slow runners

Race Report: Superior 25K

Official Results:
Time: 4:51:40
Pace: 18:47
Placing:
Overall: 258/288
Gender: 133/157
Division (OPEN F): 75/87

Watch Results:
Time: 4:51:51
Pace: 20:27
Distance: 14.26 mi
Heart Rate: 163

Goals:
A: 3:59:59
B: 4:15:00

Food:
What I ate the night before: Goldfish crackers, a banana, chunks of bread & Nutella, 2 cookies, Rice Chex
What I ate on race morning: one chunk of bread & nutella at the condo, banana after packet pickup
What I carried with me: 2 energy bars

Gear:
What I wore: cap sleeve tech t-shirt, shorts, ball cap
Gadgets: GPS watch, heart rate monitor, fitness tracker

Discussion: Oh man, this race broke me. It chewed me up and spit me out again. At times I vowed not to run the race ever again, not to run the Moose Mountain Marathon, and that I would never be capable of running something as intense as a 100 miler. The only reason I didn’t contemplate dropping out of the race is there’s only one chance to drop: the aid station at the turnaround. A few hours later and I’m probably going to sign up for a marathon before MMM in September. Ah, recovery. And shade, and a ceiling fan, and cold water and vanilla Coke. I’ve already forgotten the pain. Mostly.

I slept kinda poorly, but still got more sleep, and definitely more restful sleep, than I did for Zumbro. I woke up before 6, thanks to the sun coming through the roman shades of my east-facing condo, and I couldn’t get back to sleep due to race-day anxiety. I got out of bed around 6:30, and almost everything was ready to go. I’d laid my clothes out the night before, stocked up my baggies of food, mints, and medicines (I ended up combining the mints and pills into one baggie so that I could also carry a baggie full of sunscreen, since I didn’t have a small enough tube.)

I stayed only a mile from the race start, and my worries about parking were for nothing, there was a huge lot with plenty of space. For some reason I remember that lot being smaller for the fall races last year, when I was working the parking area, but I guess I was either wrong, or there were a lot more people last year. I am fairly certain some people slept in various RVs in the parking lot. I checked in for a second time (required for people who checked in initially on Friday) and went back to my car, since it was close to the start. I screwed around for awhile and then realized it was getting close to race time and I needed to warm up. I ran about 0.4 miles to warm up and returned just before the short pre-race briefing. I lined up near the back and tried to stay out of the background of people’s selfies.

I started the race in near-last place and clearly didn’t budge from there. The race starts out on Ski Hill Road, winds a little less than a mile down the road (which turns to gravel), and then hits the Superior Hiking Trail. It crosses the Poplar River right away, which was a nice early view. There’s a slight gentle climb before hitting the first climb, Mystery Mountain. I think that climb went all right. I can’t remember, my brain has been fried. I was overall slower than I would have liked to be, but I figured I’d have time to catch up. Mystery Mountain has a fairly gentle descent on the other side, so I bombed down that with another guy, who I am going to guess swallowed about one bug per mile during the time we were running near each other. The bugs were rather annoying; I was getting dive-bombed by flies, they were landing on the underside of the bill of my hat, and in general irritating me. They only went away when there was a breeze or I was able to run decently fast. I caught some people on the downhill. There was a short section between Mystery Mountain and Moose Mountain, and then came the steep climb up Moose Mountain. It was really starting to warm up; it had been over 60F at race start, and as the sun rose, so did the temperature.

The climb up Moose Mountain to begin the race was steep, but I was still in control. Once I crested the mountain, I encountered the first runners of the 25K on their way back. They were really zipping by. The first two guys were only a few minutes apart, and it turned out the first 4 runners finished within 5 minutes of each other. The 5th runner overall was a woman, so it was nice to see her kicking some butt out there. She took down the course record.

