Rim2Rim2Rim, Part 2

"It's the journey, not the destination"

Part of why I like doing my own events is all of the planning and logistics that goes into the preparation.  Once I decided to do the R2R2R, I needed help.  And the running community is great at offering help to those who ask.  So I set about meeting with as many people as I could find who were veterans of the event.

Basit has done the run 4 times and was most helpful.  However, he is much fitter than me so I had to calibrate some of his advice.  For example, I require 4 bottles to hike out to the South Rim, whereas I'm sure he does it in two or less. Charles Corfield (of rocket fuel fame) and Vicki Hunter were also helpful.  Vicki is extremely tough, so when she said this is the event that has made her the most sore, I was doubly sure to take it easy on the first descent to save my legs.  Peter Bawkin not only designed the vest I wore, but also gave me great advice on hydration.  Kevin Fonger led me to the shirt I ended up wearing on the big day.  Andy Carlson, David Moll, Mike Stemple, Huybert Groenendaal and many others helped with the PLB's (I used the ResQLink) and other logistics.  Grant Hull provided a helpful trip report just two weeks prior to my own attempt (hint: take more than two bottles above Cottonwood campground or you'll be drinking snow meltwater on the North Rim...)

One of the key issues was when to do it.  April 30th seemed to be an ideal time. Long days (sunrise 5:13am, sunset 7:17), expected temps 30-80 degrees.  Starting at 4:00am would mean headlamps and flashlights, but you'd be ahead of the mules that operate on both the S. Kaibab and the Bright Angel trail (but they don't start till 5am).  Another reason I liked the 4/30 4am start is that it seemed Leadvillian.  For Leadville training, I'd always go long on the last day of the month; and Leadville starts at 4am.  A small cheat is that Arizona remains on Mountain Standard time so it would feel like a 5am start to me.  April 30th also gave me just enough time to do my Leadville-style build up to 40 miles.

I'd assumed that I could park at the trailhead, but no.  There is no public parking so you have to take a shuttle from the visitor center.  First shuttle leaves at 4:30 on April 30th and takes about ten minutes to get to the S. Kaibab trailhead.  My plan was to stay in the national park and take the shuttle. Because spring is high season in the park, (summers are too hot) there wasn't any room at any of the lodges. I booked a room about 9 miles south of the park two months in advance.   Making your travel reservations creates a sense of realism (impending doom?) to the training.  It's a long story, but I ended up getting a room in the park at the Yavapai Lodge.

The NPS site has a lot of good information.  They do recommend a maximum daily hike of 3 mile downhill -- and to never, ever try to go to the river and back in a day.  Someone recommended that I read "Over the Edge" - a book summarizing the 600 deaths in the Grand Canyon.  After reading it, I realized I could maximize my chances of survival by 1) not going in the river, 2), not drinking alcohol and 3) not taking pictures.  It is amazing how many people died either taking pictures or having their picture taken.

I tracked most of the course on my iPhone5 using strava and an external battery.  I used SkratchLabs hydration products.  SkratchLabs is a Boulder start-up that has excellent hydration products.  I used Hammergels (single serving size...lots of trash, but good portion control and a variety of flavors: two per hour at an estimated 12 hours).  And SaltCaps (one per hour cool, more hot).  I planned on using a 100% liquid diet -- just like the first 40 miles of Leadville.

The PB vest holds a 3L bladder. With two ultimate direction bottles on the vest (20oz each) and a 22 oz Specialized bottle in my lefthand (golite), I could carry 5 liters of water.  At 2.2 lbs per liter, that's a lot of weight.  And it's relatively high on the back, causing some strain.  I used the full pack on a 50k training run (about 6 hours ) and had 1/3 or more of the water left at the end. I used the Skratch labs in the bottles and water in the hydration pack. My full packing list was a page and a half long: sun hat with neck/ear covering, med kit, space blanket, headlamp, flashlight, spare batteries, sunglasses/night glasses, signal mirror, whistle, knife, lots of anti-chafing supplies).

The prep was endless.  Reading maps, watching videos of the trail, calculating how much water to carry between water stops, assessing the likelihood that there would be water at the water stops, etc. Reading about the Boston marathoner who died on these trails was a cautionary tale.  Keeping an eye o the weather... I learned (from Nate Silver) that weather forecasting is good about 7 days out; beyond that you are better off just using daily averages.  As the date approached I could see that a heat wave was building and would peak on my targeted day.  Two days before or after and it would be 20 degrees cooler.

