Duluth

Unhappy Trails

Yesterday, for my cross-training workout for the week, I did a trail hike/run. The Higdon Intermediate 10K Plan calls for a 60 minute cross-training workout every Saturday, but I’ve been making that a trail day and trying to choose more technical trails so that it doesn’t end up being a real run.

I picked a new trail this week, a section of the Superior Hiking Trail starting at the Martin Rd parking lot and heading out north along the North Shore State Trail, which is mainly a snowmobiling trail. (I would never run it in winter for fear of getting plowed over.) This isn’t a trail review per se, since I didn’t stop/turn around at a traditional spot along the trail. I think I turned around at Prindle Rd.

This portion of the trail was not fun. It was grassy, but not tamped down at all, so at times I was crashing through a barely-forged trail with grass up past my knees on the sides. I sorely wished I’d worn long pants. I also need to invest in some kind of bug repellent post-haste.

I suffered through most of this run, not because it was hard, but because I couldn’t stand the feeling of grass brushing against my legs. I know that’s silly, grass isn’t poisonous, but it made me itch and I kept thinking ticks were going to jump all over me. It was a bit wet and muddy in some spots, though not terribly so, and there were piles of horse crap along the way to dodge.

If the grass was tamped down enough to forge a nice trail, the run would have been pleasant. It was very run-able once I got past my annoyance with the grass. I passed UMD’s new wind turbine and Sustainable Agriculture Project Farm. After I got past the farm, the more open area turned into deciduous forest, with private lands on either side of the trail and many houses visible through the trees.

Despite a few cars in the Martin Rd. parking lot, I didn’t see anyone on the trail, and I suppose I am not surprised. In the opposite direction, the trail is a lot more traversable and more scenic. However, the Martin Rd. lot is the first spot where thru-hikers can jump on the trail and find campsites (though I’m not sure how one would need a campsite just a few miles in), so I would have expected to find evidence of someone else on the trail. (Someone not equine, I mean. I found plenty of evidence of those folks.) The trail would be a heck of a lot better if more people braved the grass and made more of a true path. Right now it’s not even single-track, more like one-third-of-a-track wide through most of the grass.

Maybe I’ll try it again in a month or so and see if it’s improved a bit, when I’m in need of a long run and can travel the whole distance and back or something.

Pickups

So today was a nice hard workout. By nice I mean now that it’s over I can look back and be like “Nice job.” It kind of sucked a lot while I was doing it.

In my quest to find new routes to stave off boredom and also avoid hills, I decided to park at school, head off in a new direction, and then get some work done in the computer lab while stinking with sweat. Because I live in East Hillside (please don’t stalk me), I’m kind of stuck with the same old routes because Central Entrance cuts me off to the “west” (Duluth west isn’t exactly west) and I do not want to run down the hill because that means I have to go back up the hill. It’s pretty friggin’ steep. So I must go east. Or “east,” rather.

From school, I headed “east” on Woodland and then down the hill on Arrowhead. That was a dumb choice because the streets are all cut off by Snively, the road I actually wanted to go on. I ended up at a dead end but that led me to Snively anyway. I thought that was going to be great for starting my pickup intervals, but the sidewalks ended when I was less than 2 miles into the run. So, that was annoying. I also left the house when it was cloudy and somehow the sun came out in the 5 minutes it took me to get to school. I didn’t have my hat so I was squinting and miserable for half the run.

I might be running my pickups too fast. Which is hilarious, because it’s not like I am zipping along at a cool 5:00/mile pace, but I mean too fast over my slow run pace. I was running at a “hard effort” as the training plan suggested, but I don’t know, maybe I should have been running at my 5K pace instead of hitting some single-digit paces for the beginning of the interval and then fading. Next Tuesday I am going to try to focus on hitting a consistent faster pace rather than trying to run as fast as I can.

I finished the 4.7 mile run at a 13:49 average pace and 164 bpm average heart rate. With those kinds of results, I am definitely going to give the walk/run strategy a try.

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.

Race Report: Fitger’s 5K 2015

I finished!

