July 4th Weekend 2014

I’m trying to get into the habit of posting more.  I’m also trying to keep my posts interesting and relevant, and yes, sometimes I feel like those two things are in conflict with one another. In spite of that, here is a DC Rainmaker inspired, 5 random things I did this holiday weekend post, for your reading pleasure.

#1)
Friday was the 4th of July and Cath and I spent the entire weekend at the cabin.  Last year everyone was in town and we built a play set for Gemma and Artie, but before we could start building, we had to cut down a large tree that was in the way.

The tree came down pretty easy but then the focus shifted to building the play set, so the most of the wood was left uncut.  Friday seemed like a good day to cut and split wood, so that’s what I did! Once I finished cutting everything to length, there were about 50 round logs ranging in diameter from six inches up to about two feet.   I split and stacked most of the 50 and I cleaned up and consolidate the remaining rounds near the fire pit.  It’s been a while since I split wood, so at the end of the day, my hands, shoulders and hamstrings were pretty sore. No workout today but a lot of work nonetheless.

#2)
Saturday started with more of the same… I restarted the fire from Friday night and then I split and stacked more wood.  Around noon my sister started work on a key lime pie and I fired up the slow cooker to start dinner (more on that in a minute!).  While dinner cooked, I had time for a brief trail run. My legs and back were pretty sore from splitting wood, so I figured a nice easy jog would help to loosen things up.  Cath wanted to come along too, so we worked out a plan: she dropped me at the Maple Summit parking lot on the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail and I started running north on the trail.  She then drove to the Rt. 653 parking lot and started hiking south.  We agreed that I would run north until I met her hiking south, at which point she would turn around and I would switch up to her pace.  My best guess was that we would meet up somewhere around my one-hour mark and that’s exactly what happened.  I met her at 1:01:30, just short of five mils into my run.  She turned around and we walked/jogged our way back to the Rt. 653 parking lot. You can see my path here (link to Connect).  Overall I covered a little more than seven miles and felt pretty good.

#3)
Saturday dinner was slow cooked, BBQ, pulled chicken sandwiches with coleslaw, fruit salad, potato salad and key lime pie. We are big fans of the slow cooker and pulled chicken sandwiches are really good and really easy.  I used Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce as the base and then I added orange mango preserves, crushed red pepper flakes, Worchester sauce, and a mix of chicken breasts and thighs. Four hours on high (in my slow cooker) and everything was ready to be pulled.  I removed the skin and bones from the thighs and I pulled the meat into shreds. Next I removed some of the excess fat from the top of the sauce. Finally, I tasted the sauce before adding back the pulled chicken. We served the chicken on hamburger buns with a dollop of coleslaw on top. Yum! There are dozens of similar recipes on the Internet, pick one that sounds good to you and mix up some BBQ!

#4)
Sunday was the real relaxation day of the weekend and I got to shoot sporting clays with my brother-in-law at Seven Springs (link to seven springs sporting clays).  If you’re not familiar, sporting clays are often describes as golf with guns: you move between shooting stations with each station setup to throw clay targets in a different direction and pattern. Seven Springs has three distinct courses.  Each course has 15+ shooting stations and each station has several different throwing patterns.  They also have an outdoor 5-stand and an indoor, heated 5-stand.  The facilities and the trappers are first class.  An accomplished shooter will hit north of 85% of their targets. I am not an accomplished shooter!  That said, I managed to hit 61 out of 100 targets, so I was really happy with the effort.  I was especially happy with the number of fast crossing targets that I managed to hit. I was not at all happy with the number of rising targets that I managed to miss. I was pulling the trigger right at the apex but for some reason I just kept missing. Ugh.

This is a picture of my lovely bruise. Clearly I don't get to shoot often enough because this should not be happening.  Oh well, something else to work on!

One other funny thing: as I was packing up to go shoot, I was trying to figure out a workable way to mount the GoPro to get some pics and video footage. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and I wasn't able to come up with a solution.  Thus, my surprise today, when I received an email from GoPro focused on their new Sportsman Mount (link to GoPro). Briefly, the mount allows you to hang your GoPro from the barrel of a rifle/shotgun and get footage aiming out at the target, back at the shooter or both (if you have two cameras). I don't shoot enough to make this a must have item, but the footage on their site is pretty cool and it makes me wish I would have planned a little further in advance for Sunday.

