Roes post-race interviews

Part 1


Part 2

What Does He Eat?

Seriously.

What does he eat?

Seriously.

Modest Genius - ROES

Thanks, GZ, for the link. Fantastic footage.



Imagine the footage of this guy catching, battling and dropping KJB and AK. Texas? Nah. Don't mess with Alaska. What more does this guy have to prove? UTMB? Nah.

I gotta say, I nailed some predictions in my previous post. I even thought Hal might struggle. I hope he's recovering well. Congratulations to Geoff Roes. And the rest of the runners of that great showcase of ultra-marathoning. Thanks for inspiring and allowing me to live vicariously through you all.

Nick Clark is huge.

+ a Mackey sighting!

Found some pics. This one is thanks to Tim.


Epic

Give me five

I have been running trail, climbing, shorter faster, etc. But that's not what I want to explore here.

I have to quack a little about WS100 2010. This thing is shaping-up to be an unbelievable ultra-marathon "championship." Sure I don't run these things, but am a huge fan. These guys are the super runners of the kind of running I like to do.

And the big dogs are, apparently, going to go. I remember last year's buzz: Koerner, Jurek and Mackey. Having sorta been nurtured along in this blogosphere by some folks in Colorado, some of whom actually ran around with Mackey, I was psyched to this guy do some damage. And he was one of the first names I remember stumbling across; he was on a magazine cover, a great athlete, former soccer player, etc.

On the other hand, toward the end of my first full year of the trail (at the tender age of 39), I did The World of Hurt 25k (finished 5th yo) and Koerner and Jurek both ran the 50k, along with Josh Brimhall and maybe Ian Torrence. Anyways, I had actually exchanged a couple of words with Jurek in the bathroom before the race and said Hi to Koerner after he won the race. I was in!

To end a long story, I was a little invested in last year's race. I knew these guys! No need to go into their pedegrees. 2009 was stacked. And we all know what transpired.

But 2010 is on another level. Mackey is not exactly the 100 miler, and Jurek (from what I've seen recently) is in the twilight of his career. So Koerner stepped-up and closed the deal. But 2010 is on another level. Joining Hal this year are Anton Krupicka, The Spaniard, Geoff Roes (and Nick Clark!). Sure there are others and there were others in 2009, but let's just put all of our chips on the table and talk the players.

My take:

Hal is trying to 3 peat. He definitely has the experience and the game based-on the past, especially his fine Miwok 2010 finish. However, I've read two different interviews in which he's mentioned a bad ankle. He said he's been able to get through his training, but even he's talking about it. What made me a little nervous (yeah, I'm nervous) was his need to push some of his training forward to let the foot/ankle heal, which meant he pushed his taper. So, that sounds a little disconcerting. Granted, I think there could be some gamesmanship going-on, but an injury is an injury and he's trying to 3-peat and there are some other runners looking to gun down Hal.

Anton is a freak. His training mileage is legendary, even his training nutrition. I love the discourse when it gets to "teaching the body how to handle running through the bonk." I made-up that quote just now, but that's a fair paraphrase of what Anton has said and does. The guy is minimalist manifested on a steep slope wearing only tiny blue shorts. He'll be mentioned along side John Muir some day. He's the mountain runner (but he needs to toe the line against Matt Carpenter while there's still that contest to be had). His results speak for themselves. Never lost, CRs all over the map, driven, spiritual, fast as hell, a huge base (my Lord). Would anyone be surprised if this guy won going away? No. He's probably the favorite. He's textbook good. Experienced. Young. And ready to rock and roll.

Speaking of rock stars, the Spaniard is, according to some, the greatest of them all. He mounts grand European mountain ranges with a single bound. His training takes place on some ridiculous terrain. He's supported like no one else. That's one of the best things about countries other than the U.S. Sport celebrity is found in cycling, soccer, running, tennis, you know, the lesser sports. His website and his campaign make it look like, using an American analogy, Reggie Bush with a leading role in Keeping-up with the Kardashians (btw, Bush is a gigantic bush). The Spaniard looks big. I guess what I'm sorta saying here (beating around the bush) is we wouldn't be surprised if he wins and we wouldn't be too surprised if he doesn't, if he even DNFs. I'm speaking from my own ignorance. My sense is that there's so much glitter and, therefore, I'm a little skeptical. That's just me.

