slow runners

Zumbro 17 Training: Week 12

Race week!

Monday: 4 mi, treadmill, 131 bpm
Tuesday: 4 mi, treadmill, 133 bpm
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 3 mi, treadmill, 135 bpm
Friday: rest (travel + volunteering)
Saturday: 16.7 mi, trail (race!), 138 bpm
Sunday: rest (travel + sloth)
Total: 27.7 mi

Huh, that turned out to be a bigger mileage week than I thought. That’s good, because I have to segue right into Superior 25K training. Zumbro was a long hard training run for Superior, let’s say. But it was more than that, even though I didn’t list it as a goal race, it became one for me.

I took it very, VERY easy leading up to the race, with 3 gentle treadmill runs. I decided not to run outside since it was cold and I didn’t want to risk getting sick. I ended up getting a little bit sick anyway, as I’ve already complained about.

There’s nothing much to say, I am waiting on the final race results before I post my race recap. Since there is no cell service or wifi or anything at Zumbro, the timing and results are run a little differently. I learned a little bit about all the ways they double and triple back up the race data during my stint in the timing booth. Some chips weren’t reading right so some lap or finish data may have to be manually entered. I finished in 4:5X:XX I think. I could only see the clock for the 100 miler race, so I didn’t note my time as I crossed the mat.

I will take a few days off, and I have a massage scheduled for Tuesday evening. I will probably do some yoga this evening and then resume running on Wednesday, when it will be a little milder. The weather forecast is starting to look good!

Zumbro 17 Goals

This race will officially mark the longest distance I’ve ever completed under my own power in one attempt. My previous record was 16 miles, which I completed when I was 20 during a Relay for Life event at the University of Illinois. I walked 16 miles on the track through the night. I don’t remember how long it took since it was 13 years ago. I’m sure there will be a fair amount of walking on Saturday.

I don’t know what to expect for this race. I was very prepared for the Harder ‘N Hell Half back in October. I’d run the entire course once, as well as multiple segments of the course. I’ve never been on this Zumbro course. It includes sand, which I can’t stand. I slept in my own bed the night before HNH; I’ll be sleeping in a hotel 20 miles away from the race start and 4 hours away from home. My mileage is similar, but I think the terrain was tougher last fall. I was doing more trail runs, more hills, some speed work, etc. This time around, I was working on building an aerobic base, and did a lot more treadmill or road running thanks to snow, ice, and darkness. I’ll have to do a comparison after the race is over.

My illness plus the running conditions (cold, icy, snowy, muddy, etc) that I’ve faced over the past few months have left me uncertain of my abilities. I also have done very little running over my target heart rate, so I don’t know what kind of speed I have at, say, an average of 145 bpm, or 150 bpm. What kind of a boost do I get if I let go of my self-imposed limitations? I don’t know.

The goal in the back of my mind for months has been 5 hours. So I’m going with that.

A Standard: 4:59:59
B Standard: 5:29:59

If it’s muddy, pouring rain, snowing, or the weather is otherwise extreme, goals take a backseat to finishing.

I need to maintain about a 17:38 pace in order to finish in 5 hours.  I’m giving myself a little fudge factor, because the race is actually 16.7 miles long. That pace includes stopping at aid stations, which I want to minimize. I hope to refill on water and grab a snack or two at stations 2 and 4, and run through 1 and 3, unless I need water at 3. My friend is a ham radio operator at the 1 / 4 aid station, so I will have to make sure to say hi on my way through. The distance between aid stations in this race is pretty short (the longest distance between stations is 4.33 mi), so it’s very easy to skip a couple stops.

As always, I don’t want to puke, become incontinent, pass out, or otherwise have a medical emergency. I’ll have my heart rate monitor on and while I won’t be strictly regulating an aerobic pace, I will make sure that I’m at an aerobic HR before I start eating. I think that was my problem in HNH when I got nauseated and couldn’t eat. I was going uphill and my heart rate was probably pretty high, but I didn’t have a monitor and wasn’t as in tune to how I felt at different heart rates, so I tried to eat.

Starting the race in last/close to last worked well last time, so I think I’ll do that again. I can start off slowly and take the first climb at my own pace. I will run everything that I can, and walk the rest without feeling guilty about it. Post-race, I may stick around to help, or I may drive back to the hotel after eating plenty of food. I felt kind of crappy after the HNH but once I ate some fries and chicken tenders I felt amazing. I want to feel safe to make the drive back before I head out; I don’t need a low blood sugar situation taking hold while I’m driving down the highway.

