Monthly Summary - July 2010

Here's July 2010:

Swim: 1,640 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 0.0 miles
Cycling (indoors): 1:20 (hours)
Run: 373.80 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 3 session

Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 81.25 hours

Did I really run 373 miles this month? I double and triple checked it, and yes, I did. When I ran 308 miles in June, I mostly figured that I wouldn't be able to beat that. But in July I took training to a whole other level. Things took a big turn in connection with Badwater, about the time I said goodbye to 3-4 hour "long" run training days and hello to 6-9 hour long run training days! In the 2.5 weeks since Badwater, I've done five training runs that lasted longer than six hours, including climbs up Mt. Whitney and Mt. Baldy, long days on the Santa Barbara Nine Trails course and the beginning of the AC100 course and today's run in the Saddleback Mountains. I've done some great running and hiking and been getting in super long days on my feet. Wow!  (Again, almost no swimming or cycling this month.  As I've been saying every month, I'd really like to spend more time swimming and cycling, but that's not what this summer is about!)

Today, I finished off July with a great run with a group of San Diego Bad Rats on the course of the Los Piños 50k in the Saddleback Mountains. The Los Piños 50k is a brand new race debuting this November. The course is tough, tough, tough, but beautiful (the pictures in this post are from there today) and if you can hack it, I bet this will be a great race. (I'll be recovering from my surgery, otherwise I'd probably be signing up!)

Home from NYC...

and ready to hit the trails!

I had a nice week in the City - I got a fair amount of work done, saw some close friends, managed three good runs and didn't melt in the suffocating heat and humidity. I'll be the first to admit that living in LA has made me soft, but I just don't understand (or remember) how people do it on the East Coast.

I went out with Jason and Chad on Wednesday night and walking to dinner in the West Village, it felt a little like we were walking through hazy soup. The heat and humidity in the air, plus the heat radiating off the street s-l-o-w-e-d everything down a beat or two. I didn't want to move very much. Thankfully, we found a nice air conditioned restaurant to have dinner and catch up. The scary thing is that Wednesday was relatively mild compared to the temps (well over 100 degrees) and humidity they've been facing.

Central Park Reservoir

I got up early Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to get in a run before work. There was a billboard with a digital thermometer that I could see from my hotel window. I was up each morning between 5:15 and 5:45 and it was never cooler than 76 degrees at that hour. On Thursday, at 5:15 it was already 80. And humid. Tuesday and Thursday I ran from my hotel to Central Park to meet my friend John. Both days we ran fast, varied laps within the Park, hitting a combination of the main road, the dirt path, and the Reservoir track. No matter what else I say about NYC, I love running in the Park (and the bridges, too, which I didn't get to this trip).  Both mornings, there were tons of runners and cyclists out there, including some really fast men and women. John's a fast guy and he got me to push the pace both days, which felt great. On Thursday, we ran a little bit with a slightly older guy who was just flying around the Park until he slowed to talk to us for a few minutes. There are places in LA where you can always find a lot of runners - Griffith Park, San Vicente, Ocean Ave, the Strand - but none of them compare to the volume and quality you can find during the morning in Central Park.

One thing about running in NYC though is that it's flat as a board. I definitely have a different perspective of the "hills" in Central Park after the last 18 months in LA. On that note, I'm excited to get out this weekend for some mountain running, trails, dirt, long climbs. Four weeks (tomorrow) until AC and I've got some work to do!!  Have a great weekend!

Badwater 2010 - Part 2

Last week I posted the first part of my Badwater crewing/pacing recap here. It's been a bit of a struggle for me to put the race into words. On the one hand, I could probably write about it forever. Bore everyone to death. And still not really do it justice.

Anyway... I left off the other day with Jimmy getting into the truck to take a short nap and try to cool off. It was Tuesday morning. He'd been on the road for over 100 miles and somewhere around 26 hours. He was falling asleep on his feet, stopping to stretch pretty regularly and in a bad mental place. It was clear to all of us that unless something changed, it was going to be a long, long final 30 miles.

Jimmy got into the truck and fell right asleep. We all took advantage of the break and relaxed. I slept a little bit, but mostly spent the time organizing the van and just trying to stay out of the heat. We were going to let him sleep for an hour, or maybe 90 minutes, but just a little less than an hour letter, he popped his eyes open and announced he was ready to get going.

