Training

Lessons from the Long Run

14 miles in the books today. Well, 13.8. Ugh. It wasn’t good. Although I plugged in my watch and looked at my overall time and splits and apparently it didn’t suck as much as I thought.

Let’s look at the splits:
Park Point out and back
16:02 – warmup/I got bridged right at the beginning and had to wait around a bit.
15:10
14:47
14:18 – I wanted to finish the first four miles in under an hour and came close, but this is faster than it should have been, if I was running smartly. It felt fine though.
15:16 – I walked a little bit here and had a Starburst.
14:43 – Another Starburst here I think.
14:40
16:17 – Walked a bit and had another Starburst, felt nauseated.
15:11
Lakewalk
22:06 – Stopped at my car right at the beginning of this mile
15:37
16:44
15:44
14:48 pace for the last 0.8 miles
Overall pace: 15:49

I kind of thought the overall pace would be slower but it wasn’t. It’s not great and I was clearly fading at the end. I was fading mentally more than anything else, because if I pulled myself together, I could get my pace back up. So I have to figure that out.

A couple of other things I need to correct before next weekend’s 16 mile run:

1. I need a hand-held water bottle. I was never in danger of getting dehydrated or anything, but a few sips of water would have made a huge difference mentally.

2. Starbursts are tasty but are not a good candy for eating on the run. It might have been better if I had been able to take a few sips of water after eating pieces of candy but probably not. They’re too sticky and the wrappers are annoying to deal with, and they triggered my gag reflex a little as their taste was too intense. I probably need some mints or something instead.

3. I need to try out a different strategy. Maybe a Galloway-style run-walk? I don’t know. I also need to not stop for 6 minutes.

Next weekend is make-or-break time. If I have another crappy and disappointing long run, I’m not ready for a marathon, and I’ll focus on speed for the 5-Miler and then work on training for Mankato. I wish I could trust that I will run faster in the marathon than I am now in training, but I don’t.

From 5K to 5 Miles

I registered for the Park Point 5 Miler yesterday.

5miler

Hooray!

Maybe. There are some concerning things about this race.

1. It is in July, when it might be hot. It probably won’t be that hot, but if it is, that might kinda suck. I should be acclimated to the heat at that point, but I’m still concerned.

2. It’s only a few weeks after the marathon. Obviously if I don’t run it, that doesn’t matter. If I do, it could be an ugly race.

3. I don’t know how to race a 5 mile race. I mean, a 5K is easy to strategize. Run. I guess. Try to save a little for the end. Does that really apply to 5 miles, too? I kind of assume so, but I’m looking at an hour of hard running. Coach Google is probably going to have to give me some advice.

4. This isn’t a run/walk. This is a run. I am legitimately concerned about whether or not I can run fast enough to not totally hold up the race. Part of me is like “Give up marathon training and start training for the races you’re already entered in!” Another part of me is like “That would mean track workouts!” I would have to get over my fear of looking like a doofus on the track. And also of getting kicked off the track for trespassing, even though I know people work out at HS tracks all the time. (The track at UMD is inside the football stadium so I’m fairly certain I can’t go hop on there, and there’s intramural stuff going on all the time anyway.

I didn’t run yesterday as I was pretty tired. I was concerned I’d wake up today with a terrible cold, because I felt like I had one coming on, but I woke up feeling pretty good. I slept as late as I felt like, which means I need to re-hydrate before getting out in the cold (it’s 40 F), but it was well worth it.

Week 9 Update

Week 9 was a sad, sad training week.

A quick recap:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 5.25, 8x hills
Wednesday: 6, trail
Thursday: 5.3, road
Friday: 4.8, road, 2 miles @ medium pace
Saturday: 4.9, road, ugh
Sunday: 3.4, road, even more ugh
Total: 29.6 (planned: 38)

Well, ew. What started off as a great training week crashed and burned on the weekend.

Saturday started out fine and then my GI system revolted and I ended up walking quite a bit and making an emergency stop at a gas station. I still got the mileage I needed done, and was on track to have a great week. All I had left was the long run.

