slow runners

Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon Training: Week 3

A big week for me! And NO treadmill running!

Monday: 6 mi, trail (Bagley), 136 bpm
Tuesday: 6.6 mi, trail (SHT at Spirit Mountain), 141 bpm
Wednesday: 7.3, road (MAF test), 134 bpm
Thursday: 5.4 mi, road, 130 bpm
Friday: rest (work/travel)
Saturday: 4.1 mi, road, 137 bpm
Sunday: 18 mi, trail (SHT out & back starting at Becks Road), 148 bpm
Total: 47.4 mi

This was my biggest mileage week of the year, and thus probably ever, and I set a new personal best in miles covered, at 18. I was really excited to have decent weather the entire week. It was hot on Saturday, but I ran in the evening after we returned from an overnight stay for a family event. It was late enough that I wore my headlamp and turned it on for the last mile or so, mostly for visibility to cars.

On Monday, I tried to take things nice and easy to recover from my long run the day before. Since I was running Bagley, I still got in a bit of climbing, but I didn’t feel overexerted.

Tuesday I parked at Spirit Mountain and did 5 repeats of the “stairs” on the trail just beyond. My legs were burning but each time I reached the bottom again, my heart rate had recovered to an acceptable level, so I felt good about the experience. I ended up running farther than I had planned. I ran down to the Knowlton Creek crossing and then climbed back up, but decided to continue on the main trail back toward the Magney parking lot, to see where I’d missed the turn the previous Sunday. The trail goes down along the base of the ski area and along a creek; it’s a very nice section of trail. I found where I’d missed the turn and can’t believe I missed it, it was really obvious where the trail continued. Mystery solved, I guess. I didn’t think very hard about where I was going, and realized the Magney parking lot was a lot farther away than I thought. I ended up leaving on a spur trail that I thought would lead me to the road, but I couldn’t figure out how to get there. I ended up on an access road for Spirit Mountain, and followed that back. I got to the final ski run and climbed the rest of the way to the parking lot.

Wednesday’s workout, I already discussed. Thursday I took it really easy (obviously, from the 130 bpm HR), running a familiar road loop around UMD and back home.

Sunday, I picked a pretty tough course, starting and ending just after Ely’s Peak. I didn’t climb all the way up the peak, but there’s still some very technical climbing on the trail in the area. I ran more slowly than I would have liked, but it was a training run, and I probably could have had a few more gels/snacks along the way to get an extra boost. I definitely have a lot of work to do before the race next month, though. The last few miles were very frustrating, since I would think I was picking up the pace, then I’d look at my watch and see just how slowly I was going. The final mile was pretty darn slow, but that also includes navigating the rocky sections near Ely’s Peak that required extra care due to my tired legs. My sense about this training cycle is that if I do enough climbing and make a lot of my runs challenging, I will set myself up for a good race. We’ll see how that goes. I still have several long runs left, including a 20 miler planned I think for next weekend, so there’s lots of time to improve. I hope.

MAF Test (Check-In)

Obviously I am not doing MAF training at the moment, but I wanted to see how things were going. I left off here, with paces in between 15:33-16:02. I was pretty frustrated with those test results.

This check-in won’t be truly comparable to the previous tests because it wasn’t cold when I ran, and because I didn’t have the heart rate alarm app on my watch. I did do this test on heavy legs, since I’d done a lot of climbing the day before, but I don’t consider that off-setting of the weather.

Here’s my heart rate graph for the duration of the run.
HRJune8
I really suck at keeping a consistent heart rate. Why? I see other people with the same tools I have with much more consistent heart rates. This is so jumpy.

Here are my paces and HRs
Warm up: 17:55 (120)
Mile 1: 13:48 (137)
Mile 2: 12:50 (143)
Mile 3: 13:05 (146)
Mile 4: 12:54 (143)
Mile 5: 13:02 (142)
Cool down (1.25 mi):  16:18 (123)

Without the HR monitor beeping at me, I had to keep glancing at my watch to see where my HR was. For the first mile I was obviously going too slowly, and for the 3rd mile I went too fast. My paces are much faster than they were before… or were they?

