Training

Off-Week #1

I can’t say that I’m enjoying this off week as much as I’d have liked. I started feeling cold-like symptoms on Tuesday, and have been suffering through them ever since. So far, I haven’t been completely incapacitated by them (I did take a half day from work in order to get some extra sleep on Wednesday, but that was it so far), and I’m hoping I’m on the mend. I was a little concerned because I had the same progression of symptoms I had back in October, but I also didn’t attempt to run an ultramarathon in the rain, so I’m thinking I might be on the mend.

Here’s how my week went:

Monday: Strength training
I did several reps of a rather complicated combined strength move I found on the internet when searching for “exercises for runners dumbbells.” I also did some planks (3×20 seconds) and wall sits (3×60 seconds), and then I did a yoga video.

Tuesday: Strength training
I did a circuit workout I found on Self.com, which I had to modify slightly because I don’t have an exercise ball. Also I had to do box jumps onto the basement stairs because I don’t have anything else sturdy to jump on, which made me hesitant. I did a yoga video and then went out to a nice dinner and walked around Bentleyville with my family. It was like 12F and windy as heck.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday: Nothing
I lazed around trying to recover from my cold. Oh, and watched some hockey Friday night. That got the heart pumping.

Saturday: Hiking
I decided on Friday night that as long as I didn’t feel worse when I woke up in the morning, I was going to go on a short hike. I almost didn’t go, but then after I ate lunch, I felt better, and went on a 4 mile hike.

It was cold, but manageable. I was worried about getting cold because I wouldn’t be running hard, but it wasn’t a problem. I made sure to wear my super warm gloves (which I need to clean now, thanks to the deluge of snot from my poor nose) but other than that, I wore what I normally wear to run when it’s cold-ish. (I wasn’t bundled up the way I was when it’s really cold, of course.)

I hiked the Superior Hiking Trail, starting at Martin Road and heading back to town this time. It was still fairly icy in spots, so I wasn’t able to enjoy the scenery the same way I thought I’d be able to, but I still stopped to take a few pictures and check out a few views. Since it was icy (and sometimes the ice was covered in a thin layer of snow, so sketchy), I never really felt the urge to run and didn’t worry too much about my pace. It was very relaxing! This section is okay – it has a really nice stretch along Amity Creek, but then it joins up with a gravel road, goes between two cemeteries (kind of a downer), and then ends up on the street for awhile before going into Hartley. I only went 2 miles in before turning around, so I didn’t get onto the street. While I hiked, I had “Life is a Cabaret” in my head, probably because I was by cemeteries and I want that song played at my funeral.

I did feel kinda chilled and tired when I got home and through the evening, so I was worried I’d get up and feel sicker, but I didn’t!

Sunday: Hiking and ice skating
I got up decently early and was actually out on the trail by a little after noon. It’s a lot less stressful to get out for a hike than it is to get out for a run. I don’t know why – maybe this will help me stop getting so anxious about runs, and stop procrastinating? Maybe?

I wanted to go to Ely’s Peak, but I suspected approaching it from the Beck’s Road trailhead would be treacherous, due to the steep rocky climbs. I ended up starting at the Magney-Snively trailhead (heads up: Skyline Drive is open to the trailhead, but closed directly after it), and after 3 miles, still had probably half a mile to go to Ely’s Peak, so I skipped it. I was only planning on 6 miles, and it would have probably added 25 minutes to my hike to actually “summit” the peak. So I turned around. This section is tough on the way to Ely’s Peak, lots of uphills, and my legs were definitely feeling it. There were a couple of icy or otherwise sketchy sections that forced me to slow down, and on the way back, I somehow was able to catch myself just before my tailbone hit the ground. Yikes.

I enjoyed a bit more challenging hike, even if at times I felt pretty tired from the effort. U had a song for this hike, too: I couldn’t get the Bloodhound Gang’s “Bad Touch” out of my head today, for some reason.

After I got home, had a latte, and took a shower to warm up, I drove out to Pike Lake, where my dad had cleared a rink on the lake behind his house. I didn’t get there until 4:30, when the sun was already almost gone, but we had a great time skating in the twilight for an hour. I brought a stick and a puck, but he forgot his down in the Cities, so we just skated around and had fun talking, and then looking at the stars with an app once it was late enough for the stars to come out.

