Mark Dowds

The Plan for 2011

It is that time again to publicly communicate my plans and goals for 2011 as I see them today. I will likely add to this list but hopefully not subtract anything. This past year was full of accomplishments on the sports and adventure side. I came 1st in the ultra distance Coastal Trail Blazer Awards for winning and placing on those stupid long runs. I feel good about that and that the 14 ultramarathons actually won me something. I am going to continue to run ultras but not as many this year. I still have to choose which ones I am going to take on in between my other racing schedule (below).

Here is what I have set out for this coming year:

1. I am going to be a better husband and father.

2. I am going to lead Brainpark to become very successful.

3. I am going to do my first Ironman in Cozumel Mexico on Nov 27th.

To accomplish these 3 significant goals is going to take even more discipline in my life. The old adage of early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise is going to be a mantra this year. I have already taken steps to formalize this discipline by spending $900 to join a Masters Swim class that starts every morning at 5.30am. I plan to swim and run 5 days a week before work then bike every day before dinner. I bought myself a very nice Kestrel bike a few months ago which I am really enjoying. This year will have a lot of mountain bike and road bike racing. Here is the schedule so far:

1/23: Pacifica 21k trail run (may upgrade to the ultra)

1/29: Dam Run in Lafayette

2/6: Chanoko Duathlon

3/13: Dublin St Pats run

3/19: Mount Diablo Challenge 50K Trail Run

4/2: Boggs 8-Hour Mountain Bike Challenge

4/30: Napa Valley Vintage Triathlong (Half-Ironman Distance)

5/15: Bay to Breakers

5/22: 12 hours of Weaverville

6/18: Best of the Bay 125 Mile ride

7/9: Downieville Classic

8/7: Shasta Summit challenge or Howell Mt Challenge

8/13: Tahoe Sierra 100 Mile Mountain Bike Ultra ride

Sept: Tour De Tahoe

10/2: Whiskey Town 9-5

10/16: Diablo Challenge

11/27: Ironman Cozumel

12: Hark the Harold 25K

This time I have a couple of friends who are doing most of the races with me (except the Ironman). I am excited to build up the bike skills and have some fun. If any of you are interested in joining me for any of the above races please let me know. I am going to tie a bunch of this together to raise some more money for my friends in Haiti. The details on that will follow on MileASmile.

 

A Lifesytle of Adventure

It has been a while since I posted anything here as I have been doing more writing on the MileASmile and Brainpark websites. A couple of years back I made a personal vow that I would look for something adventurous to do everyday even if it only took 15 minutes. I have been true to doing this for the most part and wish I would have logged it all down. Well, there are somethings I couldn't write publicly about but it would have been good to have a record of events.

Adventure for me is when my heart pumps a little faster and I am reminded that I am still alive. Over this past season I have ridden motocross, jumped out of a plane, won an ultramarathon, ran 100 miles, biked Mt Diablo, Jetskied Shasta Lake, got a tattoo, sang karaoke, mooned a restaurant, turned 40 and laughed until my heart is content to name a few. I think I may start doing some shorter posts to log some of the stupid things I get myself into.

I hope that I can still keep this rolling as old as I become. I always want to be caught with a sparkle of mischief in my eyes. I have met too many people who get focused on money, career, fame, or wanting to be liked. I hope that I can continuously navigate around these things without getting stuck and boring. This post was prompted by someone who I haven't seen for 20 years asking about me and whether I was still "mad". The response is a resounding "YES".

For this next season I am not sure all I am going to try. I am doing my first triathlon next month and think I will try an IronMan somewhere within a year. This means I need to re-learn how to swim properly and buy a road bike and learn how to do that as well. On top of this I am noodling on a very stupid running adventure that will make 100 mile race look tame. All this will precede the day I get to ride a motorcycle around central and south america for 6 weeks.

Oh, forgot to mention. I do work as well.

