Viet’s Blog

I took 2 weeks off to reflect on this past year. I had tons of fun, no doubt. Over the past year, I ran 2 road marathons, a 50 km ultra marathon, a 50 mile ultra marathon, a 197 mile road relay (Hood to Coast) and just recently I ran a 7 mile trail race. But there was still a part of me that didn't feel satisfied. The arbitrary goal of hitting sub 4 hours in a road marathon eluded me and I was getting increasingly frustrated that I kept falling short. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that I was so hyper-focused breaking 4 hours goal that I ended up skipping steps. I got a little drunk off the allure of the marathon distance. It's an admirable distance for sure, but running a marathon does not make you "more" of a runner than someone who hasn't run a marathon. I spent months chasing after goal marathon pace and completely ignored all my other paces.  I've been preaching "go slow to run fast," which is absolutely true. Turns out if I go slo...

Holy Smokes. That was Hard. The views at the summit of this course were breathtaking. But the course itself took my breath away in a "kick your butt, here's a humble sandwich" kind of way. The hills seemed never-ending and the elevation gain --about 1900 ft-- is no joke. But you get rewarded with a beautiful view of the gorge from Rowena Crest! If you are lucky, then you might also get some views of rainbows on your way back. If you're unlucky, you might get a good old-fashioned rain dump. Last Sunday, I got all of those things and a bag of chips so I don't know what it says about my luck. The bag of chips was delicious, though! They came with my sandwich after the race. What I didn't get, however, was a shiny new PR. It didn't happen that day, and that's ok. We press forward. Let's break down the training block and this race.  Training: Show Up, Eat Miles This block was minimalist and stupid simple. In general, I made Sunday morning a long...

  (Photo Credit: the wonderful photographers they have at  Go Beyond Racing )   The Mt. Hood 50 Miler is done and dusted, and I’m here with the real talk—what went well, what didn’t, and what I’m taking into my next ultra adventure. Course Description The course itself its kind of like a double out-and-back. You run north 14 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail, 14 miles back to the start. Then you run 11 miles south along the Pacific Crest Trail, then back to the start again to total approximately 50 miles. Lets breakdown my race     The First Half — Miles 0 to 28 The race kicked off at 6 AM near Timothy Lake, with a cool mountain breeze and fresh legs. The first half surprised me by being less steep than expected, so I didn’t need the trekking poles much early on—lesson learned, those babies are for the back half. Its hard to know when to need them because if you look at the elevation profile, it doesn't look particularly obvious that I'd need them or not ne...

Whenever someone finds out I run marathons or ultras, the first question is almost always: "Wait—why??  All that pain? And you sign up for it?? I usually smirk and say, “So I can feel alive again.” The funny thing is… I used to think I was joking.  But I’m not. Numb is Safe. But It’s Also... Numb. For a long time, I kept everything at arm’s length—emotionally, mentally, physically. That distance helped protect me from painful or overwhelming feelings. But it also dulled the good ones. The joy. The pride. The wonder. The awe.   Even those became muted. Growing up, I learned—like a lot of people do—that my emotional needs came second. Or third. Or not at all. There was always something bigger, scarier, more important going on. So I made myself small. I stopped asking for space, attention, or care. And eventually, I stopped expecting it altogether. I got really good at surviving. And somewhere along the way, I forgot I had a voice. The Run That Changed No...

It’s go time. The Mt. Hood 50 Miler is coming up, and I wanted to drop a pre-race post to share a little about my training block, my gear, my fueling strategy, and the chaotic stack of snacks I’ll be hauling through the woods.  Also—just to set the tone— "Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need... roads."  50 Miles. All on trails, baby!   Training Block Summary I kept things pretty simple. I'm slightly allergic to structure and my brain doesn't like thinking too much when I run, so I went by these general guidelines:   Tons of easy miles. I needed to build my aerobic base, along with communicating to my muscles that we'll be doing this for a long LONG time .  Tons of elevation gain. Fortunately I live in a relatively hilly neighborhood so I got a bit of practice going up and down hills. Still, I'm at the point where I typically just walk up anything that is more than slightly inconvenient.    Long runs every weekend.  Lets also talk about strides...