Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've had a lot going on but none of that has been racing and much of this time has been take it easy in running time so there's not too much to report on. I found a new job (huzzah!!) and am now working two jobs plus my computer is on the fritz so I'm generally only online using Kyle's computer. All of which adds up to very little time for blog writing.
So the big thing I'm working on right now is figuring out how to fit running and lifting and swimming into a 'normal' schedule. I've been so spoiled in some ways with a retail schedule - it's nice to be able to get things done during the day if I don't start until later or to get off early if I start early and be able to run well before dinnertime. Now I'm going to have to be waking up early to do my things before work or run after work and before dinner. So I've also been working on making healthy snacks to bring with me to work so I CAN run after work without being starving before I even head out the door. My current favorite Wasa Crip 'n Light crackers with cheese. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
So after Wild Duluth, I took it easy for a while. Instead of taking a couple of weeks completely off, though, I took a few weeks easy. I only ran on Wednesday with friends and raced Sundays for the rest of the NMTC series. My body recovered from the 50K pretty quickly, I think, so that was great. Although, having to race a 5K for the last NMTC race was sure a shock to the system! The most exciting news since Wild Duluth, though - I won the NMTC fall trail series! It's super exciting, even if it feels like I only won because faster people didn't consistently show up. But hey, like my coach told me back in high school when I won the mile in track and said it was only because a couple of my teammates ran different events - you can only race who shows up. So I won a free pair of shoes from Austin-Jarrow, which is pretty awesome. I decided on a neutral Saucony on the idea of stepping down the amount of stability that I "need" my shoe to provide but not jumping into training in racing flats. So we'll see how those go when it's time to change my shoes.
So now I'm done with the easy time and it's time to start looking ahead to next year. Whatever it is that next year holds :) My problem right now is deciding on what it is I want to focus on (what? My problem rests on decisions? What a shock!) and what I want my race schedule for next year to look like. Regardless, it's time to start working on bringing my mileage back up and getting a good winter base down. It's also time to get back to lifting regularity since part of my down time was also a break from lifting. Luckily, I love winter running! Most of the time.
Racing is done for the year. I was going to be on a team doing the Key West Ragnar, but then I got an extremely expensive vet bill so that plan got nixed. I'm bummed to miss it because I LOVE Ragnars but I also had this weird sense of doom about the race (in terms of my knee exploding) so I'm also a tiny bit relieved. It'll be nice to be able to take the winter to base build rather than worry about a 30-36 mile (divided into three legs, but still) race in January. Hopefully I'll be able to do a Ragnar later in 2011, then.
I was also going to do the Bridge to Peace 5K but it got moved from it's December time to the beginning of November on the same day as the High School State Cross Country meet and that takes precedence! I've been working the meet the last few years and love it - especially when I get to help out at the finish line. This year marked 10 years since my team won (I can't believe it's been that long!! My ten year high school reunion is this coming summer!) and I STILL get nervous once I make the turn from the highway towards St. Olaf on my way there. State was such a big part of my life for so many years, that it's nice to be able to go back and help out. Though, I'm always interested in the vast gap in numbers of boys who collapse at the finish vs girls who collapse. It's always more girls by a large number. Even now that it's chip timed and you aren't forced to stand in a chute in finishing order until someone ripped the tag from your race number. I don't think I ever collapsed at the end of a cross country race (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) though I did almost black out after my last cross country race ever (in college). Anyway, there was one girl who looked so devastated when she crossed the finish line that I had to go and give her a hug and help her through the finish area. I was happy to see an Esko girl when her race and a Grand Rapids girl raced and finished well, though not as well as she wanted. Luckily, she's not a senior so she has more State in her future.
I might head to the Cities for a winter race this year, but I'm not sure which one. Any thoughts? The Yukon Days races get an awesome hooded sweatshirt! And then there's the St Paul Winter Carnival Half Marathon. Or I should head to the Freeze Yer Gizzard Blizzard Run since I've always wanted to do that. It's super excited to have weekends free now, let me tell you!
Showing posts with label NMTC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NMTC. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Pool ramblings
It feels like it's been forever since I've been in the pool. Between taper/race/recover/race/recover and new job switch over, I don't know if I've been there the whole month of October. So I finally got my ass back in the pool yesterday, expecting it to be super crowded as I've never been there after a 'normal' work day is getting over with. Apparently Friday at 5ish is the best time to go - there was practically no one there! I decided ahead of time to do a mile to get back into it and not let myself cut it short.
I tried to let my brain wander more the way it can running. The only problem is that it's super hard to both let your brain wander and keep accurate track of the number of laps you're swimming. I'm pretty sure I did more than a mile (maybe a lot more) because every time I wasn't sure if I was doing 14 or 16, I would say I was on 14 - if I can't keep track that I have to swim more! So I'll have to work on that, too. Maybe it'll be easier if I do lap counts instead of length counts. It's like thinking about the distance you're running by keeping track of how many blocks you've gone. Ugh. Which is why I'm trying to let my mind wander or focus on form rather than think always about lap count. It also seems that when I don't super focus on lap count then my body can get into a 'stride' better, too. Which would also be easier if my pool weren't so damn short . . .
I tried to let my brain wander more the way it can running. The only problem is that it's super hard to both let your brain wander and keep accurate track of the number of laps you're swimming. I'm pretty sure I did more than a mile (maybe a lot more) because every time I wasn't sure if I was doing 14 or 16, I would say I was on 14 - if I can't keep track that I have to swim more! So I'll have to work on that, too. Maybe it'll be easier if I do lap counts instead of length counts. It's like thinking about the distance you're running by keeping track of how many blocks you've gone. Ugh. Which is why I'm trying to let my mind wander or focus on form rather than think always about lap count. It also seems that when I don't super focus on lap count then my body can get into a 'stride' better, too. Which would also be easier if my pool weren't so damn short . . .
