The Challenge--the Run

Dawn was just arriving and the last stars winking out in the sky above Lake Del Valle as Racer X dropped me off at the trailhead. We were 15 minutes early, but Tri-Ty arrived just moments later. A quick check of gear and off we set at 0615 into the still dark woods crowding the trail.

The forecast called for a high of 65 and winds building to 10-30 by late afternoon. It was 47 degrees when we started out--warm enough to go with just a short-sleeve shirt--but the winds forecast suggested that the wind chill might be bitter up top. A guess that proved all too true.

Tri-Ty was going to join me for the first 20 miles. After 30 minutes on terribly steep climbs we both settled into our own comfortable rhythm, but it was nice to have his support and the knowledge that he'd be with me one-way or the other along our shared route.

After 1:25 I crested the first major climb portion and enjoyed the relatively flat section before Maggie's Rest. I hit the turn off for Maggie's at mile 10 right on target feeling fresh and confident in my pace. The wind was howling at the peak and the wind chill at 8:30 in the morning felt like the low 30's at times. The extra few ounces of wind jacket were definitely worth it! And the views of the bay--stunning. I had a view at one point that included Mount Diablo to the north, Tamalpais and the Golden Gate 45 miles to the nortwest, and Woodbridge and the coastal mountains framing the Monterey Bay to the south.

The next 10 miles were a long descent from 3800' to 320' and ones I knew were going to stress my quads and feet considerably. Unfortunately, this prediction too came to be acurate. By Backpacker's camp--filled with heavily loaded scouts mounting up for the hike back to Sunol--I could shed the jacket and stopped briefly to refill my 2l hydration pack. I had done a good job of fueling and hydrating along the way and continued to feel fresh and strong. My quads were showing some early signs of stress but not more than I was expecting.

I arrived in Sunol exactly 3:58 after starting out from Del Valle. The park was alive with day hikers who eyed me curiously as I ran through towards the last 8 mile section to Mission Peak Regional Park. This last 8 miles is an upside-down V that goes from 320 to just shy of 2500 feet. The descent is all of 2 miles. A steep descent on fresh legs--excruciating on tired ones. On the ascent at mile 22 I could the physical attack was joined in battle by the mental. I began to think about the riding segment. My feet muscles ached. My quads were tight. My knees were barking. I began to entertain thoughts of getting a ride to the top of Calavaras instead of riding it. Maybe I should just end at the trail head instead. Man this is tough. Why punish myself any more? What if I just took a nap?

This east-west on the Ohlone was far tougher than last year's west -east run. Clearly, the downhill had wrecked some havoc.

I pushed on. I had people waiting for me to ride with them. One step at a time. My pace had slowed. My ability to climb for extended runs had diminished. I settled into runs where I could and walks as I encroached on my anaroebic level. The rest-walk, run ratio began to climb. I reached the peak after 4.84 miles, the next mile rather flat, and then below me lay the steep descent to the parking lot where Mrs. Madman, all the Mad children, and my ride team awaited. The descent sucked. It hurt. But every step brought me closer to the end of that stage.

And hearing the cheers as I turned the corner made a huge impact. It felt great. Nothing sucked any longer. The last 28 miles were worth it as I punched the clock at 5:30--exactly-- into the awaiting arms of the Mad family.

The Challenge-the Ride

The plan was to meet up at the trail head finish with Racer-X, Tinker, and Pace Line. The first two were riding out together with Racer-X doubling the ride distance while Tinker joined up to double from Pleasanton. Pace Line was going to one-way with me back to VMS.

Problem was Pace Line was the only one there when I arrived. I slowly changed into riding gear, downed a ton of water, some M&M's (the perfect pickmeup when you're reaching bloodsugar lows), and another Balance Bar hoping to kill some time and get a little rest. Still the boys were no shows. Pace Line and I decided to set out and hope to meet them coming up as we headed down.

The winds were whipping up at least 10-15mph out of the NW as we shot down the hill out of the parking lot. Less than a mile later we met up with Racer X coming up the opposite way. Tinker had stayed behind to await us at the climb up Calavaras 5 miles up the road. We set out with a slight downhill ride to our first and biggest climb of the day. My legs were a little stiff but not bad. A stiff tail wind helped push us a long at a good clip. However, the first couple small hills proved that there wasn't a lot in the well for climb or high pace speed. Racer X led while Pace Line and I trailed through the back streets of Milpitas and Fremont.

The climb up Calavaras was something I had been dreading on my run up the backside of Mission Peak. Now it loomed before us. It has three segments: the first, a gradual but long climb; the second, a shorter but steeper segment; and then a last steep climb of 500 yards. Between each segment lay a short flat or less steep climb. The total was perhaps 2 miles. On fresh legs--no problem--on 28 miles of running legs? It had the promise of a giant suck.

