AR Ramblings

Matt mentioned in a blog post that he estimated the total elevation gain of the BMT to be around 50,000 feet.  That is a big number.  Spreading it across almost 300 miles helps, but that is still a hell of a lot of climbing.

Today, it occurred to me that the KML file I used to create my GPS tracking map also contained elevation for each of the points.  I hacked up a quick script to parse all 12,000+ data points and add up the cumulative gain.  After triple-checking the logic in my script, I felt this really, really terrible sinking feeling in my gut.  I just stared at the screen in disbelief.

:~/Desktop/BMT$ ./calc_elevation.pl
Total gain = 22325.804708 meters : 73247.3908856141 feet

In my past experience, GPS units have had notoriously large margins of error when it comes to elevation readings.  I can only hope that a little bit of that error is inflating the result.  If not, this might take a little longer than I have originally estimated!

I just finished packing food for the BMT speedpacking adventure and the stats are in: 12.5 pounds and 21,000 calories.  That only works out to 1,680 calories per pound, which is a little lower than I was hoping, but I know that I have some quality stuff in there, and more importantly, stuff that I know I will still want be able to eat after several strenuous days on the trail.

Almost 40% of my calories will be coming from the new Caffe Latte flavored Perpetuem.  Yes, it REALLY is that good!

The rest of the calories will be comprised of various solid foods and a few bars.  I tried to strike a balance between finding items with relatively high-quality ingredients and tastyness, but with tastyness receiving a slightly higher priority.  The average intensity of this effort will be much lower than most other events, so I should be able to digest foods that just wouldn’t work for something shorter (24-48hrs).

I briefly considered an all liquid nutrition plan, but I could be out there for up to a week and prefer to supplement with solid foods during really long efforts.

Here is a list of what is in the bags, for those who are interested:

• Caffe Latte Perpetuem (the most important of all!)
• Organic Toaster pastries (aka pop-tarts)
• Bear Naked granola
• Snyders multigrain pretzel sticks
• Snyders pretzel pieces (BBQ flavored)
• Trail mix (whole grain wheat thins, raw almonds, cranberries)
• pre-cooked bacon (2 pkgs)
• freeze-dried pastas (3 pkgs)
• a few slices of bread
• Bear Valley MealPack (natural energy bars)
• Kashi cereal bars
• Genisoy protein bars
• Luna bars
• Ginger chews (spicy apple flavored)

My rant on the demise of the original Montrail Hardrock shoe has been one of the most popular posts I’ve written. I still get an occasional comment to that post over a year later. Since the original post, I’ve done a lot of (ahem) sole searching and have completely changed what I look for in a shoe. Here is a quick update of what has happened since then.

I was fortunate enough to have local über-underground-ultra-runner Adam Hill encourage me to try using a more minimalist shoe. I did a lot of research, tried a few more pairs of “real” trail shoes (Brooks, La Sportiva), but eventually settled on running in a pair of road racing shoes – Brooks Racer ST‘s. It took several months to fully make the transition. My muscles needed to adjust to the lower heel, feet had to toughen up, and adjustments had to be made to my stride, but the result was amazing.

I’ve since done several 24hr+ adventure races, a 24hr rogaine, and run another SCAR traverse using only these road racing shoes, and my feet have never been happier. The only downsides are lack of durability and poor traction in leaves and thick mud. A little shoe goo can extend the durability, but not much can be done about the traction. [well, Adam could customize them, I suppose]

Along the way, I’ve become convinced that modern shoes cause just as many problems as they try, or claim, to solve.

One of the easiest to observe examples is that a lot of people heel strike when running. Why? Because the shoes they wear tend to encourage that behaviour. I would bet that if you take the average heel-striker and make them run barefoot on a hard, flat surface, they would quickly learn and prefer a mid- or forefoot strike instead.

The thick heel cushioning in most shoes reduces the bone-jarring impacts of heel landings and cuts off the natural feedback that would normally discourage a person from running that way. Another modern design characteristic which seems to encourage this bad behaviour is the lifted heel.

I’m not sure why, but all running shoes place the heel higher than the forefoot. So, even if you naturally have your foot in a flat, mid-foot striking position, you will still land heel-first due to the extra thickness under the heel of the shoe. The heel rise is usually less on racing flats, which is a big reason that I prefer them. Switching to a shoe with a lower heel changes how the muscles are used when running, so give yourself plenty of time to adapt. You are likely to have sore calves when making this transition.

