Saturday, I went out on the A.T., south from Sams gap. About 1:01 out and 58 back. Focused on running longer stretches on the steep ups before giving over to power walking. Saw fewer people. As I was coming back, at the turnoff for the overlook, there on the ground were several PBR's, Cokes, and Fanta orange sodas, all unopened. They hadn't been there when I went out. A short while later I passed a guy who was also heading back to Sams Gap. He mentioned he was just out to leave a 'little trail magic' and he confirmed that he'd left the drinks at the overlook. The A.T. community is a wonderful lot of giving, generous people. I've been blown away by the generosity I've experienced in this one tiny corner of the trail.
Sunday, Mother's Day, I was up and out early to do a run I've been thinking about for months. I drove out HWY 19 to the top of Madison Mountain and parked. I headed down the 1.5 mile steep descent and out five miles total. I turned and finished the 10 miles climbing the incredibly long mountain. I've known this hill since I was a boy, coming to Yancey and Mitchell counties to play football and baseball. Now, it's part of my daily commute to Asheville. I almost got stranded on the mountain during a heavy February snow, the little Corolla is a gamer though, and I made it over the crest and on to Burnsville. The mountain has always held this near-mystic quality for me, but several months ago, I started thinking about running it.
My plan had been to drive all the way out to the feed store near 26, run UP the giant hill, then turn around and run back. I like the way I did it Sunday, better. Finishing with the big climb meant starting with the long downhill, which meant forcing myself to be patient, to hold back and not trash my legs going out. The run was about discipline. Sure, I could have smoked the out and most of the back, but the climb would have killed me. Instead, I was able to run the whole way to the top, not incredibly fast, but I didn't stop. My runs on the A.T. have given me a new perspective on hills. On the A.T. I'll gauge a hill and announce to myself, 'That's runnable!' and up I'll go. The hills on the roads...they're runnable. Cherokee Lane in AVL? That's runnable. Town Mountain Road? Runnable. (Wonder how far up Town Mountain I could get? hmmmm, a new adventure awaits!)
Doing the Cradle to Grave 30K this Saturday. Can't wait. Had a fantastic time last year.
Submitted by 5/16/2014 1400201557
I didn't run the 10K yesterday. But I did realize that instead of driving to the Bolens Creek trail, I could run there, then run up the mountain. A mapping site said it's about 3.5 miles from my house to the trail head so I set out early Sunday morning to do this run for the first time.
First thing I noticed was that the hill going up Pensacola Road was not as steep as I remember it being. Thank you A.T. I felt strong and full of energy on a glorious morning. Turning onto Bolens Creek Rd, there is a short downhill before the long uphill grade to the trailhead. After the first mile to warm up, I was aiming for an 8:30-ish pace. Got to the Watershed Rd turnoff in 35 minutes and started up the mountain. Ran when I felt I could (definitely ran more than I did Friday night). Took at gel at 1 hour (Cliff Double Expresso, not as good as the Hammer Espresso), and taking some water every 10 minutes or so. Met my friends Carol and Steve coming down the hill. They'd gotten up early to take a walk in the woods. Nice to see them. Pushed up the super steep face past the red post, running wherever I could. Two guys and their dog where camping at the campsite. Gave the dog a pat and kept going. Crossed the creek and pushed on over the very runnable stretch and made it to the first switch back just short of an hour of being on the trail.
