2011 year in review

Summary
2011.  Done.  Another year in the books.  While not as good of a year as 2010, I feel like I learned quite a bit about dealing with setbacks this year:  the flu and a strained calf in winter, and achilles pull in mid summer, and shin periostitus in the fall.  Altogether I managed 1799 miles in 2011  (avg 35 mpw) , significantly less that the 2334 miles I ran in 2010.  More than that one single number was the inconsistency.  I was all over the map with my weekly mileage, with no real clear periodization or string of quality weeks outside of the build in March to April to a PR at the Zurich marathon.   Looking at a histogram (not shown) of my weekly mileages, its clear I need to spend more time in the 40 and 45 mpw range, and try to do less 50-60's.

Miles per week vs date

Highlights

Quality time spent on the crest of the Jura's (overview) in the spring, including a summit of Dent de Vaulion and Mont d’Or in the Jura range in a continous biting rain in January (I am an optimist), my first Chamois, summits of My Tendre I and II, including Dent de Vaulion for a second time, and Le Suchet, and Le Chasseron covered in the blooming crocus.  La Dole was also a nice summit, but North of Mt Aubert  my attention and my routefinding went awry, and it wasn't till fall that I was finally able to connect my footsteps all the way to Creux de Van.

  

On the crest of the Jura's:  Mt Tendre in spring,

 

Creux de Van,

Le Chasseron, 

and Le Suchet.

The nice training block (4 weeks at 50 mpw) in March and April netted me a 9 min PR at the Zurich marathon.  The other road marathon I did this year wins for most festive/drunken race of the year:  Marathon de Medoc.  7000 people in costume running through the wine country of Bordeaux.  Wine at the Aid Stations, dance floor at the 40 km mark, all you can drink beer and wine at the finish line.

As spring progessed the pre-Alps and Alps begain to open up and I had a chance to get to know Moleson over the course of three summits of Moleson (I, II, and III), .  I enjoyed pretty much all time I spend in this range, including Col de Lys and Col de Soladier.

Moleson and me from the summit of Teyschaux

The Moleson Teyschaux ridgeline

On the way up Col de Lys

Col de Lys and Dent de Lys from Col de Soladier area

The summits and climbs of Valais featured very heavily in my summer weekends, my first Boquetin sighting on the summit of Cornettes de Bise was memorable.  The incredible climbs  (numbers crunched here) out the valley floor of the Swiss canton of Valais were on the order of 5000 ft in 5 mi (ex. Pas de Lovenex).

Cornettes de Bise - Garmin says:  22 mi with 8560 ft of vertical.  ~ 16% grade average.  

The highlight of the year was a return to where it all  all started to marry my beautiful wife on Dimple Hill during the Mac 50km.  April and I also did some nice hikes around Col de Barbarine, Lac d'Emmoson and summited Pic Chausy and Le Pare, and circumnavigated Mt St Helens with Frank and Ken in Fall.

Married at the Mac, on Dimple Hill

 

Pic Chausy

Le Pare

 

April on the blast zone around Mt St Helens on the Llewitt trail

Mt St Helens circumnavigation

Despite the achilles pull I suffered halfway through, Verbier St Bernard was a very enjoyable race.  It had a relatively small and social field, the climb up Val Ferret over into Italy and back to Grand St Bernard pass was amazingly beautiful.  I've now been to Italy twice, both time running there and back from Switzerland.  The highlight of this course was easily the mother, two daughters and cat that were course marshalling in the town below.  The time I spend in the Val Ferret on this course was enough to justify a return to tag La Dotse, this place is beautiful.




Lowest Lac de Ferret

 

Le Dranse at the headwaters of the Val Ferrett

Lowlights

Injuries.  Flu in January followed by a strained calf on what would otherwise be a routine summit of Bald Hill which took until March to fully heal, and dealing with shin splints throughout the fall.  I have to admit that I am not completely enamored with European trail racing culture.  The conga line overcrowding that characterizes races such as Swiss Alpin 50m just doesn't appeal to me at all.  It's like paying to get stuck in traffic.  The atmosphere, even in the middle of the pack, is so serious.  No one seems to talk, and the races are dominated ~90+% by men.  UTMB was similarily crowded (and overhyped).  Trail quality at Trail de Faverges was an absolute joke.  Think of switchbacks as a banked turn in a waterslide park and you get the idea of the amount of work that goes in to trail maintenance in the part of the world.  

Outside of the races themselves was the context.  I love wilderness.  I love the idea that there are places in the world where humans do not dominate, and I think theses are very important.  I never saw anything remotely wild in the time I spent in Switzerland.  Cows cover the entire crest of the Jura mountains, and are similarily ubiqutious in the Alps, and somehow this gets passed of as natural beauty.  According to my European friends its really nice to stop in the middle of a hike to eat a restaurant.  I couldn't disagree more (full post here).  

Prognosis

In retrospect the shin periostitus I suffered in the fall was not something to be ignored.  It eventually resulted in a switch from the 'mile' to 'km' option at Javelina Jundred, which is an amazingly beautiful and fun course.  Frustration with managing half my desired weekly mileage was enough to encourage me to take almost 2 full months off of running, and I am optimistic about getting back to it.  A trial run last week up Iron Mtn outside of San Diego, CA went well enough to return my thoughts this years plan:  Burning River in late July or Georgia Jewel in September.  It's too early to sign up for anything.  I'm planning to start at 5, yes 5, miles per week, and add 5 more every month.  This will leave me with enough 50 mpw to build nice fitness before either race, but requires a good deal of creativity until then.  Yoga, a return to road cycling for my first century, and a bit of a home gym should keep my occupied.  What I really miss about running at the moment is that day to day consistency.  I found it nicely on the  Le Flon route this year.  What I'm aiming for a very consistent, not over eager, slow build back to running fitness over the entire first half of 2012.  If I can get some races in great, otherwise patience is key.

