¶ Preparing for Western States 100
Welcome back , or welcome to the single track podcast . I'm your host , finn Melanson , and in this episode we are talking with John Ray ahead of the 2023 Western States 100 . Before we get started , though , this episode is brought to you by features .
Morton .
Hoka and Rabbit Head over to the show notes page of this episode for discount codes and product releases from each of these four sponsors . With that let's get started . Johnny Ray . welcome back live in studio Olympic Valley to the single track podcast Hey guys excited to be here .
Johnny Ray , one of the coolest names in sports Period of now . Hopefully this gets heard and taken over to the live stream on Saturday .
Yeah , you heard it here first Yeah , yeah , on the baseball field I was always Johnny Ray . Growing up I'm become like a mature adult , so introduced myself as the formal John or Jonathan more often , but Johnny Ray I'll take as my athlete name .
I think the first question I want to ask you because we have had you on multiple times after Bandera , i believe , right before Javalina , so it's been six or seven months In terms of your intensity in the sport , in terms of how you prepare , how you think about racing , the level of involvement that running has in your life , are you the same runner right now
or do you find yourself to be a more serious runner ?
Over the last year . I don't think that big of a change . It's like kind of an a nine-year trajectory of like becoming incrementally more and more professional . Like my first ultra marathon was in 2015 , i ran the Dirty Thirty in Golden Gate Park in Golden Colorado and I was . I wore that . I wore basketball shorts .
Nice , i was wearing the new balance Minimus , inspired by Anton Classic . Did not know that much about what I was doing , like I thought , you know , a camelback with a liter and a half of water was enough for a five or six hour run . But learning more and then , like every year , just noticing one thing will make me a little bit better .
Another thing will make me a little bit better . This year I feel like I've started drinking way less as a primary thing , like I've always wasn't a big drinker , but I'm just like zero appetite for it . Yeah , it's a little more attention to sleeping , a little more running .
So I don't think any step change in the last year , but definitely continuing on that spectrum and I don't know exactly how much further it can go . I'm like close to the level of doing everything I can .
The no-drinking thing is interesting . We've heard now , i think , three or four athletes your contemporary Jeff Colt say the same thing like part of their renewed focus in 2023 is cutting that out . Do you find recovery benefits there ? sleep benefits , like talk about that .
Yeah , i think so . I don't know . I don't think too hard about it . I'm not like a anti-alcohol person , i just like , naturally haven't had an appetite for it much , and so I think that's just symbolic of wanting to feel good the next day , and not that I know nothing more than that really .
Maybe before we get into like the X's and O's of your preparation . Your Strava's been fascinating and there have been some good I think you know your own comments in the descriptions of those runs have been fascinating to break down . But I do want to down Ask you a few questions about the 2022 Western States , because you Undoubtedly added fireworks to that race .
I believe you were as high as fourth or fifth place at some place on Cal Street . A lot of us in the live chat that day I think even Corinne might have commented like you look like you're hard charging . You could be this dark horse Contender for the podium that day . Things did slightly fall apart . But was that your focus ?
to kind of creep up on the competition and , in surprise , some people that day like how Are you feeling ? until it went wrong ?
I Didn't have a plan to do anything , just like this year . I don't want to forecast or tell the story of the race before it happens . I want to be there and do the race while the race is happening , not beforehand .
And so you know people think about oh , i want to be in 10th place at Robinson flat or whatever , and I just what whatever happened would happen . And naturally I wasn't about 10th place and Robinson flat .
And then I took so much ice coming out of dusty corners felt incredible Running out of that aid station and then the two canyons climbs felt so easy like I was just Expecting to be hiking the whole time , but I was like looking around being like I think this is too easy , i'm gonna start running up this and then I ended up passing a bunch of people in the
canyons to move up to fourth at Forest Hill . So I didn't prescribe that or like have a plan to attack in a certain place or anything . It felt natural and just like What my body was doing at that time .
Are you Because are you naturally a pretty strong climber . Did you think that the canyons would be a spot that you would excel at the course , or did that kind of surprise you ?
It surprised me because I think of myself as a downhill runner and I'm better on technical terrain . Okay , so I've worked . Most of my workouts are doing uphills , so that's become like the focal point of Trading for the most part , and I guess it's gonna come good enough that I can make up ground there .
