Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 2013: chasing the chicks!

There is an expression in ultra running, to be chicked, which means finishing behind a female runner. In ultra, where physical ability represent only half of the success formula, the remainder being mental toughness and experience, elite women often compete head to head, or shoulder to shoulder with elite men, sometimes surpassing them like Ann Trason or Elie Greenwood have shown us. While some folks may find this expression rather machist, given the camaraderie which exists among ultra runners, this is just a way to recognize the emulation that ladies bring to our sport. Here I am with the Brooks team reps after their 5K race:

Now, in a turkey trot, and a road 10K, the word chicked brings another perspective. First, there are the turkey/bird costumes or attires on the course, for the costume competition. But there are also very fast and competitive girls running hard against the clock. The good thing at the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot is that we have 2 separate real elite races where top National and International runners are invited to break the local flat and fast 5K course record. I did that race 4 years ago (2009) between another turkey trot 2 days before and Quad Dipsea 2 days later and, despite a good time (16:34, 5:20 pace), I was half a mile behind the winner when he passed the finish line, yikes! At least I didn't get lapped on the 1-mile loop course, phew. ;-)

Back to my race report of yesterday's race... IBM was sponsoring again this year and, on behalf of the 4,000 IBMers in the Bay Area, I was set to address the crowd at 7:42 am, for 60 seconds, before our 10K start at 7:50. I knew about the 7:45 start of the wheelchair competition but I hadn't realized how aggressive it was to also squeeze the National anthem between 7:43 and 7:45...

Bottom line,  I waited on stage for 10 minutes but decided to leave and rush to the start line instead of waiting for Carl's go ahead so I could get at least one minute of warm-up before the gun.

Way too short warm-up but better than missing the start... Agnès told me that Carl ended up calling my name at 8:01. I was already 2 miles away, no time to run back! ;-)

Despite a blazing start (my GPS displaying an average pace of 5:11 min/mile after a 1/4 mile), there were about a dozen runners ahead of me by the first turn.

And, as I realized I started too fast, and slowed down a bit, I got passed by the lead gal, Heather Tanner, and was barely able to keep up but managed to remain a couple of hundred yards behind. The power of chicks! I passed the 1-mile mark around 5:30 which I thought was reasonable but that meant I was now running 5:40 min/mile pace. Between the limited warm-up and a short night (movie with the boys on Wednesday night), I wasn't able to accelerate much and even maintain the 5:43 pace of my recent Rock'n Roll Half Marathon. By mile 2 I could here a few runners in my steps and the group included another female runner, Brooke Wells. I decided that one chick was enough and kept maintaining a 5:45 pace on the long stretch of The Alameda. Speaking of stretch, it seemed that the 4-mile mark was off by 0.1 mile, which may explain why many of our GPS watches indicated 6.31 to 6.33 miles at the finish. And slower times than usual for some of us.

At the 4.5-mile chip timing control station, I still had Heather in sight and I encouraged Brooke to stay with me, telling her that we were going to catch Heather. I wasn't fully convinced myself by the end of mile 5, but I finally passed Heather with less than 1/2 mile to go, as well as a couple of other runners. And Brook did pass Heather as well, to win the race! After 35:05 in 2010, 35:20 in 2011 and 35:06 in 2012, I was slightly disappointed with this year's finish time (36:09, 5:49 pace), but it's rather fair with the lack of speed work between all the great ultra races I had this year and the 4 weeks in Senegal where it was way too hot to get under 7 min/mile. I'm also glad that this time was good enough to win the Masters division this year, just before I turn 50. And the second Master was 1 second behind so that was worth the final sprint, phew!

After the race, I went to the IBM Festival Area main stage to wait for Monique, an IBM colleague who was going to lead a post-race stretching routine. Joined by another colleague, Sheila, we got a few participants who enjoyed the 10-minute stretching exercise in the meadow, before joining their family or friends for their Thanksgiving banquets!

