Author: RWD

Fall Running Goals: 2017

It’s meteorological fall! Time for some new goals!

  1. Course personal best at WD50K.
    The time to beat is 10:25:27. Obviously an overall 50K personal best would be amazing, too, but the course is harder.
  2. Set another marathon PR.
    This is tricky, because the Birkie is not actually a marathon distance. So I’ll look at overall pace in addition to overall time.
  3. Run all the remaining segments of the Superior Hiking Trail between Duluth and Two Harbors.
    Segments remaining: Sucker River to Fox Farm Road, Fox Farm Road to Rossini Road, Rossini Road to Lake County Demonstration Forest, Lake County Demonstration Forest to Reeves Road (11 miles, yikes!), and Reeves Road to Lake County Road 301.
  4. Take 2 weeks off deliberately.
    Once I’ve finished Wild Duluth, I’m going to give myself 2 weeks off, for real, with no guilt. I need the mental reset, and to let the blisters and scabs and twinges truly heal. I’ve taken time off before, but usually due to either illness or a mental funk, so it’s never as satisfying as planned time off.

Checking in on my summer running goals:

  1. Reach a personal best in distance.
    Nope.
  2. PR at the marathon distance.
    I ran 7:22:17 at the Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon, a PR of 1:01:12.
  3. Run from home to my dad’s place on Pike Lake.
    I never made the time to do this. I still need to plan a route and then drive it to see how safe the roads look.
  4. Run from Gooseberry Falls to Split Rock Lighthouse.
    I did this at the end of July. It was ok. I might try it again and go all the way to the lighthouse.

Only 50%? That’s not a very good showing. I did a lot of other fun stuff this summer so I don’t mind.

Birkie Trail Run Training: Week 9

Whoops, I took a cutback week.

Monday: 10.5 mi, road
Tuesday: 6 mi, road
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 7.1 mi, road (including Fartleks)
Friday: 6.2 mi, road + trail (Lester Park + Superior Street)
Saturday: 7.1 mi, treadmill
Sunday: 5.1 mi, treadmill
Total: 42 mi

I complained last week about my training and wished for a cutback week. My wish was granted, by me. It’s always great when that happens.

Monday I got drenched. It sprinkled a bit when I was about 6 miles in and then the final 2 miles the sky unloaded. Also there was lightning and thunder, which I really have to stop running in. I also got a side stitch at the end and had to slow down in the pouring rain. Sigh. My shoes were wet for like 5 days, because nothing dries here.

Tuesday I just dragged my butt through 6 miles on London Rd and salivated at the upcoming rest day. I wish I could do 2 rest days a week but I don’t have the time to spread those miles over the rest of the week.

Wednesday was great. I spent the evening with my grandparents and otherwise enjoying not running.

Thursday, I went out to Park Point and did some lovely unstructured fartleks. Unfortunately my legs were still tired and I was a bit frustrated by how slow my surges of speed were. I get that the point of training is to acquire some cumulative fatigue and my legs should be tired, but I still had emotions about it.

Friday I ran the ski trails at Lester Park. It’s a gorgeous area but so much of the trail system is ungroomed. All I could think about was ticksticksticksticksticks but fortunately I found none on me. I ran down Superior Street a ways in order to get in the mileage I wanted to for the day.

Saturday it rained and I ran on the treadmill and hated it. Sunday it rained kind of off and on, so my plan was to run a short treadmill run and then a medium length road run. I visited my grandparents again and then my dad stopped by to pick something up, so I got my treadmill run started mid-afternoon. I really didn’t want to do the second run, but I managed to get off my butt and get dressed and — remember when I said nothing dries? Even though I had put my running clothes in front of a fan to try to dry them off, once I had a cold, clammy sports bra and shorts on, I was done. So very, very done.

The bright side here is that 42 miles is still a decent week for me. 42 miles when I skipped a long run? That’s a long way from where I started. I’ve screwed up just about every other aspect of this training (diet, strength training, planning, etc.), but I’m pretty excited about how I’m getting in higher mileage week after week, and now a cutback week is what a normal week used to be.