It was absolutely amazing what a difference a short nap and chance to cool down did for him physically and psychologically. I wouldn't say that he came out of the car sprinting down the road, but it sure felt like that at the time! He was moving with a purpose and was relatively coherent.

I paced Jimmy for about 2 hours during this stretch after his nap. I had paced him during two really rough spots on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, so it was great to have him in relatively good spirits and moving forward. But that's not to say it was all fun and games. There were still some pretty rough moments out there. One of the most frustrating things was that we kept getting conflicting information about how much farther it was to Lone Pine. Everyone knows that from Lone Pine, it's 13 tough miles to the finish, but you have to get to Lone Pine first. At this point on the course (and for miles and miles before it) you can see Lone Pine. It might be 20 miles away, but it's right there in front of you. And with no mile markers along the course (except on at the 100 mile point), it's really tough to know how much further you have to go. We were trying to help him out by giving him updates on the distance, but I can't blame him for getting frustrated the fourth time over the course of an hour that it was "only" 12 miles to Lone Pine!

Five or six miles (I think) before Lone Pine, Eric took over pacing and Gareth and I drove ahead to Lone Pine to find some coffee for Jimmy. We expected Jimmy to get into Lone Pine, go to the checkpoint at the Dow Villa Motel and rest for a bit before heading up the mountain. So imagine our surprise when we got the call that he had just blown past the motel and was turning onto the Portal Road. We quickly aborted the coffee mission (finding a mocha frappuccino in Lone Pine is no easy task), got everything we needed out of the van and piled into the truck for the ascent.

Our amazing photographer, Gareth, near the beginning of the climb to the Portal.
Have you looked at his photos?  You should. Here. 

Jimmy stormed up the mountain. JB had to head home so Eric and I alternated hiking (and even some running) up the portal road. One of my favorite parts of this climb was dunking my head in the ice cold river near the bottom of climb. It was so refreshing - I will not miss that next year! Jimmy was spurred on by another racer behind him who he absolutely did not want to pass him. He regularly looked back but kept him momentum pushing him forward quickly.  He didn't want to talk, he was just hyper-focused on moving forward and not getting caught from behind.  Jimmy was suffering, I'm sure, but the rest of us were having a blast. About a mile past the last checkpoint, Eric took over the pacing reins to lead Jimmy to the finish.

The rest of us went to the point about a half-mile before the end and (im)patiently waited. It wasn't very long, but it felt like forever.

Then he was there.

And with a gigantic smile and loud screaming from his crew, he crossed the finish in 34:22:40. 16th place. Hot damn!

With race director Chris Kostman, with buckle and medal!

What a race. I already can't wait to go back next July. I won't be racing at Badwater next time I'm there, but hopefully the next year or the one after that I will (there, I said it).

A Little Taste of What's in Store

Months ago when I was trying to decide what 100 mile race to sign up, there were a few things that made the Angeles Crest 100 really stand out. One of the biggest factors for me was that it was local, which meant that I would have a lot of opportunities to train on the actual race course. Unfortunately, primarily because of road and trail closures due to last year's fires, I had never made it up there for training. That all changed yesterday.

A group of us - Jimmy, Pam, Shannon, Tommy and me - met in Wrightwood at around 7am. We first dropped water off at a few strategic points along the course and left one car at Eagle's Roost, which is about the 30 mile mark on the course. We drove back to Wrightwood and started on the course at about 8:30. I'll just cut to the chase: nine hours later, we finished our training day!

It was awesome. For a ton of reasons. Obviously, it was great to finally see part of the course. The course is beautiful - sweeping views in all directions, a bunch of terrain changes, steep, long climbs, fast descents, a few (but not many) flat-ish sections where you can stretch the legs out a little bit. Also, it was a fun, fun crowd of great athletes to run with. And I felt great until the very end, when being a little low on both calories and electrolytes (again) caught up with me.

(The sign at the top of Mt. Baden-Powell at around mile 16.  This is the top of the second big climb
on the course and the highest elevation we'll reach.)