Since I was constantly looking at watch, I was able to notice something. My more relaxed, laid-back stride had me running a slower pace (duh) but not at a lower heart rate. I was able to run faster at the same heart rate when I “leaned in” to the run and turned my legs over faster with shorter strides. So I learned a little bit about how my mechanics and posture affect my running, and now I wonder if I could have also run faster in the trials I ran in the winter/spring if I’d run with a different stride/mechanics? I kept reminding myself to lean in, as I’d naturally “settle in” if I zoned out and would go back to the longer stride and lazier mechanics. I have some habits to break, it seems.

The jumpiness of my heart rate during the warm-up underscores the importance of warming up before a race. I was trying to get a nice smooth curve there and failed, sorry Dr. Maffetone. My last spike in HR was at about 1.4 miles, so it appears that I need to warm up a little longer for MAF tests, perhaps. I did do a 2-mile warmup for one of my MAF tests, the one that gave results closest to what an ideal MAF test should look like, so I guess that’s the way to go from here on out. It also indicates I would benefit from longer warm-ups before races. Something I say all the time and repeatedly fail to do. I have a 5K in a couple weeks so I will see if I can learn from my mistakes and all this data I’m gathering, and do a proper warmup, it looks like 1.5 miles might be the minimum I need.

Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon Training: Week 2

I rested on National Running Day. How ironic.

Monday: 5.5 mi, trail (SHT @ Ely’s Peak), 148 bpm
Tuesday: 5 mi, treadmill, 144 bpm
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 6 mi, trail (Magney Ski Trails), 146 bpm
Friday: 5 mi, treadmill, 147 bpm
Saturday: 7 mi, road, 139 bpm
Sunday: 15.5 mi, trail (SHT, Magney parking lot to home), 143 bpm
Total: 44.1 mi

This was a big jump up for me in mileage, but I feel like I managed it well.

Monday I ran on the Superior Hiking Trail after returning from the cabin. We arrived home with plenty of time for a late afternoon run, and my first iced latte of the season. The run went ok, but I was rained on a bit and things got slippery. I had a few near misses, and then I had a real fall with about a mile to go. I slipped on a rock, banged my knees, submerged most of my water bottle in a puddle, and was able to catch myself on my hands and slow myself down before hitting the top of my head on a rock. I didn’t hit it extremely hard, but hard enough that it hurt, even through my hat. The fall shook me up a bit, as it could have been much worse. I could have twisted an ankle or hit my head a lot harder. I ended up with a few bruises and scrapes, and a heightened fear of running over rocks. I took a slight wrong turn at the end (headed to the other lot, which was closed last year) and added a bit of distance to my run.

Tuesday the weather was terrible, so I didn’t bother running outside. Wednesday I rested. I think it was cold then, too. I don’t remember, there were so many cold days last week. Thursday’s run got its own post.

Friday it was cold and crummy YET AGAIN and I ran on the treadmill. My treadmill running has really improved. Tuesday’s pace was 14:31 and Friday’s pace was 13:59, both including warm-up and cool-down. I’m pleased to see some progress there, although it still feels like torture. People keep setting records for distances run on treadmills in 12 hours, 24 hours, whatever, and I keep shaking my head and wondering how and why.

Saturday I got out during what I thought was a break in the drizzly weather. It was not. I wore my new super-lightweight Houdini jacket and it worked fairly well at keeping me dry, although by the end it was sticking to me and I think the sleeves were saturated. I kept a 14:42 pace without monitoring it very closely and was pretty pleased with that.

Sunday (National Trails Day!) I had planned a 17 mile long run. I was going to start at the Magney parking lot (which I did), run 8.5 miles on the SHT, and then turn around and run back. I had my new hydration pack on, to give it a test drive. (Spoiler: it rocked and I could carry so much stuff!) Some amateur radio folks were set up in the parking lot doing a live broadcast of National Parks on the Air. They gave me a wave as I headed out toward Spirit Mountain.

