Fall Getaway

Some of the pristine singletrack Sun Mountain has to offer. Photo courtesy of Sun Mountain Lodge.

We're excited to announce that our brand-new Methow Endurance Fall Endurance Getaway is officially scheduled! Whether you're a cyclist or prefer feeling the ground under your feet, this weekend gives you the chance to play in the mountains, eat good food, and learn a thing or two about biking or running. Join us October 18-20 for a fun weekend exploring Sun Mountain while taking in the stunning fall colors. Browse around the event site for more information, but feel free to email us if you have questions.

More singletrack! Photo courtesy of Methow Valley Photography.

High Country, Part One

Summer is by far my favorite season. It's a little hard to pick, as they all have their own charm: winter really is a white wonderland-a quiet beauty that just doesn't exist the other months; spring brings new life and oh so much green; fall has a wonderful crispness to the air, lovely colors and sounds of rustling tree leaves before they shed themselves; but summer! Summer brings the big mountains. While it can become quite hot, making training a bit more of a timing game, being able to get into the high mountains makes up for it. We are still enjoying pleasant temperatures in the valley, but the higher trails are melting out early this year, creating a little sweet spot in the calendar where you can frolick up high and enjoy the myriad of trails out the door down low.

Last weekend was a perfect combination and example of why I love living here so much. Saturday I met a friend early and we went up Robinson Creek, at the end of Lost River Road. I wasn't sure how far we would be able to go, given snow levels, but it turned out perfectly and we were able to go all the way to Robinson pass, at the Pacific Crest Trail. The aptly-named Robinson Creek trail follows the creek up ten miles to the pass. Given the season, we had several cold creek crossings to boost our circulation, and Nikki traipsed all around, loving the cool temperatures and snow as we ascended.

 

at the top!

Looking down the drainage. All downhill from here!

Sunday Sam and I went to his parents' house early for breakfast, so I decided to run home, over the rendezvous. I love the varied landscape of the Methow, and running to Mazama would give me a range of that landscape. Plus, it's always fun to run home.

starting through the Gunn Ranch saddle.

Gunn Ranch. Time to start climbing...

Looking across to Lucky Jim.

Off the singletrack and almost to Edelweiss.

Heading down to the 10k course.

Nikki becomes a water dog if it's hot enough.

The final stretch. We are a couple of tired beings. Hence the disproportionate amount of pictures in the last 3k.

Looking up to Goat Peak.

A great weekend of training! Doing a second long run was great practice for running on tired legs. Mission accomplished, as I spent a good portion of the afternoon in a horizontal state.

The Nose Don't Lie

Over the last few years, Alison and I have become enamored with our noses. As it turns out, oxygen moves in through your nose, which is quite a handy feature for us endurance folk. Certainly everyone who has ever run, biked, skied, or swam with a head cold knows the perils of shutting your nose out of the process of aerobic respiration: you get fatigued quicker and your pulse rate increases.

But until recently, I never imagined my nose would guide me in a methodical way with my endurance training. It all started two winters ago; while traveling on racing trips I would usually get out the door in the evenings for a 30 minute light jog. I've found a nice run in the evening really loosens me up and flushes out whatever junk I acquired over the course of the day, whether from traveling, racing, or sitting around in a hotel room watching America's Next Top Mode...err, American Choppers. Anyway, a few seasons back I started doing these runs with my mouth closed. Initially it was because I was in central Maine or Northern Wisconsin in early January and the thermometer had a hard time cracking double digits, and I wanted to preserve my lungs somewhat. Breathing through my nose warmed the air more before it got into my lungs, saving me from hacking myself to sleep later that night. I found through this method that I could still run pretty darn quickly; I figured I could run as fast as I wanted with my mouth closed, because I would be inherently limited in that I could only bring in a certain amount of oxygen when only my nose was the conduit. This led to these evening runs being pretty quick.

