running

Strange Days

Yesterday I had a 30 minute tempo run on the plan. I took Tuesday off because I was tired, and figured I’d come roaring back on Wednesday. No.

I’ve never experienced dead legs before, but I did from the get-go. I thought my sluggishness would work itself out, but it really did feel like I was running without feeling my legs. I had planned on running a mile warm-up, running 1.25 miles at tempo, turning around and continuing at tempo for another 1.25 miles back, and then cooling down the remaining distance, which would be slightly less than a mile as I was planning to run my tempo at incrementally faster paces.

Even though my legs were dead, I managed my first tempo mile at 12:37, my second at 12:00 (via my watch, Strava says 11:50, weird), and then who knows for that last quarter mile or so at tempo, maybe 11:15. It wasn’t hard to run fast, but I felt like I was running with someone else’s legs and like I was looking through someone else’s eyes, almost. Or maybe like I was sleep-running. I ended up walking my cooldown because I felt so strange, and of course I was scaring myself into thinking something else was wrong and drove home petrified I’d throw up all over myself (even though I wasn’t nauseated) and get into an accident.

I ate some Nerds when I got home so maybe I was just bonking, but that would be humiliating. Who bonks on a run of less than an hour? I don’t usually eat before runs during the week, as I eat plenty for lunch. I suppose maybe my lunch was less calorie-rich than normal, but I doubt it. I really don’t know.

I felt sort of tired and weird this morning, too, even after I went to bed a bit earlier than normal last night, and it took me awhile to shake that funny feeling. Again, it felt like I was sleep walking. So I shut myself down from running today (it’s raining anyway) and will just do a little yoga, and I don’t plan on running again until I can shake this funny feeling. It’s annoying, but something’s clearly off with me, so I am not going to push until I’m sick or injured and sidelined for weeks or months.

Bunny Hills

The heat broke yesterday, and I’m not sure it even got above 80. There was a beautiful breeze blowing in my window in the morning, and I didn’t wake up sweaty and gross from another hot July night. The timing was perfect because I tried out my new amped-up version of a hill workout after work.

I ran up the Chester Bowl ski hill 4 times today. It’s a tough climb, although as ski hills go it is not that frightening.

I warmed up with a nice uphill run because that’s how one gets to Chester Bowl, and then started at the base of the hill. The first pass, I went out rather aggressively, and I was breathing pretty heavily halfway up when I slowed to a hike. I took it easy on the way down, and on the second pass, began at a very slow run, then slowed to a walk again about halfway up. I made the third pass a “sustainable” effort, meaning closer to what I would actually do in a race, and hiked the whole way up, still huffing and puffing. On the way down, my quads were a little shaky. I mixed up running and walking on the fourth pass, running about a quarter of the way, hiking, running, hiking, and running to finish. Then snapping the photo and heading back down, again on uneasy legs.

I realize this workout is like, the opposite of what is metabolically efficient, as I am giving an anaerobic effort on the climbs. I don’t need a heart rate monitor to tell me my heart’s about to explode. I don’t even really know if this workout is a good idea, although I think it is, for whatever that’s worth. I think it’s going to make my legs stronger on uphills AND downhills. I definitely need to mix in some more practice power hiking, since that’s what I’m actually going to do in the race, and I need to practice getting my arms involved more. I’m barely pumping them at all. The handheld is throwing me off, so I think I need to bring both for my next hill workout (in 2 weeks), as bringing none is not an option. I plan on doing 5 more repeats of this workout between now and the race date, and doing intervals or tempo runs on the alternating weeks. The more hills I can do, one after another, the better I think it will be come race day. I don’t have a way to quantify any improvements, but I hope I’ll be able to feel a difference in effort between this week and week 11, when I do the final set of hill repeats.

After the hills, I ran down to the 9th St. bridge using the Chester Creek trail and then cruised home. I actually felt pretty good, and my legs felt strong. I wanted to do a yoga video when I got home, but Chromecast wasn’t cooperating, so I just did a little freestyle yoga that lasted maybe 5 minutes. It doesn’t count. Today is another rest day, and I am getting a massage. This week will practically count as another recovery week. Two rest days (so far), a break in the heat wave, and some pampering!

Training Troubles

Last week was sort of a funky week, since I didn’t have any specific training plan. My goal was just to keep the mileage relatively low. I did ok on that front, with 5 days of running and 21.7 miles.

I’ve started training for the Harder’n Hell Half as of Monday. Meaning I did one 3.8 mile trail run.

Three things are derailing my training slightly. Two are very correctable things: vacation and hydration. I am having a staycation, I guess, as my family is visiting from the Twin Cities and from Grand Forks. I skipped a couple of runs as a result, but that was time well spent. I’m probably eating too much, since there’s snacks all around, but everyone is leaving today so the snacks will subside.

