Summer Time

I love summer! I thought that I might just leave this post as a one liner, then thought I better elaborate a little. I love summer because I love barbecuing with friends and family after long runs. I love summer because the days are long, which means I still get to run during the daylight even when school is going full throttle. I don't feel so much like a nocturnal runner. I love summer because the trails are good and the ones in the high country around Pocatello are clear of snow and totally runnable. I love summer because I love running, for a good majority of my life I just wanted summer to get out of town and winter to get here so I could ski, since my complete conversion to running I have found a passion for the dry, sunny time that is summer.

Some of the prime high country single track of Pocatello

I have finally gotten back into the groove with my training, running injury free for over two weeks now. It feels so good to be hitting training goals and running strong and free. Yesterday we had our second group trail run here in Pocatello and a group of us enjoyed warm temps and an outstanding 5 miles of singletrack together. If you are reading this and would like to come, we meet every Tuesday (from here on out) at 6:15 at Scotts Ski and Sports in Pocatello- we would love to have you! Now you should probably turn off you computer and go enjoy summer!

Wahsatch Steeplechase

Near the top of the Crags- Photo Greg Norrander

This past weekend I made the trip to SLC for the Wahsatch Steeplechase, which is one of the top trail races I have done. The course is pretty tough- 4500' of climbing the first six miles and then all down hill from there. The highlight of the race for me is the section called the Crags which occurs pretty much at the top of the climb. The Crags are rated 5.4 and require some pretty quick thinking and solid route finding skills on order to maintain a quick pace.

Traffic on the Crags-Photo Greg Norrander

Great view of the Crags- Photo Greg Norrander

After coming out of the Crags there is a steep descent to the Smugglers notch aid station, and then a ripping descent down to City Creek that is steep and overgrown, where getting lost, tripping, and constantly struggling to stay on track is the theme. Once at City Creek it is a pretty mellow down hill that includes a little too much road and some sweet singletrack that leads back to the start finish area.

I have been struggling with minor injuries for a little over a month, which has caused my training load to be significantly less than I would like it to be and given the low training I had relatively low expectations going into the race. I decided to take an opportunity to work on race strategy- typically I go out too fast and just get cozy in the pain cave (not in the deep dark part of the cave, but more like in the entrance of the cave where you can hang out for a while). So, I decided to go out strong but conservative, my mantra was " be patient". I held on to the top 3 or 4 runners for the first 3 miles or so and then started to ease up just a little. The leaders pulled away but not too far. I keep an eye on the runners ahead of me as we cruised up the gorgeous ridgeline towards the crags, when the trail got really steep I backed off and powerhiked, which I would normally not do until I was forced to... but it paid off as I started to reel in the leaders.

La Sportiva runner Jared Campbell happy to be on the Crags- Photo Greg Norrander

When we hit the Crags I was in 5th, but felt really good and started to push it, especially when it was very technical because I tend to be strong in the more difficult and technical terrain. I passed one runner about two thirds of the way through the Crags and decided it would be a good time to turn it up a notch.

Me-very happy to be running- Photo Greg Norrander

I felt very good as I passed the very friendly aid station folks and started the steep descent with a smile on my face. I have been working on downhill running a lot, since I feel weaker in that area, and that training has been paying off. I was able to just let my legs roll through the steep descents down to the City Creek Trail.

Almost to Smuggler's Notch- Photo Greg Norrander

At the aid station at the bottom the volunteers said I was in third, weird because I didn't pass anyone on the descent, but that section of the trail is very overgrown and it is quite easy to get off the trail and disoriented in the thick brush. Since I now had a shot at getting on the podium I figured it would be a good time to get into the cave and push, I felt solid as I leaned forward, increased turnover and let gravity pull me down the gentle grade of the road, yet I eagerly looked forward to getting off the road and back on the singletrack.

Appearantly I had entered the cave a little to aggresively and found that I was becoming sloppy with my foot work on the trail, very uncharacteristic for me. Moments later I hooked my left toe on a rock and immediatly had to revert to the years of imaginary Army training I had as a kid by throwing a flying somersault roll mid-stride. I was suprised how quickly I was back on my feet and running with very minor damage- a little trail rash on my left knee and a couple of blown up gels in my Ultimate Direction FastDraw hand bottle. I scolded myself for not paying attention and put my focus and clean, relaxed turnover and good footwork/placement. I rolled into the finish area with a time of 2:26 and some change, and good enough for third place. Appearantly the battle for first was pretty intense as Evan Honeyfield and Fitz Van De Kamp ran the last 7 or so miles shoulder to shoulder, with Evan pulling away to win by 20 secs finishing in 2:19:42. I guess my own time would have been faster if I had some company, but I ran the last 11 miles or so all alone.