I’m looking forward to getting out on the trails, cheering on 100 and 50 milers who pass me, high fiving people at the aid station, and overall having a rockin’ time. If I finish smiling, it’ll be a success.

Zumbro 17 Training: Week 11

April Fool’s came a day late in the Northland.

Wahhhhhh.

Monday: 4.1 mi, road, 138 bpm
Tuesday: 5.1 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk), 136 bpm, discussed here
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 5 mi, treadmill, 136 bpm
Friday: rest
Saturday: 7 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk), 138 bpm
Sunday: 9 mi, treadmill (with short potty break around 6 miles), 137 bpm
Total: 30.3 mi

Boring week of training. It’s cold again/still. I was hoping to do trail running over the weekend, but I didn’t feel like slogging through fresh snow on Saturday, or worrying about ice on Sunday. Saturday’s run was kind of tiring for some reason, probably because I was cold. My heart rate was higher than normal throughout the rest of the day and I felt like crap when I went to bed. Of course that was also because I ate a BW3 philly sandwich for dinner which was both disappointing and rough on my digestive system.

I still have a lot of logistic work to do for the race on Saturday. I have never traveled for a longer race, so this will be new for me. I’ve also never been on the course. I need to figure out what to pack, stock up on anything that I need, and read the race info to figure out a race plan.

I don’t really know what to think. This training cycle has been kind of depressing for me, since I’ve been sick for what, like half of it? Plus it’s still cold, and I was hoping for some warmer days to gain a bit more confidence, and to see if maybe that would clear up the last vestiges of my cold/whatever. I feel like a big whiny whiner lately, but I can’t help it. My illness and the depressing weather have really affected me.

This upcoming week will be light on running so I can feel rested and relaxed going into the race. I’ll probably run short runs Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and then rest Wednesday and volunteer Friday!

Bad Decisions

Tuesday was a day I really shouldn’t have run. I knew it, and I did it anyway. Nothing bad happened but it was a bit risky.

This sounds ominous but in reality I was just tired. I put up a “big” week last week with 36 miles, including 12 on Sunday, and then ran 4 on Monday. I could have used Tuesday as a rest day, and halfway through my workday when I was feeling sleepy, I was planning on it. But I looked at the forecast and I knew it was going to rain yesterday, so I figured I could leg out another day.

I went to the Lakewalk, starting at Brighton Beach, because it’s just gorgeous. There were people fishing on the lake near the Lester River. We’re all ready for spring in the northland, whenever it decides to show up.

The run was frustrating, because my heart rate would not behave, confirming I would have been better off at home. The Lakewalk is such an easy place to run, I should have been throwing down paces in the 15 minute range (BLISTERING SPEED, dontcha know), but here’s what I ended up running:

Mile 1: 17:28, 131 bpm
Mile 2: 16:18, 140 bpm
Mile 3: 16:23, 139 bpm
Mile 4: 15:46, 140 bpm
Mile 5: 16:27, 134 bpm
Loose change: 0.2 mi, 18:51 pace, 125 bpm
Overall: 5.2 mi, 16:33 pace, 136 bpm

Maybe I’m just that slow, but I doubt it. Yesterday was a rest day, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It rained most of the day, although it cleared up by the time I’d have been running, and was warmer than I thought, so it turned out I could have put off my run another day. Hindsight’s 20/20! I did do a yoga video and 20 pushups, so it wasn’t entirely a rest day, but nothing strenuous. The plan is a run today, rest Friday, and then medium-length runs (thinking 6 and 9 miles) on Saturday and Sunday, before majorly stepping down in volume for race week.

Speaking of bad choices, I’m now registered for a 5K on May 14th, which is a week before the Superior 25K. It’s the Be The Match Walk+Run (that’s a link to my fundraising page, thank you Dad for priming the pump), which I ran last year. I will probably be stupid and try to see what kind of speed I’ve got remaining in my legs. It’s a good thing I’m a timid racer, that should hold me back a little. I hope to PR in both the run (32:30 or less!) and fundraising ($276.67 or more!). And maybe I’ll finally have a 5K where I haven’t eaten a burrito or other Mexican meal the night before.