After a really long first seven hours, everyone else decided to call it a day and I continued  for another few miles, mainly to check out the Mt. Williamson climb. I missed a turn near the top and probably went about a mile too far (which included some great bonus climbing) before turning around and finally finding my way down. It was at the top of that extra stuff where I started to struggle a bit. I mostly worked through it, but learned another good lesson about fueling and salt intake - namely that I need more of both!!

In addition to getting the chance to run on the course, I learned a ton about the race from Jimmy and Tommy, both veterans of the race. (Tommy's run it a ton of times and even won the thing in 1999 and 2000!) It was great to get tips on race management and pacing while being on the course.

I always knew that this was going to be a tough race - the toughest I'd ever attempted - but until I got out there yesterday, I definitely didn't appreciate just how tough it's going to be. Fortunately, that really only makes me more excited!

Now, I'm hoping to get out there at least one or two more times before race day to see other sections!

Five weeks to go!

p.s. Fast thoughts to everyone racing Ironman Lake Placid and the San Francisco Marathon tomorrow!!

Badwater 2010 - Part 1

It's coming on to exactly one week from Jimmy's spectacular finish at Badwater, and I'm still struggling to put it all in words. I had such a fantastic time crewing for Blake Benke at the race last year and from the moment we left Lone Pine I started thinking about getting back there this year. My full report from last year is in three parts: here (part 1), here (part 2) and here (part 3). Thankfully, I become close friends with Jimmy Dean Freeman earlier this year and was invited to be on his crew for his rookie attempt at the race. Just like last year, I didn't know any of my fellow crew members - Pam, Gareth, Eric and JB - before Badwater. But just like last year, I knew that if these people were the ones Jimmy trusted to help him through Badwater, they would likely become good friends of mine well before the race was over. Another advantage about going back to the race for a second time was that I would be seeing a bunch of racers and crew who I'd met last year.

It was an exhausting, sweaty, dirty trip, but it didn't disappoint one bit! I'm already thinking about next year! First though, I've got to put my 2010 experience into words.

I've included a bunch of pictures that I took in this report, but I beg you to check out the pictures that our crew member Gareth took. They're all in an album on facebook that you can find here. He's not a professional photographer, but after seeing what he did last week, I'm thinking that maybe he should be.

Sunday:

Early Sunday morning, Kate, Gareth, JB and I drove to Death Valley. The first stop was in Stovepipe Wells to check into our hotel and get anything perishable out of the car and into the hotel room. We met Jimmy, Keira, Pam and Eric at race check-in at the Furnace Creek Visitors Center. After race check-in and lunch at the Furnace Creek Inn, we went back to the Visitors Center for the pre-race meeting. The highlights of the pre-race meeting are CHP Scotty's speech about safety on the course and when they bring all of the racers on stage for a huge photo opportunity.

By the time the meeting ended, it was time to jam back to the hotel and start setting up the support vehicles. Our crew chief directed the operation and we would be using her SUV as our primary crew vehicle and a rented minivan as the secondary one.

We also went over our roles and responsibilities. Eric, JB and I would help with those duties, but would be splitting up the majority of the pacing duties. Gareth was our "floater" - he did everything, whenever it was needed, and he also took about 2,000 photos during the race.

After getting the vans all set up, it was time for dinner and then bed. Not surprisingly, by this point, all of us on the crew had already become close. We were joking and horsing around - maybe a bit too much for Jimmy's sanity's sake.

Monday - Day 1 of Race:

Since Jimmy was in the 10am wave, we could get a good night's sleep and not get up too early. On Monday, we had breakfast and at around 8, Jimmy, Pam, Gareth and JB took off for Badwater Basin. Since only one crew car is allowed to go to the start, Eric and I volunteered to hang back, finish packing up the van and go to Furnace Creek (mile 17), where we'd meet everyone else (and Jimmy). We figured he'd be there sometime around 1pm. Eric and I got to Furnace Creek and hung out on the grass in front, chatting with some members of Oswaldo Lopez's and Nick Hollon's crews. It was fun to see the racers from the 6am and 8am waves pass by the hotel. Furance Creek is the first place where racers are allowed to have two support vehicles and the first time that they are allowed pacers. It's also a hotel, with a restaurant and general store, so there's a ton of action going on there during race morning and early afternoon.