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
From NR: I have a marathon in 4 days!
Okay! Updated news is that I managed to get Friday and Saturday off with some help. Huzzah! So I'll be heading down to Ashland for packet pickup and spaghetti feed sometime Friday afternoon and racing on Saturday.
I'm feeling sort of detached from this one. Maybe because the decision was so late, maybe because I've got a lot going on outside of running? I don't know but I haven't even bought my gels yet and haven't thought about the course all that much. I'm tapering but it feels weird to not have to go out and run and I'm thinking I'm maybe tapering too much.
Anyway, this wasn't meant to be such a dejected sounding post! I'm ridiculous excited about Wild Duluth (soon I can start haunting the 10 day forecast!), which might be why I'm still sort of realizing that "oh yeah! I have another big race this weekend!" I'm feeling a little unprepared but I think that's because my long miles have mostly been done differently then I'm used to. My two 20 miles runs were vastly different - one had a 10K race in the beginning with added mileage around it and another turned into a 27 mile weekend with two longer back to back trail runs instead of one long run. I know there are a lot of people who do long runs that way instead and it works just fine, it just feels super strange.
So! Weather looks amazing for this weekend! Right now it's a high of 56 or so with lows from the night before in the high 40s. Beautiful! No need for me to worry about hypothermia this year . . . Though, rest assured that I'll be taking one of everything that I might want to race in just in case. I'm ready for a beautiful day of running, though.
I had a gorgeous run the other weekend, too! Kyle and I went camping at McCarthy Beach State Park. Now, I definitely wouldn't go there during the summer - there are too many campsites and too close together. But, in late September? Wonderful! We were one of six taken campsites in the whole park. So it's right on a couple of lakes and it was exactly 6 miles from our campsite, around the main lake. Half on tar, half on these beautiful rough gravel roads. So I did a couple laps of the lake and we hiked a ton of the trails.
Now, while I'm running my eighth marathon on Saturday (third for the year!), I have an online acquaintance (well, someone who's blog I follow and comment on) who will be racing the Ironman Championships in Hawaii. We have similar marathon goal times only her marathon comes after a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike! So I shall try to channel some of her amazingness on Saturday! If you want to follow her blog of awesome, she can be found at Go Sonja.
That's all for now! We're halfway through the NMTC trail series - the last Wednesday night is tomorrow and then we switch to Sunday afternoons. I haven't decided how I'm racing tomorrow, yet. I'm in the women's lead so far (super exciting!), so I have to race some to keep my lead but I don't want to go super hard . . . We'll see how it turns out and how I'm feeling, I guess. Luckily, the week between Whistlestop and Wild Duluth is sort of a rest week. Of course, the hardest course of the series is the day after Wild Duluth. Luckily, we get to drop our lowest score of the series!
I'm feeling sort of detached from this one. Maybe because the decision was so late, maybe because I've got a lot going on outside of running? I don't know but I haven't even bought my gels yet and haven't thought about the course all that much. I'm tapering but it feels weird to not have to go out and run and I'm thinking I'm maybe tapering too much.
Anyway, this wasn't meant to be such a dejected sounding post! I'm ridiculous excited about Wild Duluth (soon I can start haunting the 10 day forecast!), which might be why I'm still sort of realizing that "oh yeah! I have another big race this weekend!" I'm feeling a little unprepared but I think that's because my long miles have mostly been done differently then I'm used to. My two 20 miles runs were vastly different - one had a 10K race in the beginning with added mileage around it and another turned into a 27 mile weekend with two longer back to back trail runs instead of one long run. I know there are a lot of people who do long runs that way instead and it works just fine, it just feels super strange.
So! Weather looks amazing for this weekend! Right now it's a high of 56 or so with lows from the night before in the high 40s. Beautiful! No need for me to worry about hypothermia this year . . . Though, rest assured that I'll be taking one of everything that I might want to race in just in case. I'm ready for a beautiful day of running, though.
I had a gorgeous run the other weekend, too! Kyle and I went camping at McCarthy Beach State Park. Now, I definitely wouldn't go there during the summer - there are too many campsites and too close together. But, in late September? Wonderful! We were one of six taken campsites in the whole park. So it's right on a couple of lakes and it was exactly 6 miles from our campsite, around the main lake. Half on tar, half on these beautiful rough gravel roads. So I did a couple laps of the lake and we hiked a ton of the trails.
Now, while I'm running my eighth marathon on Saturday (third for the year!), I have an online acquaintance (well, someone who's blog I follow and comment on) who will be racing the Ironman Championships in Hawaii. We have similar marathon goal times only her marathon comes after a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike! So I shall try to channel some of her amazingness on Saturday! If you want to follow her blog of awesome, she can be found at Go Sonja.
That's all for now! We're halfway through the NMTC trail series - the last Wednesday night is tomorrow and then we switch to Sunday afternoons. I haven't decided how I'm racing tomorrow, yet. I'm in the women's lead so far (super exciting!), so I have to race some to keep my lead but I don't want to go super hard . . . We'll see how it turns out and how I'm feeling, I guess. Luckily, the week between Whistlestop and Wild Duluth is sort of a rest week. Of course, the hardest course of the series is the day after Wild Duluth. Luckily, we get to drop our lowest score of the series!