I started to feel like a real jerk as I realized what these speedy runners were coming up from. Once I began the descent of Moose Mountain, I realized it was steep and awful. It wasn’t runnable (for me) on the way down, which was really annoying, as I was hoping to pick up some time on the downhill like I had on Mystery Mountain. I stepped aside and let the faster runners pass, offering encouragement as the hauled themselves up the long, steep climb. When I reached the bottom I was fairly horrified I’d be suffering through that same climb in a few hours.

I was encountering 25K runners regularly after Moose Mountain, which was difficult on single track. I tried to offer encouragement and many offered the same in return. I got a little tired of stepping off the trail or skirting to the side (sometimes right into branches), but that is how the race goes. It was throwing off my rhythm, but it turned out that didn’t matter! I crossed another creek, tromped directly through some mud other people were trying to pick their way around, and began the final ascent of “the front 7.5,” if you will.

The ascent of Oberg Mountain was less challenging, as it wasn’t as steep, but I was dodging runners and less able to offer a cheerful to them during some of the steeper parts. I came across the first 50K runner during the ascent to Oberg, and he told me “great job” (or something) before I could even congratulate him. He looked incredibly strong and finished under 4 hours, 26 minutes ahead of the next guy, someone I know by sight from running around Duluth. I saw maybe 4 50K runners before I got to the turnaround; I’d been hoping to avoid seeing any, but I realize that was pretty silly, considering even my initial time goals.

I thought I heard the aid station coming up, but it turned out it was a small pack of people with cowbells out to cheer us up over the top of Oberg Mountain. It was great to see them and get a nice pick-me-up, they were really lively. I did tease them that I thought they were the aid station and was a little bummed out. I also didn’t realize that the aid station isn’t on the top of the mountain. I don’t know why it would be, because that is stupid, you can’t drive to the top of these places. It meant another descent (fine) followed by another ascent (not fine).

The Oberg Aid Station people were totally amazing. There were people directing traffic, another guy greeted me with a pitcher of water to refill my bottle (I dumped the remaining contents of my water bottle on myself, soaking my hat and hair, before refilling), another guy put ice in my sports drink bottle himself and then handed me some cubes that I stuffed into my sports bra. I don’t remember where I read to do that, but whatever race report or blog I saw it on, I’m grateful, it came in handy. They had sunscreen at the aid station and I slathered up again, ate a couple of pretzels, and left.

The pretzels didn’t sit too well, so I had to back off the ascent out of the aid station. The banana I’d had for breakfast hadn’t been sitting well in my stomach for the whole race. It wasn’t disastrous, but I was burping banana and overall feeling a little yucky. The cold water and cold sports drink felt so good, I drank a little too much and started feeling full and nauseated. This was a very bad sign. I slowed down, even on the descent down Oberg, to let my stomach settle.

Then I hit the Moose Mountain climb, and that’s where the race fell apart. I felt so awful and sick climbing it. The only saving grace was it was in the shade; if it had been in the sun I’d have needed to crawl up. It took forever, and I finally took to stopping to let my heart rate go down and my nausea abate. I just felt so terrible. This happened the rest of the race: my stomach felt full, and then every time it settled, I would take another drink of water/Powerade and feel gross again. Most people would probably just puke and rally, but I am too much of a wimp for that. Another woman climbing behind me was shouting encouragement (how? she was climbing too!), which was so nice to hear. I cheered when I reached the top. I was surprised that I was able to do a little bit of running after a bit, but I was still mostly walking/hiking.

On the descent of Moose Mountain, I encountered a 50K runner, which wouldn’t have been unusual except that he’d already passed me. He’d run out of water and his body had just quit on him. Another 50K runner came across him at the same time I did and gave this guy his spare water bottle. Trail people are the best. I made it down Moose Mountain but I was in fairly rough shape at that point and had no interest in running. I knew there was one more ascent coming, but I thought it would be a bit easier.

