slow running

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 12

Race week!

Monday: 4.3 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk)
Tuesday: 4.2 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk, 6×400 @ 9:51 average)
Wednesday: 2.9 mi, road + trail (Chester Bowl)
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: 13.5, trail (RACE!)
Sunday: rest
Total: 25.2 mi

I took it easy this week, obviously. I only did a little bit of running on unpaved trails, and the Chester Bowl trails aren’t exactly technical. It was a little bit chilly Monday when I ran on the Canal Park end of the Lakewalk (I’ll be going there more frequently now as I like the path, the tourist season is basically over, and parking is free again), but I was more bundled up than usual, wearing long sleeves and tights. It was actually misting but I wasn’t bothered that much. The wind was a bit strong at times but I was planning on going slowly anyway so I didn’t care if it slowed me down.

Tuesday I probably ran a little too hard. 9:51 average pace for repeats the week of a race? Yeah maybe that works for non-slow people. That’s over a minute faster than my 5K pace. Although between that workout and the fast-ish end of the race I threw down (11:40 over the final half mile or so), I’m excited to see what I can do in a 5K. I felt fine after the race, except I got back to Brighton Beach in the dark. Time to invest in a headlamp, or plan better.

Wednesday I tried out a couple of pieces of gear I’d purchased. I was worried about getting cold so I bought some over-the-calf socks and some old man gym-teacher style tube socks to use as arm warmers. I wanted to try both pieces out to see how they’d work. The socks (the ones I wore on my feet, I mean) didn’t chafe and felt fine but they didn’t stay up. They were around my ankles pretty quickly, which also happened during the race. So much for keeping my calves warm and protected from itchy grass. The arm warmers worked fine, but I chickened out and wore a long-sleeved shirt on Saturday, which was dumb.

The race, I already covered.

Sunday I felt ok, but my hips and knees were achy. In fact, it’s 3 days after the race now and I’ve just finally started to feel like I’m not lurching around looking for my oil can like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. I have a massage scheduled for tonight and then I plan to start running again tomorrow. I’m trying to get my watch charger replaced and my heart rate monitor fixed, and then I can start really working on my base-building for next year.

Harder ‘N Hell Half Marathon Goals

Tomorrow is the race. I’m not sure what to think. On the one hand, whatever, I know I’ll finish the race, and I know I won’t be blowing anyone away with my speed. On the other hand, I want to do well. I don’t want to bonk, I don’t want to slow down too much on the hills, I don’t want to slip and fall on wet leaves, I don’t want to freeze during the race.

My plan is to be in last place, or very close to last place, at the beginning. Since I’ll be one of the last finishers, why not start there? Then I can take the stairway to hell at my own pace. I bought a bag of Halloween candy so that I have bite-sized Snickers to bring along with me. Then I don’t have to fumble with wrappers, I can just unwrap the whole candy and stuff the wrapper back in the pocket of my hand-held. I also hope to not stop at any aid stations for longer than I need to fill my water bottles. And I really, really, really hope I don’t get passed by too many of the 50k runners (they start earlier).

Time goals? Eek. I am going to be mostly running on feel, but I’ll have my watch on me to check my average pace. The problem is, I don’t know exactly how long the race course is. I don’t think it’s 13.1 miles exactly, I think it’s longer, or at least my various GPS devices have measured it longer. So if it’s 13.3 miles or 13.6 miles, then I’ll have slightly different average paces I need to hit. Whatever. So, here we go.

A Standard: 3:59:59
B Standard: 4:20:00

I ran the course in 4:23 back in September, so I rounded down to 4:20 for my B goal. On fresh legs, I can surely shave 3 minutes off my time.

Under 4 hours might be a pipe dream, but hey, I like to challenge myself. Assuming the race is 13.5 miles long (that’s what my Strava measured), that’s a pace of 17:46. I ran a pace of 19:28 back in September. So that’s a big chunk of time to shave off. Oh well.

As long as I finish strong, don’t accidentally trip the 50k front runners as they blow by me, don’t barf or have an upset GI system, and don’t hurt myself, I will be happy. Ok if it takes me 6 hours I won’t be happy. But it won’t.

