2013 Year in Review

Where do I start? I could whine and complain about my knee injury, and subsequent surgery, and just write this off as a bad year. But that would be just lazy, there was a lot of good things that happened in 2013. Let's start with the stats:

• I will finish the year with something close to 1275 miles, down nearly 50% from my past two years.
• Vertical gain will be something like 135K for the year, also down about 50% from previous years.
• I completed a PR in the 50 mile distance at Old Pueblo in March, finishing 20th overall
• I set a PR in the mile (6:01)
• My first ever DNF was in April

And now here are few things that are highlights of my year (and things to be thankful for):

• I summited two more 14ers, including the 2nd tallest mountain in the continental US (Mt Elbert)
• Four new runners entered the ultra community because of my influence, two of them are planning to run 100 milers in 2014
• I have am beginning to understand the best way for me to train
• My first experience as a crew member happened in 2013
• I did something that scared the crap out of me and rode in a 50 MTB race
• Both of my kids are regularly running 5Ks and participate in a run club
• I drank a rare beer at the summit of Hope Pass

Old Pueblo 50

In March, I went down to Arizona and ran with my buddy Steve in his first ever 50 miler. I finished 20th overall and set a PR despite being off course and lost for nearly 30 minutes.

Another belt buckle for my collection.

Leadville Guys Weekend (6/21-6/23)

On Friday, we ran the first half of the Silver Rush course to see it first hand.

On Saturday, we climbed Mt Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado (14,439 feet)

At the top of Colorado -- literally!

On Sunday, Chuck and I ran from Powerline back to May Queen. It would be along the Colorado Trail that I finally realized my season was likely done. By the time we returned for the Leadville Silver Rush weekend, I already had surgery scheduled.

Leadville Silver Rush Weekend (7/12-7/14)

On Friday, we hiked Hope Pass and split a Sixteenth Anniversary Ale by Firestone Walker.

100 milers to be: Chuck (on the left) and Steve (on the right)

On Saturday, I rode in my first MTB race, 50 miles and 8K of vertical gain.  Said my buddy JP: "First thing I did this morning was laugh at u going on a 50 mile bike race, untrained and with a Walmart bike."  I finished!

I wasn't smiling on the inside.  At least I wore a helmet.

On Sunday, I crewed four sub-10 hour finishers in the Silver Rush Run, including the 6th place runner.

Jon, Mike, and Steve all finished in under 10 hours. It was Mike and Jon's first ever 50 miler.

Chuck finished in under 7.5 hours, 6th overall

Mt Bierstadt

Dylan and I summited Mt Bierstadt with some friends on July 20th.  It is his second 14er (Gray's Peak) and my third (Gray's Peak and Mt Elbert).

Dylan climbed Mt Bierstadt once before, but we didn't summit due to weather.

Surgery

On August 7th, I had arthroscopic knee surgery. The doctor removed scar tissue from the medial side of my knee, removed some of the fat pad from the front of my knee, and repaired my lateral meniscus. I was able to start doing some light running 7 weeks later. Overall my knee feels much better know. However, I am still struggling to find the confidence to trust strength of my knee and push it. Every niggle and twinge sends me into dark corners in my mind. Hopefully I can start 2014 with the courage to sign up for some races again.

2 days post surgery, moderate swelling.

What's in store for 2014?

If I have to be honest with myself, 2013 was always going to be a let down. Both 2011 and 2012 were HUGE years for me. Lots of racing and epic adventures. I was lucky to make it through the Leadville 100 and it took me quite a while to get right. My greatest hope is that my knee injury is a thing of the past and that I am something close to 100% by the Spring time. Short of injury, I plan to race two more ultras, including my second 100 -- Bear 100 -- in 2014. As is the case every year, I hope to continue to find more balance in running and life. 2013 really pushed me to "put running into perspective".  Running has given me so much -- family adventures, personal adventures, health, happiness, kids that enjoy being active, etc... But I also need to learn that there is more to life than running. That is a daily struggle for an obsessive guy like me. If I had to pick goals for 2014, they would be to qualify for Western States 100 (again), and to get to the start line 100% trained and healthy of some race, any race, by June.

Weekly Training Wrap - 6/10 - 6/16

This goes in the books as a cut-back week since I dropped 12 miles from last week. But, I managed to increase the intensity with some hill repeats, MP miles, and race specific trail run (as part of a B2B). My overall trimp (training stress score) went up even with fewer miles. I started having some symptoms of ITB again on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I took two days off and started seeing a PT for some dry needling. The weekend went really well and I am hopeful I got in front of the injury this time.

