30 Days Till Grindstone Ultra

Day 1 of "30 Parks in 30 Days"

How many times do I have to come up with stupid ways to challenge myself? Well, here's one that takes the cakes. With 30 days till the ultra I decided to run in 30 different parks in 30 different days, and running at least 10 miles per run in the process. I knew a lot of parks around the area, but I wasn't sure I can get a list of more than 30 parks. Well, I sat down, started to compile a list of parks in the area, and found, with a little bit of a stretch, that I can indeed run in 30 different parks. Some of the parks require a drive of an hour or more so in order to be cost effective, the parks that are out there I can double up on, meaning I'll run 20 miles that day with 10 miles in one park and 10 in another. This will create some free days for me which is necessary to get other stuff done.

Well, I started this stupid quest with a trip down to Neptune, NJ for a quiet run in Shark River Park. I've never been to this park before, but I was going to a meeting with the Jersey Shore Triathlon Club in Belmar afterward. The park has a moderately difficult trail called the Shark Run which is 2.4 miles in length. Two out-and-back laps (plus a little run on the road to get to the car) would equal 10 miles.

Here are the pictures of that run:


Sign at entrance to park.



Steps on Shark Run trail. There are several of these "staircases" around that make the run more challenging.



Another staircase:



This picture here looks eerily like a jungle scene. Nice pic.



Signpost leading back to the trailhead. I'm almost done!

39 Days Till Grindstone Ultra - Road Rash Monday

Now this was an interesting start to a big week of ultra training. I got a road rash all over the front right side of my body. And this was done while RUNNING, not cycling. And the run was on the PAVEMENT, not trails.

So I started off nicely on the South Beach Boardwalk on Staten Island to do 2 loops (4 miles each) of running. The run starts off on Father Capodanno Blvd, then turns around and comes back on the actualy boardwalk. Fr. Capodanno Blvd is full of cars, and with a nice wide sidewalk to run on, that is where I ran.

At the beginning of mile 2, I moved over toward the road to pass another runner going in the opposite direction and BOOM, next thing I remember I was sliding nicely on the cement. Problem is that skin doesn't really slide nicely on cement. I guess that's why baseball is played on grass and dirt, not cement. Sliding into second would be quite event if baseball was played on cement, right?

Well, after being sprawled on the ground I gingerly got up and accessed the situation. Blood gushing from my right knee, a huge red spot on my right thigh, and another gigantic red spot on the stomach. Ouch. The first thing I accessed was my knee. Luckily, there were bathrooms along the boardwalk; it took me about 10 minutes to get the bleeding under control. The culprit? A little metal stump where a bus stop sign once was. Someone put a yellow tape around the stump, but that only served to mask the damn thing instead of expose it (I'll take a picture of the thing tomorrow when I go back there for tomorrow's run). I managed to finish the first lap, get back to my car, and use the first aid kit to my advantage. After cleaning and dressing the wound, I decided to go back out again and finish off the run.

It was not a pretty second loop, but it was done. Believe it or not, I had more pain in the thigh and stomach than my knee. Road rashes suck; I've fallen on my bike several times in my life to know that.

Anyway, I was enterprising enough to go out and ride 21 miles on the bike early in the PM. The knee was still leaking fluids, but I figured since I wasn't in any real pain that I go and do it. It was a nice ride.

Hopefully this thing will dry up for tomorrow's run and swim.

(part 4 of "The Difference Between a Marathon and an Ultra" will be out tomorrow)

Differences Between Marathon and Ultra Part 3 - Carbo Loading

Carbo-loading before an ultra. How important is it?

Well, that's a good question. Why do people carbo-load before an endurance race anyway? Because the goal here is to have the maximum reserves on tap when you toe the starting line. By maximum reserves, that means glycogen in your liver and muscles.

Remember what I said about nutrition in a marathon, that since you are not ingesting as much as your expending in calories, and that you are constantly tapping into your glycogen reserves throughout the entire race. The ultimate trick is to get across the finish line as soon as those glycogen reserves are depleted. So the bottom line is that, for competitive marathoners, carbo-loading is absolutely essential for a good race.

Ultra runners have nutritional strategy is different than that of a marathoner. As I stated in a previous blog, ultra runners need to utilize foods that they ingest DURING the race for their energy. That means processing (indesting and digesting) their food on the fly, and have it available for their use. Therefore, tapping into potential stores might not be as important in these races. Generally, the longer the distance of an ultra, carbo-loading is not considered as critical as in a marathon. Does this mean to skip your dinner the night before your race? No, but you really shouldn't be concerned much with your carb intake. Just focus on eating a regular nutritional dinner the night before and you'll be set.

One other important thing to note that stems from the relative paces in a marathon and ultramarathon: Studies have shown that the body burns a lot more fat than glycogen as the pace decreases. In other words, marathoners have to rely on their limited glycogen stores while ultra runners primarily have to rely on their fat stores. Even in a skinny person, fat stores are virtually unlimited, even in a 100 mile race. So you're already loaded for the race! An ultra runner can get by with just a little glycogen to burn the fat. This glycogen needed to "stoke the fat flame" can easily be ingested during the ultra.

