Tonight was the first episode of the Boise Brew Minute, my radio show about the beer scene in Boise. I was pretty excited about it and I think it went well. For this one, I interviewed Jake from Cloud 9. You can listen to it below. I plan to post future episodes here when they air.
Anyone who has been interested in ultra running for more than a month or so has heard the name Scott Jurek. As a vegan and a runner, I found his story fascinating despite only knowing a little about him. When I saw “Eat & Run” by Scot Jurek at the library, I decided it was worth checking out.
The book started with his experience at the Badwater ultra which has to be one of the legendary stories within the running world. Being flat out on the pavement, over heated to the point of being unable to stand and only about half way done with the race. Then standing up and running the next 70 miles faster than the first 70… Insane! The book tended to focus on the pain and difficulty he was facing (which seems like the obvious thing to focus on), but it does that throughout. When he was in good shape and won a race without excessive pain, the race was hardly mentioned. It was only when he go through it by sheer force of will that the race warranted comment.
The main take away was that above 50 miles, racing isn’t about being fast, it’s about having the will to keep going. It was a fascinating look behind the headlines at a runner I knew about, but hadn’t heard much of his perspective. The only real draw back was that he had a co-author and, for one reason or another, the flow seemed a little choppy. On the other hand, some of the recipes he gives at the end of each chapter look delicious and will soon make it into my list of running meals. At the end of the book, Scott Jurek no longer felt like an unbelievable legend. He seemed much more human and although I’d still be very interested in talking with him about running, I’m now more interested in talking to him about food.
Tonight was another Monthly Mile. Still having occasional trouble with my knee, I wasn’t sure if I would run. After the warm up I felt OK so I figured I’d start. I went out a bit fast but my knee didn’t give me any trouble so I pushed. I took one more second off my PR and this time someone else was calling out times so I didn’t have to do may when I finished. My new PR is 4:56. We’ll see what next month holds.
Last year, Matty and I decided it would be fun to celebrate our birthdays (4 days apart), by running our average age in miles through the foothills. I don’t recall why we thought this would be fun, but the idea stuck. Last year we did one large loop for all 32.5 miles and almost no one decided to join us. This year, to encourage others to participate, we changed it to be four smaller loops: 16.5 miles, 7.5 miles, 5.5 miles and 4 miles. We had run each of the loops before and they included some of our favorite trails.
The run was scheduled for Saturday and the Tuesday before, I woke up with a cold. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in bed. When Saturday came around, I was still feeling a bit rough, but it was time to run. Matty arrived here at 8:45 and we jogged over to Camelsback Park. I had to pause once in the quarter mile warm up for a coughing fit, but I was determined to do the first loop. We met another runner and started out for 16.5 miles.
Once my body realized that I was running and coughing wasn’t going to stop me, I started feeling a bit better. Climbing the hills certainly taxed my still sore lungs, but we kept running. About 11 miles into the loop, I came around the corner and almost stepped on a bull snake. Without thinking, I jumped. The other two runners saw me jump and they did the same. It was odd, but we didn’t even consciously realize we saw the snake until we were several feet past it.
We finished the first loop, got more water and snacks, I nearly vomited (NEARLY vomiting is, unfortunately, not that unusual for me on long runs) and we headed out on the second loop. Having finished the first loop at a 9:15 minute per mile pace, I decided I was feeling good enough for one more. The second loop was uneventful enough. Matty and I started alone, but another runner met us about half way around and joined us. We finished that loop a little slower.
Back at Camelsback, we got more water and several BAR runners joined us for the third loop. On this loop, my cold and lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I slowed to an 11 minute/mile and started coughing again. It was difficult to finish the loop. By the end I knew I had less than 4 miles to go, but wasn’t sure if I could do it. I found a shady spot to sit and got too comfortable. Finally, Matty said it was time to go and five of us headed out for the last loop. In the first 200 m, I started coughing, had to walk, and fell behind the group. I told them to go ahead and I continued to run/walk/cough for about a mile before giving up. I hurt. It hurt to run; it hurt to breath. I stopped and drank some water. I had 2.5 miles left. I knew I couldn’t run it, but started walking again to see how far I could go.
