training log

Birkie Trail Ultra Training: Week 1

Last week was tough! High volume training week + unconventional “cross training.”

Monday: 6.5 mi, road
Tuesday: 5.1 mi, trail (Bagley/Hartley)
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 8.1 mi, road
Friday: 5.3 mi, road
Saturday: 8.1 mi, trail (SHT at Twin Ponds)
Sunday: 16.1 mi, road/trail (West Skyline Drive + Magney to Spirit Mtn SHT)
Total: 49.2 mi

This week of training started off strong, but ended with my confidence in the gutter. I’m trying to separate last week from the first few days of this week, as I keep thinking it’s Monday, but my training reached a fairly low point yesterday. I’ll have to save that for next week’s recap!

I like the format I’ve cooked up (I realize it’s pretty standard), with a mid-week mid-length run, and then a long run on Sunday. I used to do my long runs on Saturdays to ensure I got them in (with Sunday as a back-up day), but now that my spouse works Sundays, it works better for me to use that day to myself to get in my long run. I intended to have a longer run on Saturday (maybe 10 miles), but didn’t get up early enough in the day, didn’t run fast enough (I was really dragging), and had a hard stop due to an appointment to get my cat his summer haircut.

The Bagley/Hartley combo run is a really great way to break up the monotony of Bagley (repeated loops of a 1.7 mile trail get old) while avoiding the construction at Hartley. Since the two trails are linked by the Superior Hiking Trail, it only takes a short jog across Arrowhead road to run both trails in the same run.

I didn’t know this til recently, but Bagley used to be a downhill ski area! My dad and I were out on the pontoon boat listening to music, and he was trying to remember the year “American Pie” came out, based on a memory of skiing on Rock Hill with his friends in the early ’70s. I had no idea. UMD has a brief history of the area on their website, including a photo of the rope tow. It wasn’t Mont Blanc, but it was the only local option until Spirit Mountain opened.

Both Saturday and Sunday, I was hoping to complete my trail runs under the 17:17 minimum pace for the Birkie. Not because I was trying to race my training, but because I was hoping that wouldn’t be a tough pace to hit for shorter runs. It was disheartening to be slower than that for both runs.

Saturday I ran the SHT starting at Twin Ponds and going southwest (roughly). I run this section because Twin Ponds is the closest spot for me to jump on the trail, but I also hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate parts of this section. There’s a climb that seems endless on the way out, and it just wears me down. I think that alone will keep me from ever doing the Wild Duluth 100K, since it comes fairly early on in the race.

SHT altitude

Part of me is like, stop running this section if it’s so frustrating. But that’s the quitter in me. Really what I have to do is conquer this beast. Also I have to stop running it in full sun.

I saw lots of local runners I know out there – I guess that’s what happens when I do my trail runs in the morning instead of in the late afternoon. It was a nice treat to see friends!

Later that afternoon I did a couple rounds of knee-boarding, which I will call my strength training for the day.

Sunday I was absolutely determined to do 16 miles. This is my sole “long run” before Curnow – FANS doesn’t count. Once again, I got up early, but not as early as planned. I was stressed out/feeling guilty because running was going to cut into time spent with my nephews, but I knew I needed to get it done. I kept trying to come up with excuses to shorten it, but I managed to shut up all those voices. I did make a concession and chose to run the majority of it on the road/snowmobile trails instead of entirely on the SHT, in order to save time. It still took nearly 5 hours.

I started at the SHT trailhead near Ely’s Peak (the alternate trail head), but ran down Beck’s Rd to Skyline Drive. That was almost exactly a mile, and mostly uphill (actually the first 2 miles were mostly uphill, but it didn’t feel like mostly downhill on the way back! Very annoying.) It was a bit scary to be running along the side of a road that, while not very busy, has a fairly high speed limit.

I was making great time on the roads, but it was hot, and that started to take its toll on me, especially once I got onto the trails. This section of the SHT contains some fairly technical trail, although there are a few sections near Spirit Mountain that flatten out and are runnable. I ended up choosing to follow the access road at Spirit Mountain rather than getting back on the SHT, and then took a snowmobile trail down to where it meets up again with the SHT at Knowlton Creek. That took a big chunk of climbing off my run.