Oh, all of that motion-control and stability crap…well, I bet that is only necessary because the shoe is forcing you to land on your heel and it is very hard to keep everything aligned when rolling from heel to toe without some assistance. A better idea is just to land mid-foot and not have to worry quite as much about all of that. As a bonus, your shoes will be a few ounces lighter without it.

I also read an interesting post on Joe Freil’s blog about pronation. It talks about several runners being videotaped and evaluated.  One, an elite level marathoner who had “excessive pronation”, but never had any injuries.  Another was a runner with a “perfect” neutral foot with a “significant history” of injuries. They found that the hips stayed level on the healthy runner, but dropped on the runner with the injuries. It was determined that good core strength was keeping everything aligned on the “pronating” runner, and poor core strength was the cause of injuries in the “neutral” runner. So, next time you go to a speciality store that has you stand barefoot and walk back and forth, and then tells you what kind of runner you are, just be aware that such a shallow level of assessment could be meaningless for you. Video analysis while running on a treadmill is better, but you may just be applying a band-aid (type of shoe) in an attempt to fix a more fundamental running technique/core strength/muscle imbalance issue.

I’ve learned that less shoe is better. At least for me. Fixing deficiencies in technique  and eliminating muscle imbalances has done more for my running than any shoe ever has.

I still remember the agony I experienced after visiting my first “professional” running store. They fit me in big-ass, clunky, motion-control shoes due to my “pronation problem”. My running that year was terrible, but I told myself that I just needed to give my body time to adapt, and the shoes were probably helping overall. That was complete B.S.! Since then, I’ve visited several high-end running stores and physical therapists to be fitted and analysed (including three video analyses). Over the years, my “pronation problem” has miraculously faded away. The last treadmill video analysis at a local running shop even declared me a perfectly neutral runner. How did I go from being a moderate/severe overpronator to perfectly neutral? Well, as I’m sure any good shoe company will tell you, it must have been the shoes!..and that we all should go out and buy another pair of their most expensive models after the next 300 miles!  Hopefully, I shouldn’t have to point out the stratospheric level of sarcasm in that last statement.  There are actually a few reports suggesting that the cheaper, less technologically advanced shoes cause fewer problems than the more expensive models.  I doubt you’ll find the shoe companies advertising that fact, however.

Although I enjoy running in my road flats, I still occasionally wish for a shoe with some trail-specific features.  Inov-8 is a trail shoe manufacturer whose philosophy I can get behind. I recently picked up a pair of Inov-8 295 trail shoes as a grippier, more durable alternative to the road flats. The 295 is the lightest shoe Inov-8 makes with their Endurance last. The lighter models all use their performance last which is too narrow for my foot.  So far, I’ve been pleased with them.  The heel cup doesn’t seem to conform to my foot as good as the Racer ST’s, but the grip is amazing.  Having a bit of toe protection is nice also, for those times when you get a little sloppy and have a high-speed toe to rock collision.

I highly recommend that everyone experiment and do their own research into the potential advantages of  minimalist shoes and barefoot running.  Just be sure to experiment carefully, slowly, and listen to your body along the way.

REQUIRED READING (these links were in the article, but if you missed them, click now and read! And do some Googling for similar articles…there are plenty more out there!)

• The painful truth about trainers: Are running shoes a waste of money?
• Joe Friel: Running and Core Stability

The next few days should be interesting. I’m joining up with team Checkpoint Zero/Inov-8 (or perhaps ROAM/Inov-8…I’m not sure yet) to race the 3.5 day Odyssey Endorphin Fix.

I had originally planned to skip this race (as a solo) and focus on the Benton Mackaye speed attempt instead. But when Checkpoint Zero lost a teammate and asked if I’d like to join them, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to race with a strong, competitive team.

However, in the time-honored tradition of mentally bludgeoning a team before they reach the starting line of a multi-day AR, fate still had a couple of more blows to deliver.  With only a week to go, another teammate was lost.   Meanwhile, a nearly identical beating was be delivered to team ROAM/Inov-8, who had replaced a team member only to lose another one with mere days remaining until the start.

A last minute decision was made to combine the teams and race as a “six-headed monster“.  Officially, we will be separate 4-person and 2-person teams, but plan to stick together and race unofficially as a 6-person team.  Keeping six folks together over 3+ days of wilderness racing is going to be a challenge, for sure, but should also be a fun and interesting experiment.