I kept this up through the end of the season, and when I started my spring training that next May, I found my running pace during longer runs was indeed quite a bit faster. I did some research and talked with my coach about my findings. Turns out, what I had stumbled onto in a rather bumbling manner (isn't that how most training methods are discovered?) is what physiologists call your Aerobic Threshold (AeT). Essentially, this is the point below which you are in a fully aerobic state of metabolism: lots of oxygen coursing through your system, and your respiratory rate can handle the offloading of the CO2 which is produced through your body's metabolic processes, without trouble. Above this AeT however, you slowly begin accumulating lactate in your bloodstream as your respiration can no longer effectively expire the CO2 being produced and a higher degree of glycolysis (carbohydrate metabolism) must ensue to meet the workload. Don't sweat the science too much.

My mistake in these early explorations was believing that the limiting factor in nose-breathing was my nose's ability to INSPIRE fresh oxygen, when in fact the real limiter was its ability to EXPIRE the CO2 from my body. What this nosebreathing "threshold" (i.e., the upper-most intensity you can train while only breathing through your nose) then represents, is your Aerobic Threshold: the point at which your body can no longer maintain a fully-aerobic state of metabolism, and it must shift to a higher degree of glycogen metabolism. Pretty groovy, huh? You can use your nose in place of a $400 lactate meter, or a $20,000 ventilation analyzer, and it's damn near as accurate. Point in fact: when I got my testing done at Seattle Performance Medicine this spring, they marked my AeT (by ventilatory data) at 162bpm; I had been operating on the premise (based on field data by nosebreathing) that it was 165bpm - quite close!

So why is all this useful for the endurance athlete? Spending a significant amount of time at or near your aerobic threshold will allow you to train faster and harder while still maintaining very low amounts of lactate in your blood. And it improves with time and efficiency! Imagine this: today you can run a 9:30min/mile for an 8-mile run; in other words, that's your sustainable "aerobic" pace. But what if you could run that same eight miles at an 8:30min/mile pace, or faster, for the same effort? Interval and high intensity training have one major flaw: you can only do small portions of them, on the scale of 10-15% of your total training volume. But AeT training can occupy a much larger portion, and the returns are probably much greater for the average endurance enthusiast.

How do I gets myself a piece of this magic formula, you ask? First, go out for a run/bike/ski, and close your mouth. Now find the pace you can sustain while only breathing through your nose. Don't fudge it; you shouldn't be breathing overly-rapid or in a ragged way during this - it should be even, sustainable breaths. Chances are this pace will be slower than you're hoping for, but have faith. If you do some nosebreathing training every week (start with 30-40% of your total volume, and increase it with time and comfort), you'll see rapid improvements. Soon, for the same amount of aerobic energy you'll be going farther and faster!

Mazama 5/10k Results

Josie rockin' the 1k, her second in two weeks! Photo by Eric Purpus.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our first Mazama 1/5/10k! A huge shout out to our volunteers and our sponsors who made it possible. Including the 1k we had over 250 runners. It was a blast to see the wide range of ages come out to run.

Results for the 5 and 10k can be found here. Please let us know if there are any problems. We tried to snag anyone who we couldn't see the bib number, but if you were in a group, we may have missed you.

Stay tuned for some photos from Mitchell Image.

Our next event is a 2.5 mile hill climb in November. We hope you'll join us!

Sun Mountain 50k

I hate writing about bad races. I didn't even blog about my good race last month, so why acknowledge this one? Though it's never fun talking about a less than stellar time, one learns much more from bad races than good. So, in an attempt to forget about the day and move on learn from experience and maintain positivity, here goes...

Local races are a bit weird for me. It's hard to have the same level of anticipation when the course is on trails I run frequently and I didn't to travel anywhere or camp at the start. Because the race starts at a quite leisurely (by ultra standards) 10am, I got lots of sleep and awoke to a beautiful, slightly breezy day. One huge benefit of a later start is I'm able to have my daily latte and still have time for the milk to digest. I enjoyed my latte, made some fresh carrot, apple, ginger and rhubarb juice (I was dubious when Sam suggested it, but the rhubarb added a nice tang and balanced out the sweetness of the carrot. I highly recommend it) and had my standard pre-race meal of oatmeal. We left in plenty of time, so we got to Sun Mountain with time to mosey down to the start from the overflow parking area and chat with running friends before watching the kids' race.

