Tim Cronk Whisky Basin 88k Ultra

Why this Race? - After the debacle that was supposed to be the EN Rattler Party , we cancelled Rattler 66k due to the moving of dates/location, resulting in most of the EN peeps unable to attend. I chose this one as a nice progressional build on my way to Leadville 100 in August. Whisky Basin Ultra is located in Prescott AZ , 3.5hrs drive , very convenient camping , offering several distances to choose from , a course that goes all the way around Prescott, on the Prescott Circle Trail , with elevation's between 5000-6500 , all but guaranteeing some good weather as well as a taste of thinner air. I chose the 88k (56.9 miles) and Heather went with the 66k (36.9 miles). The 88k has 5700' of elevation gain/loss (little over 100' per mile on average) with nearly 100% runnable surfaces , as far as Ultra's go its non technical and fast.

Sorry- Its a pretty boring report, no real racing , or major events, but I think there maybe a few nuggets for those on the team preparing for their first Ultra soon.

Training- Having completed my first two 100's last year , the Vermont100 in August and the GhostTrain100 in October , I took a couple weeks off running , then started up slow, while I did pick up the distance and intensity starting in December you can see below the Run CTL continued to fall , since December 1st the run training has been very structured with 1x per week speed work, usually back to back long runs on the weekends and sometimes races , and a fair amount of elevation on trails. Since mid December I have raced a road HM, road 5miler, trail 8 miler, 2x 50k's, trail Marathon, and a trail 10 miler. Also of Note is 2-3x per week strength training, 2-3x per week short but very high intensity bike training (hope to do another thread on this in 2-3 weeks) , and 2-3x per week easy swims . Priority has been and will continue to be Run, Strength, Bike, Swim enroute to Leadville 100.

Weekly Run #'s via WKO4 since the beginning of the year , with most recent weeks at the bottom. Thanks @Rich Stanbaugh.

The Beauty of an Ultra is you DO NOT have to show up days ahead of the event, but we decided to go early, do some camping, easy run/MTB, and check out Prescott.

Wednesday 4/10 Tim and Heather's 26th anniversary - Run 4.10 miles , breakfast, finish packing, drive MOHO with Car in tow (first trip towing car) to Prescott, set up in a campground 1/2 mile from start , they had camping right onsite but was sold out and I think our location was better and still close enough. Went out to eat Spicy Indian Food!

Thursday- run 3 miles on the course, breakfast and dogwalk, lil over a 1hr MTB mostly on the course logging a whopping 13 TSS, lunch and nap, did packet pick up at a local running store , and walked around downtown (picked up some handwarmers for .14 cents at Walgreen they were marked onsale for .74 cents questioned the cashier and he said musta been further marked down LOL I shoulda bought em all).... snacked pretzels and beet juice.

Friday- Carb load like it an Ironman Day - run 1.5 miles ,breakfast- went out for blueberry spelt pancakes with peanut butter and maple syrup, dog Pwalk and nap, lunch - ramen noodles , rolls w/vegemite and a cookie , walked over to the venue/start/finish in the afternoon , dinner- white rice, banana, almond butter, and maple syrup... snacked pretzels and beet juice.... laid out gear and clothes necessary for a 30 degree start , 65 degree finish, light wind , mostly sunny forecast... Bed by 8:30pm

Saturday Pre-Race - got up at 3:30am , coffee, pretzel roll with almond butter and dates, check forecast go over gear choices , I went with Lone Peak Shoes, feet coated with desitin and then squirrel nut butter, 2x socks , 1st injini toe liner socks , 2nd drymax, thin tights over running shorts, 2 long sleeve shirts , 1 short sleeve shirt, knit gloves with hand warmers, thin beanie hat with safari hat , headlamp, sunglasses, and a Nathan running vest, w/2 liter bladder only half filled, blister kit, and lots of various nutrition, threw some pants and jacket over and left at 4:30am , arrived Start at 4:45 , use bathroom, evaluate last minute clothing choices, remove jacket and pants stow in morning clothes bag for the finish, race brief at 4:55 and the Start was right on time at 5am. No special needs bags at aid stations.