And not to be done yet, fate delivered one more kick to the nads last night when I discovered that my CatEye LED light for the bike was missing, and my big-daddy MOAB HID had given up the ghost.  After some tinkering, I finally put the multimeter on the battery and measured a dismal 0.05V.  Far from the 11.1V it should’ve been.  I ignored the warnings of fire and explosion in an attempt to open the casing, but it was a rugged sucker and I gave up before getting out the power tools (it was getting late anyway).  Hopefully the LBS or REI will have a decent, cheap LED that I can pick up this afternoon.

So far, the weather looks relatively nice for three days of playtime in the woods.  I’m hoping the water sections will be as fun as previous Beast of the East races, or the EFix a few years ago near Seneca, WV.

You might be able to view our progress at the Checkpoint Tracker site.  But so far, Odyssey hasn’t really updated it and has warned that comms won’t be great across the course.  So, updates may be few and far between.  I’m sure there will be a report or two following the race, though.  Heck, I might even write one…maybe…probably not, but it could happen…

I thought that the Primal Quest Utah 2006 website was gone forever, but tonight I somehow stumbled upon a copy of it hosted at the design firm who created it. I really enjoyed revisiting my teams page and reliving some of the moments and experiences through the pictures and videos on the site. PQ Utah was one of my favorite races of all time, and I was able to race it with one of my favorite teams of all time.

Ernie, Pete, Beth, and I only had the opportunity of racing together twice as a full team. Once at a 3-day event in Texas where we took first place, and at PQ where we managed a respectable 21st out of 89. Since then, the distances from each other and various other circumstances have kept us from all competing together again. I think we had a lot of potential and hope to eventually get those guys together for another big event some day. I really miss all of those team bonding experiences at Denny’s, the debates over whose WAG bag smelled the worst, and learning how to be a pipeline manager (you had to be there to understand).

To 24Seven: I miss you guys! I hope you are all doing well! When are you all going to move closer!!! ;-)

Do you ever forget about things in your race pack and then find them a long time later? Me too…

Here is the latest gem I found while searching for spare batteries for the Pitchell adventure run tonight.  Can you guess the ingredients that made up this tasty morsel?

Pros: small size, elastic band for wearing on your arm, good accuracy in open spaces
Cons: Cumulative distance can be way off on twisty trails and/or under tree cover, uncomfortable to wear on your wrist.
Overall Rating: 5 of 10

If you’re looking for a small, basic GPS at a low price, then the Garmin Foretrex 101 may deserve a slightly better rating than I gave it. Although I didn’t buy it for athletic training purposes I was hoping that it might serve a dual purpose. If you primarily run in a straight line in open areas or along roads then it works pretty good for recording distance ran or biked. However, here in the hills of western North Carolina the cumulative distance counter was significantly off the mark on almost all outings.

My testing was done on mountain trails with roughly 1500ft of elevation gain/loss and under tree cover, though all of the leaves had fallen and the only thing blocking a signal would have been the bare tree limbs. I don’t know how often this unit records position for determining distance traveled, but I can only guess that it is missing the many turns encountered on an average singletrack trail. I ran and biked the same trail and recorded a distance of 6.75 miles with the Foretrex, while my bike computer (recently calibrated) showed nearly 8 miles. Additionally, based on my usual training pace, the 8 mile result seems more accurate. That makes the Foretrex result almost 20% low! While biking along relatively straight forest service roads, the difference was closer to 10%. One thought is that maybe it is not computing the added distance created due to elevation gain and loss? I’m not sure, but the discrepancy is too much for me to consider using it as a training device.

When used strictly for determining coords while standing still, I can’t find any faults with this unit. The only negative thing I can say is that I’ve never seen any benefit to the WAAS mode. It is supposed to allow much greater accuracy, but it has never worked during my testing. I guess I’ve just never gotten the signal for the WAAS in the areas I’ve used it.

Although it is designed to be worn on your wrist, I found it to be uncomfortable at best. When bushwhacking through the forest it became very painful when I had to put my hand down to brace myself. The unit extends beyond the wrist and digs into the back of your hand when your wrist is bent back. The additional elastic strap for wearing on the upper arm was much better. The bike mount is very secure and seems bombproof.

The 101 model uses two AAA batteries, which allows easy field replacement. Rechargeable AAA’s seem to give me about 4-5 hrs of continuous use.

My primary use for this gadget has been navigation training and confirming CP placements for training/mock races. It works just fine for these purposes, but not much more.