Before the race, feeling good.

The 25k and 50k share much of the first half of the race and with about 300 runners, I knew I wanted to go a little hard at the beginning to get in a good spot before hitting the singletrack along Patterson Lake. I ran with Caitlin Gregg for a bit but was relieved when she went by, given that she was doing the 25k and is a much stronger uphill runner than I (those skiers and their uphill abilities!). My goal was to run the long climb up to Thompson Ridge in a sustained manner. Each time I run this race, whether it's the 25k or the 50k, the climb seems neverending and I go beyond my limits. I felt pretty good and was happy to be able to run the entire thing. While I wasn't hating the climb, I was still glad to see The Methow Valley Nordic Team dolling out watermelon (my absolute favorite race food) and cheers. Everyone knew me, so I got a huge boost from all the encouragement. Thanks, guys! I just had a little more climbing to go before my favorite downhill of the entire Sun Mountain trail system. I hiked the really steep part before the descent, and let myself go on the down. Then, I started to feel my right knee. I love running downhill and in ten years of ultrarunning, I've never felt my knees.

The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy. After my fun Women's Trail Running and Yoga Retreat I immediately drove to Port Townsend to teach my sports massage class. I came back for more work, then drove back over to finish the class, did some VO2 max testing (a blog to follow), and back over here to work and launch my modelling career (yeah, right) with some photo shoots for Sun Mountain Lodge. And do this race. Just writing all that makes me tired. I mention all this not so much as an excuse, but as a reminder that I can only do so much. My tendency is to get sick when I have too much on my plate, so my big goal was to stay healthy during this silly busy time. I managed to do that, but it should come as no surprise that I was unable to train as I would have liked, and while all the things going on are great and add a lot to my life, something has to give. Running gave. So, as I'm running down the trail in slight pain (nothing devastating but I could tell it wasn't something that would go away), I had two options: ignore it, slow down and run for several more hours and likely have to take some time off from training while it settles down; or stop. With Speedgoat 50k as my key race this year, it was an annoying but relatively easy choice. While I love Sun Mountain and James' races, this race didn't matter in the grand scheme: I decided to run it as a gauge of how everything is going so far. And what a gauge it was. I now know exactly what I need to do to have a successful race in July and can get right back to training in a day or two. As for my knee, it's sore on my weaker side, and I know what to do to get that to respond as well.

On a positive note, thanks to my sponsors, La Sportiva and Goat's Beard for getting me to the start line. The new La Sportiva shorts are AMAZING! I've never been a tight-short type person, but I've converted. They have perfect mesh pockets on the sides for gel and are oh so comfortable. Goat's Beard, in itty-bitty Mazama, has a great selection of Sportivas as well as pretty much everything else you could possibly want for running, climbing, back country skiing, all with a friendly smile. Check it out and grab a tasty treat at the Mazama Store on your way back over the mountains. Additionally, a big thank you to James and Candice of Rainshadow Running, who put on a top-notch event as usual. The pizza, beer, soda, lounging, and well-marked trails were much appreciated. If you've never run trail races before, theirs are top-notch. If you're not yet up to ultra distances, Candice hosts the Bellingham Trail Running Series, comprised of shorter distance runs with the same great party after each race. Finally, it's always great to see familiar faces at these races. I love the trail running community and even with a bad race, it's a fun day.

So while the race didn't go as I wanted, it served its purpose. I'm still quite grumpy about my bravado in thinking I'd be able to have a good race given the circumstances, but I'll get over it. Everyone has bad races; if we didn't, the good ones wouldn't feel as good as they do.

Mazama 1/5/10km - Kids Run Too!