It’s also very hot here. I mean, I know there are hotter places on earth than Duluth, MN. However, those places are expected to be hot. This place isn’t. It was pretty darn hot for the Voyageur 50 this past weekend (a future race for me, DEFINITELY), reaching 87 degrees, I think. It was much hotter for the Western States 100 and for many other ultras, but again, this is northern Minnesota, not Squaw Valley. I have slowed down, slathered with sunscreen, and even doused my hat (and clothes on occasion) before even starting a run on occasions when I’ve been running in the middle of the day. I’ve been running in the early afternoon a lot, to coincide with my nephews’s naptime, and also to try to get a little heat training in. I won’t be running anymore races in the heat, but it’s still beneficial to my overall training.

The heat during training isn’t a problem. I am hydrated beforehand, and I have been bringing water on all my runs, even if they’re under an hour. I know the running martyrs over on Runner’s World Online will boast about how they run 50 mile recovery runs without “taking” a single drop of water and they feel just fine but you know you can totally do what’s right for you *cough*slowloser*cough, but I would rather bring a small handheld water bottle just in case, than end up overheated or dry mouthed. It’s staying hydrated overnight that is a problem. I have been waking up dehydrated since it is so hot in my house overnight. We do not have air conditioning, and have poor air flow in the house. Monday night I went to bed at midnight and it was 69 F outside and 87 F inside. Bleccch. I don’t go running until I’m hydrated again, but I need to be more careful. I almost had a charlie horse at work yesterday, unprovoked. Bad sign. The absolute worst of the heat is behind us, so this problem will sort itself out even if I can’t.

My third problem is a funny twinge in my shoulder, which has caused me to take a few days’ rest from strength training. Not a big deal, as I still got in 4 or 5 days last week. It feels ok again, so I was perhaps overdoing the yoga and benefited from a little rest.

Today’s a new day to get back on track with hydration, routine, and nutrition, and I’m ready to tackle some serious hills this afternoon, one of my major adaptations to my training plan. No more dinky little gradual hill repeats; these are going to be tough and I’m going to be a beast on the course this fall because of it.

Harder’n Hell Half Marathon

The Harder’n Hell Half Marathon is the next race on my calendar. It’s October 17th, and I have properly calculated the start of the 12-week training cycle this time around. Training starts Monday.

This race is TECHNICAL. Here’s the course profile for the 50K, from the course website:
wild-duluth-50k-profile

The final 13.1 miles of the 50k are the same as the half marathon, I believe. I don’t know why they wouldn’t be. I actually think the course profile might be a little different now, but I am not sure. Anyway, it is technical.

I need to get serious about training for this race. A friend of mine who is a non-runner but in excellent shape (he is a caddy) is going to run this with me. I mean, probably not alongside me, he’ll probably beat me even though I have been training longer. That’s fine. This race is capped at 150 entrants and it is very possible I’ll be in 150th place. I am comfortable with that. I have some non-mileage-related training plans I need to implement this time around in order to be prepared.

1. Run hills A LOT.
I will be doing hills for speed work every other week. And not wimpy hills either, but real hills like I might encounter on the course. I will also run hilly routes (not hard to find) for almost all my other training runs.

2. Eat a little better and lose a couple pounds.
I am not planning to make MAJOR dietary changes, but I do need to make better choices for breakfasts and lunches. My husband makes dinner, so I eat what he makes without complaint or judgement. The breakfast and lunch changes are especially important once school begins again. I need to plan ahead. And save money, too. I don’t believe in a “racing weight” for a back of the pack runner like me, but I do think a 5-10 lb weight loss between now and the starting gun would be beneficial.

3. Get serious about strength training.
There were a lot of weeks during my Park Point 5 Miler training where I did, maybe, one strength workout a week. That’s got to stop. I am going to need serious core strength to get me through this race. I’ll be doing lots of yoga and other body weight exercises.

4. Sleep
I am terrible at getting enough sleep during the week. I go to bed too late, and then I’ll read or do a crossword. That has to stop. Even an extra hour of sleep during the week will go a long way. This is going to be extremely important once I’m back in school, as I’ll be balancing schoolwork, work, and training.

I think these four points will be as beneficial, if not more, than the mileage I’m putting in for this race. I am really excited to try my first trail race and my first half marathon, even if it ends up being a 6 hour sufferfest. But… I hope it isn’t 6 hours.

PP5M Training: Week 9

A light week to wrap up the training cycle.