This weekend we have 40 miles planned over 3 days in Leadville as we finalize our training for the Silver Rush 50.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	Biking
Tuesday	7	Easy/MAF
Wednesday	7	Hill Repeats
Thursday	Off	PT
Friday	Off	PT and Strength Training
Saturday	16	MP miles
Sunday	14	Trail Run
Total	45	About 4800 Feet Vertical

Weekly Training Wrap - 5/13 - 5/19

Lot to say this week, so let's get to it. First of all, the obligatory injury update. I finally broke down and got a cortisone shot in my left knee. I probably did this two weeks too late. There is good reason to believe this will relieve at least some of my symptoms. And, in fact, I had a decent week of training. However, this injury has been up and down for two and a half months now, so I will not claim victory quite yet.

Training update: I am way behind. I have a 50 miler in 8 weeks and I am way undertrained. Below is a graph of Joel Friel's Advanced Trimp from my training this year:

Trimp is a mesure of how much aerobic work you are doing. You get higher numbers by either spending more time aerobic training or by spending more time in higher zones. Weeks 1 - 7 of this year were training for my Old Pueblo 50. As you can see, a solid week for me around 600. A peak week is more like 800 - 900. Before my Cheyenne Mtn DNF, I managed to start putting together some good weeks again, including three runs of 2.5 hours or more. But my choice to shutdown after Cheyenne sent me close to zero. What's this all mean? Not a total loss. But, I am behind.

This week I managed a Trimp number of 730, my fourth highest of the year. However, I achieved that number with the use of some biking. I rode 45 miles this week, mostly in Zones 1 and 2. I realize this is not specific training, but it may be a tool I have to lean on for the remaining 8 weeks. If I can do some riding, a few midweek runs, and one long trail run each week, then I should be able to race at a reasonably high level. I have also been pushing the strength training hard, way harder than most recreational endurance athletes. I will continue to aim for 3-4 hours a week of that kind of work. (Note that strength training is more than weights).

Anyway, one day at a time, but I am satisfied with training for at least one week.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	PT and Core Training
Tuesday	Off	PT and Core Training
Wednesday	Off	PT and Core Training
Thursday	5	Easy Miles
Friday	Off	PT and Strength Training
Saturday	5	Easy Miles
Sunday	17	Trail Long
Total	27	About 4200 Feet Vertical

Weekly Training Wrap - 5/6 - 5/12

Busy week in training. I hit the gym HARD twice (Monday and Thursday) and filled in with a bunch of easier Core/Stabilization/PT-type workouts. After 12 days off, I ran easy on Friday to test out my body and prepare for a run Saturday. Saturday was another disappointing run with ITB pain. I rode my bike on Sunday and continue to re-evaluate my options for health.

I think I made a bit of a discovery this week: balance may be a component missing in my cross training. Anatomy for Runners has several pillars to evaluate yourself and work on: strength, flexibility, balance, etc... There is lots and lots of sources asserting a theory/belief/ideology around runners as being "athletes" first. And, of course, one of the basics of almost any athletic endeavor is balance. Balance requires not only proper muscle strength, but proper muscle activation. And it requires many groups of muscle working together -- hips, core, etc.... For example, when I try that single leg stance, after a few repetitions, I can feel my Glute Med burning! That is one of the most common muscle to try and target with all these PT exercises. Anatomy for Runners really pushes balance as an area to practice and I have probably ignored it in my blitz of cross training.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	PT and Strength Training
Tuesday	Off	PT and Core Training
Wednesday	Off	PT and Core Training
Thursday	Off	PT and Strength Training
Friday	5	Easy Miles
Saturday	9	GA Miles
Sunday	Off	PT and Core Training
Total	14	About 1100 Feet Vertical

Weekly Training Wrap - 4/29 - 5/5

Lots of things to cover this week. First, an April recap. It was a dud. OK, not a total loss, I ran 143 miles in 22 hours with about 13K of elevation. As a comparison, last year I ran 230 miles in April with nearly 20K of vertical. Clearly I am behind at this point.

If you caught up on my ITB update earlier this week, then you know that I don't plan to run for at least one week. At this point, I am leaning toward two weeks off and then starting back slowly. I bought a bike and will attempt to ride to work (about 10 miles each way) a few days a week to get some aerobic exercise and get things going in the right direction. Then I will attempt to start running every other day the week of the 13th. There is no cure for ITB; no anti-inflammatory, no PT exercise that singularly fixes it. There are lots of things I can do to improve as a runner and hopefully prevent it, but once its got its claws in you, rest is your best friend.

