I must have been asked about 20 times, "Why did you sign up for TRT 100 again?" The answer was complicated. I had a great time last year and I love the events that the Tahoe area running groups put on. Yes, we finished the race, but I also felt like I possibly left something on the table. I also wanted to prove it wasn't a fluke that I was able to finish a mountain 100 mile race. So, here Kristin and I are again in 2017 doing it again!
The training plan was similar to the previous year. Instead of Gorge Waterfall, we would do Canyons 100k. However, we still planned to do the Silver State 50 and the Western States training weekend. After fatigue set in, we ended up DNFing Silver State (by choice) and opting to conserve our energy for the training weekend. Both Kristin and I had overuse injuries of various states and wanted to be certain to have fun at States. Overall, our plan ended up being this:
Last year, my achilles was problematic after Silver State, but I kept doing my physical therapy, stretches, etc. this year. We also did 1-2 days a week of strength training (marked in blue) which included mostly upper-body but also significant leg workouts when there wasn't a race the next weekend.
Kristin and I also had a vacation in Tahoe between Broken Arrow Sky Race and Western States pacing this year. Rather than return home for a couple days, we stayed at elevation and in the heat of Tahoe. We got a bunch of good mountain runs in near Squaw and Alpine Meadows. We made sure to do the runs mid-day so they were hot. There was also significant snow both in the Sky Race and our training runs. This ended up being great practice!
The snow practice was good, because TRT ended up having at least a few miles of snow on the course. However, it also stressed my peroneal tendon due to the lateral movements in soft snow. This started to get bad after the Western States training weekend and I took a few weeks off from most training. It got better, eventually, with some minor rehab. Earlier, it also took us much longer to recover from Canyons 100k than I had previously thought. That is a HARD 100k, but it was also great training for TRT.
I decided to do some heat training in the final weeks since my mileage was low from the injuries. Although it wasn't expected to be "hot", I don't deal well with heat. I ended up sitting in a sauna for up to 30 minutes 2x a week with a sweatshirt and winter hat. This helped me adapt.
Going into the race, my main goal was to not blow up. Last year, I had a rough time going up Diamond Peak the first time (mile 30). I felt sick and this cost us about 45 minutes. I had a second rough patch after mile 50 when it got dark. I attribute this to not eating enough. This cost us probably another hour. By improving these two things, I hoped that we could not only finish again, but potentially improve the time.
There are always surprises in ultras. This year, they were fairly minor. There was quite a bit of snow on the course and where there wasn't snow, there was some melted snow (aka water!). We made sure to plan for plenty of sock changes to prevent blisters. I used the expensive Drymax orange socks and a new pair of Altra Olympus 2.5s. The Altras seem to have fixed the rubbing problems on my toe that I had with the previous 2.0s. I ended up not having a single blister after 100 miles. Here is an action shot sliding down a snow bank:
The first bout with Diamond Peak (mile 30) was much better than last year. I had a minute or two of nausea, but it went away quickly. Taking a bit of extra time going up it ended up saving a lot of time getting to the next aid station. Here's a pic of DP from afar (the lower slopes on the right and the peak on the upper left behind the trees). It's a WTF climb.
We finished the first loop (mile 50) before dusk which was about 1 hour faster than last year. We were able to move along into the next loop quite a ways before it ended up getting dark. I drank a Red Bull at this point whereas last year I didn't have one until mile 63. This helped.
On the topic of nutrition, since I'm vegetarian and I can't tolerate dairy, food choices are often problematic. A few things ended up working this year:
After leaving the 50 mile point, we hiked through much of the night with our pacers Justin and Leah. It was on fairly hilly and technical (rocks and snow) portions of the course, so we didn't lose much time, but we did do it a bit slower than last year. Not a big deal, we planned to run more in the daylight. We got to Diamond Peak lodge just after dawn which was much earlier than the prior year. This had it's benefits... climbing Diamond Peak in the shade!
Overall, here are the different times of the segments comparing last year and this year:
We did several
segments of the first loop 10% faster or, at the least, about the
same. We were slower going up Diamond Peak, but that time was made up
from the top to the next aid station. We closed the first loop from
Snow Valley peak almost 14% faster which resulted in a 50 mile split
an hour faster than last year.
On the second loop, we gained about 20 minutes right at the start because I had enough calories at the mid-point. Through the night, we slowed a bit to mile 80, because Kristin and I were both getting sore. The second climb up Diamond Peak, however, was over 15% faster than last year and 10 minutes faster than the first time in the race. This is mostly, because we climbed it before the sun crested which was a HUGE advantage. It was steep, but not hot! We did take some extra time at Hobart and the final climb to Snow Valley Peak, but we were able to close the last 7 miles almost 10% faster than last year.
Overall, we finished about 1 hour 20 minutes faster, but, more importantly, we felt strong!
Kristin and I with our buckles at breakfast the next day:
This year's buckle (left) and last year's (right):
Special thanks to all that helped us along the way. Don, Kathy, Justin, Leah, the vounteers at all the aid stations, the TRTER tots at Tunnel Creek, and all the other runners.
What I learned (or remembered again!):