Posted by Thomas Orf on November 4, 2009 at 8:15pm
Caballo Blanco has been here in Austin at least for the past 3 days. On Monday, he was going to be out running and people could come run with him. There was about 18 people and we ran about 5 miles. Afterwards, we went and had dinner with Caballo at one of Austin's iconic mexican places, Chuys. I got to sit next to Caballo during dinner and it was great. I heard lots of good stories. It was really an awesome night. I felt like I was with a rockstar.Caballo was totally down to earth and was totally not caught up into any sort of stardom. He was a regular guy and he didn't see himself as famous or anything.I didn't talk to him much, just listened, however, I did mention Eric Orton to him. He asked how I knew him and I told him that I used a training plan from him to get ready and completed my first 100. Caballo had great things to say about Eric. He told me that Eric is "the real deal". He truly had nothing but great things to say about Eric. So, if for some reason you hadn't figured out that Eric is quite a great guy, I hope this is enough proof.I didn't have a camera with me, but someone took this from their iPhone and emailed it to me. I only wish I had a copy of my book so I could of had him sign it, but hopefully one day I'll do the Copper Canyon race and I'll get him to sign it at that time.
Posted by Thomas Orf on October 18, 2009 at 6:36pm
Let me first say that the race was difficult, even with all the training. It was much harder than I anticipated. I figured since I had done the training, and did it to the "T", then the 100 miles wouldn't be that difficult, but was I ever wrong. I didn't really train for my first attempt, so I chalked up all the pain and agony I went through to my lack of training. Now that I was trained, I certainly didn't expect to go through any hard times, and for the most part, things would be failry easy, but was I ever wrong. I totally under-estimated what 100 miles is and can do to the body, whether you're trained or not. I tell you what, a 100 miles will humble the strongest of people.The weather was damn cold. With the wind chill, the weather never got over the mid 30's, and it finally dropped into the 20's. They were calling for a chance of rain or snow, but thankfully it never hit.What got me early on was the mental side of things, and stayed with me the whole time. This race was a mental battle like I've never experienced before, and I wasn't sure I could pull it off. I don't think there's any real way to train for it, other than to keep doing these races. See, during training, the longest you go is 50 miles. Well, when you do this run, somewhere in between mile 30 - 40, you're getting tired and ready for the run to be over with, and you realize you only have 10 - 20 miles left, and that's fine, and they tick off pretty easy. But, during a 100, when you start getting tired, you realize you still have another 60 - 70 miles! Uugghhhhhh!!!I tried breaking the race into 4 chuncks, but I just couldn't shake the fact of all the miles I still had left to do. Although I was physically feeling fine at mile 30, I was a little tired, but feeling good, the thought of another 70 miles and it was freezing was just consuming me. This caused me to sink into sort of a depression. I just couldn't shake it and I wasn't sure I could make it. I thought of all the time I've spent training, all the hours my family sacrificed so I could be here, and now I'm not going to be able to finish. This just kept swirling in my head and tearing me down further, but I did keep going.Let me say that my wonderful wife and fantastic 10 year old daughter met me at every aid station they could be at, and they were ready to do anything I needed, although I'm a pretty low maintenance runner. Them just being there made all the difference. If they weren't there, I wouldn't have been able to finish. Most of the time, I was just running from aid station to aid station so I could see them. When it was going to get dark, they were going to go back to the hotel room and get sleep and I'd call them later on when I was several hours from finishing so they would come back. Thankfully, they decided to stay and not leave. I needed them during the day, but they were my lifeline at night. They would basically just sit in the car and have the heater cranking. My wife knew how fast I was going so they would sleep and she'd wake up about when she expected me to roll on in, and there I'd be.My wife could see that I was mentally going downhill, and she kept urging me to get my head right about this. She also wouldn't let me sit long or stay at an aid station. When a couple minutes had gone by and I wasn't really doing anything, she'd be pushing me off.When I got to the mile 36 aid station, I asked what place I was in. I was currently in 42 place, out of 61 starters. This really upset me because I was much further toward the back than I thought I'd be, although I hadn't been racing this yet. I had walked most of the uphills. I was always watching my heart rate and my goal was to not let my heart rate get passed zone 2 like Eric mentioned. I also would walk anytime I felt like I was working hard.Since this was a 50 mile out and back, once I hit the mile 50 turn around, my spirits immediately lifted. I was heading back and I now felt like I was knocking off the miles. I next saw my wife at the mile 58 aid station, and I was smiling and she knew I was happy now. I told her that I have good news, and some bad news. The good news is that I'm mentally feeling better. She asked what changed, and I said, I only have 42 more miles to go. She looked at me like I was a little crazy, like why is this guy happy about