slow runners

Zumbro 17 Training: Week 9

If you were to ask me yesterday, I’d say I was almost over my cold/crud/whatever. Today, a relapse.

Monday: 5.6 mi, trails (Bagley), 134 bpm
Tuesday: 6.1 mi, treadmill (cold and rainy), 136 bpm
Wednesday: 5 mi, treadmill (cold and rainy/snowy/gross), 136 bpm
Thursday: rest (travel)
Friday: 5.3 mi, road and trail (Westwood Nature Center), 134 bpm
Saturday: rest (hockey)
Sunday: 8.5 mi, road, 139 bpm
Total: 30.6 mi

I’m back in the mileage range I want to be in, but I do wish I’d been able to get in a long run. I was planning on doing a longer mid-week run and possibly even doing another MAF test, but the weather turned sour and I decided to take it inside.

Thursday-Sunday, I was in the Twin Cities for a hockey tournament. I worked Thursday and we drove down after work, so it was a planned rest day. Friday I ran around my old neighborhood and into Westwood Nature Center, which I reviewed last year around the same time. Saturday I planned on getting in a short run and instead slept until 11:15. I guess I needed that.

Sunday’s run was… somewhat of a mistake. I returned to Duluth around 5 pm and headed out for a run at 6 pm. I ended up running about a mile and a half longer than expected and was out after dark a lot longer than I wanted to be. The temp dropped about 10 degrees and I was a little underdressed in just a hoodie and short sleeved tech tee on top. Fortunately, I had gloves, but my arms and hands were pretty cold by the end. Whoops. It’s no surprised that today I’m tired and feel yucky. A long sleeved shirt under my hoodie would have been perfect. The good news is, if I ran at the same pace as I did yesterday for the entire Zumbro 17, I’d come in under 5 hours, as is my goal. Obviously that’s not realistic, but running during the day, in milder weather, with food and water readily available, maybe it’s still possible.

This upcoming week is going to be my last tough week, with a long run planned for this weekend. I’ll ease up a bit the following week, and then kinda sorta taper during race week. I am really winging it with this training cycle, which has its advantages and disadvantages, but it’s kind of relaxing to have so much flexibility. We’ll see if it pays off on race day.

Zumbro 17 Training: Week 8

Ok I’m running again, hooray.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: rest
Friday: 5.3 mi, road, 137 bpm
Saturday: 6.4 mi, trail (Hartley Root Canal & Guardrail), 139 bpm
Sunday: 9.4 mi, trail (SHT, Twin Ponds to Haines Road & back), 147 bpm
Total: 21.1 mi

Thursday I finally made a breakthrough in my cold/whatever was wrong with me. I was able to breathe deeply without feeling like coughing, and I no longer felt sluggish physically and mentally. I haven’t shaken this illness completely, but I felt on Friday like I was at a point where I could run again without setting my recovery back. It was warm enough to run without a boatload of layers, so I had to take the opportunity.

I had a few wonky heart rate issues while running on Friday, although some of them were periods where my heart rate was too low, and others where it was spiking while going slowly on a downhill, so I think there was a bit of an issue with the monitor. I’ve definitely lost some fitness.

Saturday was incredibly warm for March. It was 65F while I was out at Hartley, and I was running in a t-shirt and wishing I’d also worn shorts. Unfortunately, it wasn’t warm enough in the shaded areas of the trail, and it was incredibly icy in some areas of the Root Canal path. I was extremely cautious and managed to only fall once, and I was already hanging on to a tree, so I was able to prevent a crash. Both feet slid out from under me though, so I was clinging to the tree trunk for dear life for a moment. The Fisherman path was so icy that a guy who had passed me earlier decided to turn around rather than try to traverse it, and this guy was a pretty serious-looking runner. He was even carrying soup cans as hand weights. Fortunately, the Rhamnus trail also leads to the Guardrail trail, and that was snowy, but manageable, so I was able to get my mileage in. It was slow, again, but the soft snow was definitely a factor.