I stayed for another hour to watch the impressive elite races, first the women one:

and the men:

I'm thankful to all the people who have made this even possible for the past 9 years. One man stands out for his leadership, that is Carl Guardino, the CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and SVLG Foundation. Carl's passion for both economic development and sports (not just running but triathlon), along with his dynamism and high level energy, converged in this event whose main goal is to raise money for local charities. With this year's $800K, that's more than $4 million to date, on the way to surpass a cumulative $5 million for next year's 10th anniversary of the event. Here (left) he is presented the symbolic bib #1 by Mark Winitz who recruits the 70 elite runners year after year:

It was fun to be part of this year's Steering Committee and see how much commitment a few local companies bring to ensure the success of en event gathering 25,000 participants and 1,100 volunteers.

The ideal way to represent the original values behind the Thanksgiving tradition, bridging communities and working together to be thankful and help others.

Hope to see you all again next year!

Around the Earth, in Brooks!

This is a very special milestone: I had already covered the whole length of the Equator in my running log (see my January 2011 post, Around the world: once!) but this time, I passed the 24,902-mile mark today (40,077 km) which is the horizontal circumference of our planet (the vertical one, passing by the poles is 42 miles shorter by the way). All these miles in Brooks shoes!

What a journey it has been so far with this brand since I was recommended my first pair of Trance in a running store in Cupertino, MetroSport, which has closed since. This was in April 1999 when I was preparing for my first marathon, the San Francisco Marathon in July. After 21 marathons, 38 10Ks, 25 half marathons, 76 ultra marathons and 204 races overall, I'm grateful to Brooks for its focused mission on running shoes, mixing innovation and tradition. Indeed, speaking of tradition, it's a little known fact that Brooks started in 1914, quite a milestone approaching for the company (almost as old as... IBM, which celebrated its centennial in 2011 ;-). Yet, Brooks is at the leading edge when it comes to new and recyclable fabrics, sustainable manufacturing techniques, balancing the currently diverging trends of minimalism versus increasing cushioning, and an appealing spectrum of colors too!

I got three new pairs of Brooks in the mail this week, 2 PureConnect and 1 PureGrit. I took one of the pairs of PureConnect out for my long run on Saturday, these brilliant blue ones.

28 flat miles up to the Palo Alto Baylands from Cupertino, running the whole Stevens Creek Trail from the new bridge which opened this year (85 over pass from Heatherstone Way in Sunnyvale). I was able to sustain a reasonable 7:10 min/mile pace which got me a 3:08 marathon time. I was reading about the new Boston and New York marathon qualifying rules this morning and realized that I still don't have a qualifier (my 2:47 World Masters in July 2011 is too "old" for Boston). I know I'm taking a risk with the stricter qualifying times but I'll wait for next year to get a reference time and see what I'm up for when I turn 50.

I went for another run this morning and ran a half marathon at 7:08 pace. The shoulder is still improving and getting better (June fracture) but I need to get back to the track to regain more leg speed in particular.

Back to my "journey" around the Earth in Brooks, here are some stats:

1. 2,076 entries out of 2,580 in my log
2. An average of 12 (11.99...) miles per run
3. 40 different pairs used
4. 623 miles average / pair, with a max of 1,574 miles in my 2nd pair of Trance and 1,320 miles in my first pair of Burn

And here is a spread across the 9 model families:

Of course this is a static view and doesn't show the trend. I'm not running in Trance anymore. I used 10 pairs overall, from the original ones to the Trance 8. This is still an amazing shoe but I don't need as much cushioning now. I loved the Burn but they don't exist anymore. I replaced them by a blend of Launch and Racer ST. I was used to do most of my trail runs in Cascadia but I keep them for technical trails only now, while using running flats in ultra races. I love the cushioning of the Green Silence for my recovery runs. And I'm a new addict of the minimalist Pure "movement" or PureProject.

This has certainly been great and very productive 13 years of running so I'm not sure how long it will take me to circle the Earth a second time (19,461 miles to go ;-), that is, at my current 62 miles/week average, assuming I can maintain this pace, "just" 6 more years...). The biggest lesson out of this long injury-free experiment is that I rotate through 3 or 4 different models every week. Along with a variety of running courses and terrains, I'm sure this is a key element of sustainable running and the ability to Run many miles, ... Happy! So, you all, Run Happy too... around the world!

Brooks' PureProject: another big step toward minimalist

Innovative, cool and flashy, light, intriguing, functional, ... minimalist, here are some words I associate with the brand new PureConnect!