Monday, September 13, 2010
From NR: Three races
I'm three races behind! Well, four races, now, since I started this on Tuesday and have since run another NMTC race. Oops. I feel as though I hardly raced in summer and now all of a sudden I have a ton going on. I suppose it helps that the NMTC Fall Trail Series has started back up . . . So a quick recap of two races and more detail on my 25K!
Fall Festival 10K
So first up - the Fall Festival 10K in Port Wing Labor Day Sunday. Which already seems ages ago! The weather was lovely - it started as a nice, fairly cool day, which was nice. I needed 20 miles for the day, so I started with not quite 2 miles of warmup. Back to the starting line, take off extra clothes and off we go! The first 600 or so is downhill, followed by gradual uphill until about mile 2 that feels pretty evil by the end. I was plugging along fairly well and just when I thought to myself at not quite a mile in, "Hmmm, this is about where Marlo passed me last year," I hear her distinctive steps behind me! And away went Marlo! I spent pretty much all of the race all on my own, which seems to happen a lot to me. However! This time I was able to keep it pushing at nice even 7:15s and finishing as second woman, 11th overall and a course PR of 44:56. I was extremely happy since I tend to have problems pushing the pace when I'm out on my own.
So then I ran one mile loops until awards - fun bobble head runners. And!! I won what I think was the first door prize I've won at a race. Free ice cream cones - yum. Since I was starting to be starving, next up was a shower, lunch, free ice cream, parade watching and then back out a couple hours after the race for the last 8 miles. Good practice for Ragnar, too, right?
This race has been consistantly having shirts that are one of my favorites for the year. Different colors and pretty designs with no ads. This year they went tech on us, a nice dark gray color that you don't see a lot with a very pretty woodsy design and no ads! Another favorite! Now, I'm not one of those people who feel that every race needs to give me a tech shirt. I like my cotton just fine, thank you, and wear them about all the time but a tech shirt is still pretty nice.
Sadly, no pictures since my camera has finally called it quits after going swimming over a year ago. I'm now taking recommendations on digital cameras.
Zapp's Loop, NMTC race
Three days later was Zapp's Loop - my second favorite (well, now it's my favorite since the Hartley race is no more) NMTC race. Though, for some reason, I always have trouble racing at Zapp's. This year, I don't think I ran a step of the race on my own, though - usually I'm all by myself on the back end downhill but there were guys everywhere! Still, it took me until the last couple of miles to start pushing the pace and I ended up coming in just a bit slower than last year. Ah, well still a good time. The water was super high this year, making for extra fun! Zapp's Loop has three river crossings - the first couple you can generally keep dry feet on if you slow down a bit and I usually consider the time lost to slowing to be worth it to keep my feet lighter for a bit. Definitely not an option this year, though! So I plowed through all the crossings, with guys right in front and behind, hoping I wouldn't twist something horribly since you couldn't really see the bottom at all and I didn't want to slow up and get passed. I'm happy to report no twisted anything. I did almost kill Randy, though! He kept slowing down on downhills (or maybe I kept speeding up on downhills?) so I tried to blow around him on a bridge. Except I didn't warn him that I was passing so we almost collided which would have been very bad for both of us. Bad single track etiquette, Sam! Luckily, we were both okay.
City of Lakes 25K
Next up was the City of Lakes 25K on Sunday down in Minneapolis - twice around Lake Harriet and Calhoun on the roads. Now, I'd run around the lakes before in college but only on the running paths where there are no hills so that's what I was expecting - a nice flat course. Luckily, my sister and I headed out to Lake Harriet on Saturday just for the heck of it where I remembered that the race was on the roads and thus, there would in fact be hills. Now, there's absolutely nothing large on the course, but it was nice to know ahead of time that some uphill would be happening. It actually ended up being pretty nice to have some hill just to switch up the muscles being used so that was good. However, it's the uphill that my knee dislikes most when it starts acting up lately so that ended up being a slight problem.
I had the goal of breaking 2 hours but mostly this was to be an indicator of whether I should be running Whistlestop or not. I wanted to know if my fitness was where I wanted and I wanted to see how my knee was doing. The race starts at the southwest end of Lake Harriet and finishes at the northeast (so we go around Harriett about 2 1/2 times total) and I decided it was better to walk a mile back to my car after the finish then walk a mile to the start. I was able to park just a couple blocks from the start, giving me time to park, hit the bathrooms and head back to my car to pin on my number, strap on my timing chip and ditch my warm-ups. I found a teammate at the start with a similar time-goal so we started out together. It felt nice and easy but the splits seemed right so when she picked it up, I stayed back and hung out around 7:45s. Not too much later, a couple of runners came up on me just a chatting away. Or rather, the woman was chatting and the guy was answering questions. I ran much of the rest of the race with them - Danny, an experience and speedy ultra marathoner (he won Voyageur in 97, I think) coming back from injury and Jenny, newer to the distance thing. Both very nice to run with.