It didn’t get below freezing on Saturday night, so I decided to take a chance on running some of the city portion of the Superior Hiking Trail. I started at Twin Ponds and ran until I reached Haines Road. I turned around a little early because I didn’t want to take the steep climb on the other side of Haines Road, so I didn’t hit my planned 10 miles. I don’t care, it was worth it to skip that climb. The trail wasn’t icy, but it had some soft snow and a lot of mud, standing water, and running water. The trail itself had turned into a stream in a few points. I did my very best to be a responsible trail runner, sticking to the trail and just suffering with wet and muddy feet, rather than trying to get around muddier spots and widening the trail, causing further damage. I was pretty worn out on the climbs, and I think I only ended up with 2 of the 9 miles under 20 minute pace. I wish I knew how much of that could be attributed to my own conditioning and how much was due to the trail conditions. It would do a lot for my confidence, which is low right now. I completely gave up on trying to manage my heart rate after awhile. I guess another round of MAF training is in order, with more of a trail focus. I told myself it was more like a race effort! But really I was justifying cheating on my training. Let me tell you, it was incredibly depressing to see my heart rate spiking while going at incredibly slow paces.

I got into the Moose Mountain Marathon via the lottery, so I am pretty pumped about that, and I also got my volunteer assignment for Zumbro. I will be helping in the timing area on Friday night. I don’t know what that entails, because I don’t think anyone will be finishing during the time I’ll be assisting (course record is 18 hours, and I’ll be done 14 hours in), but the start/finish area is also an aid station since this is a looped course (6 loops for 100 milers, 3 for the 50s), so maybe we record in/out times at the aid station? I don’t know, I’m just glad to be of service.

Zumbro 17 Training: Weeks 6 and 7

I haven’t run in 15 days.

This stretches back to before my vacation. I ran Monday (2/22) and Tuesday (2/23) of that week, for about 10 miles total (Bagley on Monday night, treadmill on Tuesday), but on Tuesday I noticed my heart rate was more rapid at my normal paces, and I kept feeling like I needed to cough. Knowing I was going to be on a plane on Thursday, I rested Wednesday and felt ok.

Florida was amazing, although it wasn’t exceptionally warm. It was warm enough and sunny enough, but it wasn’t 80 degrees and tropical. I slept poorly and woke up early every day, so I didn’t want to tire myself out further with exercising. I maximized my family time. I suppose I did get some exercise in, in the form of an aggressive game of… I’m not sure what, basically bopping a beach ball around in the pool. It doesn’t have a name yet, the sport is too new.

I returned to Duluth on Monday (2/29), and woke up in the middle of the night because I couldn’t take a deep breath without my lungs trying to cough. I spent the next 2 days working my abs by coughing up a storm. I still haven’t been able to fully shake whatever is wrong with me. Basically just a lot of crap in my lungs. Of course, another plane trip to Calgary for work, with its already dry air exacerbated by the stuffiness of my (otherwise lovely) hotel room, ended up setting me back a lot in recovery.

I am not going to push myself to get back to running, but I really do hope that I can return to running either this weekend or next week. I’ve been very fortunate that I have had no other symptoms (other than tiredness, but that’s to be expected since I’ve been traveling and my lungs are full of crap, so my pulmonary system isn’t working efficiently), but until I can take true, cleansing, deep breaths without feeling like I need to cough, I won’t run.

Zumbro isn’t a goal race, although I did have high hopes for an improvement in overall pacing. The 17 mile race has a nice generous cutoff time, thanks to the 50 and 100 milers, so even if I’m not in perfect shape, I should be able to finish it, even with, say, 2.5 weeks off. I’m just disappointed by the length of this illness.

I may decide to make a new training calendar, focused on the Superior Spring 25K, in order to change my mindset a little. I wish I was running (especially after my friend, visiting last weekend and also training for Zumbro, had a great trail run on the SHT), but at the same time because I feel crappy, I also lack enthusiasm for running. I lack enthusiasm for most things, actually.

I did enter the lottery for the Moose Mountain Marathon in September, though! Because I do know that my ennui will fade as my health improves.

Zumbro 17 Training: Week 5

A step backward, but a small one.

