Why I Am Not A Dog Person

I don't really like dogs, but I spend most of my time pretending I do. It's a Dog World out there and people who don't like dogs are viewed as strange, unloving or uptight, so I try to fake it, mostly in a way that requires me to have as little contact with dogs as possible. I am not really afraid of dogs, they just seem big and hairy and smelly and messy and way too much work. Frankly, I just don't see the point.

And then there are days like today, when dogs become more than just a nuisance but a major pain in the neck.

Last week when my parents came to visit, my mom brought a map of Salem. The map seemed to have a lot of errors; namely, the map had country roads where I am pretty sure none exist. It was like the map tried to anticipate future roads, but many of them never came to fruition - like the housing development down the street that got denied, but still made it on to the map. So when the map showed a little country road by our house (which I assumed was a dead end) going through to the main road, I was skeptical. But I figured it didn't hurt to check it out.

The road did dead end at a very nice house with two HUGE yellow labs sitting on the grass. They looked friendly enough, but I made an about face as soon as I spied them. Well, they come tearing after me and start jumping all over me. I drop my water bottle and one of them grabs it and runs off. I keep walking slowly down the road and the other dog falls along beside me, no longer "attacking" me with his "friendly" nature. So I walk back up to the house and the first dog is having a great time with my water bottle. I get the attention of the owner in the living room, who gets the bottle back and assures me the dogs are "very friendly." Fantastic, Buddy, but they still scared the crap out of me and ruined my water bottle.

Nice try Friendly Dogs, but you failed to win me over.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of My First 50 Miler

The Good:
1. The Race Plan: I just felt like I ran a good, smart race. I had a very conservative start, and still felt relatively strong at the end. I definitely slowed down some in the last 22 miles, but I think I did so well because I was able to keep running for almost the entire way, with the exception of about one steep mile.

2. Troubleshooting: My stomach felt off from very early on. I just remember reading one of the signs of hyponatremia is a stomach that won't empty. I wouldn't have thought it'd be a problem that early since I was drinking sports beverage, eating solids and gels and it was still relatively cool. But I couldn't think why else my stomach would feel so full. So I took 2 S-caps! 45 minutes later, I had emptied my water bottle, but I still felt the same so I took 2 more S-caps! This felt a lot like disobeying the warning on the Ibuprofen bottle, you know the one that says,"Do not take more than six tablets in a 24 hour period without consulting a doctor." I also didn't drink much over the next section, but by the next AS, it seemed like all was good and I even chugged a big cup of ginger ale before heading out.

3. My Loving Husband: I gotta give him big thanks for putting up with my running neurosis. This time was especially hard because he had to take care of the kids in a campground. He's a pretty supportive guy, even though he does a lot of eye rolling when I talk about ultras and despite admitting that when he saw me and Erin (who ended up second), he thought she was definitely going to pass me back and win the race!

4. Camping Before the Race: Several people warned me that this was a bad idea, but I thought it was fun. It was a little challenging with the kids, but I still got a good night's sleep and it felt like the race was more of a weekend get away than just the usual show up, run, and leave routine.

5. Heed: Despite my salt issues, I really liked this beverage, mostly because it wasn't very sweet but it still had more flavor than water.

The Bad:
1. "Wonky" Stomach: I pride myself on an iron stomach so I really didn't like that I had some issues. Fortunately, I was keeping everything down and the problem seemed to resolve after a little intervention.

2. Camping after an Ultra: As much as I liked camping before the ultra, I wasn't so fond of it the second night. There were no showers and a washrag and soap only goes so far! Plus I wanted a soft bed and more milk (we ran out after my second glass - who knew I'd be craving milk?). And dealing with the kids at the campground took a bit more energy than I had after 50 miles.

3. Hacky Cough: I had a dry cough for a few days that felt like what I would imagine asthma to feel like. Too much dust inhalation?? I don't know, but I didn't like it.

4. Nuun: The fizz in this was just all wrong. I am not a fan.

5. Left Shoulder: This was actually my biggest pain after the race; it felt like I had some bursitis or something. I am feeling a lot more comfortable carrying a water bottle, but I am sure I tense up that shoulder too much.

6. Men's Shorts: One of the prizes for the ladies race was a pair of men's shorts!! I hate to be critical of free stuff and I am super grateful to the race directors for putting on such a great race, but this prize is a bit odd!

The Ugly: Unfortunately, it looks like three of my toenails are going to be casualties of this race. My feet are not going to be pretty when they fall off!

