My first 50 mile is tomorrow!
Weather right now depends on where you look. A high in the low 80s with very reasonable humidity. I asked the weather gods earlier in the summer to bless us with lots of nasty weather if they had the make race day nasty and they have agreed! While we didn't get as much gross weather as we could have, I had a couple of nice long runs in really gross heat/humidity. I've noticed that I feel much more comfortable in heat/humidity, so that is great.
So, I'll be out there tomorrow. I could run a 9:30 or I could be racing the cutoffs if it's really gross out. I figure a 10-11 hour finish is most likely.
Good luck to everyone out there!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
From NR: Grandma's Race Report
It's really become beyond ridiculous, now! How is it possible that I am unable to write a race report in a timely fashion? And then that pushes off any other blog I would write since I can't write a 'normal' entry if I haven't even talked about Grandma's yet.
So here we go - another year, another Grandma's, another crappy marathon!!
Okay, that's not completely true. Lots of things went right this year and I managed to run my fastest Grandma's so far so clearly things could be a lot worse. I just still haven't figured things out on this course, I guess.
My original plans of staying in Two Harbors were scraped the night before and I ended up staying at home. It was the right move, though because I slept like a rock and didn't wake up tired at all, even though staying in Duluth meant being to the DECC before I have to get up in Two Harbors. I caved to Shane's pressure and took the train to the start and I have to admit - it was quite nice and I definitely recommend it to others. Even though there were lots of people, we had still had room. You could stretch out some, I stood up and used their bathroom right before we got there. And best of all . . . the rain was done by the time we pulled in! So I abandoned my short lived membership in the cult of the garbage bag and left my hat in the starting line bag.
I rode the train with Marcus and we stuck together until it was time to take the warm-ups off. It was probably good we lost track of each other during the bag drop off, though, since running together was probably not a stellar idea - we can't seem to run next to each other on pavement without one-stepping. Luckily, we're fine on trails! So I took off along the outside of the corrals to get up to the right spot and got settled smuck between the 3:30 and 3:40 pace groups.
There were a couple false starting moments as the crowd suddenly surged forward only to not have it be the start of the race . . . strange. But soon enough, off we went!
What a beautiful day for running! Nice temperatures, partly cloudy and just a tad too humid. This is definitely my day! I ran what felt super slow and made sure to keep my pace comfortable and held back and ran some beautiful splits - aiming for 8:12s: 8:21 (okay, a little slow, pick it up a tich), 8:01 (slow it a bit), 8:07 (perfect!), 8:07 (beautiful!), 8:02 (okay, a little excited there), 8:14 (perfect!).
And then I missed mile 7. Actually, the problem was that a lot of balloons were missing. Grandma's has this lovely set up where there's these HUGE yellow balloons floating way up at every mile so you can see them coming and you can see the mile points even when the road chalking is covered. Say by a massive water station. As was the case at mile 7 where there were no balloons and thus no way to know when you passed mile 7. So that mile and the next together were 16:19 which is about right but boy I hated not having accurate splits for two miles!
The next two were 8:18 and 8:11 and then suddenly a 8:25. And it was hard. And it was mile 11. So I knew there that 3:35 was probably not going to happen. Now, I make this sound like a knee jerk reaction to one bad split, but I assure you it wasn't that. I love taking mile splits (I just hit the lap button so that I'm keeping a running time as well) and I'm pretty good at staying positive no matter what I see there. Too fast? That's okay, just slow it down a little and it's perfect. Too slow? No problem, just pick it up a bit and it's perfect. Besides, it's really cool to see things like two splits in a row with exactly the same time :) Anyway, I don't necessarily panic when I don't see the number I expect.
However, somewhere after mile 11, it became clear that 3:35 was not in the books so I decided to just relax and enjoy. I had plenty of time banked so I could definitely still cruise under 3:40 and I had a great few miles. There was a girl who seemed to also be going for 3:35 since we were running the same pace that I was waiting to cruise by me but I never saw her. Did I make the right decision? I think so. I think I could have toughed it up a little more later on but I think it was smart to back off here.
Eventually, though, I realized I had done too many long, slow trail runs and probably not enough dedicated pace runs on roads. My legs pooped out too early and my ITBand starting making noise. It's been irritated for a while and I've beenmostly ignoring it trying to be nice to it but it likes to rear its ugly head from time to time, especially on roads. With this not being my goal race, I did not want to injure myself bad so that was part of backing off as well.
So I was plugging along as my friends Tonya and Kelly both passed me looking good. I was glad I wasn't miserable and I was happy to see Kelly looking great but I didn't like not feeling capable of running with them and I didn't like looking okay as they went by. Almost as though if I can't run what I should then I should damn well be feeling absolutely terrible. Which is silly but how I felt at the time.
Nothing went particularly slow this year, though. I was always (except for one mile, apparently) moving forward at an okay pace even when walking was involved so that none of the miles really dragged by. Watching Lemon-drop hill approach, I swore to myself I could walk every step up it if I ran the whole way there (you can see it for over a mile away). I ran the whole way up anyway, though :)
With around three miles left, I looked at my watch and didn't think it'd be feasible to break 4 hours with the pace I was moving. This was frustrating since I'd be close. At two miles left, though, it suddenly looked maybe, possibly doable. Maybe. Depending on how much time that .2 would take. About that time, my friend from earlier suddenly showed up - we had both crashed! So it was time to dig down and keep running no matter what and I rather hoped she'd be able to, too. Even though we didn't speak at all during the race, I felt close to her since we were doing exactly the same pacing good and bad.
I was able to bring it in strong with a 3:57 - 30 minutes slower than what I wanted but my first time under 4 hours at Grandma's and I definitely picked it way up the last few miles. To which I say now - if I was able to do so well and bring it in stronger the last 3 miles, what the heck was going on for the 5 miles previously? I was able to find my 'friend' afterward, too - we were putting our clothes back on in the same spot, even! So I went up and asked how it went for her and sadly, she wasn't able to pick it up enough and came in at 4:something.
So - I'm annoyed that I wasted such a perfect day! When are we going to get such gorgeous weather for Grandma's again? What did I end up learning? Something I should have already known - doing enough specific pace work is necessary for a good marathon for me and perhaps I need to focus ONLY on a road marathon and not split myself too many ways. Of course, I'm also ready to swear off road marathons for a while but we'll see how long that really lasts.
So here we go - another year, another Grandma's, another crappy marathon!!
Okay, that's not completely true. Lots of things went right this year and I managed to run my fastest Grandma's so far so clearly things could be a lot worse. I just still haven't figured things out on this course, I guess.
My original plans of staying in Two Harbors were scraped the night before and I ended up staying at home. It was the right move, though because I slept like a rock and didn't wake up tired at all, even though staying in Duluth meant being to the DECC before I have to get up in Two Harbors. I caved to Shane's pressure and took the train to the start and I have to admit - it was quite nice and I definitely recommend it to others. Even though there were lots of people, we had still had room. You could stretch out some, I stood up and used their bathroom right before we got there. And best of all . . . the rain was done by the time we pulled in! So I abandoned my short lived membership in the cult of the garbage bag and left my hat in the starting line bag.
I rode the train with Marcus and we stuck together until it was time to take the warm-ups off. It was probably good we lost track of each other during the bag drop off, though, since running together was probably not a stellar idea - we can't seem to run next to each other on pavement without one-stepping. Luckily, we're fine on trails! So I took off along the outside of the corrals to get up to the right spot and got settled smuck between the 3:30 and 3:40 pace groups.
There were a couple false starting moments as the crowd suddenly surged forward only to not have it be the start of the race . . . strange. But soon enough, off we went!
What a beautiful day for running! Nice temperatures, partly cloudy and just a tad too humid. This is definitely my day! I ran what felt super slow and made sure to keep my pace comfortable and held back and ran some beautiful splits - aiming for 8:12s: 8:21 (okay, a little slow, pick it up a tich), 8:01 (slow it a bit), 8:07 (perfect!), 8:07 (beautiful!), 8:02 (okay, a little excited there), 8:14 (perfect!).
And then I missed mile 7. Actually, the problem was that a lot of balloons were missing. Grandma's has this lovely set up where there's these HUGE yellow balloons floating way up at every mile so you can see them coming and you can see the mile points even when the road chalking is covered. Say by a massive water station. As was the case at mile 7 where there were no balloons and thus no way to know when you passed mile 7. So that mile and the next together were 16:19 which is about right but boy I hated not having accurate splits for two miles!
The next two were 8:18 and 8:11 and then suddenly a 8:25. And it was hard. And it was mile 11. So I knew there that 3:35 was probably not going to happen. Now, I make this sound like a knee jerk reaction to one bad split, but I assure you it wasn't that. I love taking mile splits (I just hit the lap button so that I'm keeping a running time as well) and I'm pretty good at staying positive no matter what I see there. Too fast? That's okay, just slow it down a little and it's perfect. Too slow? No problem, just pick it up a bit and it's perfect. Besides, it's really cool to see things like two splits in a row with exactly the same time :) Anyway, I don't necessarily panic when I don't see the number I expect.
