My Blog

The perils of heat training & Badwater news

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 08:39:15 -0400

So, in one week i will be heading out to Death Valley to pace and crew my friend Jacki as she attempts her first Badwater. I am soooooo excited, as Badwater has been my growing focus, some may call it obsession, for the past several years. My heat training is going very well and i average 30-45 mins in the sauna most days of the week. It is getting easier and my sweat production has increased as it should. The last sauna session i did, i wore my long sleeve white Badwater shirt and came out looking like i jumped in the pool! My friend Dave who is 10 times more hardcore when it comes to heat training said he exited the sauna Thursday looking like a melted snowman in his badwater outfit! haha. I am just freezing my butt of otherwise though. Thursday at work, i had the thermostat set to 77F and was still cold! It was over 90F outside. Yesterday i was in a fleece and long pants and under a fleece throw and my husband was in shorts and a tank. This heat training is really nutty, but supposedly, you know it is working when you are freezing cold all the time.

Good luck to Anthony in his solo 50 mile run today. Good luck to all the Fingerlake 50’s runners. This is one of my most favorite races of the year and i am bummed to miss it. Have a good weekend everyone!

Wild fires, canceled races, & awesome friends

Tue, 1 Jul 2008 10:05:32 -0400

What a roller coaster of a week i have had in the past 6 or 7 days. Wednesday morning I had a small inkling that the wild fires in California may affect Western States. I had a crazy busy day at work Wednesday and just felt frantic between work and the amount of emails i was getting about the conditions out there. I had emailed the race director on Tuesday evening to ask for some information for us east coasters. He replied that he would email an announcement after 11am on Wednesday. So, all day i waited and waited and waited for news. Finally after 6pm, I received an email that said there was a great possibility of the race being canceled. I was just in shock. I finished work and went home and basically was glued to the internet. My friend Ethel who was my Western States buddy was already on her way to CA and had NO IDEA that there was a chance the race could be canceled. I left her a ton of messages-- voice, email and text, and when she finally landed in Nevada for her lay over she got them and called me. Utter shock is the only way to describe how she felt. As the night went on, i just waited to hear the news. My bags were packed, my boarding passes printed, and everything was ready to rock and roll for early Thursday morning. Around 10pm, a friend suggested i call the airline and inquire about salvaging our tickets and transferring them to another date and time. For only $100/per person USair said that we could. So there was my out. I really had no urge to sit on a plane for 6 hours to not run a race. Finally, a little after 11pm EST, the call was made and the race was officially cancelled. I called the hotels, the airline, and my crew and pacers and finally slept for a few hours.

My friend Anthony had joked about me running 100 miles fat ass style, and i decided to pursue this. He and I spent Thursday contacting friends in the NY area who could come and participate in the fun run. Friday afternoon, Eddie and I drove up to NY to Anthony’s house. We hit the market, had some carboloading, organized our stuff, taped our feet and hit the sack. I woke up around 5am to start getting ready for a 7am start. We met Wayne. Kristen and Peter at Rockefeller Park and started off on the first 6 mile loop. It was hot and super duper muggy. After the first loop, we headed out for a 9 mile scenic loop that took us past the Hudson River. After the first two loops, Wayne, Kristen and Peter called it a day. Wayne is tapering for his first 100 at Vermont in a couple weeks. The next two 6 mile loops was me and Anthony and he tested me on the second to make sure i knew where i was going. Rockefeller is HUGE and many trails.

Back at the parking lot i met up with Maria and Eddie and we headed back out. The weather was just down right disgusting and half way thru we got hit with a heavy rain storm. It felt good for a minute, but as soon as it stopped, it was just as muggy as it was before. This pattern of storms continued for several hours. After our loop, it was just me and Maria or the next one. She has run a lot of marathons, but never an ultra, so she was committed to running a 50K during this time. Unfortunately, we were doing tons more walking than running. My left leg was bothering me and the weather just drained all my energy. After one or two loops (i forget!) we met up with Emmy.

