The Waugh Cloverleaf

I am tagging the Waugh Cloverleaf as both one of the Summits of Houston since it is a good little spot where you can add some hills into your training and as part of my Run This Town section, because I think it is an often overlooked little treasure in Houston running.

The Waugh Cloverleaf is an almost 1 mile loop with 2 nice little ascents and descents.  There are sections of sidewalk and pretty well worn path that go all the way around the inside of the loop.  The distance coupled with the fact that you never cross a road or have to deal with bikes and the fact that you are consistently either going uphill or downhill makes it an awesome tool to have in your running route selection/training arsenal.  I find it great for speed work (mile repeats on the cloverleaf are brutal/awesome), tempo runs, and for adding some bonus slightly more difficult miles into the middle of a long run if I am going to be passing by.  Living in a big flat city, there really aren't any places where you can have a long hilly run, but the cloverleaf allows you to run for as many miles as you want while constantly going up and down.  None of the climbs are significant and people from any place with real hills would laugh at it, but I guarantee if you aren't used to running hills and run a few laps of the cloverleaf you will feel it!

Stats:
Elevation:  15-20 feet of gain or loss on each hill (but there are 2 ups and 2 downs every mile).
Distance: Just under 1 mile (my GPS usually logs it at .97 miles)
Average Grade: 1.5% (a little steeper going around the loops, but it levels out in between the loops)

Location:
At the intersection of Memorial Drive and Waugh Dr (Heights Blvd turns into Waugh).  If you are driving there it is probably best to park at Spotts Park on Willia St.

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Run This Town

Running has allowed me to explore some incredible places over the years.  Many of those places come as no surprise, but I am often surprised by some of the things that I discover while running in my own "backyard."  One of the many great things about running is that it slows you down (some of us more than others) enough to be able look around and take in your surroundings while at the same time allowing you to get somewhere.  If you are willing or able to run for a few hours it is amazing what you can see.  I have been running around Houston for over 8 years now and am still discovering new trails and new sights.  One of the benefits of living in a big and dynamic city is that it is constantly changing, so if you think you have seen it all you just need to wait for a few weeks and something will have changed.

All of that is my way of introducing this section of the blog that I am calling "Run This Town."  I will occasionally post some of my favorite sights or routes to run from around the city.  I will try to focus on things you may have run by many times but missed or didn't know about, but will occasionally just post routes that I really enjoy.  So, keep an eye out for posts that are tagged Run This Town and hopefully you will begin to see why I think running in this city is so great.

Team Solomon Leadville 100 Video

With the Leadville Trail 100 kicking off this weekend and Ryan Sandes coming back to try for a second win I thought I would post a link to a video that Salomon made a few years ago about the race and about Ryan Sandes running it for the first time. 



It should be a good race with a pretty stacked field up front and quite a few local flatlanders headed up into the thin air to show just how tough we can be!  Here is a link to the iRunFar 2013 Leadville 100 preview.  Good luck to everyone out there!

Exploration

One of the many things that I enjoy about running is the opportunity to explore.  I feel like running and biking are two of the best ways to really explore your surroundings.  Biking allows you to cover more ground, have fewer aches and pains at the end of the day, and overall feel slightly more civilized.  However, the beauty of exploring on the run is that you don't need any special gear and you can do it anywhere.  You can run on-road or off-road and you can go places you may not make it with a bike.  If you are reasonably fit, you would be amazed at how much ground you can cover without even realizing it.  There is an incredible freedom in stepping out of the door without a direction or a goal (especially in a new place) and literally just going wherever the road takes you.  I have been fortunate in my life and career to have opportunities to travel all over the world.  Before I was a runner, I would often head out on walks from wherever I was staying and explore wherever city I was in and would often spend many hours exploring.  Once I started becoming a little more serious about running, I realized that the boundaries for my adventures could expand if I was on the run (and I could still be logging my long runs while I was traveling).  Sometimes I would find myself headed down some dusty dirt road to nowhere, while other times I was thrust into the middle of the city, dodging cars and people.  The cool thing is that either way I was there seeing things that I haven't seen before and experiencing a place in a way that I wouldn't be able to from the inside of a taxi cab or tour bus.  Sometimes, the people I was traveling with or my friends and family at home would express concern that I was off running around in unfamiliar places.  They would worry that it might be unsafe or people might hurt me, but what I have found though, is pretty much the opposite.  For the most part, people everywhere are pretty nice.  At worst they might be rude, but most are curious/friendly and the rest are indifferent.  Runners are pretty much non-threatening and as long as you act friendly/naïve 99% of the time you will be fine (in the other 1%, just run like hell).  And pretty much the same can be said for running the streets and trails around my house.  The great thing about this exploration is that it doesn't have to be in far off places.  Too many times you hear about people that always run the same route in the same direction every day.  It can be amazing what you discover in your own back yard it you just veer a little off of your normal path and open yourself up to an adventure.  Don't worry about how far it will be or where the next water fountain will be.  Rely in the fact that you are fit enough to cover whatever distance you want and that it is okay to bonk or get dehydrated - it is all part of the adventure!