However, somewhere after mile 11, it became clear that 3:35 was not in the books so I decided to just relax and enjoy. I had plenty of time banked so I could definitely still cruise under 3:40 and I had a great few miles. There was a girl who seemed to also be going for 3:35 since we were running the same pace that I was waiting to cruise by me but I never saw her. Did I make the right decision? I think so. I think I could have toughed it up a little more later on but I think it was smart to back off here.
Eventually, though, I realized I had done too many long, slow trail runs and probably not enough dedicated pace runs on roads. My legs pooped out too early and my ITBand starting making noise. It's been irritated for a while and I've been
So I was plugging along as my friends Tonya and Kelly both passed me looking good. I was glad I wasn't miserable and I was happy to see Kelly looking great but I didn't like not feeling capable of running with them and I didn't like looking okay as they went by. Almost as though if I can't run what I should then I should damn well be feeling absolutely terrible. Which is silly but how I felt at the time.
Nothing went particularly slow this year, though. I was always (except for one mile, apparently) moving forward at an okay pace even when walking was involved so that none of the miles really dragged by. Watching Lemon-drop hill approach, I swore to myself I could walk every step up it if I ran the whole way there (you can see it for over a mile away). I ran the whole way up anyway, though :)
With around three miles left, I looked at my watch and didn't think it'd be feasible to break 4 hours with the pace I was moving. This was frustrating since I'd be close. At two miles left, though, it suddenly looked maybe, possibly doable. Maybe. Depending on how much time that .2 would take. About that time, my friend from earlier suddenly showed up - we had both crashed! So it was time to dig down and keep running no matter what and I rather hoped she'd be able to, too. Even though we didn't speak at all during the race, I felt close to her since we were doing exactly the same pacing good and bad.
I was able to bring it in strong with a 3:57 - 30 minutes slower than what I wanted but my first time under 4 hours at Grandma's and I definitely picked it way up the last few miles. To which I say now - if I was able to do so well and bring it in stronger the last 3 miles, what the heck was going on for the 5 miles previously? I was able to find my 'friend' afterward, too - we were putting our clothes back on in the same spot, even! So I went up and asked how it went for her and sadly, she wasn't able to pick it up enough and came in at 4:something.
So - I'm annoyed that I wasted such a perfect day! When are we going to get such gorgeous weather for Grandma's again? What did I end up learning? Something I should have already known - doing enough specific pace work is necessary for a good marathon for me and perhaps I need to focus ONLY on a road marathon and not split myself too many ways. Of course, I'm also ready to swear off road marathons for a while but we'll see how long that really lasts.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
From NR: Grandma's Weather
The weather is looking so promising for Grandma's that I don't even want to talk about it for fear of jinxing things up! After a day or so scare of temperature predictions slowly climbing up and past 70, the predictions have been steadily dropping since then. Right now it's looking to be in the low or high 50's as a high, depending on the site you look at but not much variance in temperature from start to finish. There's a 50-70% chance of rain - one site saying 50% chance of showers and the other 70% for thunderstorms. So there could be some rain. Humidity is higher than I want on one site and fine on another.
But this could all change by Saturday, anyway! I am much, much happier about a chance of rain than gross heat, though. It just makes figuring out what to wear so much more complicated . . . I'm hoping for no rain as we start, anyway, as who wants to stand around in the corrals in the rain with your warm up clothes wet and wadded up in your gear back waiting you at the finish? But again, I would rather that than 90 degrees!
I'm crazy nervous and worried that while I'm in good shape, I don't know that I'm in good road marathon shape. I haven't done nearly enough marathon goal pace specific runs. I would love, as usual, to run somewhere between 3:30-3:40 but what would make me happy is just breaking that silly Grandma's curse of mine. That's something I feel confident can happen on Saturday.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend! A special good luck goes out to my buddy Mike who is running his first marathon!
But this could all change by Saturday, anyway! I am much, much happier about a chance of rain than gross heat, though. It just makes figuring out what to wear so much more complicated . . . I'm hoping for no rain as we start, anyway, as who wants to stand around in the corrals in the rain with your warm up clothes wet and wadded up in your gear back waiting you at the finish? But again, I would rather that than 90 degrees!
I'm crazy nervous and worried that while I'm in good shape, I don't know that I'm in good road marathon shape. I haven't done nearly enough marathon goal pace specific runs. I would love, as usual, to run somewhere between 3:30-3:40 but what would make me happy is just breaking that silly Grandma's curse of mine. That's something I feel confident can happen on Saturday.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend! A special good luck goes out to my buddy Mike who is running his first marathon!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
From NR: Superior 50K
6 days to Grandma's! Which means the haunting of weather.com has begun! I'm feeling ridiculously ready right now which makes me worry about still having another week to go. I don't think I've been this raring to go for a race in a while, which I'm going to take as a good sign.
But! Another day, another overdue race report. I don't know why I've gotten so bad about posting about a race on time . . .
The Superior 50K (3 weeks ago yesterday) was awesome! I am very delighted to report that I had pretty much no stomach/nausea issues for the whole race. I decided to try S-caps for the race since everyone kept pushing the salt/electrolyte imbalance possibility on me. For some reason, I'd been very resistant. I was so sure that I had my salt intake figured out with my new gel and I didn't want to experiment with this type of a thing for some reason. Go figure. So finally I decided that it was worth a go and Lisa was nice enough to let me try hers before buying a massive bottle of something I might not use. I now have a lovely massive bottle of my own :)
So the race starts up a tar and then dirt road to get to the Superior Hiking Trail. I was taking it nice and slow from the start even as it seemed as though an awful lot of people were blasting up the hill. Once we got into the single track, I continued heeding advice from Lisa to start slower than I thought necessary and hung out with whoever was in front of me without stressing about any sort of pace so early on. I did decide not too much later that I wanted to go a titch faster, though, so I made my way around a handful of people and then stretched out some. It's absolutely beautiful for most of this course. There were so many lovely views that made me just want to stop and take it in and many places that made me vocalize (usually to myself) how pretty it was.
I was passed in here by Maria and who I thought was Mark but now I'm thinking I have his name wrong. He's very nice and we've been talking at a few races and I should really remember his name AND he reads my blog - I'm sorry! So they cruised along in front of me. Heading down the back end of the first climb, I was on my own but could see Mark's yellow shirt from time to time and could hear him and Maria talking and a group of people behind me somewhere talking - sounds were echoing a bit in the valley and when I started to get a little annoyed at the noise injection itself into the lovely surroundings, I just reminded myself how lonely Chippewa was getting just before halfway when I had no-one around me. Things didn't look nearly so beautiful and green on the way back which is strange but I suppose at that point the sky was darkening for rain and I bet the sun angle probably had a ton do with it as well but the valley didn't even seem like the same place when I came back through.
Up the next climb and on to more beautiful vistas! Up here there were tons of downed trees over the trail that had to be climbed over and dodged around and ducked under. A bit of an annoyance since it would be a nice place to get a rhythm going again, but not a big deal - this is a trail race after all! Let me tell you, though, those trees were much more annoying on the way back and I felt like I almost got stuck trying to get over one. Much more annoying.
The first aid station is at 7 miles and I did a quick peruse of the table . . . peanut butter sandwiches, cookies, M&Ms, gummy bears, peanut butter and M&M sandwiches?? Hm. Okay! So I grabbed a square of that (to the delight of the two girls who apparently made them) and headed out. Amazingly tasty, actually! Where I couldn't quit find the interest for PB&J at Chippewa, the PJMM was a great mix. Mmmmmmmm. After the first aid station, it's nice and easy to get into a good rhythm as the big climbs are over with and things are more rolling. I focused on keeping an even effort level - this meant more control with downhills and figuring out what steepness of hill should be walked. I think I did a pretty rocking job with this, if I may say so myself :) I passed a lot of people in here and actually, I think this whole race noone who passed me stayed in front of me which is rather shockingly new for me in a 50K!
I keep forgetting to look at the winning guy's time but he passed me on his way back ridiculously early. In fact, a lot of people did, including Cristy (she's a friend and also the female winner) so that I started thinking I had read the map wrong. Could these people really be so many miles in front of me already? Yes. Yes they could!
The second aid station was pure chaos. Between those of us heading out and those heading back there were people EVERYWHERE. I didn't want to wait in line for the water coolers so I just grabbed a cup of water to add to my handheld, since I'd be back in a couple of miles anyway, and got the heck of out dodge. On my way to the turnaround, I started seeing more and more people I knew. Shane said he wasn't happy but he said it so cheerfully I wasn't sure I believed him. I was getting worried, though, as I was going further and further and hadn't seen Marcus. The way up Carlton peak (though we don't go all the way up) is tough to run simply because of the boulders you're trying to pick your way through. It's even harder to try to run your way down. So then I got to the turnaround and still no sign of Marcus. Hmmmm. Worrisome. I ask Rick and Wayne about him, though, and was told he was running awesome which made me more confused as to how I would have missed him as we passed each other. Turns out he was in the massive chaos that was the second aid station so that explains that.
