running

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 10

Less than 2 weeks to the race. There’s not much else I can do to help myself, but a lot I can do to mess up. Pressure’s on.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 3 mi, trails (Bagley) + 3.9 mi, road
Wednesday: 5 mi, treadmill (6×800 @ 11:19 pace)
Thursday: rest
Friday: 4 mi, road
Saturday: 6.6 mi, trails (First 3.3 miles of race course)
Sunday: 8.4 mi, trails (Magney Snively lot to Ely’s Peak and back)
Total: 31.1 mi

This was the last difficult week I’ve got planned before the race. I think my knees and hips will thank me.

I had to get creative with my workouts in order to fit in mileage this week. I had a lot of stuff due for school and needed to meet with my group. I ran before and after class on Tuesday to make the magic happen. Wednesday I got home late but still wanted to fit in a workout, so I tortured myself on the treadmill with some longer repeats. It kind of sucked.

I decided to ditch a longer run over the weekend in favor of two grueling back to back workouts, just like last weekend. Saturday went well, but I’ve now banned myself from the race course. It’s starting to irritate me. I need to look on it with fresh eyes on race day, not think “here we go again” with a groan.

Sunday was a gorgeous day, and I wanted to get up the North Shore to see some fall colors, but I didn’t have time to fit in the drive on top of a run. I decided to run from the Magney Snively parking lot to Ely’s Peak and back, which I thought would be easier than it was. Nope. 1154 ft of elevation gain, an ascent that felt never-ending to start the run, a descent that was steep enough to slow me to a crawl near the halfway point, which I then had to ascend, and it may have nearly killed me. My legs were beat to hell by the end of the run.

From here on out, I’m easing off on the difficulty of my runs. I’ll probably still do some trails, but nothing too challenging. I want my legs fresh for race day, but of course I want them to remember how to run.

Summer Wish Lists

Months ago I planned a gear wish list and a State Park run wish list. Summer’s over, both meteorologically and astronomically, so I’m evaluating what I thought I wanted/needed and where I thought I’d go against what I actually acquired and achieved.

My gear wish list:
High priority
2 new sports bras I got one, which I like ok.
Head lamp I didn’t get a head lamp and just borrowed one for the solstice hike, but I didn’t need one anyway.
Handheld water bottle I got two during a sale and I use them all the time.

Medium priority:
New hose for my hydration backpack I haven’t touched my hydration pack all summer so there was no need to get this yet.
Second pair of running shoes Not in the budget.
Running shorts that actually work for me I have three pairs, and like two of them.
Body Glide Purchased and repurchased.

Low priority:
New hydration backpack Nope.

I am actually surprised at how I did. I thought I had more gear on the list than it turned out. I still think I need a better hydration pack for longer runs, but it can wait. The handhelds are nice and I got a great deal on them. Shorts are great, I like them a lot better than capris. Body Glide works, though it’s not as slippery as I thought. This is the only way capris are superior to shorts – less friction. My shoes are going to be cooked by the time I’m done with my goal race, so I’m thinking rotating through two pairs will be my SOP going forward.

My State Park trails list
Banning No
Jay Cooke Yes
Gooseberry Falls Yes, just in the nick of time
Split Rock Lighthouse Yes
Tettegouche Yes, kind of
George Crosby Manitou No
Temperance River No
Cascade River No
Grand Portage No
Soudan Underground Mine No
Itasca (maybe) No
Lake Bemidji (maybe) No

So I didn’t do very well there. Once I signed up for the Harder ‘N Hell Half, I felt like I needed to spend my time on those trails, learning the course. I might go to Lake Itasca in a couple weeks, but not to run, so it doesn’t count.

I’ll have a similar gear wish list for fall, and maybe some more generic running goals. At some point, listing off state parks is going to get old.

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 9

Another great training week. It’s all or nothing for me this training cycle, I guess.

Monday 4.3 mi, road
Tuesday 7.1 mi, road
Wednesday rest
Thursday 3.4 mi, treadmill (8×400 at 10:31 pace)
Friday 5.3 mi, road
Saturday 7.6 mi, paved trail (Gitchigami Trail starting at Gooseberry Falls)
Sunday 8 mi, trail (Superior Hiking Trail, Castle Danger to Nestor Grade)
Total 35.5 mi

I didn’t do much on the trails, I guess. Only one true trail run, and… ugh. It deserves its own post. I haven’t done a trail review in awhile so I’ll do one.

I really wanted to do a 10 mile run this weekend, but I needed to meet with my senior design project team both days. I think doing the back to backs was a good compromise. I only saved a couple miles, but at the pace I was going on Sunday, two miles extra would have added an extra 40+ minutes. It was a rough, muddy, buggy run.

I only have three weeks to go before the race, so I’m going to be stepping back the mileage a bit. I do wonder sometimes how I’ll ever start running the mileage needed to run marathons and ultras, because this felt like a pretty significant commitment of time, and most of these runs were on roads rather than trails. A somewhat depressing thought.

