Eugene Smith is a beast

[George Matthews]

Progress : )

Was an incredible morning for me. 9.3 miles – average 10 min per mile

38 F / 5 mph gusts

BPL Merino beanie

Possumdown gloves

BPL Merino UL long sleeve and New Balance synthetic short sleeved T shirt

BPL Merino UL long pant, Patagonia briefs and Royal Robins synthetic shorts

Injinji lightweight mini-crew and original mini-crew

Other: Ipod shuffling Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Allman Bros

[Eugene Smith]

My running clothing system doesn't change much through the year, our dry climate and year round sunshine makes it pretty easy to get out the door with very little on. Only thing I have to deal with is brisk clear mornings, (upper teens and 20's) in Dec.-Jan. I usually only have to add a pair of armsleeves into my typical clothing system, a lightweight beanie, and pair of gloves.

For sustained chilly runs in the early morning or evenings:

Top: merino t-shirt or lightweight poly shirt

Arms: merino arm sleeves

Hands: merino gloves

Shell: windshell, only for those brisk and breezy runs in the early morning or evening.

Bottoms: split shorts for anything above 32F and sunny usually, sustained temps below 32F with little sun then I'll use either the Patagonia Coolweather tights or Traverse pants, especially in the evenings.

Socks: whatever doesn't smell or resemble bacon strips, usually merino

Head: Merino wool buff or lightweight capilene beanie (Patagonia, can't remember the model, a few years old, but it's an indispensable headpiece, a miracle piece of kit, wicks sweat like crazy, keeps my head warm, and dries in minutes)

[Mike M]

you guys must be tougher than me, I'm pretty sure I would have froze to death w/o the windshirt :)

George- good deal! Probably time I satrted bumping up my mileage a little, I'm close to the 10 minute/mile mark (relatively steep up/down) but my loop is only a little over 3 miles

[W I S N E R !]

Clown shoes, eh Art?

When I ran the Bishop High Sierra 50K a friend was wearing them…She swears by them. I remember running down a section of scree and sharp, softball-sized rocks at about mile 27. She asked me how my feet were, with a smirk of course…said hers felt like she was running on marshmallows. I, on the other hand, was getting the "full" experience in my MT101s…

But I'll be damned if I wouldn't have to swallow a huge chunk of pride to step outside with those things on…

Curious if they work out for you.

[Eugene Smith]

Hokas? I just can't wrap my mind around those.

Speaking of Hoka, Dave Mackey (Hoka athlete) had his Rim2Rim2Rim record of (6:59:56) bested by Dakota Jones today with a time of (6:53).

Unbelievable.

[W I S N E R !]

Bananas!

6:53 round-trip is insane.

We gotta hook up and run it this spring or next fall Eugene…I reckon it's about half way between us.

[George Matthews]

Amazing what can be done. That's inspiring. Wow!

I'm in, too, but for the 2014 BPL Rim2Rim2Rim. Maybe Mike, too.

: )

The NYC marathon is today. I bet we have some BPLers among the ten thousand runners.

[Art …]

Well, you do realize those elite RRR record breakers are just a bunch of wimps who have to run the "short" 42 mile version just to make it across.

Anyone can do South Kaibab-North Kaibab-South Kaibab under 7 hours :-))

I've done the long version before – Bright Angel-North Kaibab-Bright Angel.
A friend and I will be there weekend of April 14, 2012 to do it again.
Totally worth the effort.

[George Matthews]

Experienced a vision during this morning's run. The sun was rising behind the clouds. Looked like a high, steep canyon. The clouds formed a a dark wall from all the way north to south east across the sky, yet along the rim color and light. Well kinda a surreal canyon. Anyway, it was cool.

Also, something about this tread has kick-started my running. I ran the same 9.3 course I did yesterday, but averaged 9 min 9 sec miles. It was a few degrees warmer (40+) so I did not wear merino pants. I did this after reading the cold run clothing posts.

Eugene, you need to run a 100! We will all become gazelles.

Another thing I did before the run because my calves felt tight and sore from yesterday is I rubbed menthol gel on them really well.

Really focused on form. Picking up my feet. Shifting gears up a bit when going up hill.

Beyond the form and gel, I really believe thinking about running rim2rim or rim2rim2rim in the future was magical. What else could it be.

Please, no referring to my improvement as 9-9-9 (miles, min, sec). : )

[George Matthews]

Interesting. Did not realize there were different versions. Congrats on running the long version. And good luck on the next one.

[Art …]

. . .

[Mike M]

I'm guessing everyone on this thread has read Born to Run? Great book, I'm about 3/4 of the through it and will likely finish it tonight.

Never gave a lot of thought to the mental aspect of running, particularly longer runs- giving it a lot more thought now :)

Rim to rim looks like a wonderful challenge, looks like a few folks take a step further and go rim to rim to rim!

[Nick Gatel]

Is my favorite running book.

At least for reading. My favorite running book is an autographed copy Jim Ryun's autobiography, which is another long story :)

[Nick Gatel]

I periodically read Letsrun.com which has a lot of fantastic articles. The forums often have posts from famous runners, but it gets uglier that WhiteBlaze so you have to filter your reading. I have never posted there.

A few years ago, a college kid posted a thread titled, "My goal of sub 4:00 1500-I will not stop until I reach my goal."

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2270504&page=0

Now 4:00 for 1500 meters is not a super fast time for a college runner… it is about a 4:20 mile. But this thread went on for 2.5 years. A lot of supportive posts and even more flack and disgusting posts. Eddy ignored the bad comments and had ongoing chats with those who were trying to help him. This went on for 80+ pages. Eventually Eddy Lee hit his goal. The letsrun.com main page, which often has interviews with the world elite and other stories, made Eddy's sub 4, quite out of character for them.

