2013 Solstice Slog

Report of yesterday's stupidity. http://georgezack.blogspot.com/2013/12/solstice-slog-122113.html

GZ writes it up much better than I ever could.  I will add links to any other reports that go up in the next few days.  This run has me pondering doing something similar in Boulder with some peak summits thrown in.  Enjoy.

Red Hot 33K

Went off to Moab again this past weekend for the Red Hot 55K. At the race check in I downgraded to the 33K because of the injury that I had through January and the mouth ache from the root canal 2 days earlier. This also allowed me to enjoy the best part of the course. In years past I would be suffering through this section in the 55K which makes it hard to take in the awesome views like this.



Not really a lot to say about the race but the fact that I did get chicked by a minute or so. Bummed about that. I ran in 6-7th place most of the race but stopped at the last aid station to get water and piss only to be passed. I tried to close and catch up but just did not have it in me. My quads were shot for some reason. Anyways 2:47:00 for 20 miles with 3300 feet of gain for 10th overall. The race was a lot faster this year than years past due to it now being part of the LaSportiva Mountain Cup Series. There was some seriously fast dudes there.

Here are some photos that I stole from other people. Enjoy.

Yes Colorado runners took over the whole hotel



Start line




Awesome rocks!



Where is the trail?



More great views!



Runners going across the Slickrock.



Special Idiots and FCTR groups.

Kauai in Photos and Videos

Not going to write a big post on all the cool things we did, just thought I would hit the highlights with some photos and videos. This island is freakin awesome and the photos don't do it justice. These are some of my favorite photos out of the 600 plus photos that everyone took during the trip.

Thank you again Dad for having us!!! Enjoy!

Sunset







Trailrunning







Snorkeling














Food











Beaches



















Luau





















Ziplining












Waimea Canyon







Mahalo Nu'i Loa for reading!

Looking into 2012

Been kind of lazy with my posting lately but not really a lot to talk about. Just been training hard for the Red Hot 55K in Feb. With the Hardrock lottery last weekend and not getting in again of course really got me thinking about races for next year. My wife and I need to sit down and figure out what will work before everything sells out. Guess I better quit dragging my feet. Here is what I am looking at for 2012 from April on, now I just need to make some decisions.

April
28th- Collegiate Peaks 25 or 50 was thinking the 25 then Greenland a week later but maybe the 50 would be best.

May
5th- Greenland 50K
6th- Fort Collins Marathon (still want to get that Boston qual time)
12th- Quad Rock 50miler
19th- Buena Vista Adventure Race

June
2nd- Dirty Thirty 50K
16th- Mount Evans (one of my favorite races, 2 close to Black Hills to do?)
17th- Estes Park Marathon (only consider if doing Leadville)
23rd- Lake City 50 (only consider if doing Leadville)
22-24th- Black Hills 100
30th- Leadville Marathon (only consider if doing Leadville)

July
8th- Pace at Hardrock again- 50 miles (not sure if I can do this if I do Blackhills 100)
15th- Leadville 50 (only consider if doing Leadville)
14th- Devils Backbone 50 (only consider if doing Leadville)
14th- Summit County Adventure race

Aug
18-19th- Leadville 100
18-19th- Pike Peak ascent and marathon double (if I do Blackhills)

One race that I am eyeing due to being by my dad’s in MT is

Oct
Le Grizz 50

Thoughts? Or other races I might be missing that are not far away? I use the shorter races as practice training runs for the 100.

Turkey Chase 10K

I signed up for a 10K race today hoping to get a new PR, needless to say I did but it doesn't count because the course was short. Ran 35:53 for the 5.75 mile course according to my Garmin for 5th overall. Little disappointed that I paid $40 for a cluster fuck of a race. I would say that I wasted about 30 seconds at 3 junctions trying to figure out where to go. Who ever thought it was a good idea to do a race on the cart paths of a golf course without course markings is a dumbass, it was a maze. This course is not "flat" like the website said but had lots of small hills. That is ok, at least the money went to a great cause, The Denver Rescue Mission. Here are my splits according my watch.

Mile 1: 6:06 Ave HR 164
Mile 2: 6:33 Ave HR 176
Mile 3: 6:24 Ave HR 175
Mile 4: 6:11 Ave HR 174
Mile 5: 6:21 Ave HR 174
Last 0.75 mile: Not sure, watch includes cooldown for 0.25 of this mile.