Mystery Mountain was another disaster. It’s not as steep as Moose Mountain, but it goes on forever, and it’s in partial sun. (Maybe later on in the year, like, say, September, it is more shaded, once the trees have leaves, but the bare branches were offering no respite.) I encountered that poor guy with no water once again, and he had to get some more water from the woman behind me (same one cheering me up the Moose Mountain) to continue. I ran into two other 50K runners who needed water and I was able to share some. None of us accounted for the heat, but most runners were still prepared with hydration packs or handhelds. Some people either had nothing or had a single water bottle and had lost that gamble. I don’t get it. Maybe if I was fast I would, but running out of water on a hot day would have been terrible. The final aid station for the 50K (Oberg) is almost 8 miles from the finish. Be safe, people!

I felt crummy descending Mystery Mountain, and even tripped and fell once, although it was pretty slo-mo and I didn’t get hurt. All my goals were slipping away… sub-4, 4:15… then I adjusted to 4:30 and that came and went, and then I realized I was unlikely to beat my Zumbro time and unlikely to break 5 hours. It seems at some point my GPS got confused and I was shorted a mile. I know I didn’t go off course at any time because the shape of my GPS data is the same as the shape of the race map, and because the trail was extremely well-marked. So I’m not sure what happened there or when it happened, but I didn’t know that I was short according to my GPS data until I was almost done. I realized I was crossing the Poplar River again, and there was a volunteer there to cheer people on. She said “less than a mile to go!” and I hadn’t even hit 14 miles on the GPS yet. People at trail races aren’t jerks who lie about stuff like that, so I realized I could still break 5 hours and perked up a bit. The road is also mostly downhill so that was enticing, too. I was able to get a steady pace on the pavement, my stomach stayed under control, and I was able to run in to the finish.

I got my medal, drank a cup of cold water, and then got a cup of lemonade and sipped on that. There was chili for a post-race meal, but I just couldn’t imagine eating chili. I wanted to go back to the condo and die in piece. I found the poor dehydrated 50K guy, who was still upright and functional. He gave me a nice sweaty hug and said I saved his life, although I wasn’t the one who gave him water. I told him it just wasn’t our day, and he agreed and said it didn’t matter, being out there was what mattered, to which I agreed.

I am not too badly sunburned. Arms look ok, legs are ok, face has seen worse. I think my plan for the rest of the night is take-out from the resort restaurant, a bath in the whirlpool tub, maybe lance a few blisters, and then some Star Trek: Voyager and crossword puzzles, because I am cool. Oh, and a short evening hike down to the shore, for some active recovery. It should be blissful.

Superior 25K Goals

Hah, it’s less than 12 hours til race time and I’m finally getting around to planning my goals for this race. What does it really matter, though? They’re really more like predictions. I’ll run the best that I can.

I spent the afternoon checking out the competition handing out race t-shirts to runners checking in. It was a nice way to feel more part of the action and certainly beat sitting around in my condo at Lutsen Resort.

Oh, by the way, this place is unreal.

I am slightly annoyed I didn’t call the resort that serves as the start/finish of the race when I was making reservations, since apparently they did have rooms available. However, I was rewarded by being just a short walk from Lake Superior. I didn’t run today, but I did take a very short evening hike down by the shore and along the Poplar River near the resort. I am so very excited to get out on the trails and see what other wonders I may find.

Oh, yes, goals.

A Standard: 3:59:59
B Standard: 4:15:00

4:15 (16:46 pace) puts me just ~0:10/mile faster than Zumbro, and sub-4 (15:47 pace) just seems like something nice to shoot for. Seven months ago, I was shooting for sub-4 in the Harder’n Hell Half, and now I’m shooting for sub-4 in a two mile longer race. I think that would show great progress. I will just be happy with showing a pace improvement over Zumbro, when I was sick and it was cold. I need to be cognizant that the pace on my watch will not be accurate, since my GPS has consistently measured longer than the race distance.

