You may or may not have heard about an awesome little fat ass run we had last weekend: Seven Summits/MTB vs. Trail runners. This is a little 48 mile adventure with 10,000 feet of elevation gain/loss, yes you read that correctly! Last year I was invited to mountain bike this course with some friends, and as I was pushing my bike up the summits, I kept thinking this is stupid, I could run this faster! My plan this year was to make this little adventure my first 50 mile(ish) trail run. Sadly I did not finish, but I had a ton of fun and I learned a lot about myself! As my lovely wife says: respect the 50 miler!
Let me give you a little description about this route. Runners and mountain bikers climb seven different summits: West Canfield, East Canfield, Huckleberry Mountain, Spades Mountain, North Chilco and finally Bernard Peak. Individually these peaks aren’t extreme, but the route I planned included some of the most technical sections in the Canfield trail system. Needless to say the first 12 miles were tough, so tough that I actually heard one mountain biker scream at the trail.
I dropped out at mile 25 with some pretty severe hip pain-I have no idea why I had hip pain. Maybe I wasn’t recovered from last weekend’s adventure? I do know that I plan to finish a 50 miler, last weekend was not my time though. I also know that in order to achieve this goal I need to find balance in my life! Currently I work full time at Physio One and I operate Trail Maniacs (about 20- 40 hours a week depending on races). I am also (thanks to my wife) on the board for Evergreen East and I volunteer with Fleet Feet Coeur d’Alene’s trail run group. I have a loving wife (she actually doesn’t take up any time at all and I actually couldn’t do any of this without her), and then of course I love to run.
If you do the math I just don’t have much time for any quality training. Really though who does? Aren’t all endurance athletes in this same boat, balancing family time and training time? It truly is all about balance and priorities, and of course respecting the distance! As a coach and personal trainer you would think I would know better. I didn’t put in the proper training for Seven Summits and I got the time that I deserved. After reflecting on the last few months of training though, I think that maybe I didn’t want this bad enough. Relying on base miles (instead of slowly increasing mileage per week) just doesn’t cut it. I neglected high mileage weeks, core exercises and glute exercises, and I suffered.
I do want to say that meeting the amazing people that I have met through Trail Maniacs is an inspiration to me. After the race I was talking with a runner, Marv, and I asked him if he was retired because of his training runs that I see on Strava. His response was “heck no, I work 12 hour days in construction.” It’s people like Marv, and the rest of you that inspire me. So back to balance… I need to take my training back to the basics: core work, base building, find my mojo, balance work and Trail Maniacs, and spend time with family. Here’s my plan:
- Schedule training time.
- Schedule down time.
- Share my goals with Kelly (so we are on the same page)
- Stop blaming my busy life as an excuse (No excuses… Just solutions!)
I would like to close with a few thoughts about the race between trail runners and mountain bikers. I have to say that the mountain bikers won; however in my mind if everyone had done the exact same course, trail runners would have won (specifically Heath Wiltse)! I’m not saying this to start any drama with anyone, that’s just my personal opinion! This was an unmarked fat ass course, and we all had different adventures out there. That’s what a fat ass run is all about.
Great job to everyone who participated and I can’t thank you enough for all of your support!
See you next year, maybe we should make it a true 50 miles????