The short sections on the SHT really dragged. I hated every downhill, because it meant another uphill I’d have to maneuver. I was so sick of the steep, rocky climbs. It was hotter than I had anticipated – 80F or possibly warmer, with little cloud cover. The trail is mostly shaded, but the pockets of sun were tough. Once I got back onto the road, I had about 5 miles left, but I was pretty low on water. I hadn’t filled my pack up entirely, as I’ve never gone through a whole pack of water. That was stupid. I had to ration it the rest of the way, and that slowed me down. I walked long stretches of the road that I had expected to run. Another blow to my confidence. I know the Birkie course will not be that punishing – a cross-country ski race isn’t going to be held on a course full of rocks – but the distance itself is going to be punishing. The important part is I stuck it out, didn’t turn around early, and didn’t stop moving.

I still managed to water-ski and knee-board that afternoon, so again, I got my strength workout in!

FANS 24 HR Training: Weeks 15 and 16

Lower mileage than I’d like, but I suppose I’ll just be that much more rested?

Week 15
Monday: 6.1 mi, trail (Lester Park)
Tuesday: 5.2 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk)
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 8.4 mi, road
Friday: rest/travel
Saturday: 15.3 mi, trail (Superior 25K)
Sunday: rest/travel (raining)
Total: 35 mi

Week 16
Monday: 6.3 mi, road
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 8 mi, road
Thursday: 7.4 mi, road
Friday: 4.4 mi, trail (Western Waterfront)
Saturday: 8.7 mi, road
Sunday: 5.6 mi, road
Total: 40.4 mi

In week 15, even though I raced, I wanted to treat it as a true training week. That didn’t really work out, because my planned Sunday run didn’t happen. I made a non-noteworthy pasta salad (my own “recipe,” so basically some pasta, bell peppers, cheese, cilantro, and Newman’s Own parmesan-garlic dressing. Usually it has pepperoni, too, but I forgot.) and had a nice trail run at Lester Park. The only thing I don’t really like about running at Lester Park is the elevation: it’s all up, then all down. It’s not hard, but I prefer more variety.

In week 16, I switched my focus entirely to FANS, and started practicing walk/run intervals. I am not planning to do a Galloway-style walk run, that takes a lot more adjustment. I tried it once and found that I was constantly staring at my GPS watch, wondering if I missed a beep (and then I did miss one, the one time I wasn’t staring at it). I think that would be too distracting for me during a 24 hour race. I did some run 10/walk 5 intervals and some run 15/walk 5 intervals, to see which I liked better. The transition is harder than I thought. I found that run 10/walk 5 worked ok, but I wasn’t warmed up enough for the first transition and my calf muscles felt really tight, on the verge of cramping. I don’t think that will be an issue for the race, because I plan to run at least the first hour or so straight without walk intervals, but if my plan changes, I want to make sure my muscles are sufficiently warm before starting my first walk interval. I am probably over-complicating this but I excel at that.

I also made this:

Easy Chickpea Salad, once again from The Sea Salt. I didn’t cook the chickpeas long enough, so they didn’t absorb the dressing as well as I’d have liked. I subbed cilantro for parsley because I’m a freak for cilantro. The next day I made pasta and re-made the dressing from the recipe, added some of the leftover chickpea salad, and had a slightly different take on the meal. Be warned: it makes SO MUCH FOOD. I think I ate this 4 days in a row (2 with the pasta) and still had to toss some, not because it had gone bad, but because I needed to eat something different!

Last night, I made this:

Chicken Curry from Food52. I used half a jar of curry powder, which is amazing. I ended up using some extra cream, too (probably 2 cups instead of 1.5), since the skillet I used was kind of large and I wanted to make sure I had the chicken covered well. Also, I like sauce. I didn’t want to bother with the mess of cutting up chicken breasts, so I bought some already cut up chicken. I know that’s really lazy but I don’t really care. I guess that also means less chance of contamination. I actually didn’t put any cilantro in because I’ve bought it so much lately and some keeps going to waste. My meal planning skills are rudimentary.

The weather has been slowly starting to get nicer, and I have had a marked change in my mood. Earlier in the month I was stressing myself out a lot about the temperature, worrying about being cold only to find out it wasn’t that cold once I got outside. The last week+, I’ve run in shorts almost every day and felt fine. It was even hot for that 8.7 mile run on Saturday of Week 16! Some last minute heat training! Except now it looks like rain/thunderstorms for race day with highs in the 60s F. Woo.

I’m done running until Saturday! That feels strange to say. I plan on walking a few miles here and there to keep my legs moving, but other than that, I’m resting, prepping, and trying not to drive myself crazy between now and Saturday morning.

FANS 24 HR Training: Weeks 13 and 14

I’m including all the CM50K training in my FANS training, not selecting an arbitrary week-numbering system.