Monday: rest (sick)
Tuesday: 5 mi, treadmill, 134 bpm
Wednesday: 4.5 mi, treadmill (including 15 min @ 15% incline), 135 bpm
Thursday: rest (sick)
Friday: 2.5 mi, treadmill, 133 bpm (quit early)
Saturday: 6.4 mi, trail (Hartley), 139 bpm
Sunday: 12.3 mi, road, 136 bpm
Total: 30.7 mi

I wanted to be at 33 miles this week, so I was three miles low, but considering I wasn’t feeling well half the week, I am surprised I still made 30 miles. I wasn’t really sick sick. I actually think most of my issues stemmed from dehydration/uneven hydration. I drink a decent amount of water, but I am not hydrating evenly throughout the day. I made some small changes in my diet, cutting down to one (12 oz) cup of coffee a day and eating a yogurt (full-fat Greek) every day. I still eat like crap, but now slightly less like crap. For now.

Friday I was hoping to do a much longer run, but my heart rate wasn’t cooperating. It was elevated even at lower paces than I normally run, and I was tired and had a headache, so I quit early. I was just running on the treadmill, so I didn’t feel badly about quitting.

Saturday I finally got outside again. It was probably warm enough to go out earlier in the week, but I had wanted to stick close to home, plus I didn’t feel the sidewalks were safe enough for road running at night. I did a Root Cellar > Fisherman > Guardrail lollipop loop at Hartley Saturday afternoon. It started out great, I was feeling fantastic and able to keep my heart rate under control. Then I hit the hills of Guardrail and started having trouble with my heart rate. All the treadmill training I’ve been doing lately has taken its toll. It didn’t help that the snow was soft, so every time I stepped even slightly off the narrow portion of the trail that was packed, I was crunching through the snow. It was jarring and also resulted in a loss of energy due to the inelastic collision between my foot and the snow, which made me have to work harder.

Saturday I also went home after running and bought a car. It has no power steering, is leaking radiator fluid, the heater recently took to intermittently working, and it takes several tries to get it started, but I finally reached my limit when my car nearly overheated in the three miles it took to drive from my house to Hartley, even after adding radiator fluid only a few days earlier. It’s not an expense I wanted to have, but there was no reason to throw more money at a ’99 Pontiac with a rusted-out chassis and large chunks of bumper missing. I ate a granola bar after running and showering, but I probably should have had something more substantial as I started to get a little desperate for food at the dealer.

Sunday I did 12 miles on the road. I haven’t replaced my shoe chains yet, and it was quite an adventure. I was concerned about pulling a muscle as the sidewalks were very icy and I slipped several times. I didn’t fall, but I did wrench myself into some awkward positions trying to stay upright. The camber of the sidewalks, especially as I ran over the ends of driveways, made it extremely dangerous, as a slip would have sent me into oncoming traffic. Exciting! I ate one energy bar during the run and finished almost an entire water bottle, thanks to my new attentiveness to hydration. It snowed the whole time, which was both nice (beautiful, I live in a snow globe, la la la) and crappy (slippery, soaking gloves made my hands cold).

This upcoming week is a cutback week, as I’m going on vacation and don’t want to do a long run. We are celebrating my grandma’s 90th birthday, and I don’t want to take 3-4 hours for a long run in the middle of a family reunion. We’ll be in Florida so I won’t be used to the heat/humidity (although it won’t be too warm, I really mean that relatively), so it’s best to just keep to some short/mid-length runs. And if I don’t run, I don’t run, although I really do want to take maximum advantage of the opportunity to run outdoors in just a t-shirt and shorts!

ZUMBRO 17 TRAINING: WEEK 4

Now 33.33333% of the way there! With excessive significant figures.

Monday: 5 mi, treadmill, 137 bpm
Tuesday: rest (I went to a hockey game and pigged out on the world’s largest carrot cake serving from Bellisio’s, It’s more like 6-8 servings, and delicious.)
Wednesday: 4.5 mi, treadmill, 134 bpm
Thursday: 6.06 mi, treadmill, 137 bpm
Friday: rest
Saturday: 6.06 mi, treadmill, 139 bpm
Sunday: 11.1 mi, road/paved trail (Minnesota Point & lower Lakewalk), 138 bpm
Total: 32.7 mi

Hooray! Another great training week. I still managed an increase in mileage, despite taking two rest days. My workouts are really boring lately, because it’s been a lot of treadmill work, and they’re all done at MAF threshold, so there’s no variety. It’s warming up again, so that should change.