Sequoia Ultra Trail Run

When I woke up yesterday to the sound of rain my heart sank. My last ultra 3 weeks ago was in the rain and mud and I was hoping for something different this time around. The event was 25 minutes from where I live but I had never been in the park. The event was run by Pacific Coast Trail Runs again, these folks are amazing.

The elevation gain was over 5,000 ft throughout the duration of 50KM. This being my 4th race I am getting more familiar with what to expect. This course was a tough one and very technical in places. The majority of the course is single track in the midst of trees. It has breathtaking scenery which is what I enjoy most about trail running. 

I did well and was keeping up my normal pace for the most part. Then I was faced with some really tough and slippery climbing which burned out my quads for a while. I never stopped going but I felt this one physically more than the previous ones. This course was slower due to climbing under trees, navigating boulders, traversing streams, and at one point wading through a small lake (caused by the rainfall). The rain stopped just before the race began which made the temperature perfect but the trails treacherous. There were so many times I slipped and tripped that I thought for sure I would get hurt or end up on my ass in mud somewhere. I did witness several people going down in it so there was no shortage of cuts and blood. The worst scene I saw though was one guy with half his shirt soaked in blood all from one nipple. I almost stopped to ask him for a picture but then considered it somewhat inappropriate...

I did well in the race overall and came in what I think would be the top third. My time was 6 hrs 31 mins which is almost half an hour slower than my usual time. I am learning that you cannot benchmark one race against another as the conditions change radically from park to park.

My next race is the Mount Diablo 50K in 3 weeks time. I am looking forward to this one as it is in my backyard. It will be a tough one too but one of my best friends is running it with me. It will be his first ultra and we won't be looking at watches and times but rather mocking each other for the day.

I have no pictures this time around and no GPS stats as my Garmin ran out of batteries 5 hrs in. 

Another run in the park

Tomorrow I face my 4th ultramarathon this year. It is another 50K in the mountains. This time it is in Sequoia park which I think is near Piedmont (Oakland). My training and eating is getting more precise and I feel strong as well as fit for this one. I have ran 122 miles over the last 12 days in varied conditions and speeds to build capacity and feel good today. I really do hope it is a nice day tomorrow after the last mud bath run. It is getting gray and windy outside right now and I really want to have dry dirt under my feet tomorrow. I will report back tomorrow evening with the fine details and debrief. Wish me luck as these runs do not get less intimidating the day before.

Angel Island 25K Trail Run

Today's race went well. It was 25K (16 miles) and 3000ft of elevation gain. I completed it in 2 hrs and 50 mins (forgot to turn my Garmin off hence the extra couple of mins below). I got a new pair of running shoes (feet) for Christmas called the Vibram Five-Fingers which is an alternative to running in bare feet. Recent scientific studies show that for most people running in bare feet (or close to it) is much better for joints and muscles. There is an interesting section in Born to Run that highlights most of the modern runner's ailments are due to running in fancy running shoes with big padded soles. I started training in the new barefoot shoes recently and it changes the style significantly and as a result I have been using different muscles in my calves. Instead of breaking myself in I went for a decent run in the mountains earlier this week in them. The experience is phenomenal but my muscles have been worked over all week.

I say this to start the post as from the moment I started running today (in normal shoes) my calves were in agony. I almost stopped after the first 10 minutes to give up due to the pain but I am such a sucker and refuse to have a DNF (did not finish) on my record this early that I sucked it up, cranked the tunes louder and pretended it did not exist. I kept a decent speed (for single track climbs) but know I could have killed this run had I been smarter in my training. Lesson learned but I cannot afford to make too many more mistakes like that with the agenda for the next 6 months. I am learning so much about consistent running, training, and recovery. It is very different that training for one marathon. The next 50K run is in 2 weeks so I will be taking it easy and doing lighter runs (8-10 milers in the hills) and bikram yoga every week so as not to over-train.

