After a nice mellow taper week (48mi/8500ft) I’m feeling fairly ready for Quadrock on May 11th, which will be a good indicator of my fitness moving forward to Hardrock and UTMB this summer. Hopefully we’ll also see some dry trails and melting snow in the high mountains after Quadrock, as I’m oh so ready to breath that high mountain air on a regular basis.

Untracked snow in Long Canyon on 5/4/13. After a 5th straight week of >1ft of snow.

The past several weeks on the trails have been tough going, our weekly barrages of snow (1-2ft/week) has made for many wet and muddy miles in April. While I love stomping in puddles as much as the next 10yo trapped in a 30yo body, after a while one longs for clear dry trails to and to just be able to run. As I slop through the mud and moments of frustration boil to the surface I need to remind myself why I’m out in the first place. Sure running keeps me healthy, but I’m out on the trails because I enjoy it. If I just wanted to stay in shape there are many things I could do that didn’t involve mud, snow and puddles of cold water but the trails give me a freedom and enjoyment I don’t get on the roads or in a gym.

I’m sure every runner has had one of these moments of weakness; whether it be on a training run, at mile 2 of a 5k, mile 22 of a marathon or mile 90 of a 100. We are all human and are prone to ups and downs and rough patches while participating in our respective sports, the key is to remind yourself why you’re out there in the first place. For many of us its because we love the sport; the runners high, the feeling of successfully pushing yourself, the freedom of the run, the simplicity of the rhythmic motion, or the feeling of accomplishment after the run is completed. Whatever your reason, just remember that when you’ve hit that low or rough patch. “It can’t always get worse” and usually it’s much better, so remember the highs and all the good going forward.

Me as Spidey shredding some corduroy at Loveland on closing day, 5/5/13.

Personally I like to give races and events a little more flair when possible with a good costume. A little color, a little flair and a little embarrassment for myself and everyone else I’m out there with seems to keep the mood light and to remind people we’re out here to have fun, regardless of the aches and pains we’re fighting through. So the next time you’re struggling through a rough patch while running, climbing, cycling or whatever your sport of choice, pause for a moment to remind yourself why you participate in the first place. Though if all else fails just think of me in a Spiderman suit, dressed up as wonder woman or throwing out jump kicks as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle during a 100miler. Run fast, run healthy, but mostly run happy.

Me as TMNT Michelangelo executing a not-so-graceful jump kick during the 2012 IMTUF100. Photo by LongRunPictures.com

Rocking Dana’s Wonder Woman outfit at the 2012 Leadville100 as a Pacer. Photo by Kelly Chadwick.

View from near the Summit of Bear Peak on 4/7/13. The end of a 40mile/11000ft “rest” week, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Ah spring; longer days, warmer weather (though not today in CO), melting snow and the start of race season. Like most people as spring moves into summer my desire, almost a need, to get outside and soak up some sunshine grows exponentially. As an ultrarunner trying to temper this enthusiasm is always a battle, because for most of us there is a limit to what our body can physically handle, so finding that happy balance between running/training and rest is always difficult. The line is different for everybody, but for me it’s somewhere around 70-80 miles of mountainous trails a week.

Some of you might say, “wow, that’s a lot”, others, “is that all?”, but that’s my number and I’m sticking to it. No matter how good I feel, how hard others around me are training or how much or how little free time I have, keeping myself in check is important. How did I come up with that number you might ask? There’s no fancy formula based on how long your race is, there’s no magic training plan, I simply tinkered with my training regimen over the course of many years and listened to my body. The last part of that is the key, listen to your body. If you take time periodically to check-in, both physically and mentally, you’ll start to gain an understanding for how your body reacts and tolerates different training loads and stresses. Working hard and pushing yourself are good, over training, over stressing your body and burning out, not so much.

Another key for me to maintaining this balance is finding an outlet, this is mostly for the endurance athletes in the group. The outlet is an activity other than your primary sport where one can burn off some of that pent up energy without subjecting oneself to the same level of stress; my outlets are blues dancing and volleyball. Both allow me to get out, enjoy some activity, burn off some energy, but don’t stress my body the way running does. I consider this true cross training, finding some sort of physical activity that works your body in a completely different manner such that your muscles get a break from your primary sport, but also become better balanced and more well-rounded. I’m no expert on the topic and of course these are just my thoughts. My real message here is, listen to your body and try to strike a balance in whatever you do. Balance between activity and rest, balance between one’s primary sport and cross training, balance between work and life. Run fast, run healthy, but mostly run happy.