The net elevation change in this race is a lot lower than Zumbro (2300 vs 6200ft net change), and reports from the RD and trail marking crew indicate good trail conditions. This is fantastic news. The weather should be good, possibly on the warm side, but I’m not going to whine about that. It isn’t going to be, like, 85 or anything awful. Still, the sooner I finish, the better, so that I don’t end up with a terrible sunburn.

It appears there are 5 climbs in the race, fairly evenly staggered throughout the race. The worst climb is right after the turnaround (or so the elevation chart would have me believe), so I’ll need to be ready for that. The first climb doesn’t look that pleasant, either, but I’m a good climber. Slow and steady. Unfortunately, the elevation chart isn’t as detailed as the one for Zumbro, so I do not know the approximate mile points where they occur. The only actual reference point I have for mileage is the aid station at Oberg Mountain, the turnaround point. I guess to be under 4 hours, I will want to be there by 10:00, and to be under 4:15, I’ll need to be there by 10:07. I figure since I’ll have already gone through 3 climbs at that point, I’ll be in good shape to turn and burn at the aid station. I plan to refill my water bottle there and maybe peruse some snacks, I don’t know. I like to get in and out.

The usual non-running goals apply: I don’t want to puke, become incontinent, pass out, or otherwise have a medical emergency. I need to warm up before this race, since I always say I will and then don’t, and I will start at the back of the pack as I always do, and run my own race. Here’s hoping I am not trampled by too many runners on their way back while I’m still heading out. I have not done an out-and-back race like this before, so it could be interesting.

I’m going to prep my water bottles and baggies and then head to bed. If I can get better sleep than I did for Zumbro, I should be in good shape!

Superior 25K Training: Week 5

One week to go! Yay!

Monday: 6 mi, treadmill, 138 bpm
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 5x1000m @ 10:10 pace, treadmill, 153 bpm
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: Be the Match 5K
Sunday: 6.4 mi, road, 138 bpm
Total: 21 mi

This week wasn’t supposed to be so low on mileage, but I didn’t feel 100% most of the week. I was never sick, just off, so I took extra time to rest.

This is a really dull week to report. I had good workouts, feel like I’ve been making good progress. I can run faster at a lower heart rate than I could when I was exclusively doing MAF workouts. I suspect this is a combination of finally shaking that cold I had and the warmer weather. Or staying inside when it wasn’t warm, like most of last week. Please, please, please, let the cold weather be done with for awhile. The extended forecast says that’s the case but it has said that many, many times before.

I felt pretty good during my run on Sunday, after a heavy breakfast and a 2.5 hour drive. My hamstrings were a little tight. Why don’t I ever warm up before races? I am so dumb. It lifted my spirits to run in 60F weather instead of 40F weather.

This week, I’m going to focus on easy runs and sleeping a sufficient amount each night. I’m really excited for the race, it’s only 5 days away! It’s a stark contrast to how I felt 5 days before Zumbro, so maybe that means I’ll have a fabulous race.

Race Report: Be The Match 5K 2016

Official Results:
Time: 30:51
Pace: 9:56
Placing:
Overall: 152/286
Gender: 68/151
Division (F30-39): 22/44

Watch Results:
Time: 30:56
Pace: 10:04
Distance: 3.07 mi
Heart Rate: 185

Goals:
A: 31:30
B: 32:00

Food:
What I ate the night before: Crackers and a banana chocolate chip muffin
What I ate on race morning: 3/4 of a plain bagel
What I carried with me: nothing

Gear:
What I wore: t-shirt, hoodie, buff as headband, shorts
Gadgets: GPS watch, heart rate monitor, fitness tracker

Discussion:
I exceeded my goals, which is outstanding. The race could have gone better for me, which is not outstanding.

I didn’t feel 100% well on Friday. I was… ok, but feeling a little off, at least where my GI system was concerned. I didn’t want to eat anything that would throw off my system more than it already was, so I didn’t have a very good dinner. We were also driving down to the Twin Cities during dinner time, so my food options were limited. I woke up in the morning feeling hungry but also nauseated, a poor combination. And of course slept poorly. First two “keys to success” nailed. Not.