Harder ‘n Hell Half Training: Week 11

Not a notable week.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 6.4 mi, road
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 4.9 mi, trails (Hartley)
Friday: 4.8 mi, road
Saturday: rest
Sunday: rest
Total: 16.2 mi

Ugh. Not the best, but I ended up not being too sick. I am told this is normal taper nonsense, but I think it has more to do with school stress ending than with tapering. Sunday I did go to Itasca State Park before leaving Bemidji, but I didn’t do any serious hiking, just enjoyed time with my family on an unseasonably warm day.

My brother and me crossing the Mississippi

My brother and me crossing the Mississippi

I’m pretty excited for the race, but also nervous. I want to do well. I don’t think I’ll do as well as I want to. I don’t want to freeze my butt off, but I also don’t want to get too warm. I don’t quite know what I’m going to wear but I am zeroing in on it.

I would have preferred another 9-10 miles on my legs last week, but rest trumped extra miles. Like I said last week, there’s not much more I can do to improve my fitness from here on out. Good sleep, good nutrition, and no grueling activity. Figure out the logistics. Breathe. Etc.

In Sickness and In Health

I have a cold, kind of. I think. Right now I have a cough, feel tired, and feel like I have the beginnings of a stuffy head.

I am also a less than a week out from the Harder ‘N Hell Half Marathon.

These two facts are incongruous.

I’m writing this late at night from a hotel room in Bemidji (I’m here for a short hockey road trip) and I am either going to wake up with a full-blown, grotty, snotty, feverish illness, or I’m going to wake up feeling better. I can’t remember the last time I had a cold/sinus/whatever illness that didn’t cut me down hard, so I am thinking I’ll be miserable tomorrow.

Naturally this means no running. In fact, I probably didn’t shut myself down soon enough. I had a stressful past few weeks, academically, which culminated in a fantastic day on Thursday. I was full of adrenaline and riding high after my classmates and I nailed a presentation we had given (this sounds silly but it was for our senior design class and was kind of a big deal), and then Thursday afternoon I kind of crashed from the excitement. But still went out running for an hour and a half, in a bit of drizzle. After that I felt tired and cold, but not sick.

Friday I still felt ok, just incredibly tired. And I was sneezing some, but I thought it might be allergies. I was planning a very short run, until the night’s hockey game was canceled (there was a power outage at the arena, it was very bizarre) and I had significantly more time than I thought, so I ran 5 miles. My nose ran a lot but it always runs when I’m running. (Ugh that last sentence was stupid but I’m not sure how else to put it.) I found that I couldn’t really get warm once I was home, even though it wasn’t that cold in my house, and I ended up going to bed early and turning on my electric blanket to warm up.

This morning I woke up planning to run a short route before we headed off to Bemidji. I still thought I felt kinda ok, then I got up and realized that I should probably rest. Especially after I read the text from my friend who is running the race with me. He said he finished his run over the second half of the course in less time than he thought, and I looked at his time and it was… way better than what I can run. I am really glad he’s successful but also envious of the ease with which he runs. So I didn’t run today, which was a great decision because I’ve been feeling run down since the early afternoon.

I’m shutting myself down until I’ve shaken this illness. There’s no workout I can complete that will improve my fitness for this race, and I need my body to focus on healing itself. I hope that I’ll be well enough for at least a couple short runs later this week, but if I don’t run again until race morning, that’s fine. As long as I reach the starting line healthy and energized, the rest doesn’t matter.

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 10

Less than 2 weeks to the race. There’s not much else I can do to help myself, but a lot I can do to mess up. Pressure’s on.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 3 mi, trails (Bagley) + 3.9 mi, road
Wednesday: 5 mi, treadmill (6×800 @ 11:19 pace)
Thursday: rest
Friday: 4 mi, road
Saturday: 6.6 mi, trails (First 3.3 miles of race course)
Sunday: 8.4 mi, trails (Magney Snively lot to Ely’s Peak and back)
Total: 31.1 mi

This was the last difficult week I’ve got planned before the race. I think my knees and hips will thank me.

I had to get creative with my workouts in order to fit in mileage this week. I had a lot of stuff due for school and needed to meet with my group. I ran before and after class on Tuesday to make the magic happen. Wednesday I got home late but still wanted to fit in a workout, so I tortured myself on the treadmill with some longer repeats. It kind of sucked.