Next blog we will see what your overall pace of the run should be (should be obvious, right?)

Differences Between Marathon and Ultra Pt 2...The Type of Food You Eat

Part 2 - The Type of Food You Eat During an Ultra.

On my last blog I asked "How do you eat that much food while running? How do you know you've eaten enough calories? And what type of food can you eat to keep you going?"

OK, the answer is going to surprise you. Aside from some energy gels and drinks, you should be eating some real food for your run.

That's right. The real difference between racing a marathon and racing an ultra is that you CAN eat real food during an ultra. In a marathon you cannot.

Again, take a look at the typical ultramarathon aid station:



What do we see here. A choice of cookies, some boiled potatoes with salt, M&Ms, pretzels...representatives of all food groups accounted for! A 50 and 100 mile ultra is many hours of running, even over a full day at times! In a way you need to treat this as a normal day and eat your 3-5 square meals over the course of the race because even at a high metabolic rate, the body still has to do other functions that require all those food groups.

And that means eating REAL FOOD. Can your body digest some heavy food during the run without upsetting your stomach?

Yes it can. And herein lies another major difference between the marathon and an ultra. Your slower pace in an ultra is enough for your body to send enough blood to the stomach to digest real food. In a regular marathon you are still running with a lot of speed, so your digestive system is only limited to easily digestible things like energy gels and drinks.

As for eating full meals in an ultra, you can schedule a 15-30 minute walk within your ultra into further help digest your food. Your best bet to eat a good meal is right before a large uphill that you know you are going to walk anyway. By the time you reach the top of the hill, you should feel energized and ready to run again with the food fully digested and converted into energy.

And how do you know what type of food to eat? This is the easy, yet misunderstood part. Just ask your body!

Your body knows what it needs and send messages to your consciousness regularly. It is called the craving. If your body needs a little sodium, you will crave salty foods like chips and pretzels. If it needs fat, you'll crave the M&Ms, and if it needs carbs, you'll crave potatoes. It is perfectly acceptable to give into the crave during your race.

And how do you know when you've eaten enough calories? This is the tricky part. Whereas craving is an accurate indicator of the types of foods you need to eat, thirst and hunger aren't quite accurate. By the time you get hungry or thirsty during your race, you've already taxed your calories to a great extent and need a lot of food and drink to get back to normal levels again. The trick is to try to avoid hunger or thirst as much as possible by making sure you eat and drink at every aid station on the course. If your race doesn't have aid stations, make sure you time yourself to eat and drink every 15 minutes. If you do get hungry or thirsty, don't hesitate to take 5 minutes at an aid station to ingest a good amount of food or drink and walk a little afterwards to help in digesting the food. It's tough to do this because you're in a race after all and the clock is ticking. But ultra races are very, very long...if you take 10 minutes to feed yourself, it could save you hours later on.

Now you're starting to see some major differences between a marathon and ultramarathon. Wait, there's more...

Tomorrow's post will be your carbo-loading before the ultra and how it compares to a marathon. Stay tuned.

Key Differences Between A Marathon and an Ultramarathon

OK, so you've done several marathons now and wonder what to do next. Seems like you have 2 options available to you. First is to improve your marathon times by going faster and maybe qualify for Boston. Not a bad goal, what happens when you feel you're getting up there in age and don't want to bother with the speed workouts.

Luckily, more and more people are starting to choose Option 2, go the ultramarathon route. And in the whole scheme of things, it's quite practical for those who want to discover what the real joys of running are and to challenge themselves in a way that, if done properly, can reduce your chances of injury (low impact running, but that is a different subject).

But what do you need to know about ultras? There are some key differences between the 2. The key differences are 1) The rate of ingestion during the race, 2) The type of food you'll be eating during your race 3) Your carbo-loading dinner 48 hours before the race, 4) Your overall pace of the run, and 5) your cirdacian rhythms over the long hours of the ultra.

Since this is a long and comprehensive subject, I'll post each subject one blog at a time to make it easier for you to understand.

The Rate of Ingestion During the Race

OK, this is a very important factor, one that bears reading multiple times until you grasp the importance of this one. Remember your marathon, where you run by the aid stations, grab a banana or energy gel, or a cup of water, and keep within your stride. You don't eat much during a marathon, relying on the nutrition that you built up in your carbo-loading and what you ate the morning of the race. Just a little energy is needed during the race to get yourself to the finish. Most everyone who finishes the marathon is depleted in their energy reserves; if you ask them to go another 5 miles, they cannot do it very well.

Well, that is because the energy you expend during the marathon is greater than the energy you ingest. All marathoners end up tapping into their reserves for energy. If done well, you exhaust your reserves at or near the finish line, for those who didn't plan well, they "hit the wall" at around mile 21 and struggle to the finish.

So fuel reserves for the average person is worth about 21-26 miles. So if you tap out at mile 25, all you need to do is will yourself over the last mile to finish the marathon.

