Training To Suffer At The Track

The Across The Years 72 hour race is coming up in less than two weeks. AHHHH!

The course is a one mile loop in Phoenix around the spring training facilities for the White Sox and Dodgers. It's actually really nice. It circles a pond, and there is some sidewalk but mostly smooth dirt trail. (You can see course pictures from last year's race report HERE.)

I think race-specific training is SO important. My training has targeted two areas:
1) Training my legs to run.
2) Training my mind to "get in the zone" and stay focused when the course starts to get mundane.

So for my race-specific training over the last few months, I've done most of my running at the middle school track.

In the past month, 110 of the miles I've run have been on this quarter mile track. (I just realized that's a total of 440 laps - ha ha!) I love the middle school track because it's dirt. My feet are always happier on dirt....even if that dirt is a track.

For a few of those miles I've been joined by some really hairy training partners that have horrible breath. Training partner number one: Aunt Jackie.

Training partner number two: Little Debbie.

On many of those miles, I've been able to get "in the zone", tune out everything around me, and just keep running hour after hour.

But a hefty chunk of those miles have been quite miserable. I go really early before work and run for hours. Or at night after the kids go to bed I go run for hours. I've run that track in rain, snow, and wind that blew so hard it almost knocked me down. Many of those miles were when it was bitter, stinging cold outside.

The following picture is during one of those times when my body felt frozen to the core. I wasn't having fun. At all. And that's EXACTLY what I wanted to happen in my training. I wanted to get used to being miserable and get better at learning how to suffer because there is absolutely NO doubt that I'll need those tools at Across The Years when things start to get ugly.

When things do get ugly, which they undoubtedly will, I'll remember moments like this. I'll remind myself that I trained for this! I'll acknowledge the suffering.....and then keep moving forward. (Hopefully!)

Life: Some Happy Things, Some Miserable Things

Here are some things I need:
1) A few more hours in a day.
2) A few more hours of sleep every night.
3) A Redbull that tastes like cinnamon rolls instead of battery acid.

I assume this is pretty normal but life feels like I'm riding on a supersonic roller coaster.....except that the amusement park worker forgot to check your seat belt, and you don't realize the seat belt isn't strapped until the roller coaster is upside down and you're just trying to hang on so you don't tumble to the ground and make a big mess on the pavement.

Okay, but I'm serious here. Tell me you have this roller coaster feeling sometimes too???

Here are some happy things, and a few miserable things going on in life right now:

I signed up for the Across The Years 72 hour race coming up in a few weeks on December 29th! I can't tell you how excited I am for this. It is three straight days running a 1-mile loop to go as many miles as you can. Last year when I ran it I got up to 205 miles. (You can read the race report HERE.) I'm going to try to beat that number this year.

I started working at a dialysis center 11 years ago. Every day I meet with people who had big plans for life...that suddenly got derailed by starting dialysis. So I've adopted a philosophy that if something is worth doing, do it now because you don't know what tomorrow holds. I only have a few things on my Life To-Do list. One of those things is to go to a Bruce Springsteen concert. I am literally happier than a kid in a candy shop - last week I bought tickets to my first Springsteen concert coming up in March!!!!

Another exciting thing: I got my hands on the brand new Altra Olympus 2.0! They are some of the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn.

I really love how Altra improved the tread on the Olympus shoes. They now have a Vibram sole and I think these suckers will grab the trail like claws. I look forward to many hundreds of miles with these shoes on my feet.

On the slightly miserable side of life, Mel is in graduate school right now earning her Nurse Practitioner degree. To be honest, I feel bad for her. She is either at work, or home in front of the computer doing homework. I'm not exaggerating - that is her entire life. It keeps me busy also because I manage all the household stuff, cooking, cleaning, taxi service for the kids, yard work, etc. We need to make a paper chain to count down the months until she is done in August!

The other miserable thing is that we have a Great Dane whose sense of smell is as big as her body. Little Debbie loves to snatch food from the counter or table when you're not looking. We joke that our house doesn't have Dennis The Menace, it has Debbie The Menace.

She has perfected the "Hey, I'm innocent!" look whenever she gets in trouble.

Despite the roller coaster life we're living, I'm so thankful for all our blessings. We have jobs. A warm house. Food in the refrigerator. Occasional cinnamon rolls. Love. We have everything we need.

A Memo To My Past Self: Stop Being Such A Baby

A memo to my past self who, as of last week, hadn't run to the top of the Toquerville mountain at night:

Hey self, stop being such a baby. Put on your big boy pants, suck it up, and be brave. 