One of the runners with the group came back to join me and we continued walking. We chatted occasionally, but I felt bad enough to not really want to talk much. The rest of the group had stopped to make sure I was ok and I told them to finish without me. At that point, we were halfway done with the final loop. I knew I could walk two miles, but it might take me an hour. I continued my slow progression around the loop. With a quarter of a mile to go, I was brought to my knees with another coughing fit.
As I approached the finish, Matty and several other runners came out to join me and we all crossed the line together. I was certainly not feeling good at that point, but the support made it not feel quite as bad. Later I was told I looked like a ghost crossing the line. We stayed in the park for about four hours just eating, drinking and relaxing. We had earned it.
The following few days, my legs felt much better than they had after most of my other long runs. My lungs did not. I continued to cough and hack for another week. I’m getting better now and I’ve decided I need to rerun the course later this year when I don’t have a cold to see how I can do. Now, it’s time to start plotting the course for next year’s Birthday Bash. Where to go for 34.5 miles of “fun”? Any suggestions?
Back in high school, I ran cross country. I never considered myself a fast runner, but I did ok. I usually ran the mile between 5:30 and 6:30 depending on the time of year or where we were in the cross country and track seasons. At the end of the cross country season during my senior year, coach brought us all out to the track for a timed mile. It was mostly to encourage us to do track in the Spring and get an assessment of how well we might do. I was planning to pole vault so I wasn’t too concerned. That said, I knew I was getting faster and hoped I might be able to break five minutes for the first time in a mile. I paced with a guy who was faster than me and aiming for 4:45. As we finished lap two, I realized we were going too slow and I sped up. I managed to maintain that speed and finished at 4:59.
Since then, I hadn’t run a timed mile. I knew I’d gotten slower (from several years of minimal running) but starting a few months ago, I was starting to build up my speed again. In September, I decided to see if I could break my PR (personal record). I went out to the track to see where I was and determine if a sub-five was even possible. I decided if I could run under a six-minute mile, then I could train and might be able to do it again. If it was over six minutes, I would keep training for distance and not worry about sprinting four laps around the track. That mile time came in at 5:35.
Over the next few months, I continued to do one track workout each week, along with my regular running. Once a month I would time my mile again to see how I was doing. I even convinced other people to join me for these workouts. Well, May was the month, but it was pretty rocky. I started the clock and everyone took off running. Unfortunately, I didn’t think I had hit the button, so I went back to check. The clock was running and four precious seconds had ticked away. I turned around and took off, probably too fast. Each lap, I watched the time and made sure to subtract the four seconds between the clock start and my start. After two laps, I was still on pace, but lap three was a bit slow. The final lap ended with 100m into a strong head wind. I was gasping for air and making enough noise that the other people on the track gave me strange looks. I passed the finish line and the clock read 5:01. I was sure that was a PR, but was unable to think well enough to do the math to figure out what my time actually was.
As we approach June, I’m hoping to do another timed mile. This one without the headwind and hopefully without the clock problems. Maybe with a little more training, I can even beat 4:57.
For the last three years, I’ve run the Race to Robie Creek, a hilly and challenging half-marathon. It’s a fun event with something they call a party at the end then a school bus ride back to the start. After the second year, I decided I was done with the school bus ride so last year I had the brilliant idea of just running back. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have on the return trip and took a wrong turn. The 13.1 mile run was supposed to turn into a 26.2 miler, but ended up being a little over 28. It would have been farther had I not gotten a ride for the last 4 miles. This year was going to be different.
Rather than rushing to register for Robie (it usually sells out in less than 10 minutes), this year I decided to run the trails above the course and cheer on BAR team members. I announced this alternate run to BAR and six people agreed to join me.
