White River 50 Mile Trail Run and Skateboard Training

Photo by Glenn Tachiyama

What was I thinking? I have not been running much since April. Skateboarding took over my life starting in May. Yet I am signed up to run the Leadville 100 miler next month in Colorado, so I had to find out if I could still run trails.

Question: Can one train for a 100 mile trail run with just long distance skateboard training and one long trail run? Answer: probably.

I planned on doing this run with a new pair of huaraches I had just made using a new Vibram sole material that is super lightweight and 7mm thick with a beautiful leather footbed that I added. Barefoot Jon had warned me about parts of the course that were hard fire road with sharp pebbles on a long downhill. No fun. I was going to bring my FiveFinger KSOs along in case I had a huarache malfunction.

Well, I had worse than a huarache malfunction... I forgot to bring my huaraches!!! Left them in the kitchen. Ouch!

So, I was going to have to run with a new pair of KSOs...2mm of sole.

I had problems with my KSOs. My little toes were not staying in the toe holes and I had failed to trim my toenails thoughtfully and it was starting to bother me through the race.

This race consists of two loops, both starting at Buck Creek. Each loop consists basically of a big climb and then a big descent. My first big mistake of the day came when I decided to follow a lady down the first loop. We ran FAST, real fast. It was fun, but not having a lot of trail training in my legs, it took its toll. I was very sore coming out of Buck Creek to start the second climb. The soreness remained throughout the rest of the race and prevented me from picking up the pace.

Conclusion: Long distance skateboard pumping is not the best way to train for a mountain trail ultra marathon. My endurance seemed to be intact, but my speed was greatly diminished and my quads were not trained to work well on the downhills.

I long to get back out on the trails testing some of my new huarache sandals. I am determined to find a way to eventually run a 100 mile race in shoes (sandals) that I have made myself.

BFT

My race registration fees and travel expenses for this race were paid for by SCI International: Technology without Intrusion. They are famous for building cellular towers that blend into the environment, helping to hide what can be the ugly side of the wireless world we live in. Thank you very much.

Technology Without Intrusion