A Stage Victory for Lance

Holy Effin' Crap! My head is spinning from this weekend's race, The Pacific Crest 50 miler! (The video has nothing to do with running; it is just a special bonus!) Things have certainly been up and down for me over the last couple of months, but Saturday ended up on a very high note, with a victory in the women's race (7:42) and 4th place overall.

We headed out to Clackamas Lake campground very early on Friday because we had failed to secure a reservation and so we were vying for one of the first come first serve spots, which definitely added a layer of stress to the trip. Fortunately, we had no problems getting a site.

The kids took to camp activities readily, which meant they were filthy in about five minutes! We spent the day hanging out at Timothy Lake. Megan did some serious splashing/swimming, but I just put my big toe in and hoped that neither of my kids fell in because I did not want to jump into that icy water! We also walked around the campground a bit and did lots of snacking and eating of camp food. I did get a big plate of spaghetti for dinner, but my pre-race carbo loading also included a Pop-tart and two s'mores (Liam didn't like his and I couldn't let it go to waste!) Not exactly the best diet plan!

By bedtime we had about four days' worth of caked on dirt, sunscreen, bug spray and general filth, though we had only been there about ten hours! I did get to bed super early since the kids were exhausted. Good thing, too, because both kids woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to sleep with us; I sent them to cuddle with Daddy!

Saturday was race day and my plan was simple: Take the northbound 28 mile out-and-back as easy as possible and the 22 mile southbound out-and-back as hard as possible and hope they were about the same pace. So I started slow and didn't worry about who was in front of me, though I won't say I didn't notice that there were three ladies on the trail ahead of me. ;) Things were very dusty but otherwise pretty easy into the first AS at 6.1 miles, where the lead girls were two minutes out in front.

The next section I ran mostly with Mike from Portland. We talked quite a bit and I always enjoy that, especially early in the race. Mike is an Ironman triathlete, hoping to run a 2:50 marathon this fall and his goal for the day was 9-9:30. Hmmm...I am only a 3:10 marathoner and I was hoping to run sub 8:00 for the day. The math seemed so far off, I didn't even admit my goal for the day to Mike! He told me I should go get the ladies ahead of me because they were only a couple of minutes up. I made a big joke comparing the Oregon Trail Series to the Tour de France, saying that my main goal for the year was to win the OTS, and to do that I just need to have four solid races, I don't need to win any of the "stages" outright. So I stayed behind him easy up the hills, but when he stumbled, I took the lead and picked it up just a bit on the flat. We came upon the third place girl at the base of the steepest hill on the north section. She asked if I wanted to pass, but I said no. She slowed down a lot on the uphill to the point that I could keep up with her by walking. Either it got too steep or she noticed me walking, so she started to walk, too. Well at that point, I felt I needed to pass, but I think she was a little put off that I told her I wasn't going to pass and then sixty seconds later, I was asking to go by!

I was running pretty well at this point, but starting pretty early in the day my stomach just felt slosh-y and overly full. I was eating fine and I didn't fell nauseated, but it still just didn't feel right.

At the turn around (mile 14.2) the two lead ladies were right together and still just two minutes ahead. After the next AS (19.2 miles), I caught up with Denise and one other guy she was running with and I hung with them for the next 2+ miles or so till we got to the next AS (mile 22.4) . I filled my bottle, grabbed some cookies and then turned to Denise and said, "Are you ready? Let's go!" I took off running, but I guess she wasn't ready because almost immediately, I noticed that she wasn't behind me. That was the last time I ran with anybody all day.

During the next section, my stomach was so full, I just did not want to drink anymore. I still didn't really feel bad and I could run OK, but I just felt my stomach was stretched to its max. I ended up taking 4 S-caps! in this section over a span of 45 minutes. Egads! But with the heat I knew I was done if I couldn't keep hydrated. It was a gamble to take a salt O.D. but it seemed to work out and my stomach gradually got better.

With a mile or so of trail left till we got back to the start, I spied the first place girl. When I caught up to her, I hung back about 50 yards and just stuck to her pace, till we hit the road and then I finally passed her for the lead coming into AS6 right at the start/finish (28.4 miles = 4:11).

This AS threw me for a bit of a loop, because it was right on the road and I was expecting it to be up the driveway another 200 yards or so where the start finish was and where I had left my BAG! This was a bit of a problem because there were no gels on the course and I only had one left on me, but at that point I wasn't going out of my way to get the ones from my bag either!

