Crewing Notes:

I liked crewing for Baboo and am already processing it and working on ideas to make it easier, more fun, and more useful for him.  

Why I liked crewing:

• In ultra running, there is the tactic acknowledgement that the crew is critical.  You're not just a tangential bystander; you're part of a team.
• Although it's good to have a runner that is hyper-organized, ultimately, they can get a little loopy and make poor decisions.  The job of the crew, including the pacers, to make decisions FOR them.  Eat this now.  Drink this.  Have you gone to the bathroom lately?  You're warm?  Fine.  You don't want an extra shirt for going up over that mountain pass?  Well, tie this shirt around your waist, in case you need it. 
• It's a great way to be involved in this event in case you are not insane enough to want to actually run 100 miles.  :)

What worked:

• We used a little cabinet with drawers that were see-through.  This was very useful.  It was easy for me to find things that were arranged: medical, nutrition, hot weather stuff, cold weather stuff, nighttime running stuff.  
• I made a chart for each aid station, telling me what I needed to do, inside a tiny notebook.  I would just flip to the page, and it would tell me about what time he was expected, and what he would need.  
• We emptied one side of the element and laid down a futon mattress and a thick quilt.  While waiting for Baboo at night, I was able to get a few minutes of Zzzzz.  Before he reached May Queen inbound, I was able to get about 2 hours.  This was pretty important since I was getting ready to run 15 miles with him and had been up for over 24 hours already.
• Prior to the race, Baboo and I had driven around to each aid station and loaded it into our Garmin Nuvi.  When it was time for me to drive to the next aid station, I didn't have to think - all I had to do was call it up and it told me how to get there.  

What didn't work / Needs changing:

Baboo needs a way to get calories for when it's really hot or he's going up a steep climb, and they need to be in liquid form, because his stomach gets upset - he'll even throw up.  These need to be just very lightly flavored so he won't get sick of it.   I'm thinking of Succeed.  Baboo likes it, so I'm going to have him test it on a hot hard run.

Next time, instead of the little notebook, I'm going to use a index-card flip book.  Each aid station notes will involve expected times of arrival, what he's just done (just crossed a river, so he's got wet shoes and wet socks.) what he's about to do (he's got another climb ahead of him, will need more liquid calories, electrolytes, fluids, and clean socks.)  I can get this information from the race course profile, aid station descriptions, and the course map.

I am usually crewing Brian alone.  At Leadville, I had to park a ways away at some of the aid stations.  I need stuff that's transportable and on wheels.  Leadville gave out crew vehicle tags, but I'm not sure why, because I had to fight for parking along with spectators.  It would be nice in the future if Leadville did something with those tags, like limit parking near the aid stations to those with "CREW" vehicle tags.  This was critical at Winfield, where I had to wait in line for quite some time.  I would respectfully suggest that at Winfield, which is the smallest area in the race for parking, they limit it to ONLY crew members.  

We had awesome pacers. In the future, I'd like to have extra supplies on hand for them.  

• I need an organizer that's on wheels, or at least something that can hold clear containers and is on wheels.  I'm thinking of this rolling thing.   
• I need a small folding table.  I'm thinking of a cooler that has sides that flip up and become a small table.  This would be good for carrying cold drinks, and Baboo can sit on it, as well.   
• For races that we fly to, instead of the cooler, I need a folding chair that is easy to carry.  This one (above, left) can be carried as a backpack.  I'll also need to bring a sleeping bag liner because those nights get chilly, for waiting.  
• I need to bring real food for myself - cruising the aid station, when I'm not doing running, is not a good idea. The food is designed to provide lots of fast calories and sodium, neither of which I need while crewing.  
• Some of the crews there had ways to make themselves visible to their runners, such as bright colors, a large estrella on a stick, and lights on their vehicle at night.  I'm going to try to find something like this.  

the Greater Baboo at Leadville

UPDATE: He finished in 27 minutes and forty-something seconds. Much faster than we expected, despite the fact that the course is actually 102.5 miles. ($*&%!) I crewed him from 4:00 am until I paced him his last 15 miles the next day, and so I'm whooped *whine*.