That aid station was much calmer on the way back, by the way, and I was even able to pet my second puppy of the day there. I continued chugging along, making good time and catching people when all of a sudden there was a familiar form in front of me. Shane! I picked up the pace to see what was going on. A most unhappy and full of swears Shane was gimping his way along the trail. He would join for the next 8 or so miles as he worked through some painful sounding ankle issues. I was amused, though, as he kept apologizing for talking so much - we might have annoyed a couple of people as we passed, I think, but I didn't mind a bit. He might have slowed me down a couple of places but generally, having someone run right on your shoulder, even if they're not trying to push the pace, can help you push a little more. Especially as we slogged it back up Moose Mountain. That's a heck of a steep little climb, there. And then the damn trees. There were definitely more down over the trail then had been there on the way out. Plus, sometimes it's just nice to share the trail for a while with a friend.
Shane scooted around me right after the trees and I was on my own for most of the rest. I felt good but I knew my legs weren't so interested in pushing much faster so I hung out at the pace I was at rather than trying to pick it up and keep with Shane. Which seemed smart since he quickly booked it out of sight range. I couldn't remember at all how far there was to go (and that lovely valley didn't look nearly the same anymore) so I was trying to judge my chances of a PR and of beating the clearly oncoming rain and wondering if we were close enough for Shane to break 6 hours (we did some talking about our chances of doing so). I did get rained on but only for the last few minutes so it actually felt quite good. Until I was done and my dry clothes were at the condo and not right at the finish line. Oops.
A woman passed by me in the last mile. I let her go for a bit as we caught back up to Shane and they both picked it up with the widening of the trail. But as we came out of the hiking trail and on to the road, I saw she wasn't gaining on me anymore and I decided to stretch the legs out and see what happened. I couldn't believe that I felt good enough to kick it down another notch! Not only were my legs able to move faster but it was downhill and my quads weren't in such pain that they couldn't take it. How exciting! As the woman in front of me made the last turn up a tiny little bump, she slowed way down. I wasn't sure if she didn't know where to go or wasn't sure how far was left or just couldn't take this one last uphill bump but I sprinted past her in the last 100 meters or so.
I'm a bit torn about this - it seems a bit cruel to sprint it out for a 50K finish. If I had that in me than maybe I should have just stayed in front of her in the first place. But then again, it IS a race so I probably shouldn't feel bad about racing it in . . . I don't know. All I know is that it felt awesome to bring it in strong, run a PR on a harder course, clearly have more left (even if it is to the point of having too much left) and feeling as though I could have run further.
So a great race on a beautiful course, a PR, a great weekend with friends and another favorite shirt. I even ran the next day and did a good 20 mile the next weekend.
Next up: Grandma's Marathon! I wonder what weather.com says now . . .
But! Another day, another overdue race report. I don't know why I've gotten so bad about posting about a race on time . . .
The Superior 50K (3 weeks ago yesterday) was awesome! I am very delighted to report that I had pretty much no stomach/nausea issues for the whole race. I decided to try S-caps for the race since everyone kept pushing the salt/electrolyte imbalance possibility on me. For some reason, I'd been very resistant. I was so sure that I had my salt intake figured out with my new gel and I didn't want to experiment with this type of a thing for some reason. Go figure. So finally I decided that it was worth a go and Lisa was nice enough to let me try hers before buying a massive bottle of something I might not use. I now have a lovely massive bottle of my own :)
So the race starts up a tar and then dirt road to get to the Superior Hiking Trail. I was taking it nice and slow from the start even as it seemed as though an awful lot of people were blasting up the hill. Once we got into the single track, I continued heeding advice from Lisa to start slower than I thought necessary and hung out with whoever was in front of me without stressing about any sort of pace so early on. I did decide not too much later that I wanted to go a titch faster, though, so I made my way around a handful of people and then stretched out some. It's absolutely beautiful for most of this course. There were so many lovely views that made me just want to stop and take it in and many places that made me vocalize (usually to myself) how pretty it was.
I was passed in here by Maria and who I thought was Mark but now I'm thinking I have his name wrong. He's very nice and we've been talking at a few races and I should really remember his name AND he reads my blog - I'm sorry! So they cruised along in front of me. Heading down the back end of the first climb, I was on my own but could see Mark's yellow shirt from time to time and could hear him and Maria talking and a group of people behind me somewhere talking - sounds were echoing a bit in the valley and when I started to get a little annoyed at the noise injection itself into the lovely surroundings, I just reminded myself how lonely Chippewa was getting just before halfway when I had no-one around me. Things didn't look nearly so beautiful and green on the way back which is strange but I suppose at that point the sky was darkening for rain and I bet the sun angle probably had a ton do with it as well but the valley didn't even seem like the same place when I came back through.
Up the next climb and on to more beautiful vistas! Up here there were tons of downed trees over the trail that had to be climbed over and dodged around and ducked under. A bit of an annoyance since it would be a nice place to get a rhythm going again, but not a big deal - this is a trail race after all! Let me tell you, though, those trees were much more annoying on the way back and I felt like I almost got stuck trying to get over one. Much more annoying.
The first aid station is at 7 miles and I did a quick peruse of the table . . . peanut butter sandwiches, cookies, M&Ms, gummy bears, peanut butter and M&M sandwiches?? Hm. Okay! So I grabbed a square of that (to the delight of the two girls who apparently made them) and headed out. Amazingly tasty, actually! Where I couldn't quit find the interest for PB&J at Chippewa, the PJMM was a great mix. Mmmmmmmm. After the first aid station, it's nice and easy to get into a good rhythm as the big climbs are over with and things are more rolling. I focused on keeping an even effort level - this meant more control with downhills and figuring out what steepness of hill should be walked. I think I did a pretty rocking job with this, if I may say so myself :) I passed a lot of people in here and actually, I think this whole race noone who passed me stayed in front of me which is rather shockingly new for me in a 50K!
I keep forgetting to look at the winning guy's time but he passed me on his way back ridiculously early. In fact, a lot of people did, including Cristy (she's a friend and also the female winner) so that I started thinking I had read the map wrong. Could these people really be so many miles in front of me already? Yes. Yes they could!
The second aid station was pure chaos. Between those of us heading out and those heading back there were people EVERYWHERE. I didn't want to wait in line for the water coolers so I just grabbed a cup of water to add to my handheld, since I'd be back in a couple of miles anyway, and got the heck of out dodge. On my way to the turnaround, I started seeing more and more people I knew. Shane said he wasn't happy but he said it so cheerfully I wasn't sure I believed him. I was getting worried, though, as I was going further and further and hadn't seen Marcus. The way up Carlton peak (though we don't go all the way up) is tough to run simply because of the boulders you're trying to pick your way through. It's even harder to try to run your way down. So then I got to the turnaround and still no sign of Marcus. Hmmmm. Worrisome. I ask Rick and Wayne about him, though, and was told he was running awesome which made me more confused as to how I would have missed him as we passed each other. Turns out he was in the massive chaos that was the second aid station so that explains that.
That aid station was much calmer on the way back, by the way, and I was even able to pet my second puppy of the day there. I continued chugging along, making good time and catching people when all of a sudden there was a familiar form in front of me. Shane! I picked up the pace to see what was going on. A most unhappy and full of swears Shane was gimping his way along the trail. He would join for the next 8 or so miles as he worked through some painful sounding ankle issues. I was amused, though, as he kept apologizing for talking so much - we might have annoyed a couple of people as we passed, I think, but I didn't mind a bit. He might have slowed me down a couple of places but generally, having someone run right on your shoulder, even if they're not trying to push the pace, can help you push a little more. Especially as we slogged it back up Moose Mountain. That's a heck of a steep little climb, there. And then the damn trees. There were definitely more down over the trail then had been there on the way out. Plus, sometimes it's just nice to share the trail for a while with a friend.
Shane scooted around me right after the trees and I was on my own for most of the rest. I felt good but I knew my legs weren't so interested in pushing much faster so I hung out at the pace I was at rather than trying to pick it up and keep with Shane. Which seemed smart since he quickly booked it out of sight range. I couldn't remember at all how far there was to go (and that lovely valley didn't look nearly the same anymore) so I was trying to judge my chances of a PR and of beating the clearly oncoming rain and wondering if we were close enough for Shane to break 6 hours (we did some talking about our chances of doing so). I did get rained on but only for the last few minutes so it actually felt quite good. Until I was done and my dry clothes were at the condo and not right at the finish line. Oops.
A woman passed by me in the last mile. I let her go for a bit as we caught back up to Shane and they both picked it up with the widening of the trail. But as we came out of the hiking trail and on to the road, I saw she wasn't gaining on me anymore and I decided to stretch the legs out and see what happened. I couldn't believe that I felt good enough to kick it down another notch! Not only were my legs able to move faster but it was downhill and my quads weren't in such pain that they couldn't take it. How exciting! As the woman in front of me made the last turn up a tiny little bump, she slowed way down. I wasn't sure if she didn't know where to go or wasn't sure how far was left or just couldn't take this one last uphill bump but I sprinted past her in the last 100 meters or so.
I'm a bit torn about this - it seems a bit cruel to sprint it out for a 50K finish. If I had that in me than maybe I should have just stayed in front of her in the first place. But then again, it IS a race so I probably shouldn't feel bad about racing it in . . . I don't know. All I know is that it felt awesome to bring it in strong, run a PR on a harder course, clearly have more left (even if it is to the point of having too much left) and feeling as though I could have run further.