The trail was pretty muddy from the get-go, thanks to the rain we’d had earlier in the week. It was also rather warm, which was good and bad. Good because I needed the heat training, bad because… well that’s self-evident. I dunked my hat in a stream in passing and saturated it, which felt pretty good, although the brim kept dripping. Somewhere after passing across one of the ski runs, I lost the trail and ended up on a snowmobile trail. I figured I’d pick up the Superior Hiking Trail again at some point and I did, at the Knowlton Creek crossing.

The weather started to turn, and I ended up taking shelter from a downpour under the freeway overpass near Cody St. I sat there for about 20 minutes, wondering what to do. I was dumb and didn’t put my phone in a plastic bag, and there’s no fully waterproof pocket in my vest. Fortunately it didn’t get soaked. My friend Emily gave me some weather updates and I decided to press on once the rain stopped, rather than stop and call for a ride. I felt really sluggish after the stop, so I will need to remember that when I am in aid stations: DON’T SIT DOWN. I ran into another short storm cell after passing through Highland/Getchell, and had nowhere to shelter so I just kept running and worried about my phone. The rain didn’t last long and my phone was in a pocket by my side, so it was ok, but I’m never risking that again. If I’d been fully drenched I’d be looking at a new phone purchase, I would guess.

The trail was muddy and/or waterlogged at this point, with some of the small water crossings nearly underwater. I made a decision to run home instead of turning around, knowing that the trail conditions at the beginning would be even worse than they had been when I ran through on the way out. I figured I could run around my neighborhood to bump it up to 17 miles, if I was short. I changed my mind on that again when I hit Enger Park and realized it was threatening rain again. I decided I’d just run home and the distance would be whatever it was. So, 15.5 miles. But it was 15.5 tough miles, so I don’t feel shortchanged.

I ate two protein bars and one peanut butter flavored gel during the run. I’ve never had a gel before so I wanted to see how that went down. It was fine, but I also wasn’t running at race pace. I also had one sports drink bottle and was drinking water from my vest the whole time. I felt pretty good post-run and was able to go run some errands after a quick shower and a little bit of down time. I think I might try carrying gels during races and eating solid food at the aid stations, instead of carrying solid food with me. I am positive I can’t survive on just gels, I want actual food too. I bought some more gels to try out additional flavors on my upcoming long runs. They are kind of expensive, which is annoying.

I am pretty pleased with how the training is going so far. Even with the increase in mileage, I’m not seeing an increase in my resting heart rate and I don’t feel exhausted or sore, so I am going to continue at this level and probably peak at a little over 50 miles/week. I’m feeling more and more confident that I can complete the marathon distance upright and smiling, with a bit of luck on my side. Now I just need to get more confident I can completed it in a reasonable amount of time.

Someone Had Blundered

I had a Charge of the Light Brigade-worthy run last night. Bad decision after bad decision.

Since the Curnow Trail Marathon is local, one of my training strategies is to get out on the course and scout out each section a couple times. This worked really well for me in the Harder ‘n Hell Half, and since I’m feeling a bit anxious about moving up to the marathon so quickly, I thought I’d revisit the strategy. Unfortunately, the course isn’t as straightforward as the other trail races I’ve run (Those races have basically two instructions: 1. Get on the Superior Hiking Trail. 2. Run, if you can.), so it seems I’ll have a tougher time following the actual course.

When I was a senior in high school, I joined the nordic skiing team, despite having little talent for skiing and little general athletic ability. My friends were on the team, I’d quit all my nerd activities other than math team and quiz bowl, and I liked a boy on the team (who was also on math team!), so those were sufficient reasons. We also went on a winter team trip to Giant’s Ridge in Biwabik, MN; another good reason.

I was a terrible skier, but since our team was very good and had plenty of excellent individual skiers to fill out the varsity roster, our coaches didn’t seem to mind that I spent a lot of time screwing around. They let me do my own thing, and I did make some progress, but I was still pretty terrible. One of my best friends was also new to the team that year, and she wasn’t very good either, so we stuck together.