We're both headed for a hot bath and a nap. I'm sure his race report will be up soon.

http://www.leadvilletrail100.com/lt100races/LeadvilleTrail100MileRun/course.aspx


 

All towns should be named after toxic metals. Thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

13.  Today I am in Leadville, the highest city in the US.  Baboo is doing the "Race Across the Sky" Leadville Trail 100, which has about a 50% dropout rate.  It's just crazy hard, even as 100-milers go.  It's going to be a busy 24-30 hours.  This ia a 50-mile out and then 50 mile back course.  This is the profile:

 The top of the batman ears is called "Hope Pass" which I wrote about when I was in Leadville last month.  It's a long, grinding hike, done very slowly by people such as myself.  Baboo bounds up it like a mountain goat.  Not a real mountain goat.  The kind in cartoons. 

12.We've had a couple unpleasant surprises since buying The Dream House, but this was a pleasant one.

When Baboo was mowing this week, he found grapes, and most of them are ripe.
I shall eat them, I shall.


11. Monday I wore my belt buckle to work on its new belt.

yes, some people noticed.  

yes, it was fun.

Except for the person who asked me if I was into wrestling.  >:-(

10. I have a complicated running week planned. It is a cycle-down week, which occurs every 4th week of training:
M&F: off
T: 4 miles
W: 10 miles
T: 6 miles
St: 10 miles
Su: 10 miles

However, I'll be traveling to Leadville on Wednesday, and once I'm there, have to rest a couple days before I can exert myself.  So, my training will actually look like this:
T: 6 miles
W: 19 miles (early, before leaving)
Th: 5 mile hike and jog. 
F: 5 mile jog

Su: 5 miles (while pacing Baboo)

9. The best greatest sources of protein that I have found so far are salmon, crab, and shrimp.  Love those.  Worried about toxins.  I'm wondering if anyone knows how to get those foods without a build-up of toxic metals?

8.  I've gotten frustrated and tired of Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, and the like.  The ones that are truly healthy are too expensive to eat every day, and the rest, well, at best we can say that they won't actively reach up and try to kill me.  There's never enough protein or vegetables, and most of the time they don't use whole grains.

So, I decided to make my own. I bought a pesto sauce packet, some whole wheat penne, and a pound of small shrimp, and a large bag of "Normandy" style mixed frozen vegetables.
The result: four meals, each with a cup and a half of whole veggies, a cup of whole wheat pasta, about 3/4 cup of small shrimp, and some pesto seasoning.

Mix it up in a bowl, portion it out into food containers, freeze, and voila.

The next batch will have low-fat Alfredo whole-wheat noodles, salmon, and mixed veggies.

7. So of course, on Monday, I walked off and left my brand new lunch sitting on the counter.  But I had it for dinner.  It was good.

6.  More on the grapes.  I went out to pick them this week, and although I didn't get all of them, this is what I wound up with:

What the heck  do I do with all this?  I know, jam, wine, etc.  But that's so much work. *Whine*

Isn't there something easy and freezable I could do?  There's still some out there ripening. Freezer jam?  Seems like I've heard of that. 

 5.  Saturday, as well as Wednesday, I did a run that went from where I live all the way across town.  It's 19 miles.  I tested this item:

and, I liked it quite a bit . It's designed to keep the sun off your neck and face while you run, and it's super lightweight.

4.  Today's "hike" is planned to be at 12,000 feet.  Yeah. Ulp.  Only a couple miles, though. 

3.  I've decided since last week that I can do without being blond, so long as my hair is longer.  I liked the short hair, it was sporty, but I feel more like me with long hair.
However, I've noticed two things: a) I sweat way more than I used to.  This is apparently my body becoming more "efficient" at cooling itself.
and,
b) My longer hair wicks the sweat away from my head.  My entire head and all my hair get sopping wet.  Pretty disgusting.

2. This morning, we did a very short quick jog up at Independence Pass, which is why I delayed writing this.  I started getting a headache, coughing, and feeling dizzy.  Then we returned back down to 10,000 feet.