Week 13
Monday: rest
Tuesday: rest (massage)
Wednesday: 4.5 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk)
Thursday: 6.5 mi, road
Friday: 5.5 mi, trail (Bagley)
Saturday: 8.2 mi, trail (SHT, Twin Ponds toward Haines Rd & back)
Sunday: 10.2 mi, trail (SHT at Jay Cooke toward Wild Valley Rd & back)
Total: 34.9 mi

Week 14
Monday: 5.3 mi, road
Tuesday: 9.6 mi, road
Wednesday: 6.1 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk), 4 miles at tempo effort
Thursday: 6.7 mi, trail (Hartley)
Friday: rest
Saturday: 3.3 mi, road (Be the Match 5K + short warmup)
Sunday: 14.9 mi, trail (SHT @ 123rd Ave W toward Jay Cooke & back)
Total: 46 mi

So, some of this training I’ve already forgotten about. Whoops.

In these last few weeks leading up to FANS, I’m trying to eat better and overall do a better job of taking care of myself. Taking training seriously doesn’t just mean putting in the miles; that’s only a portion of what it takes to have a successful race. I’ve been doing myself a disservice by neglecting the nutrition part of my training. I can’t fix my bad eating habits overnight (well, I can, there’s actually nothing stopping me other than my own willpower and laziness, but it is more likely to stick if I make smaller changes first), but I can take steps to improve my diet overall.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to go crazy with any radical food intake strategies like keto or high fat low carb or Whole 30 or whatever. I won’t be smugly posting about how “clean” I’m eating. I eat food I’ve dropped so I don’t eat clean. I am not the only person eating in my household, and I’m not the only person who prepares food, so I can’t make drastic changes to what I eat without bringing my husband on board, and it’s not my place to dictate the menu on the nights I’m not making food (which used to be every night! I rarely cooked). But now I’m making dinner about twice a week. My plan is to make something Monday and Tuesday night that is relatively healthy and will have leftovers, so I can have some decent lunches. No more pizza lunches 3x a week!

I am not super creative in the kitchen, so I never know what to make. I also don’t have a dishwasher, a lot of counter space, or a lot of fancy appliances, so I can’t make complex things without causing a lot of extra work for myself. I do know someone who is super creative in the kitchen, though: my cousin writes a food blog, The Sea Salt, with lots of delicious recipes, surfing photos, and mostly vegetarian ingredients. (I don’t really care because I like to eat meat, but it’s a nice feature for those who are vegetarian or looking to reduce the amount of meat in their diet.) So I made a recipe of hers last Monday, Falafel Spiced Quinoa Salad with Crispy Chickpeas. It was delicious AND it provided a LOT of leftovers! I might add chicken to it next time I make it.

I’m not a chef and the lighting in my kitchen sucks, but I took a photo anyway.

Besides trying to make some better food choices (which I wasn’t completely successful at – the red velvet Oreos I bought for CM50K but did not eat were NOT going to go to waste), I did do actual running. I took 3 days off after Chippewa Moraine 50K, got a massage the final day off, and then returned to running. I made a concerted effort to start running on challenging trails again, rather than just Lakewalk run upon Lakewalk run (and I’ve got to stop running there shortly, as it’ll be overtaken by tourists in those awful surrey-with-a-fringe-on-top bike things).

I ran the Be the Match 5K on Saturday the 13th. It went ok. I ran 29:43, which is not my best time ever, but was still under 30 minutes. My hope is that I’ll never run a road 5K in over 30 minutes’ time, unless I’m 80 years old, pacing a friend, or… I don’t know, some other extenuating circumstance. I was planning to do a short recap of the race, but decided not to. It wasn’t a goal race, it wasn’t a particularly well-run race, and my recapping plan was spoiled by technical difficulties.

I wanted to experiment with taking real mile splits, so I hit the lap button when I passed each mile marker (well, the first two). According to the auto-lap feature, my splits were 8:59, 9:33, and then 11:11 for the final “1.17” (a 9:34 pace). So that wasn’t the best, but other than the first mile, it’s not super far off, as I ran a 9:35 overall pace via the official results.

My lap button time splits were: 9:40, 7:26, and 12:38 (11:29 pace for 1.1 miles). Uhhhh. I think there was a mistake with the placement of the second mile marker, as best as I can tell. I’ll have to try this experiment again. Overall, this was not a particularly well-run race, thanks to poor training, tired legs, and poor mental attitude. I slept ok and ate ok before the race, for the first time in the history of me running this race, and I still ran my second best 5K time ever, but I was kind of thinking I’d just magically PR. I also didn’t PR in fundraising, although I think we came close to last year’s. We raised just over $1100 officially, but we did have 2 donors who made donations that were accidentally not attributed to our team. I was hoping to raise $2000, but realistically that wasn’t happening. My mom and I are the only ones on our “team” who fundraise, so realistically we’ve already maxed out our donor base.

