Monday, July 20, 2015

Midyear Performance review: Brazen Dirty Dozen 12 hour



Participant names: Meredith Johnson, David Li
End of year goals:
 Qualify for Western States at the Waldo 100K (DL)/Run a great race at the Waldo 100K(MJ)
 Run 100 miles in < 30 hours at Rio Del Lago (MJ, DL)


Number of times participating in this event: 3
Participants have: [x] Exceeded expectations
Placement:
 MJ: 2nd overall, 1st female, 65.26 miles
 DL: 3rd overall, 2nd male,  64.46 miles


Pace:
 10:47 min/mile MJ
 10:58 min/mile DL


Raw Data:


Intermediate Milestones:
 50 miles in 8:54 (PR)
 100 km in 11:26 (PR)


Participants’ stated reasons for participating:
  1. Evaluate gear and nutrition for longer races
  2. Increase fitness for later races
  3. Keeping the streak alive


Participant’s comments:
Tl;dr: Meredith and I ran in circles all day again. She rocked the casbah and dropped me at mile 63-ish to win first female and some $$$ (Meredith- are you pro now?) The all Tailwind diet didn’t work for me, but dual handhelds made sure I drank a ton. We set time PRs for 50 mile and 100K distances, and both ran a distance PR. Good times were had by all!


In contrast to life, running a timed race is not like a box of chocolates. You pretty much know exactly what you’re going to get, when you’re going to get it, and what you’re going to feel like while it’s going down. It’s not your typical trail race. In other words, still enjoyable, but in a different way than barreling down some pristine single track in the middle of the woods. You strip away the uncertainty and the navigation; what’s left is a distilled experience more akin to road racing. With these expectations, the controlled environment makes the Brazen Dirty Dozen a great training race and gear check opportunity. It’s a gut check and a nice dose of pure, unadulterated running all rolled into a 12 hours of fun in the sun with friends!


It’s not always glamorous and sexy and adrenaline filled, but there is a quiet satisfaction to maintaining a pace for 4, 8 12 hours. This ain’t our first rodeo; we know how to keep our fires banked and burning all day. Not much talking went on this year between Meredith and me. We passed a good chunk of time in comradely silence and terse strategic discussions. Walk that hill. Make sure to put on extra sunscreen. You need salt? I like to think it’s not just because all of our good stories have been used up over the years, but that we’re comfortable just not talking.

Maybe also since our pacers did a fantastic job of filling in the blanks! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who came out for a lap of 11:30 ish miles in the heat. Meredith and I got to hear about Jose’s race plans and training schedule, Brian’s superconducting tin transistors, Levi’s trips to Spain, and Simo’s lakefront antics. Even if it looked like we weren’t enjoying the stories at the time, believe me they were well appreciated!


I’ll spare you the details of our 18 big laps and 3 small ones together. No dramatic stories here. The scenery was nice, but all the laps started to blend together into a routine. We’d walk the uphills and run the downhills. My right hamstring was tight for oh miles 20-40, but nothing too concerning. We nearly got run over by the morning 5K/10K crowd. Miles 35-38 were a low point. I mistook Travis Macy for Macy Grey. You know, riveting trail stories.


At around 11 hours my stomach decided it had had enough Tailwind and decided to shut down. Oof. At this point, Meredith heard she was F1 (first female) and took off with Simo. For 30 minutes I was able to more or less keep up, but once we’d hit 100K, I had had enough and walked significantly more of the small loops. But Meredith (the Machine) kept it moving and finished with an awesome distance PR and the win! Way to go!


Strategy and gear evaluation:
  1. As I say in all my race reports, Hokas are awesome. As are sun sleeves and Injinji toe socks (I had 0 blisters and 10 toenails after the race!)
  2. I tried the “all Tailwind” diet this time. (Tailwind is an integrated food and electrolyte solution. So, basically, trailrunner Soylent. Don’t judge) No calories other than a bite of candied ginger until about mile 60 or so. I was averaging 200-300 calories per hour. I was worried it wouldn’t be satiating enough, but after mile 10 or so I didn’t really feel hungry. Tailwind was a little bit gas inducing to begin with, but when the temperatures rose I found that it was really well tolerated. Until the point it wasn’t, and my stomach decided to signal the alarm klaxon and shut down. Le sigh. I’d been taking in a steady trickle of calories, so I’m not too sure what happened. I did know that I was sick of the sweet taste...I could feel a film on my teeth from the sugar mix. Eesh. In the future, I’d definitely like to use Tailwind as a sports drink, but I’m done with relying solely on it as a fuel source. Back to margarita shot blocks, egels, and meat sticks.
  3. The dual handhelds worked really well! I packed all my fluids in two of these and carried a mostly empty pack. The sloshing didn’t bother me all that much and my shoulders were appreciably less sore at the end of the race. My triceps were a bit tired, but it wasn’t that bad. The major benefit was one of constant hydration. Having the bottles in my hands meant I was constantly sipping and hydrating, and this was a huge help throughout the day. I’m planning on going dual handhelds at Waldo and the first half of Rio.
  4. We did a fantastic job at getting in and out of aid stations quickly while still getting everything we needed. Go us!
  5. I managed to actually push the "lap" button properly this year. I HAD ONE JOB.


Now on to the main events...buckle or bust!

David