Friday, July 3, 2009

Feelin just a little like Dale....


So goes the song that has been my mantra for the past few months. Chad Wamack gave me a mixed cd with track 2 being a little ditty about a fella who's feeling a little like Dale Earnhardt. It goes like this-


I've been taking it slow all week

Yeah,

but now I've got some pedals down under my feet,

I got some vinyl and I got some glass,

I'm gonna roll it up, roll it down and hit the gas.


Now I'm passing the rigs like they're standing still And

I'm doing more weaving than a Carolina mill.

You know there's faster cars but they got no heart

Now when I'm feeling like the intimidator, Earnhardt.


I got a little bit of Dale in my blood tonight,

I'm taking the corners tight,

On the straightaway I'm passing them high on the rail,

Feeling just a little like Dale.


Not a yellow flag that can slow me down,

There's not a trooper alive that can track me down

When I'm covering ground in that hovering steel

I got the wind in my hair and my hands on the wheel.


So, if you should look up in your rear view mirror

And see fire and rubber just getting nearer

Stay to the right and cover your eyes

Cause old number three will be barreling by.


I got a little bit of Dale in my blood tonight,

I'm taking the corners tight,

n the straightaway I'm passing them high on the rail,

Feeling just a little like Dale.


I got a little bit of Dale in my blood tonight,

'm taking the corners tight,

On the straightaway I'm passing them high on the rail,

Feeling just a little like Dale.

Feeling just a little like Dale.


To top it off, this is my new favorite beer- Dale's Pale Ale from Colorado. I found it at a local wine/liqour store as it has a higher alcohol content. It's nice and hoppy, refreshing and comes in a can (backpacking beer?) If you find any cans down at Blue Hole in Soddy, it wasn't me. It's pretty darn tasty and gets me in the mood for racin....