In case you didn't notice, the clouds are behind and below me.  

1.  There are, apparently, a stunning number of "bogies" here in town.  This is what ultrarunners call Newbies.  They is their first 100-miler, and in some cases, their first distance over a marathon EVER.  Some of them don't even have crews.
In case you didn't already pick up on it, these are not smart ideas.

...

Rio Grand Half Marathon, Race report.

So, this week's training went like this:

Tuesday: 4.2 miles
Wednesday: 10.3 miles
Thursday: 6.2 miles (slowly, painfully)
Saturday: 19 miles.  19 hot, sweaty miles, at the end of which I thought I was hallucinating when I looked up and saw this:

Yeah.  that is EXACTLY what it looks like.  Behind horse fencing, in north valley Albuquerque.

So anyway, two weeks ago Courtney asked me if I wanted to do this one.  At the time I was stinging from my dismal performance at the Chili Harvest Triathlon (riding my brakes on, yo) and uttered my famous line of stupidity, sure, why not?


So, this morning Sweet Baboo, who is tapering and not allowed to run, drove me down to the Hispanic Cultural Center in south valley. I wore my cuteness outfit, which I have discovered by accident is an M.  And M. Not an L, or and XL.  An M.

The first part of the half mary was okay.  It doesn't get any flatter than this!  It was cool out, starting at 7 am, and a nice paved trail.  I had planned to trying to keep my pace at a steady 12 minute mile but heading out, I felt pretty good.  Courtney had told me to just take off when I wanted, and she would keep up with me as long as she could, so I finally pulled ahead around mile 3.

I circled up and around, crossed over the Rio Grand on central, ran down a side street and then was out on Bridge street, crossing the Rio Grand again, and then I reached the 7-mile out and back at mile 6, with an 11 minute pace.  As I headed into the out-and-back,  Sweet Baboo was waiting for me, looking dry and fresh, sitting with a book and a Starbucks.  Damn it.  I was happy to see him, but did he have to look so relaxed?

I held my 11 minute pace as I headed down, down, further south of town to the turnaround, but I was starting to struggle.  The only thing that kept me going to picking out various people to try and pass, and certain songs on my iPod that were engergizing.

By 8:00, the temperature had started climbing into the upper eighties.  This out-and-back was bounded on one side by thick trees and brush and an acequia, and on the other side with fencing.  We passed the chile factory, and then a few junkyards, and headed further south, running by fields.

We also passed a few rude cyclists.  Occasionally a run in Albuquerque goes up onto the paved multiuse recreation trail, whitch a few local roadies feel they own.  Oh, yes.  They ride on by, yelling and refusing to yield, even though cyclists are supposed to yield to everyone on the trail.  Most cyclists are pretty cool, and are there to have a good time on a nice day.  However, there's handful that think that the Bosque Trail is a good place to timetrial, and they get all bitchy if you're using it, too.  But anyway.  

There was no breeze that could reach us, and in New Mexico, once that sun is up and on you, it's ON YOU.  And you know I loves me some hot.
Since we were running down by the river, there was a pocket of high humidity right where we were running.  So it was hot and humid, and I was tired from a week where I'd put in 40 miles already.

By mile 9, my pace had started climbing, and I was struggling to hold it down.  Sheryl Crow on the ipod helped. My cuteness clothes probably had about 2 pounds of sweat in them, further weighing me down.  My legs, surprisingly, didn't feel too bad, but like with run every I've done in the heat, I could feel my heart-rate climbing, and I was starting to get breathless.  Each aid station I passed through, about every 1.5 miles, I grabbed cold water and dumped it down my back.  I had a pack on, so I drank from that. 

I was determined to do a personal best.  I wanted to know if it was possible.I came out of the out-and-back with less than one mile to go, and  Sweet Baboo was waiting for me, still looking fresh.  He started trotting across the parking lot to the finish line, and then rounded the last turn.  Jane's Addiction "Been Caught Stealin'" was playing on my iPod.  PERFECT finishing song.  I sped up, and I finished up.  Total miles, according to Garmin, 13.2, average 11:13 minute pace.

