Yetifunk

On 8 July 2009 I will be attempting to complete the entire Tahoe Rim Trail in under 72 hours with no external support. This is the first post in a series of blogs about the trail. These posts will cover a brief history of the trail, some information about the environment, details on my trip strategy, and an account of the actual attempt.

By John Appert

Leg 1 (18 miles): Tahoe Meadows to Brockway Summit
18 miles from start/146.8 miles to finish

The last link of the Tahoe Rim Trail to be completed, this leg follows high ridge lines with views of the Mount Rose Wilderness. The trail quickly climbs from the trail head to the top of Relay Peak at 10,338 feet; the highest point on the trail. The views are incredible in this area (I did most of my training for Leadville 2008 along this trail) but water is scarce.

Leg 2 (19.2 miles): Brockway Summit to
37.2 miles from start/127.6 miles to finish

I’ve never done this portion of the trail and I’m looking forward to it. I did do the Great Ski Race in 2008 and the course goes through this general area. From what I’ve read, this section is forested with cedar, fir and aspen trees. The trail passes both Watson Lake and the Lava Cliffs.

Leg 3 (16.7 miles): Tahoe City to Barker Pass
53.9 miles from start/110.9 miles to finish

I’ll have to be careful along this section of the trail as I will be getting tired and several dire roads and trails cross the rim trail. The TRT site also warns of strong winds, sudden weather changes and high altitude. Of course, you should expect those conditions. It is the Sierra Nevada after all. I plan on stopping to take a short rest after crossing the pass. If I’m sticking to my planned pace I should be around 14 to 16 hours into the run at this point.

Leg 4 (32.5 miles): Barker Pass to Echo Lake
86.4 miles from start/78.4 miles from finish

This section of the trail crosses Desolation Wilderness. This is one of my favorite areas and not just because Wendy and I did a 26 mile loop here a couple of years ago. Before being declared a wilderness area cattlemen use to bring their livestock to this area in the summer. They dammed a number of small streams so there a lot of lakes in the area. The highlight of the lakes is Lake Aloha. Google it if you’re interested in what it looks like. I’ll post some pictures when I get back from this trip.

Leg 5 (17.5 miles): Echo Lake to Big Meadow
103.9 miles from start/60.9 miles to finish

The TRT merges with the Pacific Crest Trail along this area and also crosses the Upper Truckee river. I’ve never been through this area so it should be a good hike.

Leg 6 (23.2 miles): Big Meadow to Kingsbury Grade
127.1 miles from start/37.7 miles from finish

I’ve never been in this area and am definitely excited about it. The trail goes by several classic winter ski descents including Freel Peak and Jobs Peak. Yeah, I’ll be scouting for next winter. There are also old growth forests in this area that somehow did not get chopped down during the Comstock Lode days. I’ll probably crash for a bit by Star Lake.

Leg 7 (14.6 miles): Kingsbury grade to Spooner Summit
141.7 miles from start/23.1 miles from finish

This section includes a short section along the road before heading north towards Spooner Summit. The view from the top of South Camp Peak covers the length of Lake Tahoe.

Leg 8 (23.1 miles): Spooner Summit to Tahoe Meadows
164.8 miles from start/0 miles to finish.

At this point I’ll be back in familiar territory. I’ve run this section multiple times both as a competitor during the TRT 50 mile run and in training. Water is scarce so I’ll have to carry quite a bit but this should be offset by the mental boost of knowing the trail very well. There are sections of this trail I’ve run over 20 times. Besides, I’ll be getting close to a few beers at the Tap House!

admin Uncategorized

On 8 July 2009 I will be attempting to complete the entire Tahoe Rim Trail in under 72 hours with no external support. This is the first post in a series of blogs about the trail. These posts will cover a brief history of the trail, some information about the environment, details on my trip strategy, and an account of the actual attempt.

By John Appert

The Tahoe Rim Trail is a new trail having been completed in 2001 by a non-profit group called the Tahoe Rim Trail Association (www.tahoerimtrail.org). The group was founded in 1981 and continues working to improve sections of the trail and perform maintenance on the trail. Hiking and horseback riding are allowed on all sections of the trail and mountain biking is allowed on certain portions.