I’m really hoping I didn’t overdo it during the weekend, because I’m hoping to get back to strength training during the week (and do more hiking & skating next weekend!), and also making some lunches for myself. I haven’t had the energy to make food or do any meal planning, but I do need to get to the grocery store for my work potluck (once I figure out what I’m making, ugh).

Lay Your Weary Head To Rest

Starting today, I’m taking a two week break from running.

I meant to do it starting yesterday, but it was 40 F and there’s cold weather in the forecast, so I didn’t want to waste what will probably be one of the last mild days of the year. I ran 8 miles on the Superior Hiking Trail starting at Martin Road and it was really frustrating – lots of ice, uneven frozen ground, and spots where the mud or grass was frozen, but I didn’t know, and then my foot would break through. It was a pretty tiring run, but I was glad to get out there just the same.

I set a goal at the beginning of the fall season to take 2 weeks off by choice. I meant to do it at the end of Wild Duluth, but because I DNF (and I took time off due to illness), I ran another race, and then I had 2 5Ks, so I had to push back the break until technically after the fall season (as I define it, it’s September-November, and then winter is December-February).

Physically, I can benefit from a break. The blister-turned-callus on my right heel might go away. The chafing on the middle of my back from my sports bra clasp can heal. In general, my knees, hips, and ankles can benefit from a break from the relentless pounding. My recent slower 5K times have indicated my body is fatigued.

Mentally, I really need a break. I’m a bit burned out. It’s dark out early. I have to wear layers. I always have smelly running clothes hanging in the bathroom. I’m tired of every route I run. I feel like I don’t have time to do anything but run. This isn’t actually true, but it feels true because of the early sundown.

I’ve got other stuff to do, though. Strength training, for example. That’s fallen by the wayside, and I’m going to need to work on both my core and leg strength for next year. I’ll work on my nutrition, too. I haven’t made dinner or a lunch for myself in weeks. I’m trying to lose weight, too (turns out you can gain weight even if you’re running marathons and ultra marathons! Ugh). I’m an overweight runner (technically an obese runner, if you go by BMI alone), it’s not a crime, but it’s also a hindrance to getting faster.

Running is completely off-limits, but walking and hiking are not. I’ll count hiking towards my total mileage during the year, since I do plenty of hiking during races, ha ha. I won’t count just regular old walking, because I already don’t, but I do need to increase the amount of walking I do during the day. My job is fairly sedentary, and I need something active to replace running.

I’ll do a lot of planning, too, at least for my next upcoming goal race (currently Zumbro 50, first time I’m admitting that “out loud,” but I’m not registered yet). I’ll get a training plan of some sort together so I at least have something to strive for once I’m back out on the roads/trails/treadmill on December 18th.

I’ve taken breaks before, but they’ve always come as the result of something outside of my control. Illness, injury, burnout, or scheduling issues have kept me off my feet for a few days or a few weeks at various points over the last couple years, but then I end up with a lot of guilt or anxiety about not running. Now I’m in control, and I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this break.

Post-Mortem: Fall Back Blast 50K

Race Report

I got an email yesterday that the race pictures had been posted on Facebook. I’m not in any of them! This is great. I’m also in zero pictures from Wild Duluth and for that I am grateful, I don’t want to relive that. I don’t mind race pix and generally am not too critical of myself in them, but I don’t mind if I’m not in a photoset. I guess I can file that under “Good Things?” The rest are below.

Good Things
Mental game. I drove down there despite the snow freaking me out. I got up and ran despite an hour of sleep. I didn’t quit even though it would have been so easy to pack it in at 25K or 37.5K. I didn’t get frustrated with running the same sections over and over again, or getting lapped by many runners. Even when my watch died and I kinda gave up a teeny bit, I still kept pushing as best as I could.

General fitness. I didn’t have the training cycle I’d have liked, with a cold and several down weeks due to travel.  But I still managed to pull out a 50K that I’m proud of, and that I feel like I ran fairly well. Sub 8 hours looks like it is in play for me next year, with a dry trail and a bit more strength training. Oh, and if my watch doesn’t die so I can keep better track of where I’m at.

Boldness. I ran another race where I’d be close to the cutoffs (on paper, thanks to my great race at Chippewa Moraine 50K), and there were also very few entrants. Only 21 people finished, so it was my highest numerical placing at an ultra ever, despite being DFL. I was a little worried that everyone else who ran it would be fast, and I’d be the only one out there for like 3 hours. Not so.