Save It For a Rainy Day

Most of my weekend days involve this kind of pattern:

  • Wake up super early to feed cats so they will shut up
  • Go back to bed and try to fall back asleep, toss and turn due to cat meowing, husband snoring, etc.
  • Get up considerably later than planned, due to tossing and turning
  • Go out and get a latte
  • Drink latte and fart around at home, mentally planning that I’ll start getting ready for my run at X:XX, then do certain other tasks after I run (clean my house, visit my grandparents, etc.)
  • X:XX comes and goes with no progress toward getting ready to run
  • Several alternate deadlines come and go, with me both stressing about not running but unwilling to do anything to alleviate this stress
  • I finally get out running, 1-3 hours later than planned, failing to do other tasks (note: I do not flake out on visiting my grandparents once I’ve actually arranged to come over. I’m not that big of a jerk.)

That’s a terrible pattern, especially on long run days. Long runs give me a lot of anxiety, because they’re long. In time, not in distance. Sometimes I’m putting in 4+ hours, and that’s not including travel time. It’s one of the worst parts about being slow. You’d think I would just get it over with, but I guess I don’t think that way.

I knew today was going to be rainy, so I let go of all this stress for once. I slept in as late as I wanted to, and I didn’t feel guilty about wasting my day. When I was growing up (and into my early 20s), I would stay up really late and then sleep ridiculously late. At first I didn’t care if I got up at 1 or 2 in the afternoon (or later), but then as I got older and missed out on the day and felt crummy and dehydrated by the time I got up, it started to be a problem. (Especially in college, when it caused friction with my roommates.) I eventually broke myself of the habit and try to avoid sleeping in too late, but it still happens every once in awhile, and when it does, it bothers me once I’ve gotten up. Not today. I told myself, you deserve this. I needed to catch up on my sleep debt.

I got up, screwed around watching Roseanne and The Golden Girls while consuming my version of kryptonite, Chex Mix, and eventually got on the treadmill for 7 miles of torture (while watching old episodes of Game of Thrones). But even that was awesome in a way – I didn’t have to gear myself up to leave the house. I didn’t have to drive 20 minutes to a trail. I didn’t have to put on a shirt. I didn’t have to go to the bathroom six times before I started my run. I didn’t have to check the weather and wait for a window of opportunity (there was none, it rained virtually nonstop for several hours – I feel so fortunate it was just a normal rain, compared to what my colleagues in Houston are going through) I just went downstairs and turned on the machine.

So there it was, a (mostly) guilt-free day, with no plans, no expectations, and no forced timeline. If I can’t give myself a physical break from training right now (one week to vacation!), at least I was able to ease the mental load a bit.

Also, wow do I ever envy people who just get out there and run, without thinking it to death.

Birkie Trail Run Training: Week 8

I’m just glad this week is over.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 8 mi, road
Wednesday: 7.2 mi, treadmill
Thursday: 5.5 mi, treadmill
Friday: 9 mi, road + trail (home to Hartley Root Canal & back)
Saturday: 5.4 mi, road
Sunday: 18.2 mi, paved trail (Munger Trail, starting at Thomson trailhead)
Total: 53.3 mi

Monday, Monday, can’t touch that day. I hate taking Mondays as rest days. I know it’s totally arbitrary to start a new training week on Mondays, but it’s when I start them. I’m starting fresh with a work week, so I might as well start fresh with a training week. I took Monday as an unscheduled rest day as I was feeling slightly under the weather. Then I felt like I was playing catch-up the rest of the week.

I ended up having to run on the treadmill Wednesday and Thursday due to weather. This is the problem with taking a rest day on Monday – I have no flexibility the rest of the week to account for other circumstances: work, weather, personal life, etc. So I had to torture myself on the treadmill 2 days in a row. (Yes, of course, I could take two rest days in one week.) I decided to start re-watching Game of Thrones from the beginning, so at least I was entertained. Thursday I did 10 x 0.25 mi repeats to keep from having my brain implode from the monotony.

