Bone tired

A lot happened last week. As you probably know, Rock and Ice has been cancelled and I had to look for a replacement race. I decided to go for the Susitna 100. For more on that, go to the previous post.

Training wise, things went fairly well. I ran for a total of 6h15min, not terribly high but decent specially since I took Wednesday off work (mental health day) and squeezed in a sweet extra trail run. My long run yesterday was about 2h15min, also in hilly trails. Even though I went at a reasonable pace, the hills are just HARD. We're talking steep. By the last few uphills yesterday, I could definitely feel the burn.

Because of the fact that I have to be ready to run one hundred miles by February, my weekly running time will now increase fairly quickly. That will be interesting.

In other news, I'm pretty sure my wife came down with swine flu, so it's been hectic last weekend. She was not a happy camper and the weekend was no picnic. She's now getting better. We'll see what happens to me and the kids. She started feeling sick Thursday night and we still feel ok so we might get away with it. We'll see.

Last week I also picked my training tire. That's the tire I will use as a resistor to simulate pulling a pulk (fancy term for sled). apparently you're supposed to name it so I decided to name it "F@cker", because of my initial reaction when I first tried it ("You're a heavy f@ucker!"). I don't really have space to store a tire at my place so I'm using a discarded tire that I've seen on the side of the Don Valley trail. It's been there (with 4 others) for well over 2 years. Now that's recycling. Am I green or what?

Now I have to go out for a short recovery run, but I have to admit that I am bone TIRED.

The King is Dead. Long Live the King.

I guess there's no point crying over spilled milk. R&I is not happening in 2010. Time to move on.

I have considered my options carefully. I had already planned on training for the 100 miler at Haliburton next September. That's one of my A races, but it's way out in September. I'm a forward looking guy but I need something closer to get me excited.

My BQ is still good for 2010; I could do that but I find that an A race is about emotion and Boston (and other large marathons) fails to excite me. Actually, this year I DNS (Did Not Start) Boston so I could run a local 52k trail race (Mudpuppies) instead. Didn't regret it (except maybe when a guy I ran with told me he was Flying the next day so he could do both. You can do that?).

For the first time, I'm picking a goal race that I'm not sure I can finish. After discussing it with my coach Derrick, who thinks it's a strech but doable, here it is: I'm going to run the Susitna 100 in Anchorage, Alaska in February.

The Susitna 100 is not a stage race like R&I. You run it in one go, carrying pretty much everything you need. There are 3 divisions: bike, ski, foot. Obviously, I will be running it. The time limit is 48 hours, which means I will have to sleep on the side of the trail somewhere at least once, probably twice. The aid stations are few and far between and offer mainly water. The winning time is well over 24 hours.

My big hangup is the distance. One Hundred Miles. By February. So little time to train. Still, I have built a solid base this year. I feel so strong right now, that emotionally, I am CERTAIN that I can run 100 miles, given the right pace. The memories of total physical exhaustion after Haliburton (hell, after all ultras) are gone. The Cartesian side of my brain tells me that I my odds of finishing are not 100%. There are a lot of moving pieces in that project.

So here's a rough outline of my 2010 races:

February - Susitna 100 miler
May - Sulphur Spring 50 miler
September  Haliburton 100 miler

I will do some of the OUS races as well, or course.

Like Alice, I'm falling down the rabbit hole, with no bottom in sight. I find myself in a strange universe, populated by crazy people doing extraordinary things. Strange thing is, I'm not looking for the way out.

UNBELIEVABLE: ROCK AND ICE CANCELLED

Need I say more?

Jeeezuuusss!!!

I am SO sad. I was so mentally committed. It's going to take a while to sink in.

Big Trail Weekend

After buying so much outdoor crap, it was all but inevitable that I would feel the urge to try all those toys. After an unsuccesful attempt at finding like minded companion for a little running/camping trip, I set out for the Terra Cotta Conservation area, all by my lonesome self. This being Halloween night, my yougest daugthter made sure to ask me if I had seen "The Blair Witch Project".

Because of an issue with my cat, I had a late start and didn't get there until almost 4PM. I left a sign on my dashboard indicating that I would be sleeping overnite and took off. The Terra Cotta trail was very nice. The weather was marginal, covered and really windy, but on the trail it wasn't really an issue. The footing was ok, but you had to be careful because the dead leaves covered everything and it was fairly rocky. At some point I got to a fence right on the middle of the trail, with a big "Private Property" sign. I didn't notice that the fence had a builtin ladder to let pedestrians through so I took a side trail. Only on the way back did I notice the ladder, which I used to run a bit more on the main trail.