Attitude and Altitude

Attitude:

After my recent success at embracing the crapiness of yoga, I thought I would try to apply this “life lesson” to other activities I dislike. One such activity is running in the heat. Sara sometimes teases me about the fact that I come back from pretty much every run during the summer totally defeated and declaring “that was the worst run ever!” Even though I say that every day, I pretty much mean that every day. I DESPISE running in the heat. Living in Houston, this means that I despise portions of almost every day for about a 4-6 month period every year. Certainly room for improvement there... Which brings me to Altitude.

Altitude:

One thing Houston is decidedly lacking is altitude. I live in an area of town known as “The Heights,” which means that while the rest of the city is about 20ft above sea level, I live in the rarefied air up at about 40ft above sea level. This is fine as long as you never want to run anywhere other than at sea level or never want to be even remotely competitive if you race anywhere else. Not that I have any delusions of being competitive, but sometimes I get frustrated by the idea that people that live in higher elevations are essentially getting some aerobic benefit “for free.” They get to be inherently fitter than me just by living somewhere. It is like a free performance enhancing drug….that is legal (and don’t we all want to be able to be faster without working at it)! That makes me jealous. But then I read this; an article from the New York Times that expounds on the benefit of training in the heat and compares that to altitude training. Stop the presses! If there is one thing Houston does have it is HEAT (just ask anyone that has ever lived here or visited between the months of May-September). It turns out that many of the physiological responses to altitude and heat are similar. You can get some of the benefits from training in the heat, and maybe even slightly better benefits. And then it occurred to me: Stop dwelling on how much you hate running in the heat and how bad your performance is….. and think of it like altitude training! There are runners in other places that spend every spare weekend headed for the high country trying to get in altitude training, but for 5 months of the year I get a free unlimited supply of heat (fake altitude) right outside my door. It is funny how that one mental association (heat = altitude) has changed my outlook on summer running. After 7 years of dreading summers and complaining about my crappy runs in the heat, I now find myself looking forward to my runs in the heat. It may not be quite the same or come with the majestic views of snow-capped peaks, but it isn’t all bad either. And, I think it really gets to the heart of what it is to be a runner in a big flat city (an urban flatlander)…. The idea that the “mountains” are here, we just have to use a little creativity to see them!

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why The Oatmeal Runs Long Distances

Absolutely every person who has ever run a half marathon or longer has, at some point, been asked why they run.  A casual browse of the internet will lead you to any number of blog posts and articles on this subject.  Some are profound and well thought out, some are witty, some are trite, some are sarcastic, some are rude or elitist, but most of them touch on a few similar points and ultimately start to blend together a little (not to take away from them - many are great articles, they just tend to blur together).
Well, recently, a friend of mine sent me a link to what has to be one of the most memorable and creative versions of the "why I run" story.  It is funny, sincere, and all around fantastic.  It comes to us by way of The Oatmeal (turns out he is an ultrarunner - which makes him even more great).  The article is entitled :

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances

Go check it out.  It is AWESOME!

Sagely Advice on How to Crew an Ultrarunner from Pam Smith

Here is just about the most awesome, funny, and on-point advice I have ever heard for people who are crewing an ultrarunner (especially in hot conditions).  It comes from the incredible Pam Smith's (recent winner of Western States 100) Western States 100 race report on iRunFar.  This was what Pam told her race crew:

"treat me like a Porn Star: keep me wet, keep me lubed, and keep me excited."

(it must have worked, because she really nailed it that day....)
Now, how can you not love this sport!