So a great race on a beautiful course, a PR, a great weekend with friends and another favorite shirt. I even ran the next day and did a good 20 mile the next weekend.
Next up: Grandma's Marathon! I wonder what weather.com says now . . .
Monday, April 25, 2011
From NR: Chippewa Moraine Race Report
Holy overdue race report, Batman!
When long races don't go as hoped, I think I need a little additional time to be positive about them. Of course, this also means I'm less inclined to write a novel about the race, so maybe it's a good thing for those of you reading, huh?
So, step one. positive things about Chippewa Moraine:
~ I ran a 59 minutes PR. What's not to be happy about with that? Let's just ignore the differences in course difficulty between Wild Duluth and Chippewa :)
~ I ran 20 miles without stomach issues. That's longer than I went in Wild Duluth.
~ Except for the brutal finish hill, I ran every step of the last mile so I clearly had more left than I thought.
~ I saw a deer running through a knee deep swamp hole, had what I think was a Great Blue Heron yell loudly at me and watched an eagle soaring right where only I could see him through the trees.
~ My friends all tore the course up!
Still, I haven't been that disappointed in a race in a long time. I think the bad thing about not doing what you want in a race that goes for several hours is that you have plenty of time to mull things over and try to figure out what went wrong and what you can do to fix it. Sounds more like a good thing, really. I did try to take a step back and managed to get un-frustrated with myself - still frustrated with how the race was going for me but I stopped being down on myself for it. I don't think I did anything wrong per-say with this race. What did I want out of it anyway? I wasn't tapering - I wasn't planning on exactly racing or running very hard. In fact, I did my first official track workout of the year that Tuesday so it's not as though I was resting my legs beforehand. I wanted to figure out some eating and have a good stomach the whole way and just get a good long run under my belt. So really, I wasn't doing so bad. I hit mile 26 and was several minutes ahead of my Half Voyageur time. Again, different course, but still. I was frustrated with my stomach being nauseous and uphappy and with my legs also dying despite not going hard. I think having to walk so much and not swiftly with a nauseous stomach made my legs not want to start going again when they could. Plus the whole tired legs thing.
This was only my second ultra! I did lots of things right and I learned some things for next time. Like peanut butter and jelly on white bread isn't quite what tastes good even when I'm interested in eating it (so maybe I'll have my Dad carry PB&J on bagels at Voyageur?). And my E-Gel goes down even when I'm not interested in eating it. And it's possible to be so sick of being passed that you want to scream at the next person who does . . .
So! I do highly recommend the Chippewa Moraine 50K. It's a gorgeous and very runnable course and well organized. Even with all the rain, there was minimal mud (though there was a spot where they was suddenly a small creek to cross on the way back that wasn't there on the way out). There's tons of water out there and the manned aid stations had lots of food when I went through them (though, apparently, I need to pause and peruse the tables a bit better since I missed banana bread!). The volunteers were, of course, pretty much all great, and there was lots of food at the end so you were bound to find something that looked interesting to eat. It's an out and back course, so you get the excitement of seeing everyone and the first/last 5 miles are marked which was mostly good on the way back in. It's a cheap race if you sign up early and the shirts are comfy and fit.
Up next for big races is the Spring Superior 50K. I want my stomach to behave even better so that I'm not panicking at mile 20 about doing 30 more in a couple months.
When long races don't go as hoped, I think I need a little additional time to be positive about them. Of course, this also means I'm less inclined to write a novel about the race, so maybe it's a good thing for those of you reading, huh?
So, step one. positive things about Chippewa Moraine:
~ I ran a 59 minutes PR. What's not to be happy about with that? Let's just ignore the differences in course difficulty between Wild Duluth and Chippewa :)
~ I ran 20 miles without stomach issues. That's longer than I went in Wild Duluth.
~ Except for the brutal finish hill, I ran every step of the last mile so I clearly had more left than I thought.
~ I saw a deer running through a knee deep swamp hole, had what I think was a Great Blue Heron yell loudly at me and watched an eagle soaring right where only I could see him through the trees.
~ My friends all tore the course up!
Still, I haven't been that disappointed in a race in a long time. I think the bad thing about not doing what you want in a race that goes for several hours is that you have plenty of time to mull things over and try to figure out what went wrong and what you can do to fix it. Sounds more like a good thing, really. I did try to take a step back and managed to get un-frustrated with myself - still frustrated with how the race was going for me but I stopped being down on myself for it. I don't think I did anything wrong per-say with this race. What did I want out of it anyway? I wasn't tapering - I wasn't planning on exactly racing or running very hard. In fact, I did my first official track workout of the year that Tuesday so it's not as though I was resting my legs beforehand. I wanted to figure out some eating and have a good stomach the whole way and just get a good long run under my belt. So really, I wasn't doing so bad. I hit mile 26 and was several minutes ahead of my Half Voyageur time. Again, different course, but still. I was frustrated with my stomach being nauseous and uphappy and with my legs also dying despite not going hard. I think having to walk so much and not swiftly with a nauseous stomach made my legs not want to start going again when they could. Plus the whole tired legs thing.
This was only my second ultra! I did lots of things right and I learned some things for next time. Like peanut butter and jelly on white bread isn't quite what tastes good even when I'm interested in eating it (so maybe I'll have my Dad carry PB&J on bagels at Voyageur?). And my E-Gel goes down even when I'm not interested in eating it. And it's possible to be so sick of being passed that you want to scream at the next person who does . . .
So! I do highly recommend the Chippewa Moraine 50K. It's a gorgeous and very runnable course and well organized. Even with all the rain, there was minimal mud (though there was a spot where they was suddenly a small creek to cross on the way back that wasn't there on the way out). There's tons of water out there and the manned aid stations had lots of food when I went through them (though, apparently, I need to pause and peruse the tables a bit better since I missed banana bread!). The volunteers were, of course, pretty much all great, and there was lots of food at the end so you were bound to find something that looked interesting to eat. It's an out and back course, so you get the excitement of seeing everyone and the first/last 5 miles are marked which was mostly good on the way back in. It's a cheap race if you sign up early and the shirts are comfy and fit.
Up next for big races is the Spring Superior 50K. I want my stomach to behave even better so that I'm not panicking at mile 20 about doing 30 more in a couple months.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
From NR: Trails
Sometimes there are specific runs that I can point to and say "this is why I run" - this is why I want to keep my mileage up so I can do these runs, this is what's special about running. From last year, the first one that comes to mind was a long run with friends on the Voyageur course sometime in late June/early July. My friends were doing 26 miles and I jumped in for 16. It was raining for much of it and we had a blast. There were some accidental somersaults down the Powerlines (not me!) and some mud puddle jumping (definitely me!). We got lost a bit and added a mile to the original intentions but it wasn't a big deal. I'm not saying there's only one run a year like this, this is just the first one that came to mind - some runs just stick out and often, they aren't races and they seem to usually involve trails.
One of my first ones (chronologically) I can remember right now is from high school but not until my senior year. It was the Monday after State and none of us were really ready for the season to be done so about half the State team took off down a trail that our coach tried to take us on earlier in the year. That time, we refused to follow since we were already a ways out and no-one knew where it went or how long it was. Smart move on our part - it ended up being a something just over 10 mile loop (long for us!) and we had to cross several creeks (very new for us!) and one of us (not me!) ended up wet up to her neck from slipping in the middle of a creek. By the end of the run, it was snowing and then the trail kicked us out onto highway 2 and we had several miles of headwind on roads to get back to the high school. It was fabulous, though! We ran together the whole way and just had fun with running - something we didn't do very often.
I had another one of these runs a couple Sundays ago. I woke up needing to do 13ish miles after doing 13 on Saturday (the last weekend was a crash and burn for mileage so I was going for the back to backs again). I was tired from the accidental fast pace from the day before (oops . . . but in my defense, lots of it was downhill!) and I just didn't feel like running on roads again. I wanted trail. And I wanted company. So I decided to wait for a friend to get off of work.
It wasn't raining at the start, though it had been on and off all day. We went out to Hartley and the trails weren't quite as bad as I was worried about - the snow was soft but had grip so we weren't slip sliding around too badly. We headed in something like the right direction for the guard rail loop but 20 minutes later, we ended up on a road that neither of us had seen before. Oh, look! There's a trail head map! Unfortunately, there was no 'you are here' sticker. Not helpful, Hartely. So we ran up the road until we found a mailbox with the road name on it, ran back to the sign, figured out where we were and got back to the trails. Only to be sidetracked when we crossed the Superior Hiking Trail and decided to just take that through Hartley, through Bagley and down Chester . . .
By the time we got back, it was dark and it was definitely raining. But it was beautiful out. There's something special about running trails as the light is disappearing. When we got back, I didn't want to go inside. In fact, if I had brought a headlamp with and didn't have a hungry husband waiting at home, I probably would have worked on convincing Marcus that more miles are better.