But I also feel like the people I passed on those climbs were just suffering a lot . And so they're walking really slowly , and so like I just hadn't crashed at that point , whereas that's when people had started falling off .
After you finished Western States , I'm sure there was a lot of you know major takeaways . How is that shaped ? You know these 12 months between last year and this year .
I still hadn't done a good hundred-miler and I was hoping that Western States last year was gonna be my first one . But I wanted to figure that out like that's what Brought me to the sport in the first place , of being inspired by the fact that people can run 100 miles . So that's why I wanted to do have a Lena .
As I saw it as a bridge distance , it's like basically halfway between 100k and 100 mile in terms of effort , and so that was a test to see if I could transfer what . I had done in 100k's before , do it at have a Lena , and that's like a stepping stone towards actually nailing 100 milers .
So Yeah , that was the main thing from Western States of being like okay , like maybe I need to do a bridge race somewhere in between , where I can't step up all the time . You know something that takes 16 hours instead of 8 to 10 hours . I need to do something in the middle and then I can really figure that out and then it feels like an incremental step .
Then It's not a big leap , it's easier .
Yeah and have a Lena seemed like it went pretty well . Grab the golden ticket there In terms of , i guess , the training . I guess now that you've I guess the training's all done now In the core training block for Western States Was there anything that you did quite a bit different this year versus last year ?
Or do you think that most of the improvements for what could happen this year comes from the actual race day strategy and execution more so than the training ?
I think a lot of it happens during training . I did a lot of the same workouts that I did last year , but the timing of them was a little bit different . I waited a little bit longer in the winter before ramping up and then my big weeks were peakier .
I didn't spread out training over a longer time , i waited a little bit and then had a couple of really big , focused , concentrated periods , but then and then some of those same workouts that I had done last year . I just did them closer together And then I think that just concentrated volume and effort .
Yeah , definitely , yeah , there's been . I don't wanna say your Strava has gone viral , but there's definitely some people like opening their eyes a little bit and be like , oh yeah , like John's May and even like early into May . June . Yeah , it's has been pretty big . Have you found that you find a lot of benefit from some of these fairly lengthy , long runs ?
I think so I don't know if I have enough experience . I haven't done that many really big long runs , But I did so . I ran 46 miles a week and a half ago . Everything I've done has been told to do by my coach . I've not been going off the training plan , i'm just following instructions here Trust the process . And he thinks I can do it .
And I was really scared about that one . To be honest , I checked in with my coach three times on it to be like , are you sure about that ? That sounds too close to the race . I think that's too big . Do you sure He's like , yeah , you can do it . I think it's a great last long run . You're fit enough you recover quickly .
Yeah , we're like pushing fatigue closer to the race than in past , but because this training walk's going so well , I think we're gonna be able to get away with it . So I was scared of that , But I did the same run actually last year , but I stood at three weeks before the race instead of two .
But if you keep the effort low enough , then I think you can learn a little bit from having gone from . I did a seven and a half eight hour effort , and being out for there for longer just means you have to face a few more variables , a few more logistics , and practicing some of those logistics is a good thing .
Are you still doing those cluster runs too ? Was that a part of your Western States build up ?
I don't need to do that once for Javaleeda , where I did like two hour runs .
You needed six two hour runs , six , two hour runs within a 48 hour period .
Yeah , that was a one time thing , just for that one . If you were to run Javaleeda again , would you throw that in the training walk ?
I don't know it was entertaining , i think it was good to mix it up , but I think the fact that it's different each time , like I've seen other runners trying to copy training plans that have been successful in the past and be like well , okay , jim Walsh , they've run 130 miles a week for three weeks straight . That's what I'm gonna do too .
It's not necessarily the best way to get yourself ready for it , and I appreciate that my coach just kind of throws in some curveballs every once in a while because just new stimulus is probably I could like make you mentally stronger and just confuse your body a little bit .
It's like the P90X of ultra running training muscle confusion . Keep the athlete guessing .
I see a bunch of insanity workouts .
Okay , so you're familiar In the basement of the Kapasig fraternity .
that was the baseball team fraternity in college And we had a bunch of insanity workouts back then .
So it was all about confusing the muscles Confusion .
I mean , i'm learning a lot this weekend . The double threshold workouts , the cluster runs , the eight hour long runs two weeks out , like we're in this era of experimentation , it's kind of cool .
I love that so much that we're not to a point where everyone is doing the same thing . You know , you kind of see that on the track . You know if you're on a run of world class 1500 , they're more or less all doing the same workout .
