August 6, 2012

This is the elevation profile for the Alpine to Slickrock 50 miler that I'll be running on September 15th. I'm hoping for a little redemption after a lackluster racing year. I'm back to running again, but I'm taking it easy, hoping to ride on the fitness I gained with higher mileage and higher elevation weeks earlier this summer. I've been maintaining my capacity as much as possible in the gym with lots of rowing and airdyne interval work, and rehabbing the knee with single limb strength work. So far so good.
After Alpine to Slickrock, I'll be shifting my focus to next year. Lucky for me, after such a rough training year, my 2011 Leadville finish qualifies me for another try in the Hardrock 100 lottery. Wintertime will bring a little more focus to strength and power, but I'll still be logging the miles.

July 22, 2012

Apparently, I'm on the two posts a year program, so I'll try to condense the last six months of training and whatnot to a piece that won't put you to sleep.
This year I finally found my focus and made fast foot travel in the mountains my first priority. Too often in the past I've let my attention run to whatever aspect of training was easiest and most convenient for me. Most of the time this was lifting or breathing hard in the gym. It's not that I found it more enjoyable, it's just that I was strongest where my attention had previously been placed, and running, although it was what I wanted to be good at, was just harder. I've put that behind me, and put in some real work in the mountains this year, along the way having way more fun than ever. The wild places are where I belong and I won't ever forget it. I've run tons of trails this year I've never seen before and followed some routes I've always wanted to. This has not come without a price though, and I am currently dealing with an overuse problem in my right knee. Moderation has never been a strength of mine.
Races haven't been as huge a priority, although there are two on the horizon. I competed as part of a four person team at the 24 Hours of Moab relay, and even though the field of competition was pretty thin, we took second. I'll take it. I did the Salt Lake Century bike ride. I didn't take part officially in the Wahsatch Steeplechase, but I ran the course a week before and managed a 4 minute PR on my own. I'll take that as well. I had very high hopes for the Speedgoat 50K, and although I think I can still set a PR, this knee problem is going to slow me a bit. After that, I'm registered for the Alpine to Slickrock 50 miler, but we'll just see how things unfold. I'm honestly more excited about adventures with my friends. Ridge runs here in the Wasatch and Uintas as well as the Grand Canyon are calling my name.
Dealing with this knee problem has had me thinking ahead to the winter and new goals.  Snowshoeing will for sure be a part of my winter as well as starting training at the Front climbing gym again. I predict more climbing and mountaineering scrambles next year. I even got an ice axe. Gym based goals are in the works too. 3000 calories on the airdyne in 120 minutes sounds like fun.
I'll be riding my precious airdyne until the Speedgoat 50K, and probably after that for a couple weeks. Then, hopefully I'll be back in full swing. Enough of that, here's some pictures. Everyone likes pictures.

The band after the 24 Hours of Moab. I'm the tall one.

10 mile run in Unicoi State Park in North Georgia.

One of many foothill runs waiting for the high country to thaw.

Gobblers Knob with Mike and Rich.

Heading up the South Ridge of Superior.

Looking east from the west summit of Broads Fork Twin Peaks.

Murray and the goat on Wildcat Ridge.

The Pfiefferhorn from Maybird Lakes.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Hey there! It's been a while, but I'm going to breathe new life into this thing. Although the blog has been silent, my life has kept on moving and things are great. The gym where I work full time, SLC Crossfit, has moved in to a sweet new space and we're adding more and more amazing people to our ranks. I have an awesome job. My personal business is going well too, with several clients in the middle of my programs as we speak. Again, awesome. My wife, Tara, got her name picked to run in the Wasatch 100, so I can tell you now that when the trails thaw (which will be early this year), we will be on the Wasatch course almost every weekend. I've been training hard, maybe harder than ever and I'm moving into race mode stronger and healthier than I can ever remember. I unfortunately did not get picked in the Hardrock 100 lottery, but I've got a great race schedule this year.
To start things off this year, I took part in the Kahtoola Bigfoot Snowshoe Marathon (with the help of SLC Crossfit ) on January 28. With the thin snowpack I decided to not wear snowshoes and go with my Kahtoola microspikes. The course consisted of three 10k loops, two 5k loops and one 2k out and back to finish things off. Coming off almost 5 months of mostly gym training I was curious how things would go. I was pleasantly surprised. I finished in 6 hours and 16 minutes, and even though the field was small, it was good enough for 5th place. My friends did well too, with Mallin coming in under 6 hours for 3rd place, Vi coming in just over 6 hours 30 minutes to take 1st male in snowshoes, and Ed running his first marathon the day before his 40th birthday in 9 hours 30 minutes. It was a beautiful day on a fun course. I'll return to this one for sure.