Zumbro 17 Training: Week 10

I was this close to DNSing the race and heading to Tampa for the Frozen Four.

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Source: Michael Dwyer/AP via the St. Cloud Times.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 4.5 mi, treadmill, 136 bpm
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 6 mi, treadmill, 134 bpm
Friday: 7.5 mi, road (MAF test), 137 bpm
Saturday: 6.0 mi, treadmill, 139 bpm
Sunday: 12.1 mi, trails (Hartley), 141 bpm (with large sections of “cheating” over 142 bpm)
Total: 36 mi

If I wake up tomorrow with my cold worse again I am going to explode. And DNS the damned race.

I decided screw it, I was going to run anyway, despite the cold. I stayed inside for my evening runs, to make sure I didn’t get too cold (plus it was dismal outside) and could stop at anytime if my heart rate went crazy.

I already discussed the MAF test. Saturday’s run was unremarkable. It was snowing off and on all day so I had to stay inside, which sucked.

Sunday I needed to get outside and run a challenging run, for confidence’s sake. I don’t know what I was really thinking I would prove from a long-ish run, but I guess I needed time to practice eating and drinking during a reasonably long run. My goal was to run 12 miles in 4 hours aerobically. I am fairly amazed that I managed to get almost exactly 12 miles from a route not planned in advance. I went to Hartley and did Root Canal, 2 loops of Guardrail, Root Canal again, and then some kind of cobbled together route that involved unpacked snow. So the last few miles were in the most difficult terrain, unintentionally. I was getting cranky as heck because I just couldn’t stay below that 20 min pace and stay under 142 bpm. I was hoping to make up time at the end and hit the fluffy snow and couldn’t, so I “cheated” and just listened to my monitor beep away while I ran above my target heart rate. At this point, who cares? My training was interrupted by a cold for almost a freaking month. It undid a heck of a lot of the gains I’d made in fitness, especially aerobic fitness. I’ll be managing, rather than micro-managing, my heart rate at Zumbro, anyway. And I just hope and pray that there’s no snow and it isn’t a muddy slogfest the whole way. Some nice dry dirt trails would be amazing. I’ll be so fast! Ha.

The breakdown:
Mile 1: 19:18, 121 bpm
Mile 2: 19:40, 135 bpm
Mile 3: 20:03, 142 bpm
Mile 4: 21:53, 143 bpm
Mile 5: 19:15, 134 bpm
Mile 6: 21:24, 145 bpm
Mile 7: 21:17, 142 bpm
Mile 8: 19:31, 141 bpm
Mile 9: 19:01, 147 bpm
Mile 10: 20:03, 148 bpm
Mile 11: 20:18, 145 bpm
Mile 12: 16:49, 148 bpm
Loose change: 19:49 pace, 150 bpm (weird)

I ate a protein bar and drank about 10 oz of sports drink and 10 oz of water during the run and didn’t have any major stomach issues. I felt kinda crappy at the beginning but that was because I ate a banana while driving to Hartley and bananas don’t always sit well in my stomach. It seems like a decent strategy although Clif bars are a pain in the butt to open. I might break them into bite-sized pieces beforehand and carry them in a plastic bag for the race. I should also try chowing down at aid stations, since food is always easily accessible there, and then have the bars as a back-up.

The next couple weeks are going to be gentler as I prepare for the race, rest, and get back to healthy. The weather should be a BIT milder, and race day is looking to have a high of over 50 F! I can’t wait, maybe I can even run outside in shorts. I’ve got a lot of logistics to plan and I need to study the race information as I’ll be going in with no inkling about the course. Scary that it’s in less than two weeks, but I’m excited to race again, it’s been over 4 months.

MAF Test #3

I decided to do one last MAF test in this training cycle, despite missing all that training and despite still being sick. I kind of just wanted to see how bad the damage was. Plus the weather today was probably the most pleasant it’ll be in Duluth from now until the race. The extended forecast makes me a sad panda.

It was probably a bad idea to do the MAF test and also to run 7 miles outdoors, because I kinda feel crummy tonight, but I’m hoping a good night’s sleep will correct that. My sinuses are clearing, and I’m hoping my lungs will follow.

For reference: MAF #1, MAF #2.

