Ahhh...That's Better

Well spring is officially here in Seattle, even though it's only February. We've been having some pretty outstanding weather, and I for one have been loving running in it. These past few weeks I've got my training on track. Don't get me wrong, I've been running all winter. However, it would be a real stretch to call it training.

I've sacrificed a little running time on the weekends to go fly fishing instead. The bulk of my mileage has been run to and from work. Then on the weekends I've opted to go fishing versus go out on a long run. I've realized that I'm not a guy who can train all out all year long. I've got to have my down time of year, and I've chosen to spend a lot of that down time fly fishing. Which, by the way, finally paid off a few weeks ago when I landed an 8 or 9 pound steelhead on my spey rod. But that's another story for another time. What I will say though, is that catching that fish after a winter long drought, allowed me to finally hang up my rod for the year and get to training.

It has felt great to get out for some 4+ hour runs on the trails over the past couple of weeks. I've really been digging Tiger Mountain. How lucky are we here in the Northwest to have trails that we can run on year round that provide some much elevation change? It's really something that none of us should take for granted. Last week Dan, Jon, Eric and I did 21 miles or so out at Tiger with 5700 feet of ascent. We had a gorgeous day with Fantastic views of Mt. Rainier and the Olympics. Just phenomenal.

Today was the real adventure though. Unfortunately Jon opted out of the run today, so it was just the three of us. Jon, being the supportive and loving husband that he is, sucked it up and partied into the wee hours last night in celebration of his wife's 33rd birthday. Needless to say, he wasn't super pumped about an early morning. So the three of us met at High Point at 7:30, and Dan's wife Eva was kind enough to shuttle us out to Rattlesnake Lake. Thanks Eva! The plan was to run from the lake to High Point. We estimated it to be around 27 miles.

Surprisingly the weather this morning was quite nice. Forecasts were calling for rain, but the sun was out and the temperature was really warm. From the get-go I realized, as did Dan, that we had misjudged the weather and really overdressed. Better too warm than too cold I always say, but it was REALLY warm. Thankfully as we reached the summit of Rattlesnake Mountain the temperature dipped a bit and cooled us off. I was really amazed how little snow there is on Rattlesnake. It's hardly worth mentioning it was so insignificant. I've run out there in May when there was much more snow than today.

The entire trip across Rattlesnake was pretty uneventful. The weather was nice and everyone seemed to be feeling quite good. We departed from the main trail as we intersected the powerline, then bee-lined our way toward Highway 18. This route technically goes "off trail" for a bit, although there still seems to be a pretty defined path. We successfully negotiated the super steep and very slippery "death slope" section and were soon at the Raging River ford. Being that we've had very little rain, the river was quite manageable. With feet soaked we slogged our way up to the East Tiger Road. I say slogged, because this section is really not runnable in the least. There are actually two stream crossings followed by an incredibly steep, muddy, brushy kinda' trail.

Once back on the manicured freeway that is the East Tiger Road, we stretched our legs out and began to run again. Eric and I were just running. Dan, on the other hand, was running too AND puking. What happened to the Danimal, you ask. He blamed a S-Cap/Clif Block overload on the bout of nausea. Sounds like a deadly combo. Of course, as Dan's puking and running and Eric and I are just running and winding our way up the never ending grade of the Preston Trail, the rain begins. Really? Now? Talk about kicking us while we're down. By the time we reached the top of East, the fun was starting to seep out of the run. I think we were all wishing that we were at the car instead of being 5 or 6 miles away.

Thankfully we regrouped and pulled it together. Dan's stomach settled down and Eric and I gutted it out. In the end, we were all very satisfied with the run. We finished in just over 5 hrs. The run had 6500 feet of ascent and close to 7000 of descent and we estimated it to be about 27 miles.

If I get out for a recovery run tomorrow, I'll be over 80 miles for the week. I know that's not a lot by some standards, but I never go much beyond that 90-100 mile range, so 80 at this point in the year feels pretty good.

And what would a Brian Morrison blog post be without some Pearl Jam talk? Well tomorrow night Mike McCready is hosting a Hootenanny for Haiti at the Showbox. There will be a whole bunch of local musicians, including Pearl Jam's drummer Matt Cameron. It doesn't get much better than going to a super fun show and supporting a great cause while you're at it. Rock on!