During the class trip, we were all doing a warm-up loop and then a time trial on that same loop. My friend and I were so slow during the warm-up that one of the coaches suggested we cut across before the turnaround point so we could make it back in time for the start of the time trials. This meant that we didn’t know the course, and instead of turning around at the proper point, we kept on going. We must have skied around for an hour or so, trying to figure out where we were, before we finally took our skis off, marched the wrong way down the side of a ski trail, and made it back to the chalet, long after the time trial was over, everyone was on their own having lunch, and someone’s dad had been sent out to try to find us. We weren’t lost, as we were still within the resort and still on trails, but we had no idea where we were going.

Something similar happened last night. I was planning to run the Magney-Snively xc skiing trails, which I never have before. I left my house with a somewhat nebulous idea of where to go. My GPS ended up leading me to nowhere, but since it did lead me onto Skyline off of Midway Rd, I was able to follow Skyline to the Magney-Snively trail parking lot I use when running the SHT. I could jump on the Magney-Snively ski trails from there, so it worked out nicely. It was almost 7 PM, but I figured I could run for half an hour, no problem. Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.

The trail was completely ungroomed, which was a bad sign. At first it was just shoe-high grass, which was fine, but then it turned into ferns and violets and longer grass and I even saw a jack-in-the-pulpit underfoot at one point. The trail was also very soft, sometimes squishy underfoot, and at times there were even trail-wide pools of standing, murky water, a colloid with heaven knows how many gorillions of mosquito larva suspended inside. I normally will run through mud or puddles rather than go around, to help preserve the trail and to avoid wasting time, but by the point I reached the worst of it, I was so frustrated I didn’t care if I wasted time and just tried to jump from rock to rock or at least to more solid-looking spots. A groomed, packed cross-country skiing trail in a shaded wood has standing water in early June? You don’t say. I guess that was dumb of me, I’m sure that was one of the last places for the snow to melt, and the trails haven’t had a chance to dry out. Well, now I know. And I’m not running there again.

I also sucked at reading the maps. I was confused as to why there wasn’t a YOU ARE HERE sign on the trail maps nailed to trees at forks in the trail. There wasn’t because there was a huge letter (say, F, or D, or J) at the bottom of the map, and all of the letters were on the map. I wished I had figured that out right away, because the first time I looked at the map, I sort of guessed where I was, not noticing the letter at the bottom, and just kept going. Half a league, half a league, half a league onward.

Again, I wasn’t lost, because I was still on cross country ski trails, but I was not sure exactly where the trails were in relation to my car, and I was not sure how long it would take me to get back to the car once I could find my bearings. There was only so much daylight left and I didn’t have a headlamp, or food, or warm clothes. At about 7:45 I was starting to get stressed out, but stayed calm and kept running until I found the next map. I followed the map toward what I thought was the correct parking lot, but ended up coming out at Spirit Mountain Campground. That turned out to be over a mile away from my car, by road, but it was at least a road I knew. I that had fought so well came thro’ the jaws of death back from the mouth of hell. Shatter’d and sunder’d, maybe.

I have to do a better job of planning out my routes when I’m not familiar with them. I figured I’d be fine, since the trails were a series of loops, so I wouldn’t end up 10 miles away from my car, but I could have ended up running in circles for quite awhile, and if the sun had gone down, I’d have been in serious trouble. I stayed calm, I figured out the maps, and I stuck with one plan (get to a certain parking area on the map) instead of doubling back (since I wasn’t certain if I was really headed toward my car or not) or taking one fork, and then another. So that was good, even though my poor planning and recklessness were bad.

I am also fairly certain I didn’t run a single step on the actual marathon course, so that was not great. I will have to study the maps more closely, and in relation to some SHT maps, to see where I need to go. If all else fails, I’ll just run whatever routes I feel like and go into race day blind. Although there’s apparently a notorious section of power lines that I feel like I need to see in advance, if I check out nothing else.

Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon Training: Week 1

Yes, I signed up for another marathon. I was feeling extremely unsure of myself after running Superior 25K, especially since the Moose Mountain Marathon is on the same course. I will be climbing those tough climbs after 20 miles of running, which is frightening. I decided I couldn’t let my first crack at the distance be on such a tough course. The Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon is on July 16th and starts in Duluth, so I will not need to travel. The elevation profile is a lot kinder than Superior’s, and there are a lot more aid stations. The only thing that will be an issue is heat, and I am definitely concerned about it.

