13 very humid miles on the C&O Trail

I pushed out 13 miles very early this morning on the C&O Trail.  My original goal had been 12, but as usual, I talked myself into  another 1/2 mile past the turn-around so that I could post 13 miles.  It's so easy to do... after doing 6 miles, another 1/2 mile is nothing.  The hard part is that I then have 6.5 miles back to the truck, but since subconsciously I know that I'm on my way back, it somehow seems easy.

The great news is that I was able to turn the run into a nice negative split (the last half of my run was faster than the first), and the best news is that I ran the 13th mile at a nice 7:30min/mile pace!

The humidy was a very thick 95% even at 6:30AM.  I was careful to be sure to consistently be sipping fluids (I had brought along my camelback - filled it about a 1/3 with gatorade, froze it overnight, and then filled it with a bit more gatorade and the rest with water).  I was probably sipping fluids every 1/2 mile or so, perhaps even more often than that. It was so humid that by the time I was done my clothes were dripping wet.

This picture is around mile 2 I think...  I came across a couple of deer and they stayed just ahead of me.  You can just see one of them in the path.  The other is to the left of the path.

Somewhere around mile 9 or 10 I became aware of someone pacing behind me.  I figured that he would simply be passing me at any moment, but he never did.  I was trying to maintain a constant pace but he seemed content to draft behind me, so I eventually eased up a bit and he wound up finally coming abreast of me.  By this point we were around my mile 11 or so, and I was hoping that I could get him to run with me since I was  becoming fatigued and perhaps a bit of conversation would help me finish strong. But unfortunately he was at the end of his run and that was that.  He did however thank me for setting his pace.

So I was left to my own devices to finish - which is fine.  I'm going to run a marathon, and it's going to be me and me alone that runs the distance. I'm not sure why, but when I got to mile 12 I felt kind of surprised. My legs were feeling really tired and I was ready to be done, but of course I still had to get to my truck. In a way I was just thinking that the sooner I got to the parking lot, the better; so the faster that I could run the sooner I'd be done.  I didn't really feel like I was running a sub-8 pace, but obviously I was. Net-net, it was a great run.

Post run, I made sure to walk for a good bit to shake out the lactic acid build up, did a protein shake as soon as I got home, took my dog for a 2 mile walk, and then finally enjoyed a nice ice-bath (just lovely!).  It is evening right now, and even though my legs are a little stiff if I sit for too long, my legs actually feel pretty good!  So like I said, it was a good run!

hot and humid but good

It is very hot and humid in the Metro DC area.  My morning run didn't get going until 8:30 (slow start and had other things to take care of first), so it was 75deg and humid by the time I got out there. Today's run was to be 6 miles. And oddly enough, despite the heat, it was a good run!

I was only pre-fueled on two small pieces of whole wheat bread with peanut butter and a couple of cups of coffee and until the last hill, I felt pretty good.  I did a gu at around mile 3.5 and that obviously helped.

My route was two 3-mile loops that give me, for each loop, about a 2 mile downhill grade (about a 200ft drop) and then 200ft uphill for the last mile.  That last mile up is always a killer, and today it really was - but I never once stopped running (I wasn't running real fast at the end, but I wasn't walking...!).  And then once I was done, I got my dog and we did a 1-mile walk.

I've been getting into the habit of walking my dogs immediately after running and I think that this has really helped my recovery. Prior to this, I didn't usually just collapse into a chair after running, but I probably was not moving around as much as doing a mile walk with the dogs...  Maybe it's just all in my head.

What was amazing about today's run was that I was clipping along at a pretty nice pace and I wasn't even trying.  I managed to PB my time for this particular route and I seriously was not even thinking about it.  I was just running at a pace that felt good.  After mile 4.5 I knew that I was getting tired and I still had that last mile, all uphill, coming up, so I tried to let up a bit in order to rejuvenate myself some and I still managed to run a sub 8min/mile split (this was all due to the downhill slope). Nevertheless, I did the last mile, all uphill, in 9min - and I'll take that with pride considering the weather and my pre-run fueling.

