Clinton Lake Trail a Mess, But Walkable

Friends hiked the northfork trail at Clinton Lake the past two weekends. This is the trail used for the race in the spring. It's a mess, especially on the longer west side. According to them, the whole thing is walkable, but would be frustrating to run. No real itch weed or briars, but lots of trees and debris on the course and a bit of very high grass in the open meadows. The park is starting to work on the trail and it might be runnable in a couple of weeks. I miss the days when Mike Martin from DNR maintained the trail year-round (he's now retired). I'll post more updates as I get information. Here is Jeff Riddle's trail condition report...

Short side (east): all good except the grass meadow area with the picnic table is over grown with very tall grass.

Long side (west): DNR has started clearing the first ¾ mile going the race course direction from the boat parking side, the rest is overgrown about 60%....okay to hike, tougher to run....hopefully, they will continue the trimming this week...Gregg Rose & Jeff may hike it again this coming weekend and give a report to see if things have changed.

Illinois Trail Ultra Grand Slam Update

The Rock Cut Hobo 50K race results are up and I have incorporated them into the Illinois Trail Ultra Grand Slam (iTUGS) standings. Check out both through the links below:

2009 Rock Cut Hobo 50K results

2009 iTUGS Standings

Eleven runners left and only one more race in the Grand Slam! Hope lots of people will run the Farmdale 32 Miler on October 17. I missed the Hobo run, but plan on being at Farmdale. Only a few questions remain unanswered...will Matt Condrun hold on for the men's Grand Slam title? Jason Elliot is looking fast and strong, but can he make up those points with only one race left? Jake Vernon has a strong hold on 1st place on the women's side of the Grand Slam...can she hold on for the victory or will Donna or Laurie catch her in the last race of the series? We'll know in less than 3 weeks!

NOTE: October 1 is the last day to register for the Farmdale Trail Race. Registration is available here.

Those Bugs are Soy Aphids

All those nasty swarming bugs we've had around the last few weeks are not gnats...they are soy aphids. With the late soybean planting and cooler summer temperatures, we have a bumper crop of these buggers right now. Here is a short story from the local newspaper about the aphids ("Bothersome Soybean Aphids Here to Stay for Now"). And another story from the local University paper ("Don't Call Them Gnats").

Call 'em gnats or soy aphids, they are a real nuisance while running on the trails. Heck, they are an annoyance just walking around. Apparently they won't be gone until we have a good frost or the soybeans are harvested. They aren't as bad in the early cool mornings...that's when I'm running!

Haile Gebrselassie is Awesome!

Haile Gebrselassie won the Berlin Marathon this past weekend in a time of 2:06:08. He was trying to break his own world record of 2:03:59 (set last year in Berlin). He was on record pace through 33km, but faltered and ended up with "just" a win and a finish time of 2:06. Immediately after the race he said, "I was very tired, I pushed too much.” That's an understatement. This guy is simply awesome! One of my all-time favorite runners and probably one of the friendliest and nicest runners alive. Not a hint of arrogance in this man. Haile is 36 years old and keeps cranking out win after win at near world-record times. I hope he is still competing in the 2012 Olympics.

If you want to learn a bit more about Gebrselassie, especially his early life, check out the 1999 film "Endurance." It has some great scenery from Ethiopia and an interesting back-story for this Olympian and world champion. Very motivational.

Here is a clip from the post-race press conference (via YouTube):

Hobo Triple Crown of Running

The Rock Cut Hobo race in Rockford, IL has a "Triple Crown" event that begins tomorrow (Friday). It starts with a 10K trail race at night, then continues with a 25K trail run on Saturday morning, followed by the full 50K trail run on Sunday morning! The 50K race is also the third of four in the Illinois Trail Ultra Grand Slam. The Hobo triple crown was started last year and it went well. There should be more runners doing the full triple this weekend. Unfortunately, I will not be among them. I was planning on doing at least the 50K ultra...and maybe the full triple crown, but life has gotten in the way and I need to stay closer to home. Good luck to everyone continuing in the Grand Slam...and also those attempting the Hobo Triple Crown.

I'll be in New Hampshire next weekend visiting family and I hope to get in a few runs and hikes in the nearby mountains. I might even catch a few good views of changing New England leaves. If not, at least I'll have some tough hill workouts. I have already signed up for the Farmdale 32 miler on October 17. By skipping the Hobo 50K, I should be fresh and ready for the Farmdale trail ultra. My training has been going well and I've had a good time mixing in barefoot and Vibram Five Finger shoe runs with my standard shod runs (with my racing flats). I'd love to run a full trail ultra in the Five Finger shoes next year! Lately, I've been enjoying my runs more than usual. I think the cooler weather and slower paces have translated into more fun. If I could just get those nasty gnats off the trail in the evening. See Gregory's blog post about gnats and running. Those suckers are particularly annoying in the late afternoon/early evening on trails on a windless day. Swarm after swarm of nasty gnats!