Friday I ran a similar loop to the previous Friday, notably excluding both the short loop at Bagley and the bear encounter. I think I could eventually set this up to be a long run – start from home, run to Bagley, do a loop, then run to Hartley and do the Guardrail loop and come back home. We’ll see. Now that students are back at UMD, I don’t want to do a whole lot of running on campus until the parties have died down a bit. I’m too self-conscious.

The less said about Saturday’s run, the better. I was feeling a bit tired on Friday’s run, and on Saturday’s run, I just gave up on caring. I ran in the middle of the day, it was hot, I hadn’t had much to eat, our lawn mower wasn’t working, I procrastinated my run which ate into my time with my nephews, and I ran with no enthusiasm or drive. The rest of the day was great, I got some kayaking in on the lake, and then a little bit of swimming.

I tried to go easy on myself on Sunday, so I decided to run the Munger Trail, rather than a harder, more technical trail. I thought it would mean I could get done faster. I mean, technically, I got done faster than I did the previous week, but it was a miserable slog. I forgot that easier terrain sometimes means boring terrain. Some short climbs and descents can really break things up; flat terrain means nonstop pounding at the same elevation, same gait, using the same muscles. I hated this long run. But I did it, I survived it, I felt fine afterward. So I guess it was a good mental test.

I really could use a cutback week, to be honest. Normally, I would take one, but I will be on vacation in a few weeks and will be cutting down my mileage in order to enjoy time with family (and also because I’ll be in my car quite a bit). I’ve got two more weeks of higher mileage (for me) to get through, and maybe I’ll start enjoying it again this upcoming week (spoiler alert: it’s Tuesday evening as I’m writing this and I’m not in a super great mood). I am so glad that I’m not doing the 100K race – I can’t imagine what the additional stress of that huge challenge would feel like. It’s fortuitous I decided to just do the marathon, as my cousin is now planning to visit Duluth on the Birkie weekend. Now I can just dash off a quick marathon and head home right after.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Birkie Trail Run Training: Week 7

Boring running week since I was traveling for work for most of it.

Monday: 8.1 mi, road
Tuesday: 5.2 mi, treadmill
Wednesday: 5 mi, treadmill
Thursday: 5.1 mi, treadmill
Friday: rest
Saturday: 10.3 mi, road & trail (home to Bagley to Hartley & back)
Sunday: 16.4 mi, trail (SHT – Normanna Road to Sucker River & back)
Total: 50.2 mi

Monday I was planning for 10 miles and didn’t get there. I had a lot to do to get ready for my trip – and even then I ended up packing Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I managed to hit the workout room at the hotel and torture myself for 65 minutes (the max workout time on the treadmill + 5 min cool down) after dinner. Yes, after dinner each night, since Tuesday we went to dinner on our way from the airport, and Wednesday and Thursday we went shortly after returning from our site visit. Since I was the one who rented the car, and I’m also not a total antisocial jerk, I had dinner at 6 with the rest of the group, rested in my hotel room for an hour, and then ran. Trail running has helped me become more adaptable to running on a full stomach. Thursday was rough as I had eaten a delicious smorgasbord of Indian food, but I wanted to give myself the opportunity to have Friday as a rest day.

It turned out I needed Friday as a rest day since I had a 4:30 a.m. wake-up call, had to drive in the dark through a thunderstorm, and then found the airport coffee shop wasn’t open yet. Upon landing in Minneapolis, I hoofed it down to Starbucks but saw there was a huge line and had to head back to my gate. So I didn’t get coffee til I landed in Duluth. Thus, there was no way I would be running – I was already a zombie. I suppose I could have napped, but eh.

