Seven Summits Body – Fitness and Training

Category: Blog

  • Taper Purgatory 6 Days Out

    Taper Purgatory 6 Days Out

    Of all the crazy things to do, with only a handful of days to go, I ended up with new shoes. I have been having trouble with my feet for a couple months now, from nearly-blistered hotspots to plantar fasciitis, to bleeding scrapes from the shoe itself. My Topo Athletic Ultraventure Pro (?) died a horrible death, and only about 100-ish miles into it. The plastic toe cap liner (protects from rocks) delaminated, and the edges curled under cutting my toes on the descent. I was going to wear them too. I took them in to where I bought them, Runners Corner in Orem, and the girl who ended up having to put her magazine down didn’t want to help, said there was no such thing as delamination, and wanted to know if there was something I wanted to buy. I declined much more gracefully than I would have liked to.

    @vk.trailrunner

    descending a steep loose rugged trail is pretty risky for some especially me #trailrunning #BrokenArrowSkyrace

    ♬ original sound – Charles Miske

    With only a week to go, I got talked into going in to Utah Run in American Fork. I have gotten a few pairs of shoes there, and appreciate the more inclusive and open-minded employees there. Hope we didn’t just jinx them. I ended up with a pair of Saucony Peregrine 11, which have sufficient curvature for my wacked feet, and tread that reminds me a bit of my old Salomon Crossmax I used to run in way back before Hoka.

    My own taper program, derived from modeling 2019 (Broken Arrow VK, at which I felt really strong) I had a couple miles on the treadmill with a few quick intervals/strides in store, so I did that on Friday in the new Peregrine, and the new Ultra Spire handheld as an experiment. It went pretty well, but I didn’t quite hit my target TSS from Training Peaks.

    @vk.trailrunner

    top of Green Monster, a classic route on #Strava taper week for #BrokenArrowSkyrace BrokenArrowSkyrace #trailrunning

    ♬ original sound – Charles Miske

    This morning, Saturday, I decided to run/walk/jog on one of my favorite trails nearby, Green Monster, a Strava route just a few miles away. I parked at the Murdock Canal parking and headed up Giddy-Up, a “hoof and boot” trail (meaning no mountain bikes, though there is a guerilla bike park about a quarter mile up it for the local kids in the hood), forked on the “Bench Road” (which is actually the BST-enough) and then up Green Monster for two laps. I did some sustained effort at 2500’/hr vertical, some intervals of strong power hiking at 3600’/hr and on the flatter sections, some intervals at 9:00 pace. On the return to the car I sustained a half mile-ish at 12:00 or less just to burn out the fat.

    Next time, let’s talk about the “Almost but not quite VK” next Friday, setting up HR zones in all the apps and stuff, and maybe some more fun things.

    Videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

  • Runcline App First Test with Stryd Footpod and Zwift Running

    Due to unsolvable issues connecting my Stryd footpod to Zwift Running to my Win10 PC via ANT+ I decided to try the Runcline App in my iPad. Runcline acts as a Bluetooth Bridge between the footpod and Zwift. Sadly that requires me to use another Bridge – in this case the Zwift Companion App on my Android phone. Whew! What a mess. But that at least allows me to gather up the full range of Stryd statistics, such as ground contact time, etc. that are normally missing from Zwift exports. It also allows me to gather incline/elevation gain data that are very important to my training. So I installed it, jumped through a few hoops, endured a few back-and-forth pair/re-pair issues and finally got the stats I wanted. I verified it in Training Peaks, and while there are still a few things to mess with and sort out, I think it will work. For now…

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  • Japanese Skyrunning Event Completed in 2020?

    Amazing. Simply amazing. Wish I were there. When they canceled the Broken Arrow this past summer (for “reasons”) I was nearly devastated. Totally lost a lot of my drive and motivation. Previous to that I was on my training program, starting to become the best me possible and shooting for an Age Group placement, which I would have had in 2019 if I were a week older. Anyway, here’s a link to the story, courtesy of our really good buds over at the big FB:

     

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  • Rut Training Run – tapering was an option?

    Tapering? I normally don’t taper well. I experimented with it off and on over the years. Right now I’m watching my stats in both Training Peaks and the Stryd Power Center so I can see where I’m at in readiness to race. I experimented with tapering for the Broken Arrow VK and I think I was a little flat for that one. Could I have finished 10 minutes faster? I don’t think so with the technical terrain, especially the snow.

    Scenery at the start of the Broken Arrow VK in Squaw Valley

    This week I’m experimenting with tapering for the Rut Training Run. I’m pushing my stats for three runs in a row of greater than 220 RSS (Stryd) or 150 TSS (Training Peaks). This is done on the treadmill at roughly 3.1 miles in about 64 minutes (5k) at 22% incline (a little over 1000m of climb).

    There’s my Stryd Race Readiness from the Metabolic Fitness graph in the Improvement tab. It’s right on 65.

    40-65 Skill means you are prepared for a half marathon race.
    55-70 Skill means you are prepared for a marathon race.

    I’m currently at a little over 7,000′ of vertical for this week. Tomorrow I will be over 10,000′ and then I’ll be done running till Saturday at the Rut Training Run. I’ll be doing some cycling tonight, Wednesday (OTB Trainer so lucky to get a mile or two in) and Thursday.

