Waiter, I’ll have the Run, with a swim on the side.

Today I set off to do a long trail run and try some new routes. I started from Millhopper Rd- San Felasco Park. Ran through the connecting link, went up a nice hill and ran a very, rustic horse trail that I have not run in a few years. What a treat and cannot imagine why I stopped running it. Then onto the bike trails that lead to park entrance and water fountain on San Felasco north. Re-discovered some worthy trail and got to bottom of the Powerline hill and saw that the “off limits” tape was down from Cellon trail loop that goes to water fountain. BINGO. So I ran that easy trail and actually passed 2 women on mtn. bikes. Then a young runner came from opposite direction and said the trail was dead ended as he passed. WHAT???  I thought, well there are no official signs up and maybe he means there is still some standing water that would stop the mtn. bikers- but surely not Ultra Marathon runners!.

So I get to the “dead end” and see lots of water. HMMM. I do a quick test across small pond and it is only knee deep. By then the Mtn. bike women have caught up and we discuss the situation. They are going back as they cannot carry bikes through all that water. I decided to go for it as I can see the landmark for water station and think it is about ¼ to ½ mile at max. Plus after last weekend’s bonk and first time not EVER finishing a race, I was not about to stop because of a little water.

So I started sloshing thru, get to next dry area and line up with telephone poles and slosh again. Now the water gets a bit deeper, and soon it is waist high. HMMM. No problem, not that far to go. Soon it is chest high and I am holding my water bottle up and let my camelback get soaked. Next thing, I am swimming! I decide to do slow dog paddle style and try to keep water bottle clean from swamp water, plus this is a very quiet swim-DO NOT want to attract gators or worse those water moccasin snakes. The swim goes on and on much longer than I imagined, but am getting closer and a bit “worried”.  This is when I need those Navy SEAL guys from yesterday, who could wrestle the gator with 1 arm or have a knife stashed for snakes.

Finally I make it to the end of “pond” and crawl onto dry land, covered with green algae, YUCK. But, it would have made for great hardcore photo- if I had one of those camera gizmos and carried stuff like that when I run.

The swim did serve nice purpose, as I forgot to put on Aquaphor anti chafe gel in AM, so this washed off all the sweat and dust. Soon I was at water station and refilled my bottle for the run back to square 1 and washed off all the gunk.

While I was in middle of swim I was thinking of quote used by Chris Martinez –check his website. http://360moabadventures.com/site/?page_id=22

 –he has coolest job around-“you are never lost in the middle of an adventure”. Chris is race director for Red Hot 55 Ultra out in Moab and also does guided runs in the area. The Red Hot race is gorgeous and living in the Moab area is high on my list.

Remember the D.F. when training.

This is one of my biggest errors when training for the high altitude race last week. I was so focused on the high altitude aspect that I forgot to include the D.F. conversion into my training.

What is D.F.? It is the Difficulty Factor! For most runners who do their races on roads, the only issue they worry about is hills. And the “dreaded” Boston Marathon Heartbreak Hill is only about 400ft. SHEEESSHHH! They should try climbing from 7,000ft. to 9,000ft and then see if they whine about Heartbreak Hill.

Let’s get back to D.F. and your training. So, my mistake was training for 31 miles in Florida with our dinky hills. But that in no way compares to 31 miles of major climbs and technical skills (loose rocks) on the race trails. My idea is to multiply the 31 Florida miles by the mountain D.F. and run 45miles on dinky hills to give my body the equivalent wear and tear.

Remember the quote by the legendary master Sun Tzu in his book “The Art of War”-“he who underestimates the enemy will surely be defeated”.

Lesson learned by Coach K.

In the interest of training mo smarter, I will have the D.F. meter working for my next race.

I was wrong!!!

Y’all better pay attention, because you are not going to hear this often. Seems I have been doing all sorts of training to build up the “Posterior Kinetic Chain”. Seems everything from NSCA  Coaching conferences to the legendary Arthur Lydiard , all talk about the “Posterior Kinetic Chain”-build up those hamstrings and butt muscles- for running. Well, I believed it, followed it and found out this weekend that I was wrong.

I guess all those coaches have never done an Ultramarathon in desert mountains. My quads are still sore, 3 days later. They felt like lead after my last nasty downhill section.  This was a completely new experience. In all my other races with major climbs, it has been hamstring and calf muscle cramps that got my attention.  So I beefed them up and sadly forgot to give equal attention to my quads –and they let me know my mistake! Another great example of principle of specificity of training.

So I learned how to adapt to high altitude, learned to climb without hamstring cramping and now if I can learn to run technical, steep grade downhills, I will be good to go.

Remember- train mo smarter.

Brother, can you spare some peanuts?

I usually try to stay on topics related to training and or general development, but with my recent initiation to US Airways I am breaking the mold. 

  I write this knowing that I have still have a return flight on this airline….

Of all the airlines, I have flown –and that is a lot- this one is without a doubt the cheapest and least friendly. I used to get annoyed/bored with the cheesy in-flight movies on other airlines, but this flight doesn’t even have music or tv/music screens. Worst is that they don’t even give you the dinky pretzel and peanut packs. You have to buy them. HOW CHEAP IS THAT.

I hope they can afford the gas for the return flight!

Be Coachable (aka Empty your Teacup)

This is another tidbit from “Train Tough the Army Way” by Mark Bender. When your Coach/teacher points out a weakness / area for improvement, do not take it personally.

I know this can be tough from personal experience. When I was younger and very much into my martial arts, I would travel to many different camps/training events. Unfortunately, I went in with my teacup full most of the time and now realize I could have learned so much more.  Later on, I realized that while this method may not be the same as my official teacher’s, it still has merit and I can pick out the good points and add it to my skill set.    

So when you get corrected say thank you and do your best to make corrections. If your Coach did not point out these areas, you would continue to perpetuate the mistakes and never reach your full potential. You should be grateful that your Coach/teacher is taking time to help you improve, because it is worse if your Coach ignores you and never offers corrections.

 Remember, that is why you got a Coach in the 1^st place!

Training smarter, means getting help fixing your weak points.

Listening or Hearing

I am reading an interesting book “Train Tough the Army Way” by Mark Bender. In his chapter on learning, he talks about the difference in hearing vs. listening.

His example is when in high school, his dad and told him about how to relax when shooting jumpers. But with his attitude at the time, he only “heard” his dad and did not listen. As a result, his jumper did not improve until years later when he finally “listened”

Listening is not just hearing the words but taking them in and digesting them. Then storing them in your brain so you can retrieve them later. A good listener is alert, gives feedback and has questions.

So as a Coach, I have a sneaky feeling that a client is just “hearing me” when I have to repeat “Don’t look at the ground when you run” or “fix your posture”.

A client, who is truly listening, only has to be told once. In my martial Arts days, many of the old school Chinese teachers were of the “I am only saying this once” persuasion. They believed that if you were a serious student, you would be paying attention. They did not waste time with students that did not work at their standards.

So next time you are training, make sure you are LISTENING. Your Coach is trying to teach you something- be respectful of his time and efforts, as well as the money you are spending on lessons and time invested.

Smart athletes make mo better progress.