Official Results:
Time: 37:00
Pace: 11:55
Placing:
Overall: 1330/1680
Division (F 30-34): 145/190
Gender: 811/1076

Watch Results:
Time: 37:04
Pace: 11:39
Distance: 3.18 mi
Heart rate: 173 bpm

Goals:
A: 36:00
B: 40:00

Food:
What I ate the night before: Chipotle burrito bowl
What I ate on race morning: nothing
What I carried with me: nothing

Gear:
What I wore: Running tights, tank top, long-sleeved hoodie, gloves, headband.
Gadgets: GPS watch

Discussion:
Since this is my first official attempt at a race recap, this format is experimental.

I set my alarm for 6:30 this morning, then hit snooze and slept for another hour (not really since I had to get up and feed my cats to shut them up). I puttered around the house until about 8:10 and then headed out. I probably could have walked to the race, as it started only a mile or so away from my house, but that would have meant an annoying uphill walk home.

I left everything except my keys in my car. At first that included my bib. I didn’t get very far before I was like oh yeah, bib, that’s important. The race packet even said “no bib, no time.” A nice reminder for absent-minded morons like me. I probably should have stayed at my car a little longer, since I had like 30 minutes to kill until race time. It would have been a good idea to take a few more sips of water. I don’t say that ominously, nothing horrible happened, but I was really worried about that once I got there.

There were people all over the place and I was really intimidated. I was also sort of rolling my eyes because people were doing all kinds of super serious warm-up stuff. I’m not sure if running hill repeats as a warm-up is even a good idea, but maybe this guy was trying to psych everyone else out. For all I know, hill repeat guy was the winner.

I didn’t know when to put my bib on. I ended up going inside the Fitger’s complex to put it on, which was stupid because it was jammed full of people. I don’t know why, it wasn’t that cold out, and most of the people inside were dressed similarly to me. Obviously some people were just in line for the bathroom. There was also a huge porta-potty line outside. Since I didn’t need either, I just observed.

I ran into my co-worker, whose son was running, and we had a nice chat. Then I did a tiny warm-up jog. Then I stood around feeling like a loser. I didn’t have my phone with me and I didn’t have anyone to talk to, so I was kind of stuck standing there feeling nervous. I don’t know why I was so nervous for the stupid race but I was. People started filling the street to line up for the race, so I followed suit, and then I got my watch ready, making sure it would pick up my heart rate monitor and GPS and would be ready to start when I crossed the timing mats.

I lined up near the back, because I am not stupid. I may have almost forgotten my bib, but I am not such an idiot that I put myself in a position to get trampled or in everyone’s way. Starting at the back of the race is kind of great, because it meant I passed more people than I was passed by, according to the race results thingy.

I was so nervous my resting heart rate was in the high 110s. I was nervous about not having much water pre-race, I was nervous about getting lost, I was nervous about… I don’t know. I just wanted the race to start so I could run and enjoy myself. It was sunny and warm enough.

I’m not 100% certain when the race started. I heard an air horn, but then nobody moved, so I am not sure if there was an “elite” start or what the deal was. Eventually we started going. I had no idea when I crossed the timing mat relative to the gun time (+1:31 according to the race results), but that was nice because then I wasn’t doing mental math the whole time trying to figure out if I was on pace for my goal times.

The first quarter mile or so was spent jockeying for position. Since I was at the back, I was intermingled with walkers and groups of slower runners. Groups are tough. I understand that some people are doing this for fun and camaraderie with their friends, and they want to stick together. I do not understand why that means walking four abreast. There were lots of people who were cognizant of their surroundings and only went two-by-two, but I am sure at any race there will always be people who are in their own world. I can’t complain too much because those folks kept me from going out way way way too hard, but they also forced me to speed up a bit to get past them when I saw a window of opportunity.

When we crossed the freeway, I was so so so so so thankful for every hill run I had done. It slowed a lot of people down but I kept on keeping on. I finished the first mile in 11:38. When we were turning around onto Lake Avenue, there was a short line of cars. This woman in the first car got out and approached the police officer guarding the turnaround. Clearly annoyed, she asked if they ever stopped to let cars through, and the officer answered “not for a race, no.” She was not happy about it. Sorry, lady, you’ll have to wait another 10 minutes or so to get your meth.

I was trying not to be competitive with anyone other than myself. I imagine most people show up at races and slowly size up the competition, eyeing who they think they can beat. I assumed every person I saw was faster than me. Young, old, big, small, clad in expensive running gear, wearing beat up workout stuff from the ’80s (those are the real hardcore runners), they all had the potential to beat me. Once out on the course, I really wanted to beat these two women who were loudly talking the whole time and who kept passing me, slowing down to walk, and then passing me again. Unfortunately their run-walk strategy paid off and I lost them somewhere before the second mile marker. I wonder if a run-walk strategy would pay off for me. I don’t think it’s worth it in a 5K. I’d rather run the whole time.