(Iso Yucra at Furnace Creek)

(Keith Straw, in pink, per usual)

Jimmy got to Furnace Creek right on schedule around 1pm and I was the first of our crew to pace him. I was feeling great. Excited. A little nervous. Comfortably hot. And ready. Jimmy was in great spirits, talking about his first 17 miles. Moving along at a good, steady, conservative pace. We stopped every one to two miles to trade out water bottles, get calories and electrolytes, get sprayed down with cold water and trade out ice-filled bandanas. Jimmy stopped for at least a few seconds at every crew point, which made it very easy for the crew to take care of him.

I ran with him for about an hour before I tapped out and Eric joined him.

The whole process of crewing and pacing came back to me pretty quickly. It was less stressful than last year, when I didn't know what to expect. Jimmy races differently than Blake, so there were those things to learn, but the crewing experience paid off huge the second time around.

For the next five or six hours, that was just how it went. Eric, JB and I rotated pacing Jimmy for a hour-or-so at a time.

 In between, we helped out with other crewing duties and tried to stay hydrated and fueled for the next pacing turn. Gareth took a ton of photos and JB shot video.

Jimmy was certainly feeling the heat, but he ran well through this whole section. Last year, I feel like I remembered more specifics from the race. This time around, day one was just about keeping up with Jimmy. There were definitely spots that were tough for him. The roads are just so damn long.

The cross-winds in the Devil's Cornfield were blowing like crazy and there was an absolutely awful headwind battering us on our way up to Townes Pass. We passed a few other runners, played some back-and-forth with others and chatted with them and their crews. At one point around here, we got up with our friend Brian Krogmann, another super experienced ultrarunner and Badwater rookier. He was looking awful - walking with his head down, saying that he'd already lost 11 pounds. Even though Jimmy was running great at the time, we slowed to walk with Brian. Jimmy encouraged him to take care of himself and stop, rest, hydrate and cool off. We left Brian at his crew vehicle, hoping we'd see him again later in the race.

At around 6pm, we hit Stovepipe Wells (mile 42). Stovepipe Wells, represents the end of the hottest section of day one but it also represents the beginning of the hills. Between Stovepipe Wells and Townes Pass (mile 58.7), you climb from sea level to about 5,000 feet. It's a long steady uphill hike. At 7pm we got to put on our reflective gear. Trust me (and check out Gareth's pictures), it looked hot.

At one point I got Eric to take a couple pictures of me in front of the sunset.  I climbed up a little dirt hill and the first one went great.

Then I decided to get silly and show off for the camera.  What the below shot doesn't show is me falling off the crumbling dirt hill, nearly knocking myself out of the race... phew!

We ran, walked and hiked through the night. Jimmy stopped at Panamint Springs (mile 72) at about 1:30am to sit down for a little bit and have his feet checked out. Thankfully, his feet were in amazing shape. The crew took advantage of a few minutes of down time and had some real food ourselves. Through the rest of the night, we continued our process of crewing and pacing Jimmy. We took turns getting a little bit of shut eye. JB and I drove ahead and rested for about 90 minutes. I tried to sleep and think I did sleep for little bursts. It wasn't particularly restful, but just putting my legs up and shutting my eyes was definitely refreshing.

Dawn came too soon. I don't want to speak for Jimmy, but this was probably the time that he suffered the most. I was pacing him during a couple long stretches before and after Darwin (mile 90) and the poor guy couldn't keep his eyes open. I repeatedly hit him on the shoulder to get him to wake up. But he kept moving forward. Sometimes, he'd stop to stretch or rest for a second and then he'd be back moving again. Such a testament to perseverance. It was sometime during this early morning stretch that we looked up and there was Krogmann running - nearly sprinting - up to us. Brian had fully recovered and was running like no one else on the course at the time. Jimmy was resting for a few minutes in the shade next to the cars, and now Brian stopped and gave Jimmy the same support that Jimmy had given him so many hours before. It was probably my favorite and most memorable part of the race.

A little after mile 100 (which Jimmy hit in just over 24 hours - friggin incredible!), after watching Jimmy struggle through the early part of the morning, Keira told him to get into the air conditioned truck and shut his eyes. He did and was instantly asleep.

Part 2 coming soon!

32+ hours

32 HOURS.  That's about how much time I spent last week running and hiking.

28 HOURS.  That's about how much time I spent sleeping last week.  

No wonder I bonked.

