1. Advice from Eric Robinson that turned my pessimistic mind around about low mileage training. THANKS!

2. Another clip of advice from Eric, directed to another runner, talking about long breaks from training and how they affect performance.

3. A race report by Gregg Heinrichs, this one of Dances with Dirt, my first 50k. His report is interesting for the different perspective, and he talks about meeting me. ;-)

DRS postings...from summer '97 and earlier (located on a different page)

From ejr@uclink4.berkeley.edu Sun Dec  7 20:23:48 1997
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 09:17:54 -0700
From: Eric Robinson 
To: Tenacity , ius-l@american.edu
Subject: Re: Increasing Mileage

Andrea,

My most aggressive mileage ramping occurred a couple years ago
when my long run went from zero to one hundred in less than six
months.  I believe that it succeeded because of the massive
amounts of rest I got between runs (i.e. in 23 weeks I ran
only 36 times).

I started out trying to run at least two or three times per
week, because at the time, I believed that was the minimum
for any training schedule.  I started to make real progress
when I abandoned this idea (week 8), and decided to run only
once per week unless I felt exceptionally strong.  

Week M   T   W   Th  F   Sa  Su     TOT
---- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---    ---
1      2           2           2      6
2          2                   3      5
3              1               6      7
4                          7   7     14
5                          6          6
6                  9      10   5     24
7                     12   3         15
8                         21         21
9                         23         23
10    3                   26         29
11                 6      21         27
12                            12     12
13                        31         31
14                        21         21
15        16              23         39
16                        16         16
17                        36         36
18                     7              7
19                13      48*        61   *10 (am) + 38 (pm)
20    11                      23     34
21        43                         43
22                                    0
23                       106        106

>Here's my basic training right now:  2-3X per week: 4-5mi with a few 400m
>"form pick-ups".  1X per week: long run, currently 16mi.

In your case, you may be pretty much adapted to running 3-4 times
per week, and if so your situation is probably different than
mine was.  However, the key to finishing the 50k will definitely
be your long runs, so you should consider the shorter runs as
expendable.  If eliminating or reducing your short runs enables
you to get in the longer stuff, by all means do so.  You won't
lose much, if anything, in terms of conditioning.

>My goal race is a 50k, and it is 6 1/2 weeks away.

You have time for two or maybe three really good long runs,
plus rest between them and a taper.  Since you will be increasing
the distance of your long runs pretty dramatically, I would
recommend two weeks between long ones, with rest weeks in
between per Galloway.

What percentage of your long run is running?  What percentage
is walking?  If you're running at least 12 of the 16 miles,
and are accustomed to walking, I would suggest immediately
increasing your next long run to 24 miles (12 running and 12
walking).  This will give you the extra "time on your feet"
that you are probably lacking right now, and more than anything
else, help get you ready for the distance.

For the remaining long run(s), you can concentrate on increasing
the overall distance as a primary goal, and the amount of
running as a secondary goal.

# Eric Robinson
# --------------------------
# ejr@uclink4.berkeley.edu
# --------------------------
# Berkeley, California
# --------------------------
# 7/11    Hardrock (CO)

From ejr@uclink4.berkeley.edu Sun Dec  7 20:33:13 1997
Date: Fri, 05 Dec 1997 10:09:37 -0800
From: Eric Robinson 
To: Bridtrader , ius-l@american.edu
Subject: Re: long, not desired break

Brian,

I have had the same experience about two dozen times in the past thirty
months.  However, many of these breaks were voluntary and in fact
"experiments"
to learn how much time I could take off and not lose anything from
performance.
I wanted to learn this to improve the tapering process before races.

It turns out that a single break of 20 days is a bit longer than ideal
for me, but has no real negative consequences on endurance.  In general,
these breaks don't seem to harm my long runs at all.  I'm not sure what
effect they would have on daily runs (which I usually avoid).