The trail goes peak to peak in a 164.8 mile loop around Lake Tahoe passing through both California and Nevada. The trail is primarily single track and due to the high elevation can be quite dry along the Eastern portion of the trail. The western portion has a number of lakes throughout the Desolation Wilderness area. The winter brings heavy snows (the Donner party was trapped just north of Lake Tahoe in an area that is now route 80).

So what kind of gear am I bringing? The fact of the matter is, I am going to need to go very light in order to get this done. My current plan is to bring the following:

30 liter pack
bivy sack
2 nalgene bottles and a bladder
1 rain shell
1 fleece
gloves
hat
trekking poles
1 extra pair of socks
food for 3 days that requires no cooking (more on this in a later post)
first aid kit
map compass
water filter
camera
headlamp

And that’s it. I’ll be putting this together and weighing it later this week to see what it comes in at. I’m shooting for less than 25 pounds of equipment total. I’ll edit this later with anything I forgot but this should be about it. With this light of a load I should be able to move fast. It does get cold at night so I will probably have to keep moving at night to stay warm and then take short naps throughout the day.

I’ll add a detailed post about my food plans and day by day itinerary in the enxt couple of days.

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by John Appert

It is official. I just bought my plane tickets to Reno and will be flying into the city on 8 July for my thru-run attempt of the trail! The plan is to arrive midmorning, pick up any last minute supplies and then drive to the Mt. Rose/Relay Peak trail head for the start of the fun and games.

The trail is a total of 160 miles in length and completely circumnavigates Lake Tahoe while crossing through several wilderness areas including Desolation Wilderness (one of my personal favorites). I will need to complete about 53 miles per day in order to finish before noon on Saturday, 11 July. I will have to go ultra-light in order to make this happen so I will most likely bring no stove and no sleeping bag. I will eat dry food and take naps around noon and then move all night to stay warm. This should be an awesome experience and will help prepare me both mentally and physically for Leadville.

Later this week I will post detailed descriptions of the trails, my itinerary and a detailed gear list. Let me know if there is any other info you want to know and drop me an email at admin@yetifunk.com if you want to join me for a leg of the trip.

admin Uncategorized

by John Appert

Nobody likes them but they are often necessary. Yeah, I’m talking about the mind-numbing treadmill workout. These workouts are about as far from trail running as you can get but sometimes a treadmill is the only way to get a workout due to lack of time or nasty weather (although I’d argue that training outdoors in some nasty weather can help prepare you for race day.)

I started using treadmill workouts over the last six months to get my speed/strength/force type workouts in. I’ve found that this helps make the workout less painful and the controls allow me to force a certain pace etc.

I’ve started to add some of my treadmill workouts to this site under the tab up top. It is not user friendly at this point so I may move this over to a standard page to make it easier for people to find what they want. Here are a couple of my favorite workouts:

Hopeless pass

I developed this workout to help prepare for Hope pass which is crossed at mile 45 and mile 55 of the Leadville 100 mile trail run. The course drops briefly to 9,200 feet before crossing a river and climbing to 12,600 feet in the span of about 3 miles. If you haven’t been hiking some hills this bit of the course can kill you.

The workout:

2 minute warmup at an easy pace.
3 minutes at 15% grade walking fast (shoot for a 15 minute per mile pace)
3 minutes running at a negative two percent grade (run this fast)

Repeat until you have completed the time limit for your workout.

I like you Dr. Funkenstein

What’s with the name? Try this one out with a group of friends and you’ll understand.

The workout:

2 minute warmup.

2 minutes at 70% max HR
1 minute at 90% max HR
Jump of treadmill and complete 10 squats and 10 star jumps. Jump back on treadmill.
1 minute at 90%

Repeat.

I’ll continue to add more workouts as time goes on so check back often. I am also working on putting together some of the ultra-light gear that I use in the mountains. I’ve found that the best gear is usually relatively inexpensive and very simple. You don’t need to break the bank at REI. I’m working on setting up another site now for this gear and will post the link once I have it.

admin Moments of Inspiration, Training, Treadmill, Trip Report

by John Appert

I flew out of Tulsa early on Friday morning. There are no good ways to get from North-Eastern Oklahoma to Wyoming so I was flying through Salt Lake City to Billings and then driving two hours South East to Sheridan, Wyoming where race check-in was. I was feeling over-trained that week so I had done no runs for the 5 days preceding the race.