Saturday I ran from home to Bagley Nature Area, ran half the loop (the half without the hill), split off on the Superior Hiking Trail, and crossed to Hartley. I did the Root Canal loop at Hartley and was coming around the Old Hartley Road trail (which is now a gravel trail) and came upon a man who informed me there was a bear up ahead. A runner who had passed me earlier was yelling at the bear and making noise to try to get it to leave the trail, so I joined him. I wasn’t especially worried since it was a single bear in August – not a cub, not starving – but I wasn’t about to just scoot by it while it munched on the side of the trail. The bear moved after a few minutes and we cautiously approached the spot where it had been. Seeing no sign of the bear, we both took off. This was fortunate as it would have added a couple miles to my run to go another route, and it was already late. I’d actually almost decided not to run that day, since I’d hurt my neck rolling over in bed, but by 6 PM I was feeling guilty enough to get off my butt and get the run in.

Sunday I had another late start, due to 1. waiting until Austin Jarrow opened so I could get some more gels 2. rain and 3. procrastination. Oh and 4. missing a turn. It ended up raining for a significant portion of my run, so waiting was basically pointless. I drove out to the Normanna Rd. trailhead, which is kind of annoying to access. I think I could have taken an easier route from where I live if I’d just looked at a Duluth map, but I followed the directions on the SHT site, and then misread them and turned left on 61 too early, realized I would be heading into a dead end, and had to go back to the next left turn spot to get turned around the right way on 61 again. So I didn’t start running til 3:25 or so. And I forgot my GPS watch, which I have NEVER done (but have almost done several times, so I guess that was bound to happen), so I had to use my iPhone, at 49% battery, to track my run. (I put it in a plastic bag to protect it.)

The trail was ok, it had a lot of grassy sections which kept my feet soaked the whole time. It’s not particularly challenging, there are some ups and downs but nothing too hard. The worst part was the deerflies buzzing around me constantly, even with the rainfall. I wasn’t swarmed, but I couldn’t ever really be rid of them. They kept getting stuck in my hair, which was disgusting. I even had a whole (dead) one come out while washing my hair after getting home.

I was actually intending to run 18 miles, but when I got to the spur trail to the parking lot, I realized that I was only at 8.2 miles (or so… since Strava truncates after the first decimal place – they don’t even round!) and decided screw it, I’m over this. The bugs, the rain, and the grass had frustrated me. Plus I was going to be done after 8 pm if I kept going. This ended up being a good choice, as the gray skies and denser forest in the last few miles meant I was running in low light. I was pretty cranky for the second half of the run, and ready to get it over with. A few times during the run I heard what sounded like dogs barking/baying in the distance, but eventually convinced myself they were coyotes and started to get a bit scared with a few miles to go. They didn’t seem to be getting closer to me, but that didn’t mean things couldn’t change. I am a lot more afraid of encountering a coyote (or wolf) than a bear. For all I know, it could have been some hillbilly’s hound dogs howling for their dinner.

The rain and the general dampness of the trail made all the little footbridges slippery, so I walked over them to be careful. Apparently that wasn’t enough, because a mile or so from the end, I stepped on one slightly tilted plank and my foot slipped off into ankle-deep mud. I couldn’t get my footing back and ended up having to crawl to the next section of planks before I could get back on my feet. It was a bit of a desperate moment but not the end of the world. I am glad that’s the worst thing that happened because I had run my iPhone battery down to almost zero using Strava, and when I got back to my car, I found my other phone had also been drained to almost zero by… I’m not sure what. Trying to find a signal or something stupid. I really need to remember to put it in airplane mode before going off the grid for a run. I didn’t have chargers for either phone in the car, either, so if I had car trouble or an injury, I’d have been screwed.

I’m glad to be home the next couple of weeks and I’m looking to ramp up the mileage slightly before stepping back again once I go on my road trip. Halfway to the Birkie!

Birkie Trail Run Training: Week 6

Yep, it doesn’t say ultra in the title.