Monday: 4 mi, road
Tuesday: 4.5 mi, road, 5×400 intervals (I have no data for this since my power cord for my watch no longer works for downloading information)
Wednesday: 3 mi, road + trails
Thursday: rest
Friday: 5 mi, race
Saturday: rest/recovery
Sunday: 5 mi, trail
Total: 21.5

The race sucked, as I already discussed. I am disappointed still, but I also think it was a learning experience. Sometimes races just suck. New runners tend to make a lot of progress fairly quickly, setting PR after PR after PR. While this was a PR technically, because I haven’t run a 5 mile race before, it was well off the pace I expected. It was even 14 seconds slower than my sandbagging goal. I need to work on endurance, it seems, although I thought I had. I just find it hard to blame the heat entirely.

My training was nice and light this week, which felt weird. I did do yoga several times, which I didn’t log, so I’ll just guess I did it… 5 days? Maybe 4? I did my intervals on Park Point on Tuesday, just to check out the course (not that I haven’t run there before), but of course on Tuesday it was in the high 60s when I ran, so I felt amazing and was flying. Then I stood on the beach barefoot and got soaked by the waves.

If there hadn’t been a rip current, I’d have been in that water swimming, clothes and all.

I probably could have run Saturday, but it was hot again and I was feeling lazy, so I recovered. Sunday I hit the Superior Hiking Trail, starting at Spirit Mountain. It was rough, very hot, and there was a long, steep uphill in the first half mile, so steep that it required stairs. Lots of them. And then I turned a corner and there were more stairs. Sigh. I “ran” pretty slowly, with lots of power hiking, and tried to prevent myself from getting winded or overheated. I carried both of my handhelds, one with sports drink and one with water, and finished off all the sports drink (drank this first since warm water is much more palatable and I wanted the water available in case I wanted to douse myself) and about half of the water. I also ate a Clif bar when I got back into my car. I probably ate it too fast because I felt sort of weird on the way home. Not nauseated, per se, just… off. The heat didn’t help, I’m sure.

Even though my race result was disappointing, I am still pretty pleased with the training cycle. I KNOW I am a better, stronger runner than I was at the onset, and I set a 5K PR along the way. I stuck to the training for the most part, but I was flexible when I needed to be. This upcoming week is going to be kind of haphazard, kind of running by feel, and then I’m jumping into another training cycle. (I ran a 5 mile race, slowly. I think a week off from training is sufficient.)

Race Report: Park Point 5 Miler

Official Results:
Time: 61:09
Pace: 12:14
Placing:
Overall: 334/365
Gender: 183/209
Division (F 19-34): 82/98

Watch Results:
Time: 61:15
Pace: 12:08
Distance: 5.04 mi
Heart Rate: N/A

Goals:
A: 56:00
B: 59:59

Food:
What I ate for lunch: Bacon, lettuce, avocado sandwich with fried egg, french fries
What I carried with me: Handheld water bottle

Gear:
What I wore: Tank top, running capris, ball cap
Gadgets: GPS watch

Discussion:
What a disappointment. That’s all I can say. I was over a minute off my 5K PR pace, and even though I started conservatively (mile 1 @ 11:45, mile 2 @ 11:34), the wheels really fell off.

I clearly did not handle the heat well. I just haven’t trained for it enough. I got to Park Point at about 4:30 or so, after stopping to pick up some mints, driving back home because I forgot sunscreen, and then finally getting underway. It was about 84 F at that point, with very little cloud cover. I walked over and picked up my race packet, t-shirt, and socks (socks! Yay!), then walked back to my car. I sat in my car and read/fooled around on my phone for a little over an hour. This was not a good idea, because I wasn’t in the shade. I was mostly in the shade, but a small part of me (depending on where I was sitting) was in the sun. And overall I was just heating up, although it didn’t feel too bad. There was really no reason to get there so early. I could have arrived at like 5:15 or 5:30 and had no problem parking in the exact same spot I did, and I wouldn’t have been letting my body heat up.

At 5:50, I was antsy enough to walk back over the pavilion and start warming up. I was feeling slower than normal during the warmup, but that’s the point of the warmup, to shed the slowness from the legs. I sat in the shade by myself after that and just waited. I SHOULD have parked somewhere closer to a shady area. Then I could have gotten out of my car, sat in the shade and read, and then stowed my stuff back in the car before starting my warmup. Anyway, I felt ok after the warmup and I felt better about the run. A few minutes before I walked over to the start, I doused my hat in water from my handheld and then doused my hair.

As I said, I held back at the beginning. I started near the back again, but there was no time clock, so I had no idea how far off I was from the start. There were only 365 finishers (maybe more starters, I don’t know if anyone DNF), so my chip time turned out to be only 25 seconds off of gun time. I was feeling ok, but hot, and my mouth was kind of drying out. A few people along the route had sprinklers or hoses going and sprayed consenting runners when they went by. These people were lifesavers.