Sunday I was supposed to do 14 miles. I got up, did a little homework, ate a plain bagel with no cream cheese (wary of stomach issues, since Saturday I’d eaten a bagel & cream cheese and then had a latte a couple hours before running… apparently my coffee worked too well and for longer than I thought), and walked to the convenience store by my house to get some sports drinks and some candy for the long run. I planned on using my house as an aid station of sorts and run some shorter loops, since I was so concerned about my GI system. I figured I’d do a 4-mile or so loop, drink some water/Powerade, refill my candy supplies, and head out for a 6 mile loop, then another stop, and then a 4 mile loop.

After 1 mile I knew I couldn’t do it. My stomach was fine (I know this after the fact), although I was still nervous about it, but I had absolutely no drive to put one foot in front of the other. It was raining/misting and only in the high 30s. I was feeling horribly guilty about the homework (actually a take-home test) I still had to complete (due today!) I mentally did not have it, and after a mile I turned around, intending to go home. I decided to push myself a little bit more, because I couldn’t have a 2-mile run on the books for the day. It might as well have been a rest day at that point. I was right at the bridge over Chester Creek on 9th/8th street, so I went down to the trail and hiked up to the Skyline bridge, then jogged back down to 9th/8th on the road. I’d already mentally quit, so I headed back home at that point.

From my splits, it’s clear I was dragging and nothing was working: 15:51, 20:08 (uphill on the trail), 16:06, and a 16:52 pace for the last 0.4 miles, with an overall heart rate of 142 bpm. Even last Tuesday, when I quit after 2.6 miles because of cramps and terrible weather, I still managed a 14:41 pace and 147 bpm (yes I realize I was zipping up the hills, but I was practically walking at other points, and I was still only 5 bpm above Sunday’s heart rate.) I made the right choice to throw in the towel, come home, and work on my homework instead. (Or, write this blog post, do my core work, and then work on homework.)

Just because it was the right choice doesn’t mean I was happy about it. The long run to me is the highest priority workout. I rank them as follows:
1. Sat/Sun long run
2. Tuesday hills
3. Friday “speed” workout
4. Wednesday medium run
5. Thursday and Sun/Sat short runs

14 miles was a huge deal for me. I was really looking forward to seeing where I was at with this run, and I guess I’m… totally not ready to run a marathon. Depressing. I can think of a couple contributing factors to my poor performance. Running in my old shoes has worn my legs out; I’m more sore after workouts than I have been in awhile. Last week’s cutback from a cutback is also a problem. I ramped back up too quickly, although if I hadn’t cut back so much, it wouldn’t have been a problem.

I’m going to try to repeat Week 9’s training plan instead of doing Week 10’s plan. Both call for 38 miles, but week 10 has a couple miles added to the weekday runs and then a 5-10K on Sunday instead of a long run. Since I raced a 5K last weekend, I would rather put in the 14 miles than another speed workout. The weather forecast is crummy all week, but the highs are all still in the 40s so it should be manageable.

Tired Legs

Well, 11 miles into the week and I’m already dragging. Of course, I don’t think I’ve done 11 miles to start a week this training cycle, other than maybe when I was on spring break. (Well, then I went and looked it up while that’s true, I’ve started the week with 10 miles twice, so my whining is kind of ridiculous.)

Tuesday I did 8 hill repeats. I suffered a bit. My legs were really tight, so when I got to my usual hill, I wanted to stretch, but I had to stretch cautiously. My muscles felt like overly tightened violin strings; one more turn of the peg and they’d snap. Then when I tried to stretch my quads by doing the flamingo-type stretch which I’m sure has a real name, I actually tweaked something in my arm and side. It didn’t last but I was worried for a minute. The repeats didn’t feel that great, but I reminded myself how thrilled I was I’d done all this hill running when I was charging like a rhino up Lake Avenue on the home stretch of the 5K last weekend. I reminded myself of that feeling probably 16 times during the exercise. I had half the run in by the time I was done with the hill workout. I was feeling ok for awhile as I started the rest of the run, but my legs started to feel heavy after awhile, and then I had some lower abdominal cramping that slowed me to a walk a couple times. I spent the whole night working on homework, got home at about quarter to midnight, did more homework, and then couldn’t get to sleep because my neighbors had their windows open and music playing til after 3. I finally shut my window at 3 because I couldn’t stand it anymore.

