Go (North)west, Aging Man

The Juan de Fuca Trail

The bags are packed. The plans are made. Weather is supposed to be perfect for our big wedding this Sunday. Tomorrow we leave our lovely yet decidedly boring Midwest landscape and take off for the wilds of the Pacific Northwest. Land in Seattle, drive to Vancouver, then ferry to Victoria – where we’ll remain for the next week and some odd days. Yes, I’m excited, and yes, I could go on about it – but alas this is a site about running.

In the midst of all the planning, entertaining, stress and family and friend activities – I’m hell bent on getting in a few solid trail runs. Some quick searches for “Victoria+BC+Trail+Running” took me to some amazing photos of the Juan de Fuca trail. And, as luck would have it, it’s only about 1/2 an hour from our hotel.

God willing, photos and stories to follow.

Pre-order Vibram KSO Treks (Warning: Not Inexpensive)

It seems there’s a way to pre-order the latest offerings from Vibram; the KSO Treks, Mocs and Performa. A little googling for more info on the KSO Treks took me to a post over at Birthday Shoes, which in turn linked me over to Kayak Shed.

I’m interested to see how the new additions to the lineup hit. One of the things I’ve most enjoyed about my trusty KSOs over the past year has been their ability to run through rain, straight through puddles, streams, creeks, and whatever else the trail had to offer. You get them wet and they remain almost weightless and, conditions permitting, they’re dry within the next mile. How will Kangaroo leather hold up? Are we going to see a chamois cloth effect that gets bogged down with water? How will they breathe? I’m a little skeptical, but will of course give the benefit of the doubt.

Just incase: Dear Vibram – can you please make a KSO Trek out of the lightweight mesh I’ve come to love?

But, oh. . . $130! Yikes.

Methods, Goals and Plans

So I’ve been a little reckless with training lately, kind of feeling like I’m teetering on the brink of injury. My weekly mileage (bike and run) was 75 miles, with 30 miles running and the rest on two wheels. Nothing huge for many folks, but I still consider myself recovering from the knee injury. Also, to put it into perspective, the last week literally doubled my overall mileage for the last 30 days, which seems too aggressive a ramp-up in retrospect.

I will say I feel entirely (maybe too) motivated after watching crewing and pacing for Dirt Dawg at the Burning River 100 earlier this month. I feel ambitious, to say the least.

Things that have helped:
1) Biking / cross training: Immediate and obvious benefits come on uphill work. Heritage Park offers some bite-sized yet steep inclines, and they’ve been easier and easier the more miles I log on the bike. Also, cycling has helped me maintain and increase fitness, let me get outside more often, without worrying too much about my knee. I also never realized before – I really enjoy it.

2) Cutting out dairy and fish: I’m in my 15th year as a vegetarian, but never considered Veganism until last week when reading up on athletes like Scott Jurek and Dave Scott (a champion ultra-runner and a champion iron man, respectively). The more I read, the more I believe a strict vegan diet is more appropriate for athletes. Ethical considerations aside (which are also important to me, but maybe not to Joe Reader), a plant-based diet has more nutrients per-pound than meat. Also, less fat, less heart-attack causing stuff, fewer chemicals like antibiotics and growth hormones, etc. Anyway, there’s science behind it. My point here is that I’ve seen a noticeable increase in energy and endurance within the first week of this experiment. If it continues to go this well, I’ll continue to keep at it.

I’m currently scouting out events for my first 50k, which I’m aiming to do next year. I was planning on the Dances With Dirt in Gnaw Bone, but alas my younger sister chose that specific day to get married. I’m currently looking around, but maybe thinking something like the Vermont 50m later next year would be just as good – just stick to self-supported marathons in the interim.

Been loving summer, but I’m looking forward to winter/snow runs.

Anyway, this post has quickly lost its form. Just wanted to update and keep this thing alive.

Getting Stronger

Lakeshore Park
10 Miles in 1:42
Vibram FiveFinger KSO

My first 10 mile loop of Lakeshore this season. The run itself was amazing. One week into a vegan diet and my energy levels feel much, much higher. Was running most hills, fast-walking the breaks and sprinting at some points. No fatigue until mile nine, when it became so dark I couldn’t see and kept tripping over roots and branches. Despite the thrill, I found myself a little discouraged and (embarrassingly) kind of scared. Lakeshore has a tendency to confuse, and I’ve been lost there more than once in broad daylight. Can’t imagine being stuck there after dark, lost with no torch.

Around late dusk I was in Loki’s Loop – a heavily wooded section of the trail. My feet hitting the ground must’ve been waking the bats from their sleep, because they seemed to “eek” and flutter out of the trees along with me as I made my way back to the trail head. This was kind of surreal, and one of those strange moments that makes trail running so much more meaningful than sidewalks and streets.

Dusk came pretty fast, and the last two miles of the trail were run mostly in the dark, since I didn’t anticipate needing a headlamp. The last half mile was run in almost complete dark, and my strategy was to more or less aim for the blurry, white line which seemed to be the path.

Got to the trail head and it was dark out, but all in it was a great, tiny adventure to cap off the weekend.

My running pace must have been pretty solid, since I was running 8 and walking 2. To average out to a 10 minute pace I must have been going pretty strong on the running sections. I’ll wait to see how I feel tomorrow before calling it a success. If I’m good, I’ll consider this a promising training run for the Woodstock Hippie Half Marathon next month.

Gear
The Forerunner 405 continues to absolutely shit the bed when it comes to trails. This is a 10 mile loop, and the GPS is coming up short of 9 miles? On streets, it’s fine. On trails, an expensive let-down. Additionally, the buttons and bezel often fail to work/respond to touch when they’re wet with sweat. But hey, at least it looks cool, and can double as a real watch.

On the other hand, the FiveFinger KSOs continue to impress. Over a year old and hundreds of miles logged, with little sign of wear and tear. The small tear in the cloth that recently developed can be fixed with a needle, thread and some goop in a matter of minutes. My feet are getting stronger, and I felt absolutely great all the way through the loop. I’m looking forward to the KSO Treks, but am on the fence about them due to their Kangaroo Leather upper. Aside from the ethical considerations, I wonder if they’ll feel as light and if they’ll be able to handle puddles and moisture as well as the KSOs or other “topless” models. I guess we’ll see. Maybe I can ask Barefoot Ted when I see him in a few weeks.

Clif Bars and Accelerade seem to be a working combination, but I’m going to start moving to real food, and will likely swap out the sports drink with Green Magma in the near future.

New Link: Michigan Trails

Just stumbled upon this. Nothing as much as detailed maps of everything, as you would find in the amazing Michigan Trail Atlas, but a good resource nonetheless.

MichiganTrails.us