I was definitely nearing the end of my capacity though, heat and nutrition-wise - I was starting into get that foggy mental state where it's hard to do even simple math (yeah, I do that to pass the time sometimes... calculating times, what if's, splits, paces, etc... square roots...).  I was so hot at the end that instead of walking around a bit before entering my building I went straight inside so that I could get out of the sun.  I carry a small washcloth with me so that I can wipe my face and head, mostly to keep the sweat from getting into my eyes, and it was drenched by the time I was done - so wet that I could wring it out.

I want to get another 6-7 mile run in this week before my long run (12 miles) this weekend, but need to figure out how to finesse them in between various social engagements... Plus I want to have a rest day before the long run.

123 days to the MCM !!!

damn shoes....

I should know better than to experiment with different shoes - Let me rephrase that: I should know better than to run 4 fast miles with shoes that I've never even walked 300 ft in before.

I joined the Potomac River running group for their Tuesday evening run - Brooks was there displaying and offering trial runs in some of their shoes. And I naturally, against my better judgement, went for it. The shoes themselves, a Ghost 6 model, were great; good stability, well cushioned, nice feel.  Overall, just wearing them felt good.  But given my history with my feet and lower calves, I should not have run 4 hilly miles in them.  It was also a pretty fast run too.

Before we even got to mile 1, I was beginning to feel a twinge in my right achilles area.  I thought that was kind of weird since the heel on these shoes was higher than my Newtons.  I figured that I was actually giving my achilles a bit of break by wearing a higher heel shoe! But this morning (the next day), my achilles is not happy. Very tight and somewhat sore. No running for me today.

The run itself was pretty good though.  From mile 1 through mile 3 it became hilly with what seemed like a monster hill at the very end of the climb. The total elevation was not much, all of 280 feet, more or less, but it was the pace that did me in.

Since it was "only" at 4 mile run I figured I would go ahead and run reasonably hard and try for a 8:15-8:30 average pace, so I wound up in the forward 1/3 of the group of maybe 20 runners.  Two of the guys were just lightning fast - I lost sight of them after the first turn.  Then there was a group of two guys and three girls that I figured were clocking along at around an 8min/mile pace - I figured that if I could keep them within sight I'd know where to go.

As soon as we hit the first of the hills that group slowed down enough for me to get within 20 ft or so of them. The route was along some neighborhood streets at first so it was easy to run along the side of the road against traffic, but then some of roads were substantially more busy and there wasn't always a sidewalk or much of a shoulder.  At that point I was happy to be running as tail-end-charlie, allowing these guys to spook drivers on their own.

At about mile 2 1/4 we had a bit of a downhill which enabled me to refresh myself some and it was just when I was starting to feel good that I saw the final hill.  It's not that it's that steep (more or less a 5% hill), or that long (about 1/3 of a mile), but that by the time I got to it, I was tired!  At this point I am running with the 3  women - one of the other guys had literally sprinted ahead and totally conquered that hill - the other guy had fallen back.  And we are all struggling - and I feel that I am really struggling, but there was no way that my stupid male pride was going to let me slow to a walk, which of course would have been the smart thing to do... Nevertheless, we gratefully made it to the top and were rewarded with a short downhill slope, only to be followed by another (short) uphill before we got into the final downhill leg of the run.  I should also mention that we ran into the two speedsters that shot out at the start walking backwards back down that hill so that they could enjoy it yet again (thank you very much, may I have another....).  Jeesh - I wish I could do that. More power to them...

My overall pace was 8:17min/mile which I think is awesome, especially considering the hills that I had to contend with.

On the other hand my right achilles is not happy and I can't, shouldn't, run today.  Just hoping that I'll be better for tomorrow.  My goal is no injuries this year.  And once again I'm learning a lesson: don't experiment with shoes!!!

137 days to the MCM!

