Snow has Arrived!!

Nothing like the Mines during winter... the first of many fun winter runs with my furry sidekic

Readjusting...

Sorry for the long absence and I'll be back to post more soon but wanted to recap the last bit of silence from my running...

So last we left off after my pretty great experience at the Dances with Dirt 50K, I had fun, a lot of fun actually which was just what I needed.  I had a pretty rough time after Grandma's trying to figure out the ultimate cause of my epic crash and burn and subsequently took my runs straight to the trails where I could distress and recoup from a hard 42 weeks of straight training (over 2K miles total) and DWD was the day I needed to feel better again.  After the race, still being a bit lost on my goals, I decided I would knock off a goal not planned yet for this year... finishing my first 50 mile race.

Training for the 50 went pretty great with the exception of some growing PF pain that I shrugged off due to overall mileage and figured with the slower pace I could tough it through.  I think ultimately my stubbornness overtook me listening to my body and one afternoon on a road run I pushed a little two hard and felt a pop in my arch... since that day I've been dealing with my first significant injury in years although I didn't realize it at that point.  I was less than two weeks from the 50 so I took the next days off hoping my fitness level would be there and the time off would have whatever was happening calm down.  I purchased a night splint boot and did a lot of swimming.  I was optimistic I could make it through, even if things got tough... I have been in some pretty crappy race situations and always was able to make it though...

UPDATE : So I've written a race recap on the NorthFace 50 Miler a good dozen times since September but never posted as I didn't think a recap did it justice...  I'll just say it was a pretty rough failure of a race.  I made it 41 miles of out the 50 total miles and that will certainly bug me for a long time.  I'm not the type of person to drop out of anything when I've committed to it and the subsequent injury and the last 16 weeks of rehab and not racing and training has been pretty tough.  I'll have more updates on that soon but wanted to finally post and move on from what has been a pretty rough fall...  hopefully I will be back training soon.. hope to be in full force by Jan/Feb and I'll keep everyone posted..

Happy Running!!
-Cory

2016 Dances with Dirt 50K Race Recap

2016 Dances with Dirt 50K Race Recap

I am very happy to report some good race news after my rough experience at Grandma’s Marathon in June;  the 2016 Dances with Dirt 50K went awesome!!  I was nervous about this one as it was mid-July with potentially very hot temps to be combined with about 3,600 feet of elevation climb but everything went off just as I would have hoped, the temps were mild and I think I finally nailed my nutrition correctly!

“The Dances with Dirt 50K” is a trail race held annually at Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin.  The area is beautiful and known for its large lake surrounded with 700 foot tall cliffs, making for some outstanding view and challenging climbs to get to the peak.  The area is littered with trails and even the famed “Ice Age Trail” goes right through the side of the park.  The 50K event is one of several distances put on that day ranging from 10K to a 50 mile race distances and although all races at some point are going on simultaneously there isn’t much confusion as they do a great job of marking off the individual courses.

My race started at 5:50AM so I camped out the night before at a close by camping facility along with a few of my DBQ running friends.  I really enjoyed the laid back night before and getting a chance to sit down with Shannon and Rob and just hang out, I didn’t have the pressure of a time goal on my shoulders like Grandma’s so I really enjoyed myself a lot more.  I went to bed around 10 and slept like a rock too, I woke up around 4am refreshed and ready to rock… I did the 10 minute tent breakdown, quick cold shower and I was off to the race start!!