But, first, an update on my running since I didn't post last week. It's going well with a good 56-mile weekend a week ago (see the aerial pictures taken on my way up to Black Mountain, over the Bay Area morning fog) and 335 miles for the month of August (my second highest monthly mileage in my 13-year running log!). Last time I ran that much in one month was in May 2009 with 346 miles, 3 races (Miwok, QuickSilver and Ohlone) and a 122-mile memorial weekend training to prepare for Western States. I know this looks pale compared to the many 300-mile weeks that Tony Krupicka is used to log, but running is only my second job... Less miles this week as I'm tapering for Rio Del Lago 100-mile next week, but still 44 miles of easy/flat running as I'm trying to maintain my average weekly mileage above 62 miles (or 100 km) for the first time in my running life (I'm at 62.87 mile/week as of this Sunday evening).

Back to the title, I feel so lucky to have received a pair of PureConnect 10 days ago. The next day, I was running in them in the neighborhood at 6 am, then on Friday again. On Saturday, I even decided to get them on the trails for my 29-mile long run. As of today, I already ran 83 happy and "pure" miles in them and I'm hooked!

Here are a few reasons why I like them:

Innovative. There are two main sides of innovation in the PureConnect: the upper one and the sole. I'd say the upper one is even more revolutionary, with the mixture of a synthetic mesh and and layer of foam punched with holes. In one piece from heel to toe and left to right (no sewing).

That provides both a great protection and also amazing breathability (even the sun gets inside the shoe on the above picture!). Of course, if the air can easily flow through these two layers, so dust can too but that's not an issue. I didn't test them in the rain, but I'd expect the water to get out very easily too for the same reasons. Two other big innovations relate to the sole. The first one at the forefront extremity of the shoe with a toe grove or "Toe Flex", separating the big toe from the others and bringing new sensations close to barefoot running.

The second one is the "Ideal Heel" concept which trims the outsole under the heel in a shape enveloping the heel. This is a move toward minimizing the use of this part of the sole, transferring the landing under the ball of the foot as you do when you run barefoot.

Cool and fashy. The bright color, the innovative upper mesh, the unorthodox shape of the heel, here are some aspects which will surely catch eyes in stores. The men collection comes in flashy greens, while the women get a flashy blue and black theme.

Light. At 7.2 oz. the PureConnect is a very light shoe but still not in the flat category. Albeit with great flexibility, there is still a good sole providing great protection for long runs on concrete and asphalt, as well as a roomy toe box.

Intriguing. The thing which intrigues me the most in the PureConnect is their dynamics, that is how the sensations change from standing to running in them. I believe that's going to be an important characteristic to highlight in stores. Let me explain. Most of the shoes have a flat outsole which provides a large contact area with the ground, actually much more than what our foot has been designed for (the difference between a bare foot print and a shoe print). The Pure Connect mimics the bare foot with a non flat out sole and reinforced contact points (black dots). The first sensation, when standing still, is one of instability or rather, a freedom that we lost with conventional shoes and all their cushioning and stability features. That being said, this perception of instability completely disappeared for me as soon as I started running. Now, I am Neutral but be assured that, if you tend to under or over pronate, Brooks has you covered with additional Stability and Support with the PureFlow and PureCadence models, which both have a more classical/extended outsole/ground contact. Most if not all other brands would have come with only one new model, when Brooks comes with a collection to cover the diversity of runners out there; another reason to like and appreciate Brooks' focus and dedication on running!

Functional. I like the classic ample and symmetrical lacing. It is very efficient and keep the shoe tight while spreading the pressure over the top of the foot. Alternating road and trail running, I like the grey color of the laces, white ones tend to look quite dirty with the dust. The laces are thick and wavy (undulated) which is perfect to keep the knot tight.

Minimalist. The outsole of the PureConnect is simple, with very few components and fabrics. It is focused on providing flexibility, ground protection and matching the original foot/ground contact of bare foot running, mainly under the ball of the foot. So, while it is minimalist, it still provides very good protection: indeed, I like the firmness of the sole which I found slightly superior to the one of the GreenSilence. It even holds very well when running on rocks on trails, the shape of the sole also providing great agility on uneven terrain, similarly to what climbing shoes are to rock climbing. Another example of minimalism can be found in the design of the tongue: it is extremely thin yet large and enveloping. With such a shape, it doesn't move at all and provides a great protection from the abundant lacing. Even better it is made of extremely soft fabric which will suit people running barefoot in their shoe (I mean without socks).