Overall I was very happy with this years Steeplechase and highly recommend this race to anyone who loves running in the mountains!

Winner Evan Honeyfield and Myself- Photo Tanae Nelson

Adding Balance to Training

As far as training is concerned it has been a very rough month for me. The two weeks before the Pocatello 50 I had to back way off because of a hamstring strain, I had a couple of days after the 50 that I took off to let me body heal, and for the last week and a half I have held back because of a mysterious pain behind my left patella. All of these injuries have been on the same leg and it seems as though these injuries are all related. I think this because of a calf pain that nagged me most of the spring, which was also on the left leg. As I ponder the time that I have missed running because I of these injuries I started to investigate what could be at the root of the problem. After some serious google searching and talking to various health-care professional runners the consensus seems to be the un-balanced training of just running all the time. Because of my general lack of time in my life I try to concentrate all of my time on running alone, by doing that I am always moving in one l plain, forward, because lopsidedness the muscles in my legs that are responsible for other movements and supporting the running muscles have become weaker and more susceptible to injury. Thus the dilemma, I am short on time to begin with, I want to run more, but to run more and be healthy I need to add additional workouts that aren't running which means running less. It has become a difficult choice and hard thing to accept, but if I stay on the track that I am on now I will be more prone to injury which also means running less.

I have spent considerable time searching the web and reading different running coaches opinions on the matter, and it I feel that the most promising info, at least as far as my situation is concerned, are some well known workouts put out by Jay Johnson, a coach in Boulder Colorado for what appears to be Nike athletes. He was highlighted recently in running times with a series on building a better runner. Starting last week I began to incorporate the Myrtle routine and the pedastal routines before every workout and using the canonball cooldown after. (click on the title for a link to the workout). Although I have not fully recovered from the mysterious knee problem, it seems as though these may help balance out my workouts and not take up too much time. I am going to keep pushing forward, and cross training until the knee is healthy... hopefully healthy enough to race this weekend at the Wasatch Steeplechase.

As Promised.... The La Sportiva Crosslite Review

I said at the end if my last post that there would be forthcoming reviews of some of the quality products I used during the Pocatello 50, well I am going to make good on my word, here you go:

The La Sportiva Crosslite

I have put about 200 miles in my first pair of Crosslites this year, and I am totally impressed. Granted it is not my everyday training shoe,

but I do most of my long mountain runs in them. The fit is nothing short of magic out of the box, I have never been able to pull a pair of shoes out of the box, lace them up and run 20 plus miles in them without a blister, that is until the Crosslite. The have a nice tight heel cup and plenty of room for my toes, the lacing is a little tricky to figure out the first time lacing them up because of the mesh cover, but this is pretty easy to get used. The mesh lace cover really helps keep little rocks and things out of the shoes on loose terrain, which turns out to be a major bonus. The part of the Crosslites that I love the most is the aggressive lugs. They provide tons of traction on snow, mud, scree, and in addition to that they cushion the ride making it a very versatile shoe. In the P50 I was able to charge up the muddy climb (creek bed) on leg two without any difficulties, as well as the snow on leg three without slipping at all (except when I wanted to during the glissade). The shoe drains water and dries very quickly which tops of the features that make this shoe an ideal ealy season and winter trail shoe in Idaho. The shoe is also very light for how burly it is (12.3 oz), I really love how light they are, they are running shoes not hiking boots like

many other "trail running" shoe companies make. The Crosslite is the best trail running shoe I have ever ran in!

As things dry out in Idaho I am going to transition to the Crosslite's trimmed down brother- the Skylite. The Skylite fits pretty much identical to the Crosslite but has a trimmed down sole and only weighs 9.45 oz, they feel like racing flats, the traction is a little lacking for mud and snow but on the hardpack of mid summer it is perfect. For the perfect footwear combo try the Defeet Trail 19 sock coupled with the svelt fit of the Crosslite or Skylite.

La Sportiva Sky Lite

+

Defeet Trail 19

Now go RUN!