We met beside the starting line for Robie so we could see off the BAR members who were racing. The gun went off, the racers streamed by, we cheered then headed up the trails. The weather was perfect for running and we quickly climbed the hills. Our group spread out with only three of us planning to reach the upper part of the course. Several spots on the trails had views down to the course and it was fun to see hundreds of runners tracing along the road.
After several miles of following above the course, we decided to drop down to the road around mile marker 6 of the race. We stood there as one of my former co-workers ran past. She was walking at this stage, but still having fun with the event. From there we tracked along the course for just over a mile to the summit before turning around and heading back down. We encouraged racers and gave high-fives all along the course. Lots of smiles.
I ended up running almost 22 miles, avoided a school bus ride and had a great time. I think this will be my plan for Robie next year as well. Anyone else interested in joining us?
Last year, a friend and I decided it would be “fun” to celebrate our birthdays by running our age in miles through the foothills. We selected one large loop and almost no one joined us on the 33 mile run. This year, we decided it would be more fun (and perhaps less “fun”) if we convinced other people to run with us so we selected four shorter loops. We are encouraging people to run as much as they would like. The loop lengths and approximate start times are:
• Starting at 9:00 – 16.5 miles – http://runkeeper.com/user/twsobey/route/2910186
• Starting at Noon – 7.9 miles – http://runkeeper.com/user/twsobey/route/2744844
• Starting at 1:45 – 5.8 miles – http://runkeeper.com/user/twsobey/route/1579081
• Starting at 3:00 – 3.5 miles – http://runkeeper.com/user/twsobey/route/1579072
They each start and end at Camels Back. Additional details are coming, but I wanted to make sure this was on everyone’s radar in case you are thinking about joining us. If you can questions, post them in the comment section. Thanks and I look forward to running with everyone.
I used to play ultimate (frisbee) a lot. After enough sprained ankles and knees, I decided it was probably time to cut back a bit. I still enjoy getting out and throwing a disc about, but I haven’t played a game in a few years.
On Friday, I was at Boise State for a three hour meeting. As it dragged on, I noticed a group of people on the field just out side the window were starting a pick-up game of ultimate. The weather was perfect, but I was stuck in the meeting. I kept getting distracted and looking out the window to see how the game was going. They were all college students and seemed to have a good game going on. Just as the meeting was about to let out, they stopped playing and gathered under a tree. Disappointed that I missed the game, I still went over to talk to them. It turns out they were just taking a break and were happy to have me join them.
I am about 12-15 years older than the other players, wearing jeans and not wearing cleats (not wearing shoes at all, once we started playing), but it was fun to get out and chuck a disc again. After five minutes or so, I cut down the field and the person covering me called out to his team, “Hey, someone else is going to have to cover All-American over here. I can’t keep up.” It brought a smile to my face to think that the college kids were having trouble keeping up with me and not vice versa. Even barefoot, my running was fine. I could accelerate or turn as fast as I’d like, but my knees and ankles were probably grateful for that. Plus, my throws were better than I expected for not having played for so long.
We played for about an hour before we decided to call it a day. I was still feeling good at the end. A little tired, but not too bad. It felt like many other games of ultimate I had played over the years… until the next day. Turns out I don’t recover from wind sprints as fast as I used to. Even two days latter, when I started a 10 mile run, my legs were slow and heavy. Wow, it turns out, that was a much better workout than I expected and a whole lot more fun than 400 or 800m repeats on the track. I might have to plan a game or two this Summers for speed work with BAR. I’m already looking forward to the first game.
These are the times from our Monthly Mile event as part of the Boise Area Runners. Join us on the first Tuesday of each month at the Boise High track at 6:00pm for this fun event to gauge how your training is coming along. Whether you take 4:00 or 14:00 to finish a mile, there will be people cheering you on. Find out how fast you can run this month and try to improve upon it next month. I hope to see you there.
We’ve been up for about 44 hours and still have at least 3 to go before we’re home, but we are back on US soil. It’s been a great trip and I will post some final thoughts about it soon. For now, I’m going to read my book, try to stay awake and enjoy a bottle of tap water. It’s good to be back.
A Runner's Ramblings 