The clothing starts with the Montrail waterproof shoes and Drymax socks.  The set up was a little snug, but a proven combination through Leadville.  I used the Nike ProCombat compression shorts with simple soccer shorts on top.  My shirt was an Ex-officio  longsleeve made out of fabric that actually cools when wet.  I ran in Nike running hat (backwards with headlamp) for night/early am running and a full skirted hat for the 10am-4pm session. And don't forget the nipguards.

Many thanks to Boulder Running Company for world class advice, service and products.  And, thanks to ZombieRunner.  Not only for the convenience of keeping me stocked in gels etc, but also for opening your Palo Alto store an hour after closing so I could get a pair of sock I needed for that night's run.

Enough with the preparation, next time onto the run itself.

50M recon run in the Grand Canyon with a Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R)

Short version:
April 30, 2013
50 miles running/hiking
16 hours+
100 degrees in the Canyon; 40 degrees and 40 mph winds on the South Rim.

After Leadville in 2011, I was happy to take many months off of training.  Life and work took over and I found myself unmotivated to go and do 7 mile routine training runs for general fitness and health.  I needed a goal that was scary/challenging but doable.  In 2012, that focused around ironman.  After a DNF  "roll my own" ironman in Hawaii May of 2012, I did one in Boulder in Sept -- mostly to remind myself that I can do that distance.  I'd just much rather do it at altitude in cool pleasant, low humidity rather than in Hawaii's windy, hot and humid conditions (but I look forward to going back to Hawaii in 2014 to complete an ironman on the world championship course.)

So after the ironman in Sept 2012, I found myself unmotivated again and wondering what's next.  I dove into work in Oct/Nov and by Dec I was getting pretty far out of shape.  I had thought about a skiing goal.  The Grand Traverse or the North Routt Coureur des Bois would be great challenges.  But, I was too far out of shape to train for those events and they would require a lot of time on skis.  That would be tricky.

So I thought I'd look for a good goal to do in the spring.  Boston Marathon is a good choice, but I did that in '08.  What I learned from that experience is that it's no fun to do serious marathon training in Colorado from Nov to April.  There are other things to do in Boulder those months, while May to October is ideal for running on the roads.

I've been running the trails around Boulder since 1992.  There have been loosely organized trail runs around Boulder since at least the '60s.  With the web, we've 'organized' under a Yahoo group called Boulder Trail Runners.  This group now has over 2,000 members.  Every spring, I'd see posts from some of the ultra runners who would drive to the Grand Canyon and run the Rim to Rim to Rim.  The run generally starts on the South Rim, goes down the South Kaibab trail, up the North Kaibab trail to the North Rim and back.  It's 42.5 miles and 10,000' of vertical.

Given my experience and Leadville, I thought I could do a solo run in the Grand Canyon.  It was 4 and a half months away: the perfect time to do a Leadville-style build up, get fit and enjoy a nice day in an amazing world treasure.  My plan was to train as if I was building up to Leadville, but stop at the 40M training point.  And work in a lot of hills.

Remarkably, I made almost every workout that I scheduled over that 4.5 months. My culmination was to do a 20M/22.5M double in CA's coastal hills in 75 degree weather two weeks out from start date.  I did the 20M/22.5M double in about a combined 10 hours with 8,500 vertical. I felt I was ready.

In planning to do a solo run, I spoke with several people who have run it.  And that's where we will pick up next time.

Nutrition/Hydration for ultra running

The magic formula for going several hours is Hammergel every 30 min, Saltcap on the hour and 5 oz of Perpetuem every 15 minutes.  Making that happen is not as easy as you might think.  After about 40 miles, you can't trust your own judgment.  What was routine in practice gradually becomes a lot trickier.  So you have to have systems set up to make it as easy as possible.   And practice on every run.

I used a GoLite double bottel waist pack with a GoLite hand strap. I used three 24oz bike bottles (Specialized) one Green, one Pink, one Blue.  Different colors are helpful in keeping track of what's in each bottle.  Also, green is my favorite color, pink represented my daughter and blue my son.  These bottles have a clear stripe on the side so you can easily determine how much fluid is left in each.
Measure and mark the bottle in 5oz increments. Since I'm 6'1" and 183 lbs (on race day) with a significant sweat rate, I was takin in 24 oz per hour.  That's a little over 100 cals per hour through the bottle. By using a hand bottle, you can have a visual reminder of your progress against the 5oz every 15min.  It's amazing how much you forget to drink if the bottle isn't in your hand.