that, but having 42 miles left didn't seem like a lot. My bad news was I was starting to feel some small aches in my body. Nothing major, just aches from going for 12 hours now, but you never know what's going to turn into something worse later down the trail.From mile 58 to the end was all done in the dark. The rest of the race to mile 82 was pretty much me running whenever I felt like I could run and for as long as I could hold it, and take 5 to 10 minute walking breaks in between. I was easily coming up on people and passing them. Everytime I was able to come up on someone and pass them, gave me a bigger boost and made me feel better. I said, this is what Eric's training had done for me. In between all this, I kept seeing my wife, and daughter and I was having a good time with the aid station people. There would be people in the aid stations hurting with stomach issues, or whatever, and I was pretty much feeling really good. I started feeling like I was going to finish this thing, although there still was a long time left, and the temperature was dropping, and that was sucking the life out of everyone.By mile 82, I developed pretty severe shin pains in my left leg. I don't know if they were shin splints or what, or what I could have done to avoid them. I could feel something coming on with my left leg around mile 70, and it just kept getting worse. I had to alter my running gait to avoid putting too much weight on my left foot, and because of this, my right calf ended up cramping up, so at mile 82, my left leg hurt pretty bad, my right calf was killing me, and all I was able to do from this point to the end was walk. I couldn't even get into a run to run through the finish. Oh well, I did finish. From mile 82 to the finish, because I couldn't do any running, time felt like it stood still and this was a really long way to go in the cold.Here's some stats and highlights: 61 racers started, 41 finished, and I finished 20th place in 25:27. From mile 36 to the end, I was able to move up to 20th place. From mile 16 to the end, I was never passed by a single runner, not even during the 18 miles to the finish where all I could do was walk. While I tried eating things, nothing ever really sounded good to me or that I wanted to have. I ate a couple quarters of PB&J, but I was forcing myself, so I stopped trying. I would get a cup of soup here and there, but it was so hot and I didn't want to take the time to finish it, so I never did. I could have carried it with me, but they didn't have trash cans on the trail, so I would have had to carry that cup to the next aid station, and I wasn't going to do that. I pretty much lived off Hammer gel and Honey Stinger gels. I would also drink a cup of Coke at every aid station, and I had some Starbucks double shots in my drop bags, so I drank 4 of them during the 100 miler, and I also drank 4 ensures. I would take 2 or 3 Saltsticks every hour. My feet were perfect. I never developed one blister, had any toe nail problems, and actually my feet didn't even swell up. After I finished and took off my shoes and socks, my feet pretty much looked like they didn't even run. I did tape the bottom of my feet as mentioned here, http://www.backcountryrunner.com/articles/blister-free-running.phtml, and I reapplied Hydropel at mile 42 and put on a new pair of Injinjies, which is what I run in. I did the first 25 miles in trail shoes, but then switched to my road shoes for the next 75 miles and I felt that was fine. The finishers buckle is amazing. It is very big and beautiful.The majority of the race wasn't very enjoyable to me, and I think basically because I put so much pressure on myself to finish it. I dreaded another DNF, and the thought of not finishing just wasn't an option for me. On the upside, what I did enjoy was the other runners that I met, some that I got to run with. The people are what made this race such a special thing. Also, the race directors were amazing. Great people that really cared about putting on a great race. They also had amazing volunteers at the aid stations and had great food. This is the best ultra I've been to and I would highly recommend it to anyone.I have created a gallery of this race at http://www.runners4jesus.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=945 if you wanted to see some pictures.In summary, there's so many people that were key to getting me to that start line, and to that finish line. I'd also like to add that I truly believe that 100 miles is possible for anyone, I mean anyone, to do, if they really have this as a goal, and if their committed and dedicated to reaching this goal. Let me remind everyone that I just started running two years ago, and 11 months ago, I completed my first marathon. From the time I finished my marathon, the thought of completing a 100 mile race burned through me, and I worked hard for it. I didn't really feel like a different person after this race, like I thought I would, but about 4 days after the race, when it really sunk in, what I accomplished, I started feeling "it". My life suddenly feels different. I truly feel that I conquered one of the hardest things, and everything else around me seems small in comparison. I feel I can be up to any task, regardless of the size, and I'll do just fine.It's been a week since my race. During the race, and for about 4 or 5 days afterwards, I swore I'd never do another one of these. For the past couple days, I've been trying to think of when my next one will be. :) What can I say, I'm hooked, and I can't wait for my next one. By the way, since I finished this, I qualified to enter the Western States 100 lottery, which I did. Who knows, maybe I'll get picked and I'll get to run that one in July.
