Training summary - 01/2011

Training summary – 01/2011

Since I’ve always found training posts to be just a bit dry, but still feel like posting a bit on it every now and then, I’ve decided to compromise and post a training summary for every month of the year.  Once the snow melts around here I will get back to blogging more adventure runs.

January 2011

Miles – 185 (36, 38, 55, 39)

Vertical – 26000 ft (6100, 2300, 10800, 6800)

Note: the parenthetical numbers are weekly sums for the 4 full weeks in January, the sum is for the month as a whole.

A persistent and recurring head cold combined with traveling back and forth across the pond and a minor calf injury led to somewhat trying month of training.  One thing I can definitely say is that I hardly put a dent into my training for the Zurich marathon on 4/17.  The only real quality I managed was a nice tempo run from Aubonne to Nyon, part of my attempt to run around Lake Geneva in stages, at a good pace (+0:35 over marathon pace for 11.6 miles), which is pretty much where I want to be mileage and pace wise in January to get ready.  I didn’t manage much more quality long runs and never managed to get healthy enough to get to the track either.  Ughhh.  I had been very consistent at the track from September thru December though, and am not overly worried about needing to miss a bit of quality.  It’s only January.

The thing about January in this part of the world is that it doesn't sit well with this ultrarunner.  While my colleagues and friends talk eagerly about what the snowpack will look like on Saturday morning, I find myself frowning at webcams of local summits and desperately hoping for a heat wave.  It feels blasphemous, as if the Swiss football team made it the World Cup and I’m the only cheering against them.  Early January did see a slight moderation of the snow at lower elevations to warrant a jaunt up the crest of the Jura’s (link).  For the 5800 ft of vertical effort I was rewarded with my first sighting of a Chamois, my first trip to France, 40 mph ridgeline winds and a constant pouring bone chilling rain.  It was good to get out.

The following week I flew back to the US for my cousin’s wedding and was very pleasantly surprised to discover the Barton Creek Trail right in the backyard of Austin TX.  It seemed like this place was just teeming with ultrarunners.  Afterwards I flew to Corvallis, OR to visit with my girlfriend.  Quite excited to add some hills back to my training diet I foolishly strained a calf on what would become my 2^nd fastest ascent of Bald Hill.  Despite the strained calf I couldn’t resist the lure of the McDonald Forest and managed to get out for a nice run day after day.  That week will easily be my biggest early season mileage and vertical.  Predictably favoring my calf led to some secondary issues and so the next week of training back in Lausanne wasn’t terribly great, except that my search for appropriate hills for early season vertical work began in earnest with a trip up Mt Pelerin and the Tour de Gourze.  Neither of these really fit the bill, but either might be worthy of a return trip.  Despite the looming marathon, I don’t look forward to weekend long road runs at all the same way as I do quality time in the mountains.  There will probably be another two months or more, but I’m quite eager for the snow season hurry up and be over with.

January in the Jura - I ran to France

While mountain running in Switzerland in January might not seem like the brightest idea, the bad case of cabin fever I've been nursing for the last few weeks led me out to the Jura's to take advantage of a rare snow-free weekend.  There has been snow on the ground pretty consistently for the last few weeks in Lausanne.  Last week I ran by the track on a Monday figuring it would clear soon.  Friday I was there kicking the snow out of lane 1.  Nailed my 400's though so it was worth it.  The unfortunate consequence of living car-free in a city is that my weekday runs are woefully lacking in vertical.

Vallorbe seemed like a good choice because its only a 45 min train ride from Lausanne, has a few nearby peaks, and would allow for a point to point up to Sainte-Croixe if conditions were good.  The crest of the Jura's, often unforested, is also low enough (1400-1500m) to be snow free at times that higher up in the Alps isn't.  I awoke early and was surprised by how clear the sky was on my predawn walk down to the train station.  After disembarking at Vallorbe I switched on the flashlight and decided to summit Mont d'Or first.  Since it was dark I didn't enough of a feel of the conditions weatherwise to justify the point to point attempt, which would require at least a few consecutive hours exposed above treeline, most likely without a good bail out option.