Around 9:30 at night, we moved from Rockefeller Park down the street a mile and a half to the North County Trail. We had to go along the highway to get there. Once there, Eddie and Anthony were waiting for us. After milling around the car for a while, the three of us (me, Maria, and Emmy) headed down the trial and Eddie and Anthony went to get coffee. Our plan was to do 3 miles out and 3 miles back. We headed down the trail which went parallel to the highway, but then took a turn into the woods. It was very dark and after a mile and a half of walking, it became dense with fog to the point where we could not see around us. We began to get spooked and I wanted to turn around. We decided to go a little farther to the 2 mile marker and turn around. We were so spooked and there were cobwebs everywhere, which did not help. Every little noise made us panic. This was not fun at all. Finally we decided to call Eddie and Anthony to have them meet us down the trail. I decided that I was done and would call it a night at the 100K mark. I had never done a 100K before, and i was tired and not running very much at all, and really did not want to be out there for 30 hours. Unfortunately, Staci was supposed to meet us at 11pm to pace thru the night. When we got back to the lot, we called her, and she was right around the corner. I felt really bad that we did not get to run together, but at least i got to see her. Maria got her 50K and i got my 100K, so the day was a success.

Besides the weather and feeling like poop from it, it was really nice to have so many friends come out and support me, especially on such short notice. I had a really good time seeing everyone and running with them. It was so nice to have the support of my friends. I am truly lucky. And special super duper thanks to Anthony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(pictures courtesy of Anthony. Click here for all of them!)

Race preparation is in full swing!

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:27:20 -0400

Well, the packing and race preparation is in full swing! My laundry is all done, my drop bags are ready to go, my extra shoes are ready to go, and now i just have to get thru two days of work before we fly out to California this Thursday. My drop bags will consist of a small tuperware box with my food, nutritional/first aid items, etc and that will be placed in a large ziplock bag and any extra clothing, bandannas, sunblock and lights i will need will go in to the bag. The weather forecast is changing daily, so i am not really focussing on it right now, but the big concern as of now, is the wildfires that are burning only a mile from a section of the course! I am still more shell shocked than excited, but i know once i am there and around the prerace activities, i will get very excited. This is big time ultrarunning, something i am not really used to coming from the east coast. i am sure the race will be quite the scene, and i will get to see (in passing) many famous and infamous ultrarunners.

Here is the link to follow me on line: http://www.ws100.com/cgi-bin/runnerquery.pl?number=298

There will be real time (close to it) tracking on the website starting Saturday morning.

Here are pictures of my drop bags:

less than 10 days!

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:21:07 -0400

Oh my. The days are going by wayyyyyyy too quickly. I may have a nervous breakdown if i think about it too much! lol. I am in full fledged taper mode and that feels pretty good, it has given me time to do my heat training. I have been sitting in the sauna for 40 minutes each day this week. Today it started to get a little easier. One day, maybe Saturday, I got very claustrophobic and wanted out, but i stuck to it and got thru it. The first 20 minutes go by pretty smoothly, then it starts to get a little tough, but today i finally had my breakthrough! My friend Dave who is crewing and pacing a different Badwater runner goes in for an hour a day IN LONG SLEEVES!!!! Show off! hahahaha. Sunday my husband and i went to French Creek State Park and we ran at the HopeWell Furnace side and i did some repeats on the big hill. It was good climbing and downhill practice. Eventually, i will have to come to terms with the fact that Western States is very soon and i will need to pack, but right now i am trying to ignore it and live in ignorance, which is hard as every time i go to schedule a patient, i have to tell them i will be gone Thursday, Fri and Saturday. oy!

Happy Friday the 13th!

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:09:35 -0400

Happy Friday the 13th! This week has been a crazy, insane week. Tuesday evening we had a big storm roll through and we lost power until Thursday, and then it went out again, then back on later Thursday evening. We have well water, so when the power goes out, so does our pump for our well. It was not fun. Thursday morning i went running through my neighborhood and we were very lucky to not have the damage other people had. There were so many downed trees and branches, and just debris everywhere. Some roads were even closed due to damage. A farm down the street from us had two large trees fall and just miss their house by a hair. They are very lucky. Hopefully life is back to normal and our power will stay on!

