I just wrapped up my last week of a 6-week training block for The Bear 100, which is in two weeks. This will be my first hundred miler. Following Jason Koop's general advice from his book, I aimed for 9 hours of running per week as close to race day conditions as I could. Actually running that much is pretty hard to fit into normal life. The ever-present duties of work, family, and church make it difficult to achieve at times, but it was also fun to get creative and find ways to make it work. Not to mention 50 miles/week seems to be my maximum before I start getting injured. I've gone through the gamut: shin splints, ankle sprains, quad tears, calf tears, Achilles partial tears w/ subsequent scar tissue, plantar fasciitis, patello-femoral pain, to name a few. Somehow I'm in pretty good shape right now and keeping all of the above at bay.
I've been on a White Stripes kick lately and listening to the philosophy of their music as described by Jack White. Paraphrasing, he essentially said the self-imposed limitations of only using guitar, vocals, and drums forced a creativity that wouldn't be there with unlimited resources. He even went so far as to not buy new guitars as the band became more successful, using instruments that were notoriously hard to tune. There are many more examples that are pretty fascinating, but I digress. The point is, I feel the same about running and training for ultras. First of all, I don't have anywhere near the luxury of unlimited resources to train. I have a full time job, a full time family, and a full time religion that my training works around and occasionally with. Injuries also creep in at unexpected times throwing a monkey wrench in my often overly-ambitious plans. Rather than seeing these as things holding me back, I see them as forcing functions that maximize what I do with the time I have and enable a creativity that would otherwise not be there.
Which leads to the subject of this post: Ultra training while on a cruise. Deanna and I were due for a big trip with old friends. We recruited two other couples to join us, friends we have known for nearly 15 years. Deanna had the brilliant idea to book a cruise to Alaska, somehow meeting the preferences of all six people. We settled on the Ruby Princess out of Seattle over the week of Labor Day. Prices were lower that week and I really wanted to go to Glacier Bay National Park as part of the trip. This was our third cruise and I get the feeling that they are all about the same (aside from the destinations). Way too much food, lots of booze and gambling, lots of old people. Cheesy on-board activities. I didn't want to get to hung up on the annoying parts; instead I wanted to turn this into a big running adventure and focused time with friends and my wife. And sometimes those things even overlapped!
Here's how things played out on the 7-day adventure:
Day 1 Saturday. Got up early and drove to Seattle from Boise. Left the kids at home w/ Deanna's parents (a million thanks). 8 hour drive passed like it was nothing. Just chatted the whole way without interruption. Oh and Deanna slept. A lot. Got on the boat and of course started eating, met up with friends. Enjoyed the views leaving Seattle:
Day 2 Sunday. Slept in. Read. Ate meals (big ones) with friends and enjoyed a relaxing day at sea. Went to a presentation on Alaska by the on-board environmentalist/Alaska expert. Ran into an old friend from my missionary days, completely by coincidence. We made plans to hike together the next day. The temperature was noticibly cooler at sea. Sailed along Moresby and Graham Islands:
Day 3 Monday. Up early for a day off the boat in Juneau. Rainy and cold. Shared a cab with my mission friend to the West Mendenhall Glacier trail. On the way to the trailhead, our cab driver saw a deer and started backing up to get a closer look.....right into another car. No serious damage and everyone was fine; he settled it with the other driver and we continued on. We garbed up in rain gear and started our soggy 7+ mile journey. Was great to hike with my mission buddy and get caught up after 15 years. We explored some ice caves at the base of the glacier and were generally in awe of the scale of what was around us. In Idaho, I see all the evidence of where glaciers used to be, the carved canyons and rock. This was really neat to see that process in action. The glacier itself was alive, melting and collapsing. It was actually kind of unsettling being close to such a giant dynamic inanimate object. Signs marked the previous limit of the glacier along our way, showing how far it has receded over time. The start of the trail was covered in 1910.
Had some time left before we needed to get back on the boat, so started up the tram trail toward Roberts Peak by myself. That about sums up the life of an ultrarunner. When everyone else is worn out and sick of being outside in the elements, you head back out for more miles. It was still overcast and raining some, so I stopped at the clouds around 3000 feet. The views were great from up there, unobstructed and super windy. Ran back down to the boat and felt pretty spent. Slept like a baby after another gigantic dinner.