I arrived in Sheridan at around two o’clock and checked into the race and then walked around town to buy some new socks, body-glide, and some extra GU. After picking up the necessary supplies I stopped at a bar and grill and got a cheese burger and fries while I read the copy of “Ultra-running Magazine” that came in the race goodie bag. After finishing lunch I drove out to Dayton, found the bus pick-up point and then checked into my hotel and managed to fall asleep by about 8:30 PM.

I woke up to my fiancé calling me at 3:10 AM. It was a good thing she checked on me as none of the alarms I set went off and I would have ended up sleeping through the race. I quickly got dressed, grabbed my bag, filled my water bottles and ran out the door arriving at the finish line/bus pick-up at 3:50. I left a long sleeve shirt on and jumped on the bus. We were about 10 miles down the road when I realized I forgot my camera and my pre-race bagel.

The ride from the finish line to the start line takes around 2 hours. It took us a little bit longer since the bus driver missed the turn-off so the race didn’t actually start until 6:07. After the national anthem we did a 5 second countdown and then started down the trail.

I started at an easy pace forcing myself to walk even the short uphills. I knew I was undertrained but I was more concerned that my right leg was hurting already. I have been dealing with some over-use injuries all year. The trail got muddy quickly as we ran through some high alpine meadows.

The first 18 miles of the race are all downhill and I thought that I would make really good time but the trail was way more technical then most trail races I’ve run. It would go from rocky, uneven single track to 8 inch deep mud every half mile or so. This made running at a consistent pace difficult and sloppy. The difficulty of running on the trail was made more difficult by the incredible scenery. Who wants to stare 3 feet in front of their feet when everything around them is magnificent? My lack of attention ended up bighting me when I stepped unevenly on my right ankle and went down hard smacking my face slightly into a low hanging branch. It was more embarrassing then painful and I quickly moved on.

I made it to the 18 mile point 4 hours into the race. This aid station is right on the bank of the Little Big Horn River and is stunning. I was a little nervous though as the difficult terrain had slowed me down considerably and my quads were already in significant pain. And the next four miles? All uphill and steep.

I started up the hill at a steady pace and did well for the first few miles but I started to bonk hard. I had been hungry for a while and think that I hadn’t consumed enough calories during the run. It took me two hours to go the first two miles and my pace did not pick up all that much once the trail flattened out again. I struggled to the 24 mile point where there was some water and I refilled my water bottles. My right leg/ankle was really starting to bother me and I had no energy. By the time I hobbled into Cow Camp aid station at mile 28 I was limping badly and averaging about 30 minute miles. At that point I decided to drop from the race and spent the next couple of hours hanging out at the aid station until they could give me a ride out on an ATV. It was a hard decision to make but it was also the first race of the season and I did not want to injure myself and spend the summer watching TV.

What went wrong?

There are a number of issues that factored into this DNF. First, my training was not sufficient. I have been running primarily on roads since moving to Oklahoma and this obviously did not get me into the kind of shape needed for technical trail running. Going forward I will be training at least every other week in the mountains even if it means driving to the Ozarks or flying to Denver. Second, my nutrition was off. I need to eat more before the start of the race so that I’m not behind on the calorie front from the start. Finally, something is wrong with my right leg. I am going to start cross training on my bike to get more endurance hours in while minimizing the impact on my ankle. If it doesn’t heal soon I am going to have to get it checked out.

So what’s next? I’m debating again whether or not I should run the TRT 50 mile endurance run or do the thru-run of the entire Tahoe Rim Trail. I’m still leaning towards an unsupported trail run of the entire 160 mile loop although I will probably raise my target time to 3 days instead of 60 hours. I will start writing a series of posts on gear lists, the trail, and the plan over the next couple of weeks as well as update everyone on how I’m changing my training strategy.