This means I will not run the Park Point 5 Miler this year. It’s just a few days before the marathon, so I can’t do both. It’s kind of a bummer, but I’m not too put out. I am still signed up to do Midnight Sun Midnight Run in 4 weeks.

I am rolling over my training session from Superior 25K, and I hope to get 6 weeks of higher-mileage training followed by a gentle 2-week taper before the race. 8 weeks after that, I’ll have the Moose Mountain Marathon, and then 6 weeks after that, I’ll have Wild Duluth 50K. Unless Curnow goes HORRIBLY wrong, then I might just to the Harder ‘n Hell Half and leave my ultra debut for 2017.

Monday: 5.3 mi, trail (Lakewalk), 133 bpm
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 6.3 mi, treadmill (4x 0.5 mi @ 3% incline), 146 bpm
Thursday: 7.2 mi, trail (SHT @ Spirit Mountain to Cody St), 146 bpm
Friday: 8 mi, treadmill, 146 bpm
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 7.7 mi, road, 144 bpm
Total: 34.5 mi

The weather was a bit dicey this past week. Monday I ran partially in the rain, Wednesday I ran inside because of rain, Thursday I ran in mist, and Friday I stayed in because it was cold and damp and awful. Sunday I ran in full sun and 70+ F temps (and forgot sunscreen, because it was cloudy when I left. Oops.)

I felt pretty good Monday but didn’t have much pep in my step, as demonstrated by the low HR. My two treadmill sessions went pretty well, I am getting a lot better at running on treadmills. Both overall treadmill runs were done at an average pace below 15 min/mile, which is really good for me! That pace includes warm-up and cool down, too.

My one road run of the week was done at the cabin my family has rented for the summer. It was mostly done on the shoulder of a county road or on the side of a paved back road. It was really boring and I felt like crap. I had slept poorly the night before, so it’s not surprising I felt like a slug running. I did remind myself to pick up the pace at times, because it was really dragging, and I need to stop running that same, slow, mindless pace I was running in the winter; I’m better conditioned now.

My trail run was slow, but did involve a couple of significant climbs. I felt good climbing, so that is a good sign. I still have lots of room for improvement in my power hiking ability. I also need to figure out how to run faster on the runnable parts of trails. I think I’m going a decent speed and then look down at my watch and I’m running 19:XX. I suppose it could be a watch error but that’s not something I’m going to count on. I have noticed some serious GPS errors lately, both in regard to elevation and location. Take a look:

altitudeprb

Altitude data for an out & back run

outandbackprb

Location date for an out & back run

It is fairly obvious there are some GPS errors occurring, since I ran the exact same route going out as I did on the return trip. The course profile should be symmetric, but instead there are odd skips and jumps. There are spots on the route map that make it look like I skipped over/cut parts of the trail, which I didn’t. I am not sure how to fix it, since I am plugging in and getting updates almost daily.

In the long term, it doesn’t matter. The time on my feet and the time spent climbing is important, not the exact number of miles run or feet climbed. I can relax about the data errors and trust in my training.

I did a few sets of pushups/planks here and there during the week, but my main source of “strength training” was water-skiing, knee-boarding, and tubing. Yes, hanging on for dear life on a tight, fast turn while on an inner tube is quite strenuous. There was a bit of swimming in there too — swimming after the knee board when I fell off, swimming after the tube when I was thrown off and went skipping across the water on my butt, swimming back to the boat when I was beat. It was a pretty good long weekend!

Post-Mortem: Superior 25K

Sic transit destitutione. Disappointment fades.

Refreshers
Race Report
All Superior 25K posts

Good things
I warmed up! A little bit. It didn’t matter, but I did it. And of course imagined everyone was staring at me thinking “what a slowpoke.”

A speedy post-race recovery. I’m not sure if I can attribute this to a slow race, more training, or active recovery post-race, but I don’t feel achy at all, and my run the day after felt fine. I’m sure this won’t be the norm, but it feels nice to be functional right away. I must be adapting.