Now, what would happen if you "hit the wall" at mile 25 of a 50 mile ultramarathon? You'll be up the nasty creek without a paddle, wouldn't you? Ready to struggle another 25 miles to the finish? I didn't think so. It wouldn't be a nice predicament to be in and surely one that you need to avoid.

So scrap your marathon strategy because it doesn't work with ultras. You need to come up with a completely different plan to get you to that 50 or 100 mile finish line. If your reserves are limited to 20 miles and you have a 50 mile race, the extra 30 miles worth of energy is going to be needed from food ingested DURING the race. And since it takes some time for your ingested food to be converted to readily available energy, you need to eat early and often in an ultra.

Luckily, most races have aid stations that are set up for this; you'll immediately see the difference between an ultra aid station and a marathon aid station when you come upon one. As you see below, you will not see an aid station fully stocked with a wide variety of foods in a marathon:

(this aid station comes from the Tarawera 50mile ultra, yumm!)

(Just one thing on aid stations, it is always beneficial to have other options if the food at the aid stations doesn't work for you. A lot of ultramarathoners use their own crews that provide a personal aid station with foods the runner knows will help him or her out. It pays to have a couple of people to help you out during these races).

So what is the ultimate rate of ingestion needed for a 50 or 100 mile race? The same amount that is expended during your run. If you cover 5-6 miles per hour in your ultra, the amount you expend is about 500-700 calories, depending on body type, so you'll need to eat that much to keep going. For 50k, a little less in needed because it is only 5 miles longer than a marathon. In a 50k, you still have to significantly change your eating habits because who still wants to hit the wall at mile 21 and struggle a full 10 miles to the finish?

That amount of calories ingested could pose a problem for some people. How do you eat that much food while running? How do you know you've eaten enough calories? And what type of food can you eat to keep you going?

That is the subject for tomorrow's blog. Until then, Happy Trails!

Ocean City, Maryland Week

Last week, I took a little trip down to Ocean City, Maryland.

Seriously, how did I ever find myself down in Maryland last week? The weather was hot, the days were so humid that I couldn't see the tops of the buildings, I don't even like seafood, I could only stay a couple of hours at the beach at only one time, and I don't drink as much as I used to at nights.

Nevertheless, the opportunity presented itself, I left for Ocean City, and I actually had a solid week of running down there along with the rest of my stay. It was actually an enjoyable week!

The trip actually went together well. It was a very cheap vacation, I actually had a social life down there, I body surfed the waves on the beach, and I didn't leave there as red as a lobster due to a severe sunburn. But I'm only going to focus on the running there because after bowing out of the Burning River 100 Miler I was at a loss of focus for the fall racing season. And this was a good opportunity to try to get that back.

For those who don't know Ocean City, the barrier island in which it sits is exactly 9 miles long, ending in the inlet to the south and the Delaware border to the north. The south end of the island is the main boardwalk and attraction location (think Seaside Heights, and you get a good picture of the boardwalk there) .

To summarize, here is the tally for last week. Total mileage turned out to be 71 miles.

Monday - 8 miles South End in AM, plus 4 miles to South End in PM (12 total).

Tuesday - 10 miles North End to Delaware Border in AM Very humid

Wednesday - 8 miles South End - this was the toughest and most humid day of the week. The haze was so thick I couldn't see the tops of the buildings.

Thursday - 13 miles - 5 miles South End + 8 miles South End - a bit drier and a beautiful day to run.

Friday - Off

Saturday - 20 miles - This was a well executed run that took me into Delaware for a while before reversing course and getting back to Ocean City. A cool, dry beautiful day for the run.

Sunday- 8 miles - South End - Back to high humidity and soupy mess again. I'm glad it was only 8 miles.

Not a bad week at all. Now all I have to do is keep the momentum going this week. If I can get all 90 miles of running in this week, then I'm golden!

Finding My Low Gear Again

Monday's run was actually the first double-digit mile run in a couple of weeks. I was actually happy about the way I ran 12 miles in Bayonne more than the mileage itself.

Let me explain how I go about my running these distances. I utilize what is popularly understood as the Galloway's "Run-Walk-Run" Method in terms of marathon training. I don't necessarily advocate this to marathon training as Galloway does (speed is still quite critical in marathons and this method does not address speed), but this method is PERFECT for ultra training.

My method for flat terrain is an 8 minute run/2 minute walk approach. For hilly terrain, I walk whenever I encounter a significant climb (with come caveats, of course). Now 8 minutes is a lot easier to digest than, say, 3 hours. And I started to treat this as "only" 8 minutes of running. The problem the past 3 weeks is that I actually started to pick up my pace as if it was an 8 minute interval on the track. By the time the 8 minutes was up, I sometimes had to stop to catch my breath. I realized this when I failed to finish only 15 miles of running last week.

On Monday, I kept the run easy. Real easy. And the 12 mile run was downright comfortable again. Even with the speed slower I found I only ran 4 minutes slower than what I was doing last week. And over the course of an ultra, those minutes are really insignificant. I managed to find my low gear again, boy, I'm glad to have it back with the Grindstone 100 coming up.