I don't think this will be a race I do again next year. Think I will find one that is measured correctly.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Bear Creek 10Spot

Ran a race this morning at Bear Creek Lake Park in Lakewood called Bear Creek 10Spot. It was 10.4 miles with about 1000ft of climbing. Not a lot of climbing but that last uphill at mile 8 hurt! Here is the elevation profile and map from Adam's website.



My plan was to use it as my long easy run this weekend keeping my heart rate under 150 but that did not happen. My average heart rate for the race was 175- OUCH!!! I finished th 10.4 mile course in 1:15:00 flat on my watch which gave 8th overall and 2nd in my age group. Here are my mile splits along with the average heart rate for that mile, can you guess where the hills are.

7:28- HR 170
7:00- HR 177
7:13- HR 173
7:29- HR 173
6:33- HR 170
7:40- HR 177
7:25- HR 174
6:56- HR 176
7:57- HR 179
6:48- HR 178
Last 0.4miles in 2:26- HR 184

This was a really fun low key event that could easily become a yearly affair to run. Great job Adam!!!!

Bear Chase 50K

I finally got back on the horse this past weekend and ran my first ultra since last year's Leadville 100 by running the 50K version of the Bear Chase. I just have not had the interest this past year with everything going on in our family's life to do the long races. Anyways a super quick report and some pictures.

I signed up for this race without really putting in any long runs. I was running about 50-60 miles a week for a while just as a stress relieve but my longest run was only 14 miles every weekend doing the Dirty Bizmark loop. About 3 weeks out from the race a I did a 24.5 mile run in the Marshall Mesa/Dowdy Draw area in 3 hours and 45 mins at an easy pace. After that weekend I took the next 2 weekends off due to family coming to visit, needless to say I was a little under trained.

I had 2 goals in mind for this race- A) break my PR at 50K distance which is 4 hours and 31 mins or B) Finish before noon which is 5 hours and 10 mins.

To keep this short I went out at a moderately hard pace but never close to the red line with the exceptions of the small hills on this course. I was able to finish the first 19 miles in about 2 and half hours or so. The third and final lap (12.4 miles) I was doing fine the first 5 miles of the loop then gradually got slower and slower until by mile 29 I was on my hands and knees with the puke fountain turned on in full force. My stomach just shut down again and my body quick absorbing what I was drinking and eating. I was able to walk it in losing about 4-5 places in the standings to finish in 4:50:22 for 14th male and 16th overall. At least I hit my B goal, got an ok time, and got back into ultras again.

What is next? I am pondering doing either the 6 hours or 12 hours of Boulder on Oct 15th. I am leaning towards the 6 hours so that I can go see Braden's hockey game that morning but I am unsure right now. I kind of want to go out for 50 miles which should be very doable on this course in 12 hours. We will see, here are some pictures from the race.

Quick Pikes Report

Well not a lot to say but that I guess I was sandbagging in my last post a little bit.

I went down the night before and stayed with the wife at the firehouse at the start line where she works. This is so nice to have this option. In the next few years I plan on doing the double and this will hopefully still be an option for free housing that weekend.

Anyways, I started in wave 2 and just cruised on a moderate hard pace up the hill. I did not want to put any real hard effort until after I broke treeline. I caught my first 1st Wave person about 3 miles up and for the next 10 miles to the finish it was 2 1/2 hours of saying "on your left", that got old real quick, especially the A-holes who thought because they were in the 1st wave that they did not have to share the trail or did not want to get passed by a second waver. There was a couple of times I had to elbow my way past someone.

Anyway ended with a 3:03:52 for 60th overall and 11th in my age group. I think that if I would not have had to pass so many people and if I would not have stopped for a beer 1/4 mile from the top of the mountain I would have broke 3 hours. There will always be a next time.

Results can be seen here.

Pikes Peak Ascent thoughts.