Thursday and Saturday I ran til the treadmill ran out of time, or as close to it as possible. Saturday’s HR was a little higher for some unknown reason.

Sunday’s long run was the first double-digit run of the year for me. It was ok. It wasn’t as warm as I would have liked, and it was icy in a lot of spots. My heart rate was all over the place due to the cold and wind. A week ago, I did 9.4 miles at 16:07 pace with an average HR of 135 bpm, and that included a very deliberate 2 mile warm-up and 2+ mile cool-down which involved walking. Sunday I did fewer than 2 miles additional distance, with less walking to warm up and basically zero cool-down, but at at 16:51 pace and a HR of 138 bpm. Granted, I did the 11 mile workout a day after a 6 mile workout, rather than after a rest day like the 9 miler, but it just goes to show how much of a factor the weather is when running by heart rate.

I smeared Vaseline (hey, free advertising for them!) all over my face in an attempt to stave off frostbite. I didn’t feel like it did all that much. Not running into the wind did more. My hands were really cold from carrying my water bottle. It’s not insulated, so the cold water was chilling my hands, and I had to keep switching back and forth. I ate an energy bar in increments at Mile 5, 6, and 7, and then I ditched my water bottle at my car at mile 7.5. I had to in order to keep from completely freezing my hands. I need some better gloves/mittens still, because once again they were red and puffy at the end of the run and I had to sit in my car for awhile with the heat going until I regained enough dexterity to drive.

It was a bit risky to toss the water bottle, not because I was thirsty, but because I didn’t bring along the other energy bar I’d stored in my car aid station. I suppose I could have grabbed just the bar, but I didn’t want to risk it falling out of my pocket. I took a big swig of vanilla Coke before I left the car, and that was all the food I had for the next hour. Because I am slow, I have to be really careful about eating on many of my runs. Most people wouldn’t have to worry about a bonk on an 11 mile run, but most people aren’t running as slowly as I am. It ended up being ok but I probably could have used a bite or two to eat. Once I got back to the car I didn’t feel like eating but drank some more pop. It’s not that much worse than sports drinks, right? Whatever, I like pop, IDGAF. I am going to make sure I have a bottle of vanilla Coke in my car for after Zumbro. I will drink it in my hotel sitting in the in-room whirlpool tub, trying to warm up.

I ran 17 miles between Saturday and Sunday. It took 4 hours, 47 minutes. I think that might bode well for me to race under 5 hours at Zumbro. First of all, it’s 16.7 miles, not actually 17. While it won’t be on a treadmill and won’t be on flat road, it will also (I hope) not be 18 degrees and windy, and I won’t be restricting myself to a heart rate of 142 bpm (though I won’t be going wild and letting it skyrocket, either), so I am kind of hoping I’m on the right track here. Plus there’s 8 more weeks of training coming (6 more that really matter, since it takes awhile for fitness to take hold, or so I hear).

ZUMBRO 17 TRAINING: WEEK 3

25% of the way there! Holy crap.

Monday: 5.3 mi, road, 136 bpm
Tuesday: 4.5 mi, treadmill, UMTR hill challenge, 136 bpm
Wednesday: 6 mi, treadmill, 137 bpm
Thursday: 3 mi, treadmill, 134 bpm
Friday: rest
Saturday: 9.4 mi, road, MAF test, 135 bpm
Sunday: 3.4 mi, paved trail (lower Lakewalk), 134 bpm
Total: 31.5 mi

Another great week. I literally cannot remember anything about Monday’s run, so it must have been boring.

Tuesday I ran the UMTR hill challenge, which I’m not officially registered for, but I’ve already run twice now (first time in week 1). There are two separate treadmill challenges: the first is 15 minutes at 15% incline, which official participants are doing 3 times, so I will also. The second is a “Leadville Hill” challenge, which is 3 miles at 15% incline. That’ll be the final one, I guess. The first time, I did 0.71 miles in 15 minutes, and this past week, I did 0.65 miles in 15 minutes, both while doing my best to stay under my goal heart rate of 142 bpm. I was disappointed to cover a shorter “distance” in my second challenge, but it’s not that big of a deal.

