Week 3 Kettle Training

Monday was a rest day from running.
300 push-ups
Squats and lunges

Tuesday
11 mile country road loop. Ran really well today 11 miles at an average 7:02 pace.
Pace felt easy today, it's always good to have a few good days like this before a race.
Wish every day could go this good.
300 push-ups
Ab work

Wednesday
13 mile Lands End out and back @ Clinton Lake. Met up with Gary afterwards and helped mark another 7 miles of the Hawk marathon and 50 mile coarse. Ran and marked the course in a thunderstorm and was a prune by the end.
375 push-ups
Squats and lunges

Thursday
Rain, rain go away. After 20 in the rain yesterday didn't feel like running in the rain again today. And the treadmill was not appealing either.
350 push-ups

Friday
Played hookie from work today. Slept in till 8:00 am. Went fishing with Jarret and met the wife for lunch. Then hit the road for 13 miles in the afternoon.

Saturday
Volunteered at the Hawk trail marathon and 50 mile. Had a blast helping runners all day. Was a really good time and a good friend of mine Brad Bishop won the 50 mile.

Sunday
Went out for an easy 17 miles today and explored some of the undeveloped rails to trails between Lyndon and Osage. Going to do some more exploring on thoses trails again soon.
Total for the week 61 miles. 13 days till race day.

Week 4 Kettle Training

Monday: Rest day from running.
300 push ups and Leg workout
Tuesday: 11 mile country road loop.
300 push ups and ab ripper X
Wednesday: 14 miles at the Governor's Mansion trails
Good run 8.12miles in 1 hour then 6 miles easy.
300 push ups and Leg workout
Thursday: 11 mile country road loop.
Good run 6 miles tempo @ 7:00 7:15 pace
5 miles easy run home
300 push ups and short ab workout
Friday: Rest day from running.
500 push ups and Leg workout
Saturday: 26 miles @ Clinton Lake North Shore Trails
26 mile trail run ran some east and some hard. Nice day for a trail run.
Sunday: 16 mile country road loop.
Didn't feel like running this morning but went out and got in a good 16 miles.
Glad I got out even though I didn't want to at first.
Good training week with Kettle Moraine now less than 3 week away. All my little ailments seem to be a major problem now. It will only get worse a the race gets closer. Looking to get in one more good week then 2 weeks easy and rest before race day. 78 miles this week, not to bad would of liked to of gotten in some more but not a bad week. Three good week in a row now so hopefully it will pay off come race day. Hoping to run somewhere around 19 hours if everything goes good. Have started thinking of my plan and got some things together will start putting more together as I have more time when I taper.

Kettle Moraine training week 5

Monday: I took a rest day from running after 80 miles last week. Not a bad start for 3 week of total deconstruction and then 2 week of rest and low mileage till race day.
300 Push Ups
Leg workout squats, lunges and calf raises.

Tuesday:
11 mile country road to Rails to Trails. 4.5 miles tempo run @ 7:15 pace. 6.5 easy on Rails.
300 Push Ups and Ab work.
Felt really good today, had a good solid run and got in a little ab work also. Meeting up with Dave Wakefield tomorrow for a trail run at the Governor's Mansion trails, so I'm sure that will be a good workout also.

Wednesday:
15 miles at the Governor's Mansion with Dave. 15 or so miles in a little over 2 hours on trails was a good run. Thanks Dave for getting me to run my ass off.
300 Push Ups
Leg workout again today.
Feeling really good to this point and looking forward to putting together another good training week.

Thursday
13 mile country road loop. Had another good run today, took it a little easier today. It was a great evening for a run.
300 push ups
Ab ripper X

Friday
No run today decided to rest for my long run Saturday.
520 push ups
Leg workout

Saturday
28.5 miles from home to Melvern Lake Turkey point. Had a great run today was glad I took a rest day yesterday. Had a little extra pep in my step. Ran a consistent 8 mpm pace for 20 miles. My wife brought my sister out to the 20 mile point and she ran the last 8.5 miles with me. Always good to have some company on a long run.