The turnaround on Railroad St seemed to stretch farther and farther into the distance, and I kind of thought I would never get there. I mean, not really, I wasn’t that melodramatic, but I kept thinking I was close to it and I wasn’t. I didn’t mind because that just meant I had a shorter “home stretch.” I hit the second mile in 11:49. I am pretty sure the race photographer took a picture of me just as I was wiping my nose on my glove.

As we crossed the freeway I was once again pumped to have done all those hill repeats and hilly running routes, because I think it was a killer for some people. Either that or they strategically chose to walk. I kind of expected to pass more people on the hill but I really didn’t. Once over the freeway there were only like 6 blocks to go, and the inflatable yellow finish line sign was in sight. I got a little bitty bit excited and kicked it into high gear (sub 10 minute pace) a little too soon and had to back myself off. The race finishes on a slight uphill, which I had not considered when I was running the slight downhill at the beginning. It wasn’t horrible, but it just meant I needed to start my kick later in order to not die.

I started my real kick right at the 3 mile mark according to my GPS (I only know this after the fact, at that point I wasn’t looking at my watch). My third mile split was 11:44, and the final 0.18 I ran at a 10:10 pace. No one passed me once I kicked it in, and I passed a few people, so that was nice. I picked up my nice green race shirt and considered getting in line for food and water, but I felt really claustrophobic so I decided to just leave. I had water in my car, I didn’t need to wait for a tiny cup or for a banana or whatever. I went to Caribou and had a blueberry muffin and enormous latte instead!

This is a longer race recap than some people write for 100 mile races, but I guess I had a lot of thoughts about the race. I enjoyed running it, I didn’t get lost (that was a stupid fear. It was so obvious where the course was), and I hit my goal pace! I didn’t hit my A Standard time, but I don’t really mind. I ran sub-12 minutes, which was really what I intended my A Standard to be. I sort of blew off that extra 0.1 miles and rounded the race distance to 3 miles when setting my goal, without realizing that at a 12:00 pace, 0.1 miles takes about 1:12. It’s not insignificant! What’s silly is I did take it into account when setting my B Standard time. I thought hey, 13:00 pace is 39 minutes, but there’s an extra tenth, so tack on another minute, etc etc. It doesn’t matter, I slaughtered that B Standard and I will crush 36 minutes next time around!

I’m surprised my GPS only added 0.08 mi to the distance. I felt like I was going all over the place, and I made zero effort to run tangents. I guess mentally it seemed like a lot more sideways/diagonal running and dodging than it actually was. Or maybe I accidentally ran some tangents.

Overall I ran a nice, consistent race, had enough left at the end to finish strong, smiled the whole time, and didn’t embarrass myself, get hurt, crap myself, vomit, die, or get lost. I have a brand spanking new PR of 37:00 that I can’t wait to beat!

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.

Week Six Update

Hey, week 6 went well! I’m pretty pumped to have had two training weeks in a row where I didn’t wuss out on anything. I have very low standards.

I am very glad today is a rest day, although once I started moving around today I felt a lot better than I thought I would. My hips are suffering the most. I need an oil can. My lower back is a little stiff too. My legs and feet feel fine.

Summary:
Monday rest
Tuesday 4.4 miles, road, hill repeats included
Wednesday 5.2 miles, road
Thursday 3.5 miles, road + trail
Friday 4 miles, Lakewalk, medium tempo run
Saturday 4.2 miles, trail
Sunday 9 miles, Lakewalk
Total 30.3 miles!

Thursday I took another stab at Chester Creek, and while it wasn’t entirely runnable, it was passable enough. It was just what I needed since I was getting kind of crabby about running.

The view on the way:

Trees bent over the creek:

I love living here.

Saturday I went to Hartley Nature Center, intending to do my 9 miler. That didn’t happen. There was still snow and ice in spots, and I wasn’t wearing my chains, so I slid around a lot and fell on my butt once. It was not a good feeling, especially since I was already feeling crummy from my “speed” workout from Friday. In places it was so muddy I was slipping as badly as I was on the ice, and half of the trails were closed due to mud. I shudder to think what kind of condition they were in if the sloppy messes I was on were still open. So I conceded I wasn’t going to get the 9 miles done (I was going slow as heck anyway, ended up with a pace under 3 mph!) and got to 4.