Well this weekend will be a fun new adventure for me. I will be running the Pikes Peak Ascent on Saturday which is about 13.3miles and 7500ft of gain. This a major mountain race in the Colorado region and is what some dudes like this guy live for. My plan is to just go and have fun running it under 4:15 so that I have a Wave 1 qualifier for the next 3 years in case I decide to run this again. The reasoning behind my outlook of not really racing it hard is that I am stuck in Wave 2 behind about 1000 people due to the fact that I did not have a fast marathon or half marathon time in the last 3 years to put me in Wave 1 since I have only been running trails. I had to use a trail marathon as a qualifier and of course it was not fast enough for Wave 1, oh well. I think I am in 3:00-3:15 shape but I expect to run between 3:45-4:00 with all the passing I will have to do even when running at an easy pace.

Should be fun!

Salomon Team Hardrock Video

I know I have been real quite on here lately. Life has been getting in the way lately and I hope to make a better effort of updating this more often the rest of the year. Anyway I came across this today and had to share it. This is the #1 race on my life list of 100 milers. I have paced it twice and have seen 60 miles of the course. Maybe someday I will get picked in the lottery. Enjoy!

18:42! Ouch!

That one really hurt! Last night I ran the first race in the Dash-n-Dine series that they hold out at the Boulder Rez after work on Tuesdays in the Spring. I think that the main purpose of this series is to get people qualified and ready for the Bolder Boulder.

Quick report:

Weather- perfect! It was cool and overcast

I did a 4.6 mile warmup jogging the course plus some extra around Coot Lake before the race. This is the first time that I have warmed up that much. I usually jog about a mile and just stretch. I felt loose and ready to race.

The actual race was all kind of a blur, it really hurt is about all I really remember. Especially that last 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile. The split times below are what I remember when looking down at my watch, I may be way off with them.

Mile 1: 5:52
Mile 2: 12:00 (6:08 mile pace)
Mile 3: 18:02 (6:02 mile pace)
Mile 0.1: 18:42 (6:40 mile pace) for a 5K PR for me!

As you can see I really died that last bit but I still finished 5th overall and 3rd in my age group. The results can be found by clicking here.

Hopefully next week I can bring that number down a few more seconds and not be as sore as I am today. I am not use to that much lactic acid being in my system. I am a long slow hilly running type of guy. But it sure was fun to battle it out at the front of the pack.

One man to run two marathons per day for eleven months

Came across this story and had to share it, 13,000 miles in 11 months. Impressive!!!

PS- If you are viewing this in Facebook or Google Reader, ect you will have to come over to the blog to see the video as a FYI. I just noticed it does not show up in Google Reader.

Top 4 ultra runners in the Boulder area

Last week at the BTR (Boulder Trail Runners) talk they had the top 4 ultra runners in the US. I was not able to go but did find this blog giving us the low down on the talk.

You can find it by clicking below.

http://www.activeataltitude.com/blog/?p=121

And of course the video!!!!

Boulder Trail Runners - Q&A with Scott Jurek, Anton Krupicka, Dave Mackey and Geoff Roes from Alpine Works on Vimeo.

Enjoy!!!

The Runner in Winter (Boulder Colorado)

Here is a great video of the local trails that I run before work sometimes and on weekends. Thanks GZ and Brandon for pointing this out.

The Grossman Motivation Series Part 10

These are great motivation pieces written by a great runner, Eric Grossman. I had to copy these from Running Times just for my own record in case this is ever removed from the site. LOVE IT! You can find it by clicking here or just read below.
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Maybe you saw me on TV. The Western States 100 was featured on NBC's World of Adventure Sports in July of 2007. I was interviewed the day before the race as well as at mile 56. You might have noted my deliberate and rational mental preparation during the former, and my almost complete mental breakdown during the latter. I was stopped. Though desperate for water, I could barely sip any fluid. Though desperate for calories, I could only nibble at food. Everything was making me sick. The run had already completely stripped me of all pretense and all hope of finishing competitively. When asked how I was doing, I could only respond: "I can't imagine going on."

I have only been able to muster the desire to run Western States on alternate years. I ran in 2005 until I dropped out at mile 78. At mile 20, my vision completely blurred in one eye, I collided with a sharp branch and gouged my right thigh. Over the next 50 miles, the inflammation grew intolerable. In 2009, I once again organized my training around preparation for this pre-eminent ultramarathon. I sprained my ankle at mile 12. Although I finished, I wasn't able to run again until late fall that year. When I did start training again, I developed chronic Achilles tendinitis that stayed with me through the five ultras I started in 2010. When I became simultaneously plagued by an acute hamstring pain, I stopped running. Instead, I began to saw and split large fallen trees for firewood. Seriously. I gave myself a hernia.

