Running can be such a pain in the a$$. Why do we do it?

Here are ten reasons why you don’t want to lace up those running shoes.

1. Less Lazy Boy time.

Running allows less time to vegetate in front of the mind-numbing television and you may miss some of the life-enhancing reality TV shows.

2. Change!

When you start moving that body you will be going against all your old habits of inactivity. Just say ‘No’ to change. It requires too much effort.

3. No more french fries and Big Macs.

These artery clogging and nutritionally deficient foods now cause problems with training, recovery, and racing. Great, now what do you eat?

4. Drink all that damn water during a day!

It seems like you are always sipping on some water throughout the entire day. It’s madness and you pee every two hours.

5. No more sleeping in.

Now you set your alarm to wake up an hour earlier so you can get your run in before the sun comes up. Is that a rooster I hear? Crazy!

6. No more partying till the sun comes up every weekend.

You’re in bed by 10 pm because you have a long run in the morning. Oh fun!

7. Ice baths.

You just get done pummeling yourself during a twenty mile run and then you get home and sit in a tub filled with ice. By choice! Where is the fun in this again?

8. Pay to experience pain.

Just hand over $100 and you can suffer for 26.2 miles. Oh, OK.

9. Dogs, birds, and snake attacks.

Dogs sneaking under fences, crows dive-bombing from nearby trees, and snakes slithering along your route. Can’t you just watch Animal Planet on the Lazy Boy?

10. Conversation killer.

“So what are you doing this weekend?”

“I am racing in a 50 miler.”

END OF CONVERSATION!

Have a great weekend and 4th of July for those in the US!

Be active – Feel the buzz! – What-Ever

David – EnduranceBuzz.com

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“Just when you think there is no hope, you find a way.”

What was it like to run the Western States 100 trail race last weekend?

Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy Scott Dunlap’s 27+ hour experience report as he shares with us his first Western States finish.

There is just something special and unique in ultra events that is hard to experience anywhere else in the same relatively short amount of time.

Is it possible to experience many of the elements of life within a 12-24+ hour period? Ultra events bring you mighty close.

Congratulations on finishing your first Western States Scott!

Ahhhh, that was a good cup of jo.

Be active – Feel the buzz!

David – EnduranceBuzz.com

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You have been rolling along through your spring and early summer run training without much drama. Now all of a sudden you are starting to feel a few minor tweaks on your legs and joints.

Why now?

One of those reasons could be your shoe odometer may be getting a bit high. It may be time for some new wheels!

Recently I felt a couple extra tweaks and I knew I was heading up in overall mileage on the trusty shoes. I normally replace my runners around the 300 mile mark.  How did I pick this number? Well, through the years I have observed when little running tweaks started to pop up. Typically this would occur around 300 miles and when I put on a new pair, the tweaks went away.

There is no hard and fast rule to this. Some runners can go 100-200+ more miles before they change out shoes. You have to find out where your threshold lies.

I decided to perform an mileage audit in my little log book and sure enough I was sitting at 288 miles.

Since I didn’t want to risk further tweaks in the middle of my half marathon block of training, I  retired my current pair and am now lacing up a new shiny pair of Brooks Adrenaline’s.

Since I am more of a mid-foot striker, I really break down that portion of the sole and it was apparent. The inside of my shoe was like a canyon in the mid-foot area. This probably wasn’t helping with shock absorption.

Running in the new shoes yesterday felt nice! Even more importantly, I felt very little of the tweak sensations I had been feeling. I think this was a good decision.

How do you determine when to swap out your shoes? Mileage? Time? When things start to hurt? Phase of the moon?

If you are looking for a new set of tread, check out Running Warehouse which offers an extra 15% for EnduranceBuzz visitors on their already discounted prices for most road and trail shoes. Great service and free two day shipping as well! I have been really happy with them through the years.

Be active – Feel the buzz!

David – EnduranceBuzz.com

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Poor food quality (nutritionally weak) = tired, sick, and stupid people = tired, sick, and stupid country = not a very thriving and fun place to be!

Every day we have the power to redirect the future of our country.

One of those ways is by the food choices we make. If you don’t support or reduce the support of products that are causing more harm than good, they will not survive. And guess what? Something better will take its place.

Food, Inc. Trailer

(If you can’t see the video click here.)

Do you think food choices affect running performance and injury prevention/management?

Let’s go beyond running and ask ourselves do food choices affect the quality of your life?

My answer – yes and yes. What is yours?

Be active – Feel the buzz!

David – EnduranceBuzz.com

Visor-tip to professional triathlete Simon Whitfield.

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The Western States 100 is officially in the record books! What a fun event to follow online even with the intermittent connection issues due to the amount of traffic hitting the race website. I enjoyed seeing the splits through each checkpoint and the interactive map which displayed the male/female leaders, 24/30 hour markers, and estimate of where your selected racer is on the course. I look forward to improved coverage in years to come as the sport continues to grow.

