last night my adventure racing team dart-nuun and i kicked off this winters wednesday night mountain bike rides. it's a free group ride in the seattle area. our awesome sponsor light and motion provides the bike lights for anyone and everyone to try and we just hit the trails.. at night! mountain biking in the dark on singletrack in adventure races and 24 hour mtn bike races takes a lot of practice and with the mild seattle weather we're able to practice all winter long - well, as long as you are tough enough to ride in the cold rain! it's always a blast... here are a few shots of last night.
today i am thankful for many things. i'm most thankful however for my crazy family. we have seemingly come from the ashes of dysfunction and have made it work. <here is where i wrote then omitted a diatribe that should be saved for the psychologist.>
i'll keep it short and sweet with visuals instead.
my family (don't know what i'd do without them - and how cute is lil sammy? come on.. nice boots!)
my health (i mean look at what i get to do!)
my friends (friendship has always meant a great deal to me - i have some of the best!)
the ride to the thanksgiving - crisp beautiful seattle day.
about a year ago now, rogue valley runner carly (yes, hal's carly) said to me in passing that if i needed to make an advertising flyer for my coaching business she would help me (out of the kindness of her heart). in a few installments i sent her photos and some brief and non-detailed descriptions of what i wanted. basically i kept stalling... i needed to get my head around the fact that i have to advertise myself. it's still something i struggle with, but last week i decided i would give it a try, so i sent carly an email saying "thanks for your time. please just send me whatever you have" because i didn't want to waste any more of her time.
well with little to no direction she came through huge for me!
email from glenn tachiyama... go ahead and pick one of these sweet calendars up.! meissners in it running in a skirt!
"Hi Everyone!
You need a wall calendar, right? Holiday gifts? Stocking stuffers?
The 3rd edition of the "Tribute to the Trails" wall calendar are on their way to the stores and they should receive them sometime this week! Here's a peek at what the calendar looks like: www.pbase.com/gtach/calendar08
As always, this is a fundraiser and all proceeds from the sales will be directly donated to Washington Trails Association www.wta.org , the wonderful people who create, repair and maintain the trails we love to play on.
Printing costs are the major obstacle for a project like this, and we'd like to thank Dirty Girl Gaiters www.dirtygirlgaiters.com and Pacific Coast Trail Runs www.pctrailruns.com for their generous sponsorship. Gratitude also goes out to ZombieRunner www.zombierunner.com for their online services and the stores who are donating their time to sell the calendars, the races who made additional monetary contributions, and the athletes who permitted us the use of their images.
The price of the calendar is $18 and here's where you can purchase them:
the montrail sponsored jfk 50 miler is the oldest ultramarathon in the country, and thus one of the most competitive. . and results are in. last night i spoke with montrail ultrarunner sean meissner - he's ecstatic with 8th place (6:31) - yeah it's that serious. also noteworthy.. seattle ultrarunner greg crowthler placed 10th (6:41) and fellow montrailian annette bednosky was 2nd woman, 23rd overall (7:10).
congrats to you all.
it's not my kind of race because it's so flat and fast... but if i get into western states i'll have to figure out how to find some leg speed.
training: i'm enjoying the off-season. i'm coaching a lot and increasing my client list - i love this job!. i'm still healing from my double hernia surgery, so there is a bit of residual ab pain and even worse are my hips. i used to think my hip issues were related to the hernias, now i'm not so sure. i've gradually increased my volume since my surgery, 11:51; 12:13; 15:06; with this week around 19 hours and next week being my peak volume week of this meso-cycle at 25 hour-ish. got in a good 30 mile road ride today with kimberly and i'll ride 50 miles tomorrow... likely in a downpour. i've gotta be done by nuun so i can watch the seahawks with the boys.
skiing: this seattle weather is killing me! yesterday was supposed to be my first day in the backcountry on skis. the plan was to skin and ski mount rainier.. thwarted! crappy conditions had us then turn our attention to mt baker area, table mtn and ptarmigan ridge. woke up and the telemetry data said 1 inch of rain had fallen overnight and it was still raining below 6,000ft.
we hiked mailbox peak with 30 lbs backpacks instead. i'm still waiting on getting those first turns.
racing: i'm debating whether or not i'm going to do an early season 24 hour solo mtn bike race. i'm undecided partly because i really want to return to run big horn again. i won the 50k last year and would run the 50 miler in '08 if i went.. and i'd hope ty draney would run another distance! however if i did the round the clock 24hr solo i wouldn't be recovered for big horn, or even trained for it for that matter. recovery from a 24 hour mtn bike race is not joke, so i wouldn't be able to race for over a month after, maybe longer. which makes me think maybe i'll do it as two person team. when i think about local mtn bikers to race with... it would have to be my dart-nuun adv racing teammate ryan vangorder - doods a monster.
december 1st is the western states lottery. "there are a record number of entries in the Western States lottery this year (1,352!)... and a dismal 16% chance of getting selected." this is from ajw's blog, he then goes on to list the top male contenders who have signed up. it's an impressive and intimidating list. gets me all fired up to run it!
coaching: coaching has been an absolute joy lately. i've just finished a 5 week session of weekly track workouts and demand was so high i'm doing another one in december!! i've also added to the client list a couple of adventure racers getting ready for primal quest 2008 - very exciting.
quote of the day: "We have found that there is no conflict between our business model of everyday low costs and everyday low prices and being a more sustainable business," Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott said in the Wal-Mart Environmental Report.
anyway when the question of "how much do the front runners at these ultras weigh?" came up roger blind sided me with "well we have one here. matt would you stand up?". aah.. awkward. i stood and then sort of gave a brief overview of my nutritional basics. i'll elaborate a bit more here...
the process of training the body for ultra distance racing breaks your body down. it's when we stop to recovery that our bodies build back up stronger than before. therefore proper recovery is essential. while your body is recovering (which you can think of as a constant process) you need to provide it with the proper nutrients/building blocks to efficiently do it's job. since you are what you eat(book i'm reading - thanks jenny!). if you eat junk, your training will most certainly suffer from it. think of training as breakdown, and nutrition as healing. poor nutrition will lead to injury, exhaustion/burnout and an inability to achieve you potential. nutrition is your secret weapon... your free dope (are you listening rasmussen?). eating right absolutely gives you a free and legal performance edge (without the embarrassment of being removed from a race you are about to win and fired from your team).