That was two and a half weeks ago. Last Thursday, I was scheduled for a follow-up exam with the surgeon. I jogged lightly in the morning. Knowing my propensities, he asked if I had been running since the surgery. He checked my incision, cut a suture and sent me out with a pass to ramp up training again at my discretion.

Early last spring, after months of trouble with my Achilles, I was told that recovery would likely depend on spending a year limited to very light running. I had reasons to try and run anyway. For several years I've enjoyed the benefits of competing with a sponsored ultrarunning team. I wanted to keep my place on the team. So, I ran even when I would have been better served by resting. Now I have given myself no real options.

That is the ultimate truth we have to contend with: Decision making, like politics, is local. Each depends on nearby factors. Appearances notwithstanding, choices aren't freely made. The decision to run depends on the rewards we get by doing it, offset by the costs we incur. So why are some people able to exercise moderation and work toward their long-term interest while others fall prey to temptation, overdo it and end up injured?

Freedom emerges where the person inserts long-term interests into near-term calculations. This doesn't involve magic, but it does involve reflection and effort. My purpose in the previous nine parts of this series has been to elucidate the kind of reflection and effort required. One pitfall we both face when I write about willpower is that we may both be convinced it is something I have and you need. So I keep reminding myself, and you, that willpower doesn’t work that way. We cultivate the freedom we desire. When we imagine that it is a gift that some just happen to have, it immediately evaporates.

Aligning short and long-term interests mostly requires a comfortable relationship with the passage of time. Yes, patience is a virtue, and your best ally in cultivating freedom. As I hope I’ve shown, I’m not particularly patient. When I start training after a layoff, my impulse is to see how far or how fast I can go. After a few weeks I feel good — I’ve readjusted to the immediate metabolic demands and my legs itch to move faster. The short-term gratification I get from running longer and faster does not align with the long-term benefits I’ll get from coming back slowly.

I’ll need to refer to my own playbook to manage. If you haven’t already read them, check out parts 1–9 in this series (see "related articles" below). At the core of developing willpower is one central tenet: feelings change. What feels good today may not feel good tomorrow and perhaps, more importantly, what feels painful today may not cause pain tomorrow. One of the greatest appeals of running ultramarathons is that we are forced to realize that it never always gets worse. That’s because you will have run into the wall. The race is so long, though, that you have time to come out on the other side. The most striking thing you find is that what had seemed hopeless can be recovered. You will rise and fly again and quite likely feel ecstatic for having transformed yourself.

If you did catch that episode of World of Adventure Sports, and stuck it out through the last commercial break, you saw the backside of a tall scrawny runner as he strode through the undergrowth en route to a respectable sub 24-hour finish at the Western States 100. I was conferred the Energizer Bunny award for getting back on the trail and finishing despite my near total collapse only a little over halfway through the run. The reward of finishing was reason enough for withstanding the trials of that day. The real value of the experience, however, was outlasting my impulse to stop. Nearly every bone in my body cried to be still and rest. A very subtle chord resonated through me that this too shall pass. So I hobbled out of the aid station, then walked, jogged and finally ran again. All it took was time.

Eric Grossman is a member of the Montrail ultrarunning team. At age 40, Grossman won the 2008 USATF 50-mile national championship. Check back next week for more of Grossman's motivational tips.

The Grossman Motivation Series Part 9

These are great motivation pieces written by a great runner, Eric Grossman. I had to copy these from Running Times just for my own record in case this is ever removed from the site. LOVE IT! You can find it by clicking here or just read below.
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I'd like to challenge you to a race. If you accept, we'll meet at a time of my choosing, run a distance of my choosing along a course that, yes, I choose. I'll inform you of my choices only as you absolutely have to know them. I'll text you 15 minutes before the start so you can get your shoes on. I'll have the course marked clearly, but you will only be able to see markings as you approach them. You will not know how far you have to go, or what lies ahead. You won't know where the finish is until you get there.

