The organizers had to alter the course due to road-access issues caused by a late snowpack. We arrived in Bryce the Monday before the race. I loved the family time, but it set me back in terms of acclimatization. Then my wife and I relocated to Sacramento and Yosemite for about a week and a half to cheer on our daughter-in-law in a trail half marathon and get in a little rock climbing. Over these weeks in the Southwest, I was getting good training at an altitude similar to Bryce. The 50-miler I had done in September 2018 was similar in elevation gain and weather, but where I cramped up in the 50 and finished in just under 15 hours, I felt great at Zion and finished in 16:12-12 more miles in just 1 more hour. I was thrilled to feel Mike’s plan come into play at Zion in April. We visited Capitol Reef National Park in Utah Zion National Park for a 100K race Prescott, Arizona, where we celebrated our 40th anniversary and the Grand Canyon. It was easier to find hills once my wife and I embarked on our road trip in late March. I got through most of the muscular endurance while also focusing on remedial strength to address a problematic right hip. Even with pre- and post-race mini-tapers, I managed about 80 percent of the training program’s suggested mileage and elevation gain. I also ran that race in South Carolina and did another 50K outside Nashville, Tennessee. When those got old, I’d drive about an hour south to a hillier park. I spent quality time on the treadmills at the gym, and I became deeply familiar with an 80-foot driveway hill on the front of a nearby dam. Incorporating the necessary vert while at home was no easy feat. Armed with a brace and trekking poles, I got through the course’s 6,500 feet of gain without any pain in my knee. I was signed up for a 50K in South Carolina just three weeks out from the injury. I already hate running in the winter in Ohio (or really at any time of year in Ohio) walking in the winter in Ohio was even worse.
#Winter running training programs full#
I took one full week off, then for the next two weeks I did all my miles walking. Instead of backing off completely for a month, I came up with a compromise: I would walk my miles. Well, that’s not going to work, I thought. “But you could have a microcrack in there.
#Winter running training programs crack#
“I don’t see a crack in your patella,” the doctor told me. In the middle of January, just seven weeks in, I fell on some ice during a training run and banged my left knee. I followed it as best I could as an old guy. Bryce’s daunting 14,200 feet of gain-and the lack of hills in Ohio-pushed me toward Uphill Athlete and Mike Foote’s 20-Week Big Vert Plan. When I looked toward the Bryce Canyon 100 for the spring of 2019, I realized I needed some help with the uphill piece of the puzzle. They tended to focus on mileage over elevation gain. Up to that point I’d been using a variety of ultra training plans to prepare for these events. My first 100-miler hadn’t gone perfectly, but already I wanted more.Ĭlimbing amid a dusting of snow early in the Bryce Canyon 100. By then I knew I was going to clear the 30-hour cutoff. Alone at sunrise a full 24 hours into the race, I paused to savor a mountain panorama. Temperatures spiked into the 90s and I stuffed ice everywhere. That October, despite experiencing bad cramping during a second 50-miler in September, I opted to bump up from the 100K to the 100-mile distance at Arizona’s Javelina Jundred. Having survived our first trek together, we set out for a second one in the fall. We lived out of the back of our car while I trained and raced.
At the start of the year, we replaced the backseat of our Toyota RAV4 with a mattress platform and left our home in Columbus, Ohio, for a two-month road trip throughout the Desert Southwest. My wife and I were set to retire at the beginning of 2018 and I wanted something to work toward. I signed up for my first 50-miler for the following February, the Antelope Canyon 50, also in Utah. It took me 9 hours, my son around 8 hours. Hot conditions made for a hard race, but we both got through. We found one that would take place in Bryce Canyon on Father’s Day weekend.
Then rotator cuff surgery put my climbing on hold in late 2016, and I found myself needing something to do so I could keep drinking beer. I quickly ticked off a handful of road half marathons and one road marathon, all on top of my first love-rock climbing. I’m a competitive guy and I like taking on new challenges. “Go big or go home.” That’s what my youngest son said in January 2017 when we decided to do our first ultra-distance trail race.
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