CIM Race Report- I am a marathoner (again)

Short Report:

Like i mentioned in my Shashta report, my whole year was planned around CIM. I started training for CIM in late June as soon as Shashta adventure was over. Even though i was running well till March, i knew i had to start from scratch with fresh mindset. I trained hard for 5.5 months leading upto the race. Every single minor details were planned and tested and fine tuned in training. This was something i learned during Shasta trip. Sweat on minor details. Starting from what to eat starting 24 hours before the race, what to eat and when to eat on race morning and finally how much and when to eat during the race. I went into the race with the goal of finishing the race in 5 hours 20 minutes based on how my training had happened and i finished it in 5 hours 22 minutes. No bonking, no hitting the wall. No dying out there. Everything went according to plan from start to finish. I finished with a big smile and sprint to the finish line. 

Was it a perfect race. Nope. There were few things in hindisght which could have been handled better but in general, it was close. I have no regrets. I am a MARATHONER (again). Last time, i did full marathon was 2013. I had forgotten how much commitment is needed when you sign up for a marathon. It still remains the hardest thing acomplished this year, both mentally and physically. 

Long Report:

CIM was always on my radar when i started running as it is a fairly big race and close to home. But on the flip side, it is in December which means training in cold and dark in November. First time, i had registered for it two year back but i did not commit to the training required to get to start line. I also ended up with a back injury when i tried to ramp up too much too quickly. Fast forward to 2018, i repeated some of the mistakes again. My body somehow cannot do 12 months of run training. Considering CIM is in December, it would also mean doing long miles towards the end of year after running through the year. As predicted, i was again feeling burn out by November and i decided to defer my registration to 2019.

By November, I was trained enough to do a half marathon and so i registered for monterey bay half marathon but unfortunately, the race got cancelled due to california fires. So now i had two defered races in 2019. Monterey Bay half in November and then CIM in December. Since monterey bay half marathon was cancelled, i continued training through winter months with the hope of doing Oakland half in March of 2019. 

Fast forward to January, I wanted to break this cycle of not being able finish training. After some serious introspection, I was committed to CIM this year. But to get to CIM, it was important to change the route i took in 2017 and 2018. So this year, after Oakland half marathon in March, i decided to take a break from running. My thought process was if I had to get to CIM in good state of mind, i would need 5-6 months of solid training under my belt. So there was no reason to continue doing random races before that and feel complete burn out by June. Instead, i wanted to spend time getting physically stronger between March and June. Luckily, i came across Asha Climbing program. That program ensured i stay physically active and get stronger with time.

Fast forward to June, i was rearing to go for CIM. After a long time, i was mentally fresh and ready to take marathon training head on. Even though i was starting again from scratch, i was not a typical couch potato. Climbing program helped me strengthen my body and also build decent endurance base. Carrying 40lb backpacks for extended periods of time can do amazing things to your body :)

Training and Nutrition

At high level, training plan was laid out with 2 half marathons before CIM. The goal of those two races was to try out race specific strategy (Nutrition, pacing etc) so those don't become issue in CIM.  Going into the training, i had also made commitment to follow

1) Do most run outside. In the past, I did most of weekday training on treadmill. This did not help me when i went for long runs outside. So to get the most of out of long runs, it was necessary to do short runs outside on concrete rather than treadmill. I had planned to use treadmill only if it is absolutely must.

2) Foam rolling/stretching every single day. Something I had ignored in past. Again a very small thing but absolutely must for getting through training.

3) Strength training consistency. I am not a big fan of gym but if i had to survive marathon training, this was absolute must. However little, but sneak atleast two sessions per week.

With the above template, I started increasing mileage very gradually. I had 5.5 months so there was no need for sharp increase. Initial few weeks were the toughest as legs had forgotten how to run. But once those initial weeks went by, recovery was lot more faster. The goal was to get 4-5 runs a week with long runs in the range of 16-20 (3 to 4 hours). Luckily, i had team asha east bay running buddies who were also training for various races including CIM. For most long runs, I had company and that helped me get through the long miles fairly comfortably. A big thanks to coach Bharathi who ran with me for all my long runs and ensured that i run them at proper paces and don't go too fast too early and always finish the long run with faster pace. 