I decided on wearing my racing flats - I hadn't worn them for anything over 10 miles before but figured this would be okay. Plus they feel nice and light. Of course, my stupid shoelace came untied. Again. Just one shoe this time, though and only once. I was able to head to the side and re-tie it and then Danny called out as he passed me so I was able to catch back up to him. For an ultra runner, he has terrible pacing, he kept speeding up and slowing down so I just went with my nice steady pace (7:40, 7:51, 15:37 for two miles (oops!), 7:43, 7:44, 7:51, 7:46, 7:49, 7:56, 7:51, 8:00, 8:06, 8:12, 7:50, finish) and let him do his thing in front and behind me. Yeah, see that slowdown for the last few miles? My knee started hurting around mile 12/13, though that wasn't the whole problem, my body seemed to suddenly not like the pace it was at. I felt SO INCREDIBLY SLOW and was happy to see that incredibly slow feeling was goal pace for Whistlestop (exactly goal pace, actually!). I worked hard on keeping some positive thinking during the last few miles - mostly centered on stopping thinking about pace and recognizing that 'I could easily run X more miles so just stop worrying and go with it'. Had I stuck on pace, I would have broken 2 hours! But I'm still happy with a 2:02. Especially as I realize that it's a 25K PR! Of course, my only other 25K was on trails but hey, minor detail right? :) I also ran a half marathon PR on my way to the 25K (they kept official Half spilts) which shows how long it's been since I've ran a road Half. Maybe I should throw one of those on my schedule next year?
So the question becomes - what did my knee not like? Was it the distance? Was it the pavement? Was it the racing flats? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. A person can legally sell their Whistlestop entry so I'm thinking about not doing Whistlestop and saving my knee for Wild Duluth. Especially since all the jerking around and uphill at the next NMTC race brought not a whisper from my knee. Looking at the splits, I realize that was about what I was sillily running during Whistlestop last year and that I lasted about half way before realizing how stupid I had been and that the pace wasn't going to last. Which makes me think if I pace smart this year with a slightly slower time goal - 3:35 instead of 3:30, then I might be okay. See me talking myself back into running Whistlestop?
Fall Festival 10K
So first up - the Fall Festival 10K in Port Wing Labor Day Sunday. Which already seems ages ago! The weather was lovely - it started as a nice, fairly cool day, which was nice. I needed 20 miles for the day, so I started with not quite 2 miles of warmup. Back to the starting line, take off extra clothes and off we go! The first 600 or so is downhill, followed by gradual uphill until about mile 2 that feels pretty evil by the end. I was plugging along fairly well and just when I thought to myself at not quite a mile in, "Hmmm, this is about where Marlo passed me last year," I hear her distinctive steps behind me! And away went Marlo! I spent pretty much all of the race all on my own, which seems to happen a lot to me. However! This time I was able to keep it pushing at nice even 7:15s and finishing as second woman, 11th overall and a course PR of 44:56. I was extremely happy since I tend to have problems pushing the pace when I'm out on my own.
So then I ran one mile loops until awards - fun bobble head runners. And!! I won what I think was the first door prize I've won at a race. Free ice cream cones - yum. Since I was starting to be starving, next up was a shower, lunch, free ice cream, parade watching and then back out a couple hours after the race for the last 8 miles. Good practice for Ragnar, too, right?
This race has been consistantly having shirts that are one of my favorites for the year. Different colors and pretty designs with no ads. This year they went tech on us, a nice dark gray color that you don't see a lot with a very pretty woodsy design and no ads! Another favorite! Now, I'm not one of those people who feel that every race needs to give me a tech shirt. I like my cotton just fine, thank you, and wear them about all the time but a tech shirt is still pretty nice.
Sadly, no pictures since my camera has finally called it quits after going swimming over a year ago. I'm now taking recommendations on digital cameras.
Zapp's Loop, NMTC race
Three days later was Zapp's Loop - my second favorite (well, now it's my favorite since the Hartley race is no more) NMTC race. Though, for some reason, I always have trouble racing at Zapp's. This year, I don't think I ran a step of the race on my own, though - usually I'm all by myself on the back end downhill but there were guys everywhere! Still, it took me until the last couple of miles to start pushing the pace and I ended up coming in just a bit slower than last year. Ah, well still a good time. The water was super high this year, making for extra fun! Zapp's Loop has three river crossings - the first couple you can generally keep dry feet on if you slow down a bit and I usually consider the time lost to slowing to be worth it to keep my feet lighter for a bit. Definitely not an option this year, though! So I plowed through all the crossings, with guys right in front and behind, hoping I wouldn't twist something horribly since you couldn't really see the bottom at all and I didn't want to slow up and get passed. I'm happy to report no twisted anything. I did almost kill Randy, though! He kept slowing down on downhills (or maybe I kept speeding up on downhills?) so I tried to blow around him on a bridge. Except I didn't warn him that I was passing so we almost collided which would have been very bad for both of us. Bad single track etiquette, Sam! Luckily, we were both okay.
City of Lakes 25K
Next up was the City of Lakes 25K on Sunday down in Minneapolis - twice around Lake Harriet and Calhoun on the roads. Now, I'd run around the lakes before in college but only on the running paths where there are no hills so that's what I was expecting - a nice flat course. Luckily, my sister and I headed out to Lake Harriet on Saturday just for the heck of it where I remembered that the race was on the roads and thus, there would in fact be hills. Now, there's absolutely nothing large on the course, but it was nice to know ahead of time that some uphill would be happening. It actually ended up being pretty nice to have some hill just to switch up the muscles being used so that was good. However, it's the uphill that my knee dislikes most when it starts acting up lately so that ended up being a slight problem.