On the initial ascent of Mont d'Or

Looking down on the border town of Vallorbe from the slopes of Mont d'Or.  Vallorbe sits in a narrow cleft through the Jura mountains, and is an important transit stop between Switzerland and France (see Garmin map below)

After a few wrong turns and an hour or so of climbing the trees began to thin and the clouds began to thicken.  It seems that no matter how high one goes in Switzerland there is always some summer cow pasture even higher.  The cows, however, had gone down the slopes for the winter and I would not today be able to add to my Field guide to Swiss cows picture book, but I did manage to sight a Chamois (pronounced Cham-Wow!) for the first time.  It's not everyday that one gets to see new mega-fauna.  These things are definitely common around here.  I ran on their trails and through their tracks all morning.  I'm pretty sure the one below is a solitary male, while higher up the slope I saw a female and few kiddos.

About 2/3 of the way Mont d'Or

The Chamois was not afraid of humans at all

Zoomed in picture of the Chamois (sorry for the poor quality)

The wind began to howl and the rain came down in earnest as I eventually I gained the summit ridgeline:  totally unforested just like Google Earth told me it would be.  Amazing!  There was no real trail through parts of this, but there was never a question of which way to head.  Up, of course!

Approaching the summit ridgeline of Mont d'Or

The coolest part about this route was that I was right along the French Swiss border (see map below, yellow line).  Though I had never even been to France, I probably wasn't going to get my passport stamped today.

The French Swiss border on Mont d'Or.

I intended to look both ways before actually crossing the border, but the wind was howling and the rain totally dumping now.  As I traversed the ridgeline out my left cheek chilled so much that it hurt.  On the way back my right cheek instead froze.

Unforested ridgeline route on Mont d'Or

This is about where I turned back, the ridge began to drop just over the next hill, on top of which a chairlift is barely visible.

On the way down I flew over the hummocks in the cow pastures.  There wasn't really a trail here but I have strong ankles from playing lots of tennis as a kid.  I was loving the creative proprioception that the empty pasture required so much that I missed a turn off and ended up back at the border, which I was able to use for navigation.  Despite the low visibility that subsequently engulfed the crest of the Jura's I eventually made my way down the valley, crossing the Vallorbe river in the city itself and back up the other side to tackle the Dent of Vaulion.  It was way too early to call it a day, but any hope of traversing over to Sainte-Croixe to gain my first section run of the Jura Crest was gone.  The cloudless sky leaving my apartment hours ago and led me to incorrectly choose my windproof (not waterproof) windshirt instead of my waterproof Anorak, all for a measly 2 oz weight savings.  Anyways I was going to make the most of the day.

The French Swiss border pt I

The French Swiss border pt II

On the first descent of the day I stopped under a structure to capture the weather

Ascending Dent de Vaulion.  Deer would not take this trail.

The ascent of Dent de Vaulion was not signed quite as much as I had hoped and I opted for a trail which was not particularly well built.  Regarding some of the moutain trails around here that is almost a redundant statement.  From the looks of it the Dent was sheer rock face from the East, but this "trail" seemed to be intent on ascending from that face.  Whenever I had the chance I veered to my left for information gathering and finally spied a decent dirt road.  I bushwacked my way down to pick it up, planning to circumnavigate half the Dent and see if the Southern ascent trail was in better condition.  A quarter way around I happened upon some power lines heading straight up.  Hmmm, these looked promising, the entire route beneath them seemed well brushed too so I opted to turn in the direction of up and slowly counted each pole as I passed.  10, 11, 12, wow the grade was like 1000+ ft/mile.  After a few more I finally sighted the summit marker (see the straight line at the top of the climb on the map below).  Besides the driving rain coming down in sheets and wind ripping through my bones the summit was really awesome.