More technical information can be found in the PureConnect's spec sheet. And a few more pictures of the PureConnect on Picasa.

By the way, this review is about the PureConnect but the PureProject comes with 4 initial models for 4 different uses and runner profiles. With my focus on trail running, I'm particularly interested in the trail-specific PureGrit which Brooks designed with ultra legend Scott Jurek. You can find more information on the Brooks' PureProject web page and pre-order to be among the first to experience the... Pure Running!

Speaking of minimalist and barefoot running, here is an excerpt of a thread I had with Caballo Blanco (aka Micah True, the hero of Christopher McDougall's Born To Run) on FaceBook this week:

Caballo> While Caballo is not a wildhorse about such marketing terms as Barefoot shoes and minimalist shoes; I prefer to call the running that I hope to attain Lightfooted. In whatever it is we are wearing or not on our hooves


Jean> Well said. I like when you come with new... Marketing concepts! ;-)


Caballo> and let it be known that if anybody steals this to sell crap Caballo will kick some butt

So, let's stay with the minimalist concept per the marketing message used by Brooks on the website. By the way, with all the Born To Run success, it is little known nowadays that Micah and the Rarámuri are not running barefoot, but with very minimalist sandals or shoes. Read Kathy S' interview of Micah to separate some facts from fiction in the best selling book. Anyway, I have heard enough serious injuries from people running bare foot, I'm glad Brooks gets us super minimalist shoes such as in the PureProject collection, yet with great foot protection.

Talk to you in a week after Rio Del Lago, and Run Happy in the meantime!

20,000 miles in Brooks, and counting...

On Thursday, I passed another big milestone: 20,000 miles of running in Brooks shoes. I remember the 10,000-mile-in-Brooks milestone like it was yesterday, although it was 230 posts away, and 3 years ago. My 3rd post actually and the one which triggered my application to the Brooks Inspire Daily program. Did I put the 20,000 miles on the road map and my to do list after that? Not really but now, I'm thinking I may well aim at 30,000 miles if nature, health and God allow... Now, it took me 8 years for the first 10,000 miles, 4 years for the next 10,000 but do not expect the next ones to take only 2 years. This is only my second job...!

To celebrate, I used a pair of Trance as I had a total of 9,996 miles in this model. Not just one pair of course, but 10, from the original and first model, to the Trance 8. I was an unconditional of this product line when I first picked Brooks but moved to much lighter shoes after having read so many good things about barefoot running. Here is the spread of all these miles across the various models I've used since I felt in love with the Brooks brand in March 1999:

After reading Greg's first post on Saturday, I must say he is dead on: how lucky are we to be able to run so many miles and enjoying the outdoors, especially in the Bay Area, or compete and test our limits in races put up my so dedicated race directors and volunteers, not to mention the support of our relatives (see the video I included in last week's post for some sarcastic humor about this). This morning, I felt lucky indeed because, running long distances, I was able to run further than The Strip in Vegas. Running in Vegas is not really fun because you keep crossing roads at huge intersections. Or slaloming through the crowd later in the day... Or going though inhospitable neighborhoods... Agnès and I were in Vegas this weekend after winning a nice package at a fund raising event and I will actually be back at the Venitian in two weeks for IBM's huge celebration of SOA, BPM, Decision Management and other connectivity and application integration technologies, Impact 2011 (#impact). At the end of the week, a group of runners goes for a very early run at Red Rock Canyon. They rent a bus but I wanted to see what it would take to go there from the hotel and ended up running to the entrance of the park and back to the Venitian, for a total of 32.5 miles or 52 kilometers, just under 4 hours (3:55). Slightly uphill through Vegas going West toward the canyon, and rather boring along the 10 straight miles of West Spring Mountain Road, but I now plan on running to the start of the group run (half marathon warm-up) and take the shuttle only for the way back, to be on time for the conference. Another short night in perspective with a 4 AM wake-up call... If you are reading this post, if you will be at Impact, if you like to run and have not received Kramer's invite, contact me!

