running

Race Report: Be The Match 5K

Official Results:
Time: 36:09
Pace: 11:38
Placing:
Overall: 309/487
Division (F 30-39): 51/85
Gender: 156/278

Watch Results:
Time: 36:09 (! I am a master watch starter-stopper!)
Pace: 11:29
Distance: 3.14 mi
Heart Rate: 167

Goals:
A: 36:00
B: 36:30

Food:
What I ate the night before: Chex Mix and pretzels
What I ate on race morning: 3/4 of a granola bar
What I carried with me: nothing

Gear:
What I wore: Tech t-shirt, running capris, baseball cap
Gadgets: GPS watch, heart rate monitor

Discussion:
I drove down to the Twin Cities on Friday evening, and I wasn’t feeling so hot. I had had a taco salad for lunch that had made me feel overall kind of crummy, so I didn’t feel like eating much for dinner due to heartburn. I ate Chex Mix in the car on the way down, and some pretzels once I was at my friend’s house, but my stomach just felt like it was gnawing on itself.

I woke up at about 6:30 on Saturday morning and still felt crappy, probably because I hadn’t eaten enough the night before. It didn’t bode well for the race, but I got up and dressed and ready so I could head to my mother’s house, since we were car-pooling. We ended up getting going rather late, and I missed my nephew running in the tot trot. He came in like 2nd to last (he is 2.5 so it was somewhat of a mystery to him). That’s my boy! I did run from the car to the Lake Harriet bandshell to warm up (and also to tell the rest of the fam that my mom was coming with the race bibs), and I did eat a little bit before I ran, but I also left my water bottle in the car, so I didn’t fully integrate the changes I’d been planning.

I lined up with my mother’s cousin and her husband. I told them my plan was to line up toward the back so I didn’t get passed by a bunch of people, so we lined up between the 10:00 pacer and the walker signs. Unfortunately we lined up too soon, and WAY MORE PEOPLE lined up behind us, so my plan was foiled. My cousin’s husband ditched us right away because he is a speedy guy (he was 39th overall and 9th in his age group! Although he was disappointed in his time because he was a whole 7 seconds off his goal time), but my cousin was looking to run a similar pace to me. I think she is a little faster but was happy to hang back and chat with me. She was a great running companion as we gave each other little pep talks along the way, but then were also ok with silence at other times.

It was really humid out on Saturday, and much warmer than I was used to, and I still had a gaggy feeling in my throat (but my stomach wasn’t actually upset), so I was concerned about how the race would go. I was pushing a bit because my cousin was a little faster than me, and also because I wanted to get a good time. There were a couple small hills in the first mile or so, nothing I couldn’t handle. We hit the first mile in 11:15. I hung with my cousin for the first two miles (we hit the second in 11:41), and through the third I was kind of lagging a step or two behind, and then I told her to go on ahead of me. She checked back behind her once to see if I was OK, and I yelled at her “Go go go!” I kept her in my sights and tried to keep her from getting too far away. The final half mile or so was kind of sucky, as the race wasn’t an exact loop around Lake Harriet, there was a slight diversion around the parkway past the bird sanctuary to complete the distance, and that had a bit of a hill. The race did end on a downhill, which was nice, but for some reason I had no desire to kick it into high gear and race it in. I was passed by several people at the end, and only passed maybe one or two people, which made me mad at myself. I saw the clock at the finish from about the three mile mark (11:50 pace), and at first I thought it said 38:XX, which made me furious with myself. I had crossed the timing mat about 1:10 after the start, so if the clock had a 38 on it, it meant I hadn’t made my goals or even beat my time from April. As I got closer I realized the clock said 36:XX, which meant I had a chance to come in under my A Standard, and if I had been tougher, I would have used that as motivation to turn on the jets and run it on in. Of course, if I had been tougher, I would have hung on with my cousin, since she finished only 26 seconds ahead of me.

I missed my A Standard by 9 seconds. My legs and my lungs had 9 seconds in them, I know that. I need to really get smarter about my meals leading up to a race. Didn’t I just say I should avoid having Chipotle? Apparently I thought it would be safe to have a similar meal as long as it was for lunch, rather than dinner. Ugh.

I also should have taken a cup of water at the water station halfway through. Many 5Ks do not have water stations, so I shouldn’t have needed to, but it would have been nice to just cool me down a little and maybe calm my esophagus a little. I was too worried about it going down the wrong pipe while drinking on the run, and I didn’t want to slow down enough to drink it properly.

I am still pleased with the race result! I came in just shy of my A Standard goal, but I have no doubt that I will be able to beat that soon. My body felt fine after the race, and I met up with the cousins and grabbed some water and food. I ate a bit of a bagel and drank some water as we headed back in the opposite direction of the race to meet up with the rest of our family, as they were walking and had started after us. We probably tacked on another 0.5-0.7 miles walking. I walked with my mom and my great aunt and we chatted about how the race had gone for me, and about the course, and about how Lake Superior didn’t have a horrid dead fish smell every so often (I nearly gagged when I was nearing the end of the race and caught a whiff of dead fish.) I peeled off before the finish line since I’d already gone through, and then we took a family pic and headed home for some post-race brats and peanut butter bars.