Ran all the way to the bottom in about 35 minutes or so. Took a second gel at 2 hrs (GU Salted Caramel yum!) and hit the pavement for home (actually, much of the road stretch has runnable grass). Really pushed the back leg eating up the long downhill. Pushed hard up to the top of Pensacola. Day was warming up quickly. Stopped at the light at HWY 19, the pushed hard for home. Could probably had not taken that last gel as the hard push had my stomach a little upset. I'm calling the run 13.5 miles (the Garmin reads 13.1) with 2700' of climbing. Could be a little longer. Splits: 10:15, 9:08, 8:57,13:36, 22:12, 21:00, 13:11,12:57, 12:01, 10:04, 8:24, 8:14, 8:04, :40
Elevation (tad of vert in the middle)
Stopped short of the Crest Trail
Submitted by Rush 4/20/2014 1398010133
Running a 10K down in Dupont Forest tomorrow. Had today off for Good Friday. Walked a couple of miles this morning, did my core workout, then headed up Bolens Creek. Decided just to hike the initial 50 minute climb to save my legs. Enjoyed some nice easy running on the flats beyond the campsite. Lots of scat on the trail. All the springs were running well and I spent some time placing logs and rocks for the muddy crossings. Found what I believe was an old tailing dump that created a small pond down in a deep rock crevice. I've been by this spot a dozen times but just noticed it today. Perfect day to be out; overcast and cool. Hoping to run well tomorrow.
Most Difficult
Flats above the campsite
Small Pond
Submitted by Rush 4/18/2014 1397860696
Lots of stress this week. My wife's been quite ill and we did a big mock go-live at work on Thursday. Thursday night I did a pretty hard/hilly 10 mile tempo run. Yesterday, I did an easy 4.3 around AVL. This morning, I started out in a total BONK. I had nothing. My legs felt shot. My head was fuzzy. I felt like I'd been run over.
I was hoping to run 18 today, from Sams Gap out to Little Bald and back, so I had already planned to drop my pace and conserve energy. Also, today reached around 77' so it was the warmest day of the year so far. I was at the trailhead around 7:50, having eaten a tbsp of almond butter, a tsp of coconut oil, and 8 oz of water. The trail starts as a climb and I generally walk the first 10 minutes to warm up, and I could tell right away I was tapped. When I did start running, the first uphill left me lightheaded. Every fiber in my body was saying - bag it. call it a day. go home and go back to bed. come back tomorrow. But, I resolved to not worry about time, just walk where I needed to walk and run where I could. My stomach was rumbling so I ate half of a blueberry Fuel Pro Bar (gluten free, non-gmo, chia seeds, tasty!) hoping that would help some. Not much. At one hour, I ate a Hammer gel Expresso (90 cals, 50mg caffeine) hoping the caffeine would jump start things, but I still felt like crap. I was taking 1-2 oz of water every 10 minutes. Just kept telling myself to relax. After a while, the downhill running didn't suck so much and I was starting to lengthen the uphill running some. The woodpeckers kept me company; often hammering out through the tree tops. Could definitely sense a greening of the woods; even compared to last Saturday, and lots of wildflowers were in bloom. Saw one guy and his dog breaking camp on the way up to the water reservoir.
I reached Big Bald in around 1:50 (whereas two recent trips were around 1:35-1:40). Took my pack off and stretched for a few minutes, ate my 2nd gel, and headed down the trail toward the shelter feeling better. Eight miles in, there were 2 packs at the trail sign for the shelter and I could hear some people talking, so I didn't stop and sign the book, I just kept on and pushed into new territory. The running beyond the shelter is fantastic. I paused at an overlook to take a few pictures. Steep downhill drops you into the saddle to Little Bald and there are no switch backs, you climb straight up that sucker.
Turned around and made it back up to the top of Big Bald where I ate the other half of my Pro Bar, sucked some water, and headed into some serious downhill. Passed quite a few through hikers on my way back to Sams Gap. Felt good the 6.5 miles back. Calves just started to twitch on some of the steep uphills. About a mile from the trailhead, I encountered a young solo hiker who looked pretty flushed and asked where the nearest water was. He looked kind of panicked when I told him it was several more miles (in the warmest part of the day). I gave him two long draws off my camelbak and he was very grateful. At some point after Big Bald it ocured to me that this would be my longest duration run, ever. I had a 4:25 marathon (ugh) up at New River in 2012. This would also be my farthest run on single track. Stopped for a few minutes to speak with a couple who were headed for Maine. Made it back down and stopped my watch at 4:37. This time was off as at least twice, I had accidentally stopped my watch. The inactivity timeout is seven minutes, so I ran around 4:51. If my Garmin is to be believed, the run was just over 8,000 feet of elevation change. At the parking lot, I met a guy from Virginia named Nick who had set up an impromptu diner from the back of his pickup. He was feeding through hikers bacon and eggs, sodas, candy bars, granola, and had several gallon jugs of water. Pretty cool.