Bad Things
Sleep. I don’t know how to fix this. It’s a problem whether I’m at home or away, whether I forgo caffeine or not, whether it’s a race I’ve done before or a new one, no matter what I eat, no matter how much I try to meditate/relax/distract my mind. I am going to just have to figure out how to power through it.

Nutrition. I could have benefited from eating a gel each lap on top of the cookies I ate. I probably also need to stop eating cookies at races, but I really like cookies and I haven’t had any stomach issues when eating them. They had Nilla Wafers at this race, and those are SO easy to eat. Not wanting to eat a gel because I don’t want to take my gloves off or get them sticky is kind of dumb. Maybe I need to look beyond gels.

I don’t really have that many Bad Things because I wasn’t planning on running this race and didn’t train specifically for it. If I were to train specifically for it, I would definitely make sure to do more long runs where I was running continuously. I didn’t realize how hard it would be on my body to run a flatter, faster ultra. Between the increased amount of running and the 2.5 hour car ride home almost immediately after the race, I was hurting badly the next day. It was worth it, though! It took a weight off my shoulders and dispersed a cloud of gloom that had been hanging over me since I DNFed at Wild Duluth. I can go into the Holiday 5K Season confident with how my endurance season ended.

Fall Back Blast 50K Goals

I signed up for another race! Huzzah!

I wanted to do this 12 hour race in North Dakota on Oct 29 in order to try to meet my summer goal of a distance personal best, but I was worried I would still be sick, and the logistics were kind of terrible, and it snowed a lot here anyway, so I didn’t sign up. Hooray, money saved.

Still annoyed about my DNF at WD50K, I checked Northland Runner to see if I could find another marathon or ultra to do this fall. Glory hallelujah, I found the Fall Back Blast in Eau Claire. 2.5 hour drive, 4 loop course, 9 hour cutoff – works well for me.

The weather doesn’t look like it’s going to be spectacular – it looks like it’s going to rain in the morning – although earlier this week it looked like it was going to rain all day, so things are improving.

Goals:
A Standard: 8:00
B Standard: 8:15
C Standard: 8:45

Why not go for a 50K PR? It won’t be the course PR I was looking for 2 weeks ago, but I kind of have to get over that. Additional goals: avoid severe hypothermia, drive home after the race safely (I’m only staying over Friday night), and avoid soiling myself and/or vomiting everywhere. And then enjoy the extra hour of sleep on Sunday!

Wild Duluth 50K 2017 Goals

I’ve been sick since Friday evening with a crummy cold, and spent most of the two weeks prior traveling for work, so I have barely given a thought to the race unless I was worrying about it.

The weather doesn’t look great either, but I’ll just power through the rain if it comes. My goals are:

A Standard: 8:45
B Standard: 9:15
C Standard: 9:45

Last year I ran 10:23, and my last (significantly easier) 50K was 8:57. I think I can at the very least make my C Standard, even sick and in the rain. My hope is I’ll be able to sleep the night before the race, and I’ll be able to attend the Bulldog men’s hockey game after the race. I’m really excited, but I wish of course that I was healthy and that I hadn’t spent so much time traveling. There’s not much I can do about that now, except hope that my cough subsides and my sinus pressure subsides. And let the race day excitement take over and power me through to the finish.

Wild Duluth 50K 2017: Week 14

Wow! Look at that revisionist title!

Monday: 4.3 mi, treadmill
Tuesday: 5.1 mi, treadmill
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 4 mi, treadmill
Friday: rest
Saturday: 8.4 mi, trail (Superior Hiking Trail – Fox Farm Rd to Sucker River & back)
Sunday: 11.2 mi, trail (Superior Hiking Trail – Reeves Rd to Lake County Rd 301 & back)
Total: 32.9 mi

I’m still training for Wild Duluth! So this still works as a training week.

Since up til Saturday, I was still planning on running a marathon on Saturday, I did short runs in a controlled environment while watching Game of Thrones on HBOGO. My cats watched the whole time, judged me on my form, and then swarmed onto the treadmill the moment I stopped it. They love plopping over on it, I suppose because the belt is warm.

Hm, that reminds me, I need to lube the treadmill deck.