Wednesday I woke up before my alarm (ugh), was too hot, and opened the window. Then the garbage truck came by, so I couldn’t fall back asleep. I was late to class and just dragging. I finished the homework I hadn’t done Tuesday night, and tried to convince myself I didn’t need to run, or maybe I should swap days and just run the 4 miles slotted for today. I still had a bunch of homework to do that evening, and I had a meeting, and I had been late to my group meeting on Tuesday night because I’d run so slowly, so it wasn’t looking good for getting in my scheduled mileage.

Well, my meeting was canceled, and I managed to wake up enough that I got out and did 6 mucky miles at Hartley. 6 very tired miles. My legs didn’t want to go fast. They didn’t even want to go slow. I shuffled along, getting passed by other runners, and also getting zoomed past by a dog repeatedly. I swear the dog was just showing off. Also I find it odd how many people around here do not leash their dogs. Hartley is still in the city limits! It’s not like we’re on some remote trail. I like dogs, but they really need to be on a leash, for their own safety and for the safety of other people and animals.

I wasn’t in any pain while I was running, so I was just suffering dead legs from the run the day before and from my general fatigue. I got back to the parking lot with 5.5 miles down and thought about calling it quits because I was dragging so badly. Then I reminded myself that I’ll be running on tired legs during marathons (and ultras if I ever get there), so I had better learn to suck it up for one half of a mile. So, I did, and finished at 5.98 miles, somehow still at a similar pace to most of my trail runs and a 146 bpm average heart rate. I do not know how that happened, but I’ll take it. I guess it just seemed like I was running in slow motion.

Week 8 Update

Ah, the cutback week, from which I cut back even more miles.

To recap:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 2.5 miles, road, hill repeats
Wednesday: 4.3 miles, trail
Thursday: rest
Friday: 5 miles, trail
Saturday: 3.2 miles, road, race
Sunday: 8.5 miles, road
Total: 23.4 miles (Plan said to do 30)

Sunday’s run really really really sucked. It was warm, like 70 degrees, which would not be that bad but I was not used to running in the “heat,” so to speak. I wore a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes, since I don’t have prescription sunglasses yet. I need to get on that. The warm weather would not have been a problem on its own, had it not been for the wind. It was relentless. I spent 2.5 mostly uphill miles running directly into the wind and then I turned about 135 degrees and I was still running directly into the wind. I ended up slowing to a walk a few times because it was so awful trying to run into it. I really could have used a hand-held water bottle, or some mints or something to suck on, because the wind was drying out my nose and mouth so badly. I did stop a little over 2 miles in, just to quick use the bathroom and get a drink of water at UMD, and I’m glad I had that little bit of extra water in me.

I also cheated and stopped my watch when I stopped, which I normally don’t do. Since I was going into the very center of the first floor of a building that’s built into the ground on one side, I figured I would lose my GPS signal and that could end up skewing my results.

I hit a 15:15 pace (15:48 when factoring in the break, to keep it honest!), which, I have to be honest, is pretty damned exciting. Yes, I took a short break, but I also ran in some pretty rough conditions, so I’m going to claim the 15:15. I pushed harder than normal, partially because I felt like I could since I had stepped down the mileage this week, and partially because I wanted to see what I could do. These 16-17 minute paced long runs are valuable, I know. Slow long runs are good. But I have no idea what my marathon pace is going to be. I need to test my capabilities a bit. So I did. I didn’t go all out or anything, but I did end up with an average heart rate of 160 bpm, which is high for a long run. I’m not too worried, since I felt great (as in, my legs/back/hips didn’t hurt, I felt totally gross right after the run because I was hot and dirty), but I don’t plan on making it a habit.

This upcoming week includes 38 total miles and a 14 miler on the weekend. The weather looks fabulous, 60s all week, so I can finally retire my neon yellow hoodie for awhile. Which is good, since the zipper pull broke off on Saturday when I was getting my post-race coffee.

Guilt-Free Time Off

After patting myself on the back for getting out and running when I didn’t feel like it on Tuesday and Wednesday, I took yesterday off from running and I don’t regret it for a second.