Well That's Fantastic

My sister just called me here at the store. She was laughing as I answered the phone. That's really never a good sign. "Have you checked out your blog recently," she asked. "Uh, not for a couple of days. Why?" Frantically, I began to pull up my blog on the computer in front of me. She was laughing so hard she could barely spit out the punchline. "Your blog has been taken over by Asian porn," she blurted out. What? How? But...

Sure enough, as I pulled up my blog and glanced at the one and only comment on my most recent post, it appeared to be a link to some "non-running" related subject matter. I say appeared to be, because I was at work and opted to not even follow the link. Besides my sister seemed to have already sussed it out for me.

Now I know that I'm not updating with as much regularity as when I'm in the thick of my racing, but now I've got a single comment and it's a link to an adult website. This is just sad. The good news is that Chuckanut will be here before I know it, and racing will begin in full swing. This past week I've felt really good about my training. I'm still doing the bulk of my volume on the road, but I know the trail miles will come shortly.

My Sorta' Schedule

Well I'm about a month into "training," and things are feeling pretty good. My little tendon issue seems to have worked itself out, and I'm healthy *knock on wood* for the time being. Training is on track, but I still haven't completely committed to a set schedule of races. There are a few loose ends that need to get wrapped up before I can finalize my plans. I'm hoping that in the next two or three weeks I'll know for sure where and when I'll be racing. For now, I'm only signed up for Chuckanut, but I've posted my tentative schedule.

On a non-running related note, I would urge folks to go buy Eddie Vedder's rendition of Bruce Springsteen's My City of Ruins. It's available on Pearl Jam's website as well as itunes. The song itself is beautifully sung, and more importantly, proceeds go to help Haitian earthquake victims.

Tiger Mountain Fat Ass

Saturday morning marked the first Tiger Mountain Fat Ass in two years. Last year the event had to be canceled due to massive amounts of snow.

Well, in my case, it was actually just a half ass. That's fitting too, since it seems like I gained about an extra half an ass in Portugal over the holidays. I ran every day while I was there, but life seems to revolve around food there, especially around the holidays. Since it's once every couple of years that I get to experience the delights of Portuguese cuisine, I don't worry too much about what I consume.

The drive out from Seattle to Issaquah was a bit discouraging. Rain was pouring down and showing no signs of letting up. However, as the 8 am start rolled around, the rain subsided and my mood perked up.

The Tiger Mountain Fat Ass, as I'm sure most are, is more a social kick off to the new year than an actual race. This year was no exception. As everyone began to congregate near the start, I was struck by how many people I knew. I guess that I've been at this for 8 or 9 years now. Considering that this is still a relatively small sport, you get to know and recognize a lot of people in that amount of time.

There have been couple instances where I treated the Fat Ass like it was a race. The first time that I became aware of Kyle Skaggs was at this event. At that point, he was just a young friend of James Varner and John Pearch that they dragged up from Olympia. He had an unbelievably beat up pair of Asics road shoes, and some super thick, non Merino wool socks. He may not have totally looked the part of uber-talented ultra runner back then, but he sure ran like it. The course was a bit modified that year, but I think we came in at or just under 2 hours. That was the first and very last time I was able to run with Kyle. Ahhh....those were the days.

Then there was the 2007 Tiger Mountain Fat Ass, when I felt I had something to prove. I didn't necessarily feel like I had anything to prove at the fat ass, but after the disaster at States, I wanted to dismiss any thoughts that I was just a one hit wonder. So at the 2007 event, I blasted from the start and ran away from the beginning. I ran a pretty good time for the loop, especially considering it was blanketed in a lot of snow, but I didn't enjoy it. I may have said "hi" to a few folks at the start, but I ran completely alone all day. Plus I was so frozen at the finish that I just hopped in my car and drove home. I realized that was pretty pathetic and goes against the spirit of the fat ass tradition.

Now I'm all about easing into to the new season. There's plenty of hard racing ahead, and racing that actually means something. There are very few opportunities to get so many runner friends gathered in one place. You've got to soak it all up.