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I have my 2nd 100 mile attempt this Saturday. I failed my first attempt, only making it to mile 76. Two things are different now, than before. I now have Eric, and his training. I'm getting excited.Eric, I hope I can do you and your training the proper justice it deserves by bringing home a finishers buckle. Thanks again for all you've done for me.My marathon coach and friend, Shaughn, rented me a GPS device from, www.myathletegps.com, for me that I will be wearing, and it allows anyone to be able to track them from a website. From the website, you should be able to see my location, speed, distance, and my elevation.My race starts Saturday at 6:00am. The device was supposed to have been configured to update every minute. Below are the links that you could go to and see my progress.You can bet that while I'm on this long trip, I will be thinking of Dustin doing his long journey. It's probably as close as I can get to fully comprehend the monument task Dustin has taken on.Link for web Browsers & iPhoneshttp://www.mapmyathlete.com/vemap.aspx?name=024096Link for PDA/Blackberry/Palmshttp://www.MapMyAthlete.com/pda.aspx?name=024096Note: Certain versions of the Blackberry browser do not work. You can download for free the Opera-mini browser on your blackberry at http://www.opera.com/mini/download.While I’m moving, there should be a blue arrow on the map. If/When I stop moving, a bullseye pattern will appear on the map (let’s hope there’s not too many of these).
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Posted by Thomas Orf on September 20, 2009 at 12:57pm
I knew this title would get everyone's attention. This title is what I found on a run yesterday morning.I had already run 11 miles, and I met up with our little running group at 6:00am and I was going to run 14 miles with a girl who's training for a marathon. We were running in the emergency lane along a highway, and between mile 8 and mile 9, I looked down and saw a roll of something. I leaned over and picked it up. I thought it was some play money. It was rolled up with a rubberband securing it, and it looked like it was used to snort something. Anyway, after looking closely at it, it looked like real money. We continued running and I took the rubberband off. I fanned out the money and there was 5 $100.00 bills!!! Me and the girl high-fived each other, and spend the next 5 or some miles laughing about this, and thinking what a huge blessing this was. Since she was with me, I gave her $200.00. I am going to keep $100.00 or do something with my family with, and the other $200.00 was given away to other people.I spoke with a person who heads a marathon training group and told her my story. I told her she could use it as motivation for her runners. You never know when you'll be out running and find $500.00. She said she once found $100.00 dollar bill, and she once came up on a pile of quarters.Because I do my long runs on highways and heavily traveled areas, I normally always find at least .20, and I pick whatever I find up and when I get home, I show my daughter what her dad found on his run. I've found a baseball hat pin, still in it's plastic, I've found a screw driver, a socket wrench, a knife, a dollar bill, a $10.00 bill, and I once pasted a little bag of white powder. I didn't bother picking that up. Two weeks ago, I found an imitation iPhone, a SciPhone. I was able to call people in the address book, find out who it belonged and return it to them.What kind of stuff do you all find on your runs?
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Posted by Thomas Orf on September 20, 2009 at 12:30pm
First let me say, the that I don't consider the couple taper weeks as training, which is why I named the blog what it is. I realize the taper weeks are just as important, but they are so much easier and when you get to them, the running is so much less and so insignificant to the months that you've been through.I have just completed Erics 24 week 100 mile training plan. To end the training, I had a 20 miler on Friday, then a 30 miler on Saturday. The next two weeks are my taper and I have no runs longer than 2 hours, so I'm a happy man.The past 5 weeks have been really tough and I questioned on if I could complete the training as outlined. I was getting physically tired and emotionally drained. It took days worth of talking to myself to get me out to do my long runs and even some of my weekly runs. I'm very happy and proud to report, that with running 6 days a week for the past 24 months of this plan, I only missed maybe 3 or 4 days and they were light days during the week. I hit all long runs and everything else, even though there were a few days where I didn't want to run for 1 minute, let alone for 40, 1 hour, or more. I also know how important it is to stay with the training plan and the success of the race depends on this. Most importantly, I could not have completed this without the great support from my wife and daughter, plus our own little group of runners, www.runners4jesus.org, that is also huge support for me and they keep me accountable with what I'm supposed to do. They are your everday people doing incredible things. They love running, and they run with a purpose. I've watched them set goals, work toward them, then push past them and go beyond what they ever thought they could ever do. When you can witness this type of greatness, it can only be inspirational and motivating.Eric, I've been waiting to come to the completion of the training before I asked you this question, and now the time is finally here to ask it. Can you give me a race strategy? How should I start and what do you recommend for me to hopefully have a good race? Should I try and stay with the 40 run/20 walk plan? Or should I do more walking during the first 50, then do something else during the last 50? My 50 mile training run was completed at an 11:20 average pace. I will say that after my 50 mile training run, the thought of doing another 50 miles was frightening to think about. You once said mile 80 was the half way point. Should I stay easy on things to mile 80? Any advice and words of wisdom you could provide would be greatly appreciated.Eric, I can't think you enough for all you have done, and all that you continue to do for us.