Runs like that make me very excited for running this year! I'm already registered for two 50ks, a marathon and a 50 mile and that's just the first half of the year! Though, I am definitely not solidly planning on anything after Voyageur, so my body can relax if it needs it. Very little sounds more fun right now then spending all day out on the trails with friends. The race I'm most unsure about? My road marathon! Right now I'm craving all trails but I know if I don't do Grandma's, I'll probably regret it, so I signed on up :) The problem is going to be making sure I do enough long runs on pavement. And last week's long run probably didn't count since even though it was all roads - I spent a large amount of time running on the nice dirt shoulder . . . It's kind of strange to have Grandma's as a secondary race, though. I know I'll want to taper for it but, like Leslie said today, that would be happening during the time I should be getting longer runs in for Voyageur. I'll figure it out, though. I'm only very loosely following any sort of plan which is also strange if I think about it but I think I'm doing smart things.
Next up is the Chippewa Moraine 50K in three weeks. That is another race I was on the fence about (though with Grandma's, I don't know that I was ever seriously considering not doing it for more than a couple hours). I knew I wanted to do another 50K before doing Voyageur but TWO 50ks? And a marathon? In the space of a couple months? Maybe that's just asking to burn out or injure myself. But then I was thinking (and it was pointed out to me) that I'll be doing over 30 mile training runs for Voyageur anyway - I might as well have a couple of those been supported runs where I can practice eating and such. Right? So I'm not planning on any sort of taper for Chippewa (well, I might take it a little easy the week before) in the hopes that it will keep me from trying to run it too hard and I'll be trying to treat it as a training run rather than a race. Though, honestly, it kind of seems as though there wouldn't be much difference between the two paces for me, right now at this distance! I'll be going slowly either way, I think. But I still need to think 'training' and not 'race' in my head. Then I need to figure out my plans for the Superior Spring 50K and Grandma's. Plenty of time for that, though!
One of my first ones (chronologically) I can remember right now is from high school but not until my senior year. It was the Monday after State and none of us were really ready for the season to be done so about half the State team took off down a trail that our coach tried to take us on earlier in the year. That time, we refused to follow since we were already a ways out and no-one knew where it went or how long it was. Smart move on our part - it ended up being a something just over 10 mile loop (long for us!) and we had to cross several creeks (very new for us!) and one of us (not me!) ended up wet up to her neck from slipping in the middle of a creek. By the end of the run, it was snowing and then the trail kicked us out onto highway 2 and we had several miles of headwind on roads to get back to the high school. It was fabulous, though! We ran together the whole way and just had fun with running - something we didn't do very often.
I had another one of these runs a couple Sundays ago. I woke up needing to do 13ish miles after doing 13 on Saturday (the last weekend was a crash and burn for mileage so I was going for the back to backs again). I was tired from the accidental fast pace from the day before (oops . . . but in my defense, lots of it was downhill!) and I just didn't feel like running on roads again. I wanted trail. And I wanted company. So I decided to wait for a friend to get off of work.
It wasn't raining at the start, though it had been on and off all day. We went out to Hartley and the trails weren't quite as bad as I was worried about - the snow was soft but had grip so we weren't slip sliding around too badly. We headed in something like the right direction for the guard rail loop but 20 minutes later, we ended up on a road that neither of us had seen before. Oh, look! There's a trail head map! Unfortunately, there was no 'you are here' sticker. Not helpful, Hartely. So we ran up the road until we found a mailbox with the road name on it, ran back to the sign, figured out where we were and got back to the trails. Only to be sidetracked when we crossed the Superior Hiking Trail and decided to just take that through Hartley, through Bagley and down Chester . . .
By the time we got back, it was dark and it was definitely raining. But it was beautiful out. There's something special about running trails as the light is disappearing. When we got back, I didn't want to go inside. In fact, if I had brought a headlamp with and didn't have a hungry husband waiting at home, I probably would have worked on convincing Marcus that more miles are better.
Runs like that make me very excited for running this year! I'm already registered for two 50ks, a marathon and a 50 mile and that's just the first half of the year! Though, I am definitely not solidly planning on anything after Voyageur, so my body can relax if it needs it. Very little sounds more fun right now then spending all day out on the trails with friends. The race I'm most unsure about? My road marathon! Right now I'm craving all trails but I know if I don't do Grandma's, I'll probably regret it, so I signed on up :) The problem is going to be making sure I do enough long runs on pavement. And last week's long run probably didn't count since even though it was all roads - I spent a large amount of time running on the nice dirt shoulder . . . It's kind of strange to have Grandma's as a secondary race, though. I know I'll want to taper for it but, like Leslie said today, that would be happening during the time I should be getting longer runs in for Voyageur. I'll figure it out, though. I'm only very loosely following any sort of plan which is also strange if I think about it but I think I'm doing smart things.
Next up is the Chippewa Moraine 50K in three weeks. That is another race I was on the fence about (though with Grandma's, I don't know that I was ever seriously considering not doing it for more than a couple hours). I knew I wanted to do another 50K before doing Voyageur but TWO 50ks? And a marathon? In the space of a couple months? Maybe that's just asking to burn out or injure myself. But then I was thinking (and it was pointed out to me) that I'll be doing over 30 mile training runs for Voyageur anyway - I might as well have a couple of those been supported runs where I can practice eating and such. Right? So I'm not planning on any sort of taper for Chippewa (well, I might take it a little easy the week before) in the hopes that it will keep me from trying to run it too hard and I'll be trying to treat it as a training run rather than a race. Though, honestly, it kind of seems as though there wouldn't be much difference between the two paces for me, right now at this distance! I'll be going slowly either way, I think. But I still need to think 'training' and not 'race' in my head. Then I need to figure out my plans for the Superior Spring 50K and Grandma's. Plenty of time for that, though!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
From NR: Another Letter
Dear Sam:
I know we've barely left February but you're running mileage close to your previous peaks for marathon training already. Feed me more!
Love,
Your body.
Oooooooooooh. That's why I'm so hungry lately! I spent pretty much all of last Sunday ravenous. Even right after I ate. There was a brief time after lunch when I was good, though :) Then I looked at my weekly mileage. So, time to add more food! A delicious mid-morning snack is a yummy french toast flavored bagel with homemade apple butter. Mmmmmmmmmm.
I'm feeling pretty awesome, though. I've been looking at various 50 mile training programs online and have been shocked at the low mileage proposed during the week. Since you're doing double long runs, they all seem to have super low mileage and three days off a week. I have two days off and I think I'm about to change that down, even, once I figure out a good way to do it without upping mileage too much at once. So I guess I'll keep going with what I've been doing . . . except I find I'm at a cross roads after this week. I ran 20 miles today and 6 yesterday - I like to count both weekend days since I'm so used to having one of them off :). Now what? For marathon training, once you hit 20 you do something like 20, 12, 20, 12 etc. Or, at least, the plans I've done have you doing that. I've got a long time before Grandma's (15 weeks yesterday) and even longer before Voyageur (21 weeks yesterday) and I should definitely be doing mileage over 20 but probably not for a while, yet. I also just had a step down week and don't want to do another one next week already. So. Do another 20? Drop down to 18ish and lengthen Sunday's run? Do 12 both days instead? I'll have to figure that out, I guess :) But even having this debate at the beginning of March is pretty awesome for me and I'm feeling rather like a rock star! It's exciting to be doing good mileage so early on so the goal is to keep it rolling and keep myself healthy!
Last weekend, I went for a fun adventure and did a long run with my buddy Lisa out at Gooseberry Falls State Park. I am continually amazed at how close to Gooseberry I am, now that I'm in Duluth! Anyway, that was 18 miles on snowmobile trails in mostly beautiful weather and pretty good trail conditions. We ran into 18 snowmobiles (17 on the way out) and every one of them was very nice - slowing down and moving way over to go by us. I ran 5 miles the next day which mad me feel super bad-ass since I'm so used to taking the day after a long run off. I've been slowly transitioning to get ready for double longs - I did a couple weeks of an easy 3 miles the day after and then 4 miles and I did 5 last week and it felt great! This week, I did 6 miles the day before my long run so I'm not sure it really counts but I guess it made me more tired for today so I'll go with it. Of course, I also have friends who last weekend ran a 50K on Saturday and then a marathon on Sunday . . . but I'm surrounded by rock stars like that, so I have to judge my bad-assness within myself, right? So here's to everyone's inner rock star/bad ass - no matter what level you're at!
I know we've barely left February but you're running mileage close to your previous peaks for marathon training already. Feed me more!
Love,
Your body.
Oooooooooooh. That's why I'm so hungry lately! I spent pretty much all of last Sunday ravenous. Even right after I ate. There was a brief time after lunch when I was good, though :) Then I looked at my weekly mileage. So, time to add more food! A delicious mid-morning snack is a yummy french toast flavored bagel with homemade apple butter. Mmmmmmmmmm.
I'm feeling pretty awesome, though. I've been looking at various 50 mile training programs online and have been shocked at the low mileage proposed during the week. Since you're doing double long runs, they all seem to have super low mileage and three days off a week. I have two days off and I think I'm about to change that down, even, once I figure out a good way to do it without upping mileage too much at once. So I guess I'll keep going with what I've been doing . . . except I find I'm at a cross roads after this week. I ran 20 miles today and 6 yesterday - I like to count both weekend days since I'm so used to having one of them off :). Now what? For marathon training, once you hit 20 you do something like 20, 12, 20, 12 etc. Or, at least, the plans I've done have you doing that. I've got a long time before Grandma's (15 weeks yesterday) and even longer before Voyageur (21 weeks yesterday) and I should definitely be doing mileage over 20 but probably not for a while, yet. I also just had a step down week and don't want to do another one next week already. So. Do another 20? Drop down to 18ish and lengthen Sunday's run? Do 12 both days instead? I'll have to figure that out, I guess :) But even having this debate at the beginning of March is pretty awesome for me and I'm feeling rather like a rock star! It's exciting to be doing good mileage so early on so the goal is to keep it rolling and keep myself healthy!
