Earlier this week the USATF published the complete set of splits for every runner for the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials. Ordinarily splits would not be a big deal, and in fact they’ve had 5K splits available for quite some time now. What makes these splits unique is that there are 50 of them!! Due to the fact there was a timing mat every 5K (plus the finish line and half marathon mark), and that the marathon route was a 5-lap course, the 5K split mats picked up splits for all the other times each runner passed over them. Pretty nifty.

Being numbers geek, I naturally plunked all of my own split information into a spreadsheet and went to work. And being a map nerd, I naturally plunked in the elevation profile as well to see how the hills influence my splits.

The above chart shows a lot of what I already knew: I slowed down during the race. Duh. But due to the better resolution of the splits, I could see exactly where and by how much. It looks like someone flipped a switch in me right after 15 miles that said, “You run slow now!” Splits dropped abruptly from sub-5:20 to 5:30+. The good news is that I had nothing slower than 5:53-pace. There was a 5:48 in there, but then pretty much everything else was all faster than 5:40-pace. This is all helpful to me, since I did not wear a watch during the race.

I thought an interesting overlay would be to add the elevation profile, my previous split pace, and my overall pace to a graph. This would answer the question: how much did the uphills slow me down (and uphills speed me up) throughout the race?

My elevation profile isn’t quite calibrated with the USATF certification, so it is a little shifted in places. Plus, the pace graph is shifted a little forward, since it is the pace of the previous split. BUT, the relation between the two major hills of the course with my pace is quite obvious, and kind of cool to look at. You can see the same pace pattern for the last four laps of the race (the first lap we were all steadily accelerating due to the slow start).

From the graph, I can see that early in the race I was running 5:00-5:05 on the downhills and 5:20-5:25 on the uphills. Late in the race, I was managing ~5:15 on the bigger downhills, but 5:40-5:50 on the uphills. From training in Utah, I am a pretty good downhill runner, so it doesn’t surprise me that I could hold it together better on the downs, even late in the race. That is a result of training specifically for St. George, and I did notice during the race that I passed or made up ground on quite on few runners during the downhill sections.

Although I didn’t hit a real Wall during Trials, it is obvious that fatigue worked its way into my legs after Mile 15 or so, and the repetitious hills worked me over as the race progressed. Clearly, I have work to do on my strength and endurance.

But that’s it for thinking about Trials! It was a blast to run, but it is past, and now it is time to look forward to the future: more training and more big races!

Several competitive runners over the last couple days have asked me, “How on earth do you run 100-mile weeks?” In all cases, this was not a snide question, but an honest one. These people realized that they could make performance gains by training more, but were at a loss on how to do so. Training 100+ miles per week is not an easy endeavor, and can leave runners fatigued, frustrated, and/or injured if done improperly. However, if successful, this high-volume training most often leads to marathon breakthroughs, and is necessary for those wishing to become elite or semi-elite.

Some personal history: I tried several 100-mile weeks back in 2003 and 2004 with little success. They merely made me tired, I was unable to do any sort of quality speed work, and I ended up running my worst marathon in 2004. This summer I revisited high-volume training, but this time I was able to handle the load rather easily and still incorporate long, high-quality, intense workouts twice a week. The result was not just better workouts, but better race performances and better recovery. Not to mention I am experiencing fewer aches and pains than ever, and am the healthiest I have been in years.

So what was the difference? What did I change to turn 100-mile weeks from a drain to a delight? Here are the keys:

• Build a big base over a long period of time. If you’ve been running 60-70 miles/week all winter, building to 100 miles/week by summer will be a natural progression rather than something to dread. Build up to it slowly, no more than 5 miles/week on average. Personally, I like to increase mileage every three weeks, and then maintain for two weeks, then increase again. This keeps things nice and slow, and reduces risk of injury and fatigue.
• Turn easy days into doubles. Running 16 miles is hard. Running 8 miles is easy. Running 8 miles twice is also easy.
• Make easy days easy, and hard days hard. It’s okay to run those doubles I mentioned in the above bullet at a very slow pace. It’s common for me to do my easy runs at 7:30/mile pace, and even occasionally dip to slower than 8:00/mile. The point of these runs is to build aerobic volume, get the blood flowing, and recover from your hard days. When you do work out, make it worth your time by employing Tinman’s Big Workout philosophy.
• Get up early. For many, finding time to run a couple times each day is as big of a challenge as finding the energy. I’ve found that getting up at 6AM or earlier creates all sorts of time!
• Get quality sleep. Take naps. Your body heals and grows stronger while you sleep. I make sure I am in bed by 10PM (which makes the above bullet, getting up early, a lot easier). And since I am up early and done with my run early, I usually have time for 30-60 minutes of napping before I roll into work at 9AM. It is not uncommon for me to pick up an extra 7-8 hours of naps over the course of a week. I sincerely believe this “8th night” of sleep is one of the absolute key elements of high mileage. In general, shoot to average 9 hours/day of sleep, including naps.
• Take a “day off”. Sometimes you have to run less to run more. Make sure you get one day per week of very little running. For example, I only run 4-6 miles on Sundays, and often take multiple naps. It is truly a day of rest and rejuvenation. Relative to other days of the week, this is a “day off”, but I still get in a few valuable miles, enough to get the blood moving. I know plenty of other runners who easily get over 100 miles/week while taking one day completely off.
• Eat healthy and hydrate always. Recovery and fueling is key during a demanding training program. Think of your body as a high-performance car. You don’t give a Ferrari regular unleaded, you give it premium! Keep a water bottle by you at all times. Consume a sports drink immediately after running. During meals stay away from processed foods and junk foods, and pursue fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean meats, and other healthy foods. This will help reduce recovery time and give you more energy, not mention keep you trim.
• Extra credit: work an easy, flexible job. It is quite taxing if you have to be on your feet all day at work. And those naps are hard to fit in if your job has a rigid schedule or long hours. In order to sustain high-volume training for a long period of times (weeks and months), it really, really helps to have a job that lets you sit on your butt all day in cool air conditioning, and has flexible hours to allow you to come and go as you please. One such job is “Professional Runner“. For those of us who aren’t so lucky, “Self-Employed” is probably the next best thing. My job, “GIS Specialist“, is very conducive toward running, as is my laid-back office (and I am grateful for that!). Most people aren’t going to change jobs just for running, but if you already hate your job, maybe here’s one more reason to quit!