11.5 on the C&O Canal Path

This was a good run week starting with a 2 miles shakeout from last weeks 11 mile run, followed by a 5m jaunt with a local running group from Potomac River Running, then 6, 3, and 11.5 miles.  That made for a total of 27 miles, which while nothing for the serious runners, was a lot of miles for me.  As I prep for the Marine Corp Marathon, I know that I’ll be doing many 30+mile weeks, but I’m just trying to train carefully and methodically.  I don’t want a repeat of last year.

I enjoyed the 5 mile run with the running group, although I was not crazy about the route.  It involved having to cross too many roads, and since it was in the evening, there was a fair amount of traffic.  Given the stores location (on Leesburg Pike in Falls Church) it is kind of hard to avoid traffic situations.  But I enjoyed the run nonetheless – good people, good pace. I'll run with them again I think.

The next day I did two 3 mile loops around my apartment area; this is actually a really good work out because very little of is flat.  I’m either going up or down, and there is a very nice uphill finish on each loop, making it great training for the MCM. During my first loop I was dragging so badly at 2 miles, that I almost pictured myself just doing 3 miles. So I sucked down a Gu, pretended like I had someone running with me and we had 6 miles to do, and kept going. While I know full well that the Gu was a great stimulant for me, I also wonder how much my mental imagination of running with someone got me over the hump.  I actually had a really good run that day, averaging a 8:30 pace.  I even clocked a 7:45 split on mile 5 (slight downhill – fun to take advantage of that stretch).

Sunday’s long run was a different story altogether though.  I went back to the C&O Canal path (6:30AM, 67deg, 95% humidity) with the goal of making it to a hill on the west side of the Reservoir.  That hill is on the MCM path and hits right around mile 7, so I wanted to experience it to see how steep and long it might be.  I picked a spot to jump on the trail about 4 miles from the hill, the thought being that I wanted to have some miles on me before I got to it so that I would be a little tired by the time I got there and still finish with an 11-12 mile run.  It turns out that it’s a good hill, but not bad at all. And there is a slight downhill grade afterwards providing some relief – so all good. 

In order to get back on the trail I had to run all the way down MacArthur Blvd to Canal Rd where I found a tunnel that goes under the road and the canal back to the trail.  I’m not big on tunnels, and it gave me the creeps.  It was well lit, paved, and I could see the other end, but it still gave me the heeby-geebies… yuk!

The way back was without incident, and I was able to get into a nice cadence.  It felt really good.  I wound up killing some time when I had to slow to a walk at mile 9 so that I could take off my camelback and get to a packet of Gu in a difficult to reach pocket, but aside from that I was very steady all the way through.  Notwithstanding, by the time I got to where my truck was, I was ready to call it “done”. The humidity just sucked the energy out of me - and I'm sure that the burger and beers the night before did not help...  Even though I had posted 11 ½ miles, and I always prefer to post whole numbers, I did not have it in me to do another ½ mile.  In retrospect, I should have toughed it out, but I didn’t.  Next time. 

My average pace was 9min/mile dead on, with which I was very pleased.  If I hadn’t had to walk while rescuing my last packet of Gu, I would have been able to post a sub 9min/mile pace!  (it is always the little things…).

139 days (20 weeks) to the MCM

Chesapeake and Ohio Trail

I had an opportunity to run on the Chesapeake and Ohio Trail this week – good experience.  I was looking for someplace reasonably flat to do 10 contiguous miles on and came across this trail.  For anyone that is not familiar with it, it is basically a tow path along a canal that runs some 184 miles from Washington DC (Georgetown) to somewhere in Maryland.  The purpose of the canal was to enable the safe passage of

goods down and around the various rapids on the Potomac.  I’m not sure how far the trail goes, but it goes further than I can run…  The trail is a crushed rock/dirt, smooth enough and flat enough to make for easy running.  I like that because I can put myself on autopilot and just run, instead of having to constantly be looking for rocks, branches, and holes.

This picture is at Lockhouse #10 - the canal itself is to the left and the tow path is on the right.  The locks are immediately to the left.