I have started a really focused PT and strength training program from my favorite book, Anatomy for Runners. There is plenty here keep me busy for a while. I am pretty certain that most of my overuse injuries stem from the hips -- lack of flexibility, strength, and rotation. It is somewhat embarrassing how weak I am in the legs. But I am working hard to correct that. I have a goal to squat 300 pounds in by the end of the year.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	Rest
Tuesday	Off	PT and Strength Training
Wednesday	Off	PT and Core Training
Thursday	Off	PT and Core Training
Friday	Off	PT and Strength Training
Saturday	Off	PT and Core Training
Sunday	Off	PT and Core Training
Total	0

ITB - Training and Injury Update

It was bound to happen, I DNF'd my first race last weekend as a result of my now two-month-battle with ITB Syndrome. The looming question is where do I go from here? Unfortunately, I have two constraints pulling at me from both ends -- this injury seems to really need time and I have a race to prepare for in eleven weeks.

A quick little recap: I realized I was injured during the Old Pueblo 50 mile run in March. At the time, it was more of a dull ache/tingle in my upper hip/thigh area (sort of the tensor fasciae latae and upper portion of the ITB). I wouldn't describe it as pain, but I knew it wasn't "right". A few days after OP50, I tried to run again and that is when the knee kicked in -- extremely painful, particularly on downhills and stairs, classic ITB. My initial response was to approach it with relative rest (see below) and I did well for awhile. Along with rest, I did some active release and started doing even more cross training. I had not had any knee discomfort in several weeks, but the hip discomfort remained. My patience went out the door and I pushed things a little the week of April 15th, running three days in a row for the first time and running five days total for the first time. I had a flare up the following week, then my DNF, both severe knee pain. The odd thing is that my knee typically goes back to normal within 12-24 hours and I am unlimited until it flares up again.

I have researched ITB tirelessly for the past two days and have come to only two solid conclusions: 1) for all the great medical research and advances out there, there isn't much conclusively known about it and 2) the only thing that appears to be a sure fire cure is time. If you Google ITB, you will get answers all over the map -- stretch it, strengthen your hips, ice, etc... But the truth is that there is very little that supports any of those things as "cures". Many of those cures are found after relentlessly trying to rid of the injury, but time is likely the greatest cause to healing.

Time is the enemy of the training runner. How much time? All indications are that mild cases could be a few weeks and more complicated cases could be several months. Chronic cases may take surgery. My inclination is to believe (hope maybe a better word) that I have a pretty mild case. After all, I've run for 2.5 - 3 hours four times in the past month with only one flare up. The other difficult question is whether I need to give it full rest or "relative rest". Full rest being no running at all and avoiding any activities that irritate either my hip or my knee (nothing seems to bother it other than running). Relative rest is what I was doing most of the month of April -- running every other day, about 50% of my normal weekly miles, and shutting down at any sign of pain. Of course, the risk with relative rest is that it prolongs the injury even if you can train through it.

There are lots of turns that this post could take, like discussions about the potential "root" cause or whether I am "meant to be a runner", but I'll just leave you with some details of my plan for now. Here is my plan:

Rest

I aim to have full rest for at least one week and maybe as much as three weeks. With eleven weeks to go before my race, I think I can recover from a two week layoff and still train enough to run at high level.

Cross Training

As long as it doesn't bother either my knee or my hip, I will cross train 4-6 days per week during my rest period, and then 3-4 days per week once I resume training. While there is relatively little evidence to suggest that it cures ITB, it is still good work for me to be doing. Plus, I enjoy lifting weights. I have consolidated the overwhelming amount of cross training stuff that I've discovered into three things:

The exercises in my favorite book, Anatomy for Runners. I discovered a convenient and structured workout designed using the exercises from this book. This stuff is great because it distills things down to relatively few exercises to cover a broad spectrum of total body health: posture, stabilization, power and strength.

Another group of exercises that I plan to mix in are from the book Run With No Pain. The exercises in here are very similar in nature, but add a circuit component and just a little more flavor to mix things up.

Finally, I will continue to incoporate some of the work done by Jay Johnson. In addition to the general strength stuff, I really like using his Myrtl routine for dynamic stretching before both running and weight training.


That is pretty much it. During this next few weeks, I will continue to re-evaluate and see if I can find reasons to change my strategy. And I will likely continue to formulate other plans in case my body doesn't respond to several weeks of rest. But, I sure hope it does because the will to fight through more injuries is really starting to wane. My absolute nightmare scenario is either showing up with more half-assed training or with a worry that I might DNF again. I need to get by this thing for good.