Overall I had a great time with my family, set a new PR, raced through some nausea, and adapted decently to the heat despite my cooler training conditions. And I raised $276.66 for charity! I hope to smash THAT PR next May.

Minor Adjustments

For Saturday’s 5K, I’m probably not going to significantly change my approach to the race from what I did for the Fitger’s 5K, but I do think I have a few ways to improve.

I still plan on getting up early, but I am not going to run on an empty stomach this time. I’ll have either a bagel or a granola bar, and then have some snacks afterward. Since this race isn’t 2 miles from my house, and I’m not driving myself, I can’t just come and go whenever I want to. (I just asked my mom and she said she wanted to leave by 7:30 and now I’m depressed.) I’m also not going to eat Chipotle the night before, even though that wasn’t a problem. I’m also going to have a water bottle to sip on pre-race and have a few mints or something beforehand.

I don’t really know what to wear. The high for the day is like 79F, but of course it won’t be that warm at the start. Since it has been in the low 50s or 40s all week here, I won’t be accustomed to this heat! (Ha.) I will probably wear a long sleeved shirt and then make my mother hold it while I am running. This is very adult of me, I know.

The biggest change I plan on making is warming up beforehand. I’ll have plenty of time, since we have to get there so early in order to get a parking spot. I know I sort of laughed at people warming up last time, but I don’t plan on doing hill repeats or anything wacky. It took me awhile to connect the dots, but it dawned on me that if the first mile or so of my training runs is always one of the worst, I could prevent that in a race by warming up and getting the crummy mile out of my legs before the race starts. So, I plan on running a warmup mile (or less) at an aerobic pace.

Otherwise, I plan on racing the same way. I’ll line up at the back, try to keep from going out too fast, and save a little kick for the end. I’m feeling great and my legs felt speedy yesterday during my hill workout (the deer were back, but they left me alone this time), so I hope I can get a decent night’s sleep Friday night and tear up the pavement.

Be The Match 5K Goals

It’s Monday, and I have a race on Saturday, so I had better start planning some stuff.

I am running reduced mileage compared to what I was running in April when I did the Fitger’s 5K (I guess you could call it a taper… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHA!), but I am also stronger than I was then, and I think the course will be a little easier. Not that the Fitger’s course was hard, but I did have to plod up a hill twice to get over the freeway. I’m pretty sure since this course is around Lake Harriet it will not have any large hills like that.

So, here are my time goals, bearing in mind my most recent 5K was 37:00 even.

A Standard: 36:00
B Standard: 36:30

These goals are much closer together than they were last time (36:00 A Standard and 40:00 B Standard), since I was just guessing last time. My A Standard is still the same since I didn’t make it last time and it’s only been a month. I think it’s still maybe a little bit out of reach, shaving a whole minute off my time in just a month is a lot to ask. Maybe? I don’t know.

It’s cold and rainy today so I will probably be on the treadmill for today’s run. It depends on if it is actually raining when I get ready to go. I wanted to do hill repeats today after the deer ruined my opportunity on Saturday. I rested Sunday, as it was crappy out and I was lazy.

Here’s the plan for the rest of the week leading up to the race:
Monday: either hills or treadmill torture
Tuesday: easy road run (junk miles, if you are a running snob)
Wednesday: mild speed workout
Thursday: easy road run and then massage
Friday: very short and easy run at some point since I am traveling
Saturday: burn up the pavement

Now I just need to execute the plan, which for me is easier said than done!

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

-Wendell Berry

I love that poem so much. Never mind that I came across it because Alan Alda quoted (and misattributed) it on an episode of ER and I… well I would say I Googled it but I don’t think I used Google in 1999.

Friday and Saturday I got out for shorter runs, proving that it only takes one day to get back into the habit of running, even after taking several days off.

Friday I rewarded myself after a crappy day at school with a run through Hartley Nature Center. It was precisely what I needed mentally. Since it has been warm here and we’ve had some rain, the trails were starting to come alive. Little shoots and buds of green were everywhere, and it smelled lovely. The sun was shining but it wasn’t too hot (I didn’t start until early evening). More trails are open now, so I got to take a different route this time around. The only downside was hiking up the back side of Rock Knob and looking up to see a couple of guys peeing. I mean, the trail was right there, guys. Come on.

Saturday my plan was to head out and do some controlled hill repeats, instead of my usual “run as fast as you can stand” hill repeats. It was early evening again when I ran (6:30 or so), but still plenty light out. I did two repeats and held back a bit each time, then jogged back down. I made sure my heart rate was under the requisite 142 by the time I got back to the bottom, which in the past had sometimes required walking back down.