Day 4 Tuesday. Pulled in to Skagway at dawn right as the weather started improving. What a beautiful town. Glaciers up high, rocky peaks. Salmon completely filled the creek in town. 4 of us went for a big day of hiking to Dewey Lakes and Devil's Punchbowl. Blueberries lined the upper half of the trail. We ended up hiking about 10 miles w/ 4000ft of climb together. I submerged myself in Devil's Punchbowl, which was slightly above freezing. Upper Dewey Lake had an impressive shelter w/ diesel stove and the finest smelling outhouse I have ever been in, made of cedar. After descending, I split off and tacked on another 5 miles or so to Icy Lake then met up with our crew and we got halibut fish n chips. Explored Skagway before it was time to get back on the boat. Mike & Evelyn took the White Pass train to Yukon Territory, which also looked amazing:
Day 5 Wednesday. Cruised around glacier bay NP. The weather was awful. Still great views however. got to watch a giant piece of the Lamplugh glacier calve into the bay. It's a bit unnerving hearing the glacier constantly cracking and dropping chunks into the water. Apparently this glacier moves 6 feet a day. On the boat all day, so ran on the 7th deck. I expected this to make a cool GPS track, but it ended up looking kind of boring. That was one of 3 on-boat runs during this trip.
Johns Hopkins Glacier:
Mike was selected for and won the axe throwing contest, earning him and Evelyn free tickets to the lumberjack show the next day in Ketchikan:
Day 6 Thursday. Short day in Ketchikan. Got up early so I'd have time to summit Deer Mtn and do as much of the Deer Mtn National Recreation Trail as I had time for (wasn't much). Excellent views periodically through the clouds. I was solo running this day as everyone else was beat and opted to spend time in town. Finished earlier than expected and explored town for a bit with Deanna. Saw more salmon, this time jumping up rapids.
Deer Mtn from the boat (peak on the right):
Day 7 Friday. Mostly a day at sea. We stopped for the evening in Victoria, BC. Walked around the downtown area and returned to the ship early because it was dark.
Also checked out the BC legislature:
The BC Museum was cool from the outside we could look at a bunch of old totem poles. Admission was expensive, so we opted for the free views:
I had read somewhere about Terry Fox, turns out the intended end of his marathon of hope was Victoria and we stumbled across his statue:
Day 8 Saturday. Back to Seattle and home. Drive was great again, just chatting the hours away on an extended date sans children.
Overall, this was a fantastic trip. It was great to be with old friends and to not feel rushed. We had an entire week to spend time together, alone, and as couples. Cruises are nice because lots of logistics are taken care of-travel, food, lodgings. This can also feel restrictive because you are limited by these things, but Coastal Alaska seems a perfect destination to explore in this way. As for ultra training, I feel ready to take on The Bear next week after ending my training block with a big week of steep climbs and descents. I think it also helped to be out at different times of day, sometimes on very little sleep (I stayed up in vain looking for the northern lights). Ready for the next adventure :)
Stats:
Miles run: 60
Vertical feet: 14,000
Wildlife seen: orcas, sea otters, humpback whales, salmon, grouse, sharks
Miles sailed: about 2000
I've been on a White Stripes kick lately and listening to the philosophy of their music as described by Jack White. Paraphrasing, he essentially said the self-imposed limitations of only using guitar, vocals, and drums forced a creativity that wouldn't be there with unlimited resources. He even went so far as to not buy new guitars as the band became more successful, using instruments that were notoriously hard to tune. There are many more examples that are pretty fascinating, but I digress. The point is, I feel the same about running and training for ultras. First of all, I don't have anywhere near the luxury of unlimited resources to train. I have a full time job, a full time family, and a full time religion that my training works around and occasionally with. Injuries also creep in at unexpected times throwing a monkey wrench in my often overly-ambitious plans. Rather than seeing these as things holding me back, I see them as forcing functions that maximize what I do with the time I have and enable a creativity that would otherwise not be there.
Which leads to the subject of this post: Ultra training while on a cruise. Deanna and I were due for a big trip with old friends. We recruited two other couples to join us, friends we have known for nearly 15 years. Deanna had the brilliant idea to book a cruise to Alaska, somehow meeting the preferences of all six people. We settled on the Ruby Princess out of Seattle over the week of Labor Day. Prices were lower that week and I really wanted to go to Glacier Bay National Park as part of the trip. This was our third cruise and I get the feeling that they are all about the same (aside from the destinations). Way too much food, lots of booze and gambling, lots of old people. Cheesy on-board activities. I didn't want to get to hung up on the annoying parts; instead I wanted to turn this into a big running adventure and focused time with friends and my wife. And sometimes those things even overlapped!
