The 100 Mile "Workweek"

Hello!

Since I last wrote, things have been pretty busy. I have been figuring out the logistics for the New Mexico trip, finishing up some applications to schools for next fall, and busting out a "100 Mile Workweek." What this means is basically how it sounds: from Monday to Friday (today), I managed to put in 100 miles of running!

This is only the second time I have put in 100 miles in a week, the last being back in 2008, probably, when Ben Harden and I decided that we needed to throw down 100 miles in a week. I think we took 7 days to complete the 100 miles, and I remember that I was fatigued and had sluggish legs towards the end.

But this time around, I felt great the entire time, even though I smushed the 100 miles into 5 days. Trying to think of why this might be, I don't really know. I put in 69 miles in the New Balance Minimus shoes, so if haters say that minimal shoes don't have enough protection and make your legs tired, they don't have anything to base this on :) 16 miles were in the new Altra Superior shoes (see the last post). I thought that I would love these shoes, but they ended up being a flop. They literally make a flopping sound as I run, something about the structure of the sole, probably. Even when I was on the dirt and gravel, the flopping sound was still there and became annoying. It also made me think that there was something wrong with my running gait, even though there is definitely nothing wrong about it. Another thing about the shoe was that it dug into the Achilles tendon really bad. It's as if they made this shoe for people who have shins that are not perpendicular to the ground, but who lean forward at a 10 degree slant. The place where the back of the heel is supposed to make contact with the shoe is way open, like a half centimeter of space sits between it.

On the other hand, the 15 miles I put in with the Altra Paradigm were pretty good, but sort of weird. It is nice to have all the cushion and what not, but I don't really like how high you are off the ground. Any feel you have for the ground is eliminated; I like to run over rugged ground and feel the difference. I like to feel how gravel feels different from grass, or weeds, or rocks. With the Altra Paradigm, you can't tell any difference between any surface, and I find this to be quite strange. Regardless, the Paradigm will come in handy when I run across New Mexico on those days where I am feeling like a sissy and want to be coddled.

Anyway, here is a breakdown of the miles I put in during the past five-day "workweek:"

Monday: 20 miles in 2:52:20 (8:37 pace)

Tuesday: AM- 10 miles in 1:26:53 (8:41 pace), PM- 6 miles 52:22 (8:44 pace)

Wednesday: AM- 10 miles in 1:28:02 (8:48 pace), PM- 5 miles in 39:09 (7:50 pace), then 5 miles on the treadmill in 45:00 (9:00 pace)

Thursday: AM- 10 miles in 1:25:13 (8:31 pace), PM- 10 miles in 1:23:48 (8:22 pace)

Friday: AM- 15 miles in 2:10:28 (8:42 pace), PM- 9 miles in 1:11:59 (8:00 pace)

According to my Garmin, this 100 miles used up about 11,600 calories...and believe me, I made sure to consume enough food during the day (and a lot of snacks) in order to not be deficient in calories. So, based on the fact that I probably eat 2,000 calories a day x 5 days = 10,000 calories, I got to eat over 20,000 calories this week. That is a lot!

The total time for the 100 miles was 14 hours and 15 minutes (8:33 pace). So, not really too time consuming, if you think about it. It would be an average of 2 hours and 51 minutes a day. Think of all the time people spend watching TV or just jacking around each day. There is no reason that everyone can't get in a simple 30 minutes each day. That would total 3 hours and 30 minutes a week. Come on, let's get everyone motivated to get moving :)

On the other hand, this puts things more into perspective about elite marathoners and ultramarathoners. Those who bust out 100-140 miles a week regularly at a much faster pace are ridiculous! Anton Krupicka used to run around 200 miles a week! I am planning to do another 5-day cycle after a day off, but maintaining 100+ miles a week is hard work!

Another interesting thing to note: 90% of the time I use a 9:1 ration of running to walking. On most runs, even today's run of 9 miles at an average of 8:00, I take a 1-minute walking break every 9 minutes. Especially on long runs, I think this method is great for most people to follow! There is nothing wrong with walking, ever, and those runners who are gung-ho about running the entire time need to chill out. I qualified for the Boston Marathon a couple times even though I threw in some walking breaks in all of these qualifying marathons (in one, I HAD to walk because my legs were cramping up...I still slipped under 3 hours on this one, though, so the walking was more than acceptable). Especially in ultras, people are going to be walking. In the Badwater Marathon, 135 miles across Death Valley and half way up the 14,000 feet of Mt. Whitney, pretty much everyone ENTIRELY walks the last 8 miles (it IS up a mountain, though, after 127 miles of running through the hottest part of the US...so this might be the only way to get up there in the first place).

And, if you were wondering, there have been a couple beers thrown in there. Many studies have shown the positive effects of beer, like one that concluded that having a beer after a run actually opens stuff up in the body to allow for better absorption of the adequate fluid you will drink after drinking the beer! I'll drink to that! HERE is another little snippet of why you should drink beer! Cheers!

Well, that is about all for now...this weekend, look out for a small post about a couple of my favorite snacks: Kind Bars, Clif Bars, PowerBars, Bear Valley Bars, and my recent discovery, Bobo's Oat Bars from Boulder, CO!

New Altra Shoes!