Well actually, I wasn’t racing this time, but it infuriates me just the same. A CP at the USARA Nationals race was mis-placed by approximately 400m from what I’ve read (See the Enduraventure Blog and the TrailBlazers forums). It wasn’t stolen. It wasn’t missing. It was mis-placed! And even more mind-boggling, it was manned!!!. How the hell does this keep happening? GPS’s are cheap. Could they not verify with one when they got there? And if a GPS wasn’t available, the course director should have marked the area with flagging tape (or equivalent) to allow the volunteers to verify their position. Or, they could have been escorted to the location or had someone check on them later. There is no reason why that should have happened. None! No excuses. I’m not listening to anyone who says otherwise. Those teams paid big money to race, to qualify to race, to travel to the race, and probably spent countless hours training for the race. It was the National-freaking championship even! The results were ruined and should be thrown out. However, throwing out the results wouldn’t make anyone happy either, so some worthless post-race decision (or rule in this case) gets applied as a contingency plan. For those potentially affected by this f**kup, however, it does nothing to make them feel any better. I’m sure the winners worked hard and are great athletes, but no one can say for sure who would have won, if the race promoters had done their job correctly. No matter what anyone says or thinks, a mis-placed CP causes pure luck and chance to become a part of the competition. If I want to test my luck, I’ll blow some money at a casino.

What a disappointment and let-down to everyone whose ranking was potentially affected. Sorry guys. I feel your pain, disappointment, and frustration. That sucks. If there is one thing that will kill this sport (for me at least), it is the problem of mis-placed CPs. AR has a horrible track record with this. I’ve only known of one Orienteering meet to have this happen, and their points usually require much more precise placement than AR. That O-point was only 30m off. The Nationals point was 450m, and I’ve done races with points as much as 2km off! Come on AR directors! Get your sh** together or don’t even bother to hold an event….or one of these days myself (and maybe others) will just stop bothering to show up.

Ok, I think I’m finished ranting for now. Maybe. Yeah, I’ll stop here :-)

I don’t know what else to say. I was there, though you wouldn’t know it from watching. You also wouldn’t know that approximately 85 other teams raced either. I guess that is almost normal for these types of events though. What is really sad is that I don’t think the coverage really was able to communicate the difficulty of the course. The intense, brutal heat of the first two legs and all 4 canyons (did you even know there were four?) was not effectively shown. Most of the mountain section was skipped over, and the coverage of the ropes sections totally sucked. That ropes course was absolutely amazing and the TV helicopter was still getting shots of it when my team came through about 1.5 days after the leaders. So where was all that footage? In fact, none of the coverage of any ropes section really showcased how huge they were. There were no good perspective shots. Awful. Just awful.

Perhaps the video production could never be what I would hope for. Maybe film can’t even come close to capturing the real-life experience of being there. I think maybe the idea was to market it more as a race than as a reality show like some of the previous Eco-Challenges were made to be, but in doing so a lot of the real-life suffering, drama, and triumphs that are inevitably a part of any expedition race were lost. I think the public would have been more drawn into the race if more of it had been shown. And I promise there was a lot more going on out there than just what was shown of Team MPGear.

I think covering it either purely as a race or purely as a “reality show” would be equally disappointing. I think PQ tried to provide a little of both, but the end result was a bit lackluster. I’m probably a little biased, but I’ve heard from several others that also thought it was terrible.

It was an amazing race, but I guess no one but the participants and volunteers will ever know that.

I think that UPS hates shipping my bike box. It’s been on a few flights with me and made it through those trips with nothing more than a small scratch or two. I’ve seen the baggage guys loading it on the plane before, and they don’t exactly “handle with care”. I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of mood the UPS guys must have been in.

After the Adventure Xstream race I decided to ship the bike back home to save some cash. It made here on time, but looked like it had been dragged behind the truck by its straps. The UPS shipping label was partially gone due to the box being dragged across the floor (I assume). I suppose they didn’t notice that it has wheels. The metal bar for the locks was bent and required pliers and a bit a muscle to fix. Also, one of the rubber feet was torn off. All that was left was the bolt that had held it on, and it had been bent beyond repair. It will have to be cut off. The delivery guy didn’t even bother to knock. I just happened to find it outside the door. I have this image in my head of the box being dragged behind the truck with a quick release, and as the driver makes the turn near my house, he pulls a lever and the box slides up into my driveway :-)

I’m glad Trico makes a sturdy box. Maybe bike box manufacturers should start rating their products as UPS-proof!