Welcome to Episode 13 of my 2022 Training Diaries.
My name is Jeff Pelletier and I am based in Vancouver Canada.
But I've been training for a 7-day stage race that's taking place now
in just over two weeks in the country of Georgia.
And just a couple of months after that I'll be racing UTMB in the Alps.
I've put a ton of work in over the past few months
and I feel like my coach Eric and I created a really solid plan.
And like I said in the first video of this series,
it's all about planning your work and working the plan,
and I've managed to stick to that plan pretty damn close.
I'm feeling strong and more ready to race than I have in quite a long time.
So I'll talk today about how I'll be approaching my taper here
over the next two weeks in lead up to the race.
I've been experimenting with a bunch of different nutrition products this season
and I've finally made some decisions on my nutrition for the race.
So I'll talk about that today.
I've also finally decided on the shoes that I'll be using for the race.
So I'll explain my rationale for that as well.
And lastly, we just launched the registration for this trip to Patagonia
that Audrée and I will be hosting in March.
So I'll give you some more details about that and
we'll include a link where you can get access to early bird pricing in the description below.
But first let's talk about this past week of training.
You might remember from last week's video
that I had to push my back-to-back long runs by a day
since I had a conflict on the Saturday.
It's really important to keep those back-to-backs together
instead of splitting them up with the day in-between
because a big benefit of these workouts is the cumulative fatigue
that you have to push through on the second of those runs
which is usually the shorter of the two.
But it really makes it feel like that run is a lot longer
without too much extra wear and tear on the body.
So I ended up doing those on Sunday and Monday
which meant taking Tuesday of this week as my rest day
instead of doing the easy run that i originally had scheduled for Tuesday.
I always take at least one rest day each week
which is something that I talked about back in Episode 4.
On Wednesday, I then aimed to get back on track
with a tempo run that I had scheduled
which I did on some flat and runnable trails nearby.
I started with a 20-minute warm-up,
followed by a 20-minute tempo effort at around 8 RPE,
followed by a 15-minute cool-down.
You'll remember from Episode 7 that 8 on the RPE, or Rate of Perceived Effort Scale
means an effort where you can only speak in short sentences.
Audrée joined me for her own workout that she had scheduled
which involved a series of shorter intervals.
I followed this up with the strength training session at the gym with my personal trainer.
This will likely be the last strength training session that I do here
for probably the rest of the summer.
At least, the last one that I do with my trainer here in Vancouver,
given that I'm now going to be racing and traveling pretty much through until September.
Although, I might still squeeze in a couple of weeks of strength training,
kind of more as maintenance,
once I recover from Georgia,
as I then do one more block of training in lead up to UTMB.
Thursday I then did 45 minutes of cross training on the stationary bike
in our gym here in the building.
The whole idea here was just to get the legs moving to help with recovery
without any additional impact.
Because Friday, I then had a second speed work session on the schedule.
This I was originally scheduled to do at the track,
but it was absolutely pouring rain here in Vancouver.
So I hopped on the treadmill instead.
I started with a 50 minute warm-up, followed by 3 sets of 400 meters,
starting at around an 8 or 9 RPE,
and finishing at close to an all-out effort by the third set.
I then did two sets of 800 meters at again an 8 or 9 RPE,
followed by 2 more sets of 800 meters at an all-out effort.
The rest in between each was equivalent to the interval itself.
So between about 90 seconds to 3 minutes for those 800 meter intervals.
Of course, I finished with a 15 minute cool-down.
Saturday I then had my one long run for the week,
but it was shorter than the past couple of weeks at just about 4.5 hours as I begin to taper.
I chose a route with a bit more elevation change again this week,
like with last weekend's long run,
even though my race in Georgia is going to be relatively flat.
But I've been trying to already start banking some climbing in my legs for UTMB later this summer
because the transition between the two races is going to be pretty short.
Finally, on Sunday I again did just an hour of cross training on the stationary bike.
In this case it was both about recovery and to help maintain my base cardiovascular fitness
without any additional impact on my legs.
So for the week, I technically ran just over 95 km.
But I counted that run on Monday against last week's volume,
since it was part of last week's schedule.
So excluding that run I only covered an additional 55 km or 34 miles,
with about 1,150 meters of elevation gain, or roughly 3,780 feet, plus equal descent.
The idea with the taper is that you want to reduce
your volume over the 2 to 3 weeks in lead-up to a race
but while maintaining the intensity of your training.
So for example, next week you'll see that my volume is even lower than it was this week
but I'll still be doing some strides and some intervals.
This is as much about maintaining your neuromuscular recruitment
as it is about cardiovascular fitness.
I also find that these shorter, hard efforts throughout a taper
help to avoid those taper tantrums.