#5)
The other thing that Seven Springs has done right is the outdoor pool with bar and food service.  The pool is great, the food is great and if the weather is great, you can easily drift off to the tropics and forget that you're still in Western PA!

I don’t know if I’ll turn this into a regular feature but I really enjoyed the weekend, so I figured I would share.  Hopefully you all had an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend.

2014 Laurel Highlands Ultra 50K Race Report

The words for the day were hills, mud, rocks and fun!

This past Saturday was the annual Laurel Highlands Ultra.  There are two race distances, 70.5 miles and 50K.  The 70.5 mile course runs the entire length of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail from Ohiopyle to Seward, just outside of Johnstown, PA. The 50K course also starts in Ohiopyle and finishes just short of the Route 31 road crossing, near the Hidden Valley Ski Resort. If you have never experienced the LHHT, I highly recommend that you get out there and see what you've been missing. There are plenty of great day hikes for all ability levels and if you like camping, the overnight shelters are also pretty cool.

I ran the 50K with my son-in-law Matt and I was also entered in the relay as part of team-SAC (Sherri, Amyjo, Clark).

In the lead up to the race, I was joking around with friends and I asked the question, “Should I think about this as 10x5K or 5x10K? Or should I just not think about it at all?”  The responses mostly skewed to the “don’t think about it at all” side, but one friend suggested I think about it as a “scenic marathon”.  This was both amusing and creative, but ultimately not very useful from a planning perspective.

The course and aid station layout point towards a 5x10K model, so that’s how I ended up planning.  Actually it was more of a 2x:1x:2x model since the three legs were approximately 12, 7 and 12 miles respectively.

Leg 1 – Ohiopyle to Maple Summit Road
(12 miles, 2537 ft of elevation gain, 1445 ft of elevation loss, 1092 net elevation gain)

This is the really hilly section of the (very hilly) course.  It starts out with two good sized climbs and descents and then moves on to the mother of all climbs.  I ran this section last year and in the process destroyed my legs.  And by destroyed, I mean my legs hurt much worse and for far longer after those 12 miles than they did immediately after Ironman.

Based on that experience,  I knew I would have to go out at a slower, more sustainable pace, but I was not sure exactly what that pace would be.  My race plan was to try and stay in zone 2 and pay close attention to any short-term bursts of effort.  The other area that I wanted to monitor closely was the descents.  Last year I bombed down the hills at full speed and I think that contributed quite a bit to the post-race pain and suffering.

My time for this section last year was 2:24 and my rough estimate for this year was 3:00 – 3:30.  I figured that was conservative, but I really had no idea what a Z2 pace would look like on those hills.  As it turns out, that estimate was conservative as I finished the first leg in 2:36!  I was really happy with this result because I was only a few minutes slower than last year but I felt really fresh when I hit the aid station and exchange point.

At this point, my leg of the relay was finished, so I high-fived Amyjo and she took off for her leg.  I refilled my pack and took my shoes off to shake out the rocks.  Matt got to the aid station a couple of minutes before me so he was finishing up when I got there and he took off just a few seconds later.

Leg 2 – Maple Summit Road to Route 31
(7 miles, 1148 ft of elevation gain, 697 ft of elevation loss, 451 net elevation gain)

This section was all about the mud.  There was wet, sticky, suck your shoes off mud, squishy, hero-shot mud that broke like two cresting waves, one off of each side of your shoe, booby trap mud that turned out to be nothing more than really dirty water, just waiting to fill your shoes and soak your socks, slippery, slimy mud that left you scrambling for traction and for your balance, and, my personal favorite, smelly, dead-things mud, that left you dirty and holding your nose.

And where there was no mud, there were rocks.  Rocks to step around, over and in between. Rocks to keep your feet out of the mud. Rocks to slip on and rocks to bash your feet into as you're running full speed down a steep hill (ouch).

In between all of that, though, there were sections of trail where you could really make time.  Especially since this leg is mostly flat except for the last mile or so which includes a pretty steep, stair-step climb.