Back to the hotel, we had a romantic gondola ride on the amazing artificial canal at the Venitian and, after this ultra on 3 GU gels and 2 bottles of water, I was starving for an ice cream!

We also had a short visit from Diane, my ex-assistant at ILOG when I arrived to the US, who know lives in Las Vegas and was at the origin of this package from the Sands Foundation. It was great to see the three of you, Diane, Joe and James!

A perfect Italian day before flying back to the Bay Area which is still under the rain. A total of 87 miles this week, mostly flat and mostly under the rain, except for today's run in Las Vegas where the temperature was 65F this morning.

Arrivederci and have a good week!

Yet another busy week, for a change...

First, a lot of running with 97.8 miles since Jed Smith last Saturday. Quite a good recovery week, isn't? As a matter of fact, I was joking with Bob at the track on Tuesday morning: "Now that I have ran more than 50 ultra races, nobody really cares at work or in the family. I need to find bigger challenges..." Some people ask how I do to remain free of injuries and my first response is that you have to not only vary your types of workouts, but also rotate shoes throughout the week. Some people think that it means buying and using several pairs of the same model, but that's not what I would call rotation. For instance, this week, I ran in 5 different models (albeit all Brooks of course): my new Launch on Sunday, the Ghost 2 on Monday, Racer ST4 on Tuesday, the Launch again on Wednesday and Thursday, the cool Green Silence on Friday, my old Cascadia 3 for 35 miles on the trail on Saturday and the Ghost again for more hilly road running this Sunday.

And, yes, I have other models to chose from (the Launch is my 28th pair of Brooks)!

That's one of the reasons I keep track of each particular model I use in my running log, so I know how many miles each pair have been through. I know, I should be able to tell just by the feelings, but I'm not expert enough for that, or too much of an engineer...

Back to the running, we had an exceptional good weather all week and it really makes it easy to go out in such conditions. We expect bad weather to come to the Bay Area this week but, in the meantime, the Spring has arrived in our Valley of Heart's Delights and flowers and trees are blooming.

Speaking of Valley of Heart's Delights, the week would have been perfect if not for the environmental disaster, right in Cupertino. If you missed my last post, the hearing at the Board of Supervisors of our Santa Clara County was supposed to last for one hour. Not only it started late but went on for 4 hours. Certainly the matter was critical and worth at least 4 hours. I thought the Board was really looking at the issue seriously until the meeting wrapped up in the most unexpected manner, with a last minute motion submitted by Supervisor Liz Kniss who had evidently no intention to let her fellow Supervisors sneak in the special relationship she entertains with the Lehigh Permanente cement plant in her district.

To the Board's defense or credit, it is true that the public missed the point. The decision was about the use of the land and potentially removing another hill from our foothills, not about the pollution caused by the related cement plant itself, although this pollution is indeed an outrage to the people of Silicon Valley. As a consequence I heard one of the Supervisors say: "well, I didn't hear any complaint from the public about the mining activities, so it doesn't seem to be an issue." With that profound mismatch, I'm not sure who supervises what? I thought it was the role of the Supervisors to be on top of things, not the aggregated public.

Anyway, since Tuesday when I had to spend 5 hours standing because Lehigh had used its 150 employees to fill in the entire auditorium so we were denied entrance to the room, I can't stop thinking how bad this story is for the protection of our environment, and what a chance the County has missed to step up in favor of sustainable development. Out of the 60 or more testimonies in favor of Lehigh, it was all about "we have mined these foothills for 3 generations so there is really no reason to stop" and, "yes, it was the intent of our visionary founder, Mr. Henry Kaiser to mine the whole area, so leave us alone" or, from a 42-year employee "I am in good health so this is a proof that the plant doesn't represent any danger." This is the point with sustainable development, it requires that we change some of the past behaviors, and get smarter.

