JMT FKT attempt Trip Report

Allen thanks for the detailed report.
some good info.

Thanks Art, happy to share my experience, for what it is worth!

I normally don't read FKT reports, but for some reason I was riveted by yours. Even if you didn't make it, it's still pretty extraordinary. My legs hurt just reading it, lol. Nice write up.

Thanks George! Glad you enjoyed it and glad the experience came across at least a little bit. Cheers!

Great write up and summary. As I was following your attempt via Adam's updates, I was wondering what you were going thru both physically and mentally, and you post covered it well. Great effort, what you accomplished is outstanding.

K

Great write up Allen; great effort. It's going to take Everything going just right for anyone to break this record.

Kenneth and Jeffrey,

Thanks for your comments and feedback! I'm glad that you enjoyed it and still hoping to try again if the fires and weather cooperate enough to give me a good window. For someone like me it will definitely take everything going right to get the FKT…

Burly… man, solid effort regardless of the outcome. The little mistakes add up for sure, but I think the mind games are the worst part of any effort where you're pushing yourself that hard. The brain has a funny way of tricking us into stopping whatever it is we're doing that it doesn't approve of!

1) you could do more attempts per year if you were going after the 100m dash. 2) You didn't push yourself hard enough, no talk of pink bunnies chasing you around the lake. 3) The coyotes were offering to pace you to HI. This was a great Writeup. I could almost feel the distress as I read the about your final night. While some may not understand why people do such foolish "never do it again" events, clearly you are getting something out of pushing your mind and body to the limit. I have no doubt you will do it again. many of my "Never do it agains" a have turned into obsessions. Good luck in your training and execution of your next FKT attempt. one final thought. Do you need to tweak your fueling strategy a bit?

Malto, Agreed on all points. I should have followed the coyotes, maybe they would have led me to the pink bunnies! I guess i need to HTFU. As for the fueling strategy, I'm open to suggestions. I bought some malto but haven't really been able to test it on long efforts yet. The Clif shots seem to work well for me but they are a bit heavy. Perpetuum works well also but takes extra time to mix. Power bars are efficient but hard to choke down while moving. If I am able to go again this year, I would probably separate the caffeine from the calories so I can modulate them separately.

agree on separating caffeine from fuel. I do sometime add some electrolytes into my Malto but I generally will do a caffeine pill every four hours. The reason I asked about the go fuel is my belief that judgement is impaired when there is a glycogen deficiency. If that is the case I am curious what your target carb calorie per hour is. I saw that Scott Jurek recommends just about an identical amount as I have been doing. I target about 300 carb calories per hour. (At 187 ideal fighting weight, I would be at the upper end of Scott's range.) here is the question to Scott and his response. As an ultrarunner, your caloric needs are different from the average athlete. Can you tell us about that? When I’m training to come out on top and win races, I’ll need 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day. But someone who’s newer to running—say, training for a marathon or triathlon—might not need that many. The key thing is you have to eat while you’re running; you burn through the glycogen [a form of glucose that is easily processed] as you exercise. Marathoners can squeak by with a gel or two, although I think they’d have better results eating more often. But when they move on to their first ultra—say, a 50K—they spend more time on the trail. More time on the trail means more calories. It really comes down to your brain and nervous system needing those carbohydrates. You have to find the type of food that’s easiest for you to digest, consume 25 grams of carbohydrates every 20 to 30 minutes, then wash it down with plenty of water and electrolytes. It’s based on body weight, though, so larger individuals need more calories per hour than somebody who’s smaller. It’s not a blanket recommendation! from http://www.bonappetit.com/people/article/scott-jurek-ultrarunner-diet

in case you haven't heard this song…….. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZTSriPZCQo

I was eating 200-250 cal per hour, typically eating something every 15-30 minutes. I am at about 155 lbs bodyweight. I realize this is a deficit (not sure how much though). It seemed to work for most of the first 3 days – I was not hungry, didn't bonk. It seemed to work well until the very end when I stopped eating. I brought the following: 37X200 cal clif shots, 12X90 cal gu shots, 10X500 cal Perpetuum powder, 3X220 cal Hammer bars 2X220 cal Power bars 500 cal Recoverite (approx) Total 15,080 cal I think the mix was about right, although next time I'd ditch the hammer bars and bring more power bars instead, and ditch the recoverite. I might bring some Tailwind or malto instead of the recoverite. About half the Clif shots and all the Gu shots were caffeinated. All the perpetuum was also caffeinated. I also had 6 via packets and 6 caffeine tablets although I only used one tablet and 3 vias.

I give credit to anyone trying this and I really enjoyed your videos. My daughter and I just finished up an Onion Valley to Rae lakes trip and I was telling her about those of you who attempt these speed records. She was in awe of anyone attempting to do this and cannot even contemplate what it takes to muster enough strength and courage to do this.