All posts by brackec

Suunto Ambit Review

October 29, 2012 brackec 7 Comments

After just over 5 months of using the new Suunto Ambit, I finally wrote a details review for Matt Hart at Coaching Endurance. See my review here.

Copy of review

I have been a huge fan of GPS running watches since I purchased a Garmin Forerunner 201 over five years ago. Since then, I have upgraded to the Garmin Forerunner 205 and eventually a Garmin Forerunner 310XT. I was never happy with the Garmin heart rate monitors so ever since I started using a GPS watch, I also wore a Polar hear rate monitor (C210 and RS400 models). I felt that Polar had a superior heart rate monitor with several functions that I liked (OwnZone, pretty accurate calorie counting, max heart rate, average heart rate, etc.). I always found it a pain to wear 2 separate watches, but I did like the ability to see 7 screens of data at a glance to both wrists. I also wanted a device that I could use while backcountry skiing. I wanted the ability to track my vertical (I have a Suunto Vector and Suunto Core I used for this for this), but I also wanted to be able to set a waypoint for things like snowpits, great lines to ski, etc. or track my route. I didn’t want to carry a handheld GPS while skiing so I never had this opportunity. When the Suunto Ambit was announced last winter, I was excited to try it out. I felt this would be my opportunity to have a single device for all of my activities and to free 1 of my wrists.

I purchased my Ambit in May not sure if it was the right device for me or not.

Setup: I setup the displays for all of the information I might want to see for various activities. Activities I configured it for are: Road Running, Trail Running, Mountain Biking, Road Biking, Backcountry Skiing, Resort Skiing, Nordic Skiing, Indoor Training (treadmills, weight lifting, etc), and Recovery (used to measure my heart rate for a period of time immediately after a workout). For each activity, I tried to create a primary screen with the main information I would want to see (for example for trail running, time, distance, and pace for a run), then select 2-4 more pieces of information I might want to quickly look at (for trail running, this is heart rate, calories, and average pace). I then created additional views that I may want (I have specific views for heart rate information, lap information, vertical gain/loss, altitude graph, and heart rate graph). Initial setup of the device takes some time and I found that as I used the device I had to modify these views to get them perfected. Being able to configure the device from the MovesCount.com website is a huge benefit (and time saver) over the Garmin watches I have used.

Satellite Acquisition: I had read on several reviews that satellite acquisition can take some time. On my first use, I was happy that the unit acquired satellites very quickly. I have found that when I move to a new location (more than 100 or so miles from my last use), the device can take 3-5 minutes to acquire satellites. I have also found that on random occasions the device will take 3-5 minutes to acquire satellites even though I am using it at the same location as the previous usage. I expect that as new firmware updates are released by Suunto that this is an area that will be improved upon.

Using the Watch: My first few uses of the watch, I used both my Garmin Forerunner 310XT and the Ambit. On these side by side comparisons, I have found that there can be up to 10% variation in the distance readings of the Ambit and 310XT. On several known distance trails, it appeared that the Ambit was off compared to the 310XT. Here is a comparison of the 310XT and Ambit on a recent hike on Mt Mansfield, Vt. The Ambit read 0.48 miles less than the 310XT, a difference of around 5%.

I immediately liked the look and feel of the watch. I did find that with my small wrists, I needed a wrist band to take up some extra space as I couldn’t get the watch to fit correctly so that it wouldn’t rotate on my wrist. I also found that I missed having 4 screens of data. I had grown very accustomed to being able to see my time, distance, pace, and average pace all at a single glance at my 310XT. Even after close to 6 months of use, I miss this feature.

The calorie counting also appeared to be low. On a 10K trail run of 48 minutes with around 1,000’ of climbing, it would read only around 400 calories. This seems low for my perceived exertion and average heart rate. On the long hike on Mt Mansfield, the device registered 1555 calories over the 5:22 of hiking. To me it seems low to only have burned an average of 290 calories/hour while hiking steep terrain.

As expected from Suunto, the vertical gain/loss is very accurate. It is nice to be able to see this information real time and not have to wait to upload the data and go to the Garmin Connect website to get accurate data (the 310XT uses GPS altitude and when the data is uploaded to Garmin Connect an elevation correction is applied). The photo below is an example of the discrepancy between the 310XT and Ambit on vertical gain during the Mt Mansfield hike. When downloaded to Garmin Connect, the Garmin vertical gain was adjusted to 4,696’, which more closely matches the Ambit’s reading.

Navigation: I have not tested the new navigation features included in the latest firmware release. The previous ability to navigate to waypoints or routes was limited and difficult to use. You could get a directional arrow to a waypoint or import a route to follow, but you could not import a route, then try to start following the route mid-way through the route, you had to start at the beginning. With the new advanced navigation, I am hoping this is resolved. Regardless, with the small screen your navigation abilities are limited and if you need to navigate, I am much more likely to rely on a map and compass or handheld GPS unit.

Battery Life: The Ambit has been praised for the 15 hour battery life. As an ultra-runner, I find this is a little bit low. I had grown accustomed to the 20+ hours of battery life from the 310XT. It was nice to be able to finish almost a complete 100 mile race with the 310XT. There are settings in the Ambit to decrease the recording interval in order to increase the battery life, but this setting comes at the cost of accuracy for distance, pace, and average pace while running.