Minimal sunburn. I could have been a lobster out there, if not for semi-diligent sunscreen application. I was grateful the aid station had some on hand, and then I reapplied from my baggie on the back 7. I do need to find a small tube to carry with me.

Readjusting my expectation. I knew sub-4 was out of reach before the turnaround, but when I started realizing there was no way I’d make my B goal, and then all the other goals I made up on the fly (except sub-5, thanks to the GPS error), I didn’t panic, or get mad, or try to do something stupid to try to make up time. I wasn’t happy about it, but I kept going as best I could. And that’s life, that’s trail running. Not every race is perfect. I was able to accept it quickly and didn’t wallow in my petulant “I hate running” bitterness for too long. After other accounts of the race are starting to trickle my way, I’m realizing I wasn’t the only person who didn’t have the race they wanted. I can be grateful I wasn’t vomiting my way up Moose Mountain.

Bad things
Nutrition. Ok, no more pre-race bananas. I’ve probably said that before, but I mean it. The banana wasn’t the only problem, but it was a factor at the beginning of the race. I also didn’t eat enough, though I don’t feel like I actually bonked during the race. I do need to try out some gels or some other easy form of (ugh) calories. (I hate putting it like that, it sounds so smug.) I also needed some better food the night before and the afternoon following the race. I shouldn’t have left right away, I could have had some chili after a bit.

Strength training. I was better about it, but I still need to make it a habit. Etc.

Not enough climbing during training. I know I said I was a good climber, but I’m not good enough. I mean, Moose Mountain sucks, there’s no way around that. It’s just unpleasant. But it could have gone better. I am going to be torturing myself with those awful stairs at Spirit Mountain to try to prepare for the fall, when I have a date with Moose Mountain after 20+ miles. Terrifying.

Superior 25K Training: Week 6

Race week!

Monday: 6.1 mi, road/trail (ran to/from Bagley, did one loop), 144 bpm
Tuesday: 5.2 mi, paved trail (north Lakewalk), 132 bpm
Wednesday: 4.3 mi, trail (Bagley x 2.5), 140 bpm
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: Superior 25K
Sunday: 4.2 mi, road/trail (to/from Dan Proctor trail), 140 bpm
Total: 35.5 mi

Well. The race happened, it was ok. I was actually planning on running on Thursday but I felt fairly crappy. I was fairly aggressive earlier in the week compared to other racing cycles, running trails and/or hilly road routes Monday and Wednesday. I felt good, the weather was amazing, and I was enjoying the time outside.

I didn’t run Friday, as I still had race prep to do, and then I drove up to Lutsen to volunteer at packet pick-up. I did a very short, easy hike around the resort on Friday evening, but that doesn’t really count as a workout.

Saturday, the race happened, blah, it went not-so-great, and I lazed around the hotel room for a few hours before taking another short hike. Semi-active recovery at its finest. I wanted to have a tasty dinner from the resort restaurant, but they didn’t have room service (fine) and then when I tried to get take-out, the front desk transferred me to the “pub” and no one answered the phone. So I ate rice Chex, cookies, and bread and Nutella for dinner. It was extremely disappointing.

I felt decent on Sunday morning. I woke up feeling maybe a bit “hungover,” probably a little lingering dehydration, although I didn’t really end up dehydrated after the race, despite the heat. I suppose I eventually absorbed all the liquid that was sitting in my belly making me feel full the whole race. Whee. My back was stiff from the bed but other than that I felt good. I drove back to Duluth and got a huge latte before I even made it back to my house.

Since I felt pretty awesome (a sign that my mental game is weak and I had plenty more to give in the race) I went for a short run in the afternoon. It was a little bit warm, and I realized with a little over a mile to go that I was pretty hungry, but I felt good. I guess now I can just call the race a “long run” and parlay this week into marathon training. (I’ll get to that later.) Then I went and got a burrito bowl and ate it in about a minute and a half.

This would have been a fabulous training week, but unfortunately it was a goal race week. Womp womp.