Here's how it works, self. You know that big mountain you can see from your house? The one in Toquerville that has a cell tower at the top of it?

At night there is a light on that cell tower. Probably so airplanes don't fly into it. You can see that light from dozens and dozens of miles away. It's like a star in the sky shining every night high on the mountain. You've run there many times during the day, but always been too scared to run there at night.

You know what you should do? You should run up there at night just to have the experience of standing next to that light in the darkness. It would be kind of cool to see that light at night and know "I've been there! I've stood next to that light alone in the night!"

So on Tuesday night, drive to Toquerville, park the car, and begin the long, steep ascent up the back side of the mountain. You'll have a bit of a hard time seeing because with every labored breath, a cloud of steam will fog your vision. When you come a cross a lone shoe, be sure to take a picture of it just in case someone finds your camera in a pile of mountain lion poo after you've been eaten alive.

It will be scary at first as you leave the comforting glow of the city lights on the horizon and journey into the darkness alone. Just a fair warning, you will feel apprehensive when you hear a pack of coyotes howling with laughter in the distance. It will be really cold, really dark, and a really good excuse to reward yourself with Ben and Jerry's afterward.

When the coyotes howl, just turn your music up louder. Fortunately Bruce Springsteen's singing will hypnotize you long enough to forget that your hand is holding a rock to throw at the first coyote who tries to take a chunk out of your calf. Those Walmart gloves you're wearing will rub your nose raw since it will be dripping like a leaky faucet.

The howling coyotes will never get close to you, but just to make sure, you'll sing loudly and often make noises. You will yell "Yeee haw!" and then immediately smile because you'll be reminded of your friend Clair who always yells "Yeee haw!" during ultramarathons when things start to get ugly and you have to work really hard to convince yourself that you are having fun.

Finally your long trek will bring you to your goal. You'll be standing next to that light high on the mountain that you've seen from a distance every night. It will be awesome!

You will see your whole city on the horizon and the lights of St. George 30 miles away. You will call your family from the top of the mountain and tell them to go outside to look for your headlamp. When they're outside you'll flash your headlamp and the kids will be on the other end of the phone yelling "We see you Dad!! We see you!!"

You will feel proud of yourself for being brave and climbing the mountain alone in the dark. You will spend a few extra moments on top watching your breath freeze in front of you and feeling thankful for fun running adventures like this. (And thankful that a mountain lion hasn't eaten you. So far.) And every night afterward when you look up at that light high on the mountain you'll smile.

Just Some Thanksgiving Cowbell

I realized I had neglected to share some pictures from a fun run on Thanksgiving morning. We headed to my go-to trail when introducing new people to our trails: the More Cowbell Trail.

I went out with local friend Angel, new friend Tyler who is writing a book about southern Utah trails, and my old friend Jared Thorley who has selflessly helped me get through MANY rough spots in MANY 100 milers. We understand each other on an unspoken level and may be twins separated at birth.

It was a cold, crisp morning perfect for burning off some pre-gluttony Thanksgiving calories. (This run helped justify one too many pieces of pie later in the day.)

We rang the cowbell as we went by....because not doing so invites really bad running karma. The people who don't ring the bell are the ones who get eaten by mountain lions or lose their car key somewhere on a 20 mile run, or get the runner's trots. Ain't nobody want them runner's trots so you better just ring the bell.

In closing, here is a picture of me, Angel, Jared, and Tyler....who were all a few pounds heavier later that day.

Baker's Dozen Half Marathon Next Week!

The Baker's Dozen Half Marathon is my contribution to the world of running. It has been so rewarding to see the race grow from a small underground running event to what it has become today. One of the things I strive for each year is to have an awesome medal. I couldn't be more happy with how this year's medals turned out:

This isn't your average half marathon. The course is on a 3.2 mile loop so after each loop runners must eat a treat from the Sugar Shack. We'll have everything you'd expect to find in heaven, including cupcakes, donuts, cookies, and Twinkies. When you get in the car to drive home, your clothes will fit tighter.

Yesterday we released an AMAZING race video produced by Alex Santiago. You can check out his website HERE. His concept for a video is hilarious. I think you'll like it.


I have a few more openings for the race next Saturday, December 12th in Hurricane, Utah, right on the doorstep of Zion National Park. You could hop on a plane and be here in a jiffy! If you want more info, you can check out the race Facebook page HERE, or visit www.bakersdozenhalfmarathon.com