So what's in store for 2012? A bunch. Here's my race schedule for the year.
January - Kahtoola Bigfoot Snowshoe Marathon (6hrs 16mins)
March - 24 Hours of Moab relay
April - Bonneville Shoreline Trail Marathon
May - Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim
June - Wahsatch Steeplechase
July - Millcreek 50K
July - Speedgoat 50K
July - Katcina Mosa 100K
September - Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 miler
October - Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim (you know who you are)
November - Antelope Island 100K

I'm going for it this year, and I'm determined to make a serious run at this ultra endurance thing. My training has undergone a major shift and it's time stop screwing around. Let's do this.

12 tips for making the most of your gym time

     I'm excited to tell you that I've registered for the Mountain Athlete coaching certification! I'll be heading up to Jackson for three days of programming, theory, practical application, as well as two written tests and a gnarly fitness test. I have until the beginning of December to prepare and I've been training like a madman!
It will be a great learning experience, and as long as I can pass the physical test (I'm not worried about the written tests), I'll come out of it with a certification. I have a lot of work to do in the strength department, and I think I can do it, but I'll be cutting it close. We'll see!

     In other news, I spent the weekend in Boulder, Colorado helping my beautiful wife run the 24 Hours of Boulder. Despite shadeless heat and stomach issues, she managed 50 miles. I'm proud!

     As you may know, my full time gig is coaching at Salt Lake City Crossfit. I'm lucky to do what I love for a living and I've met some amazing people there. I've been thinking lately about what we do there and what should be expected of a trainee. The coaches have put together your workouts, are there to provide you with guidance and motivation, and are there to ensure your safety. As a trainee, what else is required other than showing up?

1. Show up prepared. This means show up on time. Show up rested, hydrated, and fed. Bring a water bottle and your post workout nourishment. Show up with the proper footwear, ready to run, jump, or lift. Show up with a positive attitude, ready to work hard.
2. Be honest with yourself. Your inner dialogue should reflect the reality of your strengths and weaknesses, not what you have learned to believe and not what you want to believe.
3. Be willing to work hard. Be comfortable with uncomfortable. Know the difference between pain and hard work. If it doesn't hurt some, you're not trying hard enough.
4. Listen to your coaches. We've been training ourselves and others for a long time. We're here for a reason, so listen. What we tell you is for your own good. We're here to make sure you're safe, to push you beyond your self imposed limits, and to teach you new things. We want you to succeed. When we're talking, be quiet and listen. When we ask you to do something (short of jumping off a bridge), trust us and comply.
5. Technique before intensity. Focus on doing it well before trying to do it faster or heavier. Your RX means nothing if your deadlift looks like garbage and you can't stand up straight the next day. Who cares how fast your time was if you look like a wet noodle doing push ups? Leave your ego at home.
6. Ask questions. We'll never ask you to do anything that we can't explain the why of. Asking questions helps you learn. When we don't have the answer, we'll find out and learn something too. Thoughtful questions help everyone.
7. Be consistent. Everyone has different goals and everyone is busy. Taking this into consideration, you should have a minimum number of training sessions per week. Whether it's one or five, you need to be consistent. If you show up once a month or every two weeks you're wasting your time, and to some degree ours. 
8. Quantify your training. Keep a training log, whether it's written or on line. Record every detail of every workout. Track what you eat, how you sleep, how much you hydrate, how you feel, how you perform, and how you look. 
9. Have goals. This can be anything from fitting into a pair of pants, getting your first pull up, taking care of back pain, or taking part in competition. Progress is rarely random. Pick a goal, spend the time, do the work.
10. Spend time on self care and recovery. We can give you a million self care and recovery strategies and tools, but we can't follow you home and make you do it. Stretch, foam roll, eat, sleep, hydrate, ice bath, massage, etc. Spend one minute recovering for every minute spent training.
11. Conduct yourself with dignity. How you behave under the stress and discomfort of a workout in a group is a good indicator of how you behave out in the real world. Work hard. Don't cheat. Help and encourage others. Clean up after yourself. If you don't have anything positive to say, don't say anything at all. Don't make a spectacle of yourself, we all know you're working hard, there's no reason to yell obscenities with every rep.
12. Have fun. You choose to do this. Make the best of it and make the most of it. Make some friends and challenge each other.

