Scott McMillan : Endurance Junky

Cool video on the 2006 Spartathlon scooped from Scott Jurek’s website. The Spartathlon is one of the most difficult endurance races on the planet. Jurek is preparing to defend his title this weekend.

Another good week of training. I managed 4 “quality sessions” this week and dumped the base mile days to help with recovery. The highlight of the week came from the long run on Saturday. I was hoping to get a around a three hour run in so I thought why the hell not run to Grouse Mountain in sort of a commemorative to the fact that it was Grouse Mountain Run weekend. This year I have been training quite hard and may have beat my 32:25 PB but Saturday’s are long run days and these are foundation workouts that I cannot miss right now and I am basically screwed the next day so the GMR was not going to happen.

The run went very well I banged around the trails in Stanley Park for just over the hour and jumped onto the Lions at 1:10 into the run, from that it went very smoothly. I ran for 2:42 without taking a gel (I am experimenting with going longish without taking carbs I heard it builds fatigue resistance) I had sometime left after doing the Grind so I ran around on the trails up on Grouse for 10 minutes before the cold got to me and I packed it in. My average HR for the run was a 159 which was surprising because there was over 4000ft of ascending over the course of the run, I would say this means I am starting to get fit.

Steep end to a long run

This is kind of funny I emailed the Outside Gear Guy a question about shoes for a 50 miler and he answered.
Here is the response. I hear the Salomon shoes are Ok but I don’t care that much about keeping my feet dry I will only be out there for 6-7 hours.

OK week of training nothing out of the ordinary just putting more miles in the bank. I decided to bail on the 5peaks on Saturday and planned on doing a gentler long run instead. The long run turned out to be not so gentle though. I ran from the Grouse parking along the Baden Powell to Lynn Valley Headwaters then extended by doing the Lynn Loop, everything was going well, I was enjoying being out on the trail with my new Brooks Cascadias when on the return I stumped my left foot quite hard, a day latter and it still hurts, almost feels like a pinched nerve or something. Anyways will take it easy tomorrow in hopes that it will go away.

Run Route(weird dip on the GPS track on the return to parking lot west bound)

HR profile from LR (Ave HR 150)

Another good week of training under the belt. The week consisted of 2×50 minute runs, 1×1:30, 1×1:05 and 1×2:00 hour long run half of it being on the very challenging Diez Vista trail at Buntzen Lake. I have never run on the Diez Vista trail before and wanted to do a little recon before the 5 Peaks half marathon race next weekend and boy was I glad I did. This trail although short is very technical and very steep right out of the gates, it is also very easy to go of course which I did on a couple occasions. The descent back down to Buntzen Lake is very rocky and rooty making it slow and stressful. Shoes matter! during the run I was wearing a pair of La Sportiva Slingshots which were defintely the wrong shoe choice for this section. The Slingshots are great for short straight up mountain runs and less technical trails but when you are pounding away on long hard technical trails they are to be honest a little painful because the shoe was designed with a very thin layer of cushioning which is good for a hill climb not so good on hard technical descents. I recently picked up a pair of last years Brooks Cascadias and will probably wear them in the race to help protect my feet a little more.

Elevation/HR from Diez Vista Buntzen Lake run:

Diez Vista - Buntzen Lake run route:

Good week of training. 5 solid days 3 being strength days, a Grouse Grind on Tuesday, Hill Repeats on Wednesday and a killer HILLY long run. The other 2 workouts were easy 50:00-1:10 minute runs. The long run was another classic Vancouver ultra training route the base of Grouse->Lynn and return to Grouse Chalet via Mountain Highway. This is a hard ass long run. It’s been well over a year since I’ve done this one so it was a bit of a shock to the system, the run was a bit scary also, I was solo and coming across a lot of fresh bear poo going up Mountain Highway and was just hoping that I would not run into one (although at the end I was hurting quite a bit and may have welcomed a bear attack to put me out of my misery). My legs feel sapped of all speed at this point in my training but this is what is needed to build the monster… only about 5 more weeks of this torture and I should be ready (hope I can hold the bones together).

Here is my HR/Elevation chart for the run basically from Lynne->Grouse it is a climb for over 10k!

