trail running

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 3

Back in action!

Monday: 3.6 mi, trails (Bagley)
Tuesday: 3.7 mi, road
Wednesday: 5.6 mi (1.3 mi road, 4.3 mi includes 4x hill repeats at Chester Bowl)
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: 7.1 mi (6.4 mi + 0.7 mi warm-up and cool-down, paved trail [Lakewalk], mock race)
Sunday: 4.2 mi, trail (SHT)
Total: 24.4 mi

I bounced back after last week’s early cutback, bringing my mileage up to the low end of where I’d like it to be. I had not planned on doing 2 rest days this week, but Thursday I had some GI issues that carried on to Friday morning, so I decided to be safe rather than sorry. I was having enough trouble staying hydrated without being under the weather, since it was hot again at the end of the week and over the weekend. As I’ve mentioned previously, I don’t have air conditioning, and my house holds in heat. At night it’ll be 20 degrees warmer inside than it is outside. It really sucks. It also results in waking up behind the 8-ball regarding hydration.

I did two hard days over the weekend because I knew it would probably be my last chance to get in some real heat training. Saturday’s run was supposed to be at a 10K race pace, but instead it turned into a lesson in suffering and perseverance. I’ll write a bit more about it later in the week, but if that’s my true 10K pace, I am in big, big, big trouble for this half marathon.

Sunday I did two mostly-downhill miles on the Superior Hiking Trail, starting at 24th Ave W and continuing toward the city, past the Twin Ponds. This translated into two mostly-uphill miles on the way back. I felt really awful during the run and slowed way, way down. The good news is the race is only one way! The easy way! I only have a couple more sections of the trail to recon. I think for some of my upcoming long runs, I may need to coerce someone into picking me up at the end of a point to point run, rather than do all these out-and-backs.

25% of the training for this race is in the books. My confidence isn’t exactly soaring from the first three weeks of training, but I am certain I can complete this race. We’ll see how the next 9 weeks progress.

Doubleday

I ran a double yesterday! Amazing!

It wasn’t planned. My car broke down on Tuesday night, and I needed to take it in to the shop. I had no one to drive me, so I either had to take a bus or run home. So I ran. It was just a little over a mile, and almost entirely downhill, so it wasn’t bad. I don’t normally run so early in the morning (it was 9:00, that’s early for me), other than races. I hadn’t eaten anything yet, and I felt like my energy was flagging even on a short run, so I know I’m probably not one of those people who can do their long runs at like 5 am without a single morsel of food in their bellies. I’m sure for a short run I’d only need a little snack. My quadriceps weren’t quite ready for the pounding they took, but they can just suck it up.

My planned run was another set of 4 hill repeats at Chester Bowl, followed by a descent along the trail by the creek. Instead of trying to run parts of the ascent, I power-hiked all 4 reps, doing my best to try to keep my breathing under control. I only lost 5 seconds off my overall pace for the workout, and since I didn’t stop to take a picture during the run this time, I didn’t have any recovery before I started on the trail. That’s a pretty good argument in favor of the efficiency of power hiking. Small sample size, yes, but still relevant.

I like the idea of incorporating a morning run to add a little volume to my weekly mileage. I don’t like to get up early, and I’m slow, so I doubt these runs would get over 3 miles, but I think that’s good. I felt great after the run, and energized for the day, and I didn’t feel any negative effects during the evening’s hard workout. Once school starts and my schedule and workload will be all over the place, doubles might be the only way to ensure I’m getting in the mileage I need.

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 2

The week that wasn’t.

Monday: 4.3 mi, trails (Bagley)
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 4.1 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk), 2.3 mi at tempo
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 5.5 mi, road
Total: 14.1 mi (Strava’s rounding is weird)

I have no regrets about taking off three days in a row. It was absolutely the right decision and allowed me to rest up and shake off whatever was bothering me physically. Of course, it’s Monday and I’ve undone all the great sleep I got over the weekend.

I did yoga all three rest days, plus on Sunday. I have found that my body is a lot more receptive to yoga if I do it after a run. My muscles and connective tissues are looser and ready to stretch and contort moreso than they are when I haven’t run. This is obvious, but I didn’t think everything would be SO tight if I hadn’t run, so I need to work on my flexibility more.

I ran on the road on Sunday, to ease back into things (if you can call 5.5 miles “easing,” which I don’t really, but some people like to say “Oh I just did a quick 6 mile recovery run with a stroller and I barely looked at my watch and somehow I was averaging a sub 7 pace, teehee! Just a slow slog!”) as I’ve been logging a lot of trail miles lately, which is probably wearing me out a little more than the mostly-road running I did training for my 5 mile race. My hips are a little sore but other than that, I feel energized today, even though I’ve only had 1/3 the normal dose of coffee. I think that’s a good sign. I am ready to start a great training week this week, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the next 10 weeks go smoothly.