Monday: 7.1 mi, road
Tuesday: 10.5 mi, road
Wednesday: 6 mi, trail (Bagley and Hartley)
Thursday: rest (it was cold! perfect rest day!)
Friday: 7.6 mi, road
Saturday: 3.1 mi, pavement & trail (Run Like An Animal 5K)
Sunday: 15.7 mi, trail (SHT – Jay Cooke to the southern terminus & back)
Total: 50.1 mi

I’ve officially thrown in the towel on running the Birkie Trail Ultra. I’m just not ready, nor have I put in the work that I knew I would need to. Part of that of course is because I was sick and I was studying for the FE exam, but part of it is also my own lack of commitment to the non-running side of training (diet and strength training, specifically). Rather than spend like $400 on lodging, transportation, and supplies, I can spend a small amount of money on an administrative fee to switch to the Birkie Marathon, which I can drive to and from on race day.

It is a weight off my shoulders. I am so thankful the race offers this option. Now I can run a new race in a new setting, and I can run Wild Duluth again for sure. I win! I will save my mileage personal best for another season. I signed up for the Birkie Ultra on an impulse, when I was feeling sorry for myself about FANS. I didn’t think it through. Maybe if the cutoff was easier, I’d still go for it. I just don’t want to miss an early time cut and end up spending a ton of money on a hotel for a disappointing race with an early end for the second time this year.

Speaking of FANS, I am in Tulsa, OK this week, and during the flight leg from Duluth to Minneapolis, our approach took us right over the FANS course. How nice.

I did have a great training week last week! I bounced right back from my cold (which I gave to my husband) and reached that coveted 50 mile mark for the week again. I intend to continue to increase my mileage over the next few weeks, before cutting back during my road trip to Maine, and then of course racing at the end of September.

I was pretty proud of myself for running over 10 miles on a weekday. When I started running, the idea of a double digit weekday run was unfathomable for me. I wouldn’t have the time! Especially if it was fall or winter. This route was a hilly 10 miles, too – I ran the steep hill on Glenwood, the long hill on Arrowhead, and the big hill on Rice Lake Road. It was a little darker than expected when I finished, but not headlamp-dark. My legs were heavy for the trail run the following day, but I just took it easy.

Friday’s run kind of wore me out for the 5K on Saturday, but I don’t mind. The 5K was a whim, and it was kind of interesting to try to run fast on less-than-fresh legs. I was once again racing a storm on Friday, and several times considered cutting my run short due to threatening skies, but I managed to beat out the rain by a fair amount of time.

Saturday’s run was of course covered in my race report. Sunday’s run was pretty awesome. I got a late start due to my strange anxiety over long runs. I knew I wanted to run 16 miles, and I knew it was going to take a long time. Instead of starting and getting it over with, I worried and procrastinated and stressed myself out about it. I don’t know why I care how long a training run takes – I had the day to myself and no obligations to fulfill.

I really love this section of the SHT. It’s got lots of spots to run, and then a couple tough hills. I like that mix. There was one stretch of overgrown trail that I hated – I imagined myself crawling with ticks from the long grass. I checked myself later and didn’t appear to have any on me. Ew ew ew. The new section of trail from Wild Valley Road to the southern terminus is nice! It’s a lot of ups and downs, but very shady and pleasant. Some really great work has been put into this trail!

Once I got through to the last 3 miles or so of the return trip, things just clicked. I realized that I was zipping along around 14-15 min pace, sometimes faster, even after 13+ miles. I even ran a few uphills. Granted, this section is more gentle as it’s ski trails, but I still was pretty amazed that even after laboring through some of the tough sections in the middle, barely slogging along uphill, I had plenty of energy in my legs for the last few miles, and I cruised. Things are starting to click. 16 miles (well, 15.7) might take me awhile still, but it feels a lot more natural than it used to. Maybe it’s the higher mileage weeks kicking in, or maybe it’s just overall experience. Either way, it felt great to finish a long trail run without being destroyed.

Race Report: Run Like An Animal 5K

No, not a Phish 5K. A zoo 5K!