Nutrition was broken down into pre-race and in race nutrition. After lot of trials and errors in training, I followed a specific plan for last 5-8 weeks for all my long runs. I wanted to make sure my stomach is not going to have any issues in race. For most Friday's i only had big bowl of pasta with simple tomato sauce. On Saturdays, 3 hours before the long run, eat 2 cliff bars and drink 16oz of electrolyte and then have a gel 30 minutes before the run. It was crucial to get it 3 hours before the race to avoid porta potty breaks in the race. Something i learned in Monterey half marathon where i cramped everything in two hour window and had to stop multiple times for porta potty breaks. Having 3 hour window helped me digest everything before the run. Once the run started, aim to get ~300 calories per hour. 160 calories from gel (1 every 30 minutes) and rest from electrolyte drinks. To make sure i can mimick the intake, i also switched the electrolyte drink to what was going to be served on course. Nuun endurance. I always aimed for 15-16 oz per hour which roughly translated to 150-160 calories. 

I followed the same protocol for all of long runs starting from 16 miles all the way to 20 miles while making mental notes on how i am feeling while running. When i finished my 20 miler (~4 hours), i immediately told Bharathi, if i feel this good in race, i am far certain to finish the race without issue. For once, nutrition was certainly working well for me. 

Pre-Race Night

Pre-race night was certainly one of the most nervous nights i have experienced in last few year. After going to bed at 9, i pretty much woke up every 30-40 mins right from 10 PM. The plan was to get up at 3:30 and start having the food for 7 AM start. Since i was getting up so many times, i decided to start chucking down electrolyte every time i woke up. Luckily, by 3:30 i was done with electrolyte and only had to worry about solid foods which was not an issue for me. In hindsight this was good move as all porta potty lines in the race were long and would have wasted several minutes just waiting in line. Lesson learnt from half marathon.

Race

Like i mentioned in the short report, race itself was really uneventful. I had put several hours in making sure it stays that way in the training. As soon as the gun went off, i was in the zone and was keeping an eye on pace to make sure i am not doing anything stupid. From my training experience, i knew miles 13-20 are the miles which are mentally tough and then miles 20-26 are physically tough. To make sure i stay distracted from negative thoughts for miles 13-20, i had carried my headpone with me which i only turned on after mile 13. Music helped me stay distracted till mile 20. After mile 20, it was just about mentally toughing it out for remaining time.

For most race, i felt in control. I did not experience any bonking. Mentally, i was there for all 26.2 miles. I had run through all scenarios in training and was prepared for each section of race, mentally as well as physically. I was also able to smile and sprint to finish line. 

Final Thoughts

When i had started training, if someone told me that i would be able to finish this well I would have taken it any day. Couple of things i think that i need to figure out for next race.

1) Fuel belt. During most long run, i trained with a specific fuel belt. But i never loaded it up with 10 gels. With that weight, it kept sliding down in the race. I spent every single walk break adjusting it for first hour or so before i got completely fed up with it. I threw the fuel belt and moved all the gels to pocket. I only kept one bottle in hand for emergency water need. This was bit unexpected and it turned out i had to waste crucial minutes refilling the bottles at aid station. For next race, i need to figure out better fuel carrying option.

2) Better strength training. My goal was to push after mile 20. Mentally, i was prepared for it but physically, my body was not ready for it. I had passed the 5:20 pacer in mile 2 and had planned not to see him again. At mile 24, when he passed me, i tried super hard to stay with him. But physically, my body was not ready for push. My thought is with better and bigger focus on strength, i might be able to over come the physical aspect of racing.