Summary: I am very happy with all aspects of the watch. As summarized below in pros and cons, there are things from the Polar and 310XT that I miss, but so far, the pros out-weigh the cons. While the cost of the Ambit is high, this is a highly functional, highly customizable device that meets 95% of my requirements and would likely meet 100% of most people’s requirements.

Pros

Up to 10 sports specific, highly customizable displays
- 8 different screens per display
- 5 options for bottoms view on each display
- Accurate altimeter based on barometric pressure
- Accurate elevation gain/loss tracking
- Can be worn as a regular watch
- Watch can be fully configured from MovesCount.com website.
- Suunto has released 2 firmware updates since I purchased the watch each adding additional functionality. I expect this to continue which will likely increase my satisfaction with the watch.

Cons

Only has the ability to view 3 display fields at a time
Routes are limited to 100 waypoints
Only 15 hours of battery life (as opposed to Garmin 310XT which is 20 hours)
Heart rate monitor lacks some of the features of Polar heart rate monitors I have previously used.
Device does not wirelessly transmit data (Garmin Forerunner 310XT uses wireless ANT technology to sync data so as soon as I walk into my house the watch syncs).
Can’t create custom workouts and upload to device. This is a great feature of the Garmin watches as you can create custom workouts for intervals, Tabata sprints, and other workouts that I frequently use.
Cost: the Ambit is twice the cost of many of the other GPS units.

Running

2012 Leadman Video

September 3, 2012 brackec Leave a comment

A short video of my 2012 Leadman series.

2012 Leadman

Running

Leadman – A Rough Finish

August 20, 2012 brackec 4 Comments

“That’s the mark of a great crew. When your masochism weakens, their sadism strengthens.” – Jim Knight

It’s hard to know where to even start, but that quote definitely sums up my race. I love running 100’s and out of all ultra’s, they are my strong distance. I have a great ability to suffer and just keep going. I always know a 100 will hurt, but going into them, I always know that I can persevere and finish. I was not so sure for the Leadville Trail 100 this year. After 2 massages and a chiropractor visit, my back was not much better. On Friday I drove to Aspen for what I called a full body reboot. I visited a deep tissue release specialist. It really felt like a full body reboot. It left me sore, but I felt many times better than prior to ‘the reboot’. This gave me some great mental strength going into the race. Friday night was spent in the normal fashion, dinner, crew briefing, and early to bed.

I awoke Friday morning excited to race. We were staying 4 blocks from the starting line and I was going to use this as a quick warm up. I quickly realized on the way to the starting line that my back was not in good shape and I started having real doubts about running 100 miles. I resorted to my backup plan and took a Percocet and put 2 more in my pocket.

LT100 Starting Line – 3:50AM

When the race started, I was not able to run at all. I jogged the first 3.5 miles downhill and then resorted to walking with short bursts of jogging. I was not able to run at all and the fastest jog I could maintain was ~10min/mile. At the boat ramp on Turquoise Lake (mile 7), I was ready to quit due to the pain. Since my crew was not going to meet me until May Queen (mile 13.5), quitting wasn’t an option. I walked most of the rest of the way to May Queen arriving around 2:40 instead of my planned 1:53. I told my crew I was quitting as I was in severe pain and couldn’t imagine suffering another 87 miles and 24+ hours. My crew talked me into continuing convincing me that my back could loosen up (it is not uncommon for me to feel crappy the first 12-15 miles of any long run) and that I don’t want to throw away Leadman quite so quickly.

Emily Sullivan convincing me not to drop at Turquoise Lake

I felt moderately better climbing up to Sugar Loaf Pass and was able to pass many people. Unfortunately, I was not able to run much of the downhill on Powerline due to the stress it put on my back. I made it to Fish Hatchery (mile 23.5) feeling miserable, but no worse than before. Since my stride was so screwed up from my back, I had to do some foot work due to already having sore feet. I left Fish Hatchery willing to give the suffering another chance. Similar to my experience around Turquoise Lake, I was not able to run the flats (especially the paved parts) and walked the next 4 miles to the Pipeline Crew Stop. I sat down and said I was quitting and they should go climb Mt Massive since we are so close to the trailhead and I would sleep in the truck. My crew (or sadistic crew according to Jim) would have nothing of it. They convinced me that if I took poles, I could take the stress off my back and I would feel better.

Brent & Emily convincing me not to take poles and keep going at Pipeline

I left Pipeline with poles and it definitely helped. I was able to keep a slow, but consistent jog and the flats, gradual climbs, and descents. I came into Twin Lakes still miserable, but for the first time, actually looking forward to moving on. I kept moving through the aid station and continued on for the long climb up Hope Pass. The climb went well and since climbing is my strong suit, I was able to pass quite a few people and was enjoying getting up high. I only stopped long enough at Hopeless Aid Station to fill my bottles and kept moving. The next 6 miles to Winfield went by quickly as I was meeting many friends and it was great to cheer people on and get cheered on. There is a new section of the Continental Divide Trail that allowed us to avoid the horrible and dusty Winfield road. The trail added about 2.5-3 miles round trip, but it was well worth it as it was a great section of rolling single track and I would do anything to avoid the cars and dust of the Winfield road. I arrived at Winfield in about 12:40, one of my slowest 50 mile paces, but I was happy to still be making ‘relentless forward progress’ (a statement that had become somewhat of a mantra for me during the day), and excited to be picking up Emily S as a pacer. As with all aid stations, I sat down to eat, drink, and hopefully reduce some of my pain which was now in my back, glutes, hamstrings, knees, and feet. Emily S and I headed out of the aid station for the long slog up Hope Pass. Emily pushed me just hard enough and we made the pass in good time and soon were on our way back to Twin Lakes.