Last weekend, I went for a fun adventure and did a long run with my buddy Lisa out at Gooseberry Falls State Park. I am continually amazed at how close to Gooseberry I am, now that I'm in Duluth! Anyway, that was 18 miles on snowmobile trails in mostly beautiful weather and pretty good trail conditions. We ran into 18 snowmobiles (17 on the way out) and every one of them was very nice - slowing down and moving way over to go by us. I ran 5 miles the next day which mad me feel super bad-ass since I'm so used to taking the day after a long run off. I've been slowly transitioning to get ready for double longs - I did a couple weeks of an easy 3 miles the day after and then 4 miles and I did 5 last week and it felt great! This week, I did 6 miles the day before my long run so I'm not sure it really counts but I guess it made me more tired for today so I'll go with it. Of course, I also have friends who last weekend ran a 50K on Saturday and then a marathon on Sunday . . . but I'm surrounded by rock stars like that, so I have to judge my bad-assness within myself, right? So here's to everyone's inner rock star/bad ass - no matter what level you're at!
Friday, February 25, 2011
From NR: Shoes
I promised more regular posting once I got my own computer back, so here you go!
So an interesting thing happened to me on Wednesday . . .
I went to change for group running after work only to find that there was only one shoe in my running bag. Strange. Where did the other shoe go? I decided it must have fallen out of my bag somewhere between my house and work (plausible since my shoes stick out the top of the cinched bag as I bring way too many different layer options with me . . .) but hopefully not between my car and work since that would probably mean it would probably be gone forever. At least it was my 'cheap' shoe - my right shoe has my road ID and my heel lift in it :) However, this meant I'd have to do my Wednesday night run in an old shoe on my injured leg. Well, not that it's injured NOW but it's the leg that always has the injury problems and it's probably not nice to throw it in a beat up worn down shoe.
Oh well, nothing for it. If I tried to go home and look for it, I wouldn't have time to get in extra miles before the group run and it wasn't even guaranteed that it would be at home. I did hold out the small hope that it had fallen out of my bag IN my car, but that was a no go.
So I put on my shoes and could instantly notice the difference between the old shoe and the new shoe and wondered if it'd be any good for me to run like that. I, of course, decided that it's not as though I was running 20 miles and that I'd be fine, even though it felt so weird :) I noticed during the run that the weird part of my leg that's been hurting hurt worse with an old shoe on. Hmmm. Maybe it's just a sign that I need new shoes anyway? After a few miles, I couldn't tell a difference, though.
Here's the interesting part . . .
When I got home, I found the missing shoe under a bench.
I looked at the velcro (for gaiters) on the back of the shoe and noticed it was rather large - I had put a smaller piece on my 'new' shoes then my old ones, hoping to make the velcro strip I had last longer. So I brought the three shoes to better light and compared how the bottoms were worn out. Yup. I had definitely worn two different shoes to work in the first place and not noticed. I wear my old running shoes as walking around shoes and I wear those walking around shoes to and from work rather than scuffing up my work shoes. And both pairs are the exact same model so look pretty much the same.
Which meant the shoe I left behind at home was an old shoe. How I managed to do this is another question - why didn't I notice that I only put one shoe in my bag? Because it hadn't fallen out, it just hadn't been put in in the first place.
Which meant I ran in two 'new' shoes. The same shoes. Which means all that dramatic difference I felt? 100% completely in my head. Crazy.
So an interesting thing happened to me on Wednesday . . .
I went to change for group running after work only to find that there was only one shoe in my running bag. Strange. Where did the other shoe go? I decided it must have fallen out of my bag somewhere between my house and work (plausible since my shoes stick out the top of the cinched bag as I bring way too many different layer options with me . . .) but hopefully not between my car and work since that would probably mean it would probably be gone forever. At least it was my 'cheap' shoe - my right shoe has my road ID and my heel lift in it :) However, this meant I'd have to do my Wednesday night run in an old shoe on my injured leg. Well, not that it's injured NOW but it's the leg that always has the injury problems and it's probably not nice to throw it in a beat up worn down shoe.
Oh well, nothing for it. If I tried to go home and look for it, I wouldn't have time to get in extra miles before the group run and it wasn't even guaranteed that it would be at home. I did hold out the small hope that it had fallen out of my bag IN my car, but that was a no go.
So I put on my shoes and could instantly notice the difference between the old shoe and the new shoe and wondered if it'd be any good for me to run like that. I, of course, decided that it's not as though I was running 20 miles and that I'd be fine, even though it felt so weird :) I noticed during the run that the weird part of my leg that's been hurting hurt worse with an old shoe on. Hmmm. Maybe it's just a sign that I need new shoes anyway? After a few miles, I couldn't tell a difference, though.
Here's the interesting part . . .
When I got home, I found the missing shoe under a bench.
I looked at the velcro (for gaiters) on the back of the shoe and noticed it was rather large - I had put a smaller piece on my 'new' shoes then my old ones, hoping to make the velcro strip I had last longer. So I brought the three shoes to better light and compared how the bottoms were worn out. Yup. I had definitely worn two different shoes to work in the first place and not noticed. I wear my old running shoes as walking around shoes and I wear those walking around shoes to and from work rather than scuffing up my work shoes. And both pairs are the exact same model so look pretty much the same.
Which meant the shoe I left behind at home was an old shoe. How I managed to do this is another question - why didn't I notice that I only put one shoe in my bag? Because it hadn't fallen out, it just hadn't been put in in the first place.
Which meant I ran in two 'new' shoes. The same shoes. Which means all that dramatic difference I felt? 100% completely in my head. Crazy.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
From NR: Step back week
Last week ended up being a step back week for mileage. I meant for it to be THIS week, but events conspired to put it a week earlier and I guess that's fine. It's good to be flexible, right? Plus - I've been having some weird shin/below the knee issues that come from improper sitting at work! It's strange having to pay attention to such things, now! I'm already a lot better, though, after paying strict attention to having two feet flat on the floor at all times if I'm sitting at my desk for the last couple of days, so I'm sure I'll be fine.
So my original plan this last weekend was a nice long run Saturday and a short-medium run Sunday. The problem came in that I was waiting until Saturday NIGHT and trying to plan a moonlight run with friends that just sort of fell apart (which certainly had nothing to do with the last minute way in which I tried to organize. Oh, no, definitely not!). This left me without a long run Saturday.
Come Sunday morning, my body wussed out first, as I turned the alarm off and promptly fell back asleep barely waking up in time to call my scheduled running partner to warn her. So we pushed things off another hour only to watch the wind pick up and the snow fly around until we BOTH wanted to wuss out on the run. Happily, we were able to muster the desire to at least get out for a medium run (time constraints prevented a long run). It actually turned out to be quite beautiful out in the woods. The wind was really strong but it was still warm out, so it didn't make it miserable and the woods kept you fairly sheltered. The trees were loud in the wind and the snowmobile trails were deserted since they were all ice - but ice that crushed under your feet instead of glare ice, so very runable. It was one of those runs that started . . . off. I don't know what was wrong but I had 20 different aches and pains though nothing was super sore or really tired at all. I wanted to be out there and yet something just wasn't connecting right so that I didn't want to be out there. So we ran the first half of the run mostly in silence - my running partner seemed to feel similar and I know opening my mouth would have just let out lots of whining from me! By the way back, though, things felt better and I was ready to go further but for that time constraint (a birthday party with friends I hadn't seen in a while so I wanted to go). I was downright babbling on the way back. I should come with a warning label sometimes during runs: "WARNING: Will talk you ear off about nothing in particular if you let her" though I do also have to say that I'm perfectly capable (usually) of being quiet if that is preferred by those I'm running with :) I guess it's a sign that I'm running my long runs at the correct pace if I'm able to talk, right?
Speaking of long runs - my dad has agreed to crew for me at Voyageur! Yay! More on that as the time gets nearer. It's probably not appropriate to talk about Voyageur while there's still snow on the ground, huh?
It really felt like spring was coming today, though. The road I ran on had that dirty look of Spring - no snow, no ice but puddles and all the dirt/grime left behind before the street cleaners come through. Some grass was showing through along the side of the road and you could smell that just-uncovered-grass smell. There was a wind but it wasn't cold and the sun was nice and warm. It's always so cruel to have a taste of spring when you know it's a ways off yet. Last week I ran in half tights! And was comfortable. It felt so nice to have my legs getting wet by puddles spraying up. I've never been so ready for spring before - I'm dying to have nice clear single track back again! Though, I have to say, I would have preferred the snow the Cities got since that would make the trails better (I've heard most are just glare ice) and I'd love to get more skiing in before the end of winter. As long as the trails aren't going to be clear, they might as well REALLY not be clear, is my thinking!