So, what was a stake on Tuesday? Basically the right to use the remainder of the grounds that Henry Kaiser had purchased without a mining permit, 70 years ago, to now dig a second "pit". Or, rather, scoop another of the Cupertino foothills! Look at the red ellipse below and imagine this hill replaced by the same scar than the current pit above. And if you think that the Stevens Creek Reservoir is big, look twice on the right of the current pit, how small it actually is in comparison. We are not talking about small impact here... (click on the picture for a full screen view)

Here are additional readings about this major issue:

1. Committee for Green Foothills: a good coverage of the issue which was already threatening in 2004 and only worsen since;
2. An article about the nearby Permanente Creek which shows Henry Kaiser. From his living in a cabin in the woods, I think it is pretty clear that his so-called "vision" was not to denature the area which is fortunately almost all protected except for this huge scar in the Peninsula;
3. The NoToxicAir organization which, with very limited means, hold the charge during the public hearing;
4. The 1st Mercury News article after the hearing;
5. A follow-up Mercury News article on Friday (what I like, sort of, about the proponent of the plant is that they evidently recognize the noxious impact of the plant since their advice is that Cupertino residents were just too stupid to buy a house in the neighborhood! At least we all agree on the environmental issue. So, what do we do? We displace entire cities like they do in China when the soil and air are so spoiled?!);
6. The AD-HOC website, a public interest group fighting pollution in the Western part of Silicon Valley;
7. The perspective of the other neighbor community, Los Altos Hills;
8. The connection between the site and the suicide of a German billionaire, Adolfe Merckle, who had acquired Hanson, the owner of the cement plant.

Again, the week would have been perfect if the matter would have gotten a better issue, there will for sure be other debates about the lack of vision and responsibility of such decision. At least, the Lehigh officials recognized that the plant was indeed producing 20 times the maximum amount of mercury authorized by the EPA (Environment Protection Agency). They also pledged to reduce the pollution by 95% at some point, yet recognized that ir was very challenging given the high concentration of mercury in the extracted rock. Maybe something Henry Kaiser had not "envisioned..." The most ironical news of the rest of the week was when Republicans were said that, since ir was too difficult to comprehend the immensity of the budget of the Department of Defense, they would simply start with eliminating the 40-year EPA! How convenient would that be for Lehigh, wouldn't it?!!

My Picasa photo album of this week combines pictures from our group run on Saturday, which ended up to be 35 miles. And a few pictures from Montebello Road and Peacock Court of Lehigh's quarry. I am so thankful that most of the Peninsula foothills are now protected, thanks in particular to POST (Peninsula Open Space Trust). Almost all but one, worth the fight...

Labor Day: how hard are you working on your running?

It is Labor Day today and, while many are enjoying the outdoors and camping for this last long summer weekend, the family is enjoying a quiet time at home to catch-up with... work. No race, just two nice evenings with friends, a movie night with a French movie (Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté from Claude Lelouch with Jean-Paul Belmondo) and a bit of running before taking the week leading to Rio del Lago off.

I wrote my last post on the plane to Austin and did not run for the three days over there. My flight out of Austin was 2-hour late because of a mechanical problem and I ended up in SFO at 1 AM instead of SJC (San Jose) at 10 PM. My first conference call on Friday morning was at 6:30 AM, leaving me with just 4 hours of sleep so I got back to bed for 90 more minutes after my second call and before two others...

As I'm supposed to be tapering before the 100-mile race next week, I stayed in the neighborhood this weekend for some flat, albeit fast, miles. Friday: 12.5 miles @ 6:22 min/mile, Saturday: 9.3 miles @ 6:45, Sunday: 6.2 miles @ 6:57 and this Monday: 9.3 miles @ 6:17. I promise, I will be slower next week on the 100-mile... ;-)

While I was running and pushing harder today, I thought about the "work" aspect of my running, this hobby I call my second job. Like some people say: "No pain, no gain..." which I believe to be true if you want to progress in anything. Not necessarily physical pain, but at least diligent efforts to push the envelope and get you out of your comfort zone. Anyway, I hope that what ever you are up to, you too were able to use this quiet time to "work" on your passion or hobby on this Labor Day. If you did not have to actually work your first job today...

This weekend I also added a dashboard to my running log to track my progress against special milestones. Doing so, I discovered that, today, I ran my 30,000 th kilometer in Brooks shoes. I remember when I celebrated my 10,000 miles in Brooks back in 2007, it is going to be soon 2,000 miles. I am also 96.7% of having 24,902 miles which is the circumference of the Earth at the equator line, an imaginary trip around the World in 2,500 or so stages. Stay tuned for this other celebration! Next week will be my 50 th ultra race, so this other milestone will come first.