Happy to be at Hope Pass, the 2nd Time

Twin Lakes River Crossing

The face of someone who has been in pain and miserable for 60 miles and 16 hours.

At this point I was just in the mentality of keep moving forward at whatever pace wouldn’t kill me whether it was walking or jogging. Due to my messed up stride, many other muscles and joints were getting more beat up than my back. My right glute and hamstring were in rough shape so Emily S gave them a good massage at both Twin Lakes and Pipeline (mile ~73)

This is how you know you have a GREAT pacer!

Emily S continued pacing me out of Twin Lakes and we had a long stretch to Pipeline. To add to my misery, my stomach had also gone south. Emily S had her work cut out for her in the next 13 miles to Pipeline where. We continued the standard of walking as fast as possible and a slow jog and were happy to see Brent and Emily B at the crew stop. Since my feet hurt so bad I decided to try running in Hoka’s. I bought a pair this summer but had only run in them for 20 miles and had not liked the way they felt. I usually wouldn’t try something new in a race, but at this point, I had nothing to lose.

I was not looking forward to the next 4 miles of road to Fish Hatchery. I was unable to run it at mile 25 so I doubted I could run it this time – I couldn’t. Since I couldn’t run, Emily S marched me at a 13:30 min/mile pace all the way to the Fish Hatchery Aid Station. It always feels good to pass people who are running when you are walking. Upon arriving at Fish Hatchery, I changed into my magic tights in hopes of helping relieve some of my knee and hamstring pain, filled up with food, had 2 Advil with a Red Bull chaser and took off with Brent for the next 10 mile section up Powerline and over Sugar Loaf Pass.

Brent and I set off on my normal pace of the day, but after about 30 minutes my Red Bull/Advil cocktail started to kick in and I started feeling better than I had felt all day (although just a lower degree of miserable). I had trained hard on the Powerline climb and knew it was 3.2 miles and 1,600’. Brent pushed me hard with happy thoughts of skiing powder and using good skimo climbing form. We continued to catch racer after racer and made the May Queen Aid Station (mile 86.5) at close to my 22 hour goal split pace. I made it through May Queen just wanting to get done with a modified goal of beating the sun rise (my original goal was 21:45 and I was now hoping to squeak in around 26:30). I refueled with pancakes and sausage as I walked out of the aid station and had my best pacer (my wife Emily B) taking me to the finish. I continued to suffer (sometimes worse than others) over the next 13 miles, but we continued to push and to pass people. It was amazing as I was passing people who were 2-3 hours ahead of me at Winfield. I didn’t feel good, but I didn’t feel any worse than I had felt the entire day so I was able to slow down much less than other people who were suffering. Emily pushed me the entire way to the finish line. I was doing great, but at 500M from the finish line my back totally went out and it was all I could do to keep a jog across the finish line for a finish time of 26:12.

My 2012 Leadville 100 was my second slowest 100 run, but I learned a lot about the power of a motivating crew and my ability to persevere and suffer. Had I dropped, I would have had a very long mental recovery for not finishing Leadman. Having finished, I have a solid 2-3 weeks of recovery ahead of me, but I also have the extreme pride of being able to persevere and become 1 of only 124 people to complete Leadman with a total time of 46:26. In the last 8 days I have raced ~212 miles and I have learned a ton about how my body reacts (both positively and negatively) to this type of intensity and duration. I am extremely happy to have finished Leadman and I am looking forward to a fall with no races on the calendar and lots of adventure running.

Leadman Hardware

Final Note: I can’t thank my awesome crew of Emily B, Emily S, and Brent enough. Without them, I would not (and probably could not) have finished. They had their work cut out for them with my back issues, but when I didn’t think I could go on, they kept me on track to become a Leadman.

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Leadman Events 3 & 4 – 100 Mile Mt Bike & 10K Run

August 15, 2012 brackec Leave a comment

It was a great week after Boom Days. I rode and ran some final miles, relaxed, made sure I was getting lots of sleep, and eating well. Emily and my parents arrived on Thursday. We spent Thursday and Friday preparing for the race, driving around some of the old mines, getting a great tour of Hopemore Mine, and checking out the local Leadville sites.

The Leadville 100 Mile Mt Bike was my first endurance event back in 2004. At that time, there were only about 750 racers. This year, there were close to 1,800 riders at the starting line. Due to the large number of racers, the start racers in corals based on the prior 2 years of finishing times or times of qualifying races. Since I had not done either, I was put about 60% back. In hindsight, I should have tried to get moved up based on my Leadman time since there were ~1,000 people in front of me and this easily caused me to lose 20 minutes over the first 10 miles.

Friday was busy with check-in and the pre-race meeting. Unlike most events, the Leadville pre-race meeting is a big ordeal. This year, Lance Armstrong surprised everyone by showing up to give a few words of encouragement to all the racers.

Lance, Marilee, and Ken

One of my habits from running is to know my splits and the climbs. When running, I carry a small split chart, since I wouldn’t be able to read this while riding, I opted to write the splits on 1 quad and climbs on the other.

Splits and Climbs

The LT100 Bike has a comfortable start at 6:30AM. I left the RV at 5:45 feeling great and ready to ride.