It can be a bit of a shock to the system when you've been training so hard
to suddenly have all of this extra time and energy
which can be channeled into nervous energy if you're not careful.
I find it really only takes a couple of days off
before I start to forget how it feels to be an athlete
and to begin to start to question my fitness.
That's why it's quite common to have what are sometimes referred to as a 'race prep workout'
scheduled for maybe a few days before a race.
Short enough to avoid requiring too much recovery,
but just long enough to remind your body and your mind how it feels to push a little bit.
As I said, I've also been making some final preparations for my race.
As much work as I'd put in prior to my race in Namibia in October,
which is very similar to this race in Georgia in terms of format and gear requirements,
there's always going to be tweaks and minor improvements that you can make.
And this race in Georgia is going to be a little bit different in terms of climate and terrain.
So I'll start here by talking about a few of the
decisions that I've made about my gear over the past couple of weeks.
First of all, I'm going to stick with my Salomon XA 25 pack.
I'd briefly considered using one of two other packs,
the Salomon S-llab Peak 20 which is actually a 22 litre pack that I've had for years
and which I used first for Tor Des Geants as well as for some of my early fast packing adventures.
But while it's quite comfortable,
it's a complicated pack with a few potential points of failure,
including the zippered main compartment, instead of a roll top.
And I also tested out the Salomon XA 35 litre pack.
So the same as the 25 but just a little bit bigger.
I was thinking it might be more comfortable to use a larger pack, cinched down
rather than a smaller one kind of stuffed to the brim.
But I think this is also a bit of a dangerous approach,
because we tend to be less disciplined in packing when we have room to spare.
The XA25 was just big enough for all of my gear and food in Namibia,
and my goal was to shave off a little bit more weight where I
could for this upcoming race in Georgia.
So I'm going to stick with what's been working for me.
I flip-flopped for a few weeks about which shoes to wear,
and finally I've decided to go with the Salomon S-lab Pulsars.
These things are fast!
They're easily the lightest trail shoes I've ever run in,
but also one of the most comfortable,
thanks to the energy surge foam and the rockered design.
They fit super snug which I love, just like a sock.
They don't even have an insole in them.
I've put about 450 km on this first pair, including a couple of 60+ km runs.
So I know that they can handle the miles.
And I've got a fresh pair ready to go here for this race.
This race is 250 km in total, with most stages being between 35 to 45 km.
So it's just that 80 km day - the long stage
where I might be pushing it a little bit.
I'd hoped that the S-lab Pulsar Soft Grounds would arrive in Canada in time
but unfortunately no luck.
Those look to be very similar to the regular S-lab Pulsar,
but with a more durable upper and with deeper lugs.
But my understanding from talking to runners who ran this race last year
is that the terrain in Georgia is mostly packed dirt
with very little in terms of rocky or technical terrain.
So I think these will be just fine.
The other option was to go back to my Salomon Sense Pros
which are also a fairly lightweight shoe.
Those i've worn for every 100 miler and both of the 200 milers that I ran,
and those have actually been discontinued,
but I did stock up on a couple pairs before it was too late.
But I think it's time for me to finally move on now when it comes to sizing of shoes.
It's always an interesting conversation in lead up to these kind of stage races especially.
I see a lot of people recommend going up a size or possibly even two sizes
to account for the swelling of your feet.
This is an area where I hesitate to ever jump in with advice,
because my experience seems to have just been so different from many others.
I've run a half dozen hundred milers,
two 7-day stage races (both in the desert),
and a handful of multi-day fast packing adventures,
along with two 200+ mile runs in the Alps
where I was moving for up to 5 days basically without sleep,
and I've never had problems with my feet swelling,
at least not during the event, only after in fact.
In all of that time, I think I've only really had one serious blister,
and that was near the end of Tor Des Geants when I decided to switch my shoes
from my Salomon Sense Pros to the Salomon Sense Rides.
I packed those in my drop bag for this very reason,
in case my feet swelled up and I needed something with a little bit more room in the toe box.
I figured it couldn't hurt to switch to something
a little more cushioned for the final leg of the race.
So I decided to throw them on, even though I wasn't having any
problems with swelling yet at that point.
But that extra room seems to be what allowed my foot to then move around,
creating friction and leading to a blister.
So my personal philosophy is that you should just wear shoes that fit.
Because if your shoes are too wide or too long,
and especially if your heel doesn't lock down,
you're likely to slide around.
And this friction is what will definitely cause blisters.
You may even end up with black toenails,
since you're more likely to be sliding forward and hitting the front of your shoes,
especially on the downhills.
It's like trying to drive fast in like an old Cadillac with bench seating,
compared to being strapped down in bucket seats in a race car.