Frank aka Runsdangerously “tagged” me with these 5 quesitons:

1. how would you describe your running 10 years ago?

Nonexistant. I played sports in highschool most seasons but HATED to run!

2. what is your best and worst run/race experience?

Worst: not really sure? Bull Run Run 50 miler in 2006 was pretty dreadful. The temperatures plummeted and the heavy rains came which brought deep mud. Mix that in with dehydration and i had a horrible race with lots of vomitting. I DNFed at mile 32 because i did not make a cut off, thank goodness! i did NOT want to continue.

Best? That is a hard one. Too many would be up there. I’ll do a top three.
Grand Teton 100 Miler. It was a great race, with my coach Lisa Batchen there to RD and help me through a very difficult race. I felt very accomplished to finish that race.
Umstead 100 Miler 2007. My first 100 miler. I had so many friends and supporters there to crew and pace me that it was just a really special event. Finishing 100 miles for the first time is an incredible feeling of accomplishment.
Rocky Raccoon 100 Miler- this race i got my 100 mile PR of 25 and change. Everything went right at this race and it really boosted my confidence after a DNF at mile 47 at the VT50 and a less than stellar performance at the JFK50 in Nov.

3. why do you run?
to exorcise the demons. keeps me sane.

4. what is the best or worst piece of advice that you've been given about running?

worst? the human body can only handle 2 marathons a year. BULL SHIT!
Best? whatever Coach Lisa tells me :) Run your own race.

tell us something surprising about yourself not many people would know.

I used to work as a pastry chef. :)

Hot, hot, hot! & 7 month Macro follow up

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:13:11 -0400

So, the heat training continues! For the past 4 days, temperatures have been close to 100F and the heat index way up over 100, around 110. Sunday i woke up at 5am and started my long run a little after 6am. The first few hours were sweaty and muggy, but the heat was not too terrible, but the last few hours, the sun was out in full force. I was running on the paved inner loop at Valley Forge National Park and there is almost no shade. The last hour felt like a death march. It took me 1:15 to go the last 6 miles. It was slow! I was wearing my road shoes and did not want to run too much trails in fear of tripping or hurting myself this close to Western States. I did about 45 minutes on the trails before heading back to the roads. The park is usually packed on the weekend, but it was like a ghost town. By noon time, there were very few runners out there and most of them looked like they were doing a death march, every runner i saw was run/walking. It was hot!! Yesterday, Monday, I ventured back out again in to the heat and met with my running group, Fast Tracks, for a trail run. It did not feel as hot as Sunday, because the sun was not as strong, but it was muggy as all heck. We ended up walking a couple portions of the run, but it felt good to be out there and sweating. When we were done it was 90F and it felt cool, believe it or not! Hopefully there will be some relief in the next day.

Yesterday was also my follow up with my macrobiotic counselor, Denny Waxman, it has been 7 months, believe it or not. I am to follow the “standard” macrobiotic diet but a little loose on some of the food restrictions to include a wider range of items in my diet, but still staying true to the overall macrobiotic philosophy. I do not really need to go back, so i left it up in the air about making another appointment. In the fall if i feel like i need to be regrounded, i may return.

Heat Training started today in my new sauna!

Thu, 29 May 2008 10:26:25 -0400

Today was the first day i tried out my new sauna!!! I had been wanting one for a while and not only will it be good for heat training for Badwater crewing and my Western States race, my macrobiotic counselor told me to sit in a sauna daily for overall health and well being. Well, dr’s orders!!!!!!!! hehe.

Today i only sat in it for a little over 15 minutes. At first it did not seem hot at all, but after 5 minutes it did. It was totally bearable, but i only had it up to 120F. It was great! I could watch tv from inside the sauna as well.

