training log

Zumbro 17 Training: Week 1

Not the best training week, probably not worth even logging, but here it is.

Monday: 5 mi, treadmill, 131 bpm
Tuesday: 4.5 mi, treadmill, UMTR hill challenge, 132 bpm
Wednesday: rest (traveling, hotel treadmill out of commission)
Thursday: rest (sick)
Friday: rest (sick)
Saturday: rest (sick)
Sunday: 6.8 mi, trails (Hartley), 137 bpm
Total: 16.3 mi

Not at all where I wanted to be. Wednesday I had a bad headache off and on throughout the day, which I attributed to a lack of coffee. Thursday I had plenty of time to work out, since I was traveling and then worked from home, but I hadn’t slept well at the hotel, so I thought I’d take another rest day. Friday I was still feeling run down, with a slightly stuffy head and chills, so I rested and skipped the hockey game I was planning to attend. Saturday I probably could have gone for a run, but decided to be lazy and also play it safe.

I realize that this is contrary to how most runners behave when not feeling well. Most runners seem to suck it up and get out there unless they physically collapse and cannot run. I’m not very good at sucking it up. However, I also know that Friday afternoon I was sitting in my office, cold, unable to concentrate, and that’s a sign I should be resting. I wasn’t 100% back to normal on Sunday, and had some trouble keeping my heart rate down, which was another sign that I had done the right thing.

I am a bit bummed I didn’t have a nice 30-mile week to start off the training cycle, but I also feel better physically and mentally. A few days off my feet allowed some of the tiny little aches to go away, and overall I feel a lot stronger, and ready to tackle what should probably end up being more than 30 miles for week 2. Knock on wood.

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 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.

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.

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.

Harder ‘n Hell Half Training: Week 8

Week 8? Yikes.

Monday 4.5 mi, trails (Bagley)
Tuesday 5.6 mi, road
Wednesday 6.3 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk, 50 mins at tempo)
Thursday rest
Friday 5.5 mi, road
Saturday rest
Sunday 13.5 mi, trail (SHT, Harder ‘n Hell Half course)
Total: 35.6

I’d call that a good bounceback week. I ended up with two rest days; the second was semi-planned, as I could have done a short run, but there was no need. After all those days off, I didn’t need to ramp up the mileage too much. My dad came up to visit on Saturday and we did some creative engineering to fix my car window, and then we went to see A Walk in the Woods, which I read over the summer. We enjoyed the movie even though it departs greatly from the book.

Wednesday was a rough day. I was not feeling speedy, but I pushed it longer than the prescribed workout (40 mins) because… well, because I could get another 10k done for my Strava monthly challenge. That’s really stupid but it’s true. Ugh, Strava. Too competitive. I didn’t feel that fantastic and my lower back was a little crampy during the run, which I pushed through because I need to figure out how to push through things. Unfortunately, once I slowed down after the tempo portion of the run was over, my gut felt horrible and crampy and I ended up having to walk my entire cooldown to avoid anything gross from occurring.

I was using Wednesday as a test to see if I was going to run a race this upcoming weekend. I haven’t raced since the Park Point 5 Miler, which wasn’t the best, so I thought maybe another 5K before my half marathon might be fun. Since my speed session didn’t go so well and I wasn’t hitting the paces I wanted to hit to even have a prayer of a decent race, I decided not to sign up. Why risk my real race with some race I’m not in any kind of shape for? I was only going to run it if I felt like I could beat my PR, and I don’t think I can.

Sunday I ran the Harder ‘n Hell course from start to finish (or thereabouts). It was rough, but I think I’ve gotten some things figured out. It took me 4:23 to finish, so that gives me a benchmark. I didn’t stop on the Stairway to Hell, so that was also good! I ate two Snickers bars, which seemed to work well. They’re easier to open and eat than Clif bars and not as messy as the other granola bars I eat, and I didn’t feel sick when I ate them. I did feel pretty thirsty, and I was rationing my water at the end, but I will be able to refill at an aid station along the way. I just need to start eating earlier in the race, because I was dragging in the middle of the run once again. I also plan on only running short, flat, easy runs the week of the race, so my legs won’t be as beat up. Granted, the course is murder on them, but at least they’ll go in feeling ok. I was “flying” (relatively speaking) once I was on the pedestrian bridge crossing the freeway, so that was nice. Especially since I’d just gone on a nearly mile-long descent that tested the shocks on my knees to their limits.

I know I can complete the race. And maybe I won’t even come in last. I looked up previous race results and 4:23 would not have been last place in the last 3 years. So that’s good! Of course, this year could be the year everyone is super speedy, BUT, still. To know that even if I did come in last, I wouldn’t be unexpectedly slow, is a confidence booster.

Four weeks to go. Only the next two really matter, since it takes awhile for training to actually take effect, and the final week I won’t be doing much anyway. I just need to stay healthy and able, and get to the starting line in one piece.

Harder ‘n Hell Half Training: Week 7

Another wasted week.

Monday: unplanned rest day
Tuesday: unplanned rest day
Wednesday: unplanned rest day
Thursday: unplanned rest day
Friday: unplanned rest day
Saturday: Superior 100 Volunteering (no miles logged but I did move around a lot!)
Sunday: 12.5, trails (SHT)
Total: 12.5

Ugh. Not a good week, but I was sick at the beginning and then later in the week I couldn’t seem to get enough sleep, so I chose to rest longer in order to completely recover. Friday was spent working, then traveling, and I wasn’t able to get in a run like I’d planned.

Sunday I was all inspired by the runners from Superior 100 and probably overdid it. After 9 days off from running, I ended up running almost the entire half marathon course, and when I say running, I really mean hiking. Slow, slow hiking that took 4 hours and 20 minutes. However, at least now I know that I can handle this race even if it goes to hell. I can just walk it in and still make it under 5 hours, I assume.

This upcoming week I need to start getting my race day nutrition under control. I have been eating granola bars during long runs and that is such a pain in the butt. I need to try some gels, I’m just worried that my stomach will reject them. I don’t know why, as I’ve never tried them. I might need to carry a little something with me just to fill my stomach with actual substance, but maybe not.

I am disappointed in this training cycle, but at the same time, I have such low expectations for my performance in this race that I am not devastated. I know I can finish the race upright, even after not running for a week, so I guess I’m ready? I still have 5 weeks of training (I know only about 3 more weeks will actually have a real effect on my race, but still, 5 weeks), so there’s time for a bit of improvement, if all goes well.