running

Be the Match 5K 2018 Race Goals

This will be the fourth Be the Match 5K I’ve participated in! I enjoy running it every year, even if it does seem to be less of an “event” each year for my extended family. We used to have a fairly large group (10-15 people) walking or running the race, but now it’s down to my immediate family. It does make logistics a lot easier, though.

I haven’t run a 5K since December, and that race really sucked. I would like to think that I ran a much slower than expected 5K at Jingle Bell Run (and at the Gobble Gallop) because I was worn out, and that I can bounce back now with a better time, closer to where I was last spring/summer. I haven’t done much to ensure that, doing very little speed work and continuing my training without any time off after running the Chippewa Moraine 50K a couple weeks ago. I did lose a little bit of weight, but eh, I’m not convinced that’s going to be a difference maker.

I haven’t felt “fast” since July, when I ran the Park Point 5 Miler. I have been focusing on running longer distances, but I thought with my inexperience and general lack of fitness prior to 2015 (approximately), I could still make some gains with shorter distances. It’s just not the same thing, though. A lot of what I train for in ultras/marathons is the opposite of what I would need to do for a 5K. I don’t push enough, and that shows in my race results.

I will say that I’m fortunate to have been relatively injury-free over my short running “career,” and that’s probably in part because I am not doing a ton of speed work. So there’s some benefit to staying slow and doing a lot of “easy” running. (Running up the Ohio Street hill is not easy.) So there’s an upside here.

My goals for tomorrow’s race are:

A Standard: 29:20
B Standard: 29:42
C Standard: 29:59

Lol. What is the difference, even? It’s quibbling over seconds, really. But in a 5K, seconds matter. In a marathon or 50K, minutes matter. And in longer races, hours matter. It’s such a perspective change! The A standard is a PR, B standard is a course PR (is that even a thing in a road 5K?), and the C standard is just to get myself below 30 minutes again.

Anything worse and I’ll quit running. Ok, just kidding. Middle-distance speed is just not a priority for me right now, but I’d like to stop regressing.

Spring/Summer Gear Wish List

I require some stuff and I have a lot of gift cards.

  1. Smaller volume hydration pack
    For races like Superior 25K, I find that my usual pack is too big, but I also want my hands free. So I’m looking for a lighter weight pack with a couple of bottles or soft flasks (maybe? I don’t know, filling them is a pain) so that I can cut down on the amount of stuff I’m carrying around.
  2. Squirrel’s Nut Butter anti-chafe
    I need something that works better than Body Glide but isn’t as messy as Vaniply. Scotty from Ten Junk Miles uses this stuff and touts it all the time, so let’s see if it’s really as good as he says. If FANS is as hot as last year, I need something that will keep the chafing at bay.
  3. Waist flashlight
    This year, I plan on running at night at FANS, because I plan on not sucking as much. I have heard the combination of a waist light and a headlamp is better than a headlamp alone. It’ll also be a good backup if I can’t stand having the headlamp on anymore.
  4. Trail shoes with a rock plate but no lugs
    Last year at FANS, I wore my road shoes because I figured it would be mostly pavement. It turned out to have a significant gravel portion. The bottoms of my feet hurt like crazy and I switched to my trail shoes to protect them a bit more. My feet felt way better with the trail shoes on, but the shoes have giant lugs on them that kept kicking the gravel. Why yes, I should pick my feet up more, but whatever. I need a rock plate but no lugs, or at least smaller ones than my Speedcross shoes have.
  5. New sports bras
    Maybe 1 or 2. My old ones are wearing out and I need to find an option that doesn’t cause massive painful chafing on my back.

Woof, that’s going to be a bit spendy. Good thing I have a lot of gift cards, like I said!

Post-Mortem: Chippewa Moraine 50K 2018

Refreshers
Race Report
All CM50K 2018 posts

Good Things
Adaptivity. I went into this race knowing I was undertrained, not even sure if I was going to be able to make it to the start line due to my cold. I had so many opportunities to back out, and I didn’t. I watched as all my goals slipped out of reach, but I didn’t let that frustrate me, I just kept pushing to the finish. I figured out some good in-race strategies (like walking the muddy sections rather than attempting to run them) and I managed to execute the most important part of the race (making the cutoff) perfectly. I mean, relatively speaking.