Earlier, i watched Race For The Soul, one of the Western States movies. I am not worried that i cannot finish the race, but i am worried about not making an early cutoff, as i like to start slow to finish strong, i just cannot start too slow! The countdown is flying and D-day will be here before i know it. I am very excited and nervous, but most of all anxious about the whole endeavor. In the next week or so, i am going to start planning my drop bags and my crew and pacers. I have three people volunteering to pace me and a few more planning to crew me as well, so if nothing else, i will have fabulous support.

My new sauna!!!!!!!! Smells like yummy cedar!

Pineland Farms Trail Challenge 50 Mile Report

Tue, 27 May 2008 11:16:47 -0400

Pinelands 50M race report

This weekend, on the fly, my husband, Eddie, and I decided to go up to Maine for the Pineland Trails 50 miler. It is 8 hours from our house to Maine, but once we found out our friends Anthony and Wayne in NY were interested in going, we decided to go. Saturday, I got out of work a little early and we drove right to Anthony's house. From there we went to Wayne's house and loaded up his fancy Towncar for the ride up to Maine. The ride was uneventful and we arrived at the hotel around 8-ish. Breaking the ride up and having four of us in the car, really helped the ride seem not too long. Right away we met up with Emmy and Frank, and then soon after, we met up with the rest of the kickrunners at the supermarket.

After procuring some last minute items at the market (including deodorant!) we headed back to our rooms to get ready and go to sleep. The hotel was not very nice and our room was freezing, the heating unit only blowed cold air. It was not a restful night and the alarm went off way too soon at 4am. By 5am we were on the road following Adam to the race start to pick up our packets and bibs. It was quite chilly out and Wayne and I spent most of the time prior to the race in the car staying warm.

Finally, we headed over to the start, dropped off our drop bags, and lined up. The course started with a 3.5 mile loop prior to us then completing 3 loops of the 25K course. The race map looked like a bunch of squiggles prior to the race, but once on the course, it all made sense. Eddie and I started the race running with Adam and Carrie. Eventually though, Eddie and I got separated from them and the two of us just stayed together. I had never planned on running the race with him, but once it was just the two of us, i decided i would rather run the race with him than run solo and finish a little faster. I was not racing, it was a training run, and coming off a knee & leg injury, i was not too upset to take it a bit easier.

The course was not easy by any means. I think it is the hardest 50 mile course i have run, even harder than the VT50, because at the VT50 there are a lot of long extended ups and downs, but at Pinelands, they are short rolling hills, and you cannot make up a lot of time on the downhills, because once you start down hill, its time to go back up, it was very hard to build momentum on this course. It is described as an off road roller coaster, that was a very appropriate description. After running through the trails in the woods, we entered the grassy sections, where you pass thru the aid station three times. This section was torturous to me. The grassy sections were hard for me to run on, and very slanted, both Eddie and I twisted an ankle out there. Also, as the day went on, it became very hot and steamy on the grassy areas.

The first 25K loop was hard for me mentally, there were so many squiggly sections where you could see other runners and it was hard to know if you were coming or going. On the subsequent loops, i fared much better on those sections, because it was more familiar and i knew what to expect. Eddie and I finished the first loop in good time, the first 3.5 mile loop and the first 25K loop took us a little under 4.5 hours. We stopped at our drop bags and i was shocked to find that some animal ate THRU my bag and ate some of my food! ha! I moved my bag to a bench, and took some food and we moved right on thru the start/finish area.

Right after we began our second 25K loop, the canine race started and they soon caught us on the trail. It was insane. The runners all had these funny harnesses that went on like rock climbing harnesses and then they were hooked to their dogs as the dogs basically dragged them thru the course. It was quite amusing to watch for a couple miles. After the first aid station, we met up with a woman from Colorado who has run a ton of 100 mile events. She heard us talking about Umstead and the conversation evolved from there. She told me she ran Western States during a "snow year" and that freaked me out. No one i have met has said they had a great WS100 race, that is a bit frightening. We ran with this woman for many miles, but soon let her get away in the grassy sections.