You may want know my reasons for challenging you. OK, let's say that I just want to beat you. Suppose that you also want to beat me. Will you accept? If we have similar abilities, do I gain an advantage by knowing the parameters of the race? You probably feel that I do. I'll be able to plan, after all. I'll eat the optimal pre-race foods, ensure I get enough sleep and choose the best shoes and clothes for the distance and terrain. I would certainly understand any reluctance you might feel about racing me.

What if I told you that my purpose is actually to see how fast I can get you to run? I know how you are before races. You get all wound up. You obsess over race preparation, exhausting yourself before you even start. And the night before? You barely sleep. I'm offering you a way around all that tiresome hassle. I've got your best interest at heart, so will you accept my challenge now? I want you to imagine that you can actually run better by knowing less about the race, even as you run it. You can shut down your brain and just run, pleasantly unaware of your remaining mileage. I’ll do the thinking for you, and set a pace that I think will be optimal.

Those who compete in trail races, especially trail ultramarathons, get a small taste of how this kind of challenge plays out. Trail races are difficult to measure and mark, so there is an element of surprise, especially the first time runners compete on a given course. Most race directors do not post mile markers, and even posted mileages are notoriously inaccurate. The Hellgate 100K may be the most sinister ultramarathon you can run. It starts at midnight on a Friday night in December near Fincastle, Va. I was certainly in the dark the first year I ran it. Because of snow and ice, the crew assigned to mark the course fell behind, so I ended up in front of them. Not only was I unsure of mileage, but I was also unsure of the route. When I started climbing, I had no idea whether I was in for 100 or 1,000 vertical feet. There are nine aid stations where runners can grab food, refill bottles and try to regain sanity. If you are deliberate enough while you are there, you'll think to ask about the distance to the next aid station.

After running through the night and into the frigid dawn, stamping postholes into interminable stretches of snow and ice for over 50 miles, you will arrive at the eighth Hellgate aid station. If you are collected enough to ask, they'll tell you it is 6.6 miles to the ninth, and final, aid station (click here a complete course description). That doesn't sound too bad, so you stride out on the lengthy downhill section of gravel road, thinking that this second-to-last segment will pass quickly. When you turn onto meandering single track, you are slowed. You climb hills and go around corners, always thinking that just around the next turn you'll see some sign of the aid station. It doesn't come. You were thinking you'd finish that section in an hour. You are already at 1:20. Your suffering is protracted, but what happens to your performance? Did thinking you only had 6.6 miles until the next break cause you to run a little faster than you might have had you known the actual distance was at least 8 miles? How does your consideration of the distance to be run in any race affect your pace and your perception of effort?

When Jure Robic died in a collision with a car in September, he cut short a legacy of perhaps the greatest feats of endurance achieved by any person. He rode his bicycle an average of 28,000 miles every year. He holds the world record for a 24 hour ride: 518.7 miles. He has won the Race Across America an unparalleled five times. According to a New York Times story from 2006, Robic left decisions during events to his crew, termed his "second brain." Robic was allowed to choose the music he listened to, but all the other decisions, including speed, breaks and fueling, were left to his crew. Significantly, they kept him uninformed about remaining mileages. So was keeping Robic in the dark a good way to promote top performance? Perhaps my challenge to you was not so unfair after all!

The year after I graduated from college, I traveled to Japan with an invited group of athletes to compete alongside Japanese collegians in an Ekiden. I ran the final leg, some 21K, for our eight-person team. I was handed the team sash in the middle of the countryside en route to the holy city of Ise. I ran completely alone through a light drizzle all the way to the famous Shinto shrine, where the race finished. I had no feedback about pace or distance other than my watch and my own senses. I simply ran, unreflectively soaking up the sensations of a strange land while metering out my effort. Afterwards, I had to be shown how my split stacked up against those of my Japanese counterparts. I had the second-best time for that leg.

So maybe I can persuade you that a seemingly unthinking approach to running can yield good results. That isn’t my intention. Training and racing are ultimately exercises of your intelligence. What I want is for you to broaden your concept of running intelligence to include all the things you do with and without conscious awareness. Even if you don't offload training and racing decisions to a separate crew, you should still locate and use your own second brain. It extends through your body and into every extremity. It is your activity and your feedback. You can call it intuition, but it isn't mindless, and it requires honing just like any other intelligence.

It is me.

So what do you say? Let’s see how fast we can run this thing.