They had free burritos, but ran out just after I finished.  I had no idea.  That means the last finishers didn't get any.   I think that sucks.  Courtney didn't get one.  She had a personal best, too.  If I'd known, I'd have saved part of mine.

This pool, at left, was a cruel enticement.  It was not accessible.  It was sharply steep with slippery looking stuff in it.  No standing in it for me.

I went home and ate. And napped.  And ate some more. 
Next up: Um.  Mostly training.  I'm thinking of the Chips and Salsa half mary, since they've canceled the New Mexico Marathon this year. 
...

Adventures in Hunger

Dear Diary,

I've discovered what true hunger is.  True hunger is being in the food isle at Walgreen's and having trouble deciding what to buy because everything looks good.

 EVERYTHING.

Every crappy food on the shelf, even non-refrigerated steamable meals that are, in my normal opinion, slightly greater in quality and value than an MRE. They may be less.

Normally, I know that I must be hungry because I start "noticing" food, food ads, food signs, etc. Like, "Oh, KFC. I wonder if there's anything vegetarian there? Man, I miss fried chicken." or, "Oh, Wendy's. Their fries are awesome. Hey, frozen pizzas are on sale at Smith's"

But on the day that I had completed my 64th mile for the week (the most I've ever done in a training week, so far)  my stomach was wrapping itself around my spine, there in the isle at Walgreen's. A noise emitted from my contracting food bag that, I swear, made the guy standing further down the isle edge a little further away. I just tried to affect a neutral face like, noise?  what noise? 
No, that did NOT come from me, because I am a delicate flower.

Still, I couldn't decide what to eat. So many awful possibilities...I finally chose a reasonably low-fat Simply Asia noodle bowl, a can of tiny shrimp, and a can of crab meat, to get protein I need. It was a crazy 12 or some points in Weight Watchers, which means I will, literally, eat into my activity points for the week now.

I climbed the stairs back up to my office, and started opening things and preparing them for the microwave, and went downSTAIRS to microwave them, and came back upSTAIRS to find that MREs would have been better, because THEY come with UTENSILS.

After briefly considering using my Purel to disinfect two pens to use as chopsticks, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that I'm going to have to go get a spork. From the cafeteria. Which is downstairs. Down. STAIRS. 

I put my head down on the desk for a moment and tried not to cry.  Yeah.  Big baby.  My legs were tired.  I was so.  Hungry. 

I considered, for a moment, taking the elevator down one floor, but that would be ridiculous, even for me. But I considered it.

I went downstairs and got a spork, climbed the stairs again to my office, and ate my space meal, which amounted to a bowl full of barely flavored low-fat high protein nutrients with some flavoring. And then, inexplicably, I wanted some cheese popcorn.  But that will have to wait.

I've heard that you should carefully examine your cravings and they will tell you what nutrients your body is missing.  I've decided that is a bullshit excuse for people to give into their cravings. 

There is no reason for my body to crave most of the things that it craves.  There are no "missing" nutrients for me in coconut m&ms, cheese popcorn, a cherry coke, or fried ANYTHING.  None.  is my body short on oil?  How about carbon dioxide?  salt?  Nope, none of those things. 

I will accept that I have cravings for Advil and protein, but that's about it.  And maybe breading.

...

Fancy running bling.

Dear Diary,

I made a comment earlier to my facebook friends that ultrarunning doesn't include spandex or bling, but sometimes it does.

It all started with that email from SkirtSports.  On Thursday, I sent Baboo a message from work.

Subject: DROOL.

And it had two links in it to these little items

Now, I don't expect my hubby to be excited about clothing.  This is my early warning system to ease into the idea that I'm going to buy something, some day.  But the next afternoon, the UPS guy bounded up the steps and handed me a package, which I immediately turned over to Baboo, since it was addressed to him, and I figured he had lots of last-minute Leadville equipment and accoutrements coming in.  He handed it back to me. 