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Posted by Thomas Orf on September 6, 2009 at 6:38pm
This is a report of my weekend of running. I don't share this in any way to brag about myself. I'm only sharing it so it can be proof that Eric knows what he's doing, and that it might encourage someone else to do something more than they ever thought was possible.Last year, I was just a person who had only been running for a year after smoking for 17 years. I finished a marathon and felt like I wanted more. I then found out there's people out there called ultrarunners. An ultrarunner is someone who runs more than 26.2 miles and they have 50, 100, and beyond mile races. Hearing this, I began to do research and try and fint people that did this sort of stuff.I can remember the first person I read about. He was a local runner from a local Austin runner's group and he had completed many 100 milers. His email address was given to me so I could contact him. Among all the advice and information he emailed me back with, the biggest thing that stuck in my head was he could actually go out for a 50 - 55 mile training run, in one day, then run the next, and keep on training. This was crazy to me. It's one thing to do 50 miles, but then you're supposed to take a couple months off from running so you can recover, aren't you? Apparently all the advice that marathoners had passed off to me about taking time off after a 26.2 mile race, didn't seem to apply to these men, and ladies of steel. I also had lunch with a guy who actually did a 10 mile run the next day after completing a 100 mile race in 19 hours. How is this possible???I began to dable into this world without any real training. I lucked through a 100k, barely, and figured if I can do 62, then what's another 38 miles. So I tried a 100 miler in February, but my body shut down and I couldn't move 1 inch after mile 76. I was on crutches for a week and I missed work because I couldn't get in my truck and drive. I figured if I really want to do this, I need to get smart and find someone with the right knowledge to get me there.I came across Eric Orton, and got his 100 mile plan. After emailing him a few times back and forth, I was pretty confident that he was the right person for me. I remembered looking through the training plan and seeing that 50 miler to be done in one day, then have a 1:30 run the next day, then only have 1 day off, then go right back into a week of training. I looked at this and thought, wow, would I be able to make it that far and survive that weekend!!!With great news, I can say that I made it through it. Because this was such a big run, my wife was going to crew me. I had prepared ice chests of everything they have at a 100 mile aid station, and she would drive and wait at every 5 mile point. Knowing that she was going to be there and help me through it made the day less scary.I began my run at 4:00am, and told her that I would be fine until 8:30am. She was going to come meet me at 8:30am and we'd be off. At 8:30am, she wasn't there so I borrowed a phone from someone and called her. My daughter was very sick and my wife wasn't feeling well either. Panic came over me and I realized that I wouldn't get crewed and I was going to have to finish this by myself. I almost wanted to quit and give up, but I took a deep breath and said, I'll be fine. I can do this. I'll be home around 2:00pm. I saw this as just something out of my control and I could either give up, or I could keep moving forward. I've come this far, and I'm not a quitter. This was just an obstacle that I'd have to overcome. In these long distance races, there's so much stuff that comes up, that you didn't plan for, and you need to be ready to adjust and get the job done.I lef where I was at to complete 30 miles. The actual run was uneventful. I used convenient stores to get ice and water from, and for that 30 miles, I carried 2 PBJ, 8 ounces of Hammer gel, and 1 Red Bull. I also stopped along the way and got a Starbucks coffee. I was under nutritioned for this, but I still made it. My body held up, and there was no aches or pains. I was getting sore and tired at about mile 42, but I'm sure this is to be expected, especially since I wasn't eating right. My marathon coach actually found me at mile 48, he didn't know the route I was running, and he had been out looking for me for over an hour. He ran me in the last 2 miles, which was great and needed.I felt great afterwards. I went home, showered, then went to a surprise party and amazingly felt great. I even woke up this morning, a little sore, but felt fine after a little stretching, and ran for an hour and a half. This morning's run was difficult, mentally for me, because I was feeling really tired, but I made it through it. I then realized that after all of this, I can still walk, I even went grocery shopping today for my wife since she's still sick, and while I'm ready for a recovery day tomorrow, I'm physically in shape to do another week of training.I'm now just like that guy I received an email from last year. Me being able to do this, to me, speaks volumes about Eric's training plan, and his philosophies. Besides his training, I was also able to do this because I have a great group of friends and runners that support me and keep me encouraged. I also believe that my running is a gift given to me from God.By the way, did I mention that it was on this day, two years ago in 2007, when I went out for my very first run and did 1.5 miles.