I was in and out of there fast and then down the trail. When the trail crossed the campground road, so did I. I mean, this is a trail race, right? I head down the trail but after a couple of minutes I realize the trail is heading into the campground and away from where I think the PCT should be, so I asked some campers if they had seen any runners and they looked at me as if I had asked them if they had seen any dancing green leprechauns, so I quickly make a 180 and head back the other way. I later learned all of the top 8 or so runners made this little detour. By the time I got back to the road (where I was supposed to turn), it looks like people have started to figure out there is a problem and they are adding more course markings. So I head up the road and have to pass the same girl again, and I had already exhausted all my pleasantries! I asked her how she was doing, she said she was good except "her ass was a little sore." I told her I felt good except that my stomach was "a little wonky". WONKY?!? Who talks like that? Obviously, my brain was a little wonky!

The next 10.5 miles were pretty much equal thirds (or so it felt) of up, down, and up (with down, up, down on the way back). I was running kind of scared because I had just given up a four minute lead, so I pretty much kept running the whole first up until getting to Red Wolf AS (mile 32.5). Caroline Klug was manning the station, and I think she's got to be my favorite cheerleader. She gets all excited and tells me, "John Ticer just came through here a couple minutes ago! He's the course record holder! You could chick Ticer!!" I tell her I don't care about chicking Ticer, I am just trying to make sure nobody chicks me!

The next section is awesome, with lots of "groping" ferns and then the last part is a decent climb to the turn around. I get there and the ladies tell me I am in 4th. I am practically arguing with them telling them they are wrong, even though I have only seen 3 guys go back the other way. But there are two other guys I KNOW were ahead of me and I haven't seen them. I later learned they took a detour also, only it took them a bit longer to get turned around, so I got ahead of them without ever actually passing them. On the way back I see the second place woman and she is 13 minutes back and all the sudden it hits me: OH MY GOD! I am going to win this thing!

The way back was fun because I got to see all the people coming the other way. After a couple of miles somebody yells to me, "Go Chick Ticer. He's just up ahead." Apparently, people would really like to see Ticer get chicked! I caught a glimpse of him on the steep uphill section - the only real walking I did all day (Ticer was walking, too!), but once it leveled off, Ticer was out of there and I never saw him again, till the food line after the race, where he was once again just a little bit ahead of me!

Also, on the way back I saw Mike, who yells at me, "Hey Lance, it looks like you are going to get the stage win after all!" That was very sweet and it made me smile. When I crossed the line I got to celebrate with a big hug from Olga and then a few more hugs from the family. What a day!

These Are Your Legs...And These Are Your Legs On Drugs

I had a horrible June, particularly when it comes to running. After Western States Camp, I just didn't seem to be able to run. I wasn't really sore, it was just that my legs seemed to not want to go. There was no power there at all. Even climbing stairs made my legs quiver. And once, I tried to go up stairs carrying my 25 pound son and I nearly fell over at the top. When I did try to run, an easy pace felt monumental; a hard pace made me light headed a gave me a general sense of unease. I would get dizzy and my heart would be racing. Hills were out of the question. I was also pretty crabby and depressed, which was probably harder on my hubby than on me!

The first week and then even the second, I just accepted this as fatigue. At the end of two weeks I still couldn't run any better - not even the tiniest improvement. So I took three days off. That turned into a week when I still couldn't seem to climb a flight of stairs normally. Finally, I went to the doctor.

My doctor is a marathoner, who even did Boston a few years back, and I was happy to be seeing someone who could relate to a runner. But she was definitely of the marathon mentality and not in sync with the ultra-runner mindset. When I told her I did a 55k on April 5th, another April 25th, then a tough 50k on May 9th, followed by a one hour track race and then 74 miles in 3 days, she was floored. She couldn't believe someone would run that much. But it didn't seem like that much to me. In fact, I still have that lingering wimp feeling for not doing the 50 miler. She was certain I was just tired and that I had a lot of microfiber damage in my legs. She did a bunch of lab work and an EKG, which all showed me to be in good shape, so she was sure she was right. She had me convinced, too. And so I followed her advice: no more than 3 miles per day for a week and then go see a physical therapist.

The physical therapist had me do all kinds of things: walking across the room, leg strength testing, core strength testing, and flexibility testing. Her diagnosis: Extremely tight and shortened iliopsoas muscles coupled with under developed inner quads. She gave me a couple of stretches for my iliopsoas and some exercises for my inner quads. But the best part was she told me I could run whatever I wanted, including speed work and distance.

I went straight to the gym, did my stretches and got on the treadmill. I felt great! I ran 6 miles including a 7:30 mile, a 7:00 mile, and a 3:15 half just to test myself. Easy-peasy-Japaneesy, this was a snap. I thought the PT was a genius if she could fix me with 5 minutes of stretching.

