Ultrarunning Camp Recap

As I type this, I am sitting in the St. Louis airport during my three hour layover which has been delayed to a (hopefully) 6 ½ hour layer. What better time to write up my recap of the grand adventure I was just on? (Note: this was over 3 months ago but figured might as well not edit to keep the spirit of the excitement.) Pictures are at the end so you can just skip straight to them if nothing else.

True Ultrarunning: Drinking a beer at 10am

As I mentioned in my 50k race report, back in January (?) Nicolas was telling me about an ultrarunning camp he was attending in Flagstaff. The camp was put on by McMillan running and its coaches, which include elite ultrarunners Ian Torrence and Emily Harrison (to name a few). Basically, the camp was 4 days with 5 trail runs (including one night one) and clinics.  As soon as he told me about it, I was pretty much ready to sign up and did so a couple of days later. I went through Flagstaff on my Bike and Build trip, and it has stuck in my memory as one of my favorite places in the US. Plus, it was near (4ish hour drives) both Las Vegas  (where my friend Katie lives) and Zion National Park (a top 3 place I wanted to visit). I decided I would extend my trip to spend a day with Katie and a few days in Zion National Park. I was super excited when just a few weeks later Ian and Emily were interviewed by the ultrarunner podcast I listen to as it gave me a prime opportunity to geek out.

So fast forward 5ish months later. Before I signed up for the camp, I was not an ultrarunner and now I am. However, while my confidence has grown, I am still really inexperienced on the trails and was looking forward to just throwing myself into it. I am sure I annoyed the heck out of my coworkers leading up to the trip by how excited I was, but they are probably used to it (or at least should be by now).  Unfortunately/fortunately, I had a work trip come up to Orlando before the camp (to discuss the hospitality industry’s application of the new revenue recognition standard which really added to the nerdy/wonderful nature of my trip) so I left Sunday night for Orlando, spent two days nerding out workwise, flew to Vegas late Tuesday night, spent Wednesday with Katie & her four year old daughter before heading to Flagstaff, had the running camp Thursday afternoon through Sunday noonish, and then drove to Zion (via the Grand Canyon) Sunday afternoon/evening to hike Monday/Tuesday, and am now, ten days later, making my way back home. Phew! No wonder I am tired.

The structure of the camp was as follows:

• Thursday: Afternoon run (6 miles) followed by a group dinner at Pita Jungle.
• Friday: Morning run (Sedona), followed by afternoon clinics, and an optional New Belgium happy hour/dinner with other local ultrarunners (including Rob Krar who is kind of like the Lebron James of ultrarunning at the moment!!).
• Saturday: Morning run (Kendrick aka 4.5 miles up a mountain and 4.5 miles down) followed by afternoon clinics and a night run
• Sunday: Morning run (I did 8 miles but you could do up to 14) followed by a goodbye brunch.

On the whole, I loved my experience. The trail runs were each beautiful in their own right, and it was really cool learning and talking to so many experienced runners (including the coaches, other local runners, and the other participants who were much more experienced than I am). Plus, how often do you get to hang out with the rock stars of your sport in such a normal, friendly setting?! All of the coaches were really nice and easy to talk to and the talk that ultrarunning is a really welcoming, opening community proved true. Despite the altitude throwing me for a loop and making my runs much more difficult, I feel like I really improved on the trails. All the runs were beautiful and different, and despite going to a negative place on the 4.5 mile climb up Kendrick Mountain (especially as the good views were clouded by fog – literally), I really enjoyed flying down the mountain (thanks Reba!). This tells me the clinics were really helpful, as while downhills previously made me really nervous I was able to use the lessons I had learned the night before to feel more confident (thanks Jake!). It will definitely take practice and while the clinics were really helpful, the one thing I wish there was some more of drills on the trails (i.e. practicing going down with a coach watching to provide suggestions). Overall though, I thought the camp was structured well – I thought the length of time was appropriate, the clinics were useful, and the optional fun activities with the campers and other local ultrarunners was super cool and allowed me to indulge my inner geek/fan (although I kept my cool on the outside).