Cheyenne Mtn Race Report

Last Saturday was the Cheyenne Mountain 50K run. Since I have been struggling with an ITB injury for nearly 2 months now, I didn't really do much training or thought-preparation work for this race. Nonetheless, I managed to put in 2-3 weeks of half-assed training and figured I would have a shot at finishing the race and maybe even a top-20 finish. But, the possibility of a DNF was a very real concern before the race.

On Saturday morning, I met up with some friends and we drove down together. Unfortunately, only one of us had been training consistently. Nonetheless, we had some good talk about possibilities, strategy, etc.... All the usual pre-race stuff. Once we arrived in Colorado Springs, we picked up our bibs, put on our gear and then waited. One thing that was obvious was that it was going to be hot. Now seventy degrees isn't that hot under most circumstances, but April has been an abysmal month and I would say most of us were acclimated to about fifty degrees as the high temperatures. In fact, I think there it is a pretty safe bet that Saturday was the hottest day of the year so far. Somehow I wind up with above average temperature races more often than not, so I am pretty used to it. And while I am sure it slows me, I haven't had any catastrophic outcomes.

Anyway, after about forty-five minutes of standing around and chatting with friends like Wyatt, they sent us off. My buddies and I had planned to hang together for the first of two loops and go easy. The trouble is that the trail is mostly single track-like and there are several parts of the course that are two-way traffic. We were sort of running alone, but in view of one another. Things went really well for me the first loop. We ran a conservative pace, and I felt pretty good. I had cobbled together a last minute nutrition plan with more carbs than normal figuring that my effort and the heat wouldn't allow me to eat much solid food. That plan worked out pretty well -- basically 1 serving of GU Roctane Brew per hour and 1 Vi Gel, totaling almost 350 Kcals an hour. At aid stations, I would take plain water to help stay hydrated.

Toward the end of the second loop things still felt pretty good. We kept the pace reasonable on the big climbs from mile 8 - 11. While it was certainly getting hot, I felt like I was still in control of my race. Once we started heading downhill it became apparent that one of my buddies (Jon) was not doing so well.  (Really, I could tell earlier as he was pretty discouraged when he compared his heart rate to our pace). Jon had planned to run 8:00 - 8:30 downhill and he was leading us at more like 9:30 to 10:00. It must have been about mile 13 when our other buddy, Mike, took off and started running his own race. I stopped briefly to urinate and then resumed. Jon told me to "just go" and he was having a bad day. At the halfway mark, I refilled my water bottles in my race vest with Roctane and took off, hoping to catch Mike. I knew Jon had to go about a tenth of a mile off course to get his drop bag and he would be lagging for a while.

Unfortunately, a little less than a mile into the second loop (mile 16.5 or so), my knee began acting up. The dreaded ITB flare. The trouble is that once it sets in, it isn't something you can easily undo in the middle of a race. And the build up to the pain happens pretty quickly. There is no doubt that the downhill running in miles 11-15 and the relatively slow pace (slow leg turnover) combined to aid in my knee flare up. I knew then my day was done. Before heading in, I found an intersection in the Blackmer trail and stopped to wait for Jon and Mike. After 10 minutes, neither of them came through. I was pretty certain Mike was ahead of me (he was) and Jon had probably dropped (he had). I proceeded on the slow return to the start, took off my bib so the course announcer wouldn't read it, and went around the finish line. That was it, my first DNF.

Jon and I hung out for a few minutes to see Mike pass by the start line on his way to his last loop and wish him luck. Then we headed back to Castle Rock. I am humbled and frankly not entirely sure where things are headed from here.

Weekly Training Wrap - 4/1 - 4/7

Wow, pretty good week on lots of fronts. I ran 4 times without any pain, though I wouldn't quite call things 100% yet. I got in a long trail run (2+ hours). I achieved my goal of 30 miles for the week. And,  I saw some progress in my HR -- a drop of 10 bpm on one particular run.

In addition to my active release technique massages, I am staying on top of icing. I am continuing to run only every other day (every 36 hours at most). And I started a strength training regimen from http://runwithnopain.com/. Consistency is the key right now.

Cheyenne Mtn 50K is in three weeks, and while it is clear I cannot "race", I am hoping that I can stay patient until then and use that race as my jumping off point to kick start a push toward Leadville Silver Rush.  I honestly think that even 35-40 miles per week until then is enough to keep me in a good place.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	PT and Running Strength
Tuesday	6	Mile Repeats @ LT Pace
Wednesday	Off	PT and Strength Training
Thursday	7	Easy/MAF Miles
Friday	13	Night Trail Run
Saturday	Off	PT and Running Strength
Sunday	6	Easy
Total	32	About 3600 vertical feet

Weekly Training Wrap - 3/19 - 3/31

I can't tell if this week was a step forward, but I'd like to think it was. I started seeing a chiropractor certified in ART to deal with my ITB soreness. At first, I questioned whether it was doing anything, but now I am more sore than I was before I started seeing him. Hopefully that is just the healing taking place.  In any case, I put in a few more miles and remain hopeful that each week will improve. The trails are going to be clear with the up coming weather and I am dying to get on them!