We arrived to the race later than planned, of course. It was COLD. Maybe 36-37F. I left all my stuff in my mom’s car, including my Body Glide, so I was fairly certain I was going to have no skin left on my thighs at the end of the race, but there was nothing to be done. We met up with the rest of my family and were going to hand out bib numbers and shirts for the team, but it turned out they had checked in again, and due to a miscommunication, had received new bibs. It wasn’t a big deal since the only people running with timing chips were my husband, my sister-in-law, and me.

I didn’t miss the tot trot (key to success: check!), but my nephew was cranky and didn’t want to run. It was cold, so I get it. My sister in law carried him so he “completed” the race. I failed to do a proper warm-up (ANOTHER key to success missed), but I did get in a few minutes of running, which was… slow. And disheartening. I had no pep in my step. The call for 5K runners to line up was right after the tot trot ended, so I went to the back to get in position. There were signed for different paces, ending with 10:00, but there was hardly any space between 10:00 milers and walkers/strollers. Annoying. I saw my brother, sister-in-law, and husband lined up in the 9 minute group and moved up.

We started off slow, dodging walkers and slower runners as we moved up. I started off probably too fast and just figured screw it, go for it, don’t back off. I separated from the rest of my family and then my husband ran up alongside me and then passed me. This is his first race ever, I think (and his first in 20+ years, for sure), and he beat me by a minute or so. Pretty bada$$, but now the competition is on for the Midnight Sun Midnight Run  next month! Mile 1 split: 10:08. There was a slight GPS error here, and the map of my run shows me cutting through the lake, which most certainly didn’t happen.

I remembered my mistake from last year, not getting any water at the water stop halfway through. This time, I did, and I felt yucky after drinking it. I’m used to drinking water at a slow pace, not a fast (for me) pace. I kept checking my watch and reminding myself to push the pace. Mile 2 split: 9:49.

In the third mile, I slowed quite a bit, conserving energy (ha, more like being lazy) for a final push at the end. I didn’t quite have as much pep as I’d have liked, but I don’t usually go out so hard. It didn’t smell like dead fish at the end, which was good. Mile 3 split: 10:19. 0.07 extra: 9:09 pace. The weird glitch in the first mile must have thrown off the distance, as the course was USATF-certified and my GPS usually measures long.

My husband destroyed himself to get under 30 minutes (not realizing that he had a nice cushion, since he was running without a watch and had no idea what his start time was relative to gun time), as I discovered him sitting on the ground near the chute. He got up and walked around and felt better, and then we caught up with the other runners in the family and got our free food. Then we froze our butts off waiting for the walkers to finish, which wasn’t that pleasant. I was glad not to be sweltering during the race itself, but we were outside for an hour after completing the race.

I’m pleased with my time, and I feel like a sub-30 5K is within reach this year, maybe even next month. That’s a tall order, but with adequate sleep and nutrition, I know I’ve got more in the tank.

I also had a personal best in fundraising; I raised $551.66, and my team raised $1286.66 in total. Both family members who were bone marrow transplant recipients participated in the walk; we have been fortunate! I’m so proud to support Be the Match and to help others find life-saving donors.

Be The Match 5K 2016 Goals

This is my first repeat race! I’m excited to outdo Donna 2015. Here are links to last years goals and race report.

Last year I ran the race in 36:09. My current personal best is 32:31, run at the Gobble Gallop in November. It’s been almost 6 months since I’ve run a 5K, and I’ve hardly done any speed work in the meantime, but I still think I can improve upon my Gobble Gallop time. This might be a stupid idea, because I have Superior next weekend, but the races are such different animals, I’m not worried about wrecking my trail 25K by trying to race a 5K. I mean, I could get injured, but beyond that I’m unconcerned.