To salvage the weekend, I decided to hit 2 more segments of the SHT. I ran 8.4 kinda sucky miles on Saturday. The segment is nice, with a few lovely views. On a cooler day I might have liked it more, but the sun was hot! It ended up in the high 60s F, maybe even 70, and I forget that those temps can feel fairly warm when running. I was really glad that the thru-hike distance was much shorter than the advertised distance, because I was ready to get that run over with. It’s a bit hillier than I thought it would be, but another day it might be a perfect section.

Sunday’s segment would have been really pleasant and runnable if not for the mud. The first half mile is along a county road, then the next half mile is on a snowmobile trail. A word to the wise: snowmobile trail = mud + standing water + long grass. Yuck. The rest of the trail alternated between pleasant single track and ankle deep mud. My shoes are in rough shape.

I had to hose myself off after getting home, and completely rinse out my shoes. I stuffed them with newspaper, which absorbed a bit of the water, and I’m out of town until Thursday, so they will have a chance to further dry out, but we’ll see. They only have to make it 3 more weeks.

When I wasn’t slopping through the mud, I was running along Silver Creek and LOVING IT. There are a lot of very easy to run portions of this section of trail, and I would love to get back there when it’s drier. It was a bit more of a drive than I’d have liked, but it is the farthest section of the Duluth to Two Harbors segment (and would have been even farther if I’d started at the Co Rd 301 trailhead) and is a bit beyond what I usually like to drive for a medium-length run.

I’m hoping for one more higher mileage week and then I’ll step down a bit, and then do something similar to the beginning of this week for that final race week – it seemed to work.

I’m considering running another race the weekend after WD50K, but I’m not sure. It would require travel, and I’m already doing a TON of traveling this month (I’m writing this post from Kansas, and next week I’ll be in Massachusetts. Right after WD, I’ll be going to Edmonton). On the other hand, it sounds like fun, and could be a chance for redemption on two accounts – one summer goal, and one fall goal. We’ll see.

Birkie Trail Run Goals

I was feeling super chill about the Birkie Trail Run until yesterday, when I started making my time chart and realized what kind of paces I needed to run. I hadn’t realized until recently that my goal of 7 hours was actually also the cutoff time for the “marathon” (the race is 25.6 miles, something I don’t quite understand, is there not a way to eke another 0.6 miles out of the course?) and I was going to have to readjust my thinking.

So I set my goal times:
A Standard: 6:00:00
B Standard: 6:30:00
C Standard: 6:59:59

And then I started working up my spreadsheet to figure out what time I’d need to be at each aid station. And then I realized all of the paces are faster than I’ve ever run a marathon before. And that for the first 14 or so miles, I’d need to be on that 6:30 pace to hit an intermediate cutoff. (There’s one cutoff before and one cutoff after that one that are 7 hour pace cutoffs so I’m confused.)

So now I’m really anxious about the race, and about getting enough sleep, and about driving an hour and a half each way to get there, and about my slight weight gain, and about the cold-like symptoms I’m experiencing today (the downside of a short taper must be getting that “taper flu” during race week, argh), and about how I have a work trip on Monday morning… worry came rushing in to fill the space left by nonchalance.

I know that I consistently limit myself, with my fears and my doubts. I hold back when I should push. I worry about what might happen a mile down the trail, 10 miles down the trail, instead of focusing on the mile that I’m in. I know that I am a risk-averse runner.

I know that this trail won’t be full of rocks and roots, won’t have long climbs like Moose Mountain (although it has a billion short climbs), and won’t be hot and sticky. I know that I’ve put in a lot of miles (although the average mileage is only a few miles higher than my previous races, due to some low or no mileage weeks) and I’ve run this distance (or farther) five times in the 12ish months.

My non-time-related goal for this race is to be bold. This doesn’t mean charging up the first hill of the race and wearing myself out. It does mean running uncomfortably at times. It does mean forcing myself through the low points in the race rather than babying myself until I get out of them. It does mean this race is gonna hurt. But if I don’t start running more bravely, I’m never going to progress. I’m never going to be anything other than a back of the pack runner who is limited from entering some races due to cutoffs.

Tonight and tomorrow, I’m going to do my best to relax, have fun with my family, eat some chocolate birthday cake (not my bday, my Gramps’), and get my prep work done early so I can wake up and drive to Cable on Saturday morning feeling confident and relaxed.