I recently read an article on irunfar.com by my part-time roommate Dakota Jones, in the comment lines Karl Meltzer invoked the phrase “work to live, don’t live to work”. This got me thinking about how many subtle differences there are in the interpretation of this phrase. Sure on the surface it’s simply implying that you value your personal life and free time more than your daily job, but how one actually put’s this into motion takes many forms. There are those who are fortunate enough to be able to do what they love for a living; whether it be running, climbing, skiing, and have fashioned a way to make a living off their extreme talents. Others for whom work is merely a means to an end, doing only the work that is necessary to sustain the rest of their hobbies, adventures and travels. Then there are the rest of us (I’m guessing), for whom work holds some sort of satisfaction, but none-the-less we sit in our prospective work chairs dreaming of bigger things outside the cubicle.

I’m definitely firmly in the latter, as I enjoy what I do for work on a daily basis, but do find myself day dreaming of warm sunny trails and the next adventure that lies ahead. Even as I write this staring out my lab window at the snow capped mountains in the distance I received a timely text message from a friend asking, “Any interest in skiing something steep and narrow soon?” These day dreams and distractions always seem to increase as the weather warms and summer nears.

Staring out the lab window at downtown Denver and the Rocky Mountains in the distance. 4/4/13.

While some part of me is definitely jealous of those ‘professional runners’ out there gallivanting around the world, getting paid to run; another part of me knows that without the intellectual stimulation my job provides, something would be missing inside me. By no means am I implying that the professional athlete doesn’t have these needs or interests, more that each person chooses to satisfy their inner intellect in a different manner. I love puzzles and am fascinated by the human body, and through my research I get to satisfy both of those curiosities, and get paid to do it. If you’re interested in my research I’d be happy to discuss it over a beer sometime, but that’s a lengthy, overly elaborate conversation for another time and another place.

For now I’ll have to be satisfied with my sunny afternoon runs in the Boulder hills, my long weekend blitzes to the desert or the mountains and the occasional several week trip to far away mountains or strange cities. Living up to the label Dakota once gave me, “a weekend warrior”. On a daily basis I’ll continue to try and squeeze in as much as possible balancing; work, running, cycling, yoga, volleyball, blues dancing, and of course friends and family. Though priorities and goals may change in the future, for now I wouldn’t have it any other way. Run fast, run healthy, but mostly run happy.

Headed out to the Utah desert again for a quick weekend of canyoneering, adventures, and camping with friends. Stay tuned for photos and stories 🙂

Many have asked about how I’m feeling and recovering after my accident back in October (See “Accident, Injury, Recovery”)so I figured I’d lay out what I’ve been going through the past several months and where my body is now, nearly 4.5months later.

After the accident I spent over a week mostly home bound; partly due to the broken clavicle pain and partly due to the fact that my right calf was the size of my quad (from the hematoma). I slowly returned to semi-normal activity over the next few weeks, going back to work on a limited basis, walking around the neighborhood and hiking for exercise and trying to do some house chores. As one could imagine having an immobilized left arm (sling) and a partially functional right hand (casted) makes life a bit tricky, so even the mundane took twice as long.

Finally by early December (6 weeks out) I was weening myself out of the sling and moving my left arm around a little bit then on December 14th I got the cast off my right hand. It was amazingly liberating to have both arms/hands finally free, albeit still on a limited basis. Until late December my cardio work had been limited to hiking, recumbent stationary bike and the stair climber. It wasn’t until right around the holidays (8 weeks out) that I started some short easy jogs. To my surprise the clavicle was only a little sore, but the shoulder muscles were so atrophied that after 15-20min my entire arm would throb, and if I tried to push through it, the throbbing would last for hours afterwards.

So the running training began more as a jog/hike, 15min jogging, 15min walking, repeat. During this time I was also going to PT weekly and doing a large routine of stretches and range of motion (ROM) exercises for my shoulder in order to try and regain what I’d lost in the 8 weeks prior. It was slow, but at least I was making progress every week and regaining my ROM and some strength. Finally in late January (12 weeks out) the Orthopedic surgeon released me for all activity; running, lifting, climbing, skiing, etc. Whatever the strength of my arm could handle. Back to the gym several times a week for cable and weight exercises, I’ve never felt so pathetic, doing shoulder raises with a 2.5lb dumbbell, but it was still progress.