Planning. I’m trying to cut down on the amount of stuff I bring to races and the amount of stuff I carry with me, because I have been going overboard, mostly out of fear. I used almost everything I brought with me, with the exception of a towel, a pair of pants, and a book, a pair of socks, and all 3 of those things had logical, probable purposes. I didn’t bring a ton of extra food (just a few extraneous cans of pop), clothes, or “emergency” items (I didn’t even bring Pepto, which was unintentional, but I survived without it). It was SO much easier to pack and organize without a bunch of extra stuff.

Bad Things
Training. This training cycle sucked. There’s just no other way to put it. It started out great, I was getting in 50 mile weeks, but things started to slide once I closed on my house and the move was imminent. That’s life. I don’t regret sacrificing my training to enjoy UMD’s journey to their second national championship in men’s ice hockey, but it did obviously take a toll. And yet again, I sucked at strength training, but as my personal training journal and my whiny posts on here attest, I was in a terrible mental funk for a couple months. I did what I could mentally handle, but it wasn’t ideal training. I only had a few long runs, with the longest being 16 miles. I definitely needed to pack in a lot more of those, considering this training cycle was 19 weeks long (my count was off by one, whoops).

Nutrition. I started off okay, but I definitely needed to eat more along the way. I think two more gels would have been sufficient, if eaten at the right time. I carry gels and end up not eating them, in favor of solid food, but what I probably need to do is eat the same amount of food, and then add in a couple more gels. I was clearly bonking/running out of gas at the end of the race, and making stupid decisions as a result (specifically, the stupid decision to not eat more).

Chippewa Moraine 50K Training: Week 18

Race week! What a disaster.

Monday: 4 mi, paved trail (Mississippi River Trail)
Tuesday: 2.5 mi, treadmill walk
Wednesday: 2.7 mi, treadmill walk
Thursday: 3.1 mi, treadmill
Friday: rest
Saturday: 31.1 mi, trail (Ice Age Trail)
Sunday: 3.4 mi, paved trail (MRT/Harriet Island)
Total: 46.8 mi

Not exactly the week I was looking for. I am not sure if my allergies kicked in or what, but I had sneezes/stuffy head/cough symptoms for most of the week (excepting Monday, clearly, since I ran). In the mornings I felt like crud, but by afternoons I usually had energy, so I did walk on the treadmill Tuesday and Wednesday to keep my legs active, and did a test run on Thursday.

I tried out some active recovery on Sunday, because I didn’t feel like sitting around the house on a gorgeous day, and also because I have other races to do. I ran a 15:50 overall pace and that was without any walking. I know some people can’t even fathom moving that slowly and still maintaining a running gait, but here I am, living proof that it’s possible! I did feel better afterward, and less like a slug, so it’s definitely something I’m going to do in the future, unless I’m suffering from an actual injury rather than just running-related soreness.

This training will segue right into my training for FANS in June, so I’ll be trying to find a balance of mileage that won’t leave me too worn out, but won’t be too light, considering I only have 4 more weeks before FANS race week (holy crap).

Chippewa Moraine 50K 2018 Goals

I’m pretty excited to get back into racing, after DNFing my first race of the year. I’m still feeling a little under the weather, but it hasn’t gotten worse, so I’m hoping it’s just allergies.

This is my second time running this race. Last year I finished in 8:57:29, 2:31 before the official time cutoff. In re-reading my race report, there are a few things I obviously need to do differently: eat more pre-race, protect my eyes from sun/sunscreen/sweat/salt, and run faster. Other than that, this race is a different beast.

My training is somewhat up and down, just like last year, but the “downs” were later in my training cycle this year. Last year I had my bad months in January and February, and this time I had them in March. However, I had crappy training weeks leading up to the Fall Back Blast and still managed to kick butt at that race, so I don’t think it’s going to be a huge problem.