Once we finished the 2nd 25K loop, the course became much more desolate. All of the 50K and 25K runners were done or ahead of us. We did not really see another runner for the bulk of the last loop. We finished our 2nd loop in under 4 hours, so i knew we were good on time if we slowed down a bit on the last loop. Eddie was not a happy camper, but he kept on trudging along. He had foot/blister problems from very early on in the race. He changed socks at the start/finish line, which seemed to help some. I suggested we both put some tunes on and see if that helped. It did for a bit, but it was getting hot and steamy out there! We just kept moving forward and when we did run, Eddie was still running at a very good clip. When we reached the grassy section, we met a fellow kickrunner (woodrunner) who was volunteering at the aid station. On our third time thru that aid station, he pretty much confirmed that we were the last runners on the course. That kinda sucked, but i knew that we were well ahead of the 13 hour cut off and not really in any risk of getting pulled.

We kept heading down the trail and finally made it to the next aid station. The volunteer there told me that there was in fact one runner behind us, though i believe he did not make the cut offs. We came through the start/finish line on our way to the final 6 mile stretch of the race and saw all of our friends! We were happily surprised to learn that Anthony had an incredible race and kicked ass with a 9:20-something finish and that Wayne finished not too far behind him. Emmy took a picture, we waved to everyone and kept on moving on. We had 2 hours to do the last 6 miles, not too shabby. At the next aid station, i got a cup of ice. My mouth was so very dry, but i had been drinking a ton and eventually started to get a little sloshy in my tummy. I think it was all the allergy meds that dried me up. Sucking on the ice chips helped some and kept me a bit cooler.

We just hunkered down and plowed through the last section. It seemed to go by faster than the previous 2 laps and FINALLY we made it to the last aid station which signaled .8 miles to the finish. It was a short .8 miles and we got thru there very fast. As we approached the finish chute, Eddie and I held hands and ran through the finish line together at 12:21. It was a HUGE PR for Eddie-- 71 minutes better than his Rocky Raccoon time in February, on a significantly harder course! whoohooo.

After the race Anthony encouraged us to shower before the ride back to NY. Wayne, our trusty driver, was a super star and drove us all the way back. We were all tired and exhausted, but lots of coffee, food, and gum kept Wayne awake. We finally made it back to Anthony's around 1am and crashed into bed.

Overall, it was a great weekend! The race was run beautifully, the race goodies were awesome, all the volunteers were incredible and nice, the race was well marked, and the weather was not 100+F like the last two Memorial Day weekends! I feel pretty good and feel like i got some good training in for WS and Eddie did really well, though he is left with the parting gift of at least 7 or 8 blisters! It was also nice to see all of our friends, as I do not think I will see most for several months based on differing race schedules. Any race that gives out a cowbell for an award is a great race!!!!

Pinelands Farm Trail Challenge, 50Miler

Thu, 22 May 2008 11:10:56 -0400

Ok, I got talked into it. I signed up for the Pineland’s Farm 50 Miler. It did not require a lot of arm twisting though. The past Memorial Days i have run the Old Dominion 50Miler in Woodstock, VA, but this year it is cancelled due to the race director being sent to the Middle East for active duty. It will always be a special race for me, because it was my first 50 mile finish. I had DNFed earlier that spring at Bull Run Run at mile 32.5 and was sorely dissapointed. I went to Old Dominion without telling many people, and all alone, no husband or anything, i had a mission to get the monkey off my back. I had a great race and finished in under 11 hours, which made me more than happy. I had trained hard and BRR was just a combination of bad weather and serious mud that slowed me down that i did not make the cutoff.

This weekend, Pinelands will be a blast, so many people I know will be running this race, it will be a great weekend. I am working Saturday, but as soon as i am done, Eddie and I will drive up to NY to meet Anthony and Wayne, and Wayne will drive us to Maine. Hopefully it will break the long ride up. It is an hour longer than our ride to NC for Umstead, and that was a hard one for me to sit through. The race should be nice, the weather forecast looks good, and the course looks pleasant. I am going to use this race as a test for Western States, and really focus on nutrition and race strategy. The countdown is counting down very fast!!!! WS100 will be here well before I know it. EEEKKKK!!!