I reached the turnaround, which was a little over 2.5 miles in, and I saw my uncle standing there waiting for me. He lives on Park Point in the summer and rode his bike over for some moral support, which was nice. He told me I looked great, and looked strong, which I probably did at that point. Later he told me he hadn’t had a chance to get his camera out and I am very grateful for that. I looked at myself after the race, maybe 10 minutes after I’d finished, and I was beet red, as always.

I don’t really know what happened, but I started to feel really badly after the turnaround. I took a sip of water and a little went down my windpipe a bit, so I had to cough. The water was pretty warm already (another consequence of leaving too early for the race) so it wasn’t refreshing and didn’t make my stomach feel great. I must have swallowed a bunch of air because I was burping a bit, which worried me that my stomach was going to be even more upset if I wasn’t careful. I doused myself with some water from the water bottle, completely wetting my tank top, and poured some more on my hat, but it didn’t feel that refreshing. I also dumped the cup of water from the aid station on myself, rather than trying to sip from it. I would never survive the Western States Endurance Run. I ran mile 3 at 12:28, which ate up all the cushion I’d given myself in the two previous miles, and then I lost focus, energy, everything in mile 4, 12:55 pace.

I think something was funky with the clock, because I thought the clock said 1:02:XX when I crossed, and at the 4 mile mark, I thought an hour was out of my reach. It really wasn’t, and if I’d known that, maybe I’d have been able to dig a little deeper. Maybe not. I wanted to pass a couple people I’d been following at the end, and I wasn’t able to get enough of a kick together. I did get passed at the end by someone, but I think she had been sandbagging a little, picking up a runner behind me and trying to help me out, so she had a little more in the tank. There were a couple people who I think were trying to keep up with me, or at least were using me as a benchmark (would walk, run until they caught up with me, then walk again), and I was able to turn on a little more speed to leave them behind, but I didn’t have as much of a kick as I would have liked. My final mile was at a 12:09 pace.

I didn’t walk at all during the race, and I pushed myself to keep moving, keep speeding up, whenever I saw my pace slowing. I didn’t let fear of an upset stomach slow me to a walk (I did slow down a few times when I felt really iffy, but I didn’t walk.) I could have done more to manage the heat, but I made the right choice to carry the water bottle with me, and it didn’t annoy me too much. I learned how to suffer in a race, I guess. I FELT strong, physically, and I wasn’t gasping for air at any time, so my training worked, but the heat just sapped my energy and my competitive edge.

After the race I sat in the grass for a little while, just to shake away the post-run wooziness (it was still 82 degrees at 7:30 PM, when I finished), and then I got in line for the goodies. They had little mini containers of Ben and Jerry’s! Amazing. And also very helpful because I was stuck on Park Point. There’s only one way off, and that’s the same road the race is on. I had to wait til the race ended and the road was cleared, and then it took forever to get off the point. The traffic in Canal Park, four miles away, was backing us up. I will need a better strategy next year.

I trained hard and ran somewhat hard (not as hard as I could have) and I learned some hard but valuable lessons. I don’t know how common 5 mile races are (it seems 10Ks are more popular), so I might have to wait until next year to try to get under an hour. I’m mad at myself because, looking back, less time pre-race in the heat and the sun would have made a difference, maybe over a minute’s difference, I don’t know. But hey, it was a PR! And I had a good time, even when I was suffering. Since I wasn’t winded, I could talk to spectators or other runners a bit, and I smiled most of the way. I had a disappointing result, but a good overall experience.

Park Point 5 Miler Goals

I am probably heading down to the race in about an hour and a half in order to try to find a convenient parking spot, so I suppose I’d better talk about the race.

I’m nervous. It’s hot and I don’t think it’s going to cool off anytime soon. I have trained in hot weather, but not consistently, and the last few days it has been cooler. This is also the longest race I have run. I know I’ve set my sights on even longer runs, but this is a longer race at a fast pace, which is a lot different than, say, running a marathon at a more sustainable pace.

Unlike the other races I’ve done lately, this won’t have many walkers, if there are any at all. This is a small race, and I am going to be one of the last people to finish, based on the results of previous years.

I think this to myself before every race, but this race especially: I can not go out hard. I need to be smart about my pacing and hold back a bit. A lot. And probably not speed up until the turnaround.

Timewise, I don’t know what to expect, so I’m giving myself a broad range between my A and B standards.

A Standard: 56:00
B Standard: 59:59

I was going to write an hour, but I realized no matter what, I want to come in under an hour and I will be extremely disappointed if I don’t. I realize that is almost a minute slower in pace than my 5K PR, and I have been training like a fiend for this race, but I’m lacking confidence at the moment.

This is the first race I’ve ever trained for in such a focused manner, and I hope I see the benefits of my efforts over the past 9 weeks while I’m out there on the road. If it wasn’t so hot and humid, I would feel a lot better about my chances of a successful race. Come on, Lake Superior, give me a nice breeze!