I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about it today.  Not because I'm obsessing over it (well, maybe a little of that), but because I'm trying to learn from it.  The easy solution is not to try to do Badwater pacing, Whitney, Baldy and 9 Trails all in one week.  I'm also guessing that I didn't eat enough quickly enough after Baldy on Saturday and didn't take in enough calories on before crashing on Sunday.  I'm usually very good about recovery fueling after running.  I'm still getting used to taking in enough calories during my longest runs.  Being a little short is fine for 4 or 5 hour days, but I need to be smarter about it when I'm going as long as I did last week.  That's the good thing about "bad" days, there's a lot of lessons to learn.

I promise to stop obsessing over yesterday's run and start putting the lessons into action.  Right now.

A week of running and a BIG BONK

While I continue trying to get my thoughts together for a Badwater race/crew report, I'll briefly update on a great week of running. I managed another 100+ mile week, but the best thing about it was the different locations that I put in miles. I ran 34 on the Badwater course, 22 miles summiting and descending Mt. Whitney, 4 easy miles around home, 22 miles running on Mt. Baldy and 25 miles on the trails in Santa Barbara. I did much more hiking than usual, but that's because these runs/hikes were much more agressive than anything I "usually" do. Spending time power hiking up big hills is very important preparation for a hilly AC100.

It would be really difficult to pick which run was my favorite.

Badwater was awesome because I love being at that race and all the miles I put in there on Monday and Tuesday were in an effort to help Jimmy get across the finish line.

(Damn that road looks long and it feels even longer!)

Climbing Mt. Whitney was killer because it was something I've wanted to do for a while and, even though the switchback hike itself is a little boring at times, the views are friggin' incredible. We started at noon and did the 22 miles in 8 hours and 20 minutes, which is pretty damn fast. Most of the hikers we met were doing the 22 miles in at least 12-13 hours or even splitting it up into two days of hiking by camping about half way to the top.  Also, I had a blast with our little group, even though I didn't really know any of them before we started the ascent.

(Looking down from the switchbacks at Lower Boy Scout Lake.)

(Sweet view looking west from the ridge past Trailcrest.)

(At the summit with Dave, Marc and Jenn)

My easy run around home... well that definitely wasn't my favorite, but those miles are still important ones!

Saturday's run/hike at Mt. Baldy was a blast running with five awesome women who are all kick ass ultrarunners. We did a wild 22 mile loop and summited the "Three T's" (Timber, Telegraph and Thunder peaks) and Mt. Baldy, doing some killer hiking and fun running.

(at the top of Telegraph, I think...)

(And our prize at the end of the hike was to jump into this waterfall, 

which was about the most refreshing thing ever! Photo from Shannon.)

Today's run on the Santa Barbara 9 Trails course started off great. It's a 17+ mile point-to-point run that I had planned on making a 35 mile round trip. I drove up there super early this morning and met up with a large group, including Eric, Benjamin, Guillermo, Mason, Stu and Howard. Eric had warned me to expect a long, hot day on super hilly course - each 17 mile segment has about 5,500 feet of elevation gain. I ran the first 17 great. About three miles after our turn around, I started suffering. My stomach was fine and I think I was hydrated enough. But I just couldn't get myself to move forward. After all the crazy running and hiking I'd done this week and the very little bit of sleep I'd gotten, my body was finally telling me enough was enough. A couple miles after that the wheels just completely came off. I death-marched for a few more miles until I was able to get off the trail and Eric was kind enough to arrange for me to get a ride back to my car. Twenty five miles is a great day, but since I was planning on running 34 and since I fell apart so hard, it does feel a little like failure.

I know I need some sleep and some days of easy running. This week will be a recovery week. I don't know that I've ever needed it so much.

(Another) AC 100 Update

Things are looking good. Latest update from AC100.com:

"There has been lots of rumors. The race will be cancelled! it will be an out and back race from WW to Chilao! All of them are incorrect. 2010 Race will use the same course that we have always used. Only about 15 miles of the course goes through the burn area caused by the Station Fire in 2009. AC100 volunteers cleared major sections of the problem area for our race and for use of the general public when the Forest opens after December 2010. We will be putting on this years race in a "closed" forest.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!!!"

It's very much looking like we're a go! Assuming that happens, six weeks from right now I'll be nearly 15 hours in. Wow!