A Standard: 31:30
B Standard: 32:00

So, looking at a 30 second-1 minute improvement over my best time. I think that’s possible. I even think it is conservative, but I’m not sure. I did a 5K “predictor” workout on the treadmill on Wednesday, doing 5×1000 at 10:10 pace, with 200m walking recovery in between. It sucked, but I hit the paces each time, and I was able to get my heart rate down into the aerobic zone in each recovery. I just don’t really know what that translates to on the road. I would like to think it actually translates to faster than 31:30, but we’ll see. I didn’t want to run on the treadmill, but it was dismal, cold, and rainy outside on Wednesday, so I stayed inside.

Keys to success on Saturday:
1. Don’t eat crap the day before. I’m always doing dumb stuff like eating a whole burrito, or eating something that upsets my stomach, and then I get a terrible night’s sleep or I feel like I’m still full at race time.

2. Try to get a decent night’s sleep. I don’t know if that’s possible. I’ll be arriving at my mom’s at around 11 PM tonight, and I’m sure my nephew will be up at like 5 am being a loud kid, as kids are wont to be.

3. Warm up. Which I always say. I do usually manage to warm up for short races, at least a little bit.

4. Dig deep and hang on. I’ve never run an all-out 5K. Probably never will. Certainly will not tomorrow. But, I let myself get psyched out last year, by the weather, by my stomach, by the annoying smell of dead fish. I think I’m in a better position to push a little harder, since I have run much more challenging races than this one.

5. Don’t miss the little squirt running the Tot Trot. Last year we had some logistical confusion (i.e. my mom decided to make pancakes the morning of the race and it took forever so we didn’t leave on time) and we had to park rather far away and missed the kiddo race. He is 3 1/2 this year so he has a better chance of understanding what’s going on.

I’ve raised over $400 personally, and my team has raised over $1000, so we’ve already PRed in fundraising!

Training and Traveling

Last week was the fourth time I’ve traveled in 2016, and it was the first time I was able to successfully work out. I’ve been foiled by a broken treadmill with no backup plan (UP Michigan), mostly laziness (Florida), and illness (Calgary).

While in Edmonton last week, I was actually very successful at fitting in workouts. Gold stars for me!

I benefited from a couple of things:
1. My company doesn’t require me to work on long travel days, so I can choose my own schedule.
2. I was able to check a bag which allowed me to bring a lot more stuff along and also gave me more freedom to move around the airport.
3. I traveled to a very walkable city, and had amazing weather the entire visit.

Here’s how I stayed active while in Edmonton:

Tuesday: Travel day
I didn’t leave Duluth until 3 PM, so I was able to sleep in and shake off the crummy, tired feeling I’d had for the past week. I had a long layover in Minneapolis, of my own design. I hate being cooped up in planes (I am also not fond of being cooped up in airports, but it’s better than a plane), so I like to have a little break between flights. I also don’t want to risk a delay; I was on the last flight to Edmonton for the night, so if I’d had a delay out of Duluth on a later flight, I’d have been hosed. This is largely irrelevant, but the point is I had a lot of time in the airport. So I walked around a lot. Shopped a little bit, got a bite to eat, and then just wandered. Sat and worked for awhile, wandered again. Customs at the Edmonton airport is also comically far from the gate where we landed; I guess they figured we fat Americans needed a little extra workout. I booked it down the corridors to try to beat a few of my fellow travelers to the customs line, only to discover it wasn’t that big of a line (unlike my trip to Calgary). I reached 10,000 steps without fitting in a workout, for the first time since getting my tracker.

Wednesday: Work day
I got a lot of steps in 1. finding my workplace 2. dealing with my credit card (long story) 3. getting lunch and 4. heading to dinner with my colleagues. I think again I was at 10,000 steps without working out. I stuffed my face at dinner, but I made it back to the hotel with plenty of time to let food settle before getting on the treadmill. I ran 5 miles in the relatively warm hotel gym, and then did some push-ups after I got back to my room. I was a little wound-up when I tried to go to sleep, but no big deal.