That is not the case at Western States And I think even after this year we're not gonna see like a type that emerges And that's super exciting .
You talked about gaining experience at Javalina in sort of like a middle distance between the 100K and this type of 100 miler . That adds some predictability to this year's attempt . Are there any other elements of your training or the logistics of this or your nutrition where you feel like it's a bit more predictable than last year ?
I think more subconsciously than just consciously . I came , so I came and did the Western States training camp .
I only got to do one day of it because I had a wedding to go to , and that was actually my primary reason for making the trip to California in the first place I came for a wedding and then happened to be able to add in a day of Western States training camp and then was able to add in a little bit of time with family and then also spend some time on
the course , just to like if I was gonna make the trip then I could extend to do all those things .
But because I've been on the course a whole bunch more and last time I was going in blind I hadn't been on it at all Then I think just having been there before makes it feel more comfortable and more natural and less intimidating every part of that course , and so it's more like my subconscious will be able to relax a little bit more and be at ease , rather
than the experience being necessarily like , oh , like this is a specific thing that I learned . It's just like it's familiar , it's there , like it feels just a little bit lower stress and easier .
So a lot of athletes approach kind of like goal setting for this race very differently . I'd love to know , like how does Johnny Ray quantify what a successful day at Western States would be ?
And I'll add to that , because we've heard people say I'm racing for self-discovery . I am very explicitly Jeff Colt style racing for a top three here . We've heard it all . We've even heard , like you know , it's just all about celebrating the training . So how do you categorize yourself there ?
The statement I have in my head is that I wanna do Western States right . I want to avoid any of the multi-hour mistakes and if I leave a few minutes out there , that's fine , but I wanna be close to my potential .
So , yeah , i like , without time or place attached to that Like I'll know the feeling of being like yeah , i executed , i did it right , i like did my best and I was close .
I dig that . Yeah , that was an awesome answer .
¶ Watermelon Cougar Tradition
I think that's a great time to introduce you to our single track , hq 2023 Western States guest tradition . It seems like every time we like announce this , the name of it gets longer , so We're not sure which one works , or are we ? I think they both work .
I think it was just okay last time .
So this is the official watermelon Yeah , we hold this for you Of the Western States 100 . We would love for you to do two things . One is you're going to get 15 seconds to draw your best cougar on here , and then we'll have you sign it . And we're still trying to figure out what we're gonna do with this watermelon on race day .
It's going to the track We can add other people's cougars .
They're also small .
We didn't know how many people were gonna be signing this USA room for like at least one or two other people . Yeah , we'll let you get situated and get ready , and then we'll start our time .
I'm gonna count down three two one , and then you have 15 seconds . So three , two , one go .
Oh no , is this the bad Sharpie ? Where's the other one ?
10 , 9 , 8 . Well , now John needs a new Sharpie . Sorry , we're having technical difficulties .
Someone in Sharpie . I think it's something about the wax of the melon . When you go really fast , it goes invisible .
We are paused at 8 . Let's see if that works . Let's see if that works . Oh , so this is like a Let's do the whole thing over again .
I was not . This is like a red flag .
We've called a 30 second timeout from the sideline . We're resuming the race . Ready set go 8 , 7 , 6 , 5 , 4 , 3 , 2 , 1 .
I can see it .
I can see it . I can see it . Hey , you're still in the process of painting a masterpiece .
OK , so this is actually a unique approach that we've seen is going for the details on the face . A lot of people get tripped up trying to remember what a body of a mountain lion looks like , So just going for the face is actually wise tactic . So we'll just have you sign your name under that on that one .
It's good You guys are making sure our trail running doesn't get too serious .
Yeah , and it's turned into a very interesting social experiment . We're not really sure what kind of conclusions we're able to draw from this , but there's been a lot of diversity of the careers .
John , before we go I just want to say I think you're an absolute stud of a runner in this sport . I think you might not still be a household name yet , but for folks that are watching this keenly looking to fill in their fantasy , free show picks do not sleep on John . Don't sleep on Johnny Ray .
Don't sleep on Johnny Ray Don't sleep on Johnny Ray .
OK , Don't do it , because I think you're making a huge mistake . I think you're one of the best runners in this race And I'm very excited to see you self-actualize on Saturday . So hell yeah .
Thanks guys , bye chai .