Race- Start was 1/2 mile single track before opening up to double track road and trail for about the next 8-9miles of easy fast terrain, people lined up in good spots, low key minimal passing. And so it begins, run/walk , eat/drink , repeat. I figured there would be lots of walking later on the major climbs, so I skipped those initial short walk breaks in the first 3 miles , but as it turns out almost all the terrain was runnable , it certainly did not effect my race any , but if I had to do it over again I would walk starting at mile 1 always ! Around 8 miles I was in need of a porto-potty , I knew an AS was coming up around mile 11 so rather then head to the woods I waited, right before the AS we were routed through a neighborhood , a house under construction provided the much needed porto-potty which I happily grabbed. and so glad I did as the AS did NOT have any, bad call on the Race IMO since you don't want the runners in peoples yards . Next AS was around 16-17 miles and almost 3hrs into the day, was sunny and felt warm so I sat in a chair, took my shoes off, tights off, 1 long sleeve shirt off, gloves off, beanie hat off, shoes back on, packed all those clothes into the back of my pack, filled up the pack and back to it. Whoops back in the shade and its still cold. Pretty uneventful , run/walk, eat/drink, take turns passing, being passed by 4-5 of the same peeps , kept RPE steady , minimized time at AS and KMF. Beautiful course, lakes, high pines wooded areas, water crossings but kept feet dry. Around mile 25-30 I had my first stumble, then my first fall , then my second fall, WTF I hate that, lost count on the stumbles. Heathers 60k course started 2hrs later and 20 miles into the 88k course, I caught her at my mile 46.5 and her mile 26.5 , walked together for a few minutes, got caught up, kiss for energy and onto the last 10 miles for the both of us. Mile 50 was my 3rd and final fall, this time a good gash in my left palm and hit my right knee again grrr. Hand was bleeding pretty good, but could smell the finish line , so just let it clot up and kept moving. Most of the peeps I was trading places with were finally dropped in 40-50 mile range, not sure but think I passed a couple more 88k racers but was hard to tell with the 60k's mixed in. Finished 56.9 miles with 5700' elevation gain and loss, in 10:36 which was good enough for 15th OA and 1st in AG. Ultrasignup had me estimated to finish at 11:13 so was a good amount ahead of estimate. Went to the med tent to have my hand cleaned up and bandaged. Heather rolled in about 35' behind me which is what we figured about 3' per mile for 10+ miles from when I left her. She covered 36.8 miles in 9:11 and also won her AG.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2287844696/overview

Maybe I should run with fingerless padded gloves?

Analyzing an Ultra - Pace, GAP/NGP, Power, HR , RPE , Results ???

Results would have to be first , pace would have to be last as the terrain is so variable , however its nice to dig into the GAP/NGP, Power, and HR charts to see how much fade over time there was and how it relates to RPE (note: NOT if there was fade but how much fade specially on events longer than 5-6hrs). The other thing I like to look at, to evaluate the efficiency of the day, is Time Elapsed compared to Time Moving (less is more) to see how much time was spent at Aid Stations etc. For this race moving time was 10:24 and elapsed time was 10:36 , 12 minutes spent at aid stations, bathroom breaks, etc = Not bad.... I also like to use that metric of elapsed vs. moving to rate my long runs and long bikes to see how much admin rest is built into the session....Below are the Power/HR/Pace/GAP times for the Total/1stHalf/2ndHalf.... Keep in mind execution was completely by RPE... My only competition was 17' minutes ahead of me at the 20 mile split, and 8 minutes behind me at the finish line, they had a timing matt at 36 miles but it did not work... Also of note: I went thru the 20 mile split in 30th place and finished in 15th place, while the below paints a picture of slowing as time goes on , just like the Ironman its a story of not who slows down but who slows down the least.

Total 1st Half 2nd Half

Power 147w 154w 139w 15w fade from 1st to 2nd

HR 133 135 132 3bpm fade from 1st to 2nd

Pace 11:11 10:52 11:31 41" fade from 1st to 2nd

GAP 10:59 10:29 11:38 71" fade from 1st to 2nd

GAP paints a much better picture of the day than straight pace does by smoothing the effort over the terrain.

Power shows a bit hot to start but settled in to a pretty manageable number for the duration of the distance.

HR faded the least with only 3bpm on average , I was cold for the first 3-4hrs and warm for the last 3-4hrs, shows a pretty steady level of work.

RPE - was kept the same through out the day , with a small kick at the finish , comfortable moderate as opposed to comfortably hard for something like a 50k.

Nutrition- I covered everything I ate the day before and the morning of the race. During the race I drank tailwinds, gatorade, coke, mountain dew, ate 2x mini dried bananas (awesome 60 cal packs found in an Asian Grocery Store), 2x huma gels, 1x muir gel, 3x gu gel, 1x bag skratch blocks, potatoes, pretzels, dates, ginger,1/4 PBJ and 1/2 PBJ... My estimation came up to 2340 calories divided by 10.5hrs equals 223 calories per hour.

Post Race Nutrition- at the finish, lemonade , nutter butters, bean wraps, quesadilla .... Dinner - Beyond Burger , bean salad, cookies and ice cream....

Whats Next? - Leadville 100 in August via the Leadville Camp in June - After I recover from this race, I plan to track in order the elevation metric , time on feet, miles, in prep for Leadville, there will be lots of hiking in addition to running and I will be looking to average 150' per mile elevation gain/loss during much of this training.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Prep, nutrition, execution, etc??? Are all welcome.

Lil Extra Credit.

I dont know how she can smile after 9hrs of running but she does!

Belt Buckle and Whisky Glass

Finish Line Area

A view of the Lake below the Finish Line area.