I think the day was a lesson in acceptance. I could have given up and gone home, but I just relaxed my expectations and accepted what the day and my body gave me. I'm glad I stayed in the run as the weather was amazing, the woods calming, and the tired at the end is deep and true.
The Lake Sonoma 50 mile race was today and I spent time on today's run thinking of those elite athletes just hauling @ss for 50 miles. I got home in time to catch the first finishers coming in. Zach Miller, 25, (the guy works on a CRUISE SHIP fer goodness sakes) set a new course record running 6:11:10, followed by Rob Krar, 37, in 6:12:14, and Sage Kanady (last year's winner and former course record holder) in 6:12:58. The first three men beat Kanady's former course record of 6:22. The women were led by Emily Harrison in 7:26:15 (new CR), Stephanie Howe in 7:33:24, and Kaci Lickteig in 7:37:42. 50 MILES!! Miller ran a 7:25/mi pace. Ouch.
Wildflowers south of Big Bald
Heading south from Little Bald
View from overlook near Little Bald (looking into Tennessee)
18.2 miles on the A.T.
Submitted by Rush 4/12/2014 1397339534
A cool, rainy, windy day in rural Brevard. Lots of mud and LOTS of men in the 45-49 age group. Where did all these guys come from? This is a Just Running race and the Maggots were out in force. Having never been to a Maggot workout, I don't know if that group is dominated by middle age men or not, but the overall #2, #3, and #9 finishers came from my group. The weather dumped rain non-stop and the course was a sloppy slip-n-slide of mud and rocks.
I'd never done this race, but I knew the general area having run the half marathon twice. I did find a race report from last year's race that included the runner's Garmin data so I could see four distinct uphill sections. As I've written on this site, I've been doing many long runs on the AT this spring so I felt confident I could handle the hills. My question was what overall pace could I run? I decided to run with the 3 C's principal again: Calm, Confident, and Courageous. I'd take it out around 8:30 for the first couple of miles and see how I felt. I knew the race started with a longish downhill so my biggest challenge at the start would be to relax, let runners go, and wait to catch them later. That's pretty much what I did.
The first 150 yards were an ankle deep, red clay mudslide, highlighted with long skid marks where runners were slipping. Mud flaps would have come in handy as debris was flying off the front runners feet. The course descended onto fire roads then switched to single track. My Garmin 410 is not very good on trails. It tends to be short; often, very short by the end of a run. I've come to find out that the 410 uses Garmin's "Smart Recording" that records position every 4-6 seconds. Switchbacks and sharp turns play havoc. Other models record position every second. I may start looking into those. Around mile two (according to the Garmin), I started to push my pace a little more, climbing what I was pretty sure was hill #2. I began to catch and pass runners. From this point on, no one passed me for the remainder of the race (all of the fast folks were way ahead of me). I spent the rest of the race picking off runners one by one, really pushing hard on the downhills. I was chanting 'confident' to myself (maybe out loud). The steepest part of the race is the climb to the finish. I took two, ten step walk breaks, but was able to finish strong.
Pros:
I ran 8:17 at the Hot Chocolate 10K in January, and 8:22 today. I'm thinking that's progress. A dry, road 10K (after only three weeks of solid running) versus a muddy, trail, 12K. I did one track workout a week before the race. My 'tempo' runs have been in the 8:20 - 8:30 range, so 8:22 was about all the speed I had in me.