Taking a Hammergel every 30 min gives you 200 cals through gels for a total of 300/cal per hour.  Amazingly this is all you need to go the distance. I used the messy plastic packages.  The advantages are you get portion control and a variety of flavors.  I would buy 100 at a time from www.zombierunner.com, pull out the caffienated mochas ones and then randomly draw them from my waist pack.  A fun game is to not look at the flavor but to try and guess it.  I keep the Mocha ones for night runs.  I'm not  a big fan of the banana or mocha flavors.  It would suck to get those back to back on a night run, but then maybe you'll get a Mountain Huckleberry and all will be well. I've since switched to the the 5 serving gel bottles. They are cheaper, cleaner and no trash.  One of those bottles and the Perpetuem routine above is a 'tankful' on which you can go 12-15 miles quite comfortably.  Even 20M.  On one of my 50M training runs I ran out of fuel and was able to go another 2 hours without incident until I could get back to my aid station.  Beware those bottles can get heavy.  I took three with me to Hawaii to attempt a self-supported ironman, and the weight was significant.

SaltCaps every hour keep the cramps at bay.  This rule works well for winter training in Colorado.  When I did a 50M race in warm temps in May, my legs cramped just past 25M.  I had forgotten to increase my consumption in the heat.  I would go to 2-3 per hour and the cramps cleared.  I find this also worked in Hawaii when biking long distances.  In Leadville, I erred on the side of too much salt in the first 50.  My hands had swelled and I even gained a pound or two at the 50M weigh in.  I skipped salt altogether for 2-3 hours until I felt better.  Then it was cool and nighttime so I went back to the 1 per hour until morning.

I found that running with a Garmin 305 was very helpful.  I would use it to track the .9/.1 run/walk breaks.  Also, with the clock I'd follow this pattern: top of the hour was SaltCap, hammergel and drink. by :15 it was make sure I was down 5oz on the bottle; by :30 it was hammergel/drink by :45 it was making sure I only had 5 oz left  and then top of the hour repeat (grab new bottle from the back).  It is fun to practice all of this while moving.  It should go without saying that all of these things are done while moving forward.  When you set up your aid stations, minimize your time there. I think of it like 'hot potato' I want out of there as fast as possible.  That's where failure (stopping) might happen.  Get back on the trial.  Ideally, you'll have a fresh set of bottles at the aid station so you don't have to mix and pour.  This is a great example of something that is easy when you are sober, but not so easy after several hours of running.  Come in, dump your trash, grab your gels and bottles and keep going.

Allen Lim, of Skratch Labs, is a professional at all of this.  I used his hydration formula at the aid stations in clear Nalgene bottles.   This is in addition to the Perpetuem above.  Allen talks about your 'clear rate' that is how much fluid can go from the stomach to your body.  5 oz is a good rule of thumb, but there are ways to enhance it with the right mix.  If you take in too much, it just comes out the top. :)
I thought dehydration was a big risk for me given my sweat rate, so I would drink as much as I could of Allen's formula at the aid stations to make sure that I wasn't getting behind.

Deep into an event, the perpetuem tastes not good.  I'd try using Allen's hydration (which is close to 100 cal); it is much lighter and better tastings.  Or do 50% perpetuem solution and make up the cals with more gel.

Whenever I follow this routine, things go well.  Through 40M of Leadville, all went well.  Then at the TwinLakes outbound station, I grabbed chips, cookie, coke and whatever.  I'm not sure why.  It looked good and I figured, 'couldn't hurt'.  Wrong.  Halfway up Hope Pass, I was in big trouble and unable to continue.  I eventually walked up to Hopeless, got some soup and then the adventure began. :)

How to Build up to 100

Deciding to do Leadville as my first 100 ten months in advance of the event had two flaws. One, Leadville should not be your first 100. With the hills and the altitude, you are stacking the deck against yourself for completing your first 100. Secondly, I should have started a full year in advance. With ten months to go, I was already behind schedule.

Ideally, starting in August, I would have built up my fitness to do the Rocky Racoon in Texas in Feb. A flat course, at sea-level consisting of 5x20M loops makes logistics a lot easier. And you can focus on just going the distance. Then you can work on hills, altitude and logistics of an out-and-back course like Leadville.