Official Results:
Time: 31:44
Pace: 10:13
Placing:
Overall: 44/87
Gender: 19/40

Watch Results:
Time: 31:46
Pace: 10:43
Distance: 2.96
Heart Rate: N/A

Goals: 
A: 29:59

Food:
What I ate the night before: Tandoori chicken, saffron rice, roasted cauliflower, and a German chocolate cupcake (fancy dinner for my husband’s birthday)
What I ate on race morning: Clif bar
What I carried with me: nothing

Gear:
What I wore: t-shirt, shorts, trucker hat
Gadgets: GPS watch, fitness tracker

Discussion: If you would like to PR, this is not the race.

zoo5kalt

LOL.

I saw this race pop through my Facebook feed a few days ago. My brother and sister-in-law and my nephew were in town this past weekend, and I figured this would be a fun event. We ran the 5K, my nephew ran the kids’ race, and then we got free admission to the zoo, where there was cake and a bouncy house.

I slept kind of crappy the night before the race, although still way better than I sleep before my longer races. I woke up due to a power outage (something about the absence of sound wakes me up) and it took awhile to fall back asleep, and then my cats bugged me before my alarm went off. Oh well. I was worried about getting to the race too late to get a parking spot, or there being a big line to check in. That was not an issue as there were 87 total runners. I got a spot up close and the only reason I had to wait in line to check in was the people ahead of me were asking a bunch of questions. There is an animal costume contest as well, but since we didn’t sign up til the last minute, we didn’t have costumes. There were some nice flamingos. It wasn’t required, as the race website said “Dress up as your favorite animal and participate in our costume contest or come as your beautiful self.” It’s nice to get an affirmation from a race website.

The race starts in the zoo parking lot, and wraps around the grounds of the zoo. There are actual sections that go through exhibits at the beginning. This is both good and bad. It is good because animals are awesome. It is bad because there are a lot of twists and turns. I’ll take that trade. We ran by the barnyard and had the llamas and goats out cheering for us, and then we ran by the lynx exhibit. The lynx was going nuts and running back and forth, clearly wishing to join in.

There were three big hills, as you can see from the altitude graph above, and I’m not too proud to say I walked 2/3 of them. Good for me. I ran 7.5 miles the day before, my legs were tired. Also I have no grit. We left the zoo and ran through the park where the race ended. My nephew was there with my dad and stepmother, and he was hollering encouragement at all the runners. It was very uplifting! I ran by and complained that the race was hard. We ended up on a dirt trail after than and then a short out and back on the Kingsbury Creek trail, which I’ve run several times, and then the race turned into the home stretch. All the twists and turns messed up my GPS and I actually wasn’t expecting the end so soon. We ran through a short grassy section in the park for the finish. My sister in law finished a bit ahead of me, and my brother a bit behind me, and we headed to the food tent to get some grub. The weather had heated up pretty quickly from when I left the house to when the race began – it was sunny and humid.

The food at the race was fabulous – they had glazed donuts! And goldfish crackers, which I love. My nephew was pretty pumped to get half a donut, a banana, and some of my crackers. He needed to carb up for the kids run. The kids run was fairly long – it started in the parking lot, then went around the perimeter of the park until it reached the finish line flag chute and they got to run through that. The race had various mascots on hand (UMD’s Champ, UWS’s Buzz, the Marcus Theaters popcorn box, and the tiki guy from the Edgewater resort) to lead the way, and our family spread out along the course to cheer our little dude on. He ran the whole way! And still had energy at the finish!

After the race festivities were over, we all went into the zoo. Before we could even get to the exhibits, we had to stop at the bouncy house, strategically placed right at the bottom of the stairs from the main building. Fortunately there was also cake, so we were able to eat cake while my nephew bounced around, and then we finally dragged him away to see the animals. He didn’t seem to see why it wasn’t fun for us to all stand around while he bounced in the bouncy house forever.

This race was really fun! I’ve never done a trail 5K before, and I’m not used to running fast on trails, but I enjoyed it. Obviously if I’d known what the course was going to be like, I wouldn’t have hoped to get under 30 minutes. I look forward to improving on this time next year though!