Geoff Roes does not evoke glitter. He's Into the Wild. I have been following him for a while, I think since he finished top five (?) at NF50 San Francisco a couple of years ago. MC won it with Uli 2nd and then a few stragglers. He was one of those. Then his star began to rise. He's a bit of an anomaly. He's soft spoken but maintains an honest confidence that's refreshing. I love his posts. He's tuned-in to the competition and he apparently doesn't follow a very strict program to reach the levels of fitness that enable him to destroy 100 mile races. 2009 is an amazing year for Roes. The guy demolished some very tough courses (I know all of this via the discourse of course which includes anecdotal evidence, elevation profiles, and race results). He's a big time athlete who trains in big time back country so we can only assume he's ready for anything. One side note: I've taken a gander at his training log which records mileage, time and pace. He, at least according to that data, does not pay much attention to pace. Most of his runs are relatively slow, which suggests he's probably doing a bunch of vertical and, of course, a lot of the runs are long. But it's kinda startling. Here's a guy who has blown-by Max King on a 50 mile race (late in the race), but logs long, rather slow training runs. This adds to his appeal. He's the natural. I can't wait to see what Roes does in this race.

Lastly, there's Nick Clark. He's part of my blogosphere community (so is Anton). I feel very fortunate to get a chance to exchange with these dudes (Thanks as always to GZ). I remember watching Nick via his comments on Hang Nine. I started following him, he ran a marathon in Ireland (he's from one of those islands), loves the trail, etc. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like it's only recently that he's really made a move to become a slight dark horse to win WS100! The guy has been killing the mountain racing landscape. His latest win at Jemez I believe shows a ton of potential because his time is not that far off the record (he ran 8:28), which I think is that of Kyle Skaggs who, like Anton, is a mountain freak (which is a good thing). Nick is, I would say, a grinder with speed. He's not going to make many mistakes, is going to earn his Guinness and try to hunt some people down. I like his style and his game. I hope he's in the mix late.

Granted, I could look-up a bunch of stuff and polish this post with regards to facts, dates, etc. But I just wanted to ramble about these great athletes who are about to throw-down in an epic northern Cali showdown.

And I know there are A BUNCH of other great athletes ready to stake their claim on June 26. Anything could happen. Most likely, the winner is one of these five.

For the record, I think Roes wins WS100 2010. I hope Hal has the game to 3-peat (that would be very very impressive), but I think Roes is going to be too strong and rested for this thing.

We'll see. I would love to hear what any reader out there thinks.

A little food

Just some pics of what I like right now.

I haven't completely given up meat, but it's just not what's happening.
Give me a massive salad with a ton of goodies from the produce section
and I'm really stoked.

As for beer, an occasional ipa works, but I've been enjoying a couple of lighter beers that have gone down great with some sushi, Padres' games and other mellowness in the early summer air.

If I get a call to partake, I'm in; but the days of drinking huge DIPAs in the dark
and beer blogging into the night is not on the agenda.

Yerba Mate tea. Loving the smoky herbal buzz :)

England v USA

England v USA 2010 World Cup. The pitch looks great. The players look dialed-in. The old versus the new. I played soccer in college in the US and in England. Great memories, especially since I represented my country well.

To be honest, some of the best memories were the times after matches. The rugby and futbol players would gather, showered and togged in our classy attire, and socialize while going tap tap tap with the domestic brews. Great times!

That was epic recovery. That's what I'm doing now. Have a look.
I'll post later my reviews of the beers, but I wanted to represent the two countries.
And BevMo's Sam Smith brews were 2.99. Done deal.

Recovery mode, with beers: England v. USA. Will the soccer results mirror the beer results? I doubt it. It's already 1-0 England 6 minutes into the match! Come-on!

Come see me!

Friday 6/11

Day 4

Felt a little out of it so I just ran for 30 minutes.
Followed that up with some core work.

Day 5

Today I ran for 55 minutes, just cruised but felt a little better.
Should be good to go for tomorrow to put-in some more quality work.

Since I've been running fairly consistently I need to step it up.
Some doubles sound good. But getting rested (my energy up) is of the first order!

The other thought I had concerns the climbing. My recent love affair with Cowles Mt. and Mission Trails in general is great, but Wednesday's run for instance was BRUTAL. Suffering through hands-on-knee climbs won't make me much faster. I am running the climbs, but I sensed getting a little carried away with sheer elevation, of going up. More gradual grades are more fun in that going up and down is so much fun and legitimate quality.

15% grades are a little much right now.

Tomorrow's running fare? Rancho Penasquitos Canyon. I've been avoiding that place
like the plague. Why? I don't know. I used to run there a lot. It's got a nice
rolling 10 miler, among many trails. This is just what the doctor ordered.