I caught and passed Amyjo about a mile into the leg.  She was having “technical difficulties” when I passed her so her iPhone was out and she was tapping on the screen trying to get her tunes back.  I caught Matt a couple of miles later and we ran together for quite a while.  I’m not sure exactly where we split up again, but it was probably around mile 15 or 16?

I've run this section several times in training so I knew what to expect from a pacing standpoint.  My plan estimate was 1:30 – 1:45 and my actual time was 1:36  This time I was the first of our group into the aid station.  I waited for the car to pass (yikes) so that I could cross the road and then I waved at Sherri, refilled my pack, grabbed a spare pair of socks and took off on the third and final leg.  Matt arrived just before I left.  I'm not exactly sure when Amyjo arrived and Sherri started.

Leg 3 – Route 31 to the finish
(12 miles, 1477 ft of elevation gain, 1321 ft of elevation loss, 156 net elevation gain)

This section was all about pacing and survival.  The net elevation number is misleading because this section is descend, climb, descend, climb, so you start and end at about the same elevation but you still climb and descend quite a bit in between.  This section includes the highest elevation point on the entire trail, near the Lake Tahoe lodge at 7 Springs (mile 27 ish) followed by a long (and tiring) descent down the ski slopes and then out of the resort.

I was still feeling pretty good when I hit the aid station at mile 26.  The climb up to Lake Tahoe was tough but not too bad.  The descent from Lake Tahoe to County Line Road was a bitch. I was trying to move slowly and it felt like I was using way too much energy keeping my speed in check as I was descending. Crossing County Line was a pain, people drive like demons on that damn road, and climbing over the guide rail on the far side was a nightmare.  I had to sit down and then hoist each leg over the rail one at a time just to get to the other side. That sucked.

In my training I ran everything up through County Line at least once but I did not get the chance to train on the section of trail from there to the finish.  I wanted to, but logistically it’s the worst section for me and it just never happened.  That was a typical rookie mistake, since it turns out there is a decent climb right after County Line, but what are you gonna do? I struggled my way up the unexpected hill, hoping it would turn into a nice flat run to the finish.

I had been watching the time since mile 27 or 28 because it looked like I could finish in under 7 hours if I could just maintain a respectable pace.  I did my best to hold pace and not lose time in those final miles.

Finally I passed the 30 mile marker, the last marker  on the 50K course, and I knew that I was going to make it!  Another ~7/10 of a mile on the main trail and then the left turn onto the access trail and the humiliating lap around the parking lot and I was finished. My first 50K was in the books and I made it in just under the seven hour mark – 6:54:xx.

I tried to chill out for a few minutes and I got some food out of my finish line stash.  My legs and feet were feeling pretty rough so I tried to keep moving for a little while.  I took a minute to change into dry clothes and a jacket since it was colder than I had expected.  Eventually I closed up the car and crashed out in the driver’s seat for a while.  It was warm in the car and sitting down helped to ease the pain in my legs.  The problem with this was that I couldn't see the course from the car, so I kept getting out as people came in to check for Matt and Sherri.  Not too long after, Sherri and Matt came in together, made the lap around the parking lot and finished up.

Matt was happy to be finished and Sherri was super happy because she ran quite a bit faster than last year! Like I said earlier, I was about 12 minutes slower on my leg and I’m told that Amyjo was about 10 minutes slower on her leg also.  In the end, our relay team finished about 10 minutes FASTER than last year, which means that Sherri was ~32 minutes faster than last year!  Like I said, she was super happy.

We all hung out for a while eating and checking the results board and then we decided to bail and head back to the house to get cleaned up for dinner.

I love this race.  It’s super small (less than 100 entrants for the 50K), it’s very well run, the scenery is beautiful, it’s super low key and relaxed, and it’s just plain fun.  I’m not sure what I’ll do next year but if my schedule permits and I can get a spot, I’ll be back for another round of LHHT goodness.

Full course (approximate) elevation numbers for those who are interested:
5162 feet of elevation gain, 3463 feet of elevation loss and 1699 net elevation gain over 50K!

Special thanks to Sherri for most of the pictures!