I decided to ditch a longer run over the weekend in favor of two grueling back to back workouts, just like last weekend. Saturday went well, but I’ve now banned myself from the race course. It’s starting to irritate me. I need to look on it with fresh eyes on race day, not think “here we go again” with a groan.

Sunday was a gorgeous day, and I wanted to get up the North Shore to see some fall colors, but I didn’t have time to fit in the drive on top of a run. I decided to run from the Magney Snively parking lot to Ely’s Peak and back, which I thought would be easier than it was. Nope. 1154 ft of elevation gain, an ascent that felt never-ending to start the run, a descent that was steep enough to slow me to a crawl near the halfway point, which I then had to ascend, and it may have nearly killed me. My legs were beat to hell by the end of the run.

From here on out, I’m easing off on the difficulty of my runs. I’ll probably still do some trails, but nothing too challenging. I want my legs fresh for race day, but of course I want them to remember how to run.

Summer Wish Lists

Months ago I planned a gear wish list and a State Park run wish list. Summer’s over, both meteorologically and astronomically, so I’m evaluating what I thought I wanted/needed and where I thought I’d go against what I actually acquired and achieved.

My gear wish list:
High priority
2 new sports bras I got one, which I like ok.
Head lamp I didn’t get a head lamp and just borrowed one for the solstice hike, but I didn’t need one anyway.
Handheld water bottle I got two during a sale and I use them all the time.

Medium priority:
New hose for my hydration backpack I haven’t touched my hydration pack all summer so there was no need to get this yet.
Second pair of running shoes Not in the budget.
Running shorts that actually work for me I have three pairs, and like two of them.
Body Glide Purchased and repurchased.

Low priority:
New hydration backpack Nope.

I am actually surprised at how I did. I thought I had more gear on the list than it turned out. I still think I need a better hydration pack for longer runs, but it can wait. The handhelds are nice and I got a great deal on them. Shorts are great, I like them a lot better than capris. Body Glide works, though it’s not as slippery as I thought. This is the only way capris are superior to shorts – less friction. My shoes are going to be cooked by the time I’m done with my goal race, so I’m thinking rotating through two pairs will be my SOP going forward.

My State Park trails list
Banning No
Jay Cooke Yes
Gooseberry Falls Yes, just in the nick of time
Split Rock Lighthouse Yes
Tettegouche Yes, kind of
George Crosby Manitou No
Temperance River No
Cascade River No
Grand Portage No
Soudan Underground Mine No
Itasca (maybe) No
Lake Bemidji (maybe) No

So I didn’t do very well there. Once I signed up for the Harder ‘N Hell Half, I felt like I needed to spend my time on those trails, learning the course. I might go to Lake Itasca in a couple weeks, but not to run, so it doesn’t count.

I’ll have a similar gear wish list for fall, and maybe some more generic running goals. At some point, listing off state parks is going to get old.

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 9

Another great training week. It’s all or nothing for me this training cycle, I guess.

Monday 4.3 mi, road
Tuesday 7.1 mi, road
Wednesday rest
Thursday 3.4 mi, treadmill (8×400 at 10:31 pace)
Friday 5.3 mi, road
Saturday 7.6 mi, paved trail (Gitchigami Trail starting at Gooseberry Falls)
Sunday 8 mi, trail (Superior Hiking Trail, Castle Danger to Nestor Grade)
Total 35.5 mi

I didn’t do much on the trails, I guess. Only one true trail run, and… ugh. It deserves its own post. I haven’t done a trail review in awhile so I’ll do one.

I really wanted to do a 10 mile run this weekend, but I needed to meet with my senior design project team both days. I think doing the back to backs was a good compromise. I only saved a couple miles, but at the pace I was going on Sunday, two miles extra would have added an extra 40+ minutes. It was a rough, muddy, buggy run.

I only have three weeks to go before the race, so I’m going to be stepping back the mileage a bit. I do wonder sometimes how I’ll ever start running the mileage needed to run marathons and ultras, because this felt like a pretty significant commitment of time, and most of these runs were on roads rather than trails. A somewhat depressing thought.