This run will lead me right into the U.S. v. England World Cup match late morning.
Hopefully the play doesn't disappoint. The recovery IPA won't!

Day 1 - 3

So, 30 in 30 is in effect and it's going well.

Day 1

45 minute steady run on pavement and trail. I ran to the trail, got there and that was it. No climbing, just shaking things out. Sunday was pretty steep, so this was a good deal.


Day 2

40 minutes. Yum. This started out with a sore foot and a pretty sluggish aura. At the turn-around, I was loving the grass. The whole run was on grass. My pace, from what I can gather was nicely aerobic and pleasantly steady. It was just a good run.


Day 3

I headed to Mission Trails and proceeded to run a sick loop that topped-out at N. Fortuna. This was tough. Back in the day with Garmin, I swear this was a 2000+ ft. vertical run. Not with Highgear. We're in the day of clean living and there's no fibbing on vertical anymore.

I ran 1:10 and climbed or descended the entire time. Mission Trails is pretty much a canyon. You enter, drop, climb, cool, descend, and then climb over-heated and bonking. That's what happened today. The Highgear read 1700ft. vertical. I was a little surprised, but expecting it. I hate to be a whistle-blower, but Garmin's vertical is bullshit.

I think I bonked. Because I was worked at the end. I would venture to guess it was about 6 miles, so 1700 in 6 miles isn't bad, but either way, I know the loop and propose some serious progression there. N. Fortuna. Boom!

New Blog and Maharaja

This is going to be my food and drink blog.

My new blog, which will chronicle my running (everyone's favorite read) is over here.

Yes, I have moved my running journey to a new blog.

Where you are *BLAHG* is going to be pretty much what the html suggests: matt-recoverydiscovery. I am making some changes to my diet and by the way I love food (so I have to make some changes). And, I really like good beer. So that's what's happening here.

Right now I'm drinking a Maharaja and it's quite simply one of my favorite beers.

I remember falling in love with a wine, it was the Mataro from Ridge in 1998ish. I would uncork a bottle and it would be gone in minutes. Aside from my particular problem I hadve with the juice, IT WAS SO DELICIOUS.SMOOTH.SILKY.FLAVORFUL.LOVELY.SEXY.SEXY.

That's the way Maharaja goes. It's a little more than just an IPA. In fact, it's a DIPA. It's a seasonal beer, so get it while you can. Great beer.

With this beer I had the leftovers of last night's dinner. It was my wife and my 7th wedding anniversary. AWESOME. We had a champagne cocktail and then I had a beer (stone pale) and she a glass of Norman pinot and we kept toasting and denouncing the 7th year itch! Ha ha ha. Does that happen before or after the 7th? Fuck the itch. Have your wife itch that bad boy!

So the leftovers. Last night, one of the entrees we ordered was this:
kaffir-lime honey glazed duck $24.95
over spinach, bacon, red onion salad with fingerling potato-fennel salad & grilled zucchini skewer

Off the hook. Soooooo good.

But what you'll find on this blog primarily is a commitment to vegetarian cuisine. As you can already see, some meat might get met by my meat cleaver (say that very fast four times and then quaff an ipa).

But my body is digesting so well the veggie orgy. That's the current project.

Make a big salad and drink a big beer. Now.

My Running Blog

My life has a couple of main focuses. I like to run. I like to have a couple of beers; now, my diet is becoming more of a focus, as well. My old blog Blahg is actually "matt-recoverydiscovery" so that blog will focus only on my recovery and discovery which is food and beer (and maybe the occasional random thought related/unrelated to food and drink). I want to chronicle my food preparation and intake for readers, sure, but like all blogs, there is that journal aspect that authors certainly acknowledge and appreciate.

This is my running blog. Let's get down to business. I have, after a horrible stint of allergies interrupted a nice build-up to some January racing, rebuilt to a consistent running condition based-on consistency. This started back-up slowly in mid to late February. The next two months were nice and easy, resorting to some HR training, keeping all of my efforts in zone 1 and maybe some zone 2. As the medicine started to work (I should start a blog on allergy medication) and I grew stronger, the runs got a little harder and so on and so forth.

Now I am pretty much running hilly trails every day.

Cut to last Saturday's run with James and his mention that he did the 30 in 30 program that Slater Fletcher threw down a few months ago. He is being coached by Gordo Byrn and apparently this 30 in 30 is Gordo's though he probably got it from someone and so forth and so on.