Submitted by Rush 4/1/2014 1396362523
I've been alternating longer and shorter weeks. Right now, long has been 39 miles. This was a short week, 29 miles, and I decided to rest my hip today rather than going out to Cane River park for four or five. After running the 16 miles on the AT last weekend, my right hip was pretty tight this week. I did eight yesterday and had to stop at four miles and really loosen that hip. The four miles back the hip felt pretty good, but I chose not to push it as I'm racing next Saturday at the Dupont Forest 12K.
Instead of a run, I did my core strength routine then walked two miles, doing a bunch of loosening drills halfway through the walk. So, I'm taking it easy today, watching NCAA basketball and planning out my upcoming week. As an aside, I cannot abide how many official timeouts and reviews I've seen in the tournament this year. Just play the game.
Submitted by Rush 3/23/2014 1395604868
Saturday, I pushed my envelope. 16 miles is the furthest I've run since the AVL marathon back in September, and it's the longest trail run I've ever done (not counting the Cradle to Grave 30K, several miles of which were on gravel roads). The weather was overcast and windy with temps in the low to mid 40's. I ended up changing layers a couple of times. Despite the cool temps, I noticed more wildlife on this run than I had during any of my previous runs on the A.T. I saw many more birds and squirrels, and also jumped two groups of deer.
Pushing over Big Bald was an adventure. Climbing Big Stamp is almost all runnable, with some really nice ridge-top running after the peak, before descending the trail to the Bald Mountain shelter. At the turnaround I told myself, 'just eight miles to go', mentally noting the big climbs on the back while trying to stay in the moment. I hadn't seen a soul all morning until I was descending the very steep face of Big Bald when I encountered two women runners on their way up. I hadn't seen other runners on the trail before (just hikers and backpackers) and we stopped and chatted for a minute before pushing on. My legs and hip were feeling good. With about 3 miles left, I noticed a little hot spot in my right foot's fourth metatarsel, but it never amounted to anything. I made it back feeling tired, but with a nice sense of accomplishment.
Nutrition: Before this run I had a couple of teaspoons of almond butter, a butter/coconut oil coffee, and 12 ounces of water with Generation UCAN corn starch based powder. The genU is supposed to be slow release fuel. I don't know if it was the new product, or just too much in my belly, but I felt really full for the first several miles and honestly, my energy levels were poor at first. I should probably attribute that to a hard tempo run on Thursday, followed by an easy, but hilly run on Friday. I think before doing 7000' of elevation change, it might prove wise to take off the day before. After 5 miles or so, my energy picked up and stayed steady the rest of the run. I wasn't starving by any means, but I did eat a Kind gluten free(peanut,dark chocolate) bar coming down from Big Bald and my stomach did ok.
Recovery: I walked around the block Saturday afternoon, and spent some time with the foam roller. Sunday awoke to steady rain and I had to drive my son back to college and spent 10 hours in the car feeling stiff in my hips and back. Not an ideal recipe for post-run recovery. Typing this on Monday, which has been on/off rain all morning. Will probably go out for an easy three or four around lunch.
Sunbeams seen from Big Bald
Old school GPS
Heading back to Big Bald from Big Stamp
Submitted by Rush 3/17/2014 1395069100
On the A.T. again for the third time in as many weeks, this time running south from Sams Gap. Heading south is much different run than running north to Big Bald. The run north has long gradual ascents punctuated by steep climbs. The running south has many more transitions.
This was a light running week, so I decided to run a four mile out and back for a total of eight miles. I began running south out of Sams Gap around 9:00 am. Though there were quite a few cars at the parking area, I didn't see anyone until the 2.5 mile mark when I encountered four male backpackers heading north. The running is all up and down; very rugged. No real cruising until passing the Hogsback Shelter at two miles. After running along the top of the ridge, the trail follows a long decent down to what I believe is Rice Gap.
