Staying Awake

It's about midnight, I'm approaching mile 70 of my first 100 mile ultramarathon... and the couch at the top of the hill looks really inviting. I tell myself, "when I get to the top of this hill I'm going to sit down for a couple mins and rest."  Then I realize something very important, my eyes are closed and I'm starting to fall asleep while I'm running.  There's no couch at the top of the hill, I'm falling asleep while I'm running and my brain is drifting off to dream land.  I tell my friend Kyle who is pacing me for the last 50 miles of the Headlands 100 what's going on.  We agree on one thing, I need some caffeine to stay awake.

We get to the aid station and I ask the volunteer if they have any caffeine.  He hands me can of Mt. Dew and I thank him.  Kyle and I head back onto the trail, and about 30 mins later the caffeine hits me and I'm back to normal.  We end up repeating this at every aid station.

When I first started running 100 mile events the hardest thing for me to deal with wasn't the mileage, it was the sleep deprivation.  After a lot of trial and error (unfortunately most of this trial and error was during races) I finally found a system that worked for me.

I love soda, I'm not going to lie about that.  Drinking Mt Dew and Dr Pepper during a race is a normal thing for me.  The trick became figuring out if it could be beneficial during a race.

After a little research I found that caffeine takes about 7 days to completely get out of your system.  For caffeine to be fully beneficial during a race it needs to be out of your system prior to the event.

This is what I have found works for me.  About 10 days before any event that I run (usually 50k to 100 mile) I completely avoid caffeine.  I find this is also beneficial because I get a really good sleep the 10 days prior to the race.

During a 100 mile event I avoid caffeine until the late hours of the evening.  I try to go until at least 10:00pm, if not midnight, before I start consuming caffeine.

When it's time to consume caffeine I use to use 200mg caffeine pills, but I've found that I personally prefer using caffeinated sports drinks and gels.  This allows me to get small steady doses of caffeine in my system throughout the race without it disturbing my stomach too much.

I typically use Gu's salted caramel gels (20 mg caffeine per serving) and Fluid's Peach Tea sports drink (50 mg caffeine per serving).  I also still enjoy a can of Mt Dew or Dr Pepper from time to time at the aid stations.

I still go through close to the same process for 50k and 50 mile races.  For a 50k event I typically wait until mile 16 or 20 to introduce caffeine into my system, and for a 50 mile event i typically wait until mile 30ish.

until next time...

KEEP RUNNING!!!!

p.s. I am in no way sponsored by, or affiliated with, Fluid or Gu... I have had nothing but good luck with their products and just want to share what works for me so far.

...did I forget to do something?

So... the last few weeks I've been taking it easy.  I have a slight strain in my left groin and I'm doing my best to just rest and let everything heal.

Two weekends ago I took my niece Samantha on a run out on the San Joaquin River Trail, and we were able to cover just over 18 miles.  The very next weekend my friend Dion asked me if I wanted to
hit the trail with him and do a 20ish mile run.  My groin wasn't feeling bad so I happily took him up on his offer.

So, last Sunday Dion picked me up at around 6:00 a.m. at my house.  We decided it would be better to carpool up to the trail since we only live a couple miles away from each other.  We were on the trail by 6:30 a.m. and everything was going good.  The weather was AWESOME and the air was feeling fresh and clean thanks to the rain we've had here over the last few days.

Dion took me on a section of the trail that I had not been on yet, and it was nice to discover new sections of trail to explore.

Everything was going great.  I was having a good time running with one of my buddies.  We were having fun joking around, telling stories, and just being outside enjoying the trail.

We got 11 miles out and then we decided to turn around and head back to the car.  Somewhere around mile 14 a thought popped into my head, "did I park my car in the driveway right behind my wife's car, or did I pull up all the way right along side of her car?"

Here's the problem with my driveway.  When you first pull up onto it, there's plenty of room for one car, but not quite enough room for 2 cars.  As you pull forward the driveway opens up and you can easily fit 2 cars.  I have a bad habit of parking directly behind my wife's car, because I usually have to leave for work before she does in the morning.  I'm also lazy and I just don't take the extra effort to drive 10 more feet up the driveway.

When I came home late from work on Saturday night I had it set in my head that I was going to get up before her and leave the house to hit the trail... so I guess it made since to park directly behind her car.  For some reason the fact that Dion was going to pick me up didn't factor into my reasoning at all.  So, early Sunday morning I left my house with Dion... leaving my car blocking the entire exit of our driveway.

Around mile 16 I told Dion, "I think I'm going to be in a little bit of trouble when I get home.  I'm pretty sure I blocked the driveway and I wife isn't going to be able to move her car?"

My wife had to be at work at 9:00 a.m., and we got back to Dion's car around noon.  As soon as we get into the car I check my cell phone.  It has two missed text messages... from my wife.  The first message at 8:43 a.m. "You left your car park right behind me in the driveway!!!"  The next message at 8:54 a.m. "I finally found your spare key! But now I'm late for work."

I had a feeling that my wife wasn't going to be happy with me when she saw me, so I did the one thing that made since... I bought her some roses and an 80 pack of her favorite coffee for her Keurig coffee maker... and I did the one thing I hate doing... I shaved.

Then I waited for her to come home... and hopefully not be too mad at me.


Thank god my wife puts up with me.  When she came home she saw the flowers and the coffee and asked me, "Am I getting my Valentine's Day gift early?"  She gave me a hug and I told her, "no, it's for making you late for work."  Luckily my wife has a good sense of humor and wasn't too mad about the entire thing.  I think she was more upset about how long it took her to eventually find the extra key so she could move my car.


So, this weekend I learned a lesson... I need to do a better job of parking my car and not blocking the driveway.


until next time...

KEEP RUNNING!!!!