Racer X provided a running commentary on the description of the climb and where I was on it. Man, that helped. A stiff tail wind helped, as well. Tinker joined up on the second segment while Pace Line went ahead while I refilled a water bottle at the roadside park. We turned the corner for the third segment just as my second (for the 5th time) wind kicked in. I buried my head, watched the road markings out of the corners of my eye and concentrated on cadence and breathing. Crank by crank, mainly out of saddle, I pushed the hill. I was kicking it! I surged up and over the crest and was met with the first of 8 miles of down hill. Sweet Potatoes! Now I could relax. The Monster that rode my back 12 miles ago was off. The ride to the finish line was all downhill or flat from here on out.

Pace Line roared out ahead of me on the flats and gradual descent before me. Tinker and Racer X were in trail. I turned up the cadence hoping to catch her but she opened the distance slowly and surely. We hit a series of fast downhills, quick climbs and fast and tight turns. Tinker, Racer X and I hit a groove and sailed through them. This part of the ride was truely fun. On the last big hill, the pelaton reeled in Pace Line and we stopped for a quick refuel before the final descent into Sunol.

Through Sunol and Pleasanton, Racer X, Tinker, and Pace Line traded the lead pulling us all along at a good clip. By Pleasanton, Racer X was 60+ miles into his ride and the wear was beginning to show. Tinker pulled off to complete his ride in Pleasanton so Pace Line picked up the point and pulled us into Livermore. Pace Line saved our bacon. By Stanley Drive Racer X and I were on our last reserves. While we both had fueled and hydrated well, we were past peak on performance. My hamstrings were burning on every stroke. Accelerations off the stop lights were no longer fast and even those occasional M&M's no longer had the kick of nitrogen injections in a fuel-air mixture.

I was rapidly becoming a wet noodle. I wasn't bonking. I was just wearing out.

The stiff head wind we had suffered through from Sunol to Pleasanton had become a slight quartering wind. It helped. The distance and time rolled faster. 10 minutes out. Energy coming up again. Anticipating the end. Pushing just a bit harder. The last hill. And there was the park and finish line! The cheers of family and friend fired the last strokes up and across the finish line. Finished. Done. Wow!

11th hour

I'll be launching off in 11 hours.

All the last minute details of pickups, drop-offs, rendezvous points, who is on what segement and when are finalized. I had a great dinner. A nice nap. Some last minute angst and paranoia ("Am I tired from the flight or am I coming down with something!? OH. MY. GOD. phew. I'm okay after that nap...that glass of water...that respite") has passed.

Tomorrow is going to be cooler than normal as a cold front has just passed through. The showers have passed through and the sky is clearing. It'll get down into the low 40's tonight. The winds will be 10-20 out of the NNW so I'll face a stiff breeze on the ride. It probably won't top 65, but it'll be sunny. Perfect. Could reach 80 instead, so I'll take it.

Did I train well? Did I cut corners? Did I taper too soon or too much?

It no longer matters.

I'm ready.

Angst in the Tank

I made a huge mistake in picking up a Triathlete mag yesterday. In it was an article discussing tapering techniques to "ensure your body gets adequate time to rest and recover from training" before the next race.

So far I agree...

Then they go on to describe their taper strategy. It turns out taper means cut your training in half and take 2 days off in the week prior to your race.

Holy Crap! that's tapering?

In contrast, my taper began two weeks ago. Three weeks ago, I spent 9:28 minutes training during my longest and toughest week of the 4 month training program. This included a 4 hour run and 2 hour bike ride on one day alone. The next week, my training routine went to 2:57 and this week it's 1:15 with 3 rest days prior to the run/ride. Same routine as last year when I ran the Ohlone trail only.

So should I throw in another run? Did I under train? Or are triathletes conditioning to a different drummer? Or did I just find articles for type A overtrainers?

Active rest really works for me. I'd like to say I employ it effectively even at work, but in the event my manager happens to show up here, I must say that just isnt' the case, sir...

Game Plan

Ok folks, here's the plan...

The Challenge starts on April 15th at Lake Del Valle and ends at the park behind VMS....100km later. There will be a "party" at the end(details later). If you plan to run/ride any segment with me, please do so! I'll be moving at my own pace, so feel free to run slower/faster as your needs dictate. It's not a race.

You'll need to provide your own support (staging, water, fuel, etc).