Laurel Highlands Ultra 50K 2014

I’m racing again on Saturday and that’s got my nerves all twisted up in a bunch.  The race is a new distance (50K) and a new format (trail race) and it’s pretty close on the heels of Ironman.  I’m not properly prepared, but I knew that would be the case when I signed up and besides, everyone says shit like that before a race.  The exciting bits are that this is a race I've wanted to run for many years and I’m finally going to do it and I don’t care, not even one bit, about the clock.

The race is the 50K version of the Laurel Highlands Ultra.  For the few of you who were hanging around here last year you will remember that I ran the relay version of this race in 2013 (race report).  I wanted to run the full 50K but I was late to the game and all of the slots were sold out.  This year I made a point to follow the site closely and I was able to score a spot.  I've also gotten the band back together and am doing the first leg of the relay again!

This race matters to me because the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail matters to me!  I grew up hiking LHHT, seriously, like as a 6th or 7th grade kid and I’m on it as often as I can be to this day.  My family and I hiked the trail quite a bit, we camped in the shelters, we partied in the shelters (shhh).  I've hiked the trail as a child, a Boy Scout, an adult, a parent and as a trip leader.  

When I first learned that there was a Laurel Highlands Ultra I knew nothing of trail running or ultra-marathons.  Both of which sounded incredibly cool and equally out of reach.  Like most people my trips on the trail were in the 7 – 12 mile range and overnight trips were defined by the distances between shelters.  The idea that someone could cover 70 (or even 31) miles in a single day was hard to grasp.

A lot has changed in my life since then and the idea of covering 31 miles of the trail sounds like fun, like adventure, like joy.  Although I whine about not being prepared it’s really that I’m not as prepared as I could be.  I have more than enough aerobic fitness and mental toughness to make up for what I’m lacking in leg strength and base miles.  Add to that the fact that my goals are 1) don’t get hurt and 2) finish and I think I’m setting myself up for a great day on my favorite trail.

Saturday can't get here soon enough!

Clark

Laurel Highlands 50K Relay Race Report

As you may have read in my 50K Trail Relay post, I was able to quickly throw together a three person team and get us entered into the 50K relay group of the Laurel Highlands Ultra. This is something that I've always wanted to do, so I was super excited that it finally worked out!

Saturday morning I met Sherri and Amyjo at the finish line parking lot at 6:00. We left Sherri's car at the finish, since she was running the last leg, then we drove both of the remaining cars to Ohiopyle for the start. The original plan was to shuttle both cars between exchanges during the race, but since Amyjo was planning to end her day back in Ohiopyle with her family, we decided to leave her car there.

Packet pickup went quickly and the t-shirts were pretty nice. We spent the next 10ish minutes wandering around with the rest of the runners waiting until it was time to head off towards the start. 

It was still pretty cold out (low 50s) and it was very damp, so I was debating between long sleeves and short. In the end, I stuck with the long sleeve smartwool shirt that I was already wearing and we started off towards the bathrooms and the starting line. I think the fact that the temperature at IMTX was almost double influenced my clothing choice.  Of course the fact that I was cold was an influence also. 

We snapped a couple of team pictures at the starting line. 

The pre-race briefing was short and to the point and the next thing I knew, they were counting down for the start. Of course I was not paying any attention, so I forgot to start my watch when I crossed the starting line!  Whoops.

I started to regret the choice of long sleeves after about one mile, but it was too late to do anything other than unzip the neck and push up the sleeves as much as I could.

My leg of the race starts out easy and then goes pretty much straight up and down for about seven miles before it finally settles out and is flat or downhill for the last five.  The total climbing is over 3000 feet.  The image below is from a previous trip, where I did not forget to start my watch...

Since I only had a couple of days to think about and prepare for this run I really did not have any kind of detailed plan.  I wanted to push myself, to see what I could do.  I also wanted to finish as quickly as possible because I wanted to leave time for Amyjo to finish her leg under the cutoff time for the Rt. 653 checkpoint.

My best guess was that I would be able to finish somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hours.  I ended up finishing in 2:24 and I'm super happy about that. As the chart below indicates, I pushed myself pretty hard. My average heart rate for the day was 158 and there were several, long periods where I was above 165! In contrast, my average heart rate for the bike section of IMTX was only 131.