My goal with these run was to try my gear, so I had both my Garmin trusty Forerunner 305 and my new eTrex Legend. On the Legend I had loaded the Canada Topo map of the area as well as the "Bruce trail" map from the Bruce Trail Project. Even after this weekend, I'm not comfortable with the eTrex. The map drawing is really slow and I found myself going back to my 305 for navigation. Also, even though I enabled the WAAS option, which is supposed to enhance the precision, the route recorded by my 305 seems more precise than the eTrex. Mind you, at some point I stuffed the eTrex in a side pocket while the Garmin was on my wrist, but still...

So I ended up running about 14k in 1:45, with my pack on, loaded with about 5 lbs of stuff. After my run, I went back to the car, stuffed some more gear in the pack, attached the tent to it, grabbed another bag and hiked to the camp site which was a mile from the trail head. I was in a bit of a rush because it was getting dark fast. The ground was fairly wet but my tent came with a footprint so it didn't cause any problem. I setup my tent, took a picture and got in. The wind was really blowing and it was getting cold.

Inside, I organized a bit. I changed into fresh clothes. To be totally frank, I really didn't feel like firing up the stove. It was a bit nippy and the thought of opening the door to cook was really unexciting. I toyed with the idea of stuffing myself with energy bars, but the whole idea was to try the gear so I opened up the door least exposed to the wind, opened the vestibule and started the stove. The vestibule on that tent if fairly small, so I'm going to be really good at starting the stove before I can cook without opening it. The thought of those flames so close to all that nylon/polyester had me eye the other exit in case I had to make an emergency exit. I boiled my water, dumped it in my Spaghetti with meat sauce and waited a few minutes. I must admit it was really good. 500 calories, lots of carbs and protein. Keeper. I read until about 11:00, changed the time and went to bed.

My sleeping bag was rated at -7C (20F) and the temperature went down to about 0C (32F), so I was quite toasty. Actually, at some point during the night I had to open up a bit because I was HOT. I had a decent sleep, although I admit I did dream that a bear was getting in the tent and I was paralyzed and could not wake up. I slept until about 7:30, longer than I expected. I opened up that tent and  cooked some Scrambled Eggs w/ham and peppers for breakfast. By cook I mean I boiled water and poured it in the pouch. This one was not a winner. It felt really heavy and didn't have enough carbs. The taste was ok, but I won't be bringing that one to Yellowknife.

After breakfast I quickly broke camp and hiked to the car, where i dumped most of my crap. I emptied my backpack, keeping a thermos of Gatorade, my phone and the eTrex. I wasn't supposed to run with a pack, but due to a packing error, I had forgotten my "pee bottle" in the car the night before and had to pee in my water bottle during the night. Rinsing it did not seem sufficient so I decided to use the thermos and I needed the pack to carry that.

For that run, I went south in the Silver Creek area. This trail was really challenging. Few flats, really hard footing. Rocks everywhere. For long sections, you basically have to jump from one rock to the other. All that, with leaves hiding most of the bottom of the trail. In some area, the leaf cover was some complete that it was easy to lose the trail. I had to concentrate so hard on my footing that it was easy to miss a trail marker. It was a beautiful trail though and well worth the effort. Didn't do much mileage in the 1:15 that I ran, though.

When I got home, let me tell you, people kept a safe distance from me until I had my shower, which felt glorious.

I'm really happy with how the weekend went. I'm comfortable with my gear. I know I can eat that dehydrated food for a few days. I probably won't start a major fire in the tent at R&I. My only open issues are about how I can run for 3 days without a shower. I almost hope they keep that tent freezing, because the stench of a few of us will be unbearable.

Mini Book Report - "Walking on Thin Ice" and "Polar Dreams"

Following up on suggestions from a distinguished readers, I finished "Walking on Thin Ice" by David Hempleman-Adams and "Polar Dreams" by Helen Thayer.


"Walking on Thin Ice" relates his trip to the geographic North pole, accompanied with Norwegian Rune Gjeldnes, to round up what he calls the Adventurers' Grand Slam.

"Polar Dreams" is the story of Thayer's solo, unsupported trip (her and her dog, Charlie) to, and around the Magnetic Pole.

I enjoyed both books and recommend them if you are interested in reading about polar exploration. One thing these books can never convey is why those people actually do what they do, but that's ok.

"Walking on Thin Ice" was an easy read. Although I didn't really felt like I could relate with Hempleman-Adams, the book was interesting to read. One reason I say I couldn't really relate is that through the book, you really know that he means it when he says that to him, it's all about the destination. I try to be more about the journey. I try. Doesn't mean I'm not happy to get to the destination. Is book is all about what they DO. He's not afraid to admit his fears and I really enjoyed the story.