Looking back, I now realize that my previous attempts at 100-mile weeks were done improperly. I hadn’t built a big enough base, my average runs were too long (not enough doubles), my easy days were too hard, I wasn’t sleeping enough, and I wasn’t eating healthy enough. I was unable to perform quality workouts, and received no benefit from the mileage. But utilizing these tips have helped my running blossom this year, and I hope they will be beneficial to you as well.

It’s been awhile since I’ve showcased a race course map, but the approach of autumn means lots of great fall races! My most recently completed project is the Fall 50, a 5-person, 50-mile relay that takes place on the beautiful Wisconsin shorelines of the Door County Peninsula on October 20th. The race can also be run as an ultra event.

Just from mapping the course on aerial photography, I could tell that the race is very beautiful, and wanted to showcase that by creating beautiful maps that make people think of fall colors. Do do this, I created a color ramp for the false-color elevation that consisted mostly of yellows, oranges, and reds. Another key feature of the maps is the ample shoreline, which I portrayed using the technique of coastal vignettes (multiple-ring buffers). The final touch was using the race’s maple leaf logo as the exchange symbol, which I did by vectorizing the logo in Adobe Illustrator and then exporting as an .emf, which can be imported into ArcMap as picture symbol.

In all, I was pleased with the outcome, and enjoyed creating maps to fit the unique “personality” of the course.

Vegetarians may want to look away…

Today I’m here to describe the wonders of the “Brurger”. What is a brurger, you ask? A brurger, also known as the “hambur-brat”, is a fascinating mix of wonder-meats. The core unit consists of a hamburger patty, cheese, and a Johnsonville bratwurst, all tucked into a standard hamburger bun. The bratwurst is first cut in half, and then split along its longitudinal axis before mounted on its greasy beefy base.

However there are a plethora of variations and enhancements can can be performed to the standard brurger. One nuance is simply additional condiments. We have tried salsa (Tex-Mex Brurger) and blue cheese dressing (Fatty-fat Brurger), all with great success. Another novel idea is adding fry sauce (Utah Brurger). *Note* for those who don’t know, “fry sauce” is a mixture of ketchup and mayo, and is generally only found in Utah for some reason.

Furthermore, the standard brurger can be built upon by simply adding more meat, for instance bacon (Pig Brurger), a second bratwurst half (Br-Brurger), a second hamburger patty and a second bratwurst half (Double Br-Brurger), or a chicken breast (Noah’s Ark Brurger — give me two of every animal!). Most of these variations are experimental and not recommended for people who want to live past age 60.

The best brurger I’ve ever had was just last week, while camping with my wife and a friend in northern Washington. After my first “Standard Brurger”, I decided I wanted something more, and soon invented the “Br-Brurger”. The layers were: bun, bratwurst, cheese, patty, cheese, bratwurst, bun. Although it dripped the largest amount of grease I’ve ever seen, it ended up being about the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

So what does this have to do with running, you ask? After all, this is running blog. Well, the brurger’s history roots deeply into the realms of running. The original brurger was invented by myself and several friends after the 2004 Canyonlands Half Marathon. After working ourselves over in this early-season half marathon, we all decided that we deserved something “special”, something that would replenish our depleted calories and fat stores. Being a Wisconsin native it seemed logical to me that bratwurst should be involved. One thing led to another, and after some group collaboration the first brurger was born in the campground at Arches National Park.

The brurger soon become a traditional post-race meal. The deal is that you have to “earn” it. Usually a half marathon is sufficient, although special exceptions are allowed as well, such as long journeys and reunions with friends.