So, while I had 19 seasons of triathlon and marathon training in my body, I had taken off the previous year. My weight was up, diet poor and training base consisted of a few runs and some mountain biking. And I was about to start running 40M weeks. Even as a marathoner, I was a low mileage trainer and could run low three hours on a peak week of 40 miles, but usually I'd do 25 with some swimming and biking thrown in. I have also found that to go from a cold start to 25M/week is a significant effort on the body. To get to 40, I'd have to add 10% per week to keep from injury. That would have taken 5-6 weeks that I didn't have time for. The key was to start with the .9/.1 run/walk pattern. It was amazing how that allowed me to dramatically increase my weekly mileage without injury. Also, in ultra running, those walk breaks are essential for dealing with clothing, food, navigation and most importantly emotions. When you are feeling good, they calm you down. When you are feeling like crap, the walk breaks are a chance to regroup. If you are having a hard time restarting your run after a walk break, use your hands. Just start with moving your hands as if you are running and soon the rest of your body will follow.

So the annual plan for mileage has you running 40M weeks in Nov and Dec. They are done as follows: 5/10/5 rest 10/10 rest. This gives you two clumps of twenty miles each. The next week is 5/10/5 rest 15/5 rest. This maintains the same weekly total, two days of rest and bumps your long effort to 15. The third week is 5/10/5 rest 20/0 rest. Again you maintain the same weekly mileage, but lengthen the long run and pick up an extra day of rest. Speed does not matter. Do the run/ walk patterns and start practicing your nutrition hydration plan. Repeat the pattern for the next three weeks. By the end of Dec you'll have your second 20M and it will feel a lot easier than the first. A key is to make sure you can run 20 easily at this point.

On race day, you have a half-marathon in the dark to warm up, then a nice trail marathon followed by a 20 mile double cross of Hope Pass, followed by another trail marathon likely in the dark and then a final half marathon after sunup. So you need to start thinking in terms of another twenty is no big deal. With the food and water I was able to carry I could go 15 comfortably. So I started to think of runs in terms of how may times I'd need to reload.  Kind of like thinking of long driving trips in terms of the numbers of tanks of gas you'll need.

Now that you can do 20M comfortably by Dec, the next step is to add ten miles to your long run per month. So by the end of Jan it's 30, Feb 40 and March 50. Stop there. As a general rule, if you can train at half the distance and feel ok at the end, you'll be able to double it on race day. And running longer wears you out more than the corresponding benefit. This makes practicing food and hydration over 60 miles difficult. Just as what works in a 50 is different than a marathon, your stomach may not like your tried and true formula for 50 miles at 75 miles and beyond. I found a chafe free way to run to 50, but had trouble after 70.

To run 30 on Jan 31, run a 15/15 pair on Jan 14th and 15th. On Feb 14/15th run a 20/20 pair so you can run 40 on Feb 28. Similarly, on March 14/15, run a 25/25 pair so you can run 50 on March 31. I would do these runs on these exact dates. Even if it means running through the night and skipping sleep (good practice). I also found that doing them alone makes you resourceful. Although it was great to have Huybert's company on a very cold 30M in icy conditions in Feb.  In between these runs, do the 5/10/5 pattern and lots of rest days.

Once you can run 50 comfortably, add in a 50M race or two, then start adding hills, altitude and specific work on the course. It takes a surprisingly long time to fine tune your gear, learning to run at night over trails, do stream crossings etc.

Many of these lessons I've been able to appy to other adventures (roll you're own ironman) so enjoy.
Next, let's talk about that nutrition/hydration plan.

Running 100: the run plan

To run 100, you need to run. But not nearly as much as you think.

The LT100 is in August and I committed to doing it the previous October. My initial plan was to run at altitude on hills until the snow came. The. I would switch to skate skiing. I set an intermediate goal of Glide the Divide: a skate ski double marathon from Steamboat to Wyoming and back along the continental divide. However, after a few weeks of this plan, I was injured and not at all confident that I would get to the starting line, much less the finish line of the Leadville. In a typical year about 750 sign up for Leadville, 500 start and 250 finish. I've known a few of those runners who DNF - they were very fit, strong and ultimately humbled by the course. So I knew I could not take this lightly and expect to finish.

So I got help. Fortunately leaving in Boulder there are a lot of veterans who are happy to help. And I hired a coach who has been helping others train for Leadville for 20 years.

Lesson 1. To run 100, you run and not ski. In fact, you don't do anything but run. No biking, swimming etc.

Lesson 2. First master the distance, then add hills, then altitude.

Lesson 3. Do run walk patterns. Forget about your marathon training. Run .9 walk .1 from the first mile. Every workout. Even the short ones.

Lesson 4. Only push yourself twice a month.