NOTE: I'll update the iTUGS standings once I receive the Hobo 50K race results.

Barefooting Across the United States

(Picture from The Epoch Times on September 9, 2009). I heard about this story a few weeks ago, but now it has begun. A guy is running from New York to California barefoot to raise funds for homeless youth! Is that crazy or what? Seems like this is a great cause and I wish him well on his 3200-mile journey. I'm mostly interested in the barefoot running aspect of this adventure. I hope he updates people on how things are going during the run (beyond the charity part of the event). How are his feet & legs holding up? What type of daily recovery routine does he have? Are other barefoot people joining him for parts of the run? Now that I've gotten more and more into barefoot and FiveFinger shoe running, a stunt like this is extremely interesting to me. I'll be keeping an eye on his web site.

His name is Tellman Knudson and here is more information on his cross-America trek:

Tellman's blog

Trans World News article

Epoch Times article

This guy even looks like Forest Gump. I encourage you to check out his blog posts and videos. Pretty interesting. Run Tellman run! Good luck. I hope this draws attention to his charity cause and also barefoot running (in a positive way).

Damn that Heart Rate Monitor!

Lately I have found myself engaged in a conversation with my heart rate monitor...

Monitor says, "Beep, beep...beep, beep..."
I reply, "Alright already! I'll pick up the pace!"

This sequence repeats itself every few minutes as I do my daily 5-mile trail loop.

For the first time in quite a while I have been setting my HR monitor to its audible alarm mode. My current zone setting is 112-142 (that's my MAP and MEP zones combined). For more on Phil Maffetone, Stu Mittleman and my heart rate zones, see my July 17, 2008 blog post. I'm trying to build endurance and aerobic capacity and don't care much for the anaerobic stuff right now. These two zones will keep me going easy and aerobic--perfect for ultra training. The audible alert will keep me from going too fast. That's a good thing--especially since I tend to push too hard on many of my "easy" days. I didn't expect to have problems on the other end of the zone.

I should have no problem staying within these zones on easy runs...unfortunately, I tend to slip BELOW the lowest setting rather often! I usually walk the longer hills on my normal trail run and the HR alarm will go off after just a few seconds. No chance to enjoy the down time. Heck, the darn alarm will even go off when I'm jogging easy on the downhill sections. I think this is a good sign--my cardio-vascular system recovers quickly and I end up with a heart rate of 110 or so very quickly. That's a sign of sound health and fitness. But it bothers me when that dang alarm goes off..."Alright already!" can be heard on the Lake of the Woods trails almost everyday now as I hear the alarm, curse, and pick up the pace.

Overall, it's annoying, but I like the extra prodding to "pick up the pace" and get back into a solid aerobic zone. Walking is OK, but it doesn't build much aerobic capacity. I want an easy workout, but I still want a workout. As I become fitter and fitter, my pace will be faster at the same low base heart rate. I dream of being so fit one day that the darn heart rate monitor will beep when my heart rate hits 112 and I'm "only" loping along at 7:00 pace. That would be sweet! And annoying at the same time. Gotta love technology.

PS: I have a feeling my heart rate monitor won't be beeping at me for going below my zone at the Canadian Death Race next year. It easily could be beeping for exceeding my HR limits.

Canadian Death Race

I just realized I'm not in as good of shape as I thought I was...and it took a darn arc trainer to let me know! I did a couple gym sessions on cross training equipment like the elliptical, stair climber and arc trainer. Damn, those suckers are hard when you increase the resistance and incline! My heart rate was jumping well into the 160s. Hills are not my forte. So what's that matter? I live in central Illinois and we don't have big hills. Even Clinton Lake, Forest Glen, and McNaughton Park are pretty tame as far as long or steep hills are concerned. What do I care if I'm not a "hill person"? In general, I don't care. Unfortunately, lately I have been thinking about doing the Canadian Death Race in 2010.

The Canadian Death Race is a 125km trail race in early August way up in the Canadian Rockies. It starts and finishes in Grande Cache, Alberta. It goes over 3 mountain summits and has 17,000 feet of elevation gain. I'm not ready for that kind of race with those kind of mountains! I need to begin preparations for next August right now. I'll be running the local "tough" trails (Clinton Lake, Forest Glen, McNaughton Park) as much as possible this fall, winter, and spring. I'll also be visiting the gym on a regular basis to do uphill running and walking on the treadmill, stair climbing, and elliptical and arc trainer workouts. If I am in reasonable shape come January 2010, I'll sign-up for the Canadian Death Race. If not, I guess I'll have to settle for Howl at the Moon 8-Hour for my big summer race. Howl at the Moon isn't too bad, is it? At least the promotional tag line for Howl at the Moon isn't "It's a Killer!"