Sunday I got out of bed late, took much longer than expected to do homework, and practically had to drag myself out the door thanks to rather depressing-looking weather. It turned out to be much warmer than I thought so I felt a little better about the impending run. I went to the Lakewalk because I knew it was about 4.5 miles round trip and it had easy access to my car and to a bathroom, so I could bail if things sucked horribly halfway through and I could get a quick bathroom break if needed.

The run itself went ok. My hips hurt (mildly) through a lot of it, which caused me to question if I am overdoing this training and need to rethink my marathon plans. Considering I don’t feel like total crap today, I am disregarding those thoughts. It rained a little bit, but only lightly, so it didn’t bother me. At times the wind was demoralizing. Running straight into gust after gust of wind was unpleasant.

I managed to keep my heart rate relatively low (mid 140s) for the first 5 miles, but it crept up during the last 4, probably due to fatigue and to wind. I managed to hold myself back from pushing it for most of the run. At the end I wanted to see if I had another gear (because I was doubting myself and doubting my ability to complete a marathon upright), but after a few strides I slowed down, reminding myself that I wouldn’t be finishing much faster and I would feel worse the next day or even hurt myself.

Here are my splits:
16:02
16:10
16:20
15:31
16:00
15:35
15:38
15:47
15:29

Those last 4 miles were fairly consistent (for me), which is a good sign. I have been having a tough time maintaining a consistent pace. The fifth mile is a bit of an outlier because I was running straight into the wind for about half a mile. (I know I said I don’t like to make excuses, but it’s only an excuse for why my pace was a little off the surrounding miles. It’s not an excuses for slowness. THEY ARE ALL SLOW SPLITS.)

This upcoming week includes a 12 mile long run, which will be a nice test. I hope that I can keep the pace in the mid 15s again. Right now the most important thing for me on long runs is consistency and endurance, and then I can just pray the hills and tempo runs will bring that consistent pace down. A solid plan!

At A Medium Pace

Yesterday I had my first “medium pace” run of this training cycle. My training plan defines a “medium pace” as follows: “You should feel like you’re running faster than your normal training pace but not so fast that you can’t keep it up for a little while. You may not be able to talk very easily and your breathing will be more labored.” Ok. I wasn’t sure how hard to push it, but I knew that I needed to be done in time to watch the Bulldogs’ hockey game. I was supposed to warm up, run at this mystery pace for a mile or more, jog for a bit, repeat.

I went to the Lakewalk for the run because I didn’t want to deal with giant hills. I could gamble because the game before UMD’s was going into overtime, so it pushed our starting time back. I needed 4 miles for the day, so I decided to keep an eye on my watch and then turn around at 2 miles, instead of doing the whole Lakewalk and adding another 0.6 miles. Time was of the essence!! Hockey was occurring!

I crushed that medium pace run. I am pretty pumped about it. I ran three 1-mile intervals, and ran all 3 around 12 minutes. On the last one I got a side stitch and had to slow down to keep it from getting out of hand. I finished 4 miles in less than an hour for the first time in forever, so that was exciting.

Splits:
12:55
13:30
13:25
12:27 (This was the only mile that was entirely at the faster pace)

This doesn’t mean much for the marathon yet, but it does bode well for the Fitger’s 5K in 2 weeks. I was really afraid I wouldn’t be able to run very fast or that I couldn’t keep the pace up long enough. I used to be a big quitter when running. If I felt crummy or frustrated, I would just give up. I need to continue to build mental toughness; it’s really lagging my physical fitness.

I finished up my run and made it home just in time for the hockey game to start, the Bulldogs won, and the Wild won, so it was a great day overall. I still have 14 13 miles to go this weekend (5 only 4! today and 9 on Sunday, or maybe flip-flopped), but I am a little concerned. My hip has been bugging me, just some overall soreness. I might need to back off on the 5 miler.

I’m pleased to have had a good training day after several not-so-pleasant ones. Yesterday was still cold, but the sun was shining, the lake was a gorgeous deep blue, and I enjoyed speeding up instead of plodding along. The next few days should be in the 40s or even 50s, so I hope to have a few more nice workouts.