Wednesday and Thursday were general treadmill runs of no consequence. Friday I enjoyed my rest day and went to a men’s hockey game. Saturday was the MAF test as previously discussed.

Sunday was not good. I was planning on doing 4.6 miles, but I felt off the whole time I was running. My heart rate was kinda funky, and I felt strange. I thought I was dizzy or light-headed, but then wasn’t having and vision or equilibrium problems. I also thought maybe I was nauseated, but I wasn’t. I maybe had a little bit of heartburn, I guess, but my stomach wasn’t upset. I felt so strange that I ended up abruptly turning around at 1.71 miles (I was looking down at my watch so I know this for certain) and walking most of the way back. It was cold and windy, and I felt a bit under-dressed even though I was wearing the same stuff I normally wear.

This upcoming week is going to be COLD, so I guess I’ll be hitting the treadmill for most of my workouts. That is so depressing.

MAF Test #2

I decided to do my second MAF test as part of the 9 mile run I had planned for the weekend. I’m really glad I chose to do that run on Saturday, when it was warm and sunny, instead of today, when it’s warm but there’s a wintry mix coming down.

My last test is documented in full here. It went badly.

I did the test on Minnesota Point again, although since I was running a longer distance, the “course” was a little different.

Warmup: 1 mile walking, 17:46, 125 bpm; 1 mile “jogging,” 16:48, 130 bpm

I think the longer warm-up helped. It was definitely warmer outside than the last time I did the test, but it was windy, which affected my heart rate. I had a spike up to 147 bpm when walking at an 18 minute pace, which I can only imagine was due to a gust of wind or something external.

Mile 1: 14:53, 141 bpm
Mile 2: 15:15, 141 bpm
Mile 3: 15:17, 140 bpm
Mile 4: 15:03, 141 bpm
Mile 5: 14:54, 141 bpm

Okay, that’s not exactly how the test is supposed to go, but the results are all kind of clustered together. I ended up averaging a pace of 15:06 and a heart rate of 141 bpm, right on the edge of where I’m supposed to be. It’s better than the last test, which had each mile getting faster and my heart rate nowhere near the max. My last results were:

Mile 1: 16:52, 137 bpm
Mile 2: 16:03, 134 bpm
Mile 3: 16:00, 133 bpm
Mile 4: 15:27, 134 bpm
Mile 5: 15:43, 135 bpm
Avg: 16:02, 135 bpm

I can’t say for certain that I’ve improved, because while the results are faster for the second test, so is my heart rate. It was also colder, I think, when I did the first test. I think I can safely say there’s been a slight improvement, but if I was asked to prove it, I couldn’t. I think it’s logical that running a minute per mile faster in the second test over the first test cannot only be explained by weather and the 6 bpm higher HR average. I definitely think the longer warm-up helped, but I think I still need to tweak the warm-up a bit. There’s too much walking, but that’s the only way to gradually increase my HR right now. My slowest running paces still keep me in the low 130s range; once I’m better conditioned, I’ll be able to run at HRs in the low 120s, and won’t need to walk to warm up. So while my heart and lungs were warmed up, my legs weren’t as warmed up as I’d have liked.

Cooldown: 1 mile walk/run & snack, 16:31, 133 bpm; 1 mile walk/run, 17:23, 128 bpm; 0.4 mi walk, 18:43, 125 bpm.

I would have liked to have had a snack sooner, but that would have affected the results of the test. I didn’t mean for the cooldown to be so long, but I ended up going a little past the 4.5 mile mark on the way out. I crossed the lift bridge and ended up going a block down to the corner of the Paulucci building in order to put some space between a group of people crossing the bridge and myself.

I feel confident that my second attempt is good enough data to use for comparison. I should be doing my next MAF test on March 5th, right before I go on a short business trip, and right after I return from my Florida vacation. We’ll see how much my vacation throws off the results.

I feel kind of crappy today. I had some general hip soreness during the run and felt a bit creaky the rest of the day, and a little into today. I still need to get out for a medium-length run today, so we’ll see how I feel. I can always take Monday as a rest day if need be.