Ready to Race

The race start was very chaotic. The first 4 miles is downhill on asphalt. It was shoulder to shoulder riding at 30+ mph. Once we hit the gravel and the narrow climb of St Kevins it was still shoulder to shoulder, the speed slowed to less than 4 mph, and it was shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip bumping the entire climb. This climb was painfully slow.

The first 1/3 of the riders lined up waiting for the start

Once at the top of St Kevins, the field opened up for the fast descent around Turquoise Lake, but quickly slowed again on the climb up to Sugar Loaf Pass. The descent down Power Line was slow which was good as it kept it safe. We reached the road and had a fast pace all the way to the Pipeline Aid Station where Matt Hart met me with a fresh water bottle and a couple of turkey sliders. It was a quick 10 miles from Pipeline to Twin lakes that had some of the best riding of the whole race with some winding single track. Coming into Twin Lakes was crazy. Crews lined the trail for around 1/2 mile. Knowing it would be difficult to find my crew (Emily, Mom, and Dad), I had them fly an NDSU Bison flag so I would be able to find them.

My crew at Twin Lakes Aid Station

I had a quick stop to swap water bottles and get a new bottle of EFS and was off for the 7.5 mile and 3,200’ climb up to Columbine Mine and the race turn around. The climb started 2.5 miles from the aid station and right from the start, I had no energy. I crawled for the first 5 miles of the climb getting passed by probably 100 riders. Once we got above tree line I started feeling better and was able to pass some riders, but by then, the trail had narrowed and passing was very difficult. I reached the turn-around about 15 minutes off of my goal splits with the hopes of making up time on the descent. As luck would have it, I got caught behind someone who did not know how to descend and went 10mph. I was stuck behind this person for the first 4 miles of the descent before I was able to pass. This was a frustrating time as all I could do is hold the brakes and wait for an opportunity to pass. Reaching Twin Lakes the second time I was feeling quite good. I spent a couple of minutes swapping bottles and eating some real food and then I was off. We were treated to a strong headwind for the next 15 miles. I got stuck between groups on this section unable to keep up with the group in front of me to draft on them, and not wanting to go as slow as the group behind me. I exerted much more energy fighting the wind on the way to Pipeline than I had wanted to.

Pipe Line Aid Station

I was able to get into Pipeline and leave very quickly in order to latch onto a group on their way out. This turned out to be a huge benefit. We had a group of 12 who spend the next 7 miles working together into the head and cross winds to the base of the Power Line climb. By this time I was tired, my I/T band hurt, and I was really looking forward to being done with the race (there was only 18 miles left). Power Line was as difficult as I had expected, but was made easier by the fact that I had rode it several times in training. Once at the top of Power Line, there was only 1 short climb (mostly on the road left). I wasn’t losing more time at this point, but I was going to be very close to not being able to finish under 10 hours. Even at the top of St Kevins, I was not sure I would make it. Luckily, at the bottom of St Kevins, I group up with another guy who also wanted to go sub-10 and together we were able to pull each other at a fast pace to the base of the Boulevard and then up the final 3 mile climb to the finish line and finish in 9:51. My goal was 9:30 for the 100 miles. The race is actually 103 miles so I was able to meet my goal average speed (10.5 mph), but not my goal pace.

The Leadville finish lines are always an extravaganza. You run or ride up the red carpet and are greeted by Marilee to give you your finishing medal.

After getting a couple of recovery drinks in me, we enjoyed a bite to eat and an Oskar Blue beer before heading back to the RV for an early night since we had another early morning.

Sunday morning was a 7:30 awards ceremony followed by the 10K at noon. My glutes were definitely tired and my right I/T band was very tight. I spent lots of time warming up and stretching before the 10K and was going out to run it at an easy pace. From the starting line, I was running with 2 other guys doing Leadman and we settled into a fast but conversational pace. The race was an out and back on the Boulevard which meant basically downhill all the way to the turn around point. I was dreading the uphill return, but other than the first hill after reaching the pavement, the return was not bad at all. I was able to finish in 50:05 which I was pleased with.

My problems started after the 10K as my lower back and pelvis got completely out of whack from the run. Once I stopped at the finish line, I was hardly able to walk. 3 days later, I am still very sore and have not been able to run. I have had 2 massages and 1 chiropractic adjustment. I think that at this point, I am a little sore from the massages and adjustment and I have my fingers crossed that I will wake up on Thursday morning feeling better.

I went into the LT100 Bike expecting to lose about 1 hour on my overall Leadman placement. With the current standings, it appears that I lost from 60-75 minutes. I also dropped from 8th to 13th place. My Leadman goal was top 5. I am currently 1:45 off of top 5. This is nothing going into a 100 mile run which is my strongest event of the series (if my back/pelvis heals). With my current health, I am not confident I will be able to run a strong 100 or even finish the 100, but I am focusing all of my attention on doing it.

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Getting Ready to Finish Leadman

August 8, 2012 brackec Leave a comment

After Silver Rush 50 on July 15, I drove all the way back to Park City as I was excited to get home and see Emily after 21 days. It was a busy 11 days at home spending time with Emily, getting caught up with things around the house, seeing friends, recovering, training, unpacking, cleaning and repairing gear, re-packing, and having family in town. I left for Leadville again on July 27 with the goal of riding most of the LT100 Bike course over the first weekend.