What         # of                            What
Preceded     Days                            Ended
Layoff       Off    Reason(s)                Layoff       Date      Perform
--------     ----   ---------                ---------    --------  -------
43 mi train  17     taper                    24 hr race   7/22/95   Excel
24 hr race   14     recover/taper            31 mi race   8/6/95    Good
31 mi race   33     recover/taper/injury     50 mi race   9/9/95    Poor
50 mi race   20     recover/taper            24 hr race   11/11/95  Fair
24 hr race   13     recover                  10 mi train  11/25/95
50 mi race   17     recover/injury           2 mi train   4/24/96
100 mi race  14     recover/injury           5 mi train   6/22/96
31 mi race   12     recover/taper            50 mi race   8/17/96   Poor
100 mi race  13     recover/taper            50 mi race   10/12/96  Excel
50 mi race   13     recover                  14 mi train  10/26/96
13 mi race   20     taper                    28 mi race   11/30/96  Excel
31 mi race   13     recover                  10 mi train  2/1/97
29 mi train  13     taper                    31 mi race   3/15/97   Fair
50 mi race   13     recover/taper            62 mi race   4/19/97   Poor
31 mi race   12     recover/taper            31 mi race   5/10/97   Excel
9 mi train   14     taper                    100 mi race  6/28/97   Good
100 mi race  12     recover/taper            29 mi dnf    7/11/97   Poor
29 mi dnf    14     recover                  9 mi train   7/26/97
50 mi race   13     recover/taper            100 mi race  9/27/97   Fair
100 mi race  13     recover/taper/injury     50 mi race   10/11/97  Good
50 mi race   13     recover/taper/injury     52 mi race   10/25/97  Fair
52 mi race   20     recover/taper/injury     25 mi dnf    11/15/97  Poor
25 mi dnf    13     recover/taper/injury     14 mi dnf    11/29/97  Poor

My performances are affected by a lot of factors, but whether or how long
a break I had before hand is apparently not one of them.


# Eric Robinson
# --------------------------
# ejr@uclink4.berkeley.edu
# --------------------------
# UC Berkeley
# Fleet Services

From greggh@rust.net Sun Dec  7 20:32:24 1997
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 21:13:59 -0400
From: Gregg Heinrichs 
To: ius-l@american.edu
Cc: Leslie Sowle ,
    "Marie A. Bienkowski" ,
    "Marjorie J. Allen" ,
    Renee Despres 
Subject: The Chinese Evergreen From Hell

"Hell," contended Samuel Johnson several hundred years ago, "is paved
with good intentions," a warning Adidas more recently (and with more
commercial, if not devilish, intent) abridged in an ad to "the road to
hell is paved."  But those who've run Dances With Dirt  know that the
rocky, rutted, and root-choked trails through Hell, Michigan definitely
aren't paved, unless, metaphorically, with best (if seemingly devilish)
intentions.

I entered this year's race with some trepidation; while running the
inaugural 100K two years ago, I got lost on a pig farm on the outskirts
of Hell, courted hypothermia, and very thankfully caught a ride to the
finish courtesy of a kindly farmer's wife. I learned there that race
director Randy Step, who'd met me hours before at the last aid station
with a flashlight and navigation instructions, presumed me lost and had
gone looking for me.  Embarrassed though I was, I knew I couldn't leave
until he'd returned and I could thank him for his effort and concern. We
were both relieved when he returned an hour later.

My embarrassment was long gone when I mailed my entry for this year's
50K, which I thought would be an excellent training run for an
anticipated longer ultra later this fall, but as DWD approached, my IT
bands became sore--the result of speedwork begun too soon following my
70 mile VT 100 effort in July.  I thought about calling Randy to cancel
my entry and to offer to work an aid station, but even after I'd had to
walk the last mile of a 22 mile run the Saturday before the race, I let
the cancellation deadline pass.  The week before the race was also the
first week of classes at the two schools where I'm teaching, and when I
returned home from a three hour computer store sortie Friday night, I
wasn't sure I felt like running.  But my  knees had felt better during a
pair of shorter mid-week runs, so I set my alarm for 3 a.m., resolving
to suit up, grab some breakfast, drive the sixty miles west to race
headquarters, forget I was in lousy shape, and run.

Dante's journey through the idealized, subterranean Hell began in a dark
wood, so it was appropriate that the 100K runners began their jaunt
through Hell, MI and back an hour before sunrise.  Soon after the woods
swallowed the light from their headlamps and flashlights, we 50K
aspirants boarded vans for a disconcertingly long ride to our starting
area, a trailhead beside a quiet, not-quite Dantesque country
graveyard.  After giving us a few minutes to appreciate the race
director's devilish whimsy and to water the grass behind the taller
gravestones, the starter yelled "Go!"  and we bounded off down the
trail.

The poet Virgil was Dante's guide and companion as he travelled through
Hell, but mine was decidedly more congenial and (I confess) attractive.
List member Andrea Feucht came to June's Kettle Moraine 100 to learn
about ultras firsthand, and we met over an aid station table as I waited
to pace Suzi T.  Soon afterward, Andrea resolved to run Dances With Dirt
as her first ultra and began posting regular updates as she gradually
increased the distance of her long runs.  As we danced downhill over
rocks and exposed roots, she worried that the flat, foot-friendly trails
she'd been running at home hadn't prepared her for this run, but her
worries passed with the miles as she told me about her studies in
Geography at the University of Wisconsin--Green Bay (from which she
recently graduated), her work at the University computer lab, her
appreciation of Aristotle, and her plan to study philosophy in graduate
school, distracting me from my knee trouble very effectively.