Again, my Garmin's measured distance is way off from the trail guide. The Garmin measured exactly 2 miles to the shelter, while the guide has that at 2.4 miles. I don't know if the website I'm consulting is the 'official' trail guide or not. Anyway, it was a tough 8 miles, but another fantastic day to be out in the woods. I saw a few tiny patches of snow tucked in the shadows of evergreens high up on the ridge. Very different from the drive to Chapel Hill on Friday when Lisa and I drove through horrible weather all through the central portion of NC. At times, I wasn't sure we were going to make it through Greensboro and we ended up spending Friday night in Chapel Hill rather than risking a late afternoon return trip. It's nice to have Luke home.
Heading back down to Sams Gap
Old man with tired legs
So much for my easy 8 miler
Submitted by Rush 3/10/2014 1394424301
I live in the Blue Ridge mountains of western NC. Specifically, I live about 10 miles from Mount Mitchell; at 6684', the highest peak east of the Rockies and crown of the Black Mountain range. There are many trails close to my home. One of the closest is the Bolens Creek trail which climbs some 3300' in four miles. It's steep. There is some good running pretty high up, where the trail follows the ridge line for a while.
I work in Asheville, and my office is about a five minute drive from the Mountain to Sea trail. I'll often go out for a 5-6 mile run on my lunch hour. The section I run is all single track with generally short climbs, but very twisty.
I've been aware of the A.T. for years, having hiked bits and pieces with my wife and son. From my home, I'd always thought of the closest trail head at Carver's Gap near Roan Mountain, a good 50 minute drive. I've recently realized that I can access the trail at Sams Gap (3880'), a mere 25 minute drive. 6.5 miles north of the trail head is Big Bald (5516') which offers 360° views. I've run this leg each of the past two Saturdays and it's become my favorite bit of trail.
The out has a lot of climbing, but enough downhill and parallel running to not make it the slog that Bolens Creek can be. The view from the summit of Big Bald is a fantastic reward for the 6.5 mile effort.
The run back has long stretches of fantastic cruising, interrupted by a few short climbs. If I had a shuttle, I would like to run from Sams Gap to Spivey Gap (where the trail intersects NC HWY 19), 13.1 miles point to point.
I've thoroughly enjoyed the solitude. I rarely see anyone else on this stretch of trail. I know as we get deeper into March and April, the A.T. through hikers will make their presence known. I'm lucky to have such a fantastic resource so close to home. So far in 2014 I've been able to do half my mileage on trails. Now that I've 'found' this section of the A.T., I hope to increase that percentage.
Looking up at Big Bald from near the water reservoir. The bald is about a 30 minute climb from here.
From the top of Big Bald.
Looking north to Big Bald from the grassy ridge, about 1.5 miles into the run.
On top of Big Bald on a very windy March 1, 2014
Elevation profile
Submitted by Rush 3/2/2014 1393797165
It's New Year's Eve and time to look back at 2013. What did I accomplish this year? I ran 1390 miles, ran a 10K PR at the Hot Chocolate in Jaunary. PR'd two marathons; Biltmore in the spring and Citizen times in the fall. I set my 1/2 marathon PR (and won my age group for the first time) at Dupont, completed my first 30K at Cradle to Grave, and ran a competitive 5K at Bele Chere. Overall, an exellent year.
Ending the year injured kind of stinks, but the rest has given me ample time to reflect on how much running means to me and to bask in the glow of all the runs I've done. Right now, having been off the better part of two months, I think about my long runs, my really hilly runs, my hard tempo runs and I think, "how was I able to do that?". There's no way I could run like that right now and that speaks to how much devotion, how much commitment running well takes.
2014? I dunno. My hip is still somewhat sore to the touch on the the Iliac crest bone so I don't know how long this recovery period is going to be. I've been targeting a very gentle return to running on January 1, 2014. So, run the mile you're in and don't forget that you don't have to run today, you GET to run today.
Submitted by Rush 12/31/2013 1388518714
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