Harder ‘N Hell Half Training: Week 1

Yay! Back to training again.

Monday: 3.8 mi, trails (Bagley)
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 4.4 mi, road + trails, 4 x Chester Bowl Ski Hill
Thursday: rest
Friday: 4.8 mi, trails (Hartley)
Saturday: 6 mi, trails (SHT)
Sunday: 4.8 mi, trails/hiking (SHT)
Total: 23.8 mi

This was a little low for mileage for the week, but I chose to take Tuesday off to spend time with family and it was a great decision. For week 2, I’ll be back to 6 runs a week and the mileage will be back up.

Running almost entirely on trails is a different challenge for me. I like it, but it’s more tiring and time-consuming. This isn’t a surprise, of course, but I was dragging on my hike yesterday, and even dragging on my run the day before. Of course, it’s hot and sunny, which is sapping my energy, but it’s also sapping my confidence a little, only one week in.

Yesterday I took a hike with my friend, who is also running the race with me. We started at the Spirit Mountain trailhead and power-hiked through to Skyline Drive/Getchell road. I thought it would be a slightly longer, run, but ended up just under 5 miles. It was fine with me, because my energy was sapped. I really needed a snack or something. I thought I’d eaten enough, but since we didn’t start til after 3, I think I needed something more substantial than a bagel slathered in cream cheese and a couple of granola bars. That works ok for a noon run, but not for a 3:30 pm run. I was glad to do a run that wasn’t an out and back! And I got to introduce David to the steps from hell, so that was fun. He made it up well before me but it wasn’t a picnic for him either. I still think my strategy of being dead last at the beginning of the race is genius. Then I can take as much time as I want on the stupid stairs.

Saturday I started at the Skyline Drive/Getchell road trailhead and did three miles toward the city and then looped back. I took a couple of terrible pictures. I didn’t know they were terrible at the time, but the lens was sweaty or something. The beginning of this part of the trail is pretty technical, and I was a little concerned about slipping and falling. There’s a lot of loose gravel/dirt in some very tricky spots. I sometimes wonder if I am too much of a wimp to be a trail runner.

The Bagley and Hartley runs were nothing to write home about. Standard runs I’ve done a zillion times. I covered the hill workout here.

Lessons learned this week: I need to get stronger in order to have a decent race in October. I did a crappy job of strength training this week, only doing a couple yoga workouts. I slept all right, but could sleep better. My nutrition still sucks. So the only one of my training goals I met was running hills. Whoops. It’s week 1 of 12, I think I’ve got plenty of room for improvement.

Harder’n Hell Half Marathon

The Harder’n Hell Half Marathon is the next race on my calendar. It’s October 17th, and I have properly calculated the start of the 12-week training cycle this time around. Training starts Monday.

This race is TECHNICAL. Here’s the course profile for the 50K, from the course website:
wild-duluth-50k-profile

The final 13.1 miles of the 50k are the same as the half marathon, I believe. I don’t know why they wouldn’t be. I actually think the course profile might be a little different now, but I am not sure. Anyway, it is technical.

I need to get serious about training for this race. A friend of mine who is a non-runner but in excellent shape (he is a caddy) is going to run this with me. I mean, probably not alongside me, he’ll probably beat me even though I have been training longer. That’s fine. This race is capped at 150 entrants and it is very possible I’ll be in 150th place. I am comfortable with that. I have some non-mileage-related training plans I need to implement this time around in order to be prepared.

1. Run hills A LOT.
I will be doing hills for speed work every other week. And not wimpy hills either, but real hills like I might encounter on the course. I will also run hilly routes (not hard to find) for almost all my other training runs.

2. Eat a little better and lose a couple pounds.
I am not planning to make MAJOR dietary changes, but I do need to make better choices for breakfasts and lunches. My husband makes dinner, so I eat what he makes without complaint or judgement. The breakfast and lunch changes are especially important once school begins again. I need to plan ahead. And save money, too. I don’t believe in a “racing weight” for a back of the pack runner like me, but I do think a 5-10 lb weight loss between now and the starting gun would be beneficial.

3. Get serious about strength training.
There were a lot of weeks during my Park Point 5 Miler training where I did, maybe, one strength workout a week. That’s got to stop. I am going to need serious core strength to get me through this race. I’ll be doing lots of yoga and other body weight exercises.