Instead of camping, I found a large RV (it has 5 beds) to rent for the 3 weeks. With the afternoon thunderstorms this would be better for my training and recovery and it is also large enough for Emily and my parents when they are here for the bike, for Emily, Emily Sullivan, and Brent when they are here for the run, and for some other friends who have talked about coming through town.

Kitchen/dining/living area of the RV. The photo is taken from the bedroom/bathroom and there are 2 full size beds behind the closed door.

I have not been pushing my training too hard since the Silver Rush 50 as I feel as though I have been balancing a fine line between recovering and needing to continue to train. Due to this, I wanted to get out on the LT100 Bike course, but make sure that I didn’t over-do it. In the first 2 days back I rode 70 miles of the course and all but 1,500’ of the climbing. I had a great ride from the starting line to Fish Hatchery and back on my first day. This got me on 4 of the 5 big climbs of the course (St. Kevins, Sugarloaf Pass, Powerline, and St. Kevins). The next day I rode miles 40-60 which took me up and down Columbine Mine (the longest climb of the race at ~7 miles and 3,500’). Both of these were great rides and I averaged a much faster pace than I thought I would be able to. Seeing the course and having a good pace definitely helped me build mental confidence for the race. I have since climbed St. Kevins, Sugarloar, and Powerline an additional time to get just a little bit more comfortable with the climbs. My running has definitely taken a back seat the last 2 weeks with only 3 runs. Mentally, that has been challenging since I am placing the most weight on the LT100 run, but I know that I am in running shape and this is the best thing to do. As I have mentioned in previous posts, balancing the running and biking training has been one of the biggest challenges of preparing for Leadman. I definitely could not have been as prepared as I am without the help of friend and coach Matt Hart.

Chad at Columbine Mine – mile 50 of the LT100 Bike

Every year the first week of August marks Boom Days in Leadville. Boom days celebrates Leadville’s mining history and includes things like a parade, numerous mining events, and a 21 mile burro race (running 21 miles with a burro packing 37 lbs of gear). I was excited to be able to be in town during Boom Days and watch some of the festivities. The festivities started on Friday night with some motorcycle competitions (not sure how this relates to the mining heritage, but they were entertaining). Saturday had the parade and numerous mining competitions (single jack leg drilling, spike driving, hand-mucking, singles hand steeling, and more).

Leadville Trail 100 Parade in the Boom Days Parade

I have never had a chance to check out Park City’s mining competitions, so this was a great opportunity.

Spike Driving: see who can drive a spike the farthest into a rock in 5 minutes – quick video

One of the things I most wanted to see was the burro race. After having heard of these races for many years and having tried to deal with a burro in Ladakh when we were helping harvest, I couldn’t imaging getting a burro to go 21 miles. The burros were as stubborn as you would expect, and it was a lot of fun to watch both the start and some of the finishers.

Start of the Burro Race

On the Saturday of Boom Days, Matt came out to get some acclimatization and for some scouting of the peaks for his and Jared Cambell’s attempt of Nolan’s 14. It has been great having company out here even though I am bummed I cannot join him on his daily runs.

The days are counting, each day more and more racers are showing up in Leadville and by Friday the town will be hopping. It is exciting, but I also find myself hiding away in the RV resting and focusing. The next 12 days will likely be some of the most physically and mentally challenging days I have ever had as I prepare for each race, race, and recover only to do this 3 times in 8 days. Excitement and nervous anticipation are the words the currently best describe my feelings.

Running

Leadman – Silver Rush 50 – 2 Down, 3 To Go

July 18, 2012 brackec Leave a comment

I had plenty of nervous anticipation leading up to the Silver Rush 50 race. After the massive cramping I had at the marathon, I was unsure how my legs would respond. I had numerous good training runs since the marathon, but was still nervous. I spent the week of the race getting out on the course to see the remaining miles and resting up as much as possible. Saturday was the Silver Rush 50 Bike. I went to watch the start and then back to see the finish. It was great to see local Wasatch SkiMo team member Tom Goth come in 6th. Utah took 3 of the top 6 spots.

I have started the liquid diet that has been working so well for Emily for the last couple years on the day before the race. So far after using this diet for 2 races, I have had great luck with limited GI issues while racing. The challenge of the diet is that you are eating (rather drinking) non-stop all day, but you just don’t feel fulfilled. Since a liquid diet takes a lot of planning in order to get enough (and quality) calories, I included my liquid calorie intake for the day before the race below. The beer was critical as I really feel that it relaxed me and allowed me a good night sleep.

Race morning I enjoyed my first cup of coffee in 2 weeks, a quick bowl of oatmeal and was off to the starting line. It was a cold morning (low 40s) so standing around the starting line left me cold, shivering,and worried I would not be able to get my legs warmed up. Luckily as soon as the race started we quickly warmed up with the climb up Dutch-Henri hill and the fast pace the lead group set once we started running at the top of the hill. I was feeling really good and the miles were clicking away quickly and I was running on a sub 8:30 pace. I was ecstatic with this since my goal was 9 hours, but I knew I needed to go sub 8:30 for my overall Leadman time and to keep from dropping more places in those standings. I was able to move in and out of aid stations in only the amount of time it took me to fill my water bottle and felt like I was being very efficient.