Even at the Moab Red Hot in February (15 weeks out) the arm would still occasionally throb, but I was finding was to relax the muscles and with the increased ROM, the pain was less frequent. I was super excited when I was able to finish the 55k only 24min off my PR, considering all that I’d been through that was a mental win. The subsequent weeks saw dramatic increases in my strength and the ROM return to near 90-95%. I’ve been able to run pain free for the past several weeks, do some climbing, and even get back to playing volleyball.

Post fracture now fully healed left clavicle. A little extra bone and a new alignment.

It’s been a fine balance trying to go about a normal life, train for ultras and continue to rehab the arm and shoulder (at 70-80% of its original strength), but it’s improving. There will always be a slight hitch in my left arm, and the left clavicle area is going to be congested forever, but hopefully neither of these things will inhibit any of the functionality, though that’s TBD. For now I’ll continue to strengthen, stretch and run, ever so slowly getting back to where I was, and hopefully to where I want to be. Thanks to all my great friends and family who helped me survive those first several weeks of decrepitness, who helped me move and have supported me through this whole healing process, its made everything a lot more palatable.

Hello interwebs. Well since its become apparent that I don’t update my homepage/domain often enough for it to be a live feed, I’m moving my recent content into blog format.

I will still be updating photos, historical race results, trip reports to my main domain at www.ericjlee.com , but for recent content and updates this blog will be the place to go.

Hopefully I’ll come up with something of interest, but for now, happy Tuesday!

Eric Lee

Rocking my Spiderman Suit during the BBMM, photo courtesy of Robert Timko.

This is not how I foresaw my return to training; with a broken left clavicle, a broken right thumb and numerous bruises that have me barely able to hobble around. After a very successful summer, being capped off by a completion of Nolans14 and a 3^rd place finish at the IMTUF100, I’d taken 3 weeks of down time to rest and recover. On Oct 27^th, 2012 I joined many of my fellow Boulder Trail Runners in participating in the Boulder Basic Mountain Marathon (BBMM). After a nice morning run in my new Spiderman suit, a beer and food with friends, I hopped on my bike to head home from Chautauqua to my apartment in South Boulder, complete unaware what fate was awaiting me down the road.

As I cruised down Baseline with traffic I continued right on through the green light across Broadway when WHAM! Before I knew it a white pickup truck was turning directly into me, with only seconds from collision, I tried to swerved the bike, but to no avail. The front of the truck’s grill smashed the front of my bike throwing me backwards 10ft, landing hard on my left shoulder and the backpack I was wearing. As I lay in the middle of the road, half in shock, half trying to gasp for air, everything around me was a blur. All I knew was that my left shoulder hurt like hell, my intercostals were sore and tight, I couldn’t close my right hand, and my legs were bruised all over. A quick check found I was able to half sit up, so no back issues, and that my head was alright, as it had never contacted anything.

Soon the paramedics arrived; cut away my shiny new spidey suit (yes I was wearing it when I got hit, no photos), strapped me to a spine board and whisked me away in the ambulance to Boulder Community Hospital. In the end, it was a broken left clavicle, a broken right trapezium in the thumb (along with some torn ligaments), a large hematoma on my right calf and various cuts and scrapes. Ben and Amanda were so kind as to retrieve my battered body from the ER, but only after a shot of morphine and me nearly blacking out the first time I sat up. The ride home was painful, with every joint in the road and every rattle of the car I could feel the two ends of my broken clavicle grinding against one another. They finally got me home, got me upstairs and into my bed. I was out in seconds, but unfortunately that would not last, as sleep has been fitful at best, awaking to the throbbing in my shoulder, unable to find a comfortable position.

Left Clavicle fracture Xrays from Oct 27th, 2012.

With the accident behind me, the road ahead is filled with several months of healing, rehab and recovery. Not only will I have to wait for the bone to heal, but then comes all the hard work, building back up the atrophied shoulder muscles and working on getting my range of motion back. Needless to say, this wasn’t how I’d planned to spend my winter, but as with many things in life, we have to take what the day brings, then do the best we can with it. The initial timeline is 6-8weeks for the clavicle to heal, 6weeks before the right arm is out of the cast, two months before I can run somewhat normally, 12weeks before I get back to strength training and maybe 16weeks before being back to somewhat normal activity. So needless to say, I’ve got a lot of work to do, but all I can do now is to push forward, rehab as best possible, and get healthy for the year to come.

My post accident hardware, left arm sling and right hand cast.