Making Do

I have been hoping to have great weeks of training for the final four leading up to my race. It’s possible, of course, as long as I stay healthy and use my time wisely.

Tuesday the weather caught up with me a bit. I didn’t start running til after 6PM, and I ran 6 miles in just shorts and a tank top. My arms and hands were cold by the end of the run, and it took a bit before I got full range of motion back in my hands.

Wednesday I had planned a hill workout and it rained all day, plus I had a crap day at work, so I decided to swap my Thursday rest day for Wednesday. Fine, fine. I like having Thursday as a rest day because I usually have an early day that’s both physically and mentally taxing, but I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal.

It rained/misted Thursday, too. Most of the day. Which, for me, started at 7:30 (normal for a full-time working person, but I’m a student, so that’s weird) and ended at… also 7:30. Well, I got home at 7:25. I was tired, hungry but also not feeling well thanks to eating a well done burger for lunch, and not pleased that I wasn’t going to be able to get a run in. I do have space in the week for two rest days, if I want to take them, but I am cutting back my long run while still hoping to hit around 36 miles for the week, so two rest days would mean another longish run in the mix.

Instead I hopped on the treadmill and did 8×400 at 10:31 pace, with 0.1 mi slow jog recovery between. Improvisation! I genuinely dislike running on the treadmill, especially when it’s not 50 below zero, but I didn’t want to run around after dark in the fog, and I would have had to skip the speed workout for the week, so it was treadmill or nothing. Many times, I’d have chosen nothing… and then chosen nothing again for days or weeks at a time following. Sometimes it’s perfectly fine to choose to do nothing. I did on Wednesday and I feel no guilt about it. However, I am going to pat myself on the back for the very minimal achievement of finding a way to work out despite being tired, cranky, mildly nauseated, and mentally taxed. It’s not something I’ve always been able to do.

Harder ‘n Hell Half Training: Week 8

Week 8? Yikes.

Monday 4.5 mi, trails (Bagley)
Tuesday 5.6 mi, road
Wednesday 6.3 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk, 50 mins at tempo)
Thursday rest
Friday 5.5 mi, road
Saturday rest
Sunday 13.5 mi, trail (SHT, Harder ‘n Hell Half course)
Total: 35.6

I’d call that a good bounceback week. I ended up with two rest days; the second was semi-planned, as I could have done a short run, but there was no need. After all those days off, I didn’t need to ramp up the mileage too much. My dad came up to visit on Saturday and we did some creative engineering to fix my car window, and then we went to see A Walk in the Woods, which I read over the summer. We enjoyed the movie even though it departs greatly from the book.

Wednesday was a rough day. I was not feeling speedy, but I pushed it longer than the prescribed workout (40 mins) because… well, because I could get another 10k done for my Strava monthly challenge. That’s really stupid but it’s true. Ugh, Strava. Too competitive. I didn’t feel that fantastic and my lower back was a little crampy during the run, which I pushed through because I need to figure out how to push through things. Unfortunately, once I slowed down after the tempo portion of the run was over, my gut felt horrible and crampy and I ended up having to walk my entire cooldown to avoid anything gross from occurring.

I was using Wednesday as a test to see if I was going to run a race this upcoming weekend. I haven’t raced since the Park Point 5 Miler, which wasn’t the best, so I thought maybe another 5K before my half marathon might be fun. Since my speed session didn’t go so well and I wasn’t hitting the paces I wanted to hit to even have a prayer of a decent race, I decided not to sign up. Why risk my real race with some race I’m not in any kind of shape for? I was only going to run it if I felt like I could beat my PR, and I don’t think I can.

Sunday I ran the Harder ‘n Hell course from start to finish (or thereabouts). It was rough, but I think I’ve gotten some things figured out. It took me 4:23 to finish, so that gives me a benchmark. I didn’t stop on the Stairway to Hell, so that was also good! I ate two Snickers bars, which seemed to work well. They’re easier to open and eat than Clif bars and not as messy as the other granola bars I eat, and I didn’t feel sick when I ate them. I did feel pretty thirsty, and I was rationing my water at the end, but I will be able to refill at an aid station along the way. I just need to start eating earlier in the race, because I was dragging in the middle of the run once again. I also plan on only running short, flat, easy runs the week of the race, so my legs won’t be as beat up. Granted, the course is murder on them, but at least they’ll go in feeling ok. I was “flying” (relatively speaking) once I was on the pedestrian bridge crossing the freeway, so that was nice. Especially since I’d just gone on a nearly mile-long descent that tested the shocks on my knees to their limits.

I know I can complete the race. And maybe I won’t even come in last. I looked up previous race results and 4:23 would not have been last place in the last 3 years. So that’s good! Of course, this year could be the year everyone is super speedy, BUT, still. To know that even if I did come in last, I wouldn’t be unexpectedly slow, is a confidence booster.