I was halfway up the hill for the third try and I saw a deer. Then two more. I see deer all the time when I am running, and they just go on their merry way when they see me. If they don’t, I usually say something like “Hello, deer” and sort of wave my arms a bit and they trot away. Two of the deer edged away, but this other deer wasn’t bothered.

The deer was closer than it looks in this photo, in which it is almost indistinguishable from the background. I paused my watch for a bit while I took a picture and thought about what I was going to do. The deer started to slowly move toward me and that’s when I turned around for good and got the hell out of there. (I started my watch again, because I had my wits about me!) I got across the street and the deer was still following me and looked like it might consider crossing the street, so I booked it up the hill, looking over my shoulder every so often to see if the deer was trying to catch up. It wasn’t, so that was good, but it was still a weird experience. I also saw some kind of dead, half-eaten bird and a dead raccoon, so that was nice.

I really do enjoy seeing (live) animals while I am running. I saw a bear last summer about two blocks from my house, a very exciting occurrence. It was the middle of summer, so I wasn’t really that concerned and ran right by it. This lady in her truck was yelling at me to warn me, but a bear by itself that has been chowing down on garbage and pick-a-nick baskets all summer isn’t going to eat me. A bear in early spring or a bear with cubs would frighten me. I also found a cat on the Lakewalk last fall, which I didn’t enjoy because it was clearly domesticated and had no claws (which I know because I carried it 2 miles) and had obviously been dumped there by the dregs of humanity. Other than the poor cat, the flora and fauna of the northland are part of what makes running up here so pleasant.

Back At It

I ran yesterday, so that was nice. I stopped the streak of days off at 4.

I ran pickups. On the treadmill. That was less nice, although in some ways it was good. I ran on the treadmill because it was drizzly and cooler, but so humid I could see my own breath, and since I have my first and most difficult final tomorrow, I didn’t want to wear myself out or get so chilled I couldn’t function.

In order to keep from dying of boredom, I had the Montreal-Tampa Bay Stanley Cup playoff game on, but muted, and then I had a “butt rock” (aka 80s hair metal) station playing on Pandora. I did similar intervals to last week, except I did the correct 8×0.25 instead of miscounting and doing 9. I did the first 4 at a 5.5 mph pace and the last 4 and a 5 mph pace, and then I slowly jogged/walked (3.5 mph pace) in between to recover.

Running the pickups on the treadmill was beneficial for a few reasons. First, it kept my speed under control. When I did the pickups last week on the road, my pace was all over the place and it always died off at the end because I went out too fast (or because I hit a hill AND went out too fast.) My paces were more conservative (10:55 and 12:00) and I was more in control. Second, I was able to keep the pace consistent, not just because I was running a more achievable pace, but because the treadmill was making me. I am not very good at keeping a consistent pace, and I need to train my legs to do it.

I did core exercises too, and I need to be more consistent about doing them. I need a strong core and strong arms to keep me going, but for some reason I’m either too lazy to do them when I’m done running, or I’ve got a zillion other things to do once I’m done running and don’t take the time. Now that I’m not running all these crazy long runs, I have no excuse to skip the push-ups and sit-ups. Washboard abs, here I come. Or at least reduced batwings.

Week Eleven Update

I’m not running Grandma’s Marathon this year.

Now for a recap of my mileage for last week:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 4.6, road, speedwork/pickups
Wednesday: 7.1, road
Thursday: 4, road
Friday: 4.6, 2 miles medium effort, road for speedwork, trail for recovery
Saturday: 7.9, road
Sunday: rest/homework
Total: 28.3

I decided about 4 miles into my run on Saturday (a run that was supposed to be 16 miles) that I was not going to continue to pursue an entry into Grandma’s Marathon this year. It made the rest of the run suck really badly, as I was really down on myself about the decision.

I haven’t run since Saturday, and it’s now Wednesday. I planned on running today but I feel sort of gross. I mostly haven’t run because I have had a bunch of homework to do. That was part of the reason why I cut my run in half on Saturday. The guilt of taking over four hours of my Saturday to run, when I knew I had a ton of work to do, was the final criterion I needed to pull the plug on marathon training for now.

I know I said at the beginning that I was going to do a full training cycle whether or not I ran Grandma’s. I am not, I’ll save the full training cycle for the Mankato Marathon.

My plan right now is somewhat haphazard, but I am going to:
1. Finish up my last few days of school and my finals.
2. Do some speed work and medium runs in preparation for my race on May 16th.
3. Start an 8-week 10K training plan in preparation for the Park Point 5 Miler.

I think focusing on speed for awhile might do me some good. The single biggest issue with marathon training was the time commitment. It will always be a time commitment, of course, but if I can shave some seconds off my comfortable training paces, I can make the time commitment more manageable.

Thus ends the Week XX updates for now.

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.