Hello!

It has been quite a long time since I have last posted an update. My preparations for the Race Across New Mexico are going good, both in training and in planning the trip. I have been getting in a lot of good miles, and the weather here in Southern Colorado has been above 20 degrees (usually getting up to 50 during the day). I remember training for the Brew to Brew 44 Miler (Kansas City to Lawrence) in the winter of 2008-2009, putting in a lot of long runs in the cloudy and snowy plains of central Nebraska. In some ways, it seems like I was a lot more hardcore back then...just sipping Gatorade and eating PowerBars and busting out 30+ mile runs alone on the grid-like gravel roads surrounding my hometown. Now, I think that I need to consume state-of-the-art supplements, like those by Hammer Nutrition. Yes, it is nice to use one of their best products, Perpetuem, on a long run or bike, and it makes it entirely feasible to consume only liquid calories. But I look back on those early ultrarunning days with awe. All I needed was a pair of Nike Pegasus and a pair of shorts...although now, it seems that Nike does not make products like they used to. It seems like the Nike Free line up changed things, and now all of their shoes are sort of overpriced and not even that good!

This post is supposed to be about some new shoes that just arrived today! But first, here is a little history of my shoes:

From 2004-2011, I basically just ran in the Nike Pegasus. For my first ultra in 2007, I wore this awesome shoe by Nike called the Kyotee. Two months later, I didn't have any fresh Pegasus around, so I actually wore the Kyotee at the Boston Marathon. It was a light trail running shoe that wasn't too rugged, so it worked equally well on a single-track trail or wet, cold pavement (as it was at Boston 2007). I also ran in the North Face Fireroad for a bit.

In 2012, I switched it up to the New Balance 890. This was the time when the Pegasus was getting ridiculous and expensive and not really a performance shoe, in my opinion. The New Balance 890 worked great for me from 2012-2014. I first was drawn to it because of it's light weight (9 oz or so) and because it had a lower heel-to-toe drop (8mm compared to 12mm of most shoes). I also explored the New Balance Minimus Series, with the New Balance 1010 trail shoe (and also some other random Minimus road shoe). The 1010 worked perfectly for a trail marathon last summer, except that the gnarly trail frayed part of the fabric on the toes. Since then, the shoe has continued to deteriorate, even though it probably only has about 200 miles on it.

Anyway, I first discovered Altra shoes last May while looking for a low drop shoe. I ordered a pair called The Torin and loved them! I ordered a second pair and rotated these two shoes...until the first pair went straight to hell and, I think, contributed to the straining of my left soleus last October :( For such an expensive shoe, Altras seem to not really be that durable. Priced just a bit more, Hoka One One shoes are purported to last twice the miles of a regular shoe, but lack a foot-shaped design. Altra shoes look like a foot, and therefore allow your toes to splay out. Below is the same foot in an Altra shoe compared to a traditional running shoe:

More than anything, I appreciate Altra shoes for having this foot-shaped design. And since I usually wear zero-drop footwear such as XeroShoes in the summer, and Bearpaw in the winter, I want to make the same choice with my running shoes.

So, here are some images of the fun that happened tonight!

This is the box that arrived via UPS at like 6:30 pm or something...such a late delivery, and such a great surprise!

For a runner, this is probably the best site one can behold, aside from seeing the finish line at a tough ultra:

From left to right: Altra Paradigm, Superior 1.5, and the Repetition:

Right away, I can tell that the Superiors are going to be my favorite. They sit very low to the ground, and have this durable-looking (but not too rugged) outsole. To me, these seem like a more luxurious version of the New Balance 1010 trail shoe:

The Paradigms seem to be taking on the appearance of Hoka One One shoes. With a stack height of three inches (so it seems), these ones will be great for when my feet are feeling beat up. I would not feel comfortable with these on any trail or rugged terrain, as these shoes will break your ankles if you step wrong. But for the roads, they will be perfect:

Hmm...the Repetition shoes are interesting. They are a more of a stability shoe, with this firm wedge of rubber right underneath the arch to prevent over-pronation. For some reason I thought that a stability shoe could help in the 390 miles in 16 days across New Mexico, but trying on a stability shoe was jarring to my body after running in neutral shoes forever and the Minimus shoes as of late (I have only had two stability shoes, ever...and I only got them because they were on sale!). I do appreciate the design of these shoes, and heavier runners with low arches who severely over-pronate would benefit from this shoe. Also, Altra designed these shoes with a 4mm tilt from the medial to lateral side of the shoe to assist with motion control. A very radical idea, but this would simply mess up my legs and body if I ran in them...so, I will be sending them back!

Lastly, here are some images from my two pairs of Torins...they are pretty beat up, and seem to be unwearable for running now, especially since I think that the degradation of the blue pair caused my soleus strain.

You can sort of see here on the bottoms of the shoe, the construction is lacking. The grey part is a foam-type material which started to be eaten away by the pavement. The blue rubber is probably about as durable as any other shoe, but the combination of the rubber and foam would make this shoe more fitting for a very smooth gravel trail, or grass. Even a treadmill would eat it up.

Well, that is my nerd-out for now. Be on the lookout for more posts as the New Mexico trip nears! :)

Until then,

Run on!