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by John Appert

I am wrapping up things at my day job right now in the hopes of getting out a bit early today. Tomorrow morning I am flying to Billings Montana and than driving down to Wyoming for the Big Horn 50 Mile Run. I am looking forward to getting back to the mountains although I am a bit nervous about the altitude. This is the first year in a long time that I have not been able to train primarily at altitude. I also moved in the last month which had a negative impact on my training. So I am going into the race undertrained and tired from too many hours at the job that pays the bills.

I also decided to change my race schedule for the year. I ran the Tahoe Rim Trail 50 mile race for the last two years in a row and was planning on running it again this year. At the same time I have been meaning to do a thru-run of the entire trail at some point. I decided a couple of nights ago that this is the year. Next month I will be flying to Reno and will attempt to complete the entire 160 mile loop in under 48 hours unsupported. This one should be a lot of fun although on the suck index it will probably get right around 105 (a zero is a nice cup of coffee on a spring morning at the beach while a 100 is shoving a rusty salad fork in your eye.)

If you’re interested in running part of the trail with me send me an email (admin@yetifunk.com) and I’ll coordinate meet up times. I’m probably going to start by heading north from Tahoe Meadows. Also, check out Wendy’s account of her first ultra-marathon which was posted on Tuesday night.

admin Races

I’ve decided to add content from other authors in order to provide a better resource for those interested in ultra-running and backcountry adventure. This post is from Wendy Miley. Wendy ran her first 50 mile race in the fall of 2007 in the Oakland, California area at the Dick Clark Firetrails 50. She has crewed for me at all of my races over the last two years and paced me for 25 miles of Leadville in 2008. She is currently training for a fitness competition.

by Wendy Miley

I have wanted to run the Western States 100 miler since I first heard of it some fourteen years ago. There is something about the seeming impossibility of such a feat that drew me to long distance running. In fact, it was this simple fact that also motivated me to run my first marathon at the age of 16. Was it really possible to run that far?

It was not till 2007 that I began to seriously consider running an ultra marathon. I decided to begin my ultra running journey with a 50-mile run; after all, to qualify for the Western States lottery, one has to complete a 100-mile run within a certain timeframe or have run a 50-mile race under 11 hours. I had run several marathons and had always placed in my age group, but running past 26.2 miles was foreign to me. I did not just lace up my running shoes and start training for a 50-miler. I did research and found out what training for an ultra entails. One website, http://www.ultrunr.com/, was particularly informative. There, I learned about nutrition, training, safety, and many other topics. I used the material I found on this website to write my own training plan. I trained for the ultra for approximately six months.

The biggest difference between training for a marathon and training for an ultra is that ultra training entails completing back to back long runs. A marathoner might run 18 miles on Saturday, then rest on Sunday and Monday. An ultra runner, however, runs long both Saturday and Sunday, preferably all on trails. And unlike training for a marathon, walking is crucial. Yeah, we say ultra runners, but in reality, only the elite runners are able to run the entire way. We mere mortals walk the uphills and jog the rest. Hell, we might even walk the flats, too.

Ultra runners—especially women—need to exercise cautiously when they are out on the trails. Not only should ultra runners carry fluids and nutrition, but they should also carry emergency supplies. I carried a space blanket, a mirror, my cell phone, my ID, a map, and a whistle. Ultra runners should know what kind of wildlife live in the area and how to act in the event that they stumble upon a predator.

Thankfully, I never had to use my emergency gear. Ultra runners should also expect the unexpected. During one run, I got lost, fell twice—the first time I hit my hip and shoulder hard; the second, I twisted my ankle—and ran out of water with 10 miles left. It was hot; I was dehydrated. I jogged as much as I could, but in the last five miles, I was overheated. I knew this because my heart rate did not go down, even when I walked. I stopped frequently to rest in the shade. I had my cell phone. I could have used it, but I did not. I knew I only had five miles left and would make it. When I got back to my car, I drank a liter of water mixed with two packets of Emergen-C and ate rice cakes with salt. This helped to restore my electrolytes. Instead of driving directly home—a 45-minute drive away—I stopped by a nearby town and bought more fluids and food to eat on the way home.