As Memorial Day weekend approaches and the Methow Endurance Mazama trail races come ever closer, we'd like to remind everyone that there are races for ANY AGE, and ANY ABILITY! We have a great 1km Kid's Race (free of charge!) that always draws a big turnout. We also are introducing this year a 5km Stroller category, where anyone can compete in a 5km race, the only requirement being that you are pushing a child stroller (child must be present to compete!) - with all the buff young parents running about these days, we're hoping for a great showing in this race!

The Kids' 1km provides a great first race experience!

And as always, we have the wildly-popular 5km and 10km races. The 5km this year runs on a course which initially joins the 10km runners, before peeling off in a lollipop fashion to return to the start/finish area. In doing this we are hoping to give some younger runners a chance to chase down some big boys in the 10km before they part ways on their courses.

And don't forget about the World Famous Pancake Breakfast, happening right after the race. You can purchase a ticket for the breakfast with your entry via Webscorer, or buy one at the breakfast after your race. Pancakes, after all, are the best post-race food!

We can't wait to see you all next weekend in our sunny paradise. Train well and we'll see you at the start!

Sun, Trails, Flowers and More

After planning our wedding last year and fretting about the weather (for good reason...we had two separate but lovely down-pours), I decided to refrain from analyzing forecasts, especially for events. So far it has served me well, as we had perfect weather for The Rattler in April (with snow the following day) and uber-perfect weather for the Women's Trail Running and Yoga Retreat last weekend. The mossy folk from the other side of the mountains may have been a little parched with the dry, hot air, but everyone seemed pleased, and some got a head start on acclimating for Rainshadow Running's race at Sun Mountain next week.

This retreat is my little baby; I love bringing women together to share a weekend of running, yoga, and good food. It has become one of my favorite weekends of the year and I'm already looking forward to the next one. I'm continually amazed at how a group of strangers becomes a cohesive, supportive group of friends.

The first evening we went on a little shake out run north of Winthrop, prepping our legs for the coming days. Dinner consisted of roasted veggies and lentil salad, a salmon dip with veggies and crackers, as well as a mixed green salad, followed by yummy chocolate cake. We chatted and got to know each other a bit, then dispersed for a full night's sleep. Friday morning brought a bright, sunny day, and we headed to Riser Lake for our first "real" run. We all did the four-mile loop, then most of the group continued up Lewis Butte for some amazing flowers and views. From there the group split, with one going back down the trail to the cars, another going over the west side of the mountain and back, and another doing a longer loop consisting of aspen groves and sage. We got back to River Run Inn just in time for lunch: perfect nutrient timing for quick recovery.

The day was hot by now, and the River Run Inn was perfect. They  have a huge lawn out back, next to the river, with several hammocks that are oh so comfy. Between lunch and yoga I gave some technique pointers for newer trail runners, then got ready for yoga. Becky led a wonderful practice out on the lawn, with the sound of the river as our soundtrack. Yoga loosened us up for our recovery run (or nap, depending on what people wanted), and off we went, getting back just in time for dinner. Perfect meal timing again! After our meal, one of the participants and nurse practitioner, Angel, gave a fascinating presentation on the endurance athlete's heart and the dangers of NSAIDs. It gave us a lot to think about and I'm so glad to be more informed on the topic.

Saturday was was more of the same, though we ran at Pipestone canyon. Again, we had perfectly clear, warm (borderline hot) weather, with lots of wild flowers. We all ran a nine mile loop, then some added more. Next came lunch and yoga, then Rita, the owner of Winthrop Mountain Sports, came to talk about all the different kinds of running shoes, and the importance of shoe fit. Dinner was on our own, so a big group of us went to Kelly's, while others stayed in Winthrop.


For our final run, we went to Patterson mountain, adjacent to Sun Mountain Lodge. It was again a perfect day, and the loop provided more mountain views and flowers. Thanks to everyone who made this a great weekend. I hope to see you next year! If you can't wait for next year, or want to have an adventure weekend with your husband, check out our Fall Endurance Getaway, in October!

Looking up-valley. Photo courtesy Kristen Smith, Methow Valley Photography.