I'm pretty happy with the way that my heart rate dropped while I was running the final flat and descent before the last little climb. Of course, I less happy with the way my HR climbed back up as I climbed up the little hill at the very end, but I guess that's to be expected.

Here's a picture of the transition at the end of my run.

Amyjo ran the leg between Jersey Hollow Road and the Route 653 checkpoint. The total climbing on this leg is 1367 feet, according to an old entry in my SportTracks log file.  The elevation profile is below. Recognize that the scale on this is different from the scale on the elevation profile posted above. Regardless, this is a tough 7+ mile stretch of trail!

Amyjo knocked it out and then celebrated (with her eyes closed)!

Sherri ran the final leg, from Route 653 to the finish, in the trail parking lot  just before the Route 31 crossing. Again, I was able to dig out an elevation profile, although this time it came from two previous routes instead of one, so I have two images below.

Again, keep in mind that the scale is different between these two images and also between these and the previous images. The total climb in the first piece of Sherri's run was 1134 feet. My estimate for the second piece is about 500 feet for a total of approximately 1634 feet. I nice tough day for Sherri, probably the hardest 12 miles she's ever run. Not to mention that she took a little detour by mistake and ended up running some extra distance!

Here are two pictures of Sherri at the finish! Go Sherri!

Overall we had a great day. Everyone pushed their limits and everyone was super sore the next few days. Somehow I ended up being more sore after this than I was after IMTX. I'm not sure how that's possible, but that's the way it worked out. Maybe it was the increased intensity or the pounding of the climb, descend, repeat of my day, I don't really know and at this point, I don't really care ;-)

So there you have it, my first trail race is in the books and official.

Hope you all had this much fun with whatever you did last!

Clark

50K Trail Relay

Last weekend I went for a nice trail run with my son-in-law on a section of the Laurel Highlands Trail.  That run reminded me that the Laurel Highlands Ultra was probably coming up soon, so when we got back to the house after our run I did a quick Google search and sure enough, the race was a week away!

The individual races were closed, they sold out months before, but it looked like the relays were still open!  I was intrigued, so I started calling around to see if I could quickly put together a team for the 50K relay. After a little bit of work, I found two other runners who were willing to take the challenge, so we submitted an application and crossed our fingers.

Oh yeah, our application was accepted!  Special thanks to Rick the race organizer for not telling us to buzz off.  The relays were closed on the web the next morning, so I think we got in based on an oversight and a kind heart. Thanks again Rick!

Regardless, we are now team #518 - Team S.A.C (Sherri, Amyjo, Clark)

I'll post more details on the race in the race report, but here's a brief rundown.  The Laurel Highlands Trail and an AMAZING hiking trail that runs from Ohiopyle to Johnstown, PA, covering a total distance of ~70 miles.  I've hiked every section of the trail at least once and some sections dozens of times. It is well maintained, beautiful and in some sections HILLY. One of the unique aspects of the trail is that it is routed right through the middle of interesting rock mazes and formations instead of around them. It really is one of the most beautiful trails I've had the pleasure of hiking.

The relay is three legs as follows:

Leg 1 - 11.6 miles from Ohioplye to the Jersey Hollow Road crossing.  This leg has over 3,000 feet of elevation gain, half of which comes in one long hill between miles 6.5 and 8.  Actually, nearly all of that elevation gain is packed into the first 8 miles.  This is the leg that I am doing on Saturday!

Leg 2 - 7.7 miles from Jersey Hollow Road to State Route 653.  This leg also has some elevation gain, but nothing like the first leg. Amyjo is running this leg.

Leg 3 - 11.7 miles from State Route 653 to State Route 31. This leg includes the highest point on the trail, at 7 springs, but is mostly small rolling hills without much elevation gain. This leg also crosses County Line Road near the 7 Springs entrance. Sherri is running this leg.

I'm really excited about finally doing this race. It's something that I've wanted to do, but it's just never worked out, until now!

Think of me on Saturday morning at about 8:30, I'll probably be in the middle of a 1.8 mile hill that climbs ~1500 feet from start to finish. I'll be smiling the whole way!

Clark