30 in 30
The idea is to run every day for 30 days. Or try to get 30 runs done in 30 days. If I double one day, I could theoretically take the next day off. That's how this was explained to me and I actually recall Mr. Fletcher saying something to that affect back in the day.

My current streak started last Friday. But I am starting from this Monday (6/7/10). Why not start the job on a Monday. Having said all of that, what will transpire for the next few weeks is a recording of those runs. They have to be at least 30 minutes to count. I doubt I'll do any of those, but we all know that 30 min can be quite sufficient, especially if the run involves some hills!

Welcome to The Feet of a Lifetime. This is my life on my feet. God knows I'll record any other significant non-running experiences of my feet (reflexology, etc.).
Bottomline: I love my feet!

Off I go. . .

Day 1

45 minute run.

I'll have more to say about this project as it progresses.

But I gotta throw this down. Seasonal beer? From my experience this is tops. I had a pint of Pliny one night at Toronado and followed that up with a pint (actually a 10oz pour) of Maharaja and my taste buds made a massive declaration. I think you know what I'm talking about. This is a massive DIPA with lovely flavors and a great sense of great beer.
If you can find it, don't be shy.

Sunday June 6

RUNNING

Monday 5 miles Mt. Cowles and added climb (~1800ft. up)

Tuesday Off

Wednesday 3 miles at Mt. Cowles before work (~1300ft). This is a tough work-out. Definitely not mileage oriented, but the climbing is solid and that's really all I want to do.

Thursday Off (yeah, I know, pretty weak) But I had a birthday party after school (bad timing, ya'll) and I lagged in the morning. Just a down week.

Friday 40 minutes around hilly Point Loma steady (~500ft.)

Saturday 7 miles with JW and my new altimeter said about 1000ft. even, but that run has yielded ~1300 in the past with Garmin. Hmmmm. I don't have the new watch calibrated so I'm not sure but ~1000ft. is probably pretty accurate.

Sunday ~2hrs, ~2000ft. of climbing at Mission Trails.

Total: ~30 miles (more of my running will be timed based since that's my technological theme - no more Garmin). About 6500ft. of vertical. It's a start.


RECOVERY

First of all, the week-end post written on Saturday night? Just got back from a killer vegetarian joint and I'm just sitting here drinking a Stone IPA. Nothing better to do than re-cap and write a self-fulfilling prophecy with my run tomorrow. I'm heading to Mission Trails for some climbing. Yes!!!

I went to Pizza Port last night and had a Jetty IPA, and OB Gordon, obviously both on draft and sooo delicious with my killer pizza that had a black bean spread in place of cheese. Really good.

Post my 40 minute hilly run in Point Loma, I dropped into The Harp and had Nelson on draft. Damn!

A light week all the way around. Food has been lighter, running mileage was on the lighter side, but I'd say fairly stressful (good stress) in terms of climbing. All runs were outside on trail, but for the one hilly 40 minute run. I really like the way things are evolving. And the beer intake has been lighter. Consistency!

Actually, this consistency thing is huge. I could go back over my running the past couple of months which have been made-up of very consistent running. But I have not done the 30 for 30 program. Check-out Slater Fletcher's blog. He did a 30 for 30 and had a running PR, not to mention his IM success. His wife is in the midst of one and she just crushed a running PR. Come to find-out, it's from Gordo Byrn.

All that to say I'm going to go for it. It's not much of a twist on what I've been doing. In fact, I think it will be easy. But the consistency is pretty intense. No misses! If I can focus on some doubles, this might really add to the effects. One reason I say it's doable is my comfort with running a mere 45 minutes on a particular day. In the grand scheme of things (especially with such consistency), a 45 minute run can be very solid (see: Mt. Cowles, technical 3 miles up and down, ~1200ft. vertical which yields about 35 minutes). Bottom-line, let's see what the program will do.

Wednesday

RUNNING

Took Tuesday off because I was tired. All I wanted was a salad, a margarita (wha?) and to kick it. Felt great.

Wednesday a.m. - ascent of Cowles Mt. That's two this week. I have to say I will limit my running on this for two reasons: 1) the people. Even at 7:45am it was crawling. And 2) the descent is gnarly. Very (too) technical. I want to avoid injury. The climb is brutal. Today I did the 20min ascent and was wiped. Felt great though to reach the top and get back to the car, to the coffee kiosk (Yerba Mate tea!!!) and off to work.

I'll put a little effort in this p.m. I am fired-up on mountains.
My lungs say more! What do yours say?

Get after it!