Here's how things played out on the 7-day adventure:
Day 1 Saturday. Got up early and drove to Seattle from Boise. Left the kids at home w/ Deanna's parents (a million thanks). 8 hour drive passed like it was nothing. Just chatted the whole way without interruption. Oh and Deanna slept. A lot. Got on the boat and of course started eating, met up with friends. Enjoyed the views leaving Seattle:
Day 2 Sunday. Slept in. Read. Ate meals (big ones) with friends and enjoyed a relaxing day at sea. Went to a presentation on Alaska by the on-board environmentalist/Alaska expert. Ran into an old friend from my missionary days, completely by coincidence. We made plans to hike together the next day. The temperature was noticibly cooler at sea. Sailed along Moresby and Graham Islands:
Day 3 Monday. Up early for a day off the boat in Juneau. Rainy and cold. Shared a cab with my mission friend to the West Mendenhall Glacier trail. On the way to the trailhead, our cab driver saw a deer and started backing up to get a closer look.....right into another car. No serious damage and everyone was fine; he settled it with the other driver and we continued on. We garbed up in rain gear and started our soggy 7+ mile journey. Was great to hike with my mission buddy and get caught up after 15 years. We explored some ice caves at the base of the glacier and were generally in awe of the scale of what was around us. In Idaho, I see all the evidence of where glaciers used to be, the carved canyons and rock. This was really neat to see that process in action. The glacier itself was alive, melting and collapsing. It was actually kind of unsettling being close to such a giant dynamic inanimate object. Signs marked the previous limit of the glacier along our way, showing how far it has receded over time. The start of the trail was covered in 1910.
Had some time left before we needed to get back on the boat, so started up the tram trail toward Roberts Peak by myself. That about sums up the life of an ultrarunner. When everyone else is worn out and sick of being outside in the elements, you head back out for more miles. It was still overcast and raining some, so I stopped at the clouds around 3000 feet. The views were great from up there, unobstructed and super windy. Ran back down to the boat and felt pretty spent. Slept like a baby after another gigantic dinner.
Day 4 Tuesday. Pulled in to Skagway at dawn right as the weather started improving. What a beautiful town. Glaciers up high, rocky peaks. Salmon completely filled the creek in town. 4 of us went for a big day of hiking to Dewey Lakes and Devil's Punchbowl. Blueberries lined the upper half of the trail. We ended up hiking about 10 miles w/ 4000ft of climb together. I submerged myself in Devil's Punchbowl, which was slightly above freezing. Upper Dewey Lake had an impressive shelter w/ diesel stove and the finest smelling outhouse I have ever been in, made of cedar. After descending, I split off and tacked on another 5 miles or so to Icy Lake then met up with our crew and we got halibut fish n chips. Explored Skagway before it was time to get back on the boat. Mike & Evelyn took the White Pass train to Yukon Territory, which also looked amazing:
Day 5 Wednesday. Cruised around glacier bay NP. The weather was awful. Still great views however. got to watch a giant piece of the Lamplugh glacier calve into the bay. It's a bit unnerving hearing the glacier constantly cracking and dropping chunks into the water. Apparently this glacier moves 6 feet a day. On the boat all day, so ran on the 7th deck. I expected this to make a cool GPS track, but it ended up looking kind of boring. That was one of 3 on-boat runs during this trip.
Johns Hopkins Glacier:
Mike was selected for and won the axe throwing contest, earning him and Evelyn free tickets to the lumberjack show the next day in Ketchikan:
Day 6 Thursday. Short day in Ketchikan. Got up early so I'd have time to summit Deer Mtn and do as much of the Deer Mtn National Recreation Trail as I had time for (wasn't much). Excellent views periodically through the clouds. I was solo running this day as everyone else was beat and opted to spend time in town. Finished earlier than expected and explored town for a bit with Deanna. Saw more salmon, this time jumping up rapids.
Deanna wore socks w/ sandals despite the social stigma associated with this behavior:
Deanna and Catherine did Karaoke to Alicia Keyes on the boat because that's what you do on cruises, apparently:
Also checked out the BC legislature:
The BC Museum was cool from the outside we could look at a bunch of old totem poles. Admission was expensive, so we opted for the free views:
I had read somewhere about Terry Fox, turns out the intended end of his marathon of hope was Victoria and we stumbled across his statue:
Day 8 Saturday. Back to Seattle and home. Drive was great again, just chatting the hours away on an extended date sans children.
Overall, this was a fantastic trip. It was great to be with old friends and to not feel rushed. We had an entire week to spend time together, alone, and as couples. Cruises are nice because lots of logistics are taken care of-travel, food, lodgings. This can also feel restrictive because you are limited by these things, but Coastal Alaska seems a perfect destination to explore in this way. As for ultra training, I feel ready to take on The Bear next week after ending my training block with a big week of steep climbs and descents. I think it also helped to be out at different times of day, sometimes on very little sleep (I stayed up in vain looking for the northern lights). Ready for the next adventure :)
Stats:
Miles run: 60
Vertical feet: 14,000
Wildlife seen: orcas, sea otters, humpback whales, salmon, grouse, sharks
Miles sailed: about 2000
Solid, serious running stats, even during the cruise! It was so fun to spend the week with you guys! Best of luck on The Bear!
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