Eric Grossman is a member of the Montrail ultrarunning team. At age 40, Grossman won the 2008 USATF 50-mile national championship. Check back next week for more of Grossman's motivational tips.

The Grossman Motivation Series Part 8

These are great motivation pieces written by a great runner, Eric Grossman. I had to copy these from Running Times just for my own record in case this is ever removed from the site. LOVE IT! You can find it by clicking here or just read below.
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The energy in the dorm would just be ramping up when it was time for me to trek across campus to the Blue Room. Every Saturday night, I donned my apron and stood behind the counter, mixing frappes for the slow trickle of customers until close. I maintained this trade-off throughout college; I gave up socializing on Saturday nights. In exchange, I gained a small amount of money, but, more importantly, I was always up for the Sunday morning long run. To be fair, all of my teammates made the run as well. The difference was that, on occasion, some of them felt a lot worse than I did.

College students, even serious athletes, occasionally succumb to the temptations readily available on weekend nights. When I was in college, Saturday morning races meant we retired early on Friday night. Saturday nights were more negotiable. In the balance? We all knew about the workout for the next day: It would be the time honored Sunday morning over-distance run. Early on Saturday evening, a runner might well decide to lay off the alcohol and turn in before the wee hours of the morning, knowing that the quality of the next day's run would be higher. The calculus changes, however, with the developing circumstances of the evening: more friends arriving, better music playing, a girl lingering.

We attributed a weakness of willpower to those who fell prey to such temptations and would show up in less-than-optimal condition on Sunday morning. We imagined that temptation stood, like the devil, on one shoulder and outmaneuvered the angel on the opposite shoulder. “Poor sucker!” we'd think, “If only he had listened to the angel!” He could have been cruising through the relatively easy 6:30 per-mile pace. Instead, he’d grit his teeth and barely cling to the back of the group. He may have even expressed regret for his lack of restraint. If the run was bad enough, he may have remembered it well enough for his little angel to bring it up the next time. “Hey dummy,” the angel would say, “You remember what happened last time!”

This raises an important question: If the angel prevails the next time, will our runner be any less of a sucker? Isn’t he still just doing what he is told and obeying the immediate pros and cons as best presented to him? I want to convince you that responding to the angel takes no more strength of will than responding to the devil.

The bottom line is that any choice is ultimately a calculation that pits the pros and cons against each other. Every decision has its reasons. We may think a particular decision ill-considered, but who are we to say? If the Sunday run is important enough to trump Saturday night festivities, then it will. We let the angel and the devil duke it out, and side with the most convincing.

This dynamic implies an existential and practical problem for runners. Like G.W. Bush, we want to be “the decider.” We want credit for our accomplishments. Before the season, we want to set goals for what we can do and afterward, we want to reflect on what we did. If every decision was simply a cost-benefit analysis that depended only on the circumstances at the time, we really can't take credit for any of it. Worse, much of what we want to take credit for is our effort. If our decisions to exert ourselves are really out of our hands (and in the hands of talking critters) then how can we claim that effort as our own? Any autonomous motivation seems doomed to dry up before we even get started.

You may like to think that you really are like the president and can exercise veto power over your little critter advisers. Well, suppose that I grant you veto power? You get to decide now between that next drink and going home early. What sways you? Some reason, right? You didn’t just make the answer up, did you? In that case, you might just as well have rolled the dice or consulted a random answer generator. You can’t then turn around and claim credit for that decision! So while I don't think we can escape the immediate calculus that goes into our decisions, I would like to explore the sliver of light that gives us some leverage over our decisions.

We think of decisions like they happen on the spot, when we have to provide the answer to the perennial question: “Should I stay or should I go now?” This is thankfully false. Your ray of light is that you can make decisions over time that build a long perspective to deal with the question. The trick is to stack the negotiation so that the best answer is the one that is supplied by your critters.

There are a lot of ways to stack your decisions. I’ll provide three that I think provide potent examples:

1. Set the default to "run." Suppose the devil and the angel provide equally compelling cases. Instead of a “jump ball,” have a possession arrow and keep it pointed on the same team. The angel always wins the ball. So, the weather’s really bad, but you skipped the last one and you really need this workout. The scales are about even. Check the arrow: It says “run.”