My family and @JesseEngle and family were there to cheer me over the finish line which felt fantastic. It was a nice end to the day. Here is one picture crossing the finish line showing my big smile

Angel Island 25K

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My Personal Goals for 2010

I am mapping out my plans for next year. I turn 40 mid 2010 and I want to make it a year to remember. 5 years ago I told my friends that I wanted to climb Everest in 2010 but many talked me off the ledge and convinced me that it was too risky and that I would be better off playing Russian Roulette.

I am sharing my draft plans with you to seek feedback and also to ask for some help.

I want to do the  Tahoe Rim 100 mile endurance run mid July (the exact dates are announced next week)

For training discipline and qualification stats I will be doing these:

January 10^th – Angel Island 25K 

January 23rd - Pacifica 50K 

February 27th – Sequoia 50K

March 20th - Diablo Trails Challenge 50K

April 17^th – Diablo Mountain 50 Mile 

May 16th - Big Basin 50K 

June 5th - Diablo 50K

July 3^rd – Pacifica 50K 

For context: If I am successful I will have run the equivalent of 12 marathons in 6 months in extreme conditions. Each 50K run will take approximately 6 hours and I need to complete the 50 Mile race in under 12 hours. The final 100 Mile race has to be completed in 30 hours which would necessitate running day and night without sleep. Some can complete this within 24 hours but I do not expect to do anything legendary like that.

So questions:

Would anyone be interested in doing this mountain race in Tahoe in July with me? This would be a huge commitment and I am not sure if I will have any takers on this one.

Would anyone be interested in joining my support crew to help me through the 100 Mile race? This would involve some moral support when I go insane and running some parts of the race beside me to help me keep pace. If you can run at all you are probably faster than I am so you only need to be fit enough to handle running short distances in high altitude (imagine a relay race of friends taking turns to run with me).

Would anyone local here in NorCal be interested in running some of the 50k Ultras listed above alongside me? I am not running for placement. I just need to put time in on the hills.

Also, if anyone has advice for me who has done something as intense as this I am all ears. I need to learn more on energy, clothing, nutrition, hydration etc.

Comments more than welcome.

A Test of Endurance

At the beginning of this year I set myself some serious goals to achieve. I wanted to race the baja and decided to start training for it. I knew I needed to get very fit to race for a 1000 miles on either a truck or a dirtbike. A strange thing happened in the process. I started hiking in the mountain trails and the more I did it the more I fell in love with getting into the wilderness as many days a week as possible. I then started to run where I used to hike and before long was clocking in 30-40 miles running on the trails each week.

Never in a month of Sunday's did I ever think that I would fall in love with running but that is exactly what happened. I despise running on the roads and on the flat but I love getting into isolated single tracks that let me explore and get lost physically and mentally. Living in California helps a lot as most of the time the weather is fantastic and it is hard to stay indoors.

I randomly picked up a book at the airport a couple of months ago called Born to Run about hidden tribes and superathletes racing ridiculous distances in remote places. It is a brilliantly written book and it inspired me to push things even further. Far enough to have left behind some of my earlier goals set at the beginning of the year.

Next week on Saturday 19th December I will be running my first ultra marathon in the mountain trails north of San Francisco in the Marin headlands. This run is off road for 50K and has an elevation gain of 5,980 ft. It looks grueling and tough and has a 9 hour cut off. I was able to find someone else's experience of doing most of this Rodeo Beach trail and it seems steep and slow. I am running this to test myself and what is possible. I am not running for position or speed but purely to be able to make it over the finish line. That is still a great unknown. I never was one to settle for the easy path in life.

So I am more than 40lbs lighter than this time last year and feeling fit and healthy. Now is the time to see how far I can go and to push my body to the limit. If anyone who has done anything as stupid as this in their lives has advice for me I am all ears. I will do a last long run tomorrow and then keep it easy going next week. Other than that, I have made a great mix on my iPod to enjoy for the 7-9 hrs I will be shuffling around the hills next week.