Taylor discusses his expectations for this bucket list race, how he trained, his race strategy including fuelling, his highs and lows…
Mr Grim:
So how did you find the race?
Taylor:
So I’ve been down to the islands once or twice before. And funny enough, a guy from my hometown in Franklin, a small town in Louisiana, he’s actually run the race in 2018. I think he heard about it from a Billy Bohlke from over on St. John. So he came down and ran the race.
And ever since he did, it’s been on my bucket list to come down here and check it out.
Mr Grim:
And what were your expectations versus reality?
Taylor:
Well, I like to tell you I’ve run a lot of races and this one scared me. So I was, I was giving it the respect it deserved as far as the hills go, and the heat, and all that.
And it was hilly. It was every bit as steep as I thought it might be. However, I talked to some other people that have run mountain races and even this race, and I followed some of their advice about keeping the heart rate in check.
And, you know, As long as you don’t let it get crazy, it’s actually manageable. And I was surprised that my body kind of held strong and was able to keep going after the every climb.
Mr Grim:
So how did you manage your heart rate, just by slowing down?
Taylor:
Yes, basically, my rule is 165.
If I go above that, you started getting into 170s and you start putting lactic acid in your body and that’s like a losing battle. So below 165 is aerobic. You can do that all day if you’re trained for it. And so I basically just kept that on the watch and going up those hills I move as fast as I could at 165 and if it went higher just go for a walk and use uphills to refuel water and gels. That sort of thing.
Mr Grim:
Did you know, or did you think, you could do a sub-five hours at 165?
Taylor:
That’s a great question. And that was the question that was in the front of my mind the whole time leading up to the race. I didn’t know how the hills were gonna go to be honest.
I wanted to go sub-five. Just seeing some other people do that, that was the goal. And I just said, I’m not gonna push it. I’m just gonna do what I can on the hills. And then, coming down from the second hill, I realized it might be possible. So I tried to push a little bit then.
Mr Grim:
You’ve come from New Orleans. And obviously you’ve got heat and humidity there. I think as far as I’m aware it’s pretty flat. Flatter than flat. Even sub sea level, isn’t it?
Taylor:
I get that negative elevation on Strava.
Mr Grim:
So what did you do to prepare for the hills? Could you prepare for the hills?
Taylor:
At least on the uphill portions, inclined treadmill basically is the way to go from what I’ve seen. And so it’s funny. My run group, I asked a question about looking for parking garages, but someone pointed out, it’s like you get a break during the parking garages.
So the treadmills allow you to just go up for miles basically. So I cranked one up and then got some big wooden blocks and lifted it up and put the blocks into the treadmill to make it even higher. And I was laughing because I knew even then it still wasn’t half as steep as some of the stuff out here, but it did help I think
Mr Grim:
What kind of angle do you think you got on the treadmill?
Taylor:
I guess 20, 25, 23 percent maybe. And so everyone in the gym back home is staring at me and I’m like, gosh, you have no idea. This is going to be brutal. But I did notice doing that I got different muscles sore.
So, I was hoping that that was good preparation. I think it was.
Mr Grim:
Did you feel those muscles when you were actually in the race?
Taylor:
Did I? Yeah, and then the crazy thing is the descent. You know, it’s hard to train for that without the mountain in front of you. There are very few treadmills in the world that will descend you know, as a motion.
But I think maybe walking backwards on a treadmill with it turned off. I’ve heard of that before, but I did not do that. But maybe that’s something to do for next time.
Mr Grim:
I’m always impressed when I do see people of your standard, and guys that actually do run on hills come here, and they just don’t stop going down the hill. They all lose their toenails.
Taylor:
Yeah, I did think I was going to rip the front of my shoe off at some points, because I was just slamming into the front of it so hard.
Mr Grim:
And highs and lows?
Taylor:
Mm. I mean, the highs are just, I’ve mentioned this to you before, but just going through that part of Tortola, the back roads and getting to see the locals hanging out, living their life and you just come blasting through on your run. And the views. I mean, absolutely incredible.
And then just being here. To be in a new place and run and run hard, you get these different endorphins. It’s because it’s a brand new experience. So that’s amazing. You can’t understate that. I guess lows? Maybe just that last last three miles of the course. If you don’t know about this race, you are coming into the finish and then they send you out one more time on a loop around an uphill.
And it was stagnant air and hot and it just felt like the island went in a circle only up and even at the end, it didn’t feel like we came down. So I’m not quite sure how that worked out. And then turning left by the airport, I was still trying to get that time goal and I was pushing pretty hard and man, there’s like a 20 knot headwind straight on and that was killing me, but I mean, at that point you’re so close to the end so….