4. Sleep
I am terrible at getting enough sleep during the week. I go to bed too late, and then I’ll read or do a crossword. That has to stop. Even an extra hour of sleep during the week will go a long way. This is going to be extremely important once I’m back in school, as I’ll be balancing schoolwork, work, and training.

I think these four points will be as beneficial, if not more, than the mileage I’m putting in for this race. I am really excited to try my first trail race and my first half marathon, even if it ends up being a 6 hour sufferfest. But… I hope it isn’t 6 hours.

PP5M Training: Week 9

A light week to wrap up the training cycle.

Monday: 4 mi, road
Tuesday: 4.5 mi, road, 5×400 intervals (I have no data for this since my power cord for my watch no longer works for downloading information)
Wednesday: 3 mi, road + trails
Thursday: rest
Friday: 5 mi, race
Saturday: rest/recovery
Sunday: 5 mi, trail
Total: 21.5

The race sucked, as I already discussed. I am disappointed still, but I also think it was a learning experience. Sometimes races just suck. New runners tend to make a lot of progress fairly quickly, setting PR after PR after PR. While this was a PR technically, because I haven’t run a 5 mile race before, it was well off the pace I expected. It was even 14 seconds slower than my sandbagging goal. I need to work on endurance, it seems, although I thought I had. I just find it hard to blame the heat entirely.

My training was nice and light this week, which felt weird. I did do yoga several times, which I didn’t log, so I’ll just guess I did it… 5 days? Maybe 4? I did my intervals on Park Point on Tuesday, just to check out the course (not that I haven’t run there before), but of course on Tuesday it was in the high 60s when I ran, so I felt amazing and was flying. Then I stood on the beach barefoot and got soaked by the waves.

If there hadn’t been a rip current, I’d have been in that water swimming, clothes and all.

I probably could have run Saturday, but it was hot again and I was feeling lazy, so I recovered. Sunday I hit the Superior Hiking Trail, starting at Spirit Mountain. It was rough, very hot, and there was a long, steep uphill in the first half mile, so steep that it required stairs. Lots of them. And then I turned a corner and there were more stairs. Sigh. I “ran” pretty slowly, with lots of power hiking, and tried to prevent myself from getting winded or overheated. I carried both of my handhelds, one with sports drink and one with water, and finished off all the sports drink (drank this first since warm water is much more palatable and I wanted the water available in case I wanted to douse myself) and about half of the water. I also ate a Clif bar when I got back into my car. I probably ate it too fast because I felt sort of weird on the way home. Not nauseated, per se, just… off. The heat didn’t help, I’m sure.

Even though my race result was disappointing, I am still pretty pleased with the training cycle. I KNOW I am a better, stronger runner than I was at the onset, and I set a 5K PR along the way. I stuck to the training for the most part, but I was flexible when I needed to be. This upcoming week is going to be kind of haphazard, kind of running by feel, and then I’m jumping into another training cycle. (I ran a 5 mile race, slowly. I think a week off from training is sufficient.)

PP5M Training: Week 8

Since I counted the weeks wrong and started my 8 week training program a week too soon, this week was kind of… strange.

Monday: 5.2 mi, road
Tuesday: 6.7 mi, trails, Hartley Nature Center
Wednesday: 4.5 mi, tempo, 3.5 @ 12:30 avg pace
Thursday: rest
Friday: 6 mi, road
Saturday: 6.7 mi, training, Superior Hiking Trail
Sunday: 5.2 mi, road
Total: 33.4 mi

That’s my highest mileage week for this training cycle. I realized that on Sunday and decided not to run the 8 miles I’d planned. I want my legs to be fresh on Friday.

My running watch, a Suunto Ambit 2R, is really sucking. I haven’t been able to use the heart rate monitor for a few weeks because it connects but does not display or record a heart rate, no matter how good of a connection I get. I wonder if the battery is dead, or if there’s some other problem. I’ve been too lazy to check.

But now I do need to contact the company because the watch still charges (thank goodness) but the computer doesn’t recognize the device, or if it does, the download fails. This happens in all my USB ports on my home and work computers so it is clearly an issue with either the watch or the cord. I have only had this watch for 6 months, so it’s still under warranty, and there’s no reason it should be failing. It doesn’t charge with a micro USB cord, so I can’t just swap in a different charger.

This week of training was kind of weird, since I was just winging it. I didn’t do a long run, but I did 3 runs of six or so miles, so I don’t think I needed a long run. I got speedwork and trails in, and all the runs felt decent-to-good. I am pumped for the race (except I think it’ll be hot), and plan to take it easy in the days leading up to it.