Here are some of the things I learned at the clinics that I found helpful/want to remember (pictures at end) - as a caveat there was a lot more discussion for each point so check with your doctor, etc.:

• Nutrition
• During a race you want to focus your nutrition on things high on the glycemic index (i.e. coke, processed sugars) as the “healthy” slow burning carbs linger in your digestive system and tap into liver/kidney stores
• Protein is best kept as a recovery item
• Common What Could Go Wrongs
• Sloshy Stomach: need more electrolytes
• Dry Heaving: need more water (dehydration)
• Salt all over body: over-salting/under-drinking
• Puffy Hands:  too much salt, dehydration, gravity (shouldn’t be overly concerned)
• Cramping (can someone send this to Lebron and Dellavedova?): Electrolyte imbalance (increase), dehydration, muscle fatigue (increases heart rate)
• Technique/Conquering the trails
• Effort trumps pace, time trumps distance
• You need to prepare appropriately and also be prepared to adapt/scrap plans and make decisions on the fly
• Law of specificity – if you can’t train on courses/terrain similar to your race, you need to seriously consider if the race is right for you and/or comes up with ways to simulate the terrain (i.e. high incline treadmill sessions, plyometrics)
• Hills
• Lean into hills at heels for uphill/downhill
• Land with feet underneath you/your center of gravity
• Fast feet – if your feet are fast enough, you can pretty much step on anything
• Pick up your feet
• Think ahead and leap/elongate your stride when necessary (you need strength training to ensure you have the power to do so)
• Shoulders to the slope
• In order to conquer your fear of falling, you have to face your fear of falling
• It’s important to define success for yourself
• Year Round training
• Strength & Functionality KEY (after hard workout or long run)
• Postural exercises
• Pushups
• Birddog
• Pullups
• Stabilization
• Turkish getup
• Side lying hip bridge
• Clams
• Strength
• Front squat
• Hip Hinge/Short Deadlift
• Single Leg Russian deadlift
• Split squat lunge
• Power (last thing to add once you can do above well and after speedwork)
• 4 way hops (forward to back, side to side)
• Double Leg bounds
• Single leg bounds (hopping forwad)
• Squat jump
• Taper strength training with running taper before a race
• Master’s Running
• Muscular system sets your training load
• Train to strengths in season and weaknesses in offseason
• Build yourself into a complete runner: prehab, strength, core, drills, dynamic stretching
• Connect with those who understand and respect your goals
• Race when fit – strike when the iron is almost hot
• STRIDES!
• Physiology (this one was really interesting with charts/etc. but I can’t express 90% of it)
• The physiology is the same between runners, although the pace differs (i.e. a persons functional threshold is based on a one hour effort – the effort/physical symptoms are the same but the threshold will differ)
• “It never gets easier, only gets faster”
• Most people hit the max of their VO2 quickly, but the running economy (how much oxygen you need to keep the same pace) can improve for years, allowing a runner to make improvements
• Part of being a good ultrarunner is knowing when to walk/power hike, eat, etc.
• What we have to worry about is: muscle damage, sleep deprivation, logistics, elements
• Goals for ultrarunning training include:
• Increase fat burning
• Decrease carb burning
• Improve running economy
• Maintain blood glucose level (this is especially important because as this drops, the brain will actually shut your system down without you realizing it)
• Improve muscle durability
• Run when tired (I did plenty of this during the week!)
• Ways to do this
• Fasting runs, speedwork, strength training/core, back to back runs, long runs/hike, consistent mileage, strides, steady state efforts, hill repeats, nutrition
• Happy Brain is key
• Train yourself to look at the positives
• Focus on “How can I be better right now” versus “what if I don’t ever reach my potential/regain my youth

And now, Pictures (about 10% of what I took)!

Red Rock Canyon

I made a stop in Williams, Arizona to revisit the pie shop we went to during Bike & Build!

Kits!

Emmeline forgot she was REALLY MAD we went to Red Rock Canyon 

Hanging out before the start of the first run

Hanging out mid first run

Sedona, aka a beautiful place, aka where Nicolas uploaded 40 videos to facebook mid run.

Pre Kendrick where I ended up climbing 4.5 miles up, only to rocket back down. The last mile up was mentally hard as the fog roled in, but Reba McIntire (via my headphones)& I had fun barreling down the mountain.

Nicolas loves to play in the water!

Rob Krar!

The group pre-last run

This is my favorite photo from the trip

Just jumped right in!

Team Z!

Oh you know, just the Grand Canyon (I stopped on my way to Zion)

The following are from Zion National Park, which was just absolutely BREATHTAKING. Selfishly, it was nice to go from being a back of the pack trail runner to a front of the pack hiker. Again, about 2% of the photos I took.

Come on!

Absolutely favorite photo, and an absolutely real backdrop