Run route from Google Earth:

For me at this time of the year I use the Grind as my tempo training run. It is a great way to keep the HR close to threshold for 30-40 minutes with no real impact on the legs unlike a hard tempo run on the pavement. It also builds the strength that is necessary to run well in the longer trail races that I am currently preparing for. Here is my HR profiles from my last two sessions. My HR is high but in a race up the Grind my HR average is 5-10 beats higher 190+/Ave HR over the course. Note how the HR Ave dropped one week after my first session even though my time was the same, I find this happens quite rapidly once I start doing these sessions.

Grouse Grind, Aug 21, 2007.
Ave HR: 185
Max HR: 190
Min HR: 154
Time in Zone 5: 00:34:35

Grouse Grind, Aug 28, 2007.
Ave HR: 179
Max HR: 186
Min HR: 151
Time in Zone 5: 00:15:38

When most people think of endurance they think of ultra runners, Ironman athletes or elite mountaineers but that is because they are not familiar with some of the most epic athletes the “long distance through hikers” they go relatively unnoticed in the mainstream media. They push beyond boundires none of us will ever come close to, they deal with pain at a level that makes me sick just thinking about it, potential death, the environment and seperation from loved ones. Watch the videos to see what true endurance is all about.

The Runner: David Horton’s 2,700 Mile Run of the PCT

Andy Skurka Attempts a 6,875 Mile Hike - Great Western Loop

The foundation of all mountain/trail runners diet should be the long run. More importantly the long hilly long run. This week was my first hilly long run in a very long time (an it wasn’t that hilly by any means but much more hilly than anything I have been doing). I did one of my classic ultra training routes from my apartment to Clevland Dam and back this is a great route because you get a bit of everything, some trail a fair amount of uphill and enough downhill to pound your legs but not enough to screw you up for days, you can also extend it as far as you would ever want by popping onto the Baden Powell and traveling west to Cypress or east to Deep Cove or heading straight up Nancy Greene Way and up the Grouse Grind and even extending further to Dam or Dog Mountain. The Forerunner recorded an elevation gain loss of +2,086 / -2,077m over 24.60km with an average HR of 163. My legs felt OK during this run probably due to the large number of long day hikes we have been doing.

So for the week I managed a fair bit of strength building.
I did 1 hike (Mt. Outram) with 1800m of elevation gain. One Grind session 853m one run with 400m and a long run of 2,086m for a total of 5,139m (16 860.2362 feet). I am sure my legs will feel heavy this week.

This summers is turning out to be my best summer since I was probably 15… no work equals lots of play. From Aug 2-8th I was in Alberta visiting my sister in Calgary who also had sometime off. She and her husband Chris managed to take us on some of the coolest hikes I have ever been on starting with the Nihani Ridge Trail(photos), Mt. Yumnuska (photos), Forget Me Not Ridge (photos) this hike turned out to be a downer Sarah Chantal’s border collie ripped her paw open and Chris had to carry her down the mountain now that is hardcore! and finally the highlight of the trip the highest hiking trail in the Canadian Rockies - Centennial Pass (photos) this is a fantastic hike with amazing vistas and quite good training you rise 1350m in ~8k 2840m summit. After Alberta we got home did some laundry ran some errands and it was off again this time to Harrison Lake to visit Tara’s parents and Manning Park for some cycling in the valley (photos) and Cascade Range hikes. I finally got to bag Mt. Outram (photos) which was on my to do list for many years, Mt. Outram is the highest peak that you can access via a trail in Manning Park (90% of the hike is outside Manning) the hike has a 1800m elevation gain over 7.2km and peaks out at 2440m(8000ft), the hike is beautiful you go from temperate moss covered forests to alpine meadows to pure alpine cairn slopes. At the top you have awesome panoramic views of the North Cascades. My legs are still hurting from the 1800m of descending though!

I also managed to get a few runs in. My legs are feeling pretty strong from all the long day hikes but I need to do some “hard workouts” if I want to do some fall races. I also need to run more miles to lose the weight I put on during the trip to Europe. I may do the IronLung 10k on Sunday and the 5peaks in Whistler the weekend after to get my body used to the intensity again.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks of adventure.
Tara and I on the Centennial Ridge Trail

Summit Centennial Ridge

Me and my sister on the Mt. Yumnuska trail.

Summit Mt. Outram

Tara descending from Mt. Outram