I reached Stumptown, the 25 mile turnaround, in 3:54, I quickly refueled from my drop back (new gel bottle, Roctaine powder for my water bottle, chugged an Ensure, and chased it with a Red Bull. My calculated 8:30 split was 4:04 and I left the aid station at 3:57. I was really happy with this split, but I knew I had a long way to go and had to keep it together. It was a long climb from Stumptown back up to Ball Mountain and I settled in for a mixture of running and steep hiking. I don’t know why, but for some reason after dropping down off the back side of Ball Mountain, I started to feel a little bit of cramping. This was the exact same spot I started cramping during the marathon, only I was at around 30 miles instead of 21 miles. I increased my Endurolyte intake and kept pushing the pace. After circling Ball Mountain, I know I had 2 long descents and only 1 climb left. I was worried about the final descent knowing that it would be a knee and quad trasher since it was a rolling 10 mile descent. Everything went great, I had a good last climb and started the descent carefully knowing I had a long way to go. For the most part I had been running mostly alone. At this point in the race, I was getting passed by a few people who were very strong descenders, but also catching some of the people who had gone out too hard and were fading so I had figured that I was maintaining about 20th place. In the final 3 miles, the wheels were starting to come off. My left knee was starting to hurt quite badly, my sesamoid bone issue on my right foot hurt, and my quads were trashed. I slowed more than I would have liked at this point (probably about 45-60 seconds/mile), but kept pushing it and was able to catch 1 more person during this time and pass 1 person who had passed me at around mile 45. I didn’t know if I had it in me to ‘race’ to the finish, but luckily, it seemed like no one else did either. When I knew I could finish in under 8:30, I was hoping to make 8:15, but I just couldn’t push the last 10 miles hard enough for that. I came across the finish line in 8:24:45 for 18th out of 479 racers. In my age division I was 10th out of 134. I was extremely happy with my race since I was able to set a PR by over an hour, felt great for almost the entire race, and fought off the cramps when they started to rear their ugly heads.

I drove back to Park City after the race and am glad to be home for 11 days before heading back to Leadville for 2 weeks of acclimatization and training before the next 3 races of the series – 100 mile mountain bike on August 11, 10K on August 12, and 100 mile run on August 18.

Silver Rush 50 Elevation Profile

Final Silver Rush 50 Results

Silver Rush 50 Photos

And as part of a past post, here are some links to photos from the Leadville Marathon.

Running

Leadville Update – Tour de Mt Massive

July 9, 2012 brackec Leave a comment

I focused last week on recovering. My recovery seemed to be going slowly at high elevation so on July 3 I drove to Salida to get to a lower elevation for a day of recovery. The lower elevation definitely helped and I felt much better on Wednesday. I had a couple of great mt bike rides on Wednesday and Thursday, then ran from the Winfield road over Hope Pass to Twin Lakes and back on Friday with local SLC speedster Jay Aldous. I was hesitant about the run due to my calves, but after 9 miles, the lactic acid seemed to move out of them and they felt very good. Saturday I rode a section of the LT100 Bike course (Half Moon Road to Twin Lakes). It was good to get out on the course. I was hoping to see the entire course last week, but that didn’t pan out with my recovery so I will need to do that on my next trip out prior to the races. I will have a busy 2 weeks before the LT100 Bike and run as I will want to see ~60 miles of the bike course and ~30 miles of the run course.

The highlight of my trip so far has been Tour de Mt Massive with Jared Campbell on Sunday. Jared and Mindy came through Leadville Saturday on their way to Silverton for Hardrock 100. We hung out on Saturday, had a great meal at Tennessee Pass Café, then watch the movie “Race Across the Sky” which features the 2009 LT100 Bike. It was fun to see the movie again, it had some great course footage to help bring back some of my memories from when I road the race in 2004, and it helped to get me excited about the race.

Jared and I wanted to get in an adventure run on Sunday. Mt Massive is the second highest peak in Colorado at 14,421’. It has 5 summits over 14,000’ on its 3 mile ridge plus another 2 summits over 13,000’. The mountain truly is massive with there being over 1/2 square mile over 14,000’. It has the largest area over 14,000’ of any peak in the continental US.

Mt Massive ridgeline as viewed from the Silver Rush 50 Course East of Leadville

Jared and I wanted to hit all of these peaks. Since we had the luxury of a car shuttle (thanks Mindy), we put together a route up the North Ridge from the Windsor Lake Trail Head and down the South East Ridge. In total, our run was 11.5 miles and 5,300’ of climbing. We were only on a trail for ~1.5 miles which made it a great run. Since we both have races next weekend, we did the route at a very easy pace, not running any of the climbs, very little of the ridge, and keeping the pace easy on the descent. The run turned out to be fantastic. It was great to have a running companion for this trip, we spent a significant amount of time over 14,000’ which will pay us back for our races, and we got to do a full ridge traverse of Mt Massive which is looked at from Leadville everyday.

Starting at the ridge, we hit the following high points

Point 12,875’
Point 13,125’
Point 13,801
Point 14,169’
North Massive: 14,340’
Massive Green: 14,300’
Mt Massive: 14,421’
South Massive: 14,132’
South, South Massive: 13,630’
Point 12,381’

Here are some photos of our run. Click here for full size images.

Chad at Windsor Lake.

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Chad at Windsor Lake.

Uncategorized

Leadman – 1 Down, 4 To Go

July 1, 2012 brackec Leave a comment

The first of the Leadman events has come and gone. The Leadville Marathon was on Saturday. I was planning on this race being a high intensity training run so I only tapered for 5 days before the race knowing that regardless of tapering or not, my time would be within around 20 minutes. My goal was 4:45 and 4:30 if I was feeling really good. This was the first race where I attempted the liquid diet that has been working so well for Emily the past few seasons. I found it difficult to feel fulfilled, but I was always full and was able to take in close to 2800 calories. It seemed to work well for race day as I didn’t have to make any restroom stops during the race (I don’t think that has ever happened during close to 5 hours of hard running.