Sunday
20.5 miles from home to Melvern. Took it easy today it was all about putting miles on my ragged out legs today. Was a little chilly this morning but a good day for a run. Feeling really good about my training at this point. Don't want to jinks myself but I am running really well right now and feeling confident at this point. Hoping all the hard training will pay off on race day. There is something about running 100 miles I really look forward to. Hoping for a 19-20 hour finish at Kettle but we'll see you never know what might happen in a 100. Going to take Monday off and then hit it hard again next week. 87.5 miles this week and feeling really good with 2 weeks in a row over 80 miles. Legs feel good and strong and looking forward to another good week.

Kettle Moraine 100

Well here we go again, I had the Kettle Moraine 100 June 5th in Lagrange WI, on my list for this year and procrastinated signing up until last week. So now that my name is on the entry list and I only have 5 more weeks to get ready, all the worrying and feelings of not being ready are back.
Every time I have ran a race over 26 miles I have never felt like I was ready. Some where along the way in my so far short ultra career (1 year 6 months) I went from just wanting to complete an ultra to wanting to go out and compete. I'm not sure when or how that happened but it did, and I have found myself training and running harder. Most people think I'm crazy and that I probably over train, but I always feel like I'm under trained going into a race. And I always feel like I could have done more. Compounding the issues are, I still feel like I don't really know what I'm doing out there. Basically to this point I have just been winging it. I have never really had a fueling or hydration plan in place, and am not sure how I've gotten as far as I have. Maybe this all comes from experience and with more experience maybe I'll feel better about my training and racing. But for now I'm sure I will ever feel confident heading into a 100 miler. Of course maybe no one ever feels confident going into a 100. There is something about the 100 that really intrigues me and really gets my blood pumping. I love the challenge and love pushing the limits, and seeing how far I can go. I have thoughts of running races farther than 100 miles just to see if I can. And to see if I can find my breaking point. Dig deeper, push harder and never settle.

Misc. Ramblings

Yes, I know it's been a long time since my last blog. I'm lazy what can I say. Since Rocky Raccoon 100 I have been busy with work, running, training, working out and racing. My hope is to keep up better on my blog and give more insight into my training and racing. In April, I had 3 races in 4 weekends. And the one off weekend we went and watched the Kansas Marathon. April started with Rockin K 50 mile trail race in Kanopolis State Park, this race is one of my favorites as Phil and Stacy Sheridan and the Kansas Ultrarunners Society put on one great race and treat you like family. This is the toughest ultras in Kansas in my opinion. Or at least of the ones I have ran. I had trained hard for the race to see what I could do on this tough coarse. Other than a little dehydration on the second loop the run went really well. And a sub 10 hour (9:44) finish and 4th place there was a great way to start the race season. I have really come a long way in the last year. As last year was my first year running ultras. I guess I ran one ultra in 2008, but 2009 was my first full year. However, I still don't think I know what I'm doing out there. It takes time to learn, and I learn something new every race. The second weekend in April I went back to the place I ran my first 1/2 marathon exactly 2 years ago. I wanted to see how much I had improved and also got a couple fellow HME employees to run also. I didn't even have a pair of road shoes, so I ran the 1/2 in my Mizuno Cabrakans. The Eisenhower Marathon in Abilene, Kansas. This race went well as I stayed with the leaders for the first half the race and fell off a little on the return trip. Was still able to crush my previous PR in the 1/2 by 12 min. Finished in 7th place overall, and first in age, of 350+ in a time of 1:26 something. I was extremely happy with my run there and glad to see how much I had improved. The next weekend me and the wife went and watched the Kansas Marathon and although I wanted to jump in there a couple times I had a blast watching others run. Next up Free State 100K, another one of my favorites as Ben and Sophia and the Kansas City Trail Nerds put this one on at my home coarse of Clinton Lake and the North Shore Trails. I train here a lot and run these trails more than any. I really wanted to have a good run here also on my home turf. The race went well till mile 25 or so when I slipped and hyper extended my left hip. What I thought at the time was a hamstring problem but know think a hip problem, left me with a pain in my ass.