The most I ran on any one training weekend was about 45 miles. I ran a 7-mile loop around Donner Lake, which is about 7000 feet in elevation, five times on Saturday for a total of 35 miles, then 10 miles in town on Sunday. While a 35-mile run composed of 7-mile loops is fairly boring, it is excellent for two things. First, I was able to log my time per lap. I wanted to run my first 50-miler in 11 hours or less, so speed was crucial for me. The second advantage is that I could stop by my car every 7 miles. There, I refueled my water and food.

During training, it is important to learn how to eat. I don’t know many marathoners who eat a lot of food during the actual race. They might eat a handful of M&Ms or a banana, but really most marathoners rely on fluids and in the later stages of the race, some sort of gel nutrient like Gu. Before I trained for an ultra, I was one of those people whose stomach had to be empty before I could run; otherwise, I risked a side ache. I knew I would be running for at least 11 hours during the race, so I had to eat real food while running. This is really about experimentation. I ate rice cakes, Clif bars, sandwiches, fruit, jelly beans, and chocolate. It took time to be able to eat whole foods. That I craved protein on long runs surprised me. I would fantasize about ham sandwiches. My body needed it in addition to the simple carbohydrates and was telling me so.

Before I fast forward to race day, I’ll share one more tip. After my long runs on the weekends, I filled the bathtub with cold water. I turned the knob as far in the cold direction as I could. Then I would sit down in that cold water and stay in the tub for at least fifteen minutes. It hurt, but I think it helped to curtail any injuries during training.

I chose the Firetrails 50, which is close to San Francisco. I chose this race because it was close to my home town, and the race is held at an area that is at a substantially lower elevation than where I was living and training at the time, which was the Tahoe area. I figured I had an advantage.

The night before, I could barely sleep. I was nervous. I was excited. I feared the pain that I knew was coming. I managed to get in a few hours of restless sleep. Ultra runners should plan on this, and try to get more sleep during the week leading up to the race. It had poured rain the day before, but the rain had stopped for race day. This made for a very muddy, slippery race. At each aid station, I took in fluids and filled my Camelbak at every station. Every other station, I ate a Clif bar. In the later stages of the race, I ate Slim Jims (I carried these), candy, potato chips, whatever sounded yummy, at each aid station. In fact, during the last 50 miles, I looked forward to the food at each aid station. It wasn’t that I was hungry necessarily, but it was a distraction from the monotony and the pain I was experiencing.

I knew the race would be physically difficult on my body, but I did not plan on becoming injured. It was at this point that I realized all ultra runners need to decide for themselves at which point they will drop out of the race. Runners should count on pain; it’s a given during an ultra, but at what point is the pain too much? The top of my foot hurt. I kept loosening my laces, thinking it would help, but it didn’t. I didn’t know if I had fractured those bones or if it was tendonitis. This made running downhills extremely painful. I was in so much pain that my mouth watered like I was going to vomit; thankfully, I never did. When I had about 20 miles left, I seriously considered dropping out. I don’t know what made me decide to stay in the race, but I kept moving forward. Around mile 40, I began to run as much as I could. I was extremely relieved to see the finish line. I finished in a time of 11:10, just 10 minutes shy of my goal.

That night was a blur for me. I was tired. I hurt. I couldn’t walk without limping, not just because of my foot but because my muscles were extremely tight. Back at the hotel room, we ordered pasta, which tasted terrible. I dozed in bed the entire evening but was still somehow restless, like I was still running.

I took one complete week off from training. I didn’t run at all; I did walk some to flush out the lactic acid and to get my legs moving. For the most part, however, I rested. I was extremely sore for several days. This, I expected. One week after the race, I ran about four miles. My foot still hurt, and my legs were dead. I wasn’t deterred. At that point, I planned to run another 50-miler in the near future. Eventually the pain in my foot went away, but there was a pain in the back of my right knee that never did. I sought the help of an orthopedic surgeon, who did not find anything wrong with my knee. He referred me to a physical therapist who also did not know what was wrong with me.