What next

Back in 2011 when i got introduce to edurance world with team asha, i always made sure i get the training right for any event. Somewhere, i lost that crucial aspect in 2017,2018. Haphazard inconsistent training, signing up for every race that shows up in calendar and running those race with no or very little training ending up with bad experience or more worse with injury. It feels like 2019 has been good comeback year. I only signed up for races for which i truly wanted to train or had a purpose in larger scheme of things.

This year, i ended with 4 half marathons and 1 full marathon and no injury and no deferrals. I haven't decided on any races for 2020 but i am far certain i will not be signing up for full marathon.

Right after finishing the race, first thing that crossed my mind was i want to get faster at this. My PR for half marathon is 1:50. I want to get close to that. In 2019, my best time for half marathon was 2:20 in Oakland. I want to move it closer to 2 hours as first step. So atleast for 2020, i want to focus on getting stronger and faster at half marathon distance. Which races and how is still in works :)

Mt. Shasta Climb-an unfinished business

Wow its been so long that i almost forgot i have this little piece of internet where i use to document my race reports for future reference. . Looking back at garmin files, 2014 and 2015 were good years in terms of cycling. I did low land double century in 2014 and Seattle to Portland double century in 2015 and few short races in 2016. But starting 2017, training and racing has been a bit off . I did few shorter road races here and there but nothing of substance. There were lot of start/stop to training due to one or that other reasons and consistency was never there. Sometimes, i lost the motivation, some times got swamped at work and at times ended up injuring myself due to lack of consistent strength training and general training.

Fast forward to late 2018, my itch to train and run well finally came back. I trained well (for most part) and was feeling very excited to run monterey bay half marathon in November. But unfortunately, on the race weekend, organizer had to cancel the race due to California fires that happened during that time. There's not much I could do so I decided to keep training and then target something early 2019. I targeted Oakland half marathon in March 2019. That race date was perfect. It was on my birthday weekend. Probably the best way to celebrate the start of new year :)

After training through early part of 2019, I was successfully able to finish a half marathon. Finally, the first one after a long time!!! after so many frustrating start/stop to training. And to my surprise, i was able to run a very solid half marathon. My goal was to do a 2:30 half but was able to run well in race and was able to finish it in 2 hour 20 minutes.

 In the past, seeing this i would have registered for several more races through the year and then would get injured. What i have realized through the years is running  the whole year is not for me. For one, i use to lose motivation half through the year and then wouldn't train consistently leading to injury and more frustration. So this year, i decided to do things differently.

After running Oakland half marathon, I decided to take a break from running. My ultimate goal is/was to run full marathon by year end but for that to happen i wouldn't need more than 5-6 months of solid training. So i targeted CIM and decided to start training for it from July.

But that decision also brought unique challenge for me. If i was not running from March to July then i had to do something. Initially, i decided to get back on biking but i was not getting motivated again for doing those long crazy rides which i use to love.

During some random surfing on facebook, i came across team asha seattle climbing website. The website said they were planning to start the program in sillicon valley. That peaked my interest !!! I learnt how to run and bike with Team Asha so it was no brainer to explore this.

Truth be told, i had no clue what climbing was. I had also missed the info session due to work. When the email for first hike came, i naively thought climbing is same as hiking. In my mind, this would be perfect for getting the muscles ready for full marathon and I LOVE hiking. So i signed up for it and icing on the cake was teaming up with Ramesh and Aparna from east bay. They also had joined the program so i had company from here. When we showed up for first hike, it was 4 miles long.

That was lot of fun. After the hike i decided to go all in with the program. I still had no clue what i am signing up for :) As weeks went by, we start going on weekly hikes on weekend exploring beautiful trails in bay area. After few weeks, I got the first taste of the seriousness. Since large number of people had signed up for the program and being the first year, climbing leads and coords wanted to limit the number of people. We all had to "qualify" for training program. Truthfully, it felt bit odd. I have being part of team asha from 2011 and none of their programs had "qualifications". The programs were run to make people fit. But i was game for it. The qualification process was simple. Climb Mt. Olympia in 2 hours 45 mins with 20 lb bag pack. I was barely able to qualify. I made it to top of Mt. Olympia in 2 hours 47 mins. I was very happy to get this qualification out of the way so i could continue hiking. I still had no clear understanding of what we are training for.

