Kahtoola Bigfoot Snowshoe Festival

The last couple weeks have been mixed. The first week, I trained my regular 8 miles on Tuesday and Thursday, with cross training on the other days, but ran 10 miles on Saturday (indoors on the treadmill). Then during the next week, I only cross trained on Monday, ran 6.2 miles on Wednesday (sort of a modified taper week).

[Left: getting ready for the start] This past weekend I completed my first ultra for this year: the Kahtoola Bigfoot Snowshoe Festival in Midway, Utah. The distance was 50k (31 miles). I completed 20k in snowshoes and ran the other 30k with Yaktraks. 10k of the course was in mountains and 40k was groomed trails that wound around a golf course.

[Right: on groomed trails] The weather was perfect that day: clear with temps in the high 30's during the day. When the sun disappeared behind the mountains, the temp did drop fast (into the mid to low 20's) and a slight wind picked up, making the last ~8k pretty cold. I hadn't packed my balaclava or anything else for the last loop, with just three layers of shirts on (short-sleeved base layer, then two long-sleeve layers on that) and a running hat, I became mildly concerned about my core temp dropping. I found that keeping my heart-rate around 140 kept me pretty warm. I also drank and ate a lot to help keep my core temp up.

I did fairly well, finishing in 9:08. I slowed down after the first 15k to conserve energy by walking uphill and running downhill, doing a mixture of walking and running on the flat areas. It was a small group with around 16 runners in the 50k and only one DNF (due to blisters). What was nice about the course was being able to see other runners throughout, so we'd wave and cheer each other on. At the first, everybody was welcoming the finishers and congratulating them. It was really good event to be in. I completed my goal that day: finishing without injury.

[Left: mountain part of the course] I used Body Glide to great success. I also used a trick I learned while training: with a hydration pack, hold open the valve to let the water drain back into the pack. Not only does this keep the valve from freezing in cold weather, but the water stays insulated and doesn't chill you when you drink.

My next race is the Moab Red Hot 50k+ on February 16. I'm trying to figure out my training plans for the next 2 1/2 weeks. I want to avoid the injuries of last year, yet at
the same time improve my fitness throughout the year.

I also made it into the Miwok 100k on May 3rd in Northern California. The race filled up quickly on Jan 6, but I made the waiting list and the race director increased the number of entries they would accept. I will also find out this coming Saturday whether I'll do the Wasatch 100 this year or not (entries are selected by lottery and many more apply to get in than there are slots).

So far, this year is off to a great start.