Here are the details:

Timeline

All times approximate (but of course)
0615: Run starts at Del Valle Ohlone Trail trailhead (0 Miles)
1015: Run reaches Sunol Regional Park and continues towards Mission Peak (20 miles)
1135: Finish at Stanford Avenue trailhead (28 miles)
1145: Ride starts from Stanford Avenue parking lot
1345-1400: Ride finishes at Vista Meadow park (35 miles ride and 63 miles or 100km total)

The Run route is along the Ohlone Wilderness Trail, 28 miles and 7800 feet elevation gain, from Lake Del Valle through Sunol Regional Park and ends at the Mission Peak Regional Preserve off Stanford Avenue in Fremont.

The Bike Route follows Old Calavras up a steep climb and then descends down into the tri-valley, up Stanley to Isabel, then via surface streets to end at the park immediately behind VMS. If you are riding, please click on the link and figure out what your map needs are. Print it out if necessary!

This is going to be fun, folks! Thanks for everyone's support and participation!

Spring flowers

Attention hikers! Get out on the trails, now!!!! The wildflowers are awesome and California is in the Paradise Season.

Last week's run was through trails overflowing with bouquets of lupine, blue curls, poppies, and Indian paintbrushes amongst many others I can't name. All intermixed in springtime's verdunt green hills along with blossoming oaks and flowering Western Redbuds, Elderberry, and Redsweets. Wow! what a visual cacophony!

Speedweek!

It wasn't Daytona. And it wasn't all 'go fast, turn left' this week, but man! was it fast (but there was lots of beer at the end and I did smell like I had been in a kevlar suit for 500 laps). If you ever had doubts about hill training and the impact on your flat times, let me bust your misimpressions.

Hill training makes you faster (and removes tough stains. It even slices, dices, and makes jullien fries!). After last weekends big run/ride, my flat run started off--or so it felt--slow and stiffly. However, I hit mile marker 1 in 7:05. That blew me away. I hit the trail and up a slight hill which usually adds :30 to the run and hit mile marker 2 at 7:15. Mile 3 at 7:20. Mile 4 at 7:10.... I averaged 7:15 over a 6.2 mile run. Damnnnn! I don't run for speed. I only run for distance. So, I was blown away. And chalked it up to a fluke.

Until small hill Thursday when I ran 8 miles and averaged 7:35! And then hit a 15 mile short route bike loop and averaged 19.5 mph. What!?! I replaced the batteries in my watch just in case, but the still came up with "YOU RAN FAST, BABY"! I never new that was an option with Timex....

So, I'm in the taper now. Sunday was another fast but short day. 11 mile run and 11 mile mountain bike ride. While the run was on par for the course, I took off 8 minutes on the ride.. no small feat given the elevation changes.

This week winds down further with Sunday a very short 4 mile run and 5 mile bike. Next week I have only two runs: on on Tuesday and the other is the Challenge!

All Systems Are Go!

Sunday topped off a really good and strong training week along with culminating in my longest training regime before the Challenge. I had great run times and strength workouts and felt in the groove throught all my training routines. Run times on the flats were down to near 7:30 miles and even the weight training was hitting bigger weights with more ease. No doubt I'm reaching peak.

This Sunday I put in a full-on preview of the Challenge to come: a 20 mile run from Del Valle to Sunol followed by road bike ride back to Del Valle (32 miles).

Last week's lessons learned on climbing up out of the incredibly deep canyons between Del Valle and Rose Peak paid off. I added 15 minutes to the climb time by reducing the intensity, but made up for it by having a lot more gas on the flats, smaller climbs and descents. I felt really good all the way through the run. I even learned that a little Turkey Jerky (in prepping for the next portion of the routine) actually went down well and helped replenish the fuel fairly effectively and enjoyably.

I do have to say though that the long East to West from Del Valle to Sunol descent sucks compared to the longer climb/shorter descent of the West to East route --its tough on the quads and knees. I think I prefer the latter. I reached Sunol in 3:56 after 20 miles--almost exactly to the minute as projected.

"The Veep" was joining up with me with our bikes to ride back to Del Valle. Unfortunately due to my miscommunication he was at the south instead of the north end of the park so I added on another 3/4 mile run to get to our hook up. A quick change into riding togs and we were off.

The ride back was for the most part rather flat and a moderate pace was the agreed upon order of the day (we wound up averaging a comfortable and easy 16mph). The Veep and I took turns pulling each other but damned if that wind wasn't in our faces nearly the whole way REGARDLESS of the direction we took. Fueling and hydrating went pretty well and I felt strong enough to reel in a couple of riders on some climbs and flats (my type A in action). But the big hill from Mines Road to the top of the park road into Del Valle loomed large in my mind. It's a big climb from bottom to top over about 2 miles and is a regular training ride for many Tri-Valley cyclists. But, 5 1/2 hours into the routine, with only a half hour to go, I could feel the cummulative impact of exercise on dehydration and hunger setting in. So I downed as much water as possible and threw down my last power bar and bit of turkey jerkey in hopes that it would keep my pump primed.