Not knowing I decided to gimp my way back and take a 40 mile finish. Free State was the muddiest run I have ever ran in and the conditions were less than perfect. But, through that I was still able to get a 6:15 finish in the 40 and what would have been good for 2nd in the 40 had I not dropped down. I was also running in the top 2-3 in the 100K at the time. This has been a good April , and I will take that and learn from it and get better. Stay tuned as I blog about my training leading up to my next big run the Kettle Moraine 100 on June 5th, in LaGrange, Wisconsin.

Rockin K 50 mile Trail Run Race Report

Let me start by saying this is one of my favorite races. Phil and Stacy Sheridan RD's and the Kansas Ultrarunners Society put on a great race and treat you like family. The run is in the Smoky Hills at Kanopolis State Park located south and west of Salina Kansas. This was my second year running Rockin K. Last year I dropped to the Marathon after completing the first lap. A decision I regretted for a whole year and was time to get some revenge. This is one of the toughest ultras if not the toughest ultra in Kansas. It's Kansas right how tough can it be. Well let me tell you Kansas is not all flat.


Me and my wife Darcie made the pre-race pasta dinner Friday night and had a good time seeing and chatting with friends and meeting new ones. After dinner we headed back to Lindsborg where we stayed the night at the Viking Motel. I did all my pre-race preparations getting my pack ready and all my gear and supplies. After that was done it was off to bed early to get a good nights sleep. Race morning was up and out the door by 5:45 to head to the start.


Race morning was a little cool but the forecast was for temps of 60-65 degrees. I had dressed a little on the warm side as the start was a cool 32. We did the usual chatting with all our friends and other runners before Phil gave us our final instructions and sent us on our way. I wanted to start out a little on the conservative side this year as last year I went out way to fast and burnt out in the first 26 miles. I settled into a comfortable pace running with Brad Bishop, Matt Becker and another guy who's name eludes me now. We all ran and chatted a little the first 6-8 miles in single file. At the first water crossing we seen Brad take a nice bath in the first water crossing, it was a little deeper than it looked, and the rest of us ran to a shallower crossing spot.


Feeling good after the first few miles my pace quickened a bit after I got separated from the group a bit. The miles to the first maned aid station at mile 13 clicked by and once there I had to shed my long sleeve shirt as the temps were rising rapidly. I left the aid station and headed out for the big bluff loop a 5 mile loop that goes down the bluff, up the bluff and back down about 5 or 6 times. I flew down the bluffs this lap and hiked up them as quick as I could. This is really a nice scenic trail and is full of challenges, hills, rocks, roots, tree sections, prairie sections with vast openness, watter crossings, rutted horse trail sections, and sand to run through. Back to the Gate 6 aid station I refilled my bladder and headed back out with a handful of food. And yes I had to have a couple of Stacy's famous cookies as I knew the next lap would be hard to choke them down in the heat. From here there were several miles of jeep roads then to trail through the open prairie. This part of the run went well and was still feeling relatively good when I was nearing the end of the first lap. Before the first lap was done you half to cross 2 creeks waist deep and at this point felt really good. Then the last mile or so back to the Coral shelter is sand, I found it really hard to run in the sand. And it took a lot of energy to run through it.

Rocky Raccoon 100 Race Report

What a difference a year makes. Rocky Raccoon was my first 100 and will always be special. Joe Pruisaitis and company put on a really good race and event. I had no idea what to expect this year as the harsh Kansas winter made training for Rocky extremely difficult. Most of my training miles came on the treadmill. It was almost impossible to get in any real mileage outside with the cold and snow. In the 7-8 weeks leading up to Rocky I only had a couple runs of over 20 miles. I had a good base and a lot of runs in the 10-16 mile range just nothing real long. But I was dedicated and did as much as I could when I could. We would just half to see how it all shook out on race day.