Looking Forward

I don't know about you, but I'm sure looking forward to 2010. It's not that 2009 was a terrible year, but it had some difficult moments. My best four-legged friend and primary training partner, Kiwi, had some pretty serious health issues that plagued her from Last February through most of the summer. Seeing her in so much discomfort and shelling out more money than I want to think about in vet bills, added some major stress to the better part of the year. That stress definitely affected my running performance, and not for the better.

But that was 2009. Kiwi's health is much better now, almost a year later. She's running again, although not quite as much as she once was, and getting better each month. She may not ever be out running 20+ mile runs again, but she's certainly able to go out and do 5-8 without issue.

My biggest concern, looking forward to 2010, is keeping all the dates and deadlines for races straight in my head. Getting a spot at popular ultras these days is nearly as hard as procuring Pearl Jam tickets to an intimate venue. It's exciting to see the sport gaining in popularity, but it's frustrating to be on the outside looking in on so many of these races.

For example, Andrea and I were just in Portugal. I knew that Way To Cool had gone to a lottery this year, and I knew that lottery opened on Dec. 13. Unfortunately amidst all the excitement of being abroad during the holidays, I neglected to get my name in the lottery by Dec. 19th. Thus, another year goes by without me running Way Too Cool. That means I really can't miss the January 9th registration opening for the Chuckanut 50k, just one week after Cool.

I've realized that I just need to block out two hours in order to line up my 2010 race schedule set. Those 2 hours have just been hard to come by. Don't get me wrong, I've got my plans more or less set, but I can't afford to miss any of these all too crucial sign up dates.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to 2010. Last year I started to feel a little burnt out on racing. I thought that maybe I'd just lost some of the desire to compete. However, now, as 2009 comes to a close, I'm itching to get back out and race hard in the new year.

Happy New Year!

Whew!

I did it. I made the cut for Inov 8's 2010 team. I'm pretty sure it was a decision based on my career resume, and not so much on what I did in 2009. Outside of a mediocre race at Chuckanut and a win at the Sun Mountain 50k, my season was pretty lackluster.

Ahhh, but that was 2009. I've got some new tricks up my sleeve for 2010. First and foremost, as I've already stated, I'm taking a break from Western States. That just feels good to say. Anyway, I'm going to focus on 1 or 2 other hundred milers. Bighorn fits nicely into the mix, because it's only a week before Western States, and my last few years of training have been geared toward a June 100 miler. And it sounds like Hal, Ian, and the Rogue Valley Runner's crew may have a hundred happening down their way in September. That will hopefully be the second of my 100's. Then, of course, I'll sprinkle in a handful of 50k's and 50 milers to round out the year.

I'll be wrapping up my running for 2009 in Portugal. There won't be any racing, unless I stumble upon a local road race, but it'll be fun to log some miles abroad. Andrea's family is from Porto, so we're spending Christmas with them. It's not completely new running terrain for me, as this will be my fourth time there, but it's still a whole lot more novel than my daily run-commute to and from work.

Enjoy the holidays!

I Almost Forgot

This coming Saturday is a very big day for many of my fellow ultra runners. For myself it'll be just another Saturday in Seattle. I have nothing at stake in the most anticipated lottery in the sport of ultra running, the Western States 100 drawing. I can certainly appreciate the nervous anticipation and excitement around the lottery. I have been a bundle of nerves myself on lottery day. However, I must admit that I almost forgot that this Saturday was the WS lottery. I've got nothing at stake in this year's random selection, and I'm quite happy about it.

Don't get me wrong. I do love the Western States 100, yet I harbor a lot of ill feelings (I won't say hatred) about it at the same time. As many of you know, Western States hasn't been exactly kind to me. I'm talking purely about the race itself, not the people involved. The canyons, the saw briars, and the heat, oh the scorching heat, all have gotten the best of me. And lets not forget the rubber. Yes, the perfectly smooth rubberized track of Placer High, that got me too.

I've decided that I need at least a year off from beating my head against the Western States wall. I'm not admitting defeat, I'm just recognizing the need to channel some energy elsewhere for a year or two. I like the timing of a June hundred miler though, so I'm thinking about running Bighorn. I've decided I just need to get a little confidence back in running that distance.

Good luck to all those who are eagerly awaiting their lucky draw on Saturday!