While in training, I keep my diet pretty tight: a lot of vegetarian cuisine, lean poultry, and fish. However, at times I feel it appropriate to let loose and celebrate, whether it’s finishing a tough race or enjoying the companionship of friends. For me, the brurger symbolizes the balancing of rigid training with celebration. Eating healthy is definitely beneficial for running…but something you just gotta unbuckle the belt and enjoy!

And while I’m off-topic, go Packers!

Slow day on the blog. I was looking at my shoe rack the other day and realized that I have 12 pairs of shoes total, and 8 of them are running shoes. The crazy thing is that I wear all of them (except one pair) for running and only running. Am I some sort of freak, or is this normal?

Numbers in the photo above correspond to numbers in the list below:

1. Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 yellow - 497 miles - road training; about to be retired
2. Saucony Tangent - <50 miles - racing flats; haven’t been used since I got plantar fasciitis (PF)
3. Birkenstocks - what I wear when I’m not running; great treatment for PF and comfy as all heck.
4. Dress Shoes - I’ve had these since high school and I hate them; wear them whenever I wear a tie, which is about twice a year.
5. Brooks Burn - 143 miles - lightweight trainers; I’m wearing these for workouts and races until I have the guts to wear racing flats again (post plantar fasciitis trauma)
6. Brooks Cascadia - 88 miles - trail-running shoes; also wear sometimes for hiking
7. Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 black - 455 miles - road training
8. Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7 blue - 79 miles - road training; my newest shoes
9. Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7 orange - 316 miles - road training
10. Nike Zoom Kennedy track spikes - ?? miles - track racing; haven’t worn since college, but can’t bear to get rid of since they cost $110. They’re pretty rad though.
11. North Face sandals - haven’t worn since PF; may start using again this summer
12. Fuzzy Slippers - note the SuperFeet inserts. PF changes your life and your slippers.

Several things are evident from this photo

1. I rotate many many pairs of running shoes. Rotating shoes makes them last longer, as it gives the EVA time to decompress and dry out. This is especially helpfully when running a lot of doubles. I’ve found I can get an extra 100-200 miles out of a pair of shoes by rotating, and it helps ward off injury.
2. Shoes have specific uses. Road shoes are used on the road. Trail shoes are used on the trail. Racing shoes are used for racing and speedwork. I don’t wear running shoes for everyday use; they are only used for running.
3. I like Brooks. Don’t know why, I just do.
4. I like the Brooks Adrenaline. For mild overpronators such as myself, it’s a great shoe. There’s nothing wrong with buying the same shoe over and over and over and over…
5. I don’t dress up much. If I have to wear a nice shoe for an event, it’s usually not worth going to.

If you think my shoe rack is bad, you should see my t-shirt drawer!

This week’s featured maps are for the Wild Miles Relay. This overnight adventure relay race is put on by In Motion, Inc., and travels 179 miles from Vail Lake in Temecula, CA to its finish aat San Dieguito County Park in Del Mar, CA. True to its namesake, the Wild Miles Relay travels through some difficult terrain, and takes its 5- to 10-person teams through everything from deserts, to mountains, to the Pacific coast.

Marathon GIS produced two primary map products for this race:

1) A map book featuring the leg map, route directions/mileage, gps coordinates, misc leg information, and the elevation profile.

2) A large overview map (22”x36”) that shows the entire course and the entire profile in an aesthetic layout. These overview maps are good for both planning race logistics and as a souvenir.

My goal with the Wild Miles project was not just to create accurate maps and profiles, but also to “bring the race to life” by incorporating custom elements into the maps. The race’s official fonts were used for exchange and street labeling within the maps, and were also used in the profiles and in the map titles. A false-elevation color ramp was selected that uses warm colors in the desert/mountainous part of the race, and cool colors in the low-elevation coastal part of the race. Multiple-ring buffers were used to create “coastal vignettes”, which enhance the aesthetics of water bodies within the maps. The majority of the cartography was performed in ArcGIS 9.2, Adobe Illustrator CS2 was used to create the profiles, and Adobe InDesign CS2 for the final map and atlas layouts.

Good luck to all those participating in the Wild Miles Relay this weekend!

Big news for this blog and my writing career. I have been invited on as a freelance writer for The Final Sprint, a fairly new, but large, comprehensive running website. I’m pretty excited about this. The upshot is that I can fulfill my month-long dream of becoming a professional running columnist. The downshot is that all my “A”-material will be going there rather than here. But not to worry, Of Marathons and Maps will continue on in a slightly modified form. Gone will be be the rants and raves, training articles, product reviews, and other gibberish. What remains in enhanced form will be Utah running news and opinions, race course map showcases, and anything else too obscene or irrelevant for a “real” running site. When I created this blog, I originally intended it to be an extension of my side business, Marathon GIS, but I got sidetracked with writing columns and articles. Now the site will revert a bit closer to its intended format. And whenever I post on the The Final Sprint, I will post a link here as well.