It was time for my annual checkup with my cardiologist. It's been two years since my last stress test so I was excited to battle the treadmill again and hopefully get the thumbs up for another season of ultra running. The test starts with attaching about 8 electrodes around my chest and back(some shaving req.) and wrapped a blood pressure strap around my arm. Then I laid on my side for an echocardiogram. Using an small ultrasound wand, the technician targeted different areas of my heart, creating a series of colorful short videos that showed the blood flowing through the chambers and valves. It was very interesting to watch the old heart work away. Then it was time to start the treadmill. The test is call the Bruce treadmill test, you start out at a walking pace 1.7 mph and incline of 10%, then every 3 minutes, it speeds up and elevates. Our treadmill was set for 7 sessions that ended with 3 mins at 6.0 mph at a 20% incline. I did the same test a couple of years ago and hold the distinction of being his only patient that completed the whole 21 minutes. You have to understand that most of his patients are 20 or more years older and have trouble walking fast and I'm the only one that shows up in running shorts. While I was plugging away, in the other room, they ran a couple of other patients through their complete tests. They thought that was funny. The nice thing about this test, is that it allows me to check out my maximum heart rate under medical supervision. When I got to the last of my 21 minutes, I was at my maximum heart rate 174, (my resting is 38). I was ready to stop, but they wanted to see what the machine would do after 21 minutes. Would it stop? would it keep speeding up? no one knew since they never went that long. So they said hang in there so we can see what happens. The treadmill just stayed at the same pace and incline, fortunately after another minute they stopped the machine and laid me down for a post run echocardiogram. My heart was really pumping away but settled down very quickly. My cardiologist told me I didn't have any issues, sent me for a blood test and I was done. So I'm good for another year, a little adjustment on my chlolesterol medication, and I'm on the trails again!

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well it's a week late, but here's last weeks adventure...
My family took our spring break down at Sunriver the week before Peterson Ridge 60K. It was alot of fun, spring skiing and biking each day. My muscles were sore from the skiing, but I was having too much fun. Tried to run the Dechutes river trail, only made it about 2 miles in, too much snow and I couldn't always spot the trail. Saturday nite, Alexa, Dave, and Kris showed up at our rental house to crash for the night. Dave showed his prowness with ping pong before we hit the hay for an early wake up for the drive to Sisters. The temp was cold, but with the forcast for 70 degree weather, I started with short sleeves, skull cap, and gloves. I started the race running with Eric Barnes and we clipped along at a good pace on the flat first section, but after reaching the first aid station a few minutes earlier than I have in the past, I slowed down. But after another mile, there was Eric, taking pictures of runners. I guess he wanted to slow down also, since he ran a marathon the weekend before. He dropped in behind me and managed to take a header at a road crossing. I started to feel heavy legs and by the time we got to the grunt climb, Eric was way ahead of me. After the grunt is a long gentile downhill where you can really cook. I could barely make 9 min miles! The trail was also part of an out and back so there was alot of traffic going both ways from both the long course and short course runners. Every one on the downhill was passing me, how depressing. I felt terrible but managed a smile when I spotted Alexa charging up the hill past me. Then Dave came cruising by and when I said hi, he stopped and ran(shuffled) with me. He got his fast workout in and wanted to run in with someone. When we got to the next aid station, I thought I would have a seat and wait for Kris to show up. Didn't have to wait long, but Kris was cruising and there was no way I was going to keep up with her. So Dave hung with me almost to the turn for the second loop. I really wanted to just finish with him, I was going soo slow, but it was a nice day and I figured I need to practice running in pain for a few hours, so when Maureen showed up, she and Dave continued to the finish while I made the turn for another 3 hours of fun. On the second loop, I tried every combination of fluids, gels, and electrolytes with limited success. At the top of the hill at the 25 mile aid station, I had a nice chat with Kurt, RD for Waldo, then actually ran part of the downhill at a pretty good clip. But by the time I reached the last aid station, I was back to shuffling. I finally finished about an hour later than I expected. It was great coming in late, more people to cheer! I didn't feel that bad, and the shower in the gym was invigorating. But my legs were sore for a couple of days. I'm glad I stuck it out, good mental training, however, I know I need to take it easier before a race, not start out too fast, and wear a hat!