Warm-up: 1 mile, walking and easy running, 17:45, 123 bpm avg.

My heart rate wasn’t jumping all over the place, which was really nice. I was able to transition to my target heart rate much more smoothly than I have in the past, which is no doubt due to the nicer weather. It was windy and I was walking into the wind at the beginning, so my heart rate was in the 120s to start, but once I turned away from the wind it settled down.

Mile 1: 15:35, 141 bpm
Mile 2: 15:27, 141 bpm
Mile 3: 15:36, 142 bpm
Mile 4: 13:44, 141 bpm
Mile 5: 13:45, 141 bpm

Ok the last 2 miles are crap data. Something was up with my GPS as I was hitting like 8:XX paces while staying aerobic. Nope. I don’t know what happened, it seemed to either give me extra distance during those last few miles, or shorted me miles in the beginning. I know one or both of these things happened because I ran an out-and-back and ended up measuring about 0.3 miles more than expected. Annoying. I know there was some kind of problem because Strava has the difference between my moving time and my elapsed time at 10 minutes, and I didn’t stop at all on the run.

Cooldown: 1.47 miles, easy running and then walking, 16:53, 135 bpm avg.

I didn’t really learn very much from this run, other than that I’m about 30 seconds below my average pace from test #2, which can 100% be blamed on this illness and the accompanying training gaps. I’m really, really hoping I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling better, and not more miserable. I mean, I have to, right? I can’t stay sick forever. It’s getting annoying, and it’s making me annoying.

Winter Wish List Rehash

I guess it’s technically spring, although the weather in Duluth has been decidedly un-springlike. While outsiders all know the winters here are harsh, most people don’t know the springs are depressing. It sometimes feels like it’ll never get warm. I looked at the extended forecast and see one mild day (tomorrow) followed by highs in the low 40s to high 30s going all the way into April.

Anyway, I felt like whining a bit about the weather because it’s cold and my cold has come back again. Wahhhhh.

In December I came up with a gear wish list for cold weather, similar to the one I did for summer last year. In September I looked back at the summer list and evaluated what I’d acquired and what I hadn’t.

My cold weather gear wish list was as follows:

High Priority:
A new pair of gloves nope
Heavier-weight running tights nope
Head lamp yup
Superior Hiking Trail Membership yup
Upper Midwest Trail Runners Membership yup

Medium Priority:
A new sports bra nope
New hose for my hydration backpack nope
A heavyweight running hoodie yup

Low priority:
Another pair of shoes nope
New socks nope

I didn’t spend a lot of money on running stuff, which is a good thing! Especially since I had to spend a ton of money on other stuff. I got a headlamp, which I love, and I also got a reflective vest, which is not on the list but is a good safety item to have. I spent a decent amount of time running outside since it wasn’t absolute zero outside for weeks on end, and I felt a lot safer running at night with the headlamp and vest.

For Christmas, I got the medium weight Bulldog hoodie I talked about in the initial wish list post. I like it but it’s not really that warm. I ended up running with like four shirts on. I really did need to get new gloves and I didn’t. I’ve had a few instances where my hands have gotten extremely cold and a heavier-weight glove would have taken care of that.

I haven’t used my hydration backpack at all so there was no need to get a hose. I wanted to get new shoes and just… didn’t. I might get new shoes after Zumbro. Maybe. I ended up just wearing regular old socks all winter and my feet never got cold. I suffered through with the same old crappy sports bras I’ve always had, and I just wore tights over other tights instead of getting tights with a lining or long underwear or something. Next winter I really need some more advanced gear. I was getting sick of wearing so many layers.

I joined the UMTR and Superior Hiking Trail. So far I haven’t done anything with the memberships. I did get a sweet buff from UMTR that I wear all the time. I wore it at the airport, which was a mistake, because I ended up getting a pat-down from security. The UMTR has a set of race series that provides friendly competition throughout the year. I joined the Trail Run Series since it fits in with most of the races I have planned. The only outlier is the Wild Duluth 50K, which actually isn’t on any of the Series.

I didn’t do a winter running “bucket list” like I did for the summer, because I didn’t know what would be accessible and what wouldn’t be. I’m really looking forward to ticking off some items on this summer’s list. I’m really looking forward to it being warm enough to run without layers and without feeling chilled to the bone afterward. Maybe in May…