A mile from the hill, I forewarned The Veep that from here on it was everyman for himself and that I was going to go "down within" and focus on nothing but cadence and endurance for the next few miles. The climb did not disappoint my anxiety. It was a gruelling finale to the run/ride. For nearly two miles the hill is unrelenting in its grade--steep. I alternated between grinding it out in 1st gear in the saddle and popping up to 3rd and going out of the saddle. I'm sure I was well into the 170bpm range but carried the hill at an average of 7mph to the much welcomed top. But of course, there was a head wind much of the climb as the approaching front brought in some brisk winds out of the south east. It even knocked 10mph off the descent speed!

Just 6 hours later--4 hours of running and 2 hours of riding-- I was done. To cap it off, I was denied a nap that afternoon in punishment, I'm sure, for being a bit tardy on my return. Still even today I feel pretty good and only a little sore in the knees and quads from the run.

Ouch!

Sunday was a tough day. I had an 18 mile trail run and 20 mile bike ride scheduled. So, I decided to preview the Challenge course by starting at the Del Valle lake trailhead (600') and heading up to Rose Peak (3890'). Why I thought this route was going to be easier than going West to East is beyond me.

In fact, it really sucked. I went from Right to Left on this picture. And it felt that steep too. The first 1:10 I ran probably all of 15 minutes and hiked the rest. Straight up, it felt. And even on the hike-a-run portions I was redlining into anaerobic levels. I reached my 9.2 mile halfway point in 2:20 and I was pretty ragged . The descent back was tough, as well, given the steepness of the pitch. Two miles into my descent back into Del Valle I came up on 3 runners ascending on their through run to Sunol. One was a woman in her late 50's who is running the Western States 100 miler. She had my instant respect. The Western has 18,000 feet in elevation gain over 100 miles. I took some consolation in the fact that she looked as tired as I felt. Bless her heart, though...she thought I was Graham Cooper, winner of last year's Western States--who ran the 100 miles in 18:17. Wow.

I finished up the 18.4 mile run in 3:58. The first 7 miles are a killer and I'm going to have to find a way to slow up and pace them right EVEN ON THE WALK if I'm going to finish all 28 miles with power for the the 35 mile ride. Next week, I get to test out lessons learned as I'll be doing 22 miles the "hard way".

A quick drive back home and a quick bite to eat before finishing up the program with a 20 mile ride. Despite the run, I still had some juice in the tank but fueling the engine proved to be another lesson to consider. I put in a good 17.5mph average pace ride on a simi-hilly route but I could tell I was burning lean. By the time I got home again, I was famished. This despite constant fueling on the run, a quick lunch, and a gel on the 1:10 ride.

I'm now thinking this will be a 5:15-5:30 run and 2:15 ride. This ain't going to be as easy or as fast as I thought.

This coming Sunday is the last big push before I taper off for the Challenge. It'll also give me one more data point to fine tune the run/ride estimate.

Time Flies

Yeesh! Two weeks since my last post! That should indicate the state of madness in my life right now. As faithful readers know, we're moving to a new madhouse. So, the last 4 days were filled with a new stressful training program comprised mainly of unloading and spreading 2 tons of 1/4 x dust rock and a ton of yard bark. My abs, obliques, and shoulders are now in stunning condition. They also hurt.

And the madness continues on the training front for the Challenge. This last Sunday wrapped up 2 fast weeks (running times that is) with a 20 mile run plus 15 mile ride...the hard way. I spent 2:15 climbing up the Ohlone Trail from 390 feet to Rose Peak at 3890 followed by 1:30 descent back to the trail head. I gotta say I felt pretty strong despite what was a brutal climb. I then did a short ride up Calavaras Road to the top and back down. I gotta say I didn't feel so damn strong. Note to self: fuel is going to be critical when I get ready to transition to bike. I settled the hydration problem from last ride by keeping on my running pack and bladder. Next problem to solve is replenishing enough carbs for the ride. Still, it was a good training day. Compared to last week's 16 mile climb/descent and 20 mile ride, I came home and an afternoon siesta was more optional than mandatory.

Lots of new lessons learned. But, there is no doubt this is going to be a real tough challenge to pull off. I'm closing in on the time estimates for the 100K Challenge. I think the 28 mile run (which will cover about 7,800 of climbing) will be 4.5 hours and the 35 mile ride will be somewhere in the 2 hour range. If I start off at 6am that should have me finishing at VMS around 12:30.

Oh, you thought it was 55 miles total? Heh! Nope, we're going for 100km+ here, folks!