Badwater 2010 - Quick recap

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the amazing time I had (again) at Badwater and I promise that a full race (crew) report is coming, but for now, here's a brief summary and a couple choice photos from the trip.

Jimmy kicked ass. His office time was 34:22:40, which put him in 16th place out of 73 finishers.  It was such an inspiration to be out there with him and the other racers we spent time around. Watching them all battle through the low low lows and come out running strong ought to really help in any challenge I ever take on.  And our crew was fantastic.  We had a blast together.  The above picture was taken just steps from the finish line.  It still gives me goosebumps thinking about that moment.  And the below picture says that all the 34+ hours of suffering was worth it a million times over.  

From a personal standpoint, I love being out there for this event. After crewing and pacing Blake last year, I knew that I wanted to come back and be part of this race again and again. But I did wonder if the second time would be as much fun as the first. IT WAS! I hope that I can be there every year - in one capacity or another :).

And here's the official race video.  The team who puts this together does such a fantastic job.  Enjoy!

2010 Badwater Recap Video

Full race report to come soon!

Badwater!

That picture was taken almost exactly a year ago at the Mt. Whitney portal about 10 minutes after Blake finished Badwater in an amazing 29:46:49. In case you're interested (and bored) I wrote up a very detailed report of my experience crewing and pacing Blake - you can find the report along with a bunch of pictures here (part 1), here (part 2) and here (part 3).

I had a blast up there last year and am really looking forward to going back this year to crew Jimmy Dean Freeman. I'm headed up there early Sunday morning (hopefully in time to catch at least most of the World Cup final). We'll spend Sunday getting the vans ready for the race and the race starts Monday morning. There are three starting waves, 6am, 8am and 10am. Jimmy got a spot in the coveted 10am wave. He'll be lining up next to some pretty bad-ass ultramarathoners, including the top three (Marco Farinazzo, Oswaldo Lopez and Zach Gingerich) and eight of the top ten finishers from last year! There's also some new racers who are threatening to challenge. It should be a fast, exciting race!

In addition to Jimmy, I have a few other friends racing this year and a bunch of others crewing/pacing people. Fun!

The plan this year is that Jimmy hopefully finishes sometime Tuesday afternoon, we get a little food and sleep Tuesday night and then hike to the top of Mt. Whitney on Wednesday.

That would be up to 14,505 feet. Where there's still a fair amount of snow. From 282 feet below sea level to 14,505 above it in 2+ days. Hot damn!!

Last year I was hoping to update Twitter and Facebook during the race, but it turned out that there was limited-to-none cell service for the first 90+ miles of the race. I heard some rumors that some new cell towers were installed, so I'll try again, but who knows.

Whether or not my twitter and facebook updates are successful, you can follow along on the webcast, which begins with the pre-race stuff on Sunday afternoon and will cover the race from Monday morning until Wednesday evening. Here's the link for the webcast:
http://www.badwater.com/2010web/index.php. During the race, you should also be able to get specific runner splits at badwater.com.

KT Tape Update

A couple weeks ago, I posted a review of my use of kinesio tape and my disappointment in KT Tape. As a reminder, my complaint about KT Tape was that it just wouldn't stay on my skin.

That same afternoon, a representative from KT Tape contacted me, expressing surprise about my complaint (especially when compared to Kinesio Gold) and offering to help me figure out why I was having problems. The KT Tape customer service person pointed me to these helpful tips for applying the tape and also offered to send me some tape so I could continue experimenting. I took him up on the offer and a few days later received a box with a bunch of tape.

In case you don't want to follow the link to the tips, here's my summary of the tips:

1. Clean the area with rubbing alcohol.
2. Stretch/extend the area where the tape will be applied (i.e. bend the knee for IT band application, flex the foot for achilles application, bend the elbow, etc.).
3. Do not stretch the last 1.5-2 inches on either end; tension on the ends will cause the end to come up and then the whole thing will fall off quickly.
4. Before un-stretching the skin, give it a good rub (especially around the edges) to generate some heat and activate the adhesive.
5. Apply the tape as long before exercising as possible (within reason, of course; they suggest at least 30 minutes).

