The heightened  interest ultra racing continues as the Leadville 100 run is nearly full again according to some.

In the “good old days” racers registered by snail mail and could wait until a month before the race. No more. You need to commit (i.e. pay) early.

This will be my 17th Leadville 100 mile race. Ten were on the bike and I’ve run six already. My goal is to finish 10 of each.

Last year I ran more miles before Leadville than ever before and it paid dividends with a faster finish and a quicker recovery. I’m hoping for more of the same this year.

I do have a new training partner Faygo, who’s pictured on the right. We’ve been building up her endurance, and yesterday was her longest run of 7 miles. That along with the Christmas craziness last night means she’s been in bed most of the today.

I finally got around to uploading photos from two very different races held earlier this year.

The first photo gallery is the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race. As support crew, I was able to snap photos of Michigan racers, including Team Mongo.

The second photo gallery is from Detroit’s first ever chicken races.

And this photo was taken in my car immediately after finishing this year’s  Leadville Trail 100 run. I put these bags of ice on my quads (which helps reduce inflammation) before napping for a few hours. After waking up, I hobbled a couple blocks over to the awards banquet. Next year I should get a room in Leadville so I can take a full-fledged ice bath.

One problem with ultra-running is it can really lead to some ugly feet. No matter how much one spends on fancy shoes and socks, it seems the occasional black toe nail and blisters are inevitable.

I’ve read that the blackening is often caused by the toe nail continually hitting the inside top of the shoe. If that’s the case, I plan on wrapping my bigger nails in athletic tape prior to any future long runs.

During this year’s Leadville 100 I got four black toe nails — a personal best!

Twice now after pulling on socks I’ve felt a wood splinter against my foot, which only turned out to be a smaller toe nail falling off.

Losing the bigger nails is usually a little more traumatic. I had one flip back while pulling on a sock. It didn’t really hurt as there was a partial nail underneath it. I just taped the old nail on top to provide some protection until the new nail could grow in more.

And if you think damaged toe nails are a sick and wrong topic for this blog, by all means avoid this video I made while draining blisters.

Don’t forget! The 2010 Leadville Trail 100 run application is now on-line!

A recent New York Times article asked the question, “Does Ibuprofen Help or Hurt During Exercise?”

The short answer is no, unless your suffering from “inflammation and pain from an acute injury.”

The article discusses ibuprofen use at the Western States 100-mile run.

Those runners who’d popped over-the-counter ibuprofen pills before and during the race displayed significantly more inflammation and other markers of high immune system response afterward than the runners who hadn’t taken anti-inflammatories. The ibuprofen users also showed signs of mild kidney impairment and, both before and after the race, of low-level endotoxemia, a condition in which bacteria leak from the colon into the bloodstream.

These findings were “disturbing,” Nieman says, especially since “this wasn’t a minority of the racers.” Seven out of ten of the runners were using ibuprofen before and, in most cases, at regular intervals throughout the race, he says. “There was widespread use and very little understanding of the consequences.”

Endotoxemia? Ah, no thanks.

Years ago another runner shared a supposed racing secret: Taking a couple ibuprofens before running a marathon helps reduce inflammation during the race.

I tried it before running Boston in 2002. Although I ran well, my muscles were no less sore than after other marathons.

I took ibuprofen before a few more running races but eventually stopped. There was nothing to gain and research was showing that taking it could slow the body’s natural recovery process (also noted in the NYT article.)

But there’s also another danger to popping ibuprofen. If you become dehydrated, you could suffer from renal failure where your kidneys  shut down. This is really stressed at the Leadville races since dehydration is more likely during endurance events at high altitudes.

Near the end of this year’s Leadville run, I did take two acetaminophen (Tylenol) for my ankle injury/inflammation. Acetaminophen can also produce the renal failure when dehydrated so I made sure my system fully hydrated.

After the race I relied more on ice to reduce inflammation. It seems to work far better than ibuprofen or acetaminophen — and it doesn’t help put bacteria in your bloodstream.

It’s a little hard to believe how popular the Leadville bike race has become.

I called Cullen Watkins back in 1996 to see if he’d want to do some 100-mile mountain bike race in Colorado. He said, “yeah” so we sent in our entries.

We took the race for granted, just showed up, never bothered to pre-ride any of the course — how hard could it be? — and it kicked our butts. We kept coming back year after year and bringing more Michigan racers into the Leadville family.

And now after a few Leadvilles with top Tour de France pros, including Lance Armstrong, there’s now a movie in the works.

Who’d a thunk?