Get to work!

Put your training in context

     When a sport specific athlete tells me they do crossfit, I think "No, you use hybrid training to cross train." I would only call a training program crossfit if the end goal of that training program was to be fit in a general way, or to train for a general physical preparedness competition (crossfit games).  The goals are different, and context matters.

     My life in the fitness world started with my interest in mixed martial arts. The time I spent on the mat and in the cage was made more efficient by spending time in the weight room. Strength and conditioning for fighters is pretty similar to hybrid training a lot of the time, so this type of training is where I got my start and began to learn. It wasn't crossfit, because there was a clear goal ahead at a specified time. The training progressed in waves with time further away from fight night spent building strength, some time mixing in weights with circuits and time closer to fight night spent building metabolic capacity. You might recognize this concept as periodization. That's the difference between crossfit and hybrid training. Time and goals. Context.

     Crossfit is a hell of program, and even though there's a whole bunch of bickering and silliness floating around the internet, don't be swayed. If your goal is to be in great shape and to be ready for almost any type of casual athletic endeavour, then crossfit is the way to go. If your goal is to compete in the crossfit games, then crossfit is the only way to go. The crossfit athletes that I train with at my gym are unbelievable, and their capacity is off the charts. These guys could jump in many athletic events and do fairly well without any specific preparation. Their goals are open ended and typically without a specific time frame. Generally ready, all the time.

A goal or event focused athlete, however, has goals that are easier to define and will be tested on a specific date. They know what they want to do and when. Hybrid style training can still be a small part of the overall training program, but it has to be appropriate to the current focus or cycle.

     I am an endurance athlete. By that I mean that I take my training seriously and I want to do well at a certain thing. For me it's trail running. My training now revolves around this goal, and I'm planning ahead to events in the distant future. I have sport specific goals and personal goals where training is concerned. I have a list of priorities. I can't rely on hybrid style training all the time to get me where I want to go. Can hybrid training be a part of the process? Absolutely.

     If I have a definite goal on a definite date, then I can't develop all my capacities at the same time forever. Not if I want to perform at the top end of my potential. I'm planning on several events next summer, so I know when to be ready. I know what the distances, terrain and time frames are, so I know what to be ready for. Building up to an event can take a while and there are many aspects of physical capacity to focus on.
     For an untrained athlete, I think the first step is building a solid foundation of general physical preparedness. That's hybrid training (crossfit) if you weren't paying attention. This means getting fit enough to train. Not to toot my horn, but as far as GPP goes, I has it. So the next step would be overall strength. We talked a bit about strength standards a couple posts ago, so let's get up to standard. This is where some folks fall apart, because you can't develop strength and endurance simultaneously. One can be generally maintained while the other is developed, but there is ALWAYS compromise. This winter I will be getting strong (again). Over the summer I ran a lot and lost some strength, but that is a compromise I was willing to take to reach my goal. The great thing about getting strong is that the process is pretty straight forward. Lift heavy, eat, rest, repeat. There are MANY strength programs out there and I rely on the strength experts when it comes to building strength. When you need to specialize in something, you look to the specialists to help. Where to go for strength?
Jim Wendler
Westside Barbell
Mark Rippetoe
Those are a few of the most notable. Follow the recommendations of one of these for the winter, and you WILL get stronger. You can't go wrong with focusing on strength for a few months. You don't have to get big to lift heavy, and you don't have to give up on your sport. You simply shift your focus for a short amount of time, and enter your sport season stronger, more durable and generally more useful. Compromise, timing and context. I take these time proven programs and tweak them to fit my modest strength goals.
And if crossfit is what you're interested in, and you're in Salt Lake City, then the only place to go is SLC Crossfit. It's all the good things about crossfit minus the egos and high socks. Plus the coaches are pretty badass.