The crew all met up that morning prerace as some had driven up from DBQ that morning, we had a total of about 15 people at the race and 10 of us doing the 50K distance.  We got some group photos did our pre-race rituals and were off to the races!  The gun went off and we wondered off into the woods on our journey.  The course was great, although very rocky which beat up my feet pretty bad, especially since I has been doing so much road running in the weeks leading up to this event I wasn’t lifting my legs as much as I should have and this the occasional tall rock.  But the great views and really nicely groomed trails made up for the rockiness and the miles just melted away as we got telling stories and interacting with the runners around us.  By the first aid station the group had already split, some of us in the front had gotten so into our storytelling we didn’t realize we had separated off from the rest and after waiting a few minutes at the first aid station and not seeing the remainder of the group we set off falling into a comfortable pace.  The four of us; Jason, Dizzol and Sarah stuck together for the first half of the race, unfortunately Dizzol had to drop back due to a groin issue and we caught up with Joe Kauder about half way through the race and he stuck with Jason and I to the finish.   It was just a great race as I got to relax, enjoy the course and chow on some great food…before I knew it we passed mile 20, then 25 and we were at the home stretch!

We finished the race strong feeling very well, for the first time in two years I was able to finish a run longer than 26 miles without throwing up or getting sick at all which I attribute to a better intake of both electrolytes and aid station nutrition, I was THRILLED!!!   I love running the long distances and it has become a real bummer to get sick after every race, I finally felt like I was making some significant progress with my nutrition and I couldn’t be happier!  In fact I was so pumped about finally having my nutrition on track I decided to take the next step and jump up to my first 50 mile race this September at “The Northface Challenge” in Wisconsin, more info to come!

So I have a lot more fun to look forward to this year and some great long runs and races on the trails coming up, I’ll keep you all in the loop with my training as it goes on and in the meantime HAPPY RUNNING! J

-Cory

https://www.strava.com/activities/635471065

Grandma's Marathon 2016 Race Recap

Well Grandma’s most definitely did not go as expected this year to say the least.  After completing a nearly flawless 18 week training cycle leading up to this race I got smacked down hard by hot temps.  The trip however was an awesome time and we had a ton of great performances despite the hot weather on race day!..

Myself and a crew of about 20 members from the Dubuque Running Club all made our way to Duluth this year to tackle Grandma’s Marathon, a huge increase from two years ago with myself, Shannon and Bill.  Same as 2014 we stayed together at the College of Scholastica in Duluth which rents out their rooms in the summer for marathon runners.  It’s a great setup there, reasonably priced and plenty of room for the group who took over one of the dorm lounges to hang out when not prepping for the race.   Race morning they have buses that shuttle runners to the start and then back from the finish later that day.  Since Grandma’s Marathon is a point to point race this is very handy in getting the 26 miles out of the city. 

The morning of the race we had a fun bus ride with the DRC crew and you could really feel the excitement in the bus full of runners ready to take on the race.  It was a warm morning already in the mid to upper 60s and pretty humid so I was chugging down a lot of fluids, specifically tailwind which is my go to electrolyte mix.  I have had major struggles in the heat before so I was doing my best to make sure I had taken in the most fluids and nutrition I could.   Before I knew it we were at the start so we all unloaded, handed off our drop bags and got a group photo prior to lining up.   I made my way to our spot, since there was not a 3 hour pacer I lined up just a little ahead of the 3:05.  With a just a couple minutes to go I made myself comfortable and tried to focus a bit while cracking some jokes with Bill, Jose and Matt.   I was excited and optimistic about nailing my 7^th marathon since I was last here two years ago, but I was in for quite the surprise…

The gun went off and we quickly broke into stride, I felt great and within the first half mile Jose and I hooked up and were pacing each other out.   Cruising passed the first mile we starting feeling the temperature which had already jumped up about 10 degrees in the last hour and decided to cut back the pace to a more conservative 6:55 vs the 6:47 I was training at thinking we could push the last few miles to make up for it.  Miles 2, 3, 4 and 5 went by well and although I recognized I was really heating up, I consequently tossed my hat just before mile 6 to let out some steam.  Just passed the 10K mark is when the first sign of trouble hit, it started with a burning sensation in my quad which over the next half mile turned into a quad cramp.  I was worried immediately as I’ve only gotten cramps in the past after 20 miles in a race and they were pretty debilitating.   I slowed my pace down and even walked through the upcoming water station thinking it was something I could quickly shake off and get back to my race plan.   It was right at this point where Bill came up behind me and I decided I would stick with him for a while, Bill was gunning for around a 7min pace at that point.  I started back up and after only about 20 yards with Bill my quad cramped again and I had to drop back.  This was at this point about 8 miles into the race (18 miles from the finish line) and things went downhill fast in a real snowball fashion.