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Yesterday, James and I were going to run the trail from Wedekind to Hell's Creek since we couldn't make it all the way last week due to snow. It was great to drive all the way to Wedekind with no snow. Since I as usual was under time constraints, we skipped the first section of trail and ran down the road to catch the trail where the 50 miler usually does. The trail was in good shape until we got about a 1/2 mile from the C line road intersection. There was a group of 8 to 10 fir trees, some large, laying across the trail. More than my chainsaw could handle. We decided to continue on a couple more miles and scope out the slide at Hell's Creek that wiped out the trail. Wow!, the slide started from the top of the switch backs all the way to the Creek. Totally wiped out everything. We could see the Greenline trail leaving the Creek from the log jam at the bottom and decided to head down there and run the the Greenline back to Wedekind. We went about straight down on a old log skid slide, (the same place John hurt his knee) cut over onto the slide, walked a log across the creek, and forged our way through the log jam to the trail on the other side. We thought this could still work for the 50 miler but I'm sure there would be alot of complaints, DNR wouldn't approve, and John would never do it. But we had a good little adventure and the Greenline trail going back up had been scoured and was rocky but not as muddy as it usually was. We made the shortened loop in 2 1/2 hours. Another great day in the Capitol Forest!

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Had a couple of good trips up to Capitol Forest over the last couple of weeks. First, I went up to meet John and Henry the mountain biker to clean up fallen trees by Wedekind. I went up early and was happy to find the main road freshly graded and free of snow all the way to Wedekind for the first time in weeks. I worked for about an hour with the chainsaw until getting it stuck just as Henry and John arrived. Henry has a big saw and made quick work of the rest of the trees while I caught up to John at the washout and built a ramp down to the creek crossing. I had to leave early, but Henry gave John a tour of his proposed new trail west of Wedekind. It was alot of fun running the chain saw. I'm sure I'll have more opportunities as we prepare for the 50miler.

This Sat, Kris, Dave, James, and I planned to run from Wedekind to the slide at Hell's Creek. Unfortunately, the snow gods had re-appeared and there was a new foot of snow on the road and we had to park at Trail 50 and run from there. We ran the road ruts past Wedekind down to the 50 mile turn off into the trail. There was only about 3-4 inches of snow on the trail at this point so Dave talked us into trying it out. We went for about a mile with easy running until we hit a road crossing. It was time to turn around, but there was Dave, feverishly building a snowman. So James and I each rolled a ball as Dave fashioned the snowman into a bunny! What a goof ball!
I managed to snap a couple of pictures with my phone camera and recorded a short video which my phone won't let me send anywhere so right now it's my wallpaper on my phone. It started to warm up on the way back so on the trail, we were pelted with snow balls falling from the tree limbs. I took a direct hit on the top of my head and another big one on the shoulder. Now, everytime we took a break, Dave would make another bunny snowman. I felt great on the long uphill climb up the road and cruised on the downhill to the car. All in all, another great day in the forest, and I didn't even get my car stuck in the snow thanks to Dave and James pushing me out of my parking spot.

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Today's plan was to run down Green-line from C-line to Falls Creek and back up Mima Porter to Wedekind where I would meet John as he surveyed the bridge damage just out of Wedekind. It was sunny and the trails were in great shape on both the down and up. Just before the intersection with trail 50 I ran into patches of snow. After the intersection, the trail was covered with soggy untracted snow 1-2' deep and I started slogging through the crap up to my shins. I didn't think John should hike in this stuff and was hoping on meeting him at the first washout out of Wedekind and tell him not to go any further. But after taking over 45 min. to cover 2 miles, I arrived at Wedekind to find the road unpassible with over 2' of snow on it and just some snow cat tracks. I had told John I would be really pissed if he wasn't there, so my first thought was why he didn't meet me at trail 50 since he couldn't drive down here, so it was time for plan B, I figured I would hoof it up the road which was a longer distance but at least it was semi runnable. I actually had a nice run up to the Capitol peak junction and started down the road which was still not driveable. Right after the rock quarry, there was John with two other pickup trucks. It seems that after dropping me off, he drove about 2 miles up the road and got stuck and been there the 2 hrs it took me to run around. My timing was great, everyone was unstuck, and we were able to take off. Of course John was a wreck, and as usual, he was in worse shape even though I'd been running and slogging all this time. He hadn't eaten and didn't have anything to drink and thought he'd be spending the night out there, so we had a good laugh and chaulked it up to another great adventure in Capitol Forest.