We left on Thursday night and headed to Texas, me, my wife and my son Jarret. Darcie and Jarret were going to crew for me. We drove as far as we could that night and finished up the drive into Huntsville the next morning. We had reserved a shelter in the park and planned to stay there for the weekend. After packet pick-up we stoped at Wal-Mart to get a few things for dinner and breakfast race morning. When we came out our car would not start, we tyred and tyred to start it but it would do nothing never even attempting to turn over. Finally we got it started and just headed back to the park so at least we were there. When we got back I turned it off and never could get it to start again. I worked on it for an hour checking the battery cables and such. This was added stress I did not need the night before the race. At one point I was going to skip the race and get the car fixed so we could get home. But through a bunch of phone calls and conversations with other Trail Nerds there they talked me into running and we would worry about the car later. After some dinner, Brad Bishop showed up at the shelter he was going to crash there for the night also and we chatted for a bit and hit the bed at around 9:00.
I did not sleep well at all, worrying about the car and the race, not to mention it was a little chilly in the shelter. I think I got maybe 4 hrs sleep.

Race morning I was up at 4 am and decided after worrying about the car all night I was going to put it out of my mind and not worry about it again till the race was over. After getting ready and eating a little breakfast I went over last minute instructions with my crew and we headed over to the starting area. After checking in we all stood around and chatted with Kyle Amos and Tony Clark till we heard the yell 15 minutes. It was time to get this thing going and I was ready to run. I shed my sweats and gave the wife one last kiss and she wished me luck and I headed up towards the front. I wanted to start close to the front to avoid getting caught in a long conga line at the start with 344 runners all starting at the same time. As Joe counted us down we were off, I reminded myself to stay focused, keep my head down and run. I could rest when the race was over but during the race I was going to go for it and see what happened. The first 30-40 min were in the dark and I ran with a hand held flashlight to start the race. I started with a handheld water bottle and a small waist pack with gels to start the race. The pace was good to start and most of the first lap I played leapfrog with a couple other runners. There was not much chatting this lap as I just stayed focused and ran. I only stoped long enough at the aid stations to get my bottle filled and was back to running. I finished the first lap in 2:50 min a little faster than I would of liked but a great start. Darcie and Jarret refilled my waist pack with jells a few Pay-Day's and some salt tabs and I switched out my empty water bottle for a full one and I was off on the second lap, 20 miles into the race. Stay focused, keep your head down and run I told myself. I slowed the pace a bit just to make sure I didn't burn out to soon. This lap I played leap frog with 2 women the whole lap Jamie Donaldson and Connie Gardner they chatted some and I just settled in behind them for aways. I chatted a little with Jamie this lap, mainly about how our training sucked with the harsh winter. Jamie is a 2 time Badwater 135 female champion, and the 2009 Rocky Raccoon women's champion. I knew if I could stay with her it would be a good day. This lap went by really fast as I kept my head down and just ran. Stopping only at the aid stations long enough to get my bottle filled and grab a handful of food.

At the end of this lap I was starting to notice a couple of hot spots on my feet. This trail is full of thousands and thousands of tree roots and is hell on feet or at least mine anyway. I came back into the start/finish on lap 2 in 3:11. My crew went to work filling my waist pack and swapping out water/Gatorade bottles. Darcie walked up the trail with me while I ate some food and I gave her some instructions for the next lap. I wanted to change my shoes and put some moleskin on some hot spots. I would also want a long sleeve shirt and my headlamp for lap 4 as it would be dark before I finished it. Darcie gave me a kiss told me how good I was doing and sent me on my way now 40 miles down and 6 hrs into the race.

Lap 3 for me was the low point of the race. I was starting to feel really fatigued and had a pain in my hip that was bothering me. For some reason I just couldn't seem to run, and it was a struggle to keep moving. I found that I could run at a much slower pace that was comfortable. At this point I thought it was going to be a long night as it was a struggle to keep moving. I ran most of this lap with Richard from Virgina as Jamie and Connie had got in and out of the start/finish faster than I did. It was Richards first 100 and he was running really well for a first timer. We stuck together much of lap 3 and chatted some to end this lap on a better note. Back at the start/finish for lap 3 in 3:42 . Darcie helped me change my socks and put some moleskin on some hot spots. She made me eat a cliff bar as she walked me down the trail to start my 4th lap. Now 60 miles down and 9:42 into the race.