2. Invert the incentives. Hard workouts can be uncomfortable. Your devil critter can use this against you. “You’ll suffer if you try these hill repeats,” he’ll say. You can, over time, make the discomfort its own reward, like training for a hot race by turning on the heat in the car during the summer. By continuously reprogramming your own responses to dreaded stimuli, you can make them feel positive. “Bring on the heat,” you’ll say. Likewise, late on Saturday night, you can embrace your monastic celibacy.

3. Raise the stakes. Think of the runner who stops at a port-a-potty, and, fiddling with his running shorts, accidentally drops his keys into the froth. He bangs open the door, takes off his wedding ring and throws it in after the keys. His buddy, waiting outside, exclaims “What are you doing?” to which the runner retorts, “You didn’t think I was going in just for the keys, did you?!” Similarly, you can give your runs epochal significance by making them seem disproportionately important. You can imagine that missing a run or even being less than ready to do one well, will set you back compared to your competition. While it may not, strictly speaking, be true, the motivation to put running first may indeed serve to keep you ahead of your nearest competitors. And that motivation is increased by stacking the negotiation.

Eric Grossman is a member of the Montrail ultrarunning team. At age 40, Grossman won the 2008 USATF 50-mile national championship. Check back next week for more of Grossman's motivational tips.

Red Bull Pony Express run

I got this from GZ who got it from Scott.

Karl is a nut case! That is all I can say. Enjoy.

Tor des Geants

I have never even heard of this race before today but this makes any race in the US look like child's play. HOLY CRAP!

The Tor des Geants, held this year from Sept. 12 to 19, is a 200-mile race through the Italian Alps, with a couple dozen passes, rough and rocky trails, and nearly 80,000 feet of climbing. Beat (guy in the video from CA) finished the race in 132 hours - more than five days - on less than five hours of sleep. He didn't intend to try to convey the entire experience of the Tor des Geants, just touch the surface of what it might be like to barely sleep for five days and cross 25 steep passes in the Italian Alps.

Freakin NUTS!! I think this one might have to go on the bucket list.

No sleep 'til Courmayeur from Jill Homer on Vimeo.

The Grossman Motivation Series Part 7

These are great motivation pieces written by a great runner, Eric Grossman. I had to copy these from Running Times just for my own record in case this is ever removed from the site. LOVE IT! You can find it by clicking here or just read below.
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Sometimes the voices of our ancestors whisper to us on the faintest breeze and sometimes we have to be blown over. Distance runners situate themselves to catch both kinds of wind.

I’m running just inside the tall perimeter fence at Johnson Middle School. The 7th graders are running circuits. We come back around to coach Hines for the second time and he stops us to introduce the next activity. I ask if I can keep running.

Ray Nichols stops by my house at the start of his run to Crescent Hill Reservoir. He’s several years older than I. He plays basketball for the high school. He runs to stay in shape. We run around the reservoir. I ask him why he spits. We run back and past my house. He stops at his house and I keep going. He looks puzzled.

I’m in coach Worful’s classroom after school, reclined in a desk. We’re talking about the spring. Many of my friends will be playing soccer. I will miss them.

The van has no A/C, so we roll into Philadelphia with hot air billowing through the windows. It’s May of 1990 and I sit shotgun, talking breezily with Berg. I tell him after graduation I plan to cross the country on motorcycle and run road races. He says: “I’ll give you $100 to get you started.” That evening I race 25 laps around Penn’s track, swapping leads with a Dartmouth runner.

I’m sitting under a picnic pavilion in Duluth, Minn. The mud is caked on my legs, all the way up my backside and spattered across the slogan on my homemade shirt: “KNOW DEFATIGATION.” Dusty Olsen trots across the finish. “You should carry water,” he says. “I finished in front of you,” I respond.

Melody has been waiting for me. She’s at mile 92 of the Western States 100. I tried to stop at mile 85. The tipsy aid station workers hovered over my skeletal frame. It wasn’t possible to stay there. I left for a final 7-mile slog. I arrive to a displaced carnival refreshment stand buzzing with activity in the middle of a remote darkness. Melody doesn’t accept my plea. “You came here for this,” she says.

Eric Grossman is a member of the Montrail ultrarunning team. At age 40, Grossman won the 2008 USATF 50-mile national championship. Check back next week for more of Grossman's motivational tips.