September 15, 2011

And we're back!
I had a great time this past weekend pacing Geoff Crockett at the Wasatch 100, and although he had to drop at mile 93, I think he should be proud of himself. I started running with Geoff at Lambs Canyon at mile 53 and ran with him through the night to Brighton at mile 75. He pushed through some bad times up there, and by the time we got to the Guardsmen Pass road he was totally delirious. I caught him running with his eyes closed a couple times and at one point he started mumbling incoherently. The only thing I could make out of this mumbling was the phrase, "you're doing that farmer shit aren't you?" I asked him to repeat himself, but he just laughed and said, "I don't know." I think the altitude was screwing with him in combination with his inability to stomach anything sweet. We made it to Brighton and with a lot of prodding and threatening, pushed him out the door almost an hour later. He soon developed some pretty disgusting blisters under the nails of his big toes, which slowed him down to a crawl. Knowing he would not make the 36 hour cutoff at the finish he made the tough decision to drop at mile 93. You're a badass, Mr. Crockett.
So I ran 22 miles on Friday night, and soon realized that my feet are still hurting from Leadville. They hurt deep in the bones and joints. I'm going to take a break from running hard and jumping for a few weeks to let things heal a bit more. This postpones my plans to begin regular speed sessions, but there's always the gym and the bike. The gym work is going well and my strength is coming back slowly. Yesterday I back squatted a 3 rep max of 235, which should put my 1 rep max at about 250. That's 50 pounds lighter than last winter, but no big deal.
Yes, it's time to lift HEAVY.

Here's a shot from the mile 75 aid station at Brighton. Geoff is feeling the effect.

How strong is strong enough?

There's a lot of exciting things going on around here.

     First of all, I'm officially launching Ascend/Descend coaching services. If you are preparing for an event or adventure or just need to take your training to the next level I can help you improve any aspect of your fitness. Click on the Coaching tab at the top for details.

     Secondly, I'll be pacing my friend Geoff at the Wasatch 100 this weekend. I get to run the section from Lambs Canyon to Brighton. I'm excited to run this particular section and I'm pumped to watch Geoff succeed. This guy is FAST, but I think after 50 miles he'll slow down enough for me.

     Last, but not least, I mailed off my application for the 2012 Hardrock 100. This is my dream race. I've wanted to do this longer than I have actually been running. I love the mountains, and there's something about altitude that really excites me. Forty eight hours to finish 100 miles of running with over 67,000 feet of elevation change. I'll find out if I made it in sometime in December. If this doesn't pan out, I've got some adventures up my sleeve for next summer. We'll see! Check out the race website: Hardrock 100.

     And with that I'd like to turn my attention to the cooler nights and earlier sunsets. The cold, cold winter is soon to arrive and after a solid Spring and Summer spent running and racing, my attention has turned to strength and speed. It's a fact that running long makes you weak. Running long and weak are relative terms, of course. My long runs aren't that long for ultra running standards and my definition of weak may seem normal or even strong to many people, especially ultra runners. For the last couple years, I've been fascinated with developing relative strength. Relative strength is the maximum force exerted in relation to body weight. Instead of shooting for some standard number on each lift, like a 400lb back squat, shooting for some standard based on your body weight makes more sense to me. Mountain Athlete (a great gym, with damn good programming) has a list of relative strength standards that I find pretty spot on. I omit a couple things from their list and add some of my own. The following are the strength standards that I will be working towards and the standards that I think any endurance athlete would benefit from obtaining. 

                                MEN         WOMEN

Dead lift                   2 x BW      1.5 x BW

Back squat            1.5 x BW    1.25 x BW

Front squat          1.25 x BW         1 x BW

Power clean         1.25 x BW         1 x BW

Bench press         1.25 x BW         1 x BW

Press                        1 x BW      .75 x BW

Pull up                   +.5 x BW    +.25 x BW

*All standards are 1 rep maxes. BW = body weight.   

     From a powerlifting standpoint, these standards are laughable, and from an endurance standpoint they may seem unreasonable. I included upper body movements for my own benefit, and if you are an endurance athlete you could live without working on these, but I think a strong upper body can benefit every athlete. Besides, don't you want to be capable of battling a bear on your next trail run? You could at least try to make it a fight. At the very least, you should be able to take a box from the floor and put it on a shelf when you're old.