I had two more good days and then, Wham! back to dead legs. I didn't get it. I was doing my stretching religiously and the quad work, too. Had I just tired myself from running fairly hard the last two days? It just didn't seem right.

To make matters worse, my head felt off most of the month. I have severe seasonal allegies to grass and June is grass season in Oregon! I was pretty sure it was Claritin that made me feel off and so I stopped taking it at the end of June, but somebody at work commented that I seemed rather sniffle-ly, so I started it up again.

When I had been complaining about my problem to a friend, he asked if I was on any beta-blockers or cholesterol drugs. "Those can really affect exercise," he told me. I knew that, but I wasn't on those drugs. But then it clicked: I started taking Claritin right around the time of Western States Camp. The days I felt good, I hadn't been taking it for a while. The days I felt like crap, I had taken Claritin.

So I did some research. Muscle weakness (and dizzyness!) is one of the top three side effects. Additionally, Claritin is supposed to be an anti-histamine, but it can have anti-cholinergic effects as well. That means it can block the neurotransmitters that cause your muscles to fire.

I have been off Claritin for about ten days and I have been feeling great. It wasn't a gradual recovery; it was as if someone flipped a switch. I truly believe my woes were Claritin related, but I almost need to believe it, too, because it gives me a concrete reason for my bad month. Plus, I really hated feeling like I had done this to myself or that my body couldn't handle what I put it through or that my training wasn't good enough. Blaming Claritin restores my confidence and I like that.

Unfortunately, this whole thing kind of ruined my plan of training hard in June. My build up to PCT50 boils down to four weeks. Well, it is what it is. Also, I have a referral to an allergist, and I am hoping to get the desensitizing shots to make my allegies (and the meds!) a thing of the past!

What I Really Learnded at Western States Camp

The last three weeks have been awful for me. The week after WS, my legs were like Jell-O. I told myself that was to be expected. But a week later, things weren't better. My quads had no power, I couldn't do speed, and my thighs would be quivering blobs after about 40 minutes. So I took a few days off, then did 8.5 miles with my brother-in-law on a fairly flat paved road and my leg were stiff and leaden the last 2.5 miles. It was so bad, I actually made a doctor's appointment. Excluding OB stuff, that is my first one this century! The good news is that I am healthy as a horse. My hematocrit, iron and protein levels are all about as good as it gets, which is encouraging as a vegetarian - at least I am getting my diet right! And I had a moment of pride when the EKG flagged my test as "sinus bradycardia" (slow heart rate). The downside to being healthy is there is nothing to blame, and no quick fix.

After talking with my doc (herself a BQ marathoner), we came to the conclusion that I just "trashed my quads" - really ripped up the muscle fibers big time with a lot of lingering muscle injury. Hmmm - it seems like a pretty bone-headed thing to do, especially when I was running so well. I don't think the mileage was really the problem at camp, but all the altitude, especially those quad trashing descents - not to mention I probably pushed myself a bit too hard all three days and my downhill technique could use a lot of work!

So what I really learned:
1) Train on the downhills: I have been doing "hill work" the last couple of months, some of it running and some of it hiking, but it is always UP! A lot of the workouts I do on the treadmill, so I never have to go back down. Time to reverse that and get these quads in shape!

2) Take it easy: I did the 74 miles at WS camp at a pretty good pace (14:08 total time, including all stops except the river dip), faster than I would ever expect to race that course. I am sure I could have gone slower and gotten the same value out of the training (maybe even more if I had spared my muscles!). Also, my recovery runs probably need to slow down a bit, too, after talking to a few people about this.

3) Mental energy is everything: Not going to lie, I've been pretty bummed out. I thought I had a pretty good plan for the year: Do 50k's and other short stuff early on, train hard and ramp up the miles in May, June and July to be ready for the long stuff at the end of the year (PCT50, WW100K, and AC100) and then recover/reassess through the winter. At one point in the last week, I was ready to cancel all three of those races! But I finally sat down and thought about what I could be doing. It seemed like there was still plenty of things I could do to help my fitness, plus it was good to remind myself that there are still five weeks till PCT50 and 3 months to AC100.

4) Running Slow is Hard!: Accolades always go to the fast guys and girls, but I think the slow runners deserve a lot more credit! Running at a slow pace adds a lot more time to my workouts. Being stuck at 10min/mile pace on the treadmill has certainly got me thinking about what changes I would have to make if I end up needing to run races slower than expected. In a nutshell: more time, more food, more water, more planning! Just think: if you run a 100 miler in 18 hours, you still have time to get in a hot shower, a good meal and a nice nap before the day is over. No such luxury for the 30 hour runners! Hats off to those at the back of the pack!