"Polar Dreams" is all about the journey. I should have preferred that book, but I have to admit that I didn't. Thayer seems like a nice person, but really, trying to save a lost baby Polar Bear? When she loses all her food, but the dog still has plenty, she feels it would be unfair to take some of the dog food even though the dog has been eating HER food for the whole trip. You wonder about her sanity. I would have eaten the dog food. That being said, her accomplishment stands on its own and her story is entertaining. The polar bear encounters are just unbelievable and you wonder how she made it alive. Actually you know that the only reason she did, was that in a moment of mental clarity she decided to accept the advice of a local Inuit and took a dog with her. I doubt she would have made it alone. But she did and her trip is for you to enjoy in her book.

Both books are recommended.

Trying to Find My Stride

Decent week of running with just under 5 hours of running and a total distance of 50km. Out of that, about 30 minutes were in the Vibram Five Fingers.

Today, I went back to Rattlesnake point and ran a different section of the Bruce trail. I ran a total of 13.2 km in about 90 minutes. The section I ran wasn't as challenging as last week, but it was still really nice. I think that section will be really good for snowshoing, later this winter.

I felt really good today. I've been working hard on my stride for the last month and I think all that work is paying off. I ran in my Crosslites and they felt like they were painted on my feet. Tap, tap, tap, tap. I've noticed that my foot strike is way cleaner than before. It used to be much louder. Now, I constantly try to strike under me instead of ahead, with a strike that doesn't break my forward motion.

My Crosslites have close to 700km on them and the lugs are getting real short. I'm going to need a new pair soon. I might buy them 1/2 a point larger so I can wear thicker socks in them this winter.

I got some more of my Rock and Ice mandatory equipment this week. I got a Garmin eTrex H GPS. I brought it with me today actually and used the "Backtrak" function and it worked pretty good. I also got

•  a compass, 
• down camp booties, 
• a pair of Katoola Microspikes, 
• a small cooking pot, 
• a fuel bottle (and some fuel)
• and a lighter. 

I tried to get some good boots (I need a new pair anyway) but they didn't have a good selection yet in my size.

Yesterday I tried my MSR Whisperlite stove. Good thing I tried it outside because I would be homeless. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that a Whisperlite can be lit while upside down. I was wondering why my pot wouldn't sit securely on top of the stove. Mystery solved. I don't want to talk about this anymore.

Today I also tried my new (well, used) tent. It looks great and I couldn't see anything wrong with it. It even had the footprint.

I'm thinking that next Saturday, I'm going to head out to Rattlesnake Point and camp overnight. I might do a short night run on Saturday and then my long run on Sunday morning. I could play with all my new equipment and try some of the food I want to bring to R&I. I'll see how that jives with the family.

Chances are ...

It's that time of the year again. It's marathon season, so we have to read more articles implying that marathons (and by inference ultras but those writers don't even know there are people crazier than marathon runners) are a sure-fire way to kill yourself. Here's a typical one  with scientists and all.

My favorite quote:

"Siegel, a former marathoner who researches the health consequences of the race, says the smartest thing to do is to complete the training and then watch from the sidelines."

What a fucking moron. Apparently, the odds of dying during a marathon are 1 in 50,000. We live in a culture of fear where a quantyified chance of dying makes us feel like it could actually happen to us. After all, SOMEONE died. Well, you can't live like that.

As an exercise on fear, here are the odds a US resident had of dying of various causes in a 12 month period (complete list here ):

Pedestrian (in other words, walking) 1/48,816
Car occupant 1/20,331
Falling 1/15,085
Assault by firearm 1/51,620

And the list goes on. Basically, you have the same odds of dying while walking in the street as those of dying while running a marathon (assuming you run one a year). All in all, every year, you have 1 in 1681 chance of kicking the bucket.

So running 2 marathons a year is safer than using cars. So why the hell is there even a discussion about this? I'm not going to go there, but that Siegel fellow and others like him can live their life in fear, away from pools and lakes (1 in 82,777 chances of drowning).

They of course "take swimming lessons but stay on the side of the pool"! Unbelievable.

The lifetime odds of dying are 1 in 1. All we can do is make sure that when the time comes, there are as few regrets as possible. Will Dr Siegel, on his death bed, think: "I sure had a lot of fun on the side lines, looking at those people run marathons"? I don't think so.

In the immortal words of Tim McGraw: "Live like you were dying"!