After the cramps started up I just couldn’t shake them, I resorted to running about ¼ mile at a time then walking for 30 seconds and repeating.  This worked well from about mile 9 to mile 18 although as the race progressed the time I was able to run dropped back and the walking increased.  It was just a horrible experience, I begged for the ability to just run at an easy pace.. heck just 3 weeks before I was able to finish a marathon distance training run around 8 minute average in high heat without issues, the fact I couldn’t run for more than a few dozen steps at a time before my legs seized up was a painful, embarrassing and humbling experience.  I passed each drop spot questioning how much further I could do this and if this was even a good idea, I feared I might be doing more damage by continuing on but no matter how much I wanted to drop out I stubbornly kept pushing on.

By mile 20 heat exhaustion had taken over, I was unable to run at this point and found myself dizzy and wondering back and forth on the course looking for shade.   Around this time the officials had black-flagged the event for temps over 105 degrees on the course and they were pulling people out of the race who couldn’t make it through, I had several race personal try to do the same to me but I wasn’t having it.  The guy I was walking next to fell over the curb and as soon as he hit the ground he was pulled from the race, I made the decision at this point to walk on the center line of the road as not to risk getting pulled if I tripped.  I had to be quite the site at this point I was hobbling along with my head down, holding my weak leg and pushing myself step by step down the spectator packed cobblestone lane that lines the last few miles of the course.

This is where the last phase of horribleness started.  Due to head exhaustion every 5 to 10 minutes from here on out I started vomiting uncontrollably… I was just a couple miles to the finish but it seemed like forever, I remember hitting mile 25 and I didn’t think there was any way I could get any further, I had to walk backwards down the next hill as my leg had completely seized up not letting me bend at the knee... I seriously was thinking about rolling down the hill on my side but I didn’t think I could get back up.  Then about a half mile from the finish my buddy Shannon popped out of the crowd, he got joking with me a bit and it was the total mental boost I needed, I was able to turn the corner and hobble across the finish line, about an hour and one half after what I had expected but I had finished nonetheless!!

 Shortly after finishing I collapsed hard, continued throwing up pretty bad and was starting to get real fuzzy mentally.  A few members of the DRC crew helped me get some ice and carried me to the medical tent where I got some great care to get me feeling better.  The nurse gave me a hard time but also very valuable advice which I was take to heart and use in my future training and runs.  After an hour or so in the tent cooling down and rehydrating I was able to meet with the rest of the crew and learned the heat took it’s toll on everyone.  Despite a lot of missed goals, we had a lot of finishes and some very happy people, it was a great day!

So to wrap up the experience I will say this…  Grandma’s Marathon 2016 for me was a lot of things, I could describe the race as painful, disappointing, and humbling which it certainly was but without all that pain and struggle I would have never known how tough I could be…. and after dragging myself one legged over 18 miles I feel like I can accomplish so much more than I thought was possible.  So I am thankful in a way as I feel I came out of the race a stronger person than I went in and even though I missed my time goal there will be others. 

Happy Running!

-Cory

Training Peak

I've been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to check in... I'll have a more detailed update soon but until then here is a quick recap and some shots of my "river runs"...

As I'm writing this I'm at the peak of my training 15 weeks in to my 18 week marathon program and so far everything is going as planned... I've been hitting my marks on my workouts and have no injuries or major complaints at all other than the recent heatwave that hit our area.  I've been much better on nutrition lately thanks to a great meeting I had with a nutritionist who came to speak with the Dubuque Running Club recently; based on his recommendations I've increased my H20 intake substantially while on my long runs and it has payed off big time on my long run performance and post run recovery.  