Now, guess what we talked about at my friends' on Saturday night? Yes, Black Mountain again (see last week's post)! The two families we had dinner with are familiar with the trails in Rancho San Antonio and, after hearing me praising the 306-degree views from the top of Black Mountain, they now want to extend their run or hike to this newly popular place!

Last but not least, I have a colleague who asked me some running-related questions on Friday night so I thought I'd share the reply with all of you. Here you are for a mini Q&A session, hope it helps. And talk to you after Rio del Lago then. Have a good short week in the meantime!

Q: I see in your pictures that you seem to wear compression shorts... do they help you? what do you like about them? Have you tried compression socks, and if so, what's your experience?

Indeed, I'm using long shorts such as this one from Brooks: Equilibrium CoRe short. But I actually take a couple of sizes up because it's not for the compression they offer, it's to avoid chaffing between the legs/thighs on long runs.

As for compression socks, I never used them except on long flights to avoid blood clots. I find them not looking nice and, given the number of miles I do, they would be expensive (wear inside the shoes), unless you use only leg compression sleeves. That being said, I heard good things about them and there are a few elites wearing them now.

Q: What is your nutrition intake regimen on your long runs... do you stick with gels, or do you expand into more solid foods?

It depends how long is the long run. Under 20 miles, I may use one gel (GU) especially if it's hilly. For longer runs (~30 miles), I may take with me a Snickers bar and a couple of GUs in case. For even longer runs, I would hope to find a place to buy some food such as banana, chips and/or pastries. And, of course, on races, I use what aid stations offer, which is usually a lot of variety in North California (fruits, cookies, brownies, soup, potato and salt, chips, ...).

Q: What's your strategy on electrolyte replacement/management (nothing/powders/tablets/salt stick)?

I go with Gu2O, and more specifically with the Lemon Lime flavor which means that I need to carry with me ziplocks with enough powder on long races where I don't have a crew, as different flavors or brands are usually offered at aid station. I'm also a big fan of S!Caps from Succeed! taking at least one per hour, if not one every 30 minutes in hot weather during races.

Depending on the temperature and elevation, I'm drinking a bottle of 16oz of GU2O every 15 to 10 miles. And about the same of water, although I don't track my consumption too precisely.

The other important finding in this area for me has been Vespa (vespapower.com). It actually addresses both the drink and food aspects as this drinks will accelerate your metabolism to transform your own body fat into energy. It comes from Japan where they have the top ultra runners on the planet (at least on road) and it works for many of us here. By the way, you don't even need a lot of body fat for Vespa to work! ;-)

Q: Do you have any good Core Strengthening resources you might recommend? I find lots of individual exercises, but I'm looking for a complete routine/flow/sequence for consistency.

I must admit that Core Strengthening is not my forte despite all the recognized benefits. I tend to only work on my Core when I get more time out of running from tapering or healing from injury, both being infrequent actually. Same for yoga, I feel I don't have time, but it's more a matter of priority of course. Agnès is the opposite, and Core Strengthening helped us alleviate the hip pain for many years. In particular she is an avid adept of Pilates which she practices at the Y on the Reformer.

Back to Core Strengthening, and to show you that I'm a big believer, I bought two books a few year ago which I recommend: Core Performance and Core Performance Endurance from Mark Verstegen and Pete Williams. Nice visuals and clear instructions, great presentation on glossy paper, and I particularly like the summary workouts at the end of the book (what you are looking for). If only one, take the second book.

Dad son wild west half-marathon

If you have not figured out by now, the family has been quite busy these past months or even years. Sometimes it is hard to fit everything we would like into our schedules, that is meeting with friends or traveling to new places for instance. Our Bucket List is long, we have enough on it for many years to come!

From time to time the boys offer us very personal gifts such as a one on one movie night or scrap booking, or the more classic car wash.

Last year, Max gave me a very special voucher for Father's Day: to run his first half marathon togehter. Between his cross-country schedule and college applications, and my busy race schedule, months passed without us coming with a good date for such an event. In May, I realized we had better hurry up with only a few weeks left before Max leaves for the East Coast. I went on several race schedule websites and found one half-marathon which was not already full, in August and close to our friends' place in Incline Village, Nevada, as we have planned for a weekend with them mid August. After checking with Agnès and Max, I registered the two of us on AllSportCentral.com.