At the start of the 4th lap I was really stiff after setting for a few minutes to change socks and take care of my feet. This lap started slow, but I soon caught my second wind and began running at a comfortable pace again. I think I may have been a little calorie deprived and once I got some food in me began to run good again. I kept telling myself to run as much as I could before it got dark. My goal was to get as far as I could in the light and hang on and do what I could when the sun went down. The sun soon began to set and I still had 5 miles to get back to the start/finish to complete lap 4. With only my headlamp the last 5 miles were brutal with all to roots and stumps in the trail. With 75 miles under my belt I wasn't picking up my feet really well and I swore I kicked ever root in those last 5 miles, I must have face planted at least 4 times in those last few miles. Thank goodness there was always someone around me to help me back up. It was extremely hard to get back up after running that many miles. I was really wishing I had took my handheld flashlight with me also the headlamp just wasn't working well enough to see all the roots. Back to the start to complete my 4th lap, Jarret was there waiting on me. Darcie was back at the camp with someone looking at our car. Jarret helped me get stocked back up with supplies and I put on a jacket for the last lap. Jarret ran a ways up the trail with me to send me off for my 5th and final lap. I told him to be back in 4 hours to be safe and see me finish, but not to expect me for 5 hours or so. I finished the 4th lap in 4:20 min and was now 14:03 into the race.

Stay focused, keep your head down and run, I kept telling myself. Run now and rest when you are done. With my handheld flashlight now in tow I was seeing the trail much clearer now and wasn't tripping as much. At this point in the race I told myself to run as much as I could between aid stations and rest while I ate in the aid stations. Rick Mayo had told me at Heartland he liked to headhunt at night so if we seen lights in front of us we were going to catch them. So a headhunting I would go, this seemed to keep me moving really well that last lap, I would see lights and track them down and pass them. It was kind of like a game and surprisingly I was feeling really good. In the last mile before the last aid station at Park Road I caught a guy I was racing for position Scott from Texas he had ran this coarse a lot being a local, we came into Park Road together and I just grabbed a few things and headed back out. There was no way I was going to let Scott beat me to the finish. Me and Scott had one hell of a battle those last 4+ miles. He would pass me then I would catch him and we would run in tandem till one of us had to stop and walk for a few. We did this for a few miles till I had to stop to take a leak. Scott put a little distance on me and I thought there was no way I would catch him. With less than 3 miles to go my pace was getting faster and the adrenaline was starting to kick in. Still feeling good I was going to run non stop to the finish. The closer I got the easier running got and I soon caught Scott with less than a mile to go. As I flew by him he yelled at me to finish strong he had nothing left to challenge me. I thanked him for pushing me those last few miles as I went by. I was really close now and I could smell the finish I turned the last corner and could see the lights at the finish and as I came in I yelled number 124 comin to the house. Jarret told me to yell out my number when I got close so they didn't miss me. As I crossed the finish line there the was Darcie and Jarret were right there to greet me. Ben and Sophia were there to and hugs were given all around. 18:34 Sophia told me. I was really happy with that and with another round of hugs, I felt really good. I even joked about going out for another lap and at that point think I could of done another one. Joe came over and gave me my sub 24hr belt buckle and said it came with an asterisk noting 18:34 was way better than sub 24. We took some pictures at the finish and hit the tent where I would sit down for the first time in 18+ hours. Everyone waited on me hand and foot while we talked about the race. I felt really good at the finish of this one and felt like I could of given more earlier in the race. I ran the last lap in 4:31 and my official time was 18:34.59 and 18th place overall out of 344 starters.

I half to thank my wife and son for crewing for me all day. You did an awesome job Thank You!

Ben and Sophia thanks for working on my car while I was running and for being there at the end to celebrate with me it was really fun.

What worked:
My Mizuno Caberkans and DryMax socks.
My 2 bottle wait pack I bought for night to keep my hands free.

Notes:
I wasted a lot of time in the aid stations at night.
Remember to lube the butt cheeks next time.
Carry a handheld flashlight at night to see the trail better.
The GU chomps were great later in the race when I was sick of gell's.
Eat some solid food a couple times during the race to keep the calories up.

Thanks again to my wife for all your support and encouragement in this crazy sport, with out it this would not be possible.