Four weeks to go. Only the next two really matter, since it takes awhile for training to actually take effect, and the final week I won’t be doing much anyway. I just need to stay healthy and able, and get to the starting line in one piece.

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 6

A great start to the week derailed by a summer cold.

Monday: 4.1 (road)
Tuesday: 5.2 (40 min @ tempo, Lakewalk)
Wednesday: planned rest day
Thursday: 5.7 (Trails, Hartley)
Friday: planned rest day
Saturday: unplanned rest day
Sunday: unplanned rest day
Total: 15

I have been firing on all cylinders of late, and so I’m extremely frustrated to have gotten sick. I caught the cold from my husband, so I am not too worried about catching it due to overtraining/stress/whatever. My confidence is shot, though. I sneezed a couple times Thursday night as I was going to bed, and woke up with a full-blown cold on Friday. There went my planned 9-mile “fake race,” and my plans to shuffle my schedule around to accommodate the upcoming weekend by running a long trail run either Monday or today before school. I haven’t even done strength training or yoga. I suppose I could have, but I think all that would have done was set me back on returning to health.

My biggest concern isn’t regaining my strength. I’ve been lethargic the whole weekend and I’ve slept poorly, but I know the strength is still there. It’s my aerobic fitness. I have enough trouble on some of the bigger ascents on my runs, and I really wanted to get to a place where I could get up the 130 or so steps at the beginning of the race course without stopping or needing to recover once at the top. I need my lungs to recover quickly, and I need this cold to not have done any lasting damage to them. I know that sounds dramatic, but I’m not particularly aerobically fit to begin with, so I don’t have a large margin for error.

I dreamed about the race on Sunday night. Obviously this was a result of my drop in confidence. In my dream, I was completely unprepared for the race. I forgot almost everything I needed, except for a water bottle, and I was carrying around a flannel shirt with me. I showed up at the starting line needing to pee, and missed the start looking for a bathroom, which I didn’t find. The course wasn’t at all what I expected, and it went through buildings and out trapdoors and stuff. It was all very strange. I was running pretty fast in my dream, so at least that part was good. I woke up before the race ended, so I can’t tell if I ended up bonking or otherwise paying for my lack of preparation and speedy pace.

I am really hoping I feel well enough by the time I’m done with school today to go for at least a short run. Nothing short of getting back on the trails will ease my mind.

Misadventures in Trail Running

Last week’s long run looked a little funky, with 10.7 miles split up into one short run and one longer run. It has a story and some lessons to go along with it.

I didn’t do any running on the Harder ‘n Hell race course last week, but I did do a fair bit of trail running. I had all these grand plans earlier this year to run all these different places, and I hadn’t really done any of them. So I planned to do my Sunday long run at Tettegouche State Park, a bit over an hour away from Duluth up the North Shore.

I didn’t plan ahead, and it cost me. First, I trusted my GPS, rather than looking at a map. DO NOT TRUST THE GPS TO TAKE YOU TO TETTEGOUCHE STATE PARK. It took me to a service entrance, and then once I was at the service entrance, I had no data, so I couldn’t figure out how to get back. The park is aware of it and has a nice sign up with directions on how to get to the actual beginning of the park.

Once I got there, I drove to the trailhead near the falls. It linked up with the Superior Hiking Trail, so I jumped on the trail, which had more people than I would have liked, but it kept me going slow and steady. Unfortunately, I had to pee. I was an idiot and didn’t stop at the rest area at the park entrance. I figured I’d wait til I got away from the touristy area of the park and then hop off the trail. Instead, I was running through the campsites. I thought hey, there’s a bathroom up ahead, I’ll use that, but it was closed. Ugh. Then I realized I was running in a circle and would soon end up at my car. That was enough. I got back in my car, drove back to the rest area, used the bathroom, and then headed back southwest on 61. I decided I’d go to Split Rock instead.

After a few turns along the way and one mad dash across Highway 61 (no cars were coming but I still felt a little freaked out running across a highway), I ended up on the Superior Hiking Trail, and I cruised along. Relatively speaking. I felt fantastic on the run, despite the heat and the poor air quality. If I’d thought ahead, I’d have brought my sunscreen along to reapply, since it was basically useless after probably 2 hours in the car plus half an hour on the trails at Tettegouche. I was amazed at how nice my legs felt through most of the run, until I was on my way back and took a slightly different route and ended up running up several flights of stairs along Lake Superior. This was over 8 miles in, and I thought the steps would be the death of me, but I ended up surviving them and only dragged a little over the final mile. Hooray for me.

I need to plan a little better for these long runs. I drove a lot of unnecessary distance, and I got frustrated running down the “wrong” paths. If I am driving a couple hours round trip, I need to bring some supplies along and plan my routes (driving and running) with a little research. I will give Tettegouche another shot after some additional research, and find some gorgeous views along the way, I am sure. Split Rock was fun, and in the end I turned in a darn good long run.