Well Hello Mt. Shasta
Few weeks into the program, on our drive to one of the hikes, Aparna broke the news to me on what we had signed up for. Since i had missed the info session, this was all new for me. But then i realized that this is not a hiking program but a climbing program and both are not same :)

Mt. Shashta from flight.

Hearing the details in one of our online meetup with the coordinator KD, I immediately realized this is completely new world for me. I was nervous and excited. I haven't felt like that from the days i started running and biking. In the hind sight joining the program without knowing anything about it was the best decision ever. I was up for the challenge. If i had known we were training to climb that thing in the picture, i would have immediately dropped from the program :) My immediate concerns/needs were

1) Tackling snow and snow skills
2) Acquiring all the gear
3) Getting basic bag packing skills for over night stay in snow
4) Getting stronger and fit for the climb

Weekly hikes took care of 4 but first three were also quite nerve wrecking for me. I have been in bay area for 12+ years but i hadn't put my foot on snow. So snow was a major concern for me. Same goes for 2 and 3. Anybody in mountaineering will tell you how big financial investment you need to make to get the right gear. Luckily, we had an amazing coordinator in KD who helped us pick the right gear for the climb. It is hilarious when i look back at those emails. Questions like, will this pants work, will this gloves work, should i buy this or that. He patiently answered all our questions and slowly and surely, i started acquiring all the gear.

On training front, our bag packs were getting heavier every week. Also, our hikes were getting longer. But being with so many amazing people made it fun. Every hike took a serious toll on my body and it always took 2-3 days to recover from it. But i also realized that i was getting fit and stronger. Week after week, we hiked several mountains in bay area.

2 X mission peak with 35+ lb bagpacks

The gang

Hardest of all hikes. Mt. Diablo with 30+lb backpacks. Ice cream at the summit was well worth the effort

Snow Skills

For me, the biggest hurdle was snow. Once i acquired most the gear, it was time to head to Tahoe to try out all the new gear and also learn essential snow skills for climbing. I did a full day snow skill session with ASI (Alpine skills international) on 4th May. We learnt several techniques to traverse the mountains 1) rest step 2) french technique 3) front pointing 4) Plunge stepping and glissading for descents. We also learnt about ice axe and self arrest technique. Well i guess if you don't want to die on the mountain, it is essential to know self arrest :) Slowly but surely, i was getting more and more confident on my snow skills. 

Date with Shashta

Finally, after all the training and hard work, it was time to finish the business. Plan was to divide the group into two groups and both groups would try to summit on different dates. First group was slated to go on 21st June weekend with Vaibhav as the guide and second group was slated to go on 28th June with KD. I and Aparna were slated to go in second group. In my last minute preparation, i decided to head back to Tahoe one more time on 15th June to refresh my snow skills and gain enough confidence for the climb. When i finished the second session, i felt good and ready for the climb. 

We drove to Shasta  on Friday. The plan was to meet KD and seattle group (Praful, Rekha, Preeti) on Saturday morning and start climbing around 10:30 via avalanche gulch route. We had plan to reach lake helen at 10,400 ft by 4:30 PM for the over night camping and then try to summit on Sunday morning at 14,179 ft and be back to car by evening.

Avalanche gulch route

As planned we met with the Seattle gang at the trail head. All the people coming from Seattle were pros who had submitted several peaks. This was a big advantage for our group. They helped us repack our bag packs the right way, removed all unnecessary stuff to reduce the weight. After all the details were ironed out and some pictures, we all started for lake helen. My backpack was quite heavy (I guess i still did not have all the layering sorted out) and it was close to 40 lb. With all the training, i was OK with the weight.  It was not a big concern for me. Slowly and surely we made it lake helen. Most of the trip was uneventful. I was fully focused on the task at hand. We took few breaks along the way and reached lake helen around 4:30ish. 