I've finished my mileage build up to a peak of around 70ish miles per week and after this morning's last 20 miler I'm going to start to taper off for the big race just 3 weeks away!  I'm both excited and nervous for the taper and race ahead but I have confidence that my much more controlled training cycle will pay off in the end.

I'll have a more detailed post soon on my training soon but until then here are some shots of my recent runs around the Mississippi River and some of the older parts of Dubuque...

The old train-bridge behind me was built in 1868 still crosses the river to the Illinois side today, commonly blocking my way and creating some random bonus miles from time to time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubuque_Rail_Bridge

Full view of the old train bridge, see my previous canoeing post to see some river shots from up close.. Blog Post "Paddle Pictures"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubuque_Rail_Bridge

The Dubuque Shot Tower built in 1856 to make lead shots for the cival war, now hidden between the Port of Dubuque and the warehouse district it is an awesome piece of history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubuque_Rail_Bridge

Dubuque's Coal Power plant recently switched to natural gas and scheduled to close by 2019.

Entering the Warehouse District I love the contrast of the blue pipes against the brick

Used to be such a shady part of town, now one of my favorite places to run though, love the new street design!

Reminds me a bit of the brick road finish at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN

Pretty cool piece, wish Dubuque had more artwork... one of my favorite parts of this area of town.

"The Great Mississippi River Bluff" on the other side of the tracks... about 300 feet tall and stretches far beyond our city limits in both directions. 

Crossing under the IA/IL bridge just 5 miles after passing under the IA/WI bridge, one of the perks of living in the heart of the tri-states I can run through three states in 10 miles!

Not what I wanted to see while working on my breathing technique! 

Enjoying some vitamin D along the riverwalk in my favorite hat!

Finally the lower sidewalk by the lock and damn is out of the water... barely!

Cool Running through upstate NY

So I took my training on the road this month all the way out to Rochester, NY.  Through my job at Medline I work with the University of Rochester Hospital and this month I was sent up for a six day trip.  My visit went great and in my free time I got to run throughout the city of Rochester and the surrounding area hitting trailways along the Erie Canal, Lake Ontario and even made my way up Canada to run along the Niagara Falls ridge!

It was a great trip, I saw some amazing sites, hit some killer workouts and only got lost maybe once!... OK maybe a few more times than that but the great people of Rochester were kind enough to point me in the right direction.

I'll catch up more on my training details on a follow up post but for now enjoy some shots of my NY trip... happy running!  - Cory


My Highlights from my Rochester Visit

1.) Niagara Falls, Canada - It seemed so different than when I saw it in Superman but none the less the falls were incredible and made for some great run shots!  Won't say too much more as I have lots of pictures below to describe better than words can.

2.)  Genesee Riverway Trail / Erie Canal Trail - Both are paved trail systems and interconnected... they stretch throughout the city and beyond staying relatively flat making it an easy choice for speedwork for this out-of-towner.  On the Genesee Riverway Trail you are able to follow all the way to Lake Ontario Pier.

3.)  Turning Point Park - Although I did read some reviews on this being a higher crime area, I found it to be an awesome trail that follows the Riverway Trail to the Lake Ontario Pier.  The highlight of this part of the trail was a nearly 1 mile boardwalk that stretches over the Genesee River and giving an incredible running experience.

4.) The D&L Bodega - serves great African and Caribbean food!  - Being from small town Iowa I didn't grow up with a lot of diverse food choices. In my travels some of my favorite experiences are eating at new places and talking to the locals.  I found myself doing both at this awesome Bodega I came across in "downtownish" Rochester.  I had two spicy Jamaican beef patties on warm cocoa bread with a bottle of Red Stripe Jamaican beer... it was an AMAZING meal after a great run!!  The man working there was awesome too and we got to chat for quite a while about my running (surprise surprise) and Jamaican and Caribbean food.

