Slaying the Winter Beast

After sticking mostly to singletrack and mountain ultras in 2017, I decided it was time to change things up and train for an ultra that's flat and a hundred percent runnable. The Beast of Burden is just that. It follows the old Erie Canal towpath from Lockport, NY, eastward to the town of Middleport and back. 25-, 50- and 100-mile runners all start together and run the same 25-mile out-and-back to Middleport once, twice, or four times. I had a rough day at this race back in 2016, and knew I could return and improve by a huge margin.

As I've mentioned in a previous race report, I created my own training plan based on guidelines from the book Training Essentials for Ultrarunning by accomplished ultramarathon coach Jason Koop. In years past, I always spent the winter months dabbling in other activities like snowshowing, hiking, and yoga, and running sporadically on roads and treadmills or fumbling around on snowy trails. This winter was different. By running almost exclusively on roads and rail trails, I'd improve my endurance enough that it would carry over to trail running come springtime. The goal of the 16-week plan was

A Lesson in Attitude

[I originally wrote this in January of 2016 as a guest post for another blog, but it ended up never getting published. I've decided to publish it here, during the 2017 running of the BoB. My full race report from the 2016 race is here, along with some New York State history.]  

I never thought running 50 miles would be easy. Ever. But when the course is a pancake flat, double out-and-back towpath, it can't get much easier.

Just past the first turnaround, only 13 miles in, I already felt my strength slipping away. I knew that running out of gas was imminent, but to slow down so early by so much was almost embarrassing. Even the amount of effort it took to avoid slowing to a walk felt unsustainable. A mere three weeks into the new year and I was already about to fail at my number one running goal for 2016. Completely frustrated, I wanted this to be over after it had only just begun.

Let's back up a bit. Over the last several years, I've had the same primary goal for each year regardless of fitness level,

Of Mules and Men: Beast of Burden Winter 50 Race Report

"...You talk of making a canal 350 miles through the wilderness! It is a little short of madness to think of it this day." - President Jefferson to Joshua Forman in 1809, upon Forman's request for federal funds to build the Erie Canal.

For decades, various New York State lawmakers had been meeting with engineers to discuss plans for a major transportation project. The Empire State's leaders were looking for ways to connect some of New York's lakes and waterways to allow for easier navigation across the state from east to west. As early as 1785, the argument was heard that a man-made waterway from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes would be feasible. After several plans, proposals, and subsequent rejections for funding from Washington, the state legislature finally passed a bill to approve construction of a massive canal. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton played the primary role in engineering and commissioning the project. On July 4, 1817, Gov. Clinton ceremoniously shoveled the first patch of dirt in Rome, NY, and construction of the Erie Canal was officially underway.

***

"How many first timers do we have at The Beast today?" the race director asked through his megaphone, making himself heard over the din of the nervous, frozen crowd. Roughly half the field raised a hand, myself included. I looked around at the assortment of runners surrounding me at the starting line. Many had brightly colored clothing, allowing them to stand