For a hopeless shoe geek like me, no explanation of training would be complete without mentioning the footwear, apparel and accessories that made it possible (I’ve been a shoe geek most of my life and can remember marveling at the tread of the adidas SL-72 and being excited to get the Sears knock-off version in elementary school).

After re-reading that first paragraph, I realize many people do not share my enthusiam for shoes, so I’ll get back to that later.

Compression shorts and tights are magic! You can believe the hype on compression gear. In Wisconsin, I put on compression socks and tights after every run and wore them the next 4-6 hours. The following week I was slogging through each day feeling pretty blah. One night at Gazelle, Ken Sung asked me if I was using compression gear. I told him that I had for the previous week, then realized I wasn’t using it during my “recovery” week. If you’re serious about training hard and long, you need this stuff.

Hydration/nutrition on the run is vital both for training and the 113 mile race. I found the Nathan Elite 2VPlus to be ideal. The two 22 oz. bottles are positioned at roughly 45 degrees to the belt, which is a very comforatable angle. There is a large enough zippered pouch between them that holds the jacket, hat, gloves and space blanket every runner is required to carry during the TransRockies. Two more zippered pouches can be moved to any place on the belt and can hold plenty of GU, Cliff bars, keys or toilet paper.

Endurox and Accelerade have been my favorite post workout recovery choices for a long time. Chocolate Endurox became my main choice most of the summer. Mixed full strength it gives a whopping 270 calories per 12 oz. Between that and GU (just plain flavor), I’ve been able to injest close to 1000 calories per 20 miles (by taking a 30-45 second walk break every 15 minutes to drink 6-8 oz.). Normally, I would find that pretty extreme, but I havn’t bonked on a long run all summer.

Sportwax is indespensible. I think that speaks for itself.

Smartwool socks are a given. One small blister over the last 11 weeks. It came in Wisconsin from all the the downhill running.

Now for the shoes. I’m a biomechanically efficient runner (at 44 years old, I’m a shuffler) and have always been able to wear pretty much any shoe. My preference leans toward middle to lighter weight neutral cushion types. My footwear collection is vast and deep and I usually don’t wear the same shoe more than once per week. However, I found my self reaching for the same three models for most of my training.

The Brooks Glycerin – great feel for the road with a nice heel to toe transition.

Saucony Triumph – This year’s version is a bit heavy, but they lowered the heel a touch and the ride is fantastic (I’ve run in the previous two versions and like this one best).

adidas Adistar Ride – A little beefier then I would usually go for, but a wonderful cushioned shoe to put on when my legs are feeling beat up.

Brooks Cascadia – Still the holy grail of trail shoes. I picked up a pair near the end of my training to use for the race.

La Sportiva Crosslite – I consider this to be a racing version of the Cascadia. I’m bringing it along for the shorter days. It’s so sleek and light, just putting it on makes you feel fast.

Coming off the bench, the Saucony Ride. This shoe is an old friend and found its way into the mix now and then.

Too much of a good thing: the Saucony Kinvara. This very cool shoe came in late June. I got a pair and ran for an hour in them the first day. They were awesome, but just too light for what I was doing. I’ll look forward to putting them to good use in September.

The first week in July, I used our annual family trip to Baraboo, WI to see if I could sustain the kind of effort needed to run 113 miles in six days.

The area where we stay is just outside Devil’s Lake State Park, situated among the steep bluffs of South Central Wisconsin. I have a favorite 7 mile loop that includes two miles of uphill on one side and two miles of downhill on the other and planned to make it my primary route.

The first day I ran 21.5 miles, averaging 1:17 per loop while carrying 40 oz of fluid which I refilled after each loop. Slow, to be sure, but survivable.

Day two was 16.5 miles through the Steinke Basin and over the East Bluff of Devil’s Lake. It took 3:38 which was horribly slow, but climbing and descending the East Bluff was often little more than a walking scramble over the granite boulders, roughly set as a path.

I split up day three with 11 miles of mostly flat running early in the morning and 6 hilly miles around noon. It was a good break.

Day four began with the 7 mile loop in the rain, then a pit stop and change of socks followed by the 16.5 mile Steinke Basin/East Bluff route. Wet granite rocks are very slippery and the 23.75 miles took 5 hours, but the legs held up nicely.

On the fifth day I ran the 7 mile loop three more times. It took just over 4 hours and the quads grumbled the last two miles downhill to the finish, but I got it done.

5 days, 100 miles.  A PR! In the last 15 years, I don’t think I’ve broken any PR’s. I’ve done several 100 mile weeks over the years, but always in 7 days. Even though it was all very slow, it was still 100 miles. I took the next day off and felt good enough to run 7 miles the day after that giving me 107 for the week.

Three weeks later I followed up an 80 mile week with 115 miles in six days, running the final 15 miles in 2:07 (which was 2 minutes faster than my embarassing Riverbank Run 25k in May). I was very pleased with my effort and e-mailed my accomplishment to by teammate Bryce. Turns out he got 125.  Go team.

The final two weeks included three days of a Cross Country preseason mini camp with my women’s team. I ran harder than I have all summer trying to keep up with them. I didn’t feel fast, but sure felt strong. I’m really looking forward to this taper!

With time being the main consideration for my TransRockies training, the first four weeks were spent trying to get in as many hours as possible without running myself into injury.

The idea was to combine a lot of cycling and gradually increase the time spent running. After three weeks, I did 2 two-hour runs and had managed to put in eleven hours between the bike and the run. I also included two sessions of squats per week, knowing I’d need all the strength I could get to absorb the thousands of feet of downhill running.

With four weeks of base completed, I set out to test myself to see if this endeavour had a realistic chance of success.

Since joining the Gazelle herd in 1990, it has been my pleasure to represent the store over the years. From the crazy Kalamazoo Corporate Olympics back in the day to the River Bank 25k team competitions and Triple Crown races, most of my PR’s happened in a Gazelle Sports singlet.

When parenthood and coaching became full time jobs, training and racing tapered off until my racing consisted of a token 25k at the River Bank Run every May and an even worse Cornerstone Alumni & Friends 5k homecoming race in October. Two years ago the 100k became my focus. The two dozen marathons and one 50k on my resume did little to prepare me for the challenge for covering 62 miles at one time.  I told my long suffering wife that if I could eventually do a 100 miler in 24 hours, I’ll be done with this madness. After watching me race for 26 years, I don’t think she believes me.

In May, after my worst River Bank Run in many years, I found myself explaining to people why I didn’t have enough time to train adequately, but it sounded like a hollow excuse. Then at the end of the month the opportunity to do the TransRockies Run came along. I was wandering through 15 to 20 miles a week and knew I’d have to get my training going as quickly as possible. After some research of the event and an enlightening (actually a reality check) conversation with Marshall Randall, who did the race last year, I decided my training should be more about time than distance. The 2009 Gazelle team took 22 hours. At the very least, I needed to be able to run that much in six days.