On top of everything else, i moved my business/office this past weekend, very stressful. Then on Sunday, we (adam, eddie and i) bailed on our long run after 5 hours. The rains were not supposed to come until late afternoon, but for over the last hour of our run, we got poured on and all of us were frozen, wet, and very unprepared for the change in the weather. Pinelands will be a good way to get a big training run in before WS. Also, my knee/leg has been feeling great. I did not notice it until 4.5 hours into my long run, and then, it only felt tight, then i ran twice this week with no brace and no pain. I had another MFR session yesterday and hopefully i am well on my way to a full recovery! Just in time for WS!!!!

Here are some pictures from Old Dominion, my first 50 mile finish. Blast from the past!!!!

#298

Wed, 14 May 2008 18:01:05 -0400

Wow. I was surprised to receive an email today that referred to me as #298. I had no idea the roster and numbers were posted for the Western States Endurance Run. CLICK HERE to see my runner page. In 44 days, my picture will be there and i will be off and running through the WS100 course. WOW WOW WOW. In the past week, i have gotten a lot of really good encouragement and advice from a lot of friends and it has really helped me a lot, but at the same time, it is making this real and boy is it going to be here before i know it!!!!!!!! I better start planning my race. I received a comment on my blog from Tom Riley, who i have never met, but has since given me a wealth of knowledge heading into WS100. The ultrarunning community is such a great group of people and it is really special to have people, total strangers, offer help, encouragement and direction. My friend Leigh ran the race last year with her best buddy George (they just ran Marathon De Sables!!!!) and gave me the link to her WS training camp report from last year filled with page upon page of beautiful pictures. Also, my friend Tim Looney, who ran WS100 last year as his first hundred miler gave me some good words of wisdom and we discussed his training in preparation for his WS run.

The past 6 weeks have been hard for me, i have never had an injury last so long. Although i am on the upswing and feel 95%, i am not 100%, and i really wish i was for the final weeks of my training. My knee pain has resolved and now i have pain in my quad, right above my knee which is pulling on the patella. I had a full one hour massage (myofascial release actually) just on my leg today. It was intense and extremely painful, but after a lot of releases, including a psoas release, i am feeling pretty good. I do not run again on my training schedule until Friday and hope to have a good run. I do not really feel pain on my runs, just more discomfort. I am still wearing the strap on my leg, which seems to help.

My weekday runs have been going very well, even with the knee/leg discomfort. I have been further exploring my neighborhood and today had a really great 90 minute run. I started down my street and then down a parallel road until the end. I passed a lot of farms, nature preserves, horses, and some chickens!!! I then turned around and went past my start point in the other direction through Historic Yellow Springs where i saw some beautiful wildflowers and some horse back riders. I feel so lucky to live in this area. I cannot believe at one point i was a city girl living in Boston!!! I dread any visit to any city now.

This weekend i have a 7 hour training and will be running at French Creek State park with Adam and my husband, Eddie. I am hoping for a nice, long, pain free run in preparation for WS100. Eddie has been mountain biking there and has found us some nice climbs and descents for training.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!!!!

Pictures of Yellow Springs:

TGIF!

Fri, 9 May 2008 11:20:30 -0400

Is it really only 50 days until Western States? OMG! Where is the time going????? This weekend i have a nice 6 hour long run on tap and Adam (the Professor) who i met at Umstead and ran with there, is in town and should be joining me for my run. He is running the Vermont 100 a couple weeks after Western States. I had a good run yesterday, but had some minimal leg discomfort in my quad. I did some electric stim, stretching and rolling. I will try to get a massage next week, no time this week.

The pictures for the NJ Marathon are up! lol. The first one, I look so serious! ha. Too funny.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!!! Especially everyone running the Long Island Greenbelt 50k--- Anthony, Emmy, Frank, Staci, and everyone else!!! I hope you all have nice weather, have a good race, and no one gets lost. Happy Birthday Staci! What better way to celebrate than endless hours on the trail?