Since Racin is what we're here to talk about, lets get it going. The Tahoe Rim Trail 100 is only 2 weeks away and I'm gettin pretty fired up. Really, I am pumped to go do this thing. Well, at least my mind is. To be honest, I feel like crap. Every time I start a big taper (3 weeks) I start to feel all janky and tweaked. When you are training hard and really rollin, things are supposed to hurt a little and somehow its easier to ignore the subtle little pains. Now that I've cut way back on the mileage and started to rest, things have become more pronounced. While I feel completely healthy and without injury, I do feel a little tired which tells me I actually had a pretty good training block.
So far this has been an amazing year of racing and training. It all started with a new race, a 50k trail run at Tsali (the famous single track mtn bike trails) in January. It was a last minute decision to race as I was already signed up for another event 3 weeks later and didn't want to trash my legs going into it. My goal was to pace a friend and training partner (he is much faster than me) for about half the race and then slingshot him ahead to a solid finish (he has a tendency to go out too fast...) Well, as luck would have it, I managed to hang on for longer than I expected, finishing 3rd in 3:54, 2 minutes behind Jeff Edmonds and 7 minutes behind Mark Lundblad from NC. Given my fitness and the nature of the course, I was super stoked.
Fast forward 3 weeks to the infamous Mtn. Mist 50k. The Mist is where it all began for me. It was my first ultra, just 4 weeks after my first marathon in 1996. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was cold and I was scared. I battled it out with Janice Anderson over the last 6 miles only to have her beat me by less than a minute. It was however good for 10th place or so and gave me the impression that I might do ok at these things if I learned how to do it right. Well, it took about 10 more years and more than 30 ultras to figure it out (I didn't say I was a quick learner...) The Mist this year would fall on my 36th birthday and I felt like I had a chance to win it. I played my cards right, running conservatively on the wet and slightly muddy course for an hour or so before dropping the hammer. I would catch the eventual winner several times, leading the race through several technical spots, only to be dropped on the climbs. In the end, I would have to settle for 2nd, crossing the finish line in 4:09, 2 minutes back from David Rindt.
While it was a new PR on the course for me, it wasn't what I had hoped for. Did I run and train too hard after the Tsali race? Was I still tired? I don't really know. What I did know is that I was hungrier than ever for a win and ready to crank it up a notch.
Next up was the Black Warrior 50k trail run in Alabama. It would be my first time at this event and I was psyched to give it a go. This time I had 4 weeks to recover from the last event and I think I trained a little smarter too. We started way faster than I wanted as we were lumped together with those running 2 shorter events. After a few miles I backed off the gas and regrouped. As I began to recover, I came upon the race leader who was becoming increasingly frustrated with the INTENSE mud and gunk. I used this opportunity to unleash a pretty solid 15-20 minute effort freeing myself for the remainder of the day. The course was really fun, following rolling terrain through pretty forests and a prescribed burn. The mud was challenging but frustrating and while I did slow significantly at the end, my time of 3:51:09 was good for a PR and a new COURSE RECORD! Yeehaa!
3 weeks later we traveled up to "Ole Kentuck" for the Land Between the Lakes 60k trail run. I was intent on breaking Eric Grossman's long standing course record and pocketing $800 for doing so. I felt like my fitness was there and more importantly I was hungry to make it happen. Unfortunately, much of the hunger dissolved a few miles into the event. My legs were absolutely SMOKED from trying 4 ultras in 10 weeks and the constant rains had turned the course into a giant freakin mud pit. The course- 3 loops of the Canal Loop was actually pretty runable for the first hour, as we were the first to hit it and the mtn bikes hadn't torn it up that week. Then after 100's of runners went through on multiple laps, it become increasingly more evident that this would not be the day. The footing became really tough, and cornering at high speeds, running downhill fast and even pushing off became difficult. I tried to suck it up and just get r done. Well, that is until I realized I might not even win the event. Because there are 4 different races going on (1-4 lap events) it is hard to figure out where you are in the race. With 1 lap to go I was told I was in 5th place. Holy crap! Now I was really frustrated. 1st the course record was gone and now I was getting dropped. I then became a man on a mission, digging to make every hill count, eventually catching the leader on one of the last climbs. I invited him and encouraged him to come with me, but I think that the late surge got the best of him. I suffered in to the finish line in 4:49 only 4 minutes off Grossman's record and the loot. OUCH!
Oh, did I mention that my wife Wendi took 1st place honors at Mtn Mist, Black Warrior (also a course record) and the LBL race? Winning 3 ultras in the span of 7 weeks! She is incredible!
Ok, so finally the racing is over. Early in the season I had decided that I would use the 4 events to "race" myself back into shape. So far so good. I knew that I would need a short break and then I wanted to really increase my mileage. Now don't expect to read about some kind of over the top Anton Krupicka type of mileage. For me (I've always been a low mileage kind of guy, often training for ultras on 30-50 mpw) that meant trying to double what I normally do and try to hit 70-80 mpw. While the first few weeks were tough, my body soon adapted to the increased stress. In fact, I was overwhelmed by how great I felt. My long runs also got better. Instead of doing back to back 15 milers on the weekends in between races, I was able to get a 30-50m run in just about every weekend. For the first time I begin to think that I might even be able to be competitive at the 100m distance instead of finishing hours behind the winner like I did at the 2007 TRT 100.
While most competitive 100m runners log 8-12 weeks of consistent 100-140m weeks, I just can't seem to make that happen. Having a full time job, a wife, 2 kids, tons of animals at the farm and leading weekend Climbing and Kayaking Trips just zap my time and honestly, they interest me more. I can't imagine spending less time with my family than I already do. That being said, I was able to string together a few solid weeks running in the 70-120 mile range. My last big week included an awesome trip to California with my wife to train at altitude in the mountains. We spent several day in Kings Canyon National Park before heading over to train on the TRT course. We had a blast just running, soaking in the rivers, eating and sleeping. We actually felt like athletes for a few days. Wendi got her first ever 100m week in and I felt great about what we were able to accomplish.
That pretty much brings things up to date. Now it's just time to chill, stay healthy and get focused. Lord willin and the creeks don't rise, I'll get a little Dale in my blood and get myself some TRT action. A big thanks are due to ROCK CREEK, PATAGONIA, LA SPORTIVA and Ultimate Directions for helping me out this year with their amazing products. Without them I would be racing in cut off jorts, some chucks, a truckers cap and an old syrup bottle.
Jamie Dial

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