The whole group 2

Add caption

Once we reached, our immediate task was to setup the tents and start melting snow for the summit and for the way down next day. Since we were nine people, we had to get close to 45 liters of water (5 liter per person). We finished up the dinner around 9-9:30. The summit plan was to meet at 12:15 am and start at 12:30. I could not sleep for those 3 hours. I was quite nervous and excited for the summit. My body was feeling good and i was not feeling overly tired. I woke up at 12 and we all got ready by 12:30. Aparna and Sinny decided to stay back as they were not feeling well.

Summit Bid 

Due some stomach issue for one of the member we started the summit bid around 1:30. Weather was perfect in the morning. It was not that cold. The only challenge was to navigate the route in night with head lamps. 

Within 30-45 mins into the climb, my crampon came off. This made me quite nervous. I some how managed to put it back on. Initially, i thought may be i did not tighten it properly. So this time, i put proper pressure and locked them up. But within few minutes, i could feel they were getting loose again. This really scared me. Being a complete novice at this, I panicked and decided to stop and return back and just like that my summit bid was over. In the hindsight i could have handled it much better if i had thought through it. On my return trip, crampon came off again. But i was so pissed that i just took that one crampon in hand and climbed down to base camp. Once i reached base camp, i realized that the tube of my water bladder had also frozen so i had no access to water. So in hindsight it turned out to be a good decision. Our amazing group was able to summit successfully. We all returned back to our car by 7ish PM and then drove back to bay area by 1 am in the night.

Lesson learnt

I felt really really bad for few hours. This was first time ever where i turned back from a challenge for which i had put in so many hours. Once the sun came out, i met up with Aparna and Sinny and we just hanged out at base camp. Since i could not sleep whole night, i decided to take couple of hours nap in the morning. Once the team returned from the summit, i explained my crampon situation to KD and within minutes, he was able to tell the problem. The crampons were not fitted properly by the shop from where i had rented them. I could not figure that out looking at them. 

Lesson 1: Sweat the details.

I relied on rental folks for several key parts of my trip and that royally screwed me at the last minute. Along, with crampon issue, they had given me wrong sleeping bag. The sleeping bag cover was for zero degree but the actual sleeping bag within it was for 36 degree. I did not open and check the sleeping bag and i was miserable when i returned to base camp from failed crampon. I could not sleep and kept shivering till the sun came out. Although, on the phone they mentioned that they would be able to rent me crampons for my mountaineering shoes, they turned back at the last minute and i was forced to rent mountaineering boots from them. This was quite nerve wrecking as i was very use to my shoes and last minute shoe change could have caused giant problems for me. Luckily, rented shoe worked out OK. Big lesson learnt. 

Lesson 2: Build the fitness

Mt. Shasta was only third time on snow for me. To some extend i under estimated the strength and endurance required for it. Having experienced it first hand, i knew i would have struggled coming back to car if i had summited that day. Mt. Shasta is hard climb. It is no joke and requires really strong preparation. 

What next

If you made it to here then congratulations :) Like i mentioned, the whole climbing thing happened like an accident. But now that it is behind me, i am back on marathon train. I have signed up for couple of half marathons (San Jose Rock n Roll and Monterey Bay half) leading upto CIM in December. For a change i am really looking forward to train hard for December marathon. Good thing is i am going into it with lot less variables and hell lot stronger body :)

While on the mountain, i kept telling Aparna and Sinny that snow is not my thing and how stressful this whole experience was for me (I guess that was all knee jerk reaction for all things going wrong at the last minute). But once i returned home and gave it a good thought I realized that being able to get upto 10,400 ft in itself was such a big achievement for me and i am really grateful to Team Asha Seattle chapter, especially KD, Suhas and Deepti  to introduce this program in bay area and train us for it.

All said and done, i still have unfinished business with Shasta. I am looking forward to train harder and get on that mountain summit in 2020. 

Mt. Shasta, we are still not done !