    I think I made a mistake for the Broken Arrow VK by not getting in any appreciable vertical early that week. We’ll see how I feel on Saturday and apply the lessons learned for my next race. Possibly another “C” race in early August.

    All in all it’s been awesome to try to come back to running, such as it is with all the vertical. Yes, it’s fast vertical, but it’s slow running. I’ve felt it when I’ve been out doing 10:00 miles out on the road. Ugh.

    Map My Fitness (Map My Run, by Under Armour) has a 1000 km challenge every year. I’ve entered it for a handful of years running (pun) now, and every year was so totally lucky to get in even 300 km. This year I’m way ahead of pace. I’m over 800 km already, putting my solidly in the top 5% of registrants. Super duper. I’m actually on pace (according to Strava) to exceed 1000 miles this year.

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  • Rut Training Run – only a handful of days to go

    Again, like the foolish child I am, I registered for the Rut Training Run 10.5 mile course. It starts with the VK, and gives me an opportunity to pre-run it with a group of fun runners in a non-competitive environment.

    My recent PR on Baldy South Ridge

    Wildlife? Horned Toad on Baldy summit

    From their most recent email:

    What to Expect at Aid Stations:
    We will have water, Skratch Labs Drink Mix and a salty and sweet option for you at both aid stations. Note that there will NOT be gels at our Training Runs or Race aid stations this year. We believe Skratch Labs makes some of the best nutrition products on the market, however, as of 2019, they do not make gels so plan accordingly to bring your own if gels are a part of your nutrition plan!
    Aid Stations (for both routes):
    • Aid Station #1: Mile 3.5 (Lone Peak Summit)
    • Aid Station #2: Mile 9.1 (Base of Africa trail before steep climb up Andesite.)
    The Rut is a Cupless Event in 2019!
    In case you have not heard we are going cupless this year! In 2018 the Rut went through 12,000 non reusable dixie cups at our event. We are excited to send zero dixe cups to the landfill in 2019! With that said, it is up to you to provide a vessel for carrying water on the RutTraining Runs and Races this year!

    I just recently did a run up the South Ridge of Baldy and hit a PR by 9 minutes. 9 Minutes. Yep. The worst thing is I really felt super slow and useless. That’s greater than 700 VAM which is really good for me. If I can get on top of my breathing and pacing I think I should be able to get something good done at The Rut VK end of August.

    I ran down a section of the Dry Canyon Trail known affectionately as a Strava Segment “Hell’s Half-Pipe” and it killed me. Running downhill was the worst.

    I’m still recovering which made this morning workout really a slog. I did a VK on the treadmill in 64 minutes. Still, a slog and it hurt.

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  • Rut Training Run – the week before

    The Rut is doing a training run July 13 for their 28k and 50k. Interestingly they are supposed to climb the VK route, which is on neither of the routes. Then it forks for each of the routes for 10.5 or 15 miles. Since it’s a great opportunity to do the VK as a pre-run I opted for the 10.5 mile, which is totally doable as a run/walk.

    Here are some details from the event:

    Training Runs Schedule:
    7:00-7:55 am: Runner Check-in Big Sky Resort Base Area Huntley Dining Room at Base of Explorer Lift. See MAP.
    8:00 am: Start Training Runs
    8:00-1:00 pm: Runs in progress (1 pm cut off for all runners & routes)
    11:30 am -1:30 pm: Lunch catered by Big Sky Resort

    Check in is at Huntley Dining Room near Base of Explorer Lift: (See Map)
    While you may not need a bib or timing chip for the Training Runs we still want to know who is starting and finishing the runs with us! So we will have a check in from 7:00AM to 7:55 AM at the start finish area in the Huntely Dining Room near the base of the explorer Lift. **Note that this is a different location than the normal Rut Races check in!** 

    I’m really looking forward to pre-run the VK route, since I’ll be racing it at the main event on August 30. I did so well, and felt so strong at the Broken Arrow VK that I’m really excited to see what I can do at The Rut.

    “Long” run at 5 miles on pavement this morning

    Training with the Middle School MTB Team

    It’s been a bit of a rough transition from the Broken Arrow, with a lot of pain getting back up to speed. While the Rut Training Run is at best a “C” race, meaning just a regular training run effectively, I still want to be strong enough to make the cutoffs and measure my own efficiency on the VK portion of the run.

    I’ve dropped down to on average 45 minute or so training periods, outside the MTB team rides, which are two hours of on and off riding at a mellow pace for the most part.

    I need to increase my singletrack training a bit, and increase my mileage enough to cover the 10.5 miles I’ll be doing at The Rut Training Run.

    I need to get some steep and rough technical terrain practice in, since The Rut VK has quite a bit of that. Especially near the top. The pics and vids make it look a lot like an intense crawl. Far out.

    I’ll post some more here in the next few days as I prepare. We’ll be camping near the Big Sky Resort where The Rut takes place. We were going to take the trailer, but our tow vehicle is having some issues and might not make it in time. In that case I guess it’s tents.

    We’ll see. Wish me the best. Thanks

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