The big question is trail conditions. Will there be lots of snow? Will there be ice? Will there be mud? I’m guessing there will be a mix of all three. What I’d really like to know is if there are any actual dry spots. I’m a little concerned my poor legs are going to get chewed up by the course. I wouldn’t care if I had lots of time cushion, but that 4 hour intermediate cutoff (plus some randomly announced vague threat of being forced to turn back at the second aid station!) has me stressed out. However, I just looked up that I made it there in 4:08 last year, and I can surely run 15.55 miles 8 minutes faster than I did last year. That’s like 30 seconds/mile. As long as I can make that halfway cutoff, I think I’m golden.

Goals:
A Standard: 7:50:00
B Standard: 8:10:00
C Standard: 8:25:00

I want to finish this race injury and illness-free, sleep well before the event, have a good time, complete the distance, and make the cutoff with room to spare. I’ve set up my pace chart so that I have a 5 minute buffer to make the 4 hour cutoff, so as long as I stay ahead of that, I should be in good shape. I’m gunning for a big course PR, at a minimum. I thought about re-adjusting my goals based on the potentially bad trail conditions, but I will stick with what’s on my pace chart.

Chippewa Moraine 50K Training: Week 17

Spring is here.

Monday: 6 mi, treadmill
Tuesday: 4.7 mi, treadmill
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 6.3 mi, road (neighborhood)
Friday: 3.5 mi, road (neighborhood)
Saturday: 6.5 mi, paved trail (Mississippi River Trail/Harriet Island)
Sunday: 10 mi, paved trail (Big Rivers Regional Trail/Fort Snelling)
Total: 36.9 mi

I made it. I am actually surprised at how different I felt between Wednesday and Thursday. A light was turned on inside me. A switch was flipped. I felt weightless and full of energy. I ran around my neighborhood as the snow melted around me. I wore shorts and a t-shirt on Saturday and Sunday (and already have a farmer’s tan! Well not a tan, I’m still pasty) and was actually too warm on Sunday.

I know I’m “supposed” to be tapering since I have the race on Saturday, but it was just so nice out. And I had some light training weeks the past couple months, so I’m not exhausted or dealing with aches and pains and fatigue. My worst fatigue has been mental. Of course as I write this, I have been sneezing and feel kinda tired and my head is stuffy, but my hope is it’s just allergies. I WANT TO RUN THIS FREAKING RACE.

My one worry is my legs were a bit sore on Monday after my medium-long run on Sunday. But I guess I’ll have to deal with that next Monday. I know I can do this – I’ve run enough races to know that if my mental game is strong, I’ve got this in the bag. (Provided my upper respiratory system behaves. Ugh. Can’t blame this on the “taper flu” since I am not really tapering.)

Chippewa Moraine 50K Training: Week 16

Monday: rest
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: 7.7 mi, treadmill
Sunday: 7.75 mi, treadmill
Total: 15.4 mi

Okay, not a great week. Monday I had intentions to run, but I had a headache and decided to scrap it. That was good, because Tuesday I still wasn’t feeling great, and by the afternoon (when I drove up to Duluth with my husband and friends for a national championship celebration for the Bulldogs) I was achy, with chills and sweats, and thought I had the flu. I stayed home from work on Wednesday and Thursday, and though I went back to work on Friday, I didn’t run, of course.

It started snowing Friday evening.

So, I won’t be running outside anytime soon, considering over a foot of snow fell over the weekend. I managed to drag myself onto the treadmill both days, plus get some strength work in shoveling!

I’m really glad I didn’t run Zumbro. The finish rate was absurdly low for both ultra distances, and the 17 mile race was canceled. We’ll see what course conditions end up being for Chippewa Moraine – wet, muddy, icy, snowy, mixture of all? Surprise blizzard? Ugh. This winter will never end.

I guess this is the start of an extra long taper? Now I have to trust that I’ve got the endurance and strength to have a good race in in 12 days, and that I have enough time to recover from my illness (cold? who knows? obviously not the flu) to make it to the finish!