He'd had it shipped.  Overnight. Without saying anything to me about it.

I'm now properly outfitted for running with Ms. Cuteness herself at Rio Del Lago. 

I'm ready for my closeups, Stacey.

I love Lucy.

Dear Diary,

This week as I was slogging it through miles 40-43, I don't recall going that slow since I first started running.  It was barely a shuffle jog.  But I hoofed out the last of the planned 4 miles. 

Part of the training is toughening myself, emotionally and physically, so no matter how crappy I feel [unless there lots of blood or a bone poking through the skin] I finish every single workout I have planned.  I dragged myself into the back yard at mile 3.99 with an average pace, slightly under 15 m/mile, I think.  Yike.  But waiting for me was Sweet Baboo with a nonfat cinnamon dulce latte.  I had oatmeal, a shower, and a nonfat cinnamon dulce latte.  In that order.

Will I always feel this crappy?  I can barely make it up a flight of stairs,  I complained.

"While you're base-building, Yep.  But you'll start feeling better."

Sweet Baboo is the boss of my training for JJ100. He has devoured the "Lore of Running," and every ultrarunner and trail runner magazine, and is a storehouse of knowledge for ultrarunning theory.  He has devised my running schedule up to Javalena:

• Tuesday, I always do 4 hilly "fast" miles
• Wednesday, I do 10 miles.
• Thursday, I do 6 miles, as part of our Thursday night "beer" runs, when we all go hill running and then have a beer after. I do not. I hate beer.  Don't try to ameliorate that.  Many fine people have tried.  I'm not a beer kind of person. 

 Anyway.  10 miles is tricky on a workday, for me.  Baboo has decided that, Wednesday mornings, I should do about 6 of it going downhill early, before work. He then picks me up at the bottom of the hill.  This started at 5:30 am, and ended with me showering and going to work.  There is a net 500 foot decrease, mostly on a paved bike path, ending in a mall parking lot in midtown.  The purpose, he tells me, is to gently build up my quads and increase my foot speed. 

I don't care.  Everything is eclipsed by the word, "downhill".  Booyah.  Love the downhill.

Tuesdays, and after work on Wednesday, I do one of my favorite runs:

This isn't as dramatic as it looks.  The trip back down is my absolute favorite part.  I know that sometime soon, Baboo is going to point out the need for me to do long steady uphills, which means doing this run backwards.  Ugh. 

Baboo is all proper and serious-like when explaining my training to me.  Tuesday night, while he was explaining the importance of the dowhill run, the route, and so on, I was wearing running shorts, and my "I love Lucy" apron.  And that's it.

It's fun, because it takes him by surprise, and he seems flustered, and sometimes loses his train of thought for a moment.  

I picked this outfit just for you, I said.

"I, uh, and, yeah.  I like that outfit," he said, momentarily losing his train of thought.

Weekends, I do my long runs.  Runs, with an S.  I do my longest run on Saturday, and then a slightly shorter run on Sunday.  This week it's 20 and 15.  So, I signed up for a local half marathon on Sunday.  I'm starting it with Courtney, so if I finish before she does, I'll run back out and find her. that will give me an extra couple miles.  But the way I'm feeling, she'll probably beat me.

I'm told I'm supposed to get 130 grams of protein a day during all this.  That's a lot of damned protein for someone who doesn't eat meat, or soy - where the hell will it all come from?  Looks like I'll be eating a lot of eggs, whey protein drinks, and fish.  I need to find some organic fish, so that I don't start building up toxic levels of mercury or something.

This sounds like a lot, I know.  It sounds like a lot to me, and I'm doing it!  Five years ago, I was training for my first triathlon.  Now I'm training for my first 100K, maybe more if I can pull it off.

Do you think I have a chance of finishing all 100 miles at Javalena?

"It's possible.  It might just be sheer stubborness," said Mr. Serious, thoughtfully. 

Stubbornness I've got.  In spades.  We'll see.

Meanwhile, a very good friend of mine has announced that she has signed up for her first 50K.
 Welcome, young apprentice.  Here's some inspiration: 

...