Congratulations to two-time winner Hal Koerner and first-time Western Stater Anita Ortiz for their wins. They both separated from the field and never looked back.

Also a big congratulations to all the athletes that started this nearly beyond-understanding journey. It sounded like a special challenge for all as the heat definitely played a roll in how the day progress for many.

Out of the approximately 400 that started, 140 dropped out sometime during the race due to various reasons (injury, time cutoff, etc). We are talking about a 35% drop rate! 2007 had approximately a 31% drop rate.

I doubt you can fake 100 miles especially when you talk about the heat and terrain challenges.

Take a look at the impressive performances of the front runners.

Men’s Top Five

1. Hal Koerner (age: 33) – 16:24:55 (9:51 min/mile)
2. Tsuyoshi Kaburagi (age: 40) – 16:52:06 (10:07 min/mile)
3. Jez Bragg (age: 28) – 16:54:26 (10:09 min/mile)
4. Jasper Halekas (age: 33) – 16:56:26 (10:10 min/mile)
5. Kevin Sullivan (age: 38) – 16:59.33 (10:12 min/mile)

A few observations:

• Averaging around 10 minute miles over 100 miles while including the various aid-station stops or slow downs. Wow!
• The race between second through fifth had to be intense with times so close to one another. Those last 20 or so miles had to be killer or a heck of a lot of fun depending on how you were feeling. Does anyone feel great towards the end of a 100 miler?
• The fitness  between Hal and the rest seems fairly significant with 16+ seconds per mile difference.
• The average pace difference between second and fifth (max of 5 seconds per mile) is so extremely small. Could it have come down to doing the little things (ex: moving through aid stations quickly) extremely efficiently, that made the difference over the 100 miles?

Women’s Top Five

1. Anita Ortiz (age: 45) –  18:24:17 (11:03 min/mile)
2. Krissy Moehl (age: 31) – 19:26:02 (11:40 min/mile)
3. Beverley Anderson-Abbs (age: 45) – 19:53:14 (11:56 min/mile)
4. Nikki Kimball (age: 38) – 20:55:43 (12:33 min/mile)
5. Caren Spore (age: 41) – 21:17:22  (12:46 min/mile)

A few observations:

• Anita finished ninth overall! At age 45, you can still kick some serious butt. Impressive!
• Three women over 40 in the top  five.
• They all seemed to have a little bit of breathing room between each of them based off of their average pace.

Complete Results – You can currently look at the complete list of finishers by going to the event webcast and clicking on ‘Finishers’ link on the left side of the page. Eventually the results will probably get moved somewhere on the main Western States 100 homepage.

Testosterone vs. Estrogen

It was interesting to compare Hal and Anita’s finish times and how that compares to the average difference between men and women marathon times. Based on some of the information I found, 12-15% appears to be the average time difference between the elite runners.

Can this carry over to longer events such as a 100 miler?

12 % of Hal’s 9:51 min/mile = 71 seconds

15% of Hal’s 9:51 min/mile = 89 seconds

Anita’s actual pace difference was 72 seconds slower than Hal’s which falls quite nicely within this model.

Let’s take a look at the last few years of this event and see if the trend continues.

2007:

• men’s winner – 9:43 min/mile
• women’s winner – 10:56 min/mile
• time delta between men and women – 73 seconds
• percentage time difference =  12.5% – Yes!

2006:

• men’s winner – 10:58 min/mile
• women’s winner – 11:40 min/mile
• time delta between men and women – 42 seconds
• percentage time difference = 6.4 % – No!
• Women’s winner finished third overall. Weak men’s field? Huge female performance? Poor male performance?

2005:

• men’s winner – 16:40:46 – 10:00 min/mile
• women’s winner – 18:39:02 – 11:11 min/mile
• time delta between men and women – 71 seconds
• percentage time difference = 11.8% – Pretty close!

Alright, I have humored myself enough on this stuff. Kind of interesting but definitely inconclusive.

Videos

Race Start. There is climbing right from the start. Nice!

(If you can’t see the video click here.)

This gets my blood pumping for the event! How about you?

Hal Koerner’s finish and post-race interview.

(If you can’t see the video click here.)

Koerner looks so fresh after just flying through 100 miles…and he can actually talk coherently. I would be speechless or babbling in some foreign tongue.

Second through fifth place men’s finish.

(If you can’t see the video click here.)

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any finish videos for the women.

Matt Hart from Coaching Endurance just put up Anita’s finish and interview.

PSSST…this was her first 100!

Articles on the race action:

• ultraRunning
• Vail Daily: Great interview with women’s winner Ortiz.

Does this make you want to hit your local trail and go for a run or take a really long nap?

Be active – Feel the buzz!

David – EnduranceBuzz.com

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