We trotted through a meadow, and suddenly the first 100K runner, '97
Western States winner Mike Morton, emerged from the woods opposite. I
recognized his stride from the picture on the September cover of
_UltraRunning_ and called out "Good job, Mike!" I stepped aside as he
zipped past, acknowledging my greeting, and thus inspired I picked up my
pace.

Although the middle third of the course encompasses sections dubbed "The
Beast," "See "Rock City," and "Take No Prisoners," which, as signs warn,
passes near a state prison and where race literature warns runners not
to stop ("you can visit your grandma later"),  there were also several
lengthy sections of flat or gently downhill trail offering excellent
footing.  My IT bands weren't complaining, so I ran this section at
what, for me, was a respectable pace.

With about ten miles to go, the trail left the woods and there was
little cover from the uncomfortably warm noonday sun as I strode Marcel
Marceau-wise through what race literature politely calls "waist high
snarliness," commending my ankles to the Ankle Godz with each step.
That section past, I came upon Irwin, the first runner I'd seen in
several hours.  He too was feeling the heat, and as we trudged up and
ambled down the remaining hills, we talked about his work as a
psychologist,  mine as a teacher, and the effects of administrative
belt-tightening on both.

The last aid station came and went, and Irwin and I, joined now by
Arkansan Jack Edmonds, walked and trotted along dirt roads through
Chalkerville, described by race literature as "a village that redefines
casual living" and exchanged greetings for stares from its casual
denizens.  We knew we'd nearly returned to Hell but were perplexed when
the pink marking ribbons led us onto an especially casual-looking
denizen's side yard.  He was aimlessly polishing his cherry red Corvette
as the sunlight reflecting off its chrome wheels sunburned his ankles.

All three of us were pretty done in, but I guess Irwin was done-in
enough to hope the guy knew something about the race passing through his
yard and called out "How far to the finish?"

Mr. 'Vette replied, a bit too quickly, "'Bout a half mile."
Beyond his house, we plunged back into the woods, confident he was lying
through his bridgework.  Jack was confident at least triple that
distance lay before us, but the Devil needn't lie to those who doubt the
truth.  Less interested in Mr. 'Vette's veracity than in pizza and a
shower, I started running again, and after negotiating a bit more
overgrown snarliness and a short stretch of undulating ruts,  I led our
trio no more than a mile to the finish.

I'd remembered to pack a change of clothes in my bag, but had forgotten
a towel, and Irwin very kindly lent me one of his.  After showering, I
ambled back to the finish line tent and had begun guzzling water and
stuffing my face with pizza rolls when Mike Morton strode out of the
woods, looking, if anything, fresher than he had hours and miles before,
and won the 100K.

Thanks to a computerized scoring system, Randy was able to announce open
and agegroup award winners very quickly.  He saw me between pizza rolls
and asked me to pass out the awards, contained in long, skinny cardboard
boxes, to the winners, and  I gladly obliged.

I was passing out awards when Andrea finished, looking comfortable but
relieved, and I joined those congratulating her.  After she showered,
she returned to the tent, and we had resumed our conversation when I
heard my name.  I looked up, and Randy told me I'd finished second in my
agegroup and to save an award for myself.  Since I'd finished in the
middle of the pack in 6:47.13,  I thought I'd be returning home with
nothing but warm memories and a tshirt; not, as I saw when I opened one
of the long cardboard boxes, with a Chinese Evergreen seedling nestled
in a plastic pot bearing the race logo.

As I type this, two weeks after receiving my seedling, it's sitting on
my windowsill and thriving.  I'd enjoyed living alone (except for the
occasional spider)  in my one-bedroom apartment, but I'm a little
embarrassed that the presence of another living thing can be so
reassuringly palpable.  When my seedling outgrows its plastic pot, I'll
transplant it to the metal bucket finishers (and this almost finisher)
of the 100K two years ago received.  I was embarrassed to accept that
bucket, but soon fertile soil and new life will fill its emptiness and
sustain a living reminder of the grace and good fellowship I knew while
journeying from a graveyard to Hell.  The trail to Hell was anything but
paved, but to give the Corvette polishing devil his due, I wouldn't want
it smoother.  Or shorter.


--
Cheers!    "Eff the ineffable...unscrew the inscrutable."
Gregg Heinrichs, teacher              --Laurence Watts
 and ultrarunner   http://www.rust.net/~greggh