So this week has been a lot of very slow three mile runs, some light lifting and lots of stretching. I am hoping by this weekend, I can go "long" which by that I mean something like 8 or 10 miles. That's the distance that used to be my easy Tuesday and Thursday runs with the girls! After that those little muscle fibers will have had 4 weeks to regrow and I'll have four more weeks to get them in shape for PCT50. I'll admit I was hoping for a top 3 finish, but at this point I'll be pretty happy just to finish...and still have working quads at the end!

My Strength Emerges

Some people are good on the uphill, some the downs. Some thrive on the technical stuff others have a ton of speed. My strength appears to be the ability to run in circles for long periods of time.

Today I got the "official" Titus Van Rijn One Hour Classic results. My distance of 13,510 meters was good enough not only for first woman, but the new female event record. That gives me a pretty good record in timed events, especially as compared to my other ultras (I'm considering TVR an ultra-track event, even though it isn't even close to being above 26.2).

Timed Events:
2002 Jack Frost 5 Hour: 31.4 miles, first female, 4 miles ahead (two laps) of second place
2009 Pier Park 6 hour: 42+ miles, First overall, course record (the beauty of winning an inaugural event)
2009 Titus Van Rijn 1 hour: 13,510 meters (~8.4 miles), first female, female event record

Ultras
2008 McKenzie River 50k - started way too conservatively, nasty fall, 5th place
2009 Peterson Ridge - Fell twice, got lost for 6-7 minutes, 2nd place, 26 minutes behind first
2009 Capitol Peak - Got lost, went from second to 4th, dropped from 50 mile to 55k, 4th place
2009 MacDonald Forest 50k - 3rd

I am pretty happy with my ultra results, but I seem to excel in the loop races. Let me know if you hear of any good PNW timed races!

What I Learned

When I tell people I went to Western States Training Camp, the most common question I get is "What kind of coaching advice did you get?"

The answer is none. Everyday I showed up, there was minimal direction about the course (but it was marked pretty well), and then I ran. That was it. I talked to several people who have run Western States in the past, but I didn't really get much advice from them either. But that is not to say I didn't learn anything:

1) Medical Tape is better than Body Glide: I did two runs with my low back taped where my pack rubs and one day with just Bodyglide. Only got chafed on the Bodyglide day.

2) Cold water is your friend: I love to swim, but I hate cold water so I don't do it very often. But at camp I was so hot I was splashing in the streams everyday and it felt great. Also I did a post-run ice bath every day. I am not so sure if this really prevents any fatigue or soreness, but sitting in the ice water actually felt really good at the time. And cold water was also my friend in the hydration arena - I drink a heck of a lot more when I have ice in my bottles. Warm water and Heed just don't taste very good.

3) One hundred mile weeks are insane: I got in 100 miles in 8 days (not seven) with camp and I was absolutely WIPED. I still have lingering fatigue. I don't know how people do that kind of training. Fortunately, pretty much everybody I met was running 60-70ish mpw, and a lot of them have finished 100 milers. That helped my anxiety for Angeles Crest.

4) Two salt pills are better than one: I was downing two salt pills on the hour and never had any problems. It also helped to do them both at once on the hour, because I have learned than my memory really sucks when I run. If something like an aid station throws off my routine, I have a really hard time remembering at what time I last ate or took a pill. Doing it on the hour was best, then the interruptions didn't matter.

5) Real ultra-runners use hand helds: I am not fond of my hand-held, but it is something I am working on. It's an Ultimate Direction Bottle and it just seems a little too big around. I am getting to the point where I can carry it with my thumb cupped next to my fingers and not around the bottle, which helps a lot. I found I drink a lot more with the hand-held thsn with my Nathan pack, partly because I could see how much I was drinking and partly because it is tiring to suck the water from the pack. I actually thought I was drinking a lot more than I really was with the pack. Much better to squeeze and be able to see the fluid level at all times.

6) I need heat training!: I was sweating like a pig out there and it wasn't all that hot for that area and time of year. Plus, I am one salty sweater. Time to hit the sauna!

7) Real food rocks: I am lucky in that I really haven't had any GI issues with running. Once I was gagging and dry heaving during a race, but that is my everyday reaction to the "Espresso Love" flavor of GU. I do great with all the fruit flavored GU's, but when it comes down to it, I crave REAL FOOD. I was stuffing my face at all the aid stations and never had problems. I don't think I would have ingested near as many colories if I was only consuming maltodextrin paste the whole time!

So there you go. Who needs a coach to learn new things.