Fleet Feet Bend Bandit Races

fleet feet bend loves nuun

my boyz at fleet feet bend put on a free trail race each month called the trail bandit series. i was lucky enough to be in town today for the 10 mile kiwa butte crawl on sunday.

ps: i might be moving to bend after my summer adventure!

meissner in full bandit attire

montrail streaks (everybody's wearin' em)

Run By The Mckenzie River

the honda.. ready to go!
saturday krissy, meissner and i got a good easy 21 miles in on the mckenzie river trail on the west side of the cascades in oregon. although it involved a lot of snow and trail finding it was a great day out. with less overall vertical gain and being about 3,000ft lower than we have been running i thankfully felt great.

only krissy and i were tough enough for the cold water soak post run

Pine Mountain Run (25 Miles East of Bend)

yesterday i proved to myself that i can't just go and go and go, and run and run and run. i ran 25 on saturday, 7 with some vert on sunday. monday i started in salt lake city, flew to seattle, packed my van frantically, then drove the 6+hrs to bend/sisters, oregon to train with meissner. we got about 5 hrs of sleep then tried to run 38 miles. yeah it didn't work out so well. i managed 21 good slow miles w/4,600 feet of gain in some cold and super windy conditions. meissner managed to get 30 while i slept like a dead person in the car.



today rod bien and i joined meissner on his recon mission for a 17 mile race he has planned 25 miles east of bend at pine mountain. some sweet views!

Summer Fun Baby!

i'm currently hashing out my summer plans... here are some of my ideas:

• monday i head to bend/sisters, oregon to train with meissner. we'll hopefully also get out with rod bien and krissy as well. i'm praying for sun. this is dependant on the vw being fixed. =(
• big horn 50 - i'm not even close to in shape to run well so don't expect much, it will be perfect training for the bullet points below however.
• possibly a whole month camping and training in the wind river range (read this!) **i'd love/will need some company
• run the speedgoat 50km??
• running the entire maine section of the appalacian trail with meltzer in 6 days!
• gortex transrockies 6 day ultra through colorado with meissner!
• epic adeventures in the shire in september
• grindstone 100 miler in virginia

Bad Ass 50km 2008

50k Fat Ass Fun Run in the Bend Badlands Oregon
January 5, 2008

our mini winter running camp continued on saturday. justin, piper and i headed to the bad ass 50km just outside of bend in the badlands. this "fat ass" winter race is put on our friends sean meissner and jeff browning.

there was 8" of fresh on the ground when justin and i were packing the car in sisters, oregon and it was super cold. sean had already left to mark the course and i envisioned him running in the darkness with the peaceful layer of new snow. however as we drove out to the badlands it was apparent that the weather conditions were much different. from browning's race recap "We were blessed with nice weather again this year. A snow storm blew through Friday night and dumped 8 inches of new snow in Bend. However, on the drive out, Bend's east side of town only had about 2 inches of snow and by 3 miles east of town...dry as a bone. Typical Central Oregon storm...everything east of the Deschutes River almost always gets far less snow." this was great. cold but manageable.

as advertised by meissner, browning was at the start with a drill. ready to "screw shoe" anyone who wanted a little extra traction on the course. i got my contis screwed.. thanks browning! my buddy rod bien is running the hurt 100 miler in two weeks (he's my pick for the win!). so we had talked about "taking it easy". this was my intention, as my only real option with my current fitness level anyway. although rod is rumored to not know exactly how to run "easy".

justin and i started out at a good clip, not what i would call "easy". then rod caught up, i think he was still getting dressed when the gun went off. the course has a one time 4 mile out and back on the dirt road, then we started the fun 9.4 mile loop course that we would do 3 times. the first loop was great fun, just three doods running and chatting. as we started the 2nd loop in the clockwise direction it became apparent that i wasn't going to keep up with justin and rod. their pace started to feel like a lot of work.. like "race pace"... so i eased off and they slowly dissapeared. i came into the one aid station after loop two and caught up to them again.

we started on loop three, i had hot chocolate i was not going to just waste so i walked and let them go. i knew i wouldn't be keeping their pace anyway for this last 9.4 miles. at that point i think the cold and maybe lack of calories had caught up to me a bit. i turned around and ran the mile back to the aid station. put my warmer montrail running jacket on and reassessed. i decided i wanted to get the coldest part over with first. so i headed back out in the counter clockwise direction, running the course high point and through the wind first. then just cruised it in from there.

turns out piper angle, justin's dog won the fat ass race in course record time of 4:36:40. she beat justin and rod who ran 4:36:50. i train with piper a lot, she's talented.. and hairy. i ran a 5:01 and ended up feeling really good after. hips hurt a bit during, but growing (stronger) pains, not injury pains. results here.



the bend area ultra scene is awesome! they are lucky to have guys like sean meissner, rod bien and jeff browning who are so passionate about their sport. top notch athletes and people. from there we had some bar food at the summit house (where meissner put on a french frie eating display never before seen), a house warming party at krissy's and, well.. more food!
rod bien
both justin and krissy blogged a bit about this weekend too.

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sunday, the day after the fat ass, justin, sean, krissy and i ran a 12 miler out at smith rock and around monkey butt (it's actually called monkey face, although i hate getting monkey butt i like the way it sounds better). my camera didn't make the trip but it was unbelievably cool terrain... and a great run on tired legs, to finish off a great running weekend.. we got 60 miles in 3 days - sahweet!

Winter Rumble Run

friday 4:30 am: patagonia's green ultrarunner justin angle, his dog piper angle and i left seattle, washington for sisters, oregon. the plan = run a lot with great friends.

justin and piper

we stayed with the most famous of montrail ultrarunners sean meissner (i say that because every time i open a running magazine sean's smiling mug is in there somewhere. seriously.. check out this months ultrarunner magazine - he's in there a lot!). anyway we ran a hair over 15 miles on the rumble course. great way to get the weekend started... next up we run the bad ass 50km in the bend badlands.

meissner took a fall on the road and i had the camera ready, at least he didn't puke (although he almost did later on in the run)