The weather was decent the past couple of weeks, for the most part. There were even a few days that were actually hot! Relatively speaking. I run so much better when I’m in just a t-shirt and shorts. I’m breaking in a new pair of road shoes at the moment (Mizuno Wave Runners), and trying to decide what shoes to wear at Superior. My shoes from Chippewa are pretty beat up, but it’s looking like this weekend is going to be muddy and gross, so I might wear my old shoes (with ~567 miles on them) and save the new ones (~157 miles) for another day.

I’m kind of ready for this block of races to be over with: I don’t think I’ll plan so many races that require travel in such a short period of time.  Between traveling for hockey, racing, and work, I’ve been away from home more than I’d like. Too much time away from the cats! Next year I’ll have to be much more thoughtful about how I schedule my races.

Chippewa Moraine 50K Training: Week 12

Race week! Basically a pointless training report.

Monday: 3.7 mi, trail (Lester Park)
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest
Saturday: 31.1 mi, trail (race!)
Sunday: rest
Total: 34.8 mi

I felt sick most of the week. Even my training run at Lester Park went poorly – I had some lower GI cramping that slowed me to a walk a few times — on a super short run! Some sections of the trails at Lester Park were closed, and they were a bit muddy in other places, but I cannot wait to get back there.

I took the rest of the week off because I was terrified of getting sick. The weather was crummy, anyway. I did yoga every day leading up to the race, so that was good. It helped quell some of the fatigue/malaise I was battling the whole week. That “taper flu” is no joke.

This training cycle is going to feed my training cycle for my 24 hour race in June, so I won’t really be taking time off (I will start running on Wednesday, after getting a massage on Tuesday, which I really need!), just making adjustments. There’s lots to dissect, but that’s best left to its own post.

Chippewa Moraine 50K Training: Week 11

Last real week of training. Gulp.

Monday: 5.5 mi, trail (Bagley)
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 6.6 mi, road
Thursday: 4.2 mi, road
Friday: 8.5 mi, road
Saturday: 10 mi, road
Sunday: 4 mi, trail (Hartley)
Total: 38.8 mi

I survived the week! It was rough. I was in a really low mood (as I wrote last week), and really didn’t enjoy any of my runs last week. Even the gorgeous weather on Saturday didn’t help my mood, since I knew cold weather was coming. It was really nice to run in just a t-shirt and shorts on Friday and Saturday, though.

I treated myself to a couple of trail runs. I’ve not been running a whole lot of trails, partially due to trail conditions, and partially due to a desire to get my freaking runs over with. This is sort of stupid because I am running a trail race, but I have done enough running on trails throughout this training cycle that I feel like I’ll be able to stay on my feet.

I’m also not really “tapering” the way a traditional training plan would dictate. I don’t know if this is a smart idea or not, I won’t find out until after the race, I guess, but I chose not to for several reasons. I had some low mileage weeks (weeks 9 and 7) recently, so I felt like those cutback weeks were a good substitute for a taper. I haven’t had super high mileage overall, although I have run 2, 50 mile weeks. I will have to run the numbers on my average mileage to see if it’s higher than I think. I don’t feel run down, and I don’t have any major injuries. Mentally I’m having a bit of a tough time lately, but a few days off can solve that. I’m also running a 24 hour race 6 weeks after CM50K, so I want to build off this training cycle for that race.

This week was tough mentally, but I did manage to get my butt out the door, even if it was almost 7 PM before I started, even if I had to wait out a rainstorm, even if I felt kind of crummy. That’s one of the things that has stood out for me this training cycle: I have taken very few unscheduled rest days just because I didn’t feel like running. (I have taken a lot of unscheduled rest days for hockey, though! A much better reason.) I am going to pat myself on the back for that. Guilt is a powerful motivator, it appears!

This upcoming week, I’m going to take things as they come. If it’s nice enough, I’ll run. If it’s raining or snowing or sleeting, I won’t run. I’m focused on the logistical preparations I need to do, on resting (sleeping well, I hope) and relaxing (yoga every day!), and on giving myself a mental break from running.

Chippewa Moraine 50K Training: Week 10

Amazing week! The weather was finally warm!