Thursday: Team building event
More walking: to work, to another building, to lunch, back to the hotel for a minute after lunch. We had a team building event in the afternoon at a local park, and were allowed to wear our comfortable clothes to the morning meeting. I probably stretched this a bit by wearing a buff (as a headband), a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, but hey, I was ready for the afternoon. I ran over to the park after leaving the hotel, which was supposed to be about 2.5 km (when in Rome…), but ended up being a 5k, since I made some wrong turns. Hooray. I was late for the kickball game. After kickball, I played some 3 on 3 soccer, which about killed me, and then probably racked up a bunch of “steps” playing ping pong. I walked back to the hotel with some coworkers and ended up running up a bunch of steps to… I’m not sure what. Another woman and I decided to do it rather than take a very slow escalator in the Shaw Conference Center. Again, it nearly killed me. I ran 3 miles on the treadmill once back at the hotel, although it was an unpleasant run thanks to the 10-12 teenagers who decided to use the hotel gym as their personal hangout.

Friday: Travel day
Got up at 4:30 am, did a little bit of airport walking during my layover in Minneapolis, sat on the plane in the Duluth airport for an hour before disembarking, thanks to a thunderstorm, and decided to call it a rest day.

Overall, I think I did pretty well at working out while traveling. I could have gotten a workout on Tuesday if I’d chosen to get on an earlier flight, but the walking I did was plenty. It was a good time for a cutback week as it was. Next time I go to Edmonton, I need to do some more running along the river; it is gorgeous.

Superior 25K Training: Week 4

Taking a step back was a great choice. My resting heart rate is down again, and I feel energized and cheered by the improved weather.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: rest/travel
Wednesday: 5 mi, treadmill, 135 bpm
Thursday: 3.3 mi, road, unknown HR + 3 mi, treadmill, 137 bpm
Friday: rest/travel
Saturday: 7.3 mi, road + trail (SHT – Martin Rd trailhead to home), 124 bpm
Sunday: 9 mi, trail (SHT – Highland/Getchell trailhead to home), 142 bpm
Total: 27.7 mi

My week was a hodgepodge of running. I was so tired on Monday that I didn’t run at all. I’d planned just a short run, maybe 4 miles, but I just couldn’t do it. I slept in on Tuesday since my flight wasn’t til later, and got a decent night’s sleep on Tuesday, so I was already feeling a heck of a lot better. The weather in Edmonton was great, too, which helped perk me up as well.

Wednesday I ran 5 treadmill miles, and Thursday I had a split workout: 3.3 miles running from my hotel to my work event (followed by kickball and soccer) and then 3 more treadmill miles in the evening. I had a long day on Friday, starting at 4:30 a.m. mountain time, and I sat on the plane for an hour once I finally got back to Duluth, as severe weather prevented the ground crew bringing the plane in (it’s def. not safe to be working around a giant metal airplane when there’s lightning nearby), so by the time I got home, I had lost motivation to even get a couple miles in.

Saturday I waited too long after eating to run, and I ended up running with dead legs and no energy. I should have brought a granola bar or something just in case; I thought the big sandwich I’d had at lunch would be sufficient. I hated most of the run, plodding along. It’s clear from my low average heart rate (124 bpm!) that I could have run much faster.

Sunday confirmed for me that I don’t really know how to run fast anymore. I was running pretty slowly (even for me) and again at a low heart rate (on the flats and downhills); I think a winter of slow runs dictated by my heart rate monitor has left me with a too-slow “comfortable” pace. My heels both have blisters on them from breaking in my new shoes, so that also prevented me from wanting to speed up. My GI system was a little off, so there was ANOTHER excuse. Eventually I was able to push myself past my excuses and speed up.

I’m running a 5K this upcoming weekend, so this week I’m going to leave the trails behind and focus on getting my legs turning over faster. I don’t mean a week of speed work, just a week of shaking off that complacent stride I’ve had for months.