I had the goal of breaking 2 hours but mostly this was to be an indicator of whether I should be running Whistlestop or not. I wanted to know if my fitness was where I wanted and I wanted to see how my knee was doing. The race starts at the southwest end of Lake Harriet and finishes at the northeast (so we go around Harriett about 2 1/2 times total) and I decided it was better to walk a mile back to my car after the finish then walk a mile to the start. I was able to park just a couple blocks from the start, giving me time to park, hit the bathrooms and head back to my car to pin on my number, strap on my timing chip and ditch my warm-ups. I found a teammate at the start with a similar time-goal so we started out together. It felt nice and easy but the splits seemed right so when she picked it up, I stayed back and hung out around 7:45s. Not too much later, a couple of runners came up on me just a chatting away. Or rather, the woman was chatting and the guy was answering questions. I ran much of the rest of the race with them - Danny, an experience and speedy ultra marathoner (he won Voyageur in 97, I think) coming back from injury and Jenny, newer to the distance thing. Both very nice to run with.
I decided on wearing my racing flats - I hadn't worn them for anything over 10 miles before but figured this would be okay. Plus they feel nice and light. Of course, my stupid shoelace came untied. Again. Just one shoe this time, though and only once. I was able to head to the side and re-tie it and then Danny called out as he passed me so I was able to catch back up to him. For an ultra runner, he has terrible pacing, he kept speeding up and slowing down so I just went with my nice steady pace (7:40, 7:51, 15:37 for two miles (oops!), 7:43, 7:44, 7:51, 7:46, 7:49, 7:56, 7:51, 8:00, 8:06, 8:12, 7:50, finish) and let him do his thing in front and behind me. Yeah, see that slowdown for the last few miles? My knee started hurting around mile 12/13, though that wasn't the whole problem, my body seemed to suddenly not like the pace it was at. I felt SO INCREDIBLY SLOW and was happy to see that incredibly slow feeling was goal pace for Whistlestop (exactly goal pace, actually!). I worked hard on keeping some positive thinking during the last few miles - mostly centered on stopping thinking about pace and recognizing that 'I could easily run X more miles so just stop worrying and go with it'. Had I stuck on pace, I would have broken 2 hours! But I'm still happy with a 2:02. Especially as I realize that it's a 25K PR! Of course, my only other 25K was on trails but hey, minor detail right? :) I also ran a half marathon PR on my way to the 25K (they kept official Half spilts) which shows how long it's been since I've ran a road Half. Maybe I should throw one of those on my schedule next year?
So the question becomes - what did my knee not like? Was it the distance? Was it the pavement? Was it the racing flats? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. A person can legally sell their Whistlestop entry so I'm thinking about not doing Whistlestop and saving my knee for Wild Duluth. Especially since all the jerking around and uphill at the next NMTC race brought not a whisper from my knee. Looking at the splits, I realize that was about what I was sillily running during Whistlestop last year and that I lasted about half way before realizing how stupid I had been and that the pace wasn't going to last. Which makes me think if I pace smart this year with a slightly slower time goal - 3:35 instead of 3:30, then I might be okay. See me talking myself back into running Whistlestop?
Thursday, September 2, 2010
From NR: Fall already?!
The the end of summer has officially come as the Fall NMTC Trail Series has begun! I can't believe that it's already September, though - something is not quite right about that. Don't get me wrong, I think fall might be my favorite season and I LOVE the fall trail series but still . . . what happened to the last three months? Didn't we just finish the spring series?
So I took last weekend completely off, no long run for me and in fact, no run at all for me over the weekend. I did an easy run on Monday where my knee was unhappy for the first half and fine for the rest. I've started already running through scenarios in my mind of 'what ifs' for October regarding my knee, but I think I should probably calm down and wait and see what this weekend brings me. It was mostly fine on Wednesday's race, so I'm a little hopeful again. I have another race followed by the rest of my long run slated for Sunday so we shall see. The 25K on roads that I'm planning on racing next week is a big indicator, too. I don't want to run Whistlestop if I'm not in the shape I want to be in.
The first Fall Trail Race is in Superior - Brown's Point. Usually, it's on ski trails and contains some very nice parts and some evil and steep down/ups of the type that throw off your balance if you're on skis. However, the trails hadn't been mowed and the decision was made to move the race to the gravel roads around the area. 2 miles out, 2 miles back. I actually kind of enjoyed having the race on roads for a change, it was fun being able to run abreast with people where we're used to being on more narrow trails. I actually ran with someone for pretty much the whole way, which was nice and made for lots of short talking and joking. I ran even or probably negative splits - I glanced at my watch at the turn and saw 14:something and came in with 28:09. I was worried as it seemed as though there was an awful lot of downhill on the way out, but I didn't notice much uphill on the way back, so it must have been a deceptive slope. I was going hard with about 800 to go when I realized that I have a race on Sunday and I didn't want to burn all cylinders trying to race someone up the uphill finish, so I backed off a bit to make sure I wouldn't be tempted to try and race down the guys in front of me. A smart move, I think since my legs weren't sure how interested they were in going faster anyway :)
Wednesday was a good practice run for my 10K on Sunday, I think - it'll be mostly on rolling dirt/gravel roads. It'll be harder to maintain a nice pace since I tend to end up on my own out there but that will also make it a good test of mental strength to go the pace I know I can go, right?
So I took last weekend completely off, no long run for me and in fact, no run at all for me over the weekend. I did an easy run on Monday where my knee was unhappy for the first half and fine for the rest. I've started already running through scenarios in my mind of 'what ifs' for October regarding my knee, but I think I should probably calm down and wait and see what this weekend brings me. It was mostly fine on Wednesday's race, so I'm a little hopeful again. I have another race followed by the rest of my long run slated for Sunday so we shall see. The 25K on roads that I'm planning on racing next week is a big indicator, too. I don't want to run Whistlestop if I'm not in the shape I want to be in.