Mr Grim:
That loop, it’s officially called the Little Mountain Loop, but the unofficial name is the Richard Morgan Fuck You Loop.
Taylor:
Rightfully so because you see the finish right there, and you can almost get there, then left turn, mile and a half uphill, brutal.
Mr Grim:
Yeah, it’s a horrible way to end it. Now, didn’t you say earlier that you had to push the last two or three miles to get the sub five, when you realised you weren’t going to make it?
Taylor:
Yeah, that’s right. Because I’m not used to doing the math with the uphills, I can see that I’ve got four miles left and if I hit this pace, that’s fine.
But then you have a half a mile climb where you’re basically walking up it. So it’s hard to do the math there. But when I was finally going all downhill, there was a point where it’s actually kind of frustrating because had I not been able to make it, I could have came in at a reasonable pace I had all day and just had a great great ending.
But I realized I had to drop like 30 seconds per mile for the last three and I could get it and so I cranked on those, and at that point let the heart rate go out the window and just started feeling terrible.
Mr Grim:
Right, so you were over your 165 by then?
Taylor:
Yeah, 188 maybe 189 at that point, like just hating life.
Mr Grim:
Now also you also mentioned nutrition. You were powering through nutrition and I think a lot of people certainly here that aren’t experienced underestimate how much they can eat and really need to take. Explain how much you took.
Taylor:
Sure. I think a lot of people when you think about fitness, you think about you have to get stronger. And once you run more and more miles, you’ll just gain endurance to go out and run for three hours, four hours, whatever it is. But the way I think about the body is like, yes, you have to have strong muscles, you can build your aerobic base, but also your body doesn’t know that you have a 50K coming up, it just knows what you’re telling it to do every day, right?
So the other part of it that you’re training is training it to turn into a machine. So, basically, if you go on a three hour run and don’t give it any nutrition, it’s gonna do what it has to do to get through it to basically just to save itself.
But instead, if you are introducing calories all throughout, your body’s gonna learn to expect it, it’s gonna learn to digest on the fly, and then basically you can keep it going. So, for me to go out and run 165 for two hours I would be done if I wasn’t taking anything at two hours because your body, I don’t know the exact number, but I think you don’t hold more than like an hour and a half worth of energy to run at that 165, 170 beats per minute. But if you’re feeding in gels, then it learns to expect it and then you can just kind of keep the engine rolling. So you got to start out figuring out what works for you and do it on training runs to teach it to do that.
Starting off I was basically taking a gel every 35 minutes. And then one every 25 minutes if I was feeling bad. And like I said, I timed it with the hills because it’s easier to take gels in. But by the end of it, I was taking even two at a time at some point just when I was feeling really depleted.
But I went through 21 total in five hours. And then also really important is salt. So, especially out here in the Caribbean, you’re just shedding salt like crazy. You can drink water, but without salt it won’t stick, basically. So salt capsules, lGu makes salt capsules and they’re great.
So the biggest thing with the gels is you got to go out on long efforts and see what works for you because some gels are too sweet for me and they won’t sit, so you got to figure out what you can take a lot of comfortably.
Mr Grim:
So, what would you say to someone that is thinking about coming down and doing the torture from overseas? What do you expect?
Taylor:
Oh, man. I mean, it’s if you look at the pictures online, you can get an idea for the course, and there’s a lot of really great race recaps, and if you read through those and read through the stuff from other runners, you get a good idea of what to expect. But I mean, it’s gorgeous. It’s beautiful. The course is highly entertaining. You know, you’re on the street with the cars, which is absolutely not a big deal. Everyone pretty much yields to you and everyone’s very safe. The great water stops all all around the course. And I mean, before and after the race, it’s just a beautiful place to be.
Definitely a bucket list for me. I mean, I knew the second I heard about it six years ago that I wanted to do it and it was everything I thought it would be. If you’re a runner and you like running, it doesn’t get much better than this as far as memories go, to come out here and do a race like this in paradise.
And it’s just so different, you know, it’s so different than anything else you might be able to do in the States, you know, trail, Colorado, wherever it’s just, I mean, to come out in the Caribbean and run mountains and beach is unheard of, I think.
Mr Grim:
So how did you recover?
Taylor:
I went to Scrub Island, had some beers, then I headed over to Jost Van Dyke, you know, toes in the sand, Soggy Dollar, a few Painkillers there and then over to Foxy’s. So it’s not a bad life. Yeah, thank you. Great race.