I followed these lines to the summit

Summit of Dent de Vaulion in view

At the summit of Dent de Vaulion, the picture does not do justice to the weather

Descending dirt track back towards Vallorbe

Happy to reach the second summit of day I raced the rain back down the valley.  Initially the snow had great texture, allowing for fast effortless running, though it gradually gave way to shoe-sucking murk, maintained dirt roads and finally the pavement that would bring me back to a cold train station.  During the 45 minutes I had to wait for the train I squeezed all the water I could out of clothes into the bathroom sink and thought about nothing but food.  It felt great to get in a good solid effort in the dead of winter and I won't complain about the weather, that's just January in the Jura's!  Only two more weeks until the UTMB lottery, fingers are crossed!

The route according to Garmin:  5400 ft of elevation over 17 miles.  The yellow line is the French Swiss border, the town of Vallorbe is in the center

2010 year in review

I had planned to run my first 100km in 2010 and a 100 miler in 2011.   Fate intervened when my name got accidentally drawn in the Western States lottery in December 2009.  That wasn’t supposed to happen.  I only entered for the additional ticket a few years down the road.  Snow began on us hiking the the Appalachian Trail in earnest in SW Virginia and thru-hiking became quite a challenge.  Once my Aqua Mira water treatment froze (let alone water) we knew it was time to get off the trail and put on a few well earned comfort pounds for the winter.

Hitching off the Appalachian Trail in SW Virginia in Mid December.

Returning to running felt arduous initially.  I was surprised how hard it was to get my heart rate back up on tempo efforts, but for some strange reason I never properly addressed the lack of early season speed and opted for quantity over quality all spring.

Training for WS I managed to keep myself quite entertained mapping the maze, which anyone who has run the McDonald Forest 50km knows quite intimately.  It turns out that its quite easy to get lost in this forest … and that’s just the way I like it.

While putting together my PhD dissertation I burned off a bit of energy running every real trail and deer trail in the Maze.

I was treated to a spectacular course at the Chuckanut 50km, my first race of the year.  The ridgeline trail in the Chuckanuts is really fun, and April’s mom volunteered at one of aid stations to see what ultrarunning is all about … hungry and smelly people eating bananas and m+m’s at 10 in the morning, right?

Spring arrived (most popular post of the year) in the McDonald forest outside of Corvallis, the Erythronium bloomed, Cardamine shined and as the Snow queens went back to the soil for the year we made the mandatory pilgrimage to the charming Central Oregon Cascades town of Sisters for a jaunt through beautiful Ponderosa Pine forests on the Peterson Ridge Rumble course.  Even though I opted for the short course, I got a good taste of what running on really sore legs would be like.  Training for WS was ramping up, and I wasn’t taking any taper for any races.  The post race burritos at this race were amazing.

Erythroniums in bloom in the McDonald Forest outside of Corvallis, OR in May

I continued to increase my weekly volume and used Capitol Peak 50 miler as a tuneup race.  The race went really well.  The course was quite nice, the middle miles were on some really nice singletrack, and the ascents of Capitol Peak itself were quite memorable.  I was particularly pleased to finish before my good friend Gaby went home, which pretty much means I must be getting faster, right? 

The one thing I learned from this race in particular was that I needed to spend more time on flats on tired legs.  Thus I added some ‘morning after’ runs to my training plan, whereby I would run 4-5 hours on a Saturday afternoon/evening followed by 2 hours on fairly flat roads early the next morning.  These runs were not pretty, but I learned quite a bit about the darker side of my digestive tract.

By the time the Mac 50km rolled around I should have known better that long slow training runs produce long slow races, but I ran it anyways because it’s more like a party than a race.  April did really well at this race, and at 4 years in I am really getting antsy for my 5 year finishing mug next year (that can count for a wedding gift, Scott and Ken).

April looking happy to finish her 2nd McDonald Forest 50k

Somehow someway I randomly managed my best tempo effort of the year on the lunchtime ascent of Bald Hill from OSU Dixon Rec Center, and followed that up quickly with a 5x repeat of McCollough Peak.  Both were amazing runs, the whole return from Bald Hill I knew I was on PR pace.  I was on fire.  The McCollough ascents helped me prepare for large cumulative elevation drop at WS, it was one of the most fun runs of the year, way overdone, big mistake, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat if I had the chance, anyday. 