The first Fall Trail Race is in Superior - Brown's Point. Usually, it's on ski trails and contains some very nice parts and some evil and steep down/ups of the type that throw off your balance if you're on skis. However, the trails hadn't been mowed and the decision was made to move the race to the gravel roads around the area. 2 miles out, 2 miles back. I actually kind of enjoyed having the race on roads for a change, it was fun being able to run abreast with people where we're used to being on more narrow trails. I actually ran with someone for pretty much the whole way, which was nice and made for lots of short talking and joking. I ran even or probably negative splits - I glanced at my watch at the turn and saw 14:something and came in with 28:09. I was worried as it seemed as though there was an awful lot of downhill on the way out, but I didn't notice much uphill on the way back, so it must have been a deceptive slope. I was going hard with about 800 to go when I realized that I have a race on Sunday and I didn't want to burn all cylinders trying to race someone up the uphill finish, so I backed off a bit to make sure I wouldn't be tempted to try and race down the guys in front of me. A smart move, I think since my legs weren't sure how interested they were in going faster anyway :)
Wednesday was a good practice run for my 10K on Sunday, I think - it'll be mostly on rolling dirt/gravel roads. It'll be harder to maintain a nice pace since I tend to end up on my own out there but that will also make it a good test of mental strength to go the pace I know I can go, right?
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
From NR: Firefighter's 10 Mile plus updates
Wow, guys - it's been a super long time! Sorry for the utter lack of updates. I've been crazy busy, I guess. Lots of racing going on and my computer time has been mostly devoted to other things and I've been doing well with keeping consistent lifting and swimming so that's more time taken up. I keep starting entries and then not finishing them - I've had the NMTC series every Wednesday plus a Sunday, Moose Lake 10K, TC One Mile and the Firefighter's 10 Mile in Thunder Bay. The best news is that running has been going great! My knee feels a-ok and I'm pulling out some speedy times. I've been smashing my times from last year in the NMTC series and my Moose Lake run was the fastest I've done since my PR 3 years ago.
The biggest news, though - I am runner number 9857 for Grandma's! I signed up last week after I nailed my 20 miler. I'm getting excited - 3 weeks left, which is crazy! I feel ready to go, though. This weekend (well, Monday, I guess, since I've been working all weekend but have Monday off) is my 22 and then it's the countdown!
My 20 was on fishing opener so the run was by myself on lovely dirt roads up at my cabin. Since it's rather empty out there, I opted for heading twice around the lake instead of an out and back. This way I'd be able to refill water on my own and Kyle and Dad could fish in the morning without worrying (much) about me being by myself. I kept 5 mile splits and was pleased to review them at the end and see each split get faster. It felt humid at the start and in the beginning my legs felt way too tired for being only 5 miles in, rather worrisome, actually, but I knew I could do 20 miles so I tried not to worry about it and kept plugging along. Along comes the second lap and what I wanted to do was focus on staying strong from about 13-18 since that's where I often have trouble. Turns out not only was I able to keep the pace up, but my last 5 miles had an 8:19 minute mile average which is close to race pace. In humidity! Excellent.
Hmmmm. Let's skip ahead to this Monday and the Firefighter's Ten Mile Road Race. It's up in Thunder Bay so we (I rode up with Leslie and Shelly) took off Sunday afternoon, getting up just in time to get our race packets and enjoy the very last of the spaghetti dinner. Mmmmmmmmmm. The race is on a Monday morning (Victoria Day!) and it was the 100th anniversary of the race this year (but only the 70 something running of it since it was canceled during World War II). It's an out and back course (with a little loop at the end of the out) that's pretty flat - the one hill was an overpass that we run up and down and then came back the other direction on. I like out and backs since it means you can see everyone which was doubly good in this case since it was a pretty boring route. The hill made from the overpass was nice, too, to break up the flatness and not nearly large or steep enough to be any big deal.
10 miles isn't that common of a racing distance, so it was hard to know what kind of time to shoot for. I decided that 7:30s sounded reasonable. The miles were marked but I didn't see a single one until mile 5. Not so helpful. They were all these sandwich board type signs that sat on the ground so I think they were being covered by the spectators. There were tons of people out cheering! I love a course with lots of cheering! But, yeah, no mile markers for me which meant I didn't really know how fast I was going. I knew the water stations were about every 2 miles but beyond that . . . So I decided not to worry about it and just go by feel. I took a look at my watch at 5 miles and saw 36 minutes which means I ran even splits! Funny because the second half felt SO much faster than the first half - I was sure I had gone out much too slow.
Also - apparently the issue with my shoelaces is me and not my shoes. BOTH of my shoes came untied. I don't understand what my problem is! Clearly when I run, my ankles move in such specific circles as to undo double knotting. Bizzare. So my first one comes undone about 2-3 miles in. Hmmmm. 7 or 8 miles is too far to run untied so I keep going until I see a bus bench, run over to that and tie my shoe. Not ten steps later, the other shoe is undone. Nargh. Get caught back up with the group I was with and then stop again to re-tie my other shoe. At least it gave me some motivation to pick my pace up more to catch up and then try and keep that pace going. I'll skip over the middle for you and jump to the last few miles. I passed by a girl and she put up a bit of a fight and then fell back. Well, it was awfully nice to have someone to run with so I gave her a wave and told her to "come on" and up she came. It was super nice to have someone to pace with for a couple miles, she really helped me keep my pace. It's maybe something I need to work on but sometimes I just need to blank out and hang onto someone or at least have someone to share the work with. I have to remember this come the end of Grandma's - if I can just keep on pace through the rough part and not think about having to hold a pace, I can come out the other end okay. So I eventually dropped my help and caught up with the group of 3 women in front of me with a good strong finish (despite the lying handmade 'one mile to go' sign in someone's yard). 1:12:17! So much for 7:30s - apparently I decided to run just faster than my 10K earlier in the year and do 7:13s instead. Very exciting! Also super exciting was Leslie winning the whole thing and the rest of the team having good races, too! It's so much fun when most everyone around you also does well. I came in 4th in my age group (so close to an award!) but 3rd place was a couple minutes in front of me, so I'm a-okay with 4th.