The race started at 8AM so I was up at 6 in the cold, 35F morning, for breakfast and was in town by 7. It warmed up quickly once the sun was up. There were just over 500 marathon runners and 400 half marathon runners. The starting line was quite congested, but I lined up in the third row and felt great running the first 7 miles in the top 20. Just before the mile 7 aid station, a group of around 12 missed a corned and lost 2 minutes and at least 10 places as we backtracked to get back on course. I quickly go this out of my system and moved on. At this point I had been enjoying the course of single and double track past numerous abandoned mines and lots of mine relics. The mile 9.8 aid station was at the foot of the Mosquito Pass climb, Here is where I made my second mistake (I hadn’t realized my first mistake yet). I had my bottle filled with Gu Brew. I assumed it would be mixed half strength (since this is how drink is mixed at most every race I have ever done or helped with). It wasn’t and it did not sit well in my stomach. I toughed it out on the climb up to 13,600’ Mosquito Pass (see previous post) and quickly turned around to descend not wanting to spend time at the crowded, high elevation aid station. I was hoping to make up time on the descent, but there were so many people still ascending that it took longer than I had planned. I reached the aid station at the bottom of the pass still running on close to a 4:30 split. Sean Meissner and I had been running together and leap frogging each other all day. He convinced me that the climb back up to the next aid station was runnable and it would be the only way to stay on pace. It was a hard climb (over 1,000’ in 2.8 miles), but he was right and I was able to run it. I was feeling good, but definitely getting tired. I had been running in the red zone a long time (my final average heart rate was 157 which is very high for me for that long), but I knew there was only 7 miles to go and only 1 small climb. Everything was good until mile 21 at the start of the climb when my calves and hip flexors started to cramp up. Here is where I realized mistake #1. I had not brought any eCaps with and it was hotter than I had planned and now I was behind on electrolytes and cramping. As the guy behind me caught me, he was kind enough to give me his last eCap. It definitely helped and I figured that with only 1 mile to the aid station, I would get more there. Unfortunately, they had no salt so I took in a cup of Coke and a Roctain gel and kept moving hoping for the best. the last 3.3 miles was all downhill and I was planning on doing it in 25 minutes which would have me finish at about 4:37. I was moving good on this last section and was slowly catching the runner ahead of me. at mile 24.5, both calves seized up with my feet pointed straight down. I dropped to the ground screaming in pain. Luckily a mt biking came up on me as this happened. I couldn’t even sit up. He rubbed each calf for 30 seconds or so and I said I needed to get going. I stood up and started hobbling down the road eventually moving into a jog of 7:30-8:00 minute miles. This section was supposed to be fast (6:30 minute miles at the slowest) and it was all I could do to jog a 7:30. When I was on the ground, I got passed by 1 more runner, then another runner passed me with 200M to go and a third runner with 20M to go. There was nothing I could do, had I pushed it any harder, I knew my calves would seize again and drop me. I just had to hang on and cross the finish line.

I crossed the line in 4:42:58. I made my goal, but was disappointed at how poorly I felt during the race and for making 2 rookie mistakes. I was 25th of 509 racers, 11th of 128 racers in my age division, and in 8th for overall Leadman. My real goal for the summer is top 5 Leadman. At 8th, I am only 21 minutes back from 3rd after what I consider one of my weaker events (I do not consider myself a good marathoner since it requires more speed than I have).

I spent the rest of Saturday stretching and icing my calves and eating. I was hoping they would recover well, but on Sunday they are very sore. Today, I did an easy 20 mile bike to stretch out the muscles and iced for about 30 minutes in Half Moon Creek. I will start running again tomorrow as it is less than 2 weeks until the Silver Rush 50 and I want to get out and run the course.

Official Race Results

Photos

Splits

Running

The Summer of Leadman

June 27, 2012 brackec Leave a comment

Ever since first coming to Leadville in 2004 to race the Leadville Trail 100 Bike Race, I have loved the Leadville area. Not being an ultra runner in 2004, when I heard about the Leadman competition during the awards ceremony, I thought it was crazy. Fast forward to 2008 when I returned to Leadville to race the Leadville Trail 100 Run as my first 100 mile run and I became very intrigued with the idea of completing Leadman. After 3 years of running 100s, when we returned to Leadville in 2010 for Emily’s Leadville 100 Run, I was sold on the idea that I had to do Leadman at some point.

What is Leadman? Leadman is the completion of 5 of the 6 Leadville events over the summer:

Leadville Marathon on June 30
Leadville Silver Rush 50 Bike or Run on July 14 and 15
Leadville 100 Bike on August 11
Leadville 10K on August 12
Leadville 100 Run on August 18-19

The crux of Leadman is obviously the final 8 days when you have to complete the 2 longest and hardest events as well as a 10K.

When planning my race schedule each year, I apply for Hardrock 100 and everything else revolves around ‘if’ I get into Hardrock. With this year’s failed lottery attempt, I am not 0 for 4 at the Hardrock lottery. Since Emily was planning to do Wasatch 100 again, I decided this would be a good year to attempt Leadman.