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I have to admit, I wasn't looking forward to Orcas this year due to my tender hamstring and lack of training so far this year, but sunny weather was to be had, and a new, lower course which should make for an easy double loop brightened my spirits. I helped out this year by hauling all the aid station stuff that John took out of his car so he could pack his bike. Fortunately, at the last minute, Dave decided to go with and run the 25K. We had an easy drive up to the ferry and caught the same one as John even though he left an hour before us. James put all us Oly people in the same cabin so we also had Kris and Dan bunking with us. It wasn't terribly cold in the morning so I stuffed some gels in my shorts, wore my patagonia zip tee and light gloves and grabbed a water bottle and headed to the start. I stashed a short sleeve shirt in my drop bag in case it got warmer on the second loop. I was a little worried about covering the last 9 mile section with just one water bottle but thought it could work out. I started too fast as usual but after the first hard climb up the powerline, I took it easy on the downhill remembering my goal not to hurt myself any more. My water bottle leaked all over my glove so my hand was frozen till the first aid station. While I was there I didn't drink but ate a gel and took off. The rest of the 9 mile loop I started to slow down and feel tight. Just before the end of the first loop, Kris caught up with me and we decided to run the second loop together(at a slower pace) On the second loop I wore my short sleeved shirt but kept the gloves, it was still cool but it worked well. I still didn't feel good until we got to the aid station and I figured out that I needed some electrolytes, drink more and eat more. After that I felt great, and we plugged along at a comfortable pace enjoying the sunny day and the great views. Unfortunately, just before the last major climb with about 4 miles to go, I ran out of water. So I stayed behind Glen who was slow up the hill and conserved myself. With about 2 miles to go, Kris smelled the barn and took off. I just hung with Glen since I know the easiest way to aggravate my hamstring is to be dehydrated. I felt great at the finish (over 7 hrs!) and especially enjoyed taking a hot shower right after finishing. Later, John, Kris, Kent, and I went up to Mt.Constitution to catch the sunset. The views from there were stunning. It was a very good weekend hanging with the ultra crowd, listening to live bluegrass music, and getting great advice about Cascade Crest. James managed to still get almost 7,000 vertical in this race so it truely did kick my fat ass. But everyone loved the course so next year the fat ass label will be gone. This is now a classic NW ultra!

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Earlier in the week, I thought that this was going to be a nice dry trail run, but of coarse, it started raining with mixed sleet at 5:30 in the morning, so here we go with another miserable day in the forest. The plan was for Kris and I help with the parking and do the sweep. I decided to also run the first loop so I wouldn't have to stand around for 4 hours. I left shortly after the start and was immediately stuck behind a slow pace line which actually felt good at the time. I still managed to catch up with Alexa and ran with her for about the first 1/2 hour until Mat showed up(he got a late start waiting for the bathroom). Mat and I picked up the pace and stuck with a couple other runners for the rest of the first loop. We did the first loop in about a hour and a half which was a good time for all the dinking around we did. It felt great stopping after that first loop and hanging out by the super warm burn barrel. Other runners started dropping like flies after the first loop but most that completed the second loop were especially happy to be done. I noticed that a lot of runners indicated at the start that they were doing the 34 miler, but many had a change of heart after 17 due to the cold rain and muddy footing. It was great watching Mat and Rob finishing their first Capitol Forest Ultra in good times and good spirits, but we had to leave before Alexa finished. Kris and I started the sweep at noon, right after three runners left the camp. We quickly caught up with them and continued on a comfortable pace. However, after 100+ runners, the bottom loop trail was a muddy mess. It took about 2 hours to complete the loop and I was pooped and had a blister on my heel. Fortunately, Dave was tired from timekeeping and offered sweep the second loop with Kris, so I got to change my cloths, get some food and hang out at my favorite burn barrel. It really didn't stop raining until the last of the runners finished, and when the sweeps arrived, we had half the camp packed up. We managed to clean everything up and get out of there by 5:10 and it was still light out! All in all a good run and a good day.

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