So, here we are. 3 weeks out and 22 miles to run! I decided to go for my 'evil' route - running up Highland and doing mileage around the mall and back - it's surprisingly rolling. I promise to update more often. Hopefully again this week.
The biggest news, though - I am runner number 9857 for Grandma's! I signed up last week after I nailed my 20 miler. I'm getting excited - 3 weeks left, which is crazy! I feel ready to go, though. This weekend (well, Monday, I guess, since I've been working all weekend but have Monday off) is my 22 and then it's the countdown!
My 20 was on fishing opener so the run was by myself on lovely dirt roads up at my cabin. Since it's rather empty out there, I opted for heading twice around the lake instead of an out and back. This way I'd be able to refill water on my own and Kyle and Dad could fish in the morning without worrying (much) about me being by myself. I kept 5 mile splits and was pleased to review them at the end and see each split get faster. It felt humid at the start and in the beginning my legs felt way too tired for being only 5 miles in, rather worrisome, actually, but I knew I could do 20 miles so I tried not to worry about it and kept plugging along. Along comes the second lap and what I wanted to do was focus on staying strong from about 13-18 since that's where I often have trouble. Turns out not only was I able to keep the pace up, but my last 5 miles had an 8:19 minute mile average which is close to race pace. In humidity! Excellent.
Hmmmm. Let's skip ahead to this Monday and the Firefighter's Ten Mile Road Race. It's up in Thunder Bay so we (I rode up with Leslie and Shelly) took off Sunday afternoon, getting up just in time to get our race packets and enjoy the very last of the spaghetti dinner. Mmmmmmmmmm. The race is on a Monday morning (Victoria Day!) and it was the 100th anniversary of the race this year (but only the 70 something running of it since it was canceled during World War II). It's an out and back course (with a little loop at the end of the out) that's pretty flat - the one hill was an overpass that we run up and down and then came back the other direction on. I like out and backs since it means you can see everyone which was doubly good in this case since it was a pretty boring route. The hill made from the overpass was nice, too, to break up the flatness and not nearly large or steep enough to be any big deal.
10 miles isn't that common of a racing distance, so it was hard to know what kind of time to shoot for. I decided that 7:30s sounded reasonable. The miles were marked but I didn't see a single one until mile 5. Not so helpful. They were all these sandwich board type signs that sat on the ground so I think they were being covered by the spectators. There were tons of people out cheering! I love a course with lots of cheering! But, yeah, no mile markers for me which meant I didn't really know how fast I was going. I knew the water stations were about every 2 miles but beyond that . . . So I decided not to worry about it and just go by feel. I took a look at my watch at 5 miles and saw 36 minutes which means I ran even splits! Funny because the second half felt SO much faster than the first half - I was sure I had gone out much too slow.
Also - apparently the issue with my shoelaces is me and not my shoes. BOTH of my shoes came untied. I don't understand what my problem is! Clearly when I run, my ankles move in such specific circles as to undo double knotting. Bizzare. So my first one comes undone about 2-3 miles in. Hmmmm. 7 or 8 miles is too far to run untied so I keep going until I see a bus bench, run over to that and tie my shoe. Not ten steps later, the other shoe is undone. Nargh. Get caught back up with the group I was with and then stop again to re-tie my other shoe. At least it gave me some motivation to pick my pace up more to catch up and then try and keep that pace going. I'll skip over the middle for you and jump to the last few miles. I passed by a girl and she put up a bit of a fight and then fell back. Well, it was awfully nice to have someone to run with so I gave her a wave and told her to "come on" and up she came. It was super nice to have someone to pace with for a couple miles, she really helped me keep my pace. It's maybe something I need to work on but sometimes I just need to blank out and hang onto someone or at least have someone to share the work with. I have to remember this come the end of Grandma's - if I can just keep on pace through the rough part and not think about having to hold a pace, I can come out the other end okay. So I eventually dropped my help and caught up with the group of 3 women in front of me with a good strong finish (despite the lying handmade 'one mile to go' sign in someone's yard). 1:12:17! So much for 7:30s - apparently I decided to run just faster than my 10K earlier in the year and do 7:13s instead. Very exciting! Also super exciting was Leslie winning the whole thing and the rest of the team having good races, too! It's so much fun when most everyone around you also does well. I came in 4th in my age group (so close to an award!) but 3rd place was a couple minutes in front of me, so I'm a-okay with 4th.
So, here we are. 3 weeks out and 22 miles to run! I decided to go for my 'evil' route - running up Highland and doing mileage around the mall and back - it's surprisingly rolling. I promise to update more often. Hopefully again this week.
Friday, April 30, 2010
From NR: Tragedy!
It's been a little while since I discovered my personal tragedy but I have yet to write about it. Here goes: my favorite running socks are no more!!