I decided I would try it out again on my right achilles and right IT band on Saturday for my 5 hour/30 mile trail run. Friday night, I cleaned pretty much my entire right leg with rubbing alcohol. When I woke up Saturday, I went over my leg with rubbing alcohol again. After cleaning the skin I put the tape on, carefully following the tips above. I used the blue tape (the roll I originally bought) on my achilles and the red tape (some of the tape KT Tape sent me) on my IT band. I would be driving an hour to my run, so I knew it would have plenty of time for the adhesive to set before I started sweating.

These are the pictures from right after I applied the tape.  You can maybe see there are a couple places where the tape isn't perfect, but in the past, that's always been close enough!

A few hours into my run, I took these pictures:

As you can see, the tape is still sticking to my skin. When I wrote my initial review of the tape, I would have counted that as "success." But it does get better: the red tape on my IT band was still there for my run this morning - that's four days, surviving six runs, a bunch of showers, a few dips in the pool (though no actual swimming laps) and even a few extended trips to the sauna. After a few days, the tape started to come up in the bottom inside corner and bubble a little along the edges, but for the most part it was still sticking.

The blue tape on my achilles on the other hand didn't fare so well. By the end of Saturday's run, it was already coming off. The ends were still doing ok, but it was pretty much fully released all through the middle.

After this initial test, I'm disappointed with the achilles application, but I am really pleased with how it worked on my IT band. I never had to do so much work or effort to get the Kinesio Gold tape to stick, but I also never had it still on my skin four days after application. And honestly, the "effort" to get the tape on right wasn't too bad. The only problem I see for "everyday" use is putting the tape on a long time before heading out for a run. I do most of my running in the morning and it's rare that I have that much extra time to wait before a run.

This leads me to a few questions: Was it just human error all along? Or, is the roll of blue tape I got less sticky than the red one? I'll continue experimenting - and next time switch it up - and keep you posted.

100 mile week!

My body has been exceedingly kind to me this spring and early summer as I've been consistently breaking personal barriers in my endurance run training. First it was a 250 mile month, then a 300 mile month and now I've managed a 100 mile week. I never thought I'd be able to achieve that kind of mileage and still be able to bend my knees, let alone walk.

As you can tell, I'm pretty pleased with myself. Here's how the week went down:

Monday: 9.4 miles in evening, home from office via Hauser

Tuesday: 7.8 miles in AM to office via Beverly Hills; 7.2 miles trails in Griffith Park

Wednesday: 6.5 miles in AM in Temescal with Katie and Peter

Thursday: 14.4 miles in AM on Westridge and Mulholland, with Coyotes for the last part

Friday: No running

Saturday: 30 miles in AM in Sycamore Canyon, Ray Miller Trail, La Jolla Canyon

Sunday: 20.2 miles in AM up Laurel Canyon, along Mulholland, down Benedict Canyon; 5.1 miles in PM around neighborhood and at Fairfax High track with Elizabeth

It was a great week of running for a few reasons in addition to the fact that I managed to hit 100 miles. In eight runs, I never ran the same course twice. I ran on the west side of LA, the east side, in the middle and in Malibu. I ran about 58 miles on trails and 42 on roads, which is a great mix. I did a fair amount of solo running, but spent time with friends and even got to run with Elizabeth for the first time in ages! I'm really pleased with the back-to-back long runs on Saturday and Sunday; the fact that I was able to back up a hilly 30 miles on the trails with a hilly 20 miles on roads is a huge confidence booster. (Though I'll be the very first to admit that running on Laurel Canyon, Mulholland or Benedict Canyon is pretty damn dangerous. The cars just fly around those corners.) I also don't feel like too much of the running was junk miles. Last night's five miles wasn't pretty, but I did mix things up a bit in terms of pace and effort and even ran a mile of it barefoot. In addition to the running, I also managed to go to yoga once, hit the pool once and get in the sauna four times (in preparation for the heat at Badwater).

The crazy thing that didn't hit me until last night after my final run was that in just eight weeks, I'm going to try to run that far in one friggin' day!

Here are some pictures from Saturday morning in Malibu:

Sycamore Canyon and Malibu beaches from Overlook Trail

Another view from Overlook Trail, looking east

On Ray Miller Trail, at about the highest point of the run, looking north/west

My post-run reward was wading in the cold ocean water across the PCH from the trailhead