With the less than average winter in the Wasatch, I came into running season strong and fast from skimo racing. I started training hard in April adding in more than my normal amount of biking along with my normal amount of running. I have had some large training weeks with 70 miles of both running and mountain biking in the same week and had planned not to race anything other than the Leadville series. This has made for a strange spring since it is now the end of June and I haven’t raced yet – I am ready too start racing.

Training has been more of a sacrifice than normal. Since the Leadville events are very runnable, not a huge amount of vert, and not real technical, I have had to focus on running instead of the fun adventure running that I like to do. In the end, this won’t be too big of a deal since I will be done racing August 19 and have late summer and fall for adventure running. In order to do as best as possible in the events and minimize my travel between Park City and Leadville, I decided to only make 2 trips to Leadville and stay for 3 weeks at a time. Since house rentals were expensive, I decided that camping was my best option. I will be in Leadville from June 25-July16 and July 29-August 19. This will be a long time away from family and friends, but spending that time at altitude and being able to train on all of the courses, will definitely pay off on race days.

While I am in Leadville, I will be taking some time off from work, but will also be working. My base camp has AT&T 4G service and the great guys at Goal Zero Solar set me up with a couple of solar panels and battery pack so I will be able to spend some time working from camp. For the rest of the time, I will be working from the Leadville Public Library.

Leadman Camp 1 – Half Moon Creek

Leadman Camp 1 – Mt Elbert

My Goal Zero Solar Powered Work Area

My goal this week is to get out on the marathon course to see all the trail at least once. After the marathon on Saturday, I will be dedicating my time to the 50 mile run and 100 mile bike courses.

On Tuesday, I attempted to run the first 8 miles of the marathon course. I drove up to the aid station locaiton around mile 8, then road my mountain bike back to town. I took a couple of wrong turns on the maze of mining roads, but still ended up at Ball Mt so I had a pretty good idea of what the first 8 miles of climbing will be like. I had a great run with a good afternoon thunderstorm thrown in for some extra fun in the high elevations.

Leadville Marathon Elevation Profile

Mosquito Pass (marathon turn-around) from the mile 8 aid station

Skiing

Box Elder Peak – The Long Way

April 30, 2012 brackec 2 Comments

As part of my skiing redemption, this spring I have been working on summiting and skiing peaks that have previously eluded me. Box Elder Peak is only 11,101’ (additional information), but has a beautiful northwest face that, when viewed from the Little Cottonwood Canyon ridgeline (Red Pine, Maybird, Hogum, etc), begs to be skied.

Five or so years ago, Chip, Audrey, Emily and I attempted this peak. We ended up getting stormed out. On this attempt, we started in Alpine and hiked the summer trail for a couple of miles to reach snow, then continued on skis. For this attempt, we thought it would be more enjoyable to maximize our time on skis so we decided to start at the White Pine Trailhead in Little Cottonwood Canyon, ascend to the top of the Red Pine ridge, ski down into Dry Creek Canyon, ascend Box Elder Peak, then return mostly the way we came. This route had a lot of appeal as it would be around 8,000’ of climbing and have 3 descents of 3,000’, 2,000’, and 3,000’. There are not many places in the Wasatch to get that much vertical in 3 runs.

We didn’t have great snow coverage down low on the Red Pine Trail.

We made steady progress up to Red Pine enjoying a chilly, but bluebird day in the Wasatch.

We were treated to some fantastic snow on our long, 3,000’ descent into Dry Creek Canyon.

I have always enjoyed skiing into Dry Creek Canyon as the terrain is huge and you are looking up at the back side of some fantastic peaks. Each time I ski the Pfieferhorn, I try to make a long descent into Dry Creek Canyon. I was excited to get to ski 3,000’ down this time. Unfortunately, our snow ran out and eventually we were forced to boot back down.

Once at the bottom of Dry Creek, we had a few issues finding our route up to the ridge, but we eventually made it. The skinning was challenging with a mix of ice and new snow that easily slide off of the ice it was sitting on. Ski crampons were a huge asset here, unfortunately, Paul didn’t have any so he struggle up the icy climb until we reached the ridge.

The final 3/4 mile (or so) was easiest done booting on the firm snow.

Once at the top, we were treated with amazing views of Timpanogos (the south Summit on the left is what Evan and I had skied 2 weeks earlier) and down to Tibble Fork Reservoir.

We were excited for our descent, until we dropped into a slope of solid ice. Making the best of it, we enjoyed a long, scenic descent.

Since the snow was not great, we decided to traverse off the slope early to reduce our climb out. We had also had a great idea that we could reach White Baldy from the ridgeline at the top of Dry Creek Canyon and then we could descent White Pine. We made great time up the ridge and thought we were getting very close to White Baldy, but we knew there were several false summits.

Our route eventually got technical. At this point of the day, we were over 8 hours and 7,500’ in and we were getting tired.

We had to make the decision to continue on through the crux, or down climb and try to find a passage through the sub-ridge rather than have to ski 1,000’+ back down into Dry Creek Canyon and have to climb out again.

We chose the down climb.

And were treated to some great turns in softening snow.

We were able to find a passage to avoid the long descent (and ascent) in to Dry Creek.

At the top of this passage, we still had some scrambling to get to snow where we could descend, but at least we could again see the Pfieferhorn, our descent tracks from the morning, and where we needed to be going.

As always, the views down into Dry Creek are amazing. You can see Utah Lake and Provo 6,000’ below us in the valley and our skin track up through Dry Creek.