As the date was approaching in July, Max and I were excited about the opportunity to realize his gift, finally. Max started training again after his graduation, including the 16 miles he paced me along at Western States at the end of June. Going the distance was really not the concern. As a matter of fact, we did a 13-mile run in Paris in 1:48. The unknown was how much we could push the pace. Unfortunately, Max' foot started bothering him at the end of July, a sort of inflammation under his right foot. Instead of running, he focused on swimming and did some biking as he is now dreaming of triathlon. With that, I really did not know what to expect. Just before the race, Max and I agreed on a conservative start at 7 min/mile pace, and we would pick up the pace half way if he was feeling good. The goal was to run under or close to 1 hour and 30 minutes. That was before seeing the course...

The other unknow this Sunday morning was the course as the website description was rather succint:

Out and back on fairly level streets, fire trails, and single track trails, rolling, no major hills! Magnificent High Sierra scenery. Four aid stations on course. Awards to all that complete the Half marathon or 10K.

The third unknown was the size of the field. We reached Donner Summit/Soda Springs around 8:15 for a start scheduled at 9 AM and, with the event called "Wild West", I was worried that would leave enough time to get our bib numbers. Well, there were barely 5 runners around the registration table and the field increased to a total of... 18 runners! It has been a long time since I did not compete in such a small field.

We all listened carefully to the pre-race briefing of race director, Big Al. After a few series of "take right, then right, then up, then straight, then turn around", several of us looked at each other, puzzled. Max asked if I had followed the instructions as he was relying on me. By the way, Big Al's motivation for putting up these races is to get more people healthy and he asked all of us that we take our own share and drag other people into running. A message which I'm very happy to spread through this blog and which corresponds well to the philosophy of the Brooks Inspire Daily program which I am part of.

We started by a short down hill and Max and I took the lead at the first turn. Max had forgotten his GPS but did not mind as I was going to pace him anyway.

A quarter of mile into the race we were at 6:35 min/mile pace and slowed down in the first hill. We were followed at a distance by Bau who was leading the 10K race. The hill from Soda Springs to the first aid station around 1.6 miles kept slowing down and we left the aid station with an average pace of 7:45 min/mile which we will maintain for the next 11 miles.

We crossed the third runner of the half two minutes after the turn around, then about ten other runners. Then we passed a few 10K runners who were on their way back. I kept reminding Max that we had another 4-mile out and back along the rail track before the finish, but he was too tired to realize. His back was cramping and he had GI issues which made him reluctant to drink. We saw Agnès at the end of each out and back and at the finish (in the meantime she drove up to Royal Gorge Inn, a place we enjoy in winter when cross country skiing).

As a perfect Dad-Son run, we reached the finish line together for a tie win of the event, in 1:41:57.

It was obviously not a competitive event yet it was not a flat one either and the altitude did not help as we the course was oscillating between 6,700 and 7,000 feet. And it was mostly on trail too. What a treat for Max to win his first half marathon race and for me to have been on his side to encourage and motivate him.

Please note that the event will be held the second weekend of August in 2011 and Big Al hopes this will bring more people by synchronizing with another local event or celebration.

A big thank you to... Big Al and his two volunteers manning the two aid stations! And congratulations to all the runners who joined them for this very friendly in a gorgeous and healthy place to run (except for the dust when crossing cars on the trail... ;-). And to Agnès for crewing and covering the event with her camera once again.

No food at the finish but the winner of the 10K race, Beau Barrett, and his wife, Shani, offered a sandwich, a cereal bar and an orange to Max who was most needing some fuel after pushing hard. Bean and Shani will be running the Lake Tahoe Marathon as a pair, one half marathon each and passing their baby at the mid point. They create glass art, wearables and lampwork in Fernley, Nevada, and I invite you to visit their evolvingcreations.com website!

Here are three screen shots from my Garmin 205 recordings loaded in SportTracks. See you all on the road or the trails and... Run Happy!

PS: can't make the scale more realistic for the elevation chart. From 6,700 feet at the start to 7.000 at the first aid station, it was not as hilly as this chart implies...