Again, the difference could be that I personally tend to run more than walk,
especially in a staged race, I'm running virtually every step.
So this could be different if your strategy is to walk more than run.
And of course, everybody's body handles the heat differently,
and I'm sure that diet and nutrition play a big role as well
when it comes to swelling of the feet.
All I can speak to is my own experience,
but I say all this because I think that others need to test this out for themselves as well
and not assume that these rules of thumb,
like having to size up your shoes,
necessarily apply to them either.
For my nutrition for this race, I'm trying something a little bit different.
I'll be using powdered drink mixes pretty much exclusively for on the run.
As you've seen over these past few months, I've been testing out a bunch of new products,
including some different drink mixes from companies like Untappd, Tailwind and Naak,
and I've decided to go with Skratch's Super Fuel for during each stage of the race,
along with their recovery drink for immediately after.
You might remember from a video that I published last year about what I eat when I run
that I'm not a huge fan of drink mixes for most situations,
at least not as a primary fueling source.
As I concluded in that video,
I think that powders work great as bonus calories on top of eating bars gels and more solid food,
but it can get extremely complicated when you tie your fueling strategy to your hydration plan
because if you find that you're not drinking as much as you'd planned during a race,
you're likely also going to fall behind on your nutrition.
And inversely, if you're more thirsty than anticipated,
you might end up going through your fuel too quickly or, worse,
even just holding back on drinking your fluids.
But this race is a little bit different than most trail and ultra races,
given that, my plan at least, is to run at a very specific pace.
So it's more like a series of marathons in that way.
The other difference is that, at Racing the Planet events,
the aid stations are very evenly spaced out - roughly every 10 km or so,
or in my case just over every hour or so.
I can therefore plan pretty confidently to drink one bottle an hour,
with roughly 200 calories per bottle worth of Skratch Super Fuel powder,
and given the very specific pace that I'm aiming to run at,
I can easily anticipate how long each stage should take,
and therefore how much fuel that I'm going to need for each stage.
I can then just pre-portion enough in a little baggie for each sort of 10 km leg,
and dump it into the bottle when I get to the aid station.
The long stage is the exception,
where I anticipate being on feet for 8 hours,
instead of just 4 or 5 like the other stages.
I've tested fueling with Skratch for up to 5 hours which I find is about the limit.
That's where I start to feel quite hungry.
So for the long stage, I have a couple of Skratch energy bars as well,
along with some nut butter which I plan to eat after each stage of the race,
but which I could dip into in case of emergency.
So we'll see how this goes.
I definitely will not be using the strategy for UTMB of course,
which is a much longer event.
I'll likely use powders there as well, but is more of a supplement to my more solid foods,
and for that one I'm thinking I'll rely on Naak's new drink mix
which includes protein and amino acids that I talked about a couple of weeks ago,
which are important for longer efforts.
I'll likely do a complete breakdown in another video here of
all of the gear nutrition that I'll be using for my race in Georgia,
so stay tuned for that.
I've got my patches sewn on my shirt here and pretty much everything else ready to go.
As I mentioned at the top, we just launched the registration for the trip to Patagonia
that we will be hosting in March of 2023.
Specifically from the 13th of March to the 20th.
We've got a pretty jam-packed itinerary that will take us from Argentina to Chile,
including a few easy to moderate hikes of up to 16 miles.
We wanted to keep this one fairly accessible, so nothing too intense.
It's definitely not a running trip.
Having said that, we are going to squeeze in a couple of optional runs,
along with maybe a workshop or two on trail running techniques.
So be sure to bring your trail running shoes if you've got them.
Spots are filling up quickly, but you've still got time to take advantage of early bird pricing.
So visit the link in the description below to learn more about the trip
and to request a spot if you're interested.
And don't hesitate to reach out to me directly,
probably best to contact me on Instagram,
if you have any questions whatsoever.
For the next episode, I'll be coming to you from Georgia.
At least I'm going to try to get a video out that week,
once I arrive but before I leave for the race.
And I'll be able to give you all the information that you'll need then
in case you want to follow along with how I'm doing in the race throughout the week.
I'm excited to have some of you potentially following
along with my progress on this one in real time.
My flight to Georgia is actually in just two days.
I'm gonna be spending a couple of days first in the capital Tbilisi
where I'm gonna be running a short trail race, just a 12k,
as more of a shakeout run than anything else
and a chance to meet some people in the local trail running community.
I then have 5 days to explore the country,
and I've rented a car for that,
before I need to return to the capital
in order to check in for the race and to head out to camp.
So if you enjoyed this video give it a like
and be sure of course to subscribe for more videos like this.