I still wanted to run another 50-miler and eventually run Western States, but I also began to see that maybe I am not physiologically built to be an ultra runner; at this time, I was also becoming interested in another sport. I had spent my entire adolescence and 20s as a runner, but I began to think that maybe it was time to try something new, especially since my knee did not seem to be healing. To be honest, the thought of spending hours of the weekends running by myself did not appeal to me. Although I love being outdoors, I find the training boring and monotonous. Last summer, shortly after I crewed for John during his 50-mile run and his 100-miler, I realized that, although I admire the perseverance and courage of ultra runners, I no longer dream about running the Western States, or any other ultra for that matter. I was perfectly content aiding and cheering on John.

admin Races, Training

As anyone who talks to me, reads my rants on nutrition, or checks my pantry and refrigerator knows, I am not a huge believer in the sports nutrition market. Want to know why? Pick up any muscle magazine at the store and you will find ad after ad for some “clinically tested” (not FDA approved) wonder powder that will give you a six pack and a girlfriend from the pages of a Marvel comic book all in under six days. While the ads aren’t as crazy in the more mainstream magazines they are still pretty bad.

While I am now a crusader against wonder supplements and crazy diet tracking I wasn’t always that way. In college I survived largely on a diet of canned tuna fish and whey protein. I never used creotine but all of my roommates did. I’m not sure how much of this was driven by a true desire to eat healthy and how much was driven by the fact that the Naval Academy would not allow us to have refrigerators in our room and packed our schedule full enough to make time for dinner not always a possibility. I must have been fairly dedicated to the idea though as I started experimenting with adding protein powder to my pots of coffee that I brewed while trying to stay awake all night doing physics homework.

Over the last few years I have developed my own blend of really bad for you food, long runs, and occasional spurts of dedication to nutrition that has worked ok. Contrast this with my significant other who considers it “cheating” to eat pizza, eats a nasty oatmeal/protein powder/cottage cheese gruel every morning and tracks her total caloric intake on a daily basis.

Recent sluggish legs, sub par performance, and general fatigue have led me to think that maybe I do need to start paying some more attention to my diet. Then I stumbled across an article in the Journal of Sports Science by Hoffman and Falvo that got me thinking about protein again. So I did a little research, read their paper and now present my summary of protein for the endurance athlete. Maybe I’ll be modifying my diet.

First of all, why do we need protein? Seems like a silly question but what does it do for us? Proteins are chains of amino acids that are used to maintain cells (all cells) maintain certain functions in the body and develop and maintain muscle mass. Humans are able to produce 12 of these amino acids themselves and the rest must be consumed. Most animal products (beef, chicken) contain all the essential amino acids. Vegetable products don’t (they are not “complete” proteins) but they can be combined to get everything you need and they have the added benefit of lower amounts of saturated fat.

Types of Protein

Animal Protein

This is what it sounds like. Think eggs, chicken, milk and beef. The primary benefit of animal proteins is that they contain all the amino acids that you need. The downfalls? There are some health concerns with cardiovascular disease and bone health due to saturated fats, cholesterol and sulfur containing amino acids.

Whey Protein

What is whey protein? I admit that despite having consumed this in powder form over the years I couldn’t have told you until I started reading up on protein intake. Whey protein is produced from the liquid part of the milk that is a byproduct of cheese production. You probably see this in the store all the time as it is one of the more popular forms of protein supplement probably due to its “completeness”. It also contains high levels of the amino acid cysteine which may help combat different diseases (through higher glutathione levels…don’t ask me what that is.)

Vegetable Protein

Vegetable proteins are popular because they can provide all the essential amino acids (when various vegetable sources are combined) without all of the saturated fat and cholesterol. What are some popular sources of vegetable proteins? Nuts, legumes and soy.

Ever see Soy Protein powder on the shelves? It is one of the popular forms of protein supplements out there. Soy is also used to manufacture different protein bars. There are a whole slew of other health benefits from Soy protein and it can be used by those who are lactose intolerant.

Performance

Hoffman and Flavo’s analysis of different types of protein sources on human performance was especially helpful for me as it cited several other studies on the affect of protein supplements in endurance athletes. For example, a paper by Coombes in 2002 showed that elite cyclists that were supplementing their protein intake with 20 g to 60 g per day showed improved time trial performance. (This sounds awesome but I also read an article where cyclists listening to Metallica cycled 10% further than a control group. Maybe Metallica needs to start marketing their own protein powder.)