On Wednesday I reported that my right calf felt funky, and it continued to feel funky Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, so I made the executive decision not to run. Then later in the day I waffled a bit and thought hey, maybe I should run, or maybe I can just walk on the treadmill, it’s probably just normal muscular pain. Then I thought about it longer and decided I didn’t waste $30 on a race I’m not even training for so that I could injure myself pushing it too hard on a boring slow training run. I meant to do my pushups and situps since my core really needs work, but then I didn’t. I stayed at work later than I planned, and then I went to see Soul Asylum at the Sports Garden, so I didn’t do my strength stuff. Unless rocking out counts as a workout. It probably does, although there was no moshing.

My calf feels fine today, so I feel justified in taking the day off. I guess whether it felt fine or whether I was unable to walk, I would have felt justified in taking the day off.

I am not one of those runners who spends hours analyzing their aches and pains to determine if they are larger issues. I am also not one of those runners who talks in acronyms and pseudo-medicalspeak. The minute someone wonders if their dx is an sfx or ITBS, I just tune out. I am not a doctor of sports medicine or a physical therapist, so I have nothing to contribute to the conversation, and I try not to turn to Dr. Google for a diagnosis. I gauge whether or not I should rest an injury or run based on a couple non-scientific criteria:

1. Is the pain symmetric?
If both legs/hips/arms/sides hurt, or if my entire lower back is stiff/sore, or both feet are achy, I’m not too concerned. Since only one leg felt weird the other day, I was more concerned.

2. Does the pain go away or lessen significantly overnight?
So far I’ve been recovering fairly well from my long or more intense runs, but I am a bit stiff and creaky in the evenings, or sometimes even the next morning until I really get moving for the day. Because my leg felt similar yesterday afternoon to the way it felt Tuesday evening, I didn’t push it.

Obviously there’s more to injury prevention than a two-question assessment, but I hope it will help prevent overuse injuries, at the very least. Today is gorgeous and I fully intend on doing 5 miles after I go pick up my race packet for this 5K tomorrow. Which, eep, why did I sign up for this again? I am not sure.

Week Seven Update

Let me pat myself on the back for yet another awesome training week. And by awesome I mean I didn’t wimp out on any workouts.

A quick recap:
Monday: off
Tuesday: 5.3 miles, road, 6 hill repeats
Wednesday: 5.2 miles, road
Thursday: 4 miles, treadmill
Friday: 4.1 miles, Lakewalk, speed work
Saturday: 12 miles, road
Sunday: 2.9 miles, road/trail (Chester Bowl)
Total: 33.5 miles

Friday’s speedwork went well. I hit an overall pace of 12:35/mile, with about 3 miles of “medium paced” running. I feel like I’m in a good spot for my 5k this weekend. I doubt I can hold the speedwork pace for 3 miles (around 11 min/mile) but I think I’ll be able to be somewhere between my A and B goals.

Saturday was my first double-digit long run. It was not the best idea to plan it the day after my speedy day, but Saturday’s forecast was better than Sunday’s, and Sunday is my “desperately catching up on homework” day. So the first couple miles felt slow as molasses. My 2nd mile was the slowest pace (17:11) of the whole run, except for the one where I took a break. I planned an 8-mile loop, back to my house, followed by a 4 mile loop. My hips and my back were pretty sore the whole time, but as I turned off Rice Lake Road onto Central Entrance to head down the hill right before my break, I couldn’t stop grinning. It was a gorgeous day, the lake looked beautiful, and I was high on endorphins.

I planned a break at 8 miles just in case I had to pee or was dying of thirst. I had felt pretty thirsty toward the end of my 9 mile run last weekend, and I didn’t want to carry a hand-held water bottle, so I stopped at home for about 5 minutes. Somehow I still ended up with a “pace” for that mile of 19:23, which is faster than some of my trail running paces.

The last 4 miles felt pretty terrible. I made a kind of stupid route choice, with too much uphill. Maybe I am doing too many hills. That sounds lazy, but I also think it’s a valid question. I finished the run with an overall pace of 16:30 and an average heart rate of 151 bpm, so I didn’t push too hard and only lost about half a minute off my 9-mile pace, even with the break.

Sunday I ran as slowly as I could stand, and took it easy on my body by running down the Chester Creek path from Skyline to 9th. I stopped and took a picture of ducks.

5K on Saturday. At 9 am. And it’s not going to be warm. Blahhhh.