So my original plan this last weekend was a nice long run Saturday and a short-medium run Sunday. The problem came in that I was waiting until Saturday NIGHT and trying to plan a moonlight run with friends that just sort of fell apart (which certainly had nothing to do with the last minute way in which I tried to organize. Oh, no, definitely not!). This left me without a long run Saturday.
Come Sunday morning, my body wussed out first, as I turned the alarm off and promptly fell back asleep barely waking up in time to call my scheduled running partner to warn her. So we pushed things off another hour only to watch the wind pick up and the snow fly around until we BOTH wanted to wuss out on the run. Happily, we were able to muster the desire to at least get out for a medium run (time constraints prevented a long run). It actually turned out to be quite beautiful out in the woods. The wind was really strong but it was still warm out, so it didn't make it miserable and the woods kept you fairly sheltered. The trees were loud in the wind and the snowmobile trails were deserted since they were all ice - but ice that crushed under your feet instead of glare ice, so very runable. It was one of those runs that started . . . off. I don't know what was wrong but I had 20 different aches and pains though nothing was super sore or really tired at all. I wanted to be out there and yet something just wasn't connecting right so that I didn't want to be out there. So we ran the first half of the run mostly in silence - my running partner seemed to feel similar and I know opening my mouth would have just let out lots of whining from me! By the way back, though, things felt better and I was ready to go further but for that time constraint (a birthday party with friends I hadn't seen in a while so I wanted to go). I was downright babbling on the way back. I should come with a warning label sometimes during runs: "WARNING: Will talk you ear off about nothing in particular if you let her" though I do also have to say that I'm perfectly capable (usually) of being quiet if that is preferred by those I'm running with :) I guess it's a sign that I'm running my long runs at the correct pace if I'm able to talk, right?
Speaking of long runs - my dad has agreed to crew for me at Voyageur! Yay! More on that as the time gets nearer. It's probably not appropriate to talk about Voyageur while there's still snow on the ground, huh?
It really felt like spring was coming today, though. The road I ran on had that dirty look of Spring - no snow, no ice but puddles and all the dirt/grime left behind before the street cleaners come through. Some grass was showing through along the side of the road and you could smell that just-uncovered-grass smell. There was a wind but it wasn't cold and the sun was nice and warm. It's always so cruel to have a taste of spring when you know it's a ways off yet. Last week I ran in half tights! And was comfortable. It felt so nice to have my legs getting wet by puddles spraying up. I've never been so ready for spring before - I'm dying to have nice clear single track back again! Though, I have to say, I would have preferred the snow the Cities got since that would make the trails better (I've heard most are just glare ice) and I'd love to get more skiing in before the end of winter. As long as the trails aren't going to be clear, they might as well REALLY not be clear, is my thinking!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
From NR: Securian Half Marathon Race Report
First post from my new computer and boy, this turned into a bitch-fest post! Time to edit. I'm overall not so happy with this race but it was still okay, so here goes:
My first race of the year was a couple weekends ago - probably the earliest during the year that I've ever raced (with the possible exception of indoor track in high school/college). I decided on Friday that as long as I was in the Cities anyway, I might as well run the Securian Winter Half Marathon. Happily, my sister was able to bring my registration in so I didn't need to pay the race-day registration. $30 wasn't too bad for a half marathon, I figured, even if I wasn't exactly in racing form, I did still need a long run and might as well make it a higher effort since I wouldn't be getting as high of mileage as I wanted.
There was $2 parking in the ramp right at the starting line so I figured that made more sense than trying to find street parking somewhere. Luckily, I allowed myself a decent amount of time - silly me didn't think about all the one way streets and about how much time I'd spent sitting in lines of runners in cars trying to get into the single access to the parking garage . . . Then I made it into the garage and followed a few cars in front of me as we commenced circling. I started getting worried the higher we went and then as we were looping back down I noticed that cars were starting to pull into not-spots - places their car more or less fit into but weren't official parking spots. I suddenly wished I had done the same when I followed the car in front of right back to the exit. Happily, a volunteer directed us into the monthly parking where there was plenty of room. This also meant free parking since we didn't go by the gate on our way out - yay!
I still had enough time to pin my number on, tie my chip into my shoe and head up into the bathroom lines. A quick dash back into the building to warm up and there's Rick, Wayne, Karen, Guy and Jenny (who I just met then)! We chatted for a couple minutes and I glance at my watch - 3 minutes to race start, maybe I should head outside? Sure, great idea!
So I wander out and meld my way into the starting pack, which was surprisingly easy. Hmmm. A balloon for the 3:30 pace group? I think I'm a little closer to the front than I want to be. But Shane should be around here somewhere. So I look around and Lo and Behold! There's Shane! I work my way back to him just in time for the gun to go off. Though, I don't actually remember exactly how the race started - nothing nearly as awesome as a duck call, to be sure :) Shane said his plan was to start conservative and pick it up the last three miles - which sounded like a good plan. It quickly developed that our ideas of starting conservative were different though, so I let him go on ahead.
The race started with a little two mile loop around Rice Park, which is where all the ice sculptures for the winter carnival are at. It's hard to get a good look as you're running by, but was I saw looked pretty neat. It's also always fun to run a race through a public place when most of the people around have no idea what's going on. Around there, I ran into Randy around there, which was great. After that, the course is an out and back on Shepard Road and was actually kind of boring. Randy passed me by sometime out there but I could always keep him and Shane in sight.
One thing I'm rather confused about - the 5K and 10K started a few minutes behind the Half and once we got onto Shepard Road, 3 10K men went by . . . and that was it. One in the lead and two more a bit back. I did see a 4th 10K guy after they turned around (pretty obvious when they're going the other direction) but I didn't see a single other 10Ker so I was really surprised to see in the results how many people did that race. Very strange because it means the first three guys were ridiculously far ahead of anyone else. Maybe I've just never seen a 10K race from that vantage point before.
I was very surprised to see at the first water stop that they were handing out bottles of water. It made me glad to have brought my small hand held - I would have felt bad grabbing a bottle just to take a few sips and then toss it. What a waste!
It was fabulous to be able to have a longer run on nice, clear roads! I rather putzed about for the first bit, just enjoying a nice run and trying to keep the pace down. Randy and Shane were in sight the whole time, so it was nice to have some idea of how I was running in relation to people I know. I was amused because there didn't seem to be a lot of runners taking the tangent on corners and I kept watching as Shane in front of me would cut over more than anyone else. We were two of very few runners who ran tangents as opposed to staying in the right hand lane when the whole road was shut down for us.
I was rather surprised at how rolling the course was. Nothing huge but some nice long ups and downs when I was expecting a completely flat course was actually kind of nice. A couple in particular stuck out - one of the uphills made me excited for the way back and one looooong downhill made me a bit worried about the way back up it. Turns out, the way back up was so gradual that I didn't even notice I was heading back up it until I was less than two blocks from the top. Yay!
So back to the turnaround . . . I didn't think about it much as when went around it. Since it wasn't a strict out and back course, I didn't know where we'd be turning around for sure. I remember thinking that I'd be 1 1/2 or 2 miles from the turnaround and I shortly started seeing people coming back at me and was surprised. When I came to the turnaround, I was right on Shane so I was thinking about that as I rounded the barricades like everyone else and continued on my way. All of a sudden we hit the 8 mile marker (well, first off, all of a sudden Shane was off like a rocket and I was no longer just about to pass him but back to the mile marker). 8? That's strange, since we hadn't gone by mile 7 yet. Maybe someone put the wrong mile marker here? Well, that can't be right either since we should be just over halfway through mile 6 according to my mile split on my watch . . . Strange. Someone must have messed up the marker placements.
And I continue on my merry way, continuing with picking up the speed bit by bit since I'd been gaining on Shane again and I wanted to catch up with him. Then we ran by mile marker 9. Hm. Something is definitely wrong but the big question is: did we turn around wrong or are the markers just wrong? Finally we hit mile "10" where the volunteer was letting everyone know that the turnaround was wrong and we had 3.1 miles left. Huh. Lovely. It was good to know, though and it was clearly time to kick it down a gear. I caught up with Randy right before here and didn't think I'd be able to get Shane since he seemed to be running exactly the same pace as me, but suddenly, there he was. He tried to chat some but I was working pretty hard so I didn't have much to say - sorry Shane! I got him on one of the last (short and steeper) uphills, though. Which I enjoyed more than I should - it's been a while since I've beat Shane in a race!
Usually, I like to run the end of the course before the start of a race or at least take a good look at the map so I know distances left at approximate places. I hadn't done that this time at all, so I did some guessing about distances left as we rounded corners into downtown, which turned out to be pretty accurate. I did manage to remember that we finished on 6th so as we ran down 5th and I saw up a turn up head, I decided that meant only a block left after the turn and tried to pick up the pace according. Luckily, I was right!
So I finished in a half marathon PR - 1:32!! Of course, the race was over a mile short but hey . . .