Anyway… If you start a thread with you training details, it will keep you motivated and you can get input from others. For the rest of BPL we are sure to get a lot of your classic humor.

[Art …]

here's a recap of the record run.
a footnote at the end says the women's record was broken the following day – 3rd time this year.

iRunfar Recap
Dakota Jones Breaks GC-RRR Record

Dakota's own words
Dakota's OWn Words – GC-RRR Record

…

[David Chenault]

Interesting the read that Jones thinks the double will go under 6 hours. Looking at his splits, I believe him. 1:41 for the final ascent is really slow for a runner of his caliber. I don't recall seeing Mackey's splits, but Krupicka did something similar a few years back (i.e. totally imploded and went backwards on the last ascent). Frame of reference, my mostly not running PR for the double is 12 hours, with the final ascent being only a hair over 2 hours.

[Art …]

South Kaibab-North Kaibab-South Kaibab ?
12 hours is a Very respectable time, great job.

[Eugene Smith]

Jornet will break the record, its just too good of a marketing opportunity for megagroup Salomon to pass up. Kilian is a phenom and a superior runner to Jones, he'll beat it if he attempts it.

[Benjamin Mayberry]

Back in late June of 2010, I hitched a ride from Yosemite Valley back to the PCT at Tuolumne Meadows. to make a long story short, Kilian Jornet was the guy who picked me up, although I didn't realize it (or even know who he was) at the time. It's a bit of a ride from the Valley to Tuolumne, so we got to chatting and I *believe* he said he was working his way through the southwest, with the intent of running RRR… but several weeks passed between that conversation and when I discovered who he was, so I could be mistaken.

Have any idea if he made an attempt around then?

[Anonymous]

"Is my favorite running book."

A huge +1

Oops, there goes my HR again. Darn you anyway, Nick. This was supposed to be a recovery day. ;=(

[Mike M]

just finished Born a Runner, the chapter on the evolutionary theory of the "running man" was fascinating!

have a copy of Once a Runner ordered :) anyone read Natural Runner (Danny Abshire)- sounds like a how to on barefoot running, w/o actually going barefoot

tia

[Peter Rodrigues]

I have a collection of both training and bio running books that my athletes don't bother to read, so if anyone is interested in borrowing a copy, let me know. I'll update the list once I get down to the track and field office where they are stored.

Running with the Buffalos (must read) – Chris Lear
Running the Lydiard Way – Arthur Lydaird
Training the Cerutty Way – Myers (great book on Percy Cerutty, who was a bada–)
Better Training for Distance Runners (Geared to track runners) – Martin and Coe (Seb Coe's father and coach)
Steve Scott Biography
Once a Runner – John L. Parker
Running with Legends (chapter length bios of great runners) – Michael Sandrock
Daniels Running Formula – Jack Daniels
Ultramarathon Man – Dean Karnazes

[Mike M]

^ guess I wouldn't have had to order Once a Runner :)

I tried to find additional trail to enlarge my running loop, I took a fork and it dead ended- so I decided instead of turning back just keep going thinking I might bump into another trail. I didn't, so ended running (well some of it was walking it was so steep) down a ridge until I could find a good place to cross over and then up another ridge that finally led back to my normal loop. In places the snow was 6-8" deep which added yet another dimension. Have no idea how much I added to my normal run in miles (but added ~ 45 minutes to my run). I'm going to go a different direction next run to see if I can still find something to enlarge my loop, but if I don't I'm pretty sure I'll still have a good time and a good workout :)

my shoes were soaked, but even w/ ~ 1.5 hours of tromping through snow my feet never really got cold. there were some stretches that I could have used additional traction (icy spots), but I think I found a fix for that- sheet metal screws

http://www.skyrunner.com/screwshoe.htm

[Art …]

when I do training runs, I keep track of miles AND time, especially in my long runs.
My primary focus of the two is time.
Do I want to do a 1 hour run, 2 hour run, 4 hour run, 5 hour run, 7 hour run ?
Lets say I want to do a 1.5 hour run.
do I want lots of hills (slower)
rolling hills (moderate)
or sort of flat (faster)
what kind of trail bed for today's run?
I plan my runs around their time length not distance length.
I have several routes for each time category, and pick a route that fits the terrain for an upcoming project or race.
I also log elevation gain for my runs and keep a weekly total.

p.s.
one problem I see with trail runners focusing only on mileage is that if you have a rigid mileage plan and are the type who just has to hit your weekly mileage target, you may (consciously or not) find yourself opting for the easier miles just to hit your number.

[Hiking Malto]

Last Sunday I woke up early due to the time change. I was clicking through this thread and it hit me, walk away from the computer and go do a trail run up on the AT. I hadn't done a trail run since the spring but how tough could it be? Two months ago I completed a 2600 mile hike so a short little jaunt down the trail should be a breeze. I headed out and did 12 miles, which was disappointing until I found out the elevation gain was about 3000'. Then I felt a bit better.

But in spite of the fact that I HATE running I had an absolute blast, even with my war wounds. I had been in a funk after getting back from the PCT, I had lost my mission, I needed another crusade. Well I think I may have found it, thanks to this thread. I am a very goal oriented person and I think the next great goal will have to be running the R2R2R. I almost hiked it last spring but chose an alternative form of punishment, the Geogia Loop, because it was closer.

So, if there are others out there interested in doing the R2R2R maybe a loosely configured BPL mini group outing could be a cool way to do it. Thanks for the inspiration and helping me to find my new porpoise!

[Author]

Posts