Horse Butte 10 Miler

I was the first finisher to down a Natural Oregon Country Beef Dog about 5 minutes after the finish...ah yeah! ultrarunner iron gut, baby!

Another 1 day cold snap for the Horse Butte 10 miler. It has been COLD every year for FootZone's Horse Butte Trail Race. It was a great day just the same. I got up and road my cyclocross commuter bike to the start for some extra credit and a warm up. The trailhead is about 12 miles from my house.

It was almost 60 and sunny on Saturday, but I woke up on Sunday to 23 degrees, windy and a fresh dusting of snow on the ground. The 8am bike to the trailhead was freakin' cold! But, I've been riding a lot lately and I'm getting pretty used to it.

I saw the usual herd of mule deer in the old burn meadow by Bessie Butte on my way up China Hat Road (the back way to the trailhead). I spun into the parking area to hear Super Dave yelling "8 minutes to the start!" Perfect. I quickly unlayered, locked my bike to a Ponderosa, threw my extra gear in my pannier packs, traded my SPD shoes for the Mizuno Wave Ronin 2 and walked to the start line with 2 minutes to spare and a 53 minute bike warm-up on my legs.

We took off and immediately Andy Martin shot off the front (not a surprise) with Damon Kluk close behind him. About 4 of us settled into places 3-6 in a little group for the fist half mile...I was in 5th. By about 3/4 of a mile I was finding myself wanting to stride out more and the guy in 4th was slowing down from the start adrenaline. So, I passed him when the trail allowed and went into a comfortable stride. First mile split was 6 min. flat.

By the first switchback climb up the first plateau, I was still in 4th with a comfortable gap on 5th and pretty much stayed there the rest of the race. DANG! It was REALLY windy on the return part of the loop the last 5 miles! It's an old burn and there aren't any trees and it's pretty exposed to the west. The wind was whipping hard. Nothing like a hard headwind for resistence training the last 5 miles! I ended up running a 1:05:45.

I didn't see 3rd place for the remainder of the race...he ended up being about 2 minutes in front of me...Damon ran a minute faster for 2nd and Andy crusied in for the win in 58:50. I was happy, as it was my 5th run back on dirt in the past week, since coming off the past 4 weeks of the injury and biking and pool running only for training. I was able to hold LT pace for 58 minutes, which I hadn't planned on. If any of you folks get injured, get in the pool for 2 or 3 hard Lactate Threshold workouts a week while you recover. It's boring, but it's the ticket to keep your high end.

Time now to get ready for the Peterson Ridge Rumble 30k in 6 days (or the 60k...still an outside chance I might try to slog the 60k on the limited running I've been doing...tempting). I have been biking A LOT for long volume. I'd much rather run the 60k if I had a choice...hmmm.

Giddyup!

For the love of cycling

This is my first week back on the dirt after 5 weeks off (2 weeks for broken pinky toe, last 3 weeks from a strained pes anserinus tendon in my knee) and it has me thinking how much we as ultrarunners get "blinders" and only run. I know a few of you out there (Angle and Wolfe to name two) that share my love of cycling. When I got banged up, I could only bike and pool run. I only only could spin on my indoor trainer for the first week of the tendon strain, then alternated biking and pool running for two weeks. The last week back running (every other day) while biking on the other alternating days has been a nice change from the pool for sure.

I have to say, the pool, even though it IS boring...works. You can really get a high heart rate workout in the pool while using all your running specific muscles. And, besides having sore quads this first week back running (from the pounding), my LT runs have been pretty darn good. I could jump right back into quality 20 minutes at LT tempo pace and seem to have only lost some of what I had built up before the injuries. By my 4th run back, I was up to 10 mile runs again. So, good sign that the pool running/long biking was a good mix of keeping fitness.

Plus, these "trials and tribulations" of injury can be a blessing in disguise...they are good for me in the early season because I fall in love with my bikes again. I love cycling—cross, road, mountain—doesn't matter. I am a little partial to mountain biking 'cause I'm a dirt bag, but with my custom steel road frame just back from the powder-coater and almost built up (hopefully this week...I'll post pics when it's done), I'm looking forward to not having to spin long road rides on my heavy cross bike anymore.

But, for the love of cycling...well, it's what I was into before I found ultrarunning. I was a total bike geek before and I still am at heart. It's such a good mix with ultrarunning training. I'm heading out in the morning to jump into FootZone's annual Horse Butte 10 miler SE of town...it's my regular winter haunts for biking and running and the recent cycling time has me thinking how to "mix it up." So, I'm going to bike about 12 miles to the race tomorrow for extra credit and the added warm-up and then run 10 miles in the desert. It's always a fun social time with the local running folks. I think they have almost 150 entries! Over and out and Giddyup.

Wishing I was Cool

Well, I'm reflecting on the amount of fun I would have this weekend if I could run Way to Cool 50k. I had to back out or the race this coming weekend due to two injuries. Man, I love Cool. Good competition, fast times...spring in the American River Canyon. Dang!

And, missing Georgetown Hotel on Saturday night—a bunch of tired ultrarunners descending on the locals like some kind of freak show to take over their karaoke. You haven't experienced Cool until you've witnessed AJW belting out Born to Run with a pitcher of beer in his hand, Jurek singing Painted Black by the Stones (pretty darn good I might add), or the old hard-nosed lady bartender kickin' a local out. Run hard at Cool, then sing karaoke in Georgetown with a bunch of drunk ultrarunners—what could be better?

Every spring I get some kind of random injury. Dang. I've now officially been injured for 27 days. I broke my pinky toe on my left foot 27 days ago when I dropped an extension ladder on it. I was only able to bike or tele ski. So, fine, I'll do that. Then what happens? I strain my pes anserinus tendon at the insertion point 12 days ago, tele skiing in an icy section at Mt. Bachelor (caught my rear tip). Can I get a break here??

I have spent the last 12 days on my bike trainer watching Tour de France YouTube videos and pool running at Juniper Fitness Center. Sure, I'll be back...there's always next year at Cool...I'm just bummed to miss Cool this year and feeling a little sorry for myself after a 22 ounce oatmeal stout tonight while reading all the hype on blogs before Cool.

Have fun out there guys, run hard, sing Sweet Home Alabama...I won't be there to do my version. Okay, back to recovery...I have to ride my cross bike for a LONG time tomorrow morning to drown out the karaoke playing in my head. I wish I was Cool this weekend.