Building an (internet) running base

Time heals all wounds so they say, but I've always viewed extended breaks from running with disdain.  I haven't really needed or taken one since I started running consistently in 2008, but I have also not dealt with shin splints on the level at which I incurred this year.  In the 2 months prior to Javelina Jundred (km) I olny managed a dissapointing half of my preferred weekly miles (25 mpw vs 50 mpw).  To really heal this up for the 2012 year I've been taking time off from running, 3 weeks so far, and 1-3 more weeks expected.  I'm apprehensive about how those first steps will feel when I get back to it.  If my shin still hurts I will have to add another month off and then reassess.  The long term goal is to toe the line at Burning River in late July in the best shape I've been, and make an attempt at a sub-24 finish.  I haven't decided fully on this race though, there are some other ones in the Midwest that look interesting, including Mohican, but if the injury takes longer to heal than I currently expect I will also look at Georgia Jewel in late September, or Ozark/Pinhoti in early November.

Saturday afternoon bike ride in December?  Yes, please.

Having said all that I am not actually frustrated with so much time not running.  It feels like an investment in the 2012 running season, and I've found plenty to do between yoga, crossfit (3x per week now), spin and road cycling.  Since the road cyling around here is so pleasant, I'm also looking at trying my first century (road cycling 100m)  next fall.  It's something thats been on my five year plan for at least a few years.    Trail running still appeals to me far more than anything else so I have of course been keeping up on my internet running by following yesterdays race in Marin and making up a calendar of races to look at.  I'm patiently excited for 2012.

Three Saturdays worth of rides in the country outside of Bloomington

JJ 100 (km) race report

Somehow I managed to muddle my way through the Javelina 100 (km) race last weekend despite an almost complete lack of training.  The course, the volunteers and the organization were amazing at this event.  It was really a spectacle.  Camping the night before at the start line, we were awakened numerous times the calls of coyotes.  I was really excited to spend the entire day in the desert.

After 1/2 hour of running in the dark, the sunrise did not dissapoint.  The scenery was amazing in the morning light and somehow my shins were not hurting.  As an aside, if I ran this race again I would not carry a headlamp to begin with, if it's not cloudy out there will be plenty of moonlight.  I felt good on the first lap, the rocky section up was fun, the rollers even more fun, and I managed a good constant tempo back down the slightly boring double track no the way back in.  On lap 2 I saw a giant tarantula on the dirt road and struck up a number of interesting conversations which made the time go by quickly.  Starting lap three I felt absolutely great, I was excited by my 'time bank', always a dangerous notion, but I quickly began to  fatigue, in my hip flexors especially.  As the lap wore on my overall run/walk balance listed dangerously towards the latter.  I muddled my way through a good chunk of lap 4 before sunset.  I never ran another step after it got dark.  Ugh.  I get so tired after sunset, I am not sure why, but the same thing happened to me at Western States last year when I zombie-walked my way down all of Cal St.  No matter, I finished  my first 100m that day because that is what I set out to do, and I was in good shape to do.  I did not feel like walking the last 50 mi this race, so I called it quits after the 5th lap.  For me there was no point to walking in the 100 mi, when I was perfectly happy to have finished the 100km.  

It was fun, it was a great race and (before the sun set) I enjoyed myself thoroughly.  Since its raining cats and dogs here in Bloomington IN today, I put together a few plots illustrating my day.  Many people took the 100km option, probably half of all drops occurred here.  Darkness and the onset of rain were probably important factors. 

Fig 1:  Attrition rate vs lap number.  Each lap is 15 mi, except the 7th, which is 10 mi.  Attrition rate is defined by percentage of people finishing each lap (click to enlarge).

Fig 2:  Cumulative time at 100km binned by time.  All runners are considered, whether they ran 100km or 100m.  I ran a 14:28, putting me right in the middle of pack (full results here).  The 14:28 is a 1 hr PR over my only other 100km time at Waldo 2010.

I got much slower with every lap, presumably due to my poor training.  Why was my training poor?  Shin splints.  I battled with them for about 2 months this spring, but they went away and I was feeling great for months all summer, including when I signed up for race.  Then they came back, with a vengeance.  I ran ~25 miles per week for about 2 months before the race, except for the week I ran around Mt St Helens.  It just wasn't enough.  Alternatively, my tapering was fantastic, and my shins did not hurt all race.  The long and the short of it is a prescribed 1 month off of running.  I'm at the 1 week mark right now, its not so bad, not so great either, but I am keeping busy with yoga, lifting, swimming, spin class and road cycling.  It's a great way to see the country side and I might have to finally do a century ride next summer.   

Fig 3:  My lap time vs lap number.  Lap 5 = zombie walk  (click to enlarge)

Race-wise, I'm not sure if I'll be doing a 100 miler next year.  I've considered Burning River in late July, but I really enjoy the 50 mi distance.  It's easily my favorite.  I'm mulling all this about in my head as I ponder what 2012 will be like.  What I do know, is that 2010 was a great season of running because of the successful buildup to WS100.  I was strong and consistent all Spring, and I toed the line at WS in the best health I've ever been.  Ideally my 2012 season will consist of the same, with the emphasis on consistency and injury free running, even if my mileage is a bit reduced.  I'd like to experience that 'best shape I've ever been in' feeling again, and that's why I'm taking a month off to heal this nagging injury.  Internet running and 2012 planning will have to suffice for a bit.