Okay, not such a catastrophe, but still sad! I've been buying my running socks from the Army Navy store in Grand Rapids the last couple of years. They're nice and lightweight, super cheap and the tops are sparkly (some yellow, some green) and say sunshine on them! I love them. Sadly, almost every single sock has a hole for my right big toe to poke out of now. So last time I went up to GR, I decided it was time to buy more just to head into the store and find that they no longer sell them. Not only that but the saleswoman had no idea what I was talking about so it's probably been a while since they've had them (I don't think I've bought any since last summer). I have no idea what brand they are and so have no way to look them up online, though I did try a few quick and useless searches using variants of 'running sock' 'sunshine' and 'glitter'. Shockingly, nothing came up! Yeah. I think they still sell the same brand but different socks, though, so I'll have to check NEXT time and write the brand down. In the meantime, I am running out of socks. The problem I've found with anklets is that so many tend to be just too short so that the back of the shoe rubs against my heel. Not comfortable. I found some cheap ones at Old Navy, though, so I'll give those a try and report back! They aren't sparkly, though.
The first trail race was on Wednesday! It was my first speedy anything since I've been injured so I was a bit apprehensive about it. Usually, this is the easiest course (well, I suppose Western Waterfront is an easier course) of the spring. However! It's been rather dry this year, so it was decided that we could venture onto parts of the trail usually too muddy this time of year. I shudder to think what they look like in a normal year. My mom asked if we ran through some puddles and I laughed at her. We were trouncing through Marsh Marigolds it was so mucky! The first third was wet, mucky and shoe sucking - I lost my right shoe in the first third during the warmup run of the course. Not a good sign. The second part was hills. Hills reminiscent of Brown's Point. Yuck. I didn't have as much of a problem with them as I thought I might, though. I tried to work on trusting my legs and ignoring my mind going something like "What the hell is that? You want to run up another one of those?" Then you turned a sharp right and hit sudden pavement which gets the legs all confused. "What?! Solid ground? What do I do?? How do I balance?"
I lost my left shoe in an unassuming mud hole in the single track. During the race. Luckily, we weren't more than a quarter mile from the finish and there was someone I could hear behind me so I decided to just keep going and go back for my shoe when I finished. I didn't even need to do that since Randy found it and brought it in with him. Thanks, Randy!
Overall, a pretty good race, though there's nothing to compare it to since it was a new course. I was trying hard to just run my pace and not let anyone else affect what I was doing so I could focus on what my legs wanted me to do. I ended up running faster than I thought I would, so that was nice. My legs are still strong (actually, probably stronger in general with all of that PT) but my breathing is perhaps a bit behind.
I'll be giving everything a good test tomorrow at the Moose Lake 10K, though (man, am I link happy today). Flat and fast so we'll see what happens. Hopefully the nasty weather that usually accompanies the Millennium Trail race doesn't show up in Moose Lake tomorrow. But if it does, I always love running in the rain, so it won't be so bad!
Okay, not such a catastrophe, but still sad! I've been buying my running socks from the Army Navy store in Grand Rapids the last couple of years. They're nice and lightweight, super cheap and the tops are sparkly (some yellow, some green) and say sunshine on them! I love them. Sadly, almost every single sock has a hole for my right big toe to poke out of now. So last time I went up to GR, I decided it was time to buy more just to head into the store and find that they no longer sell them. Not only that but the saleswoman had no idea what I was talking about so it's probably been a while since they've had them (I don't think I've bought any since last summer). I have no idea what brand they are and so have no way to look them up online, though I did try a few quick and useless searches using variants of 'running sock' 'sunshine' and 'glitter'. Shockingly, nothing came up! Yeah. I think they still sell the same brand but different socks, though, so I'll have to check NEXT time and write the brand down. In the meantime, I am running out of socks. The problem I've found with anklets is that so many tend to be just too short so that the back of the shoe rubs against my heel. Not comfortable. I found some cheap ones at Old Navy, though, so I'll give those a try and report back! They aren't sparkly, though.
The first trail race was on Wednesday! It was my first speedy anything since I've been injured so I was a bit apprehensive about it. Usually, this is the easiest course (well, I suppose Western Waterfront is an easier course) of the spring. However! It's been rather dry this year, so it was decided that we could venture onto parts of the trail usually too muddy this time of year. I shudder to think what they look like in a normal year. My mom asked if we ran through some puddles and I laughed at her. We were trouncing through Marsh Marigolds it was so mucky! The first third was wet, mucky and shoe sucking - I lost my right shoe in the first third during the warmup run of the course. Not a good sign. The second part was hills. Hills reminiscent of Brown's Point. Yuck. I didn't have as much of a problem with them as I thought I might, though. I tried to work on trusting my legs and ignoring my mind going something like "What the hell is that? You want to run up another one of those?" Then you turned a sharp right and hit sudden pavement which gets the legs all confused. "What?! Solid ground? What do I do?? How do I balance?"
I lost my left shoe in an unassuming mud hole in the single track. During the race. Luckily, we weren't more than a quarter mile from the finish and there was someone I could hear behind me so I decided to just keep going and go back for my shoe when I finished. I didn't even need to do that since Randy found it and brought it in with him. Thanks, Randy!
Overall, a pretty good race, though there's nothing to compare it to since it was a new course. I was trying hard to just run my pace and not let anyone else affect what I was doing so I could focus on what my legs wanted me to do. I ended up running faster than I thought I would, so that was nice. My legs are still strong (actually, probably stronger in general with all of that PT) but my breathing is perhaps a bit behind.
I'll be giving everything a good test tomorrow at the Moose Lake 10K, though (man, am I link happy today). Flat and fast so we'll see what happens. Hopefully the nasty weather that usually accompanies the Millennium Trail race doesn't show up in Moose Lake tomorrow. But if it does, I always love running in the rain, so it won't be so bad!
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