Oak Creek to McCollough Peak repeats.  I designed the course to look like a map of Africa.

I managed some pretty sweet running in NW and SW Oregon as I wrapped up my training for Western States.  The ascent of Mt Defiance was particularly memorable for two reasons:  this was the only run of the year in which I yogied food and water off hikers just to get back to the car (admittedly poor form for an ultrarunner), and my knee made a very intimate connection with a rock about 4000 vertical feet away from the car, the scars of which are still visible today.

Humbug Mtn and saddle in the NW Oregon coast range

Brutal and beautiful descent of the Mt Defiance trail in the Columbia River Gorge

Darlingtonia Pitcher plants in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

After wrapping up the intense but rewarding early season training, in June I learned just how little I know about running when I finished Western States.  No puking, no crying and only 2 naps.  I’m not sure I got what I signed up for, but that was a fun run!  Somewhere along the way I reached the existential stage of ultra-running where one no longer questions whether one can or wants to finish race, but rather questions the justification for the existence of the race altogether.  Then my brain stopped working for the next 40 miles or so.  I really enjoyed the 2^nd sunrise on the trail, and 77 miles into a race is a pretty epic place to get engaged.  Thanks for pacing me in life, dear!

At the Western States finishing line.  I prefer to think of myself as 'fashionably late' rather than slow.

I experienced some minor blister issues during Western States.

I remained in denial about how poorly I recovered from Western States through the Mt Hood 50m in July, where I bested last years time by something like second by a mile and the Waldo 100km in August, which nearly ate me alive.  I felt like I really had to gut this one out and am quite happy to have crossed the finishing line.  It could have easily turned into my first DNF.  In between I managed to bike down the coast from Corvallis to San Francisco over 12 days.  It was a really fun trip.  I got a run in nearly every day on trails that I have never run before and I am definitely hoping to convince April to join me for the entire West Coast sometime.

April finishes her first 50m at Mt Hood in July.

Coastal prarie in Samuel Boardmann state park on the SW Oregon coast.

Crossing the Golden Gate by bike on the last day of a 12 day trip from Corvallis, OR to San Francisco, CA.

April and I near Mt Fuji summit at the Where's Waldo 100km in August.

In early September I moved to Switzerland to begin a postdoc in the Wind Engineering and Renewable Energy lab at EPFL in Lausanne.  Before winter set in I managed some really nice runs around Rochers de Naye twice, Leysin, and Lac Hongrin.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much of these runs were above treeline, somewhat taken aback by the (lack of) quality of construction on mountain trails here as well.  I also started a new book – An ultrarunners field guide to Swiss Cows.  Or maybe it’ll be a coffee table book.  I haven’t decided yet.

Ridgeline route near Rochers de Naye Switzerland.

Another unforested ridgeline route near Leysin, looking down at the Rhone valley and Lake Geneva.

Swiss cows make great running company in the Alps.

Seasons turning above Lake Hongrin.

By late fall snow was closing down the high mountain routes and I turned by attention back towards a spring marathon (Zurich on 4/17/2011).  I ran the Lausanne half marathon as a tuneup and returned to the track with an eye towards the 3:10 Boston qualifying time.  I don’t want to run a 3:10, I just want to be able run in some race that says I need to run a 3:10.  Plus I feel like I learned something from all the long slow distance I did in early 2010.  I want to start 2011 differently by getting faster at the shorter distances.  Finally April and I rolled up the year with a running visit to a Chocolate factory, the beautiful Swiss mountain of Moleson and a giant pot of fondue.

The author showcasing his amazing inability to pin a race bib number on straight while running through the UNESCO world heritage designated vineyards along Lake Geneva during the Lausanne half marathon in October.

Yasso 800's moving the right direction in late fall in preparation for Zurich marathon in April 2011.