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	Off	PT and Strength Training
Tuesday	5	Easy/MAF Miles
Wednesday	Off	PT
Thursday	5	Recovery Miles
Friday	Off	Strength Training
Saturday	10	Open Space Trails
Sunday	5	Easy
Total	25	About 1800 vertical feet

Weekly Training Wrap - 3/18 - 3/24

Trying to stay active as I work through and ITB injury. Though, is inflammation really an injury? I am treating this with a bunch of physical therapy exercises and stretching, and neither is likely to cure a case of inflammation and aggravated tissue. I am going to try some different tissue therapies and see if they work. I cannot process how this kind of thing can keep a runner down for months -- like many experience. Should I continue to include the PT type stuff and stretching into my routine, possibly even more of it? Yes. But I think that is more to prevent getting injured than cure it.

Until I am back on track with injuries, I am going to mess around with training schedules. The plan will be to do 3 days a week of running and 3-4 days a week of cross training. The cross training will be divided much like I have in my previous blog posts. I will likely do 2 days a week of strength training, one day a week of running specific training, and then a bunch of shorter workouts comprised of things like core and running PT stuff. We'll see how it goes and where my motivation is at after a few weeks.

With only a month to the race and coming off a three week layoff (and counting), it is looking doubtful I can compete at the Cheyenne Mtn 50K. More likely, I will see if I can drop down to the 25K distance. Hopefully I can run that far a month from now.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	4	Easy with short intervals
Tuesday	Rest	PT and Yoga for the core
Wednesday	Rest	Sick
Thursday	Rest	Sick
Friday	Rest	Strength Training
Saturday	7	Easy
Sunday	3	ITB shut me down
Total	14	About 0 vertical feet

IT Band Injury

I once again find myself injured. This time is an IT Band that is bugging me. It started hurting about half way through Old Pueblo 50 and has only gotten worse since then. The nature of this injury is a little tricky to figure out because where it hurts is not where I feel injured. As I run, I can feel the whole side of my thigh feels "off", calling it tight might be the best description. Eventually, my knee starts hurting. The pain continues to build until it is so severe I cannot continue. (I walked the final mile home from my run Saturday.) The odd thing is that my knee feels totally normal unless I run. I feel the injury in my hip/glute. It doesn't hurt per se, but it sort of tingles and just feels strained/stressed/unhappy.

Anyway, the thing that is driving me most crazy is understanding how to move forward. Overuse injuries are very tricky injuries because there are several components. First, there is always an inflammation piece, this is usually what causes pain. How do we best deal with inflammation? The usual prescription is ice and NSAID. The second component of these injuries is rest. How much is enough? The answer there is usually "it depends". That is the worst thing to hear and the hardest thing to deal with mentally. It depends on your age. It depends on your fitness level. It depends on how bad you are actually hurt. This particular injury is hard because I don't feel pain unless I run? But certain types of strength training make me more aware that my glute muscle isn't right. I assume that is bad even though I wouldn't describe it as pain. And finally, most of these injuries arise from some sort of underlying muscle imbalance or weakness. Then it becomes a matter of physical therapy and integrating proper routines into future training. You have to put together the right mixture of those components and you get a recipe for getting healthy.

I have discovered a few resources for helping to get better. The first two are articles to help understand all of the above components.  This article is from StrengthRunning.com. Another good article is the one written by Runner's World. Both do a good job discussing the injury, the recovery, and the physical therapy.

I also found a few YouTube videos to help. This first one is a really good generic routines that all runners would benefit from doing several times a week:

The other is a good video on IT Band and specific recommendations for getting better.

The summary version is that I am back to where I was 7 months ago. I need some rest, some physical therapy, some specific strength training, and a ton of patience. Hopefully I will be able to beat this thing and get back to training in a few weeks.

Here are a few other helpful videos:
http://strengthrunning.com/2012/01/the-standard-core-routine-video-demonstration/

http://strengthrunning.com/2011/02/the-itb-rehab-routine-video-demonstration/

http://strengthrunning.com/2011/07/the-standard-warm-up-video-demonstration/