Monday: 5.3 mi, road
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 6.6 mi, road
Thursday: 4.6 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk)
Friday: 22.3 mi, paved trail (Munger Trail)
Saturday: 7.9 mi, paved trail (Lakewalk)
Sunday: 4.1 mi, road
Total: 50.8 mi

The weather was rather erratic this week, but on the days it was warm, I felt like I was flying. I had a hard time getting my butt out the door earlier in the week (I had convinced myself on Wednesday that I could take another rest day — and then made it out! And Thursday I got home and got distracted, so I didn’t get out running til 7:00, but I still made it!)

Friday I had the day off, and the weather looked decent, so I decided to do my last long run. I drove down to the Munger Trail trailhead near Jay Cooke, ran back toward Duluth, turned around just after the Buffalo House (6 mi), continued past my car another 5 miles past Carlton (after nearly getting stopped by a train), and then turned around and headed back for good. I felt really strong, with no stomach issues and no issues getting overheated (I wore shorts, a t-shirt, and arm warmers, which I took off about 10 miles in, and then put back on with about 4 miles to go). I did struggle a bit with an overactive bladder, which put me in the woods 5x (for basically no reason 3 of those times, ugh) and threw me off mentally, but that was the worst thing that happened.

I followed up Friday’s run with a medium run on Saturday. I meant to do 10 miles instead of just under 8, but didn’t have time as we had a long drive for a family dinner. It rained a tiny bit, and then ended up extremely humid. I felt great, though. The only part of me that was really hurting was the middle of my back, where the clasp of my sports bra has destroyed a small section of skin. I ignored my watch for most of the run, and tried to relax.

Sunday I went for a quick run before the Wild game (ugh, more sucky hockey) and again, I felt really relaxed and my body felt good. I’m not sure what the deal is, if it’s the warm weather or the fact that I don’t have to wear 4 layers or clothes or what, but I’m enjoying it.

I will sort of taper for the race (less than 2 weeks! OMG!), and I’m done with long runs for now (this is very exciting! I’ll have my weekends back!). This training cycle has been so weird and haphazard, but it seems to have kept me healthy in mind and body, so I’ll take it.

Chippewa Moraine 50K Training: Week 9

I had a great time in Chicago, even though the Bulldogs lost in the national championship game. They still had an amazing season!

Monday: 8.7 mi, road
Tuesday: 2.7 mi, road
Wednesday: 6 mi, treadmill
Thursday: 4.8 mi, treadmill
Friday: no running
Saturday: no running
Sunday: rest (travel)
Total: 22.2 mi

I had to piece together this week as best I could due to travel. Monday, I knew I had to get in a medium-length run, and I felt pretty great, despite a 50 mile week the week prior. Tuesday, my normal rest day, I sneaked in a very short run before my final FE prep class. It turned out I could have run after the class, since it only lasted about an hour (instead of 3), but whatever.

Wednesday we left for Chicago, and I ran on the treadmill when we got to the hotel. I’m going to pat myself on the back for that, because it was tough to work up the motivation to run after sitting in the car for almost 7 hours. It kind of sucked but I survived, and watched part of The Hunt for Red October while I ran. I’ve never seen it before, and it was on mute (I was also listening to music) and had captions, but I think I got the gist of it. After I ran, we went out to dinner and I ate a burger and fries in about 40 seconds.

Thursday, I got up early (early-ish) to run on the treadmill again before we checked out. I felt pretty crummy while I was running and actually had to pause the treadmill a few times to drink (and also to turn the AC on full blast). I finished with about 40 minutes to shower, get packed, and check out. We drove in to the city to our VRBO condo, and then walked over to the bar where the UMD Alumni party was, then to the United Center, then did plenty of walking around the arena (and also screaming and clapping and jumping around) and walked home after the second game.

Friday was a free day, so we did plenty of walking around the city. I got in 22,000 steps according to my fitness tracker, between walking to the El, visiting the Field Museum, watching a Twins game, and heading home. It’s so different to be in a walkable city with an established public transportation system. I’ve spent all my life in the suburbs or in Duluth (which is not walkable and the buses aren’t more convenient than driving), except for the three years I lived in Champaign while attending college, round 1.

Saturday was more of the same, walking down along the river and then heading to the bar, and then the arena for the final game. My legs were killing me, not because of the walking, but because of all the standing. That was tough on my calves for some reason.

Sunday we drove back to Duluth so I was basically sedentary. Oh well.

It was nice to have some days off running but still stay active. I am not counting any additional miles beyond the 22 I actually ran, but I still consider this an ok training week. It’s not like I sat on my butt like I usually do on non-running days!

Less than 3 weeks before the race! I really need to get focused on it, I’ve kind of been pretending it’s in the far-off future.