Healthy Mind Heart Body

I will run the Leadville 100.

For years since over-running my knees on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th of October, 2007 I’ve battled a maddening array of knee, leg, hip, and foot problems. In most cases, when people asked about my injuries, I just told them I had bad knees, because I knew they didn’t have the time and probably weren’t interested in hearing the endless backlog of symptoms and experiences I’d had with my legs. Who likes to hear someone complain? I still don’t think they’d care to hear about my struggles, but more recently I’ve been increasingly excited to talk about my successes.

My successes are small compared to that of even the most casual runners. Most of my friends who decide they want to start running literally start training farther and faster than I’m able to run after years of struggling recovery. I’m finally breaking beyond this embarrassingly low point.

This past week I’ve reached 30 minutes barefoot running on trails and have run almost every day for more than the past two weeks. I can feel myself having surpassed any mental or emotional need to stop running, which is dangerous territory. Luckily, We’ve already been acquainted, and I will not repeat the same mistakes I made in October 2007.

I’ll continue to increase my time-on-feet painstakingly slowly, <10% per week. It may not sound like much, but if that rate could actually be kept up, I'd be able to run 30 hours straight by the end of next year. Slow and steady is never as slow as it seems. Realistically, I will ratchet back the 10% per week as my mileage increases, to 5% in the teens and even lower in the 20s. By then I'll need to rethink my approach to fit more long runs in any given week to increase my weekly mileage as opposed to my long run. My long-term goal is to be running ultramarathons. Yeah, I haven't ever run a marathon and my sights are already set on doubles, triples, and quadruples. It sounds ridiculous, sometimes it even feels ridiculous, but I'm publishing it here to the world. I don't need fear of public failure for added motivation, but your encouragement and experiences and advice are invaluable. What is an Ultramarathon?
“An ultramarathon – also called ultra distance – is any sporting event involving running longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometres – 26.2188 mi.” (Wikipedia)

Leadville Trail 100 Run 2009

Set Realistic Goals and Don’t Cheat Yourself
I encourage you all to set your goals high and keep them realistic. Listen to yourself. Be honest with yourself. Don’t cheat yourself.

I love running. I love my relationship with running. I’ve wanted to run ultramarathons for three years now. My desire to run ultramarathons is what drove me to injury in October 2007. My desire to run ultramarathons is what drives my recovery. My desire to run ultramarathons is what will carry me through every training run and every ultramarathon I ever run.

I will run the Leadville 100.

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Geoffrey Hale

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Comments

3 responses to “I will run the Leadville 100.”

  1. Sam Tyler Avatar
    Sam Tyler

    So just do it man. The more you use those joints the more they will co-operate with you. Give Skip Hamilton a call. He's my buddy Simi's father and the 6 time winner of the Leadville 100. I've done the course in segments a few times and I'm telling you now, go out and run long distances at a low heart rate, (like sub 145 for over 2 1/2 hours.) Your joints are imploding because all you do is put direct stress upon them without a proper consistent use/lubrication. You have to be able to handle long time periods of continuous impact on a smaller scale if you want to be able to acomplish this goal. When I was in CA with you, you were making huge jumps up onto and off of obstacles with little more then a second thought. Running, if done correctly, should create less impact than what you are already doing. Focus less on the specifics and more on the gross outcome. Pain is a sign that you are either truly in need of surgery or are becoming a better athlete and I'm confident you can learn to separate the two. Every time I've had surgery, my physical therapists have put me back on a bike within 12 hours in order to get me moving again. We, as a species, are designed to move and the less we do the more we suffer. Move, move, move, and you will overcome your setbacks and your will run the 100 in the next year. Good luck and call me with any questions and I can get you a training plan from a couple of different people that have won that race you want. All the best.

    Cheers,
    Sam Tyler

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  2. Tom Brown Avatar
    Tom Brown

    Lofty goals dude! Go for it. Are you running actual barefoot or in vibrams? If actual I'm impressed with 30 minutes on varied terrain. Mine start to get raw after that long on grass hahaha.

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  3. GeoffreyHale Avatar
    GeoffreyHale

    Great to hear from you both!

    Tom, thanks! I'm running actual barefoot. Hot asphalt and bees are killers. At this point though, I may not ever bother buying Vibrams. Perhaps I'll make a pair of huarachas for the asphalt.

    Sam, epic. Thanks for the words of wisdom and connections. My joints do feel continually better, and my primary reason for barefooting is joint protection. My knees are usually my limiting factor, but lately the only limiting factor has been my training rules. Only downside is that when I don't run, instead of resting, I just do something else. Cross training, I suppose.

    I'd love to take you up on your Skip Hamilton contact sometime after I've finished my first marathon if I'm still interested in pressing on.

    I'd love to know more about your dichotomous theory of pain. If I shouldn't be focusing on the specifics then I'm certainly approaching this incorrectly. I generally pride myself on being able to discern the meaning of one pain from a million other options. I tend to address every one, to the best of my ability. My theory being, I'm either doing something wrong which caused it, in which case just doing it more will make it worse. Or, if something is wrong, it may throw others things out of balance, which will cause more problems. That being said, I continue to run through sciatica and patellar femoral pain and occasionally through a bit of bursitis/ITBS (not sure which). I don't let them keep me from running if I can help it, but I do spend most of my gym time and recovery time trying to fix them.

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