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Eric, I'm still hanging in there and no major problems. Week 12, 13, and 14 has been tough in terms of mental toughness and really feeling exhausted. It feels like my body is being weighted down, but I know this is just to prepare the body to be able to deal with the last 30 miles of the race. Actually, looking at the plan, I've broken everything down and realized I only have 3 more tough weekends. There's a 35 miler this weekend, then a 50, then a 20 miler followed by a 30 miler. Once I can get through these, then I feel I'll be on easy street. I've only missed 4 days in the training plan, and they were just a short one.I did miss the scheduled 45 minute recovery run that I had today because my right shin started bothering me on Friday during the 20 miler. I ran another 20 on Saturday and it still bothered me all day Saturday, and didn't get much better on Sunday. I woke up this morning and still had some slight pain. I'm not real sure what it is. I know the last 3 weeks have been a lot of miles with little recovery and maybe my body is just revolting? Now, the pain is pretty minimal. I'm not walking with any limp or anything. Right now, it's just something that I can feel, but certainly not anything preventing me from running at all. I just want to be cautious and I'm too far into this to get any major injuries. I've actually been completely injury free since March and I really thought I'd get through this with no problem. I'm not sure if this is shin splints or what. Is there anything you can recommend? I hate missing any of the runs, but in an attempt to stay healthy for the long runs coming up, I figured it was ok to skip today.Any help you could provide would be great.
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Per Eric's plan, I did a 30 mile run last week. I was to stay in z1 - z3 and I walked a few times when I felt I needed it. I ended up doing the run in 5:21 minutes, a 10:42 average pace. This weekend, I had a 35 mile run, and per Eric's plan, the protocol was to run 40 minutes and walk 20 minutes every hour until I hit 35 miles. I ended up doing this in 6:25 minutes, a 10:59 average pace, and that was incorporating in 88 minutes of walking. Just like Eric said, I was able to run the 40 minutes strong, and the 20 minutes of walking gave me enough recovery time to do another strong 40 minutes. Thanks Eric.
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I just wanted to thank you Eric, for all the work, knowledge, and advice you share with all of us runners. It's obvious that you put in a lot of work in all of this, including your training, websites, and answering our questions, and I hope you know you're efforts are appreciated more than you know.I'm on week 8 of your 24 week 100 mile plan, and I'm loving it. Things are going great and I feel the plan is working very well. I'm seeing very noticable improvements right now with being able to hold faster paces while being in lower heart rate zones like 1 and 2. At first, I was frustrated by running so slow to stay in these low zones because I could run faster, but I think staying with your plan is show some benefits at this point. I'm guessing it's because of the slow twitch muscles being built. I actually did a heart rate half marathon plan when I first started running, and I went from running an 11 minute pace while holding zone 1, to being able to run in the high 8's, low 9's while being in zone 1. I'm seeing those same results come back.After this weekends long run days, which are two hours each, I get into the 30 and 30+ miles. I'm looking forward to it and all the results I'll see. Like I've said before, because of your plan, I'm expecting to have a great finish for my 100 mile race in October.If anyone is looking to do a 100 mile race, I'd really recommend Eric's plan.
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I'm a little confused on how to do the hill workout mentioned on week 8 of your 100 mile plan. It says, MS1: 4 X 8 min. hill climbs in high zone 4 with 2-3 min. RI.Am I supposed to have a hill tall enough where I can run for 8 minutes up it, or do I go up and down a hill and do this for 8 minutes?I also want to add that I thoroughly am enjoying your 100 mile plan. It's structured in a great way and all the workouts I feel have a very specific purpose, and no wasted time. I feel everything I'm doing is going toward great benefits and my next race will be my most successful one thanks to this plan.If anyone else is training with Eric's 100 mile plan, I'd love to hear how your workouts are going and maybe I can get some pointers from you.
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