I did a short cool down afterward and then wandered into the building since that was the most likely place to pick up my shiny finishers mug (and warm!). I didn't see an obvious place for it so I wandered around a bit - the place wasn't all that big but was rather crowded. I did find the table for the race shirts - a cool design but it cost an extra $20 if I wanted it! Plus it was white and I find it hard to believe that any female race director would ever pick white for a race shirts (serious male race directors - I don't want my bra to show through. Though, maybe I've just found the reason there's so many white shirts out there . . .) so I wasn't ready to turn a poorly done race into a $50 race. So I found the mug pickup - and was under-impressed again. It was white, which made sense being a winter marathon, but had a very small and blah race logo on one side with a blah advertisement on the other. The promised coupon book and winter carnival pin were not in the bag. I ended up deciding against cheering everyone else in and headed back to my sister's since I knew they were waiting for me and I didn't want to stand around outside and get cold - all my extra layers were in the car.
So overall? Not at all impressed. This was put on by a major race organizer and it's just plain not okay to have the turn around messed up - you need to have communication done better than that and this isn't this company's first race or even in the first handful of their races. On top of that, I have yet to see an official apology. No email sent out to race participates and nothing on their website (in fact, when they first posted results, they had the pace column calculated as though the race were the true distance). The only thing out there is a half-assed apology (that mostly reads as though they don't think it was a very big deal) on their facebook page. This is also the only place to find out (if you dig through posts) that the promised coupon books and pins were available to be mailed which is not a big deal for me but is for the people who had to ask if it could be mailed. Not classy. Had I been actually racing this, I would be mad but I'm more annoyed about it than anything.
Bottom line? I'm not planning on going back and will think twice about races put on by Anderson. But, it was a fun time anyway and, like I said, it was great to run on cleared roads and felt good to pick the pace up a bit.
My first race of the year was a couple weekends ago - probably the earliest during the year that I've ever raced (with the possible exception of indoor track in high school/college). I decided on Friday that as long as I was in the Cities anyway, I might as well run the Securian Winter Half Marathon. Happily, my sister was able to bring my registration in so I didn't need to pay the race-day registration. $30 wasn't too bad for a half marathon, I figured, even if I wasn't exactly in racing form, I did still need a long run and might as well make it a higher effort since I wouldn't be getting as high of mileage as I wanted.
There was $2 parking in the ramp right at the starting line so I figured that made more sense than trying to find street parking somewhere. Luckily, I allowed myself a decent amount of time - silly me didn't think about all the one way streets and about how much time I'd spent sitting in lines of runners in cars trying to get into the single access to the parking garage . . . Then I made it into the garage and followed a few cars in front of me as we commenced circling. I started getting worried the higher we went and then as we were looping back down I noticed that cars were starting to pull into not-spots - places their car more or less fit into but weren't official parking spots. I suddenly wished I had done the same when I followed the car in front of right back to the exit. Happily, a volunteer directed us into the monthly parking where there was plenty of room. This also meant free parking since we didn't go by the gate on our way out - yay!
I still had enough time to pin my number on, tie my chip into my shoe and head up into the bathroom lines. A quick dash back into the building to warm up and there's Rick, Wayne, Karen, Guy and Jenny (who I just met then)! We chatted for a couple minutes and I glance at my watch - 3 minutes to race start, maybe I should head outside? Sure, great idea!
So I wander out and meld my way into the starting pack, which was surprisingly easy. Hmmm. A balloon for the 3:30 pace group? I think I'm a little closer to the front than I want to be. But Shane should be around here somewhere. So I look around and Lo and Behold! There's Shane! I work my way back to him just in time for the gun to go off. Though, I don't actually remember exactly how the race started - nothing nearly as awesome as a duck call, to be sure :) Shane said his plan was to start conservative and pick it up the last three miles - which sounded like a good plan. It quickly developed that our ideas of starting conservative were different though, so I let him go on ahead.
The race started with a little two mile loop around Rice Park, which is where all the ice sculptures for the winter carnival are at. It's hard to get a good look as you're running by, but was I saw looked pretty neat. It's also always fun to run a race through a public place when most of the people around have no idea what's going on. Around there, I ran into Randy around there, which was great. After that, the course is an out and back on Shepard Road and was actually kind of boring. Randy passed me by sometime out there but I could always keep him and Shane in sight.
One thing I'm rather confused about - the 5K and 10K started a few minutes behind the Half and once we got onto Shepard Road, 3 10K men went by . . . and that was it. One in the lead and two more a bit back. I did see a 4th 10K guy after they turned around (pretty obvious when they're going the other direction) but I didn't see a single other 10Ker so I was really surprised to see in the results how many people did that race. Very strange because it means the first three guys were ridiculously far ahead of anyone else. Maybe I've just never seen a 10K race from that vantage point before.
I was very surprised to see at the first water stop that they were handing out bottles of water. It made me glad to have brought my small hand held - I would have felt bad grabbing a bottle just to take a few sips and then toss it. What a waste!
It was fabulous to be able to have a longer run on nice, clear roads! I rather putzed about for the first bit, just enjoying a nice run and trying to keep the pace down. Randy and Shane were in sight the whole time, so it was nice to have some idea of how I was running in relation to people I know. I was amused because there didn't seem to be a lot of runners taking the tangent on corners and I kept watching as Shane in front of me would cut over more than anyone else. We were two of very few runners who ran tangents as opposed to staying in the right hand lane when the whole road was shut down for us.
I was rather surprised at how rolling the course was. Nothing huge but some nice long ups and downs when I was expecting a completely flat course was actually kind of nice. A couple in particular stuck out - one of the uphills made me excited for the way back and one looooong downhill made me a bit worried about the way back up it. Turns out, the way back up was so gradual that I didn't even notice I was heading back up it until I was less than two blocks from the top. Yay!
So back to the turnaround . . . I didn't think about it much as when went around it. Since it wasn't a strict out and back course, I didn't know where we'd be turning around for sure. I remember thinking that I'd be 1 1/2 or 2 miles from the turnaround and I shortly started seeing people coming back at me and was surprised. When I came to the turnaround, I was right on Shane so I was thinking about that as I rounded the barricades like everyone else and continued on my way. All of a sudden we hit the 8 mile marker (well, first off, all of a sudden Shane was off like a rocket and I was no longer just about to pass him but back to the mile marker). 8? That's strange, since we hadn't gone by mile 7 yet. Maybe someone put the wrong mile marker here? Well, that can't be right either since we should be just over halfway through mile 6 according to my mile split on my watch . . . Strange. Someone must have messed up the marker placements.
And I continue on my merry way, continuing with picking up the speed bit by bit since I'd been gaining on Shane again and I wanted to catch up with him. Then we ran by mile marker 9. Hm. Something is definitely wrong but the big question is: did we turn around wrong or are the markers just wrong? Finally we hit mile "10" where the volunteer was letting everyone know that the turnaround was wrong and we had 3.1 miles left. Huh. Lovely. It was good to know, though and it was clearly time to kick it down a gear. I caught up with Randy right before here and didn't think I'd be able to get Shane since he seemed to be running exactly the same pace as me, but suddenly, there he was. He tried to chat some but I was working pretty hard so I didn't have much to say - sorry Shane! I got him on one of the last (short and steeper) uphills, though. Which I enjoyed more than I should - it's been a while since I've beat Shane in a race!
Usually, I like to run the end of the course before the start of a race or at least take a good look at the map so I know distances left at approximate places. I hadn't done that this time at all, so I did some guessing about distances left as we rounded corners into downtown, which turned out to be pretty accurate. I did manage to remember that we finished on 6th so as we ran down 5th and I saw up a turn up head, I decided that meant only a block left after the turn and tried to pick up the pace according. Luckily, I was right!
So I finished in a half marathon PR - 1:32!! Of course, the race was over a mile short but hey . . .
I did a short cool down afterward and then wandered into the building since that was the most likely place to pick up my shiny finishers mug (and warm!). I didn't see an obvious place for it so I wandered around a bit - the place wasn't all that big but was rather crowded. I did find the table for the race shirts - a cool design but it cost an extra $20 if I wanted it! Plus it was white and I find it hard to believe that any female race director would ever pick white for a race shirts (serious male race directors - I don't want my bra to show through. Though, maybe I've just found the reason there's so many white shirts out there . . .) so I wasn't ready to turn a poorly done race into a $50 race. So I found the mug pickup - and was under-impressed again. It was white, which made sense being a winter marathon, but had a very small and blah race logo on one side with a blah advertisement on the other. The promised coupon book and winter carnival pin were not in the bag. I ended up deciding against cheering everyone else in and headed back to my sister's since I knew they were waiting for me and I didn't want to stand around outside and get cold - all my extra layers were in the car.
So overall? Not at all impressed. This was put on by a major race organizer and it's just plain not okay to have the turn around messed up - you need to have communication done better than that and this isn't this company's first race or even in the first handful of their races. On top of that, I have yet to see an official apology. No email sent out to race participates and nothing on their website (in fact, when they first posted results, they had the pace column calculated as though the race were the true distance). The only thing out there is a half-assed apology (that mostly reads as though they don't think it was a very big deal) on their facebook page. This is also the only place to find out (if you dig through posts) that the promised coupon books and pins were available to be mailed which is not a big deal for me but is for the people who had to ask if it could be mailed. Not classy. Had I been actually racing this, I would be mad but I'm more annoyed about it than anything.
Bottom line? I'm not planning on going back and will think twice about races put on by Anderson. But, it was a fun time anyway and, like I said, it was great to run on cleared roads and felt good to pick the pace up a bit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)