5.) Webster Park, Webster, NY. - This park along Lake Ontario about 20 minutes north of Rochester has a great pier and amazing views.  I wasn't able to run this part as my running gear was packed up but I was sure glad I took the trip up as the views of the lake were outstanding.  The wind however was blowing so hard I could barely stand and was getting sprayed from 30 feet off the shore!... man it was so cool and after taking a few videos and pictures I ran into an older gentleman collecting some driftwood.  We got to talking and found out he was also a runner years ago and witnessed the Olympic Trials back in the 80's when they ran from Buffalo, NY into Niagara Falls, Canada!  Wow, what a race that must have been crossing the rainbow bridge around 20 miles in!

Run along Niagara Falls

Standing above the main falls, sure is loud!

The temps were sitting around 10F but it sure was worth it to see the amazing ice highlighting the river

Looking across to the USA side with the multiple falls it's easy to see why the Canadian view is so much better.

Running along the ridge was a little scary in parts due to ice on the path, I was very glad the railings were fairly high!

So much white in this photo, nature sure is amazing!

That's the old power-plant down to the left, the rainbow bridge in the middle.

Closer look at the Rainbow bridge back to the States

Underneath the bridge, such an awesome design!

Click here to see all my Niagara Falls shots

Run along Genesee Trail to Ontario Pier

Enjoying the sunshine on another 20 degree and windy afternoon!

This wooden boardwalk stretches for nearly a mile across the middle of the river, it's pretty amazing as it twists and turns making a fun addition to the already great trail system.

Port of Rochester Bridge

Just having fun

The trailway eventually ends about a quarter mile out onto the pier!

Made it to the end, looking back is the port and beach.

Crazy ice forming along the rails!

Standing on thousands of shells reminds me of my failed barefoot run down on Fort Myers Beach, FL a few months ago haha

This would be a great spot to relax after a run, too bad I was only halfway through!

Thankfully I was not attacked this time around but I screamed at them none the less.

March Gladness!!

The snow has melted and spring has sprung in Iowa!... and just a year after my "Spring Straining" post where I went into March with an injured lumbar disc followed by a nasty flu followed by a hamstring injury; I'm happy to report I have bounced back am craving some action!!!...  with the temps above freezing again I steered my runs this week to revisit a few of my favorite hot spots on the roads and trails of DBQ country that have been somewhat inaccessible the last few months.  Here are some photos from my last week of fun on the run...
- Happy Running! Cory

Great views but last time I ran by this farm I was attacked by a hord of Jack Russell Terriers...  there was also a dead rotting cow on the side of the road here one time when Hunter and I ran by haha

Did you ever have an art class where you had to draw a train track fading into the distance?  This is what this photo reminds me of in a way, all in all makes me just plain happy to think about how far I've come... side note my quads were freaking killing me as the pitch of this road got pretty extreme!

Rocking my Simple Hydration Bottle once again, it perfect for runs in the country where drinking from creeks is not "advised"... as a bonus leaves my hands free to take my action photos!

Turnaround point of the route, about 500 feet up from my start at the Durango Valley below.  It was misty from the rain today but still a great view!

Literally running on clouds!... is this Heaven?.. no it's Iowa! 

I'll never take a bridge over a creek crossing, even on my lunchbreak! (sockless the rest of the day at the office)

Mature Forest trail... my personal favorite as it's the one I take my girls running on in the summer!

The contrasts of the bare trees, green grass, cold wind and warm sun makes me feel completely in my element, such a great time of year!

That is our local ski slopes in the background, the only place in DBQ Country with snow still clinging to the ground.

At this same location 25 years ago my older brother Nate and I spot an animal in the distance... he says it's a horse, I know it's a cow... we yell back in forth arguing for some time before we are interrupted by a clear "MOOOOOOOO"... I turn to Nate and "udder"... "HI-YO BESSIE AWAY" hahaha... got him good :)   

Got the headphones in doing some cadence drills with a metronome, been paying off as my cadence lately as been pushing 185+ on workouts!

Carried the action cam for 10 miles this morning forgetting to take pictures again except for this one which ended up blurry... regardless it was just a great run with two awesome runners and friends!