Lesson 5. Split your week in two and balance the miles.

TBC...

Ultra running and work

Ultra running is good for your work life because it gives you processing time.

When I first joined SendGrid I was about halfway through a years' worth of training for the Leadville Trail 100. After having crewed/paced for someone else for that race in 1995, I had been planning on doing it myself someday. I figured I'd do it when I was 'old' for my 50th birthday, but in 2010 I wasn't working so I decided to commit to LT100.

Actually, I was running the Mesa trail one day in the fall of 2010 with Huybert and he suggested that this was my year. Realizing I was out of excuses, I knew it was time to start training in earnest. So on very little base, I ran the Sourdough Trail - all 26 miles - at around 9000 ft. I was tired, but felt ok. Soni rested a few days, then did the Dirty Bismarck (about 14 miles) kinda peppy.
I pulled my calf muscle halfway through. Realizing I had no idea how to train for a 100, I hired a coach and got on a much more rational plan.

I never missed a workout from November through Feb 2011. On Feb 28, I ran a 40 miler, took a shower and went to my first SendGrid board dinner at the Rio. I was hesitant to tell the board about my running project. In fact, I had delayed starting at SendGrid, until March 1, just so I could stay 100% focused on my running plan through the 40 miler.

I had expected my board to resist my pursuing LT100, but their reaction was just the opposite. Not only were they encouraging of my running project, but they offered to crew or help in any way they could. I knew I was joining a special team. The next two weeks I didn't run at all as it took awhile to find a balance between running and work.

What surprised me was how running long stretches made me a better business person. In my normal life, I have a lot of input coming at me from all directions. From what I have learned about how our brains work, we need to balance input time from processing time. Call it unplugged if you will. Running on a trail is perfect because you definitely are not doing meetings/calls/email. Moreover the trail itself requires just enough concentration to preoccupy part of your brain, so they back part of your brain can process all of the inputs it has been receiving. It's similar to the insights you get just after sleeping or in the shower.

I think it's time to go run.

Thoughts on being a CEO

I’ve had the opportunity to speak about how to be a CEO recently and thought I’d share some of those thoughts.  A founder CEO is very different from a non-founder CEO.  My comments will be limited to the non-founder CEO.

The primary role of a CEO is to articulate the Vision, Values and Team.  While the CEO doesn’t create the vision, the CEO had better be able to articulate it.   At first I found everyone asking me , “What’s the big idea?””What’s next?” I answered it with a wisdom of the crowds approach.  I created a culture and team that can answer those questions. Values largely do come from the leader of an organization.  Either the organization will adopt the leaders values or the leader will be rejected by the organization. The most visible aspect of being a CEO is managing the management team. 

The temptation to ‘do stuff’ as CEO is great.  If your background is in technology, you will want to tinker with the technology.  If your background is in sales, you will want to get involved in the sales process.  However, whenever you are tempted to parachute in to do something, take that as a sign that your team needs strengthening in that area. Let your organization feel the pain of its weakness so it is motivated to create a permanent fix.

You are responsible for an organization’s pace.    What is the cadence of the org? Does it vary by function? Does it vary by the calendar?  I strive for a sustainable pace for every employee (what I call rested racehorses), but twice a year, I reserve the right to ask for unsustainable work for up to 30 days at a time.

Two interesting things happen the further up an organization you go: first, your time horizon lengthens and secondly your voice is amplified.  As CEO, you should be thinking in annual cycles as the norm; quarters occasionally as well as looking 3-5 years ahead occasionally.  With the voice amplification, you have to be careful what yo say; what you say has a way of instantly becoming policy and cutting off what could otherwise be very productive conversation.

To become a CEO, you need to have an organization-wide perspective.  This is attained by mastering at least two of the three key areas of a business: Tech, Sales or Finance.   Also, you should be merely good, not great in these areas.  Be good, but recognize greatness.  Hire your replacement who is great and create a team of direct reports that are better than you in every functional area.  This will help you avoid the temptation to meddle in their affairs.  Make sure they are doing things you disagree with and are making mistakes big enough to be included in your board packet.  Furthermore, recognize that the management team is the first team for each VP.  A VP should be 51% VP and 40% functional.

The role of a CEO evolves over time. And it is rare for one person to take a company through more than one or two stages of growth.  Be prepared for the transition.  Also, being a CEO is lonely. You are a team of 1.  Be friendly, but not familiar.  This is why there are CEO peer networks; you can relate to them in ways you cannot relate to the management team, employees, board members or shareholders.