this trip to Savannah, so...

After a decent trail season, looking back through my training log, the Crackhead and I had decided that I had built a solid mileage base of close to 1000 miles this year; we were now going to tune it up with a healthy dose of speed work. "They" say it takes 1-2 years to build a solid base and 5-6 weeks to add speed. That feels like the case with me. Since running the 'nox 2 years ago, I have averaged over 100 miles a month; 120 over the last 3-4 months. Over the last 4 weeks I've been cranking out 40+ miles a week, with 5-6 days of running, including - 2 speed sessions and a tempo run. RUNNING FAST HURTS!!!!

I have settled in on a 3:29:59 goal time at Savannah and my workouts of late have been nothing but successful. I really don't want to jinx myself, but since the summer temperatures have left us, my training has been awesome. I feel really good about the progress and am seeing great results in my overall running efficiency. Avg HR @ MP is dropping week after week, even as the MP runs are getting longer. Today is a big test as I dial up Yasso's x 10 @ 3:29. If I am able to trim another 5-8 pounds over the next 4-5 weeks - all systems go! (A shout out to Wes for the push to drop those pesky pounds)

Here is the best part. I'm excited to go to Savannah and run - I really am! I want to have a great race and finsih in the top 10%...but that is not what I'm really looking forward to that weekend. It's seeing old & new friends. Sharing a city I love with 22, 999 other runners. It's meeting up with college friends & bloggers that are coming into town for the race. Having fellow GUTS runners come from Atlanta to share the course with me. Being able to toe the line with the Crackhead and other Savannah runners for the first time in a while. It's the comraderie and fellowship of like minded people that I am really looking forward to expierencing. November 5th is going to be a great day, regardless of the time I see on the finisher clock...

(but it better not show 3:3x:xx!)

Hot 2 Trot

...or celebrating my 37th birthday by running around in circles for 8 hours.


I know it's been a while since I've posted a blogpost - I wouldn't be suprised if this post goes mostly unread...that wouldn't be anything new! However, I am going to recap yesterday's race, mostly as an opportunity to reflect on what went wrong & what went right and as record for me to look back upon as a training tool.

Let's get to the good stuff! First, here's a few photos Sean Oh took yesterday. He is a great photographer and also a fantastic ultra/trail runner! Thanks Sean!




The H2T course is a 1.18 mile loop at Sweetwater Creek State Park, a personal favorite of mine. It is a really enjoyable loop with a majority of the course being shaded trails, there was some nice downhill sections and two "walking hills"(Unless you are eventual winners Jim Bickelhaupt & Kate Brun, then you ran them. Every. Damn. Loop!)

Due to the fact H2T landed on my 37th birthday, it was only fitting to set my goal at 37 miles - 32 loops on the day. My pre race plan was to go out with an average pace of about 10:30 m/m and grind for the 1st 4 hours and see where I ended up. There were to be a lot of factors that would determine the type of day I had. The first being my less then stellar long runs recently. The 22 miles I ran at Chattooga 5 weeks ago was my longest run since SweetH20 50k in April. I was a little worried my legs wouldn't have the endurance to go 37m.

The second concern I had going into the day was the predicted record temps we were going to get. I don't run well in the heat & humidity and every Summer I whine and complain to my wife and tell her to not let me sign up for ultras in June, July & August. Of course after the weather passes and I run in fall, spring & winter temps, I forget how horrible I feel and sign up anyways. Plus it was on my BIRTHDAY! How could I not run H2T?



The morning was overcast and a few minutes before the race started, it began to rain. It was a light sprinkle that never really picked up or became annoying. The rain was welcome by most runners as we knew this would keep the heat & humidity down. The rain left us within the first hour, fortunately the cloud cover lasted for a majority of the day.

I ran with a bunch of different runners for the first few hours and held a comfortable pace. I hit the 11 mile mark before my 2nd hour and was feeling good. I was concerned that my HR was a little high, sitting in the low 140's, ocationally spiking to 150 on the hills. Typically my HR is in the low 130's at this pace. In hindsight, this may have been a factor in the remainder of the day as I was having trouble keeping my core temp down. (note to future H2T runners - have a plan in place for cooling core temp)

By the 4th hour, I was rolling past my 22nd mile - still feeling strong. My fueling plan was to take an Ensure replacement drink, every hour on the hour, and grab whatever looked good off the aid station table. For fluids I was alternating water & Powerade in my handheld, aiming to drain my bottle at least twice an hour. As the temps rose I was going through three bottles an hour. So to recap, I was taking in a minimum of 250 calories and 60oz. My energy was perfect, I never felt sluggish. However, midway through the 5th hour, the cramping started.

The good news about the 5th hour was my awesome Sweetest Boo showed up! It was great to see her face and she arrived just when I needed to see her. She brought Holla and my favorite ultra treat - Rice Crispy treats! I brought her up to speed and told her my concerns about managing my electrolytes. I continued my loops but was having to walk more than I wanted to walk. She joined me just after I completed my "marathon" loop. I took a second bottle out on that loop to focus on replacing fluids and spiking my electrolytes. This worked and the cramping stopped.

As soon as I started to feel better - Everything flipped while I was running downhill. My left hamstring cramped again, it felt like I was hit in the leg with a baseball bat. I was ready to end my day and hangout with the other runners. Except, the night before I told Holly that no matter what I said, "you can't let me quit" ...and she didn't. She came out for another loop and pushed me when she could.

Upon finishing what I thought was my 26th loop, the counter told me it was my 25th loop. I was mentally defeated. This changed everything. I sat down and put a towel over my head and wanted to cry. I was forced back out and decided since I couldn't give up, I wasn't going to give up. I focused on finishing one loop at a time and running when I could. In these last couple of hours I spent more time running and talking with other GUTS runners. I ran with a couple of guys I hold in great esteem; Ray K & Laz. I learn so much from the stuff they post on the ultra list, it was great to meet them in person. Fellow bloggers Brad G, Joja Jogger, C$ & Jason R were out there keeping me company and helping me forget the cramps.
I finished loop 29 with 15 minutes to spare. Too close to not try for one more. I ran as much of the beginning of the loop as I could. The legs didn't have it. I missed "officially" finishing my 30th loop by 2 minutes. On paper, I ran 34.22 miles in 7:45. I finished my day with 35.4 miles in 8:02. I now have a new distance PR!

Sarah Tynes & the volunteers were awesome! The race was top notch - under some extreme conditions. The heat index topped out at 101 degrees, humidity of 94% What a great way to spend my birthday!

Let it be officially recorded, I do not want to run H2T next year; I will volunteer!

Chattooga 50k 2.0

F#@K!

I'm still processing yesterday's race.

It was hot.

It was humid.

I was running well, and then I wasn't.

Dropped at mile 21(4:45 in).

I could have continued but I knew it would be a death march and I wasn't that invested. I didn't have it in my legs and I didn't want to be trashed for the next 2 or 3 weeks.

I still have some lingering questions & remorse for my decision. This is my first DNF, I guess there is a lesson in here, I'm still trying to sort it out.

Filtered!!!

So.........the big bad corporate machine has added a new filter to the network...this filter is the biggest, baddest 'blog' filter I have ever seen. Hell I couldn't even look up the results from the Black Mountain Monster 12/24 hour run because the web address was "BMMonster24.org" which somehow hit the filter as sex...Any road, I can't read blogs, post blogs or even think about blogs from work.

Guess they want me working.

So, until I figure out a way around this filter, there will be less of me around, posting & commenting.

I will still write a race report from next weeks Chattooga 50k.

I'll see ya on the other side.

GS