There have been other studies done on cyclists both at James Madison University and the University of Texas Austin that showed that cyclists who ingested a mix of both carbohydrates and protein were able to cycle for longer (one test was done at 75% of max and another at 85% of max) before fatigue than control groups who either consumed a carbohydrate only, or placebo mix.

So what’s the deal? Should you supplement your protein intake? I’m obviously not qualified to say conclusively. It was also clear from the articles I read that there is no consensus on either the ideal amount, the ideal type (whey vs soy vs a whole bunch of other types). That being said it does seem to make sense that a system as complex as a living body would need more than just carbohydrates to perform at a top level. There must be some breakdown in muscle mass and performance and it seems that some sort of protein supplementation could be key to superior performance. Personally, I am going to try supplementing my diet with around 68 grams per day (.36 g/lb). This number was repeated over and over again. I’ll give it a shot. While my results definitely won’t be scientifically conclusive I am interested to see if I feel better in the days immediately following a hard training week.

admin Science of Training, Strength, Training endurance performance, protein supplement

I am considering changing the race schedule for this summer. For the past couple of years I have wanted to do the whole Tahoe Rim Trail. The trail is about 160 miles long and completely circumnavigates the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe. I have been thinking that it is time to finally do it. With a little bit of luck I think I could run it in about 48 hours. I would do it completely unsupported which would mean that I would have to carry a pack with some gear. I am working out the details now and will update the site once I decide whether or not I’ll go forward with this.

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I am always seeing articles and discussions on the best nutrition plan for ultra races. I am completely unqualified to weigh in with anything other than my own anecdotal evidence pulled from my races.

Pre-race:

Eat a lot of whatever you like. Really. Tomorrow is going to really suck and you’re probably going to have trouble keeping it down. If you eat anything tonight that hurts you tomorrow you’ll get rid of it the first time your stomach acts up anyway. Pasta works, but so does pizza, cheese burgers and mozzarella sticks. The ultimate pre-race meal? Jalapeno poppers!

Note added 6/7/2009: Ok, I don’t really eat Jalapeno poppers before a race. I generally eat the same pre-race pasta meal that everyone else eats. I think that the pre-race meal is overrated though. You are probably best off eating whatever you normally eat and something that tastes good enough that you’ll eat a good bit without over doing it. A big pasta meal has what, maybe 700 to 1000 calories? That’s roughly 1 hour of running. If you have been eating right going into race week you are probably in a good spot. It is more important to eat enough carbs all the way through training than try to load up 12 hours before race start.

Wash it down with a Guinness and some NyQuill and you might actually fall asleep at midnight instead of tossing and turning until 3 AM (just in time for the 3:15 alarm.)

During the race:

Drinks: My personal favorite is Nuun. This stuff comes in little plastic containers that fit in a running pack easily and keeps everything clean. Best of all it is just electrolytes. Most sports drinks are full of sugar and will make you feel sick at some point. My other favorite is pickle juice. The stuff is awesome but its hard to carry. A lot of aid stations stock pickles though so you might be able to scam some pickle juice.

Food: Last year at Leadville I tried to down a few Gus in between aid stations. Once I hit the aid station I ate as much as I could stuff in my face. On my way out my crew would pass me a dry turkey and pepperjack cheese sandwich. I ate these until about mile 40 when they stopped sitting well. After that I switched to potato soup. For the last 20 miles or so I only ate pudding snack packs.

Post race: You just ran for a really long time. You get to eat whatever you want. Wooohooo!

The biggest thing that I’ve learned is that sweet does not work for me so I have to stay away from a lot of the popular “sports nutrition”. Also, while Nuun works well in hot weather I’ll supplement that with electrolyte pills at the aide stations. I usually stock multiple types of food with my crew so that I have something to switch to when one more of whatever I’ve been going on will make me puke. And my crew yells at me the whole race to eat more which is important as I usually have stomach issues.

I read somewhere the following quote (I am paraphrasing this) “If you’re feeling good during an ultra don’t worry, it’ll pass”. I’ve learned the hard way that having your stomach rebel is not the end of the race, just part of it. Keep constant forward movement, eat what you can keep down and don’t stress. After all, it can’t really get worse.

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