7,333,971

No, it's not the number of training miles I ran this month... Actually, it is a bit off-topic, but I am really excited about this: my patent 7,333,971 was finally issued today! Believe it or not, the company I work for filed the application in 2002.

This is a patent for an automated helpset build system (a tool that can help technical writers speed up their work on online help by automating a bunch of manual tasks). This is the second patent that was issued out of four applications that I filed. The other two are still patent-pending.

Ray Sanchez in the News

The the Sacramento Bee ran a nice article about Ray Sanchez in today's paper. The writer, Sam McManis, called me to ask a few questions while he was writing the article. There are some quotes from Scott and Alan in the article as well. Note: I don't think I deserve the "veteran ultrarunner" title used in the article.

I met Ray (a former Golden Gloves boxer) for the first time at the Sunsweet Tehama Wildflowers 50K, where he beat me by about 7 minutes, taking first place. In 2007, Ray had a fantastic year and competed non-stop. As it says in the article, he literally came out of the woodwork!

I think his boxing background gave him the mental (and physical) strength it takes to dig deep and compete in ultramarathons. I'm sure we'll probably see a lot more of Ray in the years to come.

Good luck Ray in your upcoming 135-mile events (The Brazil 135, Badwater, and Arrowhead 135)!

January in Review

Running in the Sierra Foothills close to the Yuba River

Wow, a month of training already went by! It’s time to post something, anything this year!

Although the blog has been quiet, I have not exactly been sitting still. Training for the 165-Mile Tahoe Rim Trail Run officially started on January first. After a slow start, I am now logging 60-70 (mountain) miles a week.

I made quite a few changes to my training, diet, and other things. Here are some examples:

Yes!

• Longer training runs -- I replaced my flat 6-mile loop with a +/-10 mile mountain run.
• Mountain miles – The new training loop has 2300’ elevation gain and features a 500’ straight climb.
• More long runs -- For a long run, I got the go-ahed from a local rancher to run through a fantastic ranch, all the way to the Yuba River and back up (1050’ elevation gain and loss in one go).
• Organic foods -- Lots of fruits, vegetables, and healthy juices.
• Rolfing treatments – from Rolfing in the Sierras in Nevada City – this is pretty amazing, you feel like a new person after this and I already verified that it improves performance
  Greens+ organic energy bars -- This is my new race snack of choice! If you have not tried this great-tasting, all-organic superfood bar, you should. You can buy them on their website, but I also found them at Trader Joe’s.
  

Greens+ Bars (get them by the case!)

No!

• Speedwork – But I guess you can call 50Ks speedwork...
• Junk food – No sugar, no processed foods, and no fried food. Also, no more sports drinks that have unnatural coloring in it and very little meat and dairy.
• Caffeine – this was the hardest (headaches for a week), but getting easier now. Saving that thermos of coffee for mile 100 (with 65 to go!).

Next up, more base training.