My personal tips (these are the tips i send my coaching clients in their first week):
drink lots of water. every time you eat drink two glasses of water to stay hydrated (oh yeah and drink nuun)
eat six small meals throughout the day (that means eating every 2-3hrs)
eat whole organic raw foods, not packaged products. if you can't imagine where it came from then it's probably created in a lab somewhere in new jersey and not something you want to consume - watch this
eat lean protein with each meal. it's important for rebuilding muscle and it makes you feel full... and generally has a low glycemic response - it also minimizes the catabolic effects of training.
eliminate hydrogenated oils and trans fats
eliminate refined sugar and processed carbs
the basis of your diet should be organic fruits and veggies, lean meats and complex carbs
as for getting down to your ideal race weight. i advise my clients to do it now while you are coming out of the off-season and starting the early base training mesocycle. later in the season when the training volume and effort are higher the required calorie deficit to lose weight is not advised. you simply won't get the most out of your "serious" training if you are coming in low on nutrients.
disclaimer: i am not a licensed nutritionist - but i feel like i have a very good grasp on this topic. i am also a well trained overeater - no one is perfect. =)
brandon over nuun, a montrail ultrarunning team sponsor, put together this sweet page of nuun user photos. this photo my dart-nuun adv racing teammate ryan fleming took and it made the cut. this is "the next day" at the 2006 raid the north in kamloops, bc canada. we're about 17 hours into the race at this point (that is me with my head down). we're running up the ski resort slopes for the last checkpoint... good times! send your cool nuun photos to brandon@nuun.com and get famous fast! i just sent this one of sean meissner i took after 2007 big horn 50 miler!
ok, it's done. after a month of waffling (it costs $310!) i decided i'd sign up for both western states 100 (the oldest and most prestigous 100 miler) and the hardrock 100 (the hardest 100 miler) and let fate decide which one i run in 2008. there are so many entrants into both of these races that they have lottery systems in place to randomly select who gets to race. this is the case for most of the major 100 milers in the u.s.a. - kind of amazing how many crazy folks wanna run 100 trail miles. the lottery for western states is december 1st, mark your calendars. if i don't get into western states i will apply for hardrock.
my training will be vastly different this year depending on which one i get in to (if any)... either way i'm excited about 2008! the hardrock 100 as a race really speaks to me. it starts in silverton, co at 10,000 feet elevation and over the course of 100 miles it climbs 32,000 feet - it is rediculous, and i like that.
today we rode the whole enchilada. we started at warner campground instead of burros because of the snow level. this amazing ride starts at 9,450 feet in the la sal mountains southeast of moab. it connects hazard country trail, kokopeli, porcupine rim and drops you at the colorado by negro bills canyon a few miles out of moab. most people pay for a shuttle service to get to the top so they can just enjoy the ride down.. i am averse to two things, shuttles and ski lifts.
my ride today: 59 miles: 5,800 feet of amazing descent, 5,800 feet of tough ascent back up into the la sals to get the car.
steve and i drove the nuun van all the way from seattle to moab.. 18 hours of driving and one nap later we arrived. we're camping for the next couple of days right on the main drag in moab (rt 191)... i can't wait to ride!
honestly though i am a bit concerned with how my abs have been feeling. although the dr said "it's going to hurt for a while" i can't help but worry. i don't wanna "blow a mesh!". i've been riding and running super easy for 1 week now. yesterday was 3 weeks post-op. last weekend i did back to back easy 25 mile road rides and the abs hurt for two days after that. i have been to three yoga classes and just did the poses that felt ok. this past wed and thurs i put in my first hard efforts while teaching spin class. everything felt fine during class. but afterwards the right side was sore. then we started this long drive to moab and they never felt right the whole time.
i know i need to take it slow and i'm prepared to just doodle around town if things don't feel right. however we have some pretty awesome plans.. the biggest of which is the the whole enchilada, a 26 mile combination of trails that starts in the la sals and drops you 7,000 glorious vertical feet down into moab. but with steve just getting back on his bike and me on the mend we might leave that for last and start with a favorite of both of ours... the sovereign trail. oh boy...
"Unfortunately I don't know the meaning of the word moderation." For endurance athlete Matt Hart this fact has thus far worked out alright. Matt is a member of the Montrail National Ultrarunning Team. He is also a member of nationally ranked adventure racing team DART-nuun, reigning West Coast Adventure Racing Champions. As a solo athlete Matt challenges himself with endurance mountain biking, ski mountaineering, and ultrarunning events. In December of 2005 Matt left his job at Microsoft to pursue his dream and race full time.
Aaron Rinn, RVG and JPC
Peteris, Miles, Frenchy and Kim
The whole crew
Aaron Rinn, RVG and JPC
Peteris, Miles, Frenchy and Kim
The whole crew
email from glenn tachiyama... go ahead and pick one of these sweet calendars up.! meissners in it running in a skirt!
(book i'm reading - thanks jenny!). if you eat junk, your training will most certainly suffer from it. think of training as breakdown, and nutrition as healing. poor nutrition will lead to injury, exhaustion/burnout and an inability to achieve you potential. nutrition is your secret weapon... your free dope (are you listening 
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