I started fairly early, 6:30AM, and there were quite a few people at Lockhouse #10 parking area off the Carla Barton Parkway – mostly cyclists it seems.  But when I hit the trail, I pretty much had it to myself.  By the time I was finishing, shortly after 8AM, there were substantially more runners and cyclists, which obviously means that this is a popular trail.  But even with all of this popularity the trail was very clean of debris and trash.

Despite the 6:30AM start, the temp was 73 degrees with a 79% humidity.  Up at the parking area there was a nice breeze, but down on the trail there was zilch for wind, so as the sun rose, so did the humidity.

My plan was to run easy and get my 10 miles in.  Easy for me was to be defined by whatever pace just felt good.  Without pressing I found myself loping along at about a 9 min/mile pace, some miles were 8:50, others were 9:10.  Interestingly enough, I found that the mile following a gu (mile 7.5), I actually clocked an 8:40 split – that stuff is amazing.  Once I realized that I was kind of trucking along a little faster than I probably should, I backed it off some and settled back to a 9 min/mile pace.

I had the foresight to bring my camel back, which I loaded up with Gatorade and made a special point to take a sip every ½ mile (very soon I’m going to have to train myself to drinking only every 2 miles – pre-marathon prep).  From prior experience, I wanted to make sure that I remained well hydrated, but not overly so.  I suspect that some of my cramping issues were caused by not watching my fluids and nutrition.  For nutrition, I made sure that I fueled before I left my house (peanut butter on whole wheat toast) and then a gu at mile 3.5 and again at mile 7.5.

By the time I was approaching my mile 5 turnaround point (I was doing an out-and-back run) I was feeling so good (hot but good) that I thought that I should push myself to 11 total miles instead of just 10…  so I trotted along for another half mile and then did my turn-around.  (It is so easy to talk myself into “an extra half mile… it’s only 4 ½ minutes or less… just do it…”  which can really backfire on me since I have to run an equal distance back again.) By now it is about 7:30AM and the sun is definitely up – and even though there are lots of trees for shade, it is hot and humid on the trail. 

One of my heat/humidity indicators is to track when my sweat starts to drip off the bill of my cap.  That started right around mile 7.  At that point I am making sure that I am sipping my Gatorade a little more regularly – I don’t want to cramp.  I was also very grateful that I brought the camelback vs the little bottles and the waist belt.  (I always piss and moan about how heavy – it really isn’t – a full camelback is… but as in this case, so grateful that I had all of its fluids!).

Around mile 9.5 my hams were getting tired and a little tight, so I started modifying my gait a little: one minute one way, another minute a little different, and so on.  That really seemed to help.  As it was tightening, I was a little concerned that it might be a pre-cramping signal, so I was trying to be very cognizant to making sure that the muscle had an opportunity to relax (inasmuch as it can) and stretch out.  The idea with altering my gait was to give my hamstrings a different feel and a chance for me to finish my run without incident.

The last half mile was the hardest.  I think that I was pretty much done at mile 10.5.  The humidity was taking me down and sucking all of the energy out of me.  I felt that I was managing my fluids well and my legs were ok, but in general I was becoming very fatigued.  I know that it is all a training thing.  I had a great 10 miles run 2 weeks ago, but that was in a cold mist.  Humidity is such an energy sucker.  I kept telling myself that this was as tired as I wanted to be at mile 25 and that I could without a doubt finish strong.  I did finish that last ½ mile at a steady pace, making it a 9:10 min/mile split.  Overall I ran a  9:03 m/m pace without really trying.  Very happy with that.

 145 days to the MCM!

Running tired

There is something about learning to run when you are tired – or at least much that I need to learn.  And it’s actually an interesting phenomena. 

In my case, I’ll get to a point in my (long) run where I’m starting to think that “I’m tired”, but naturally, I’m not done with my run.  And as is often the case, I may be 5, 8 or more miles away from my truck or home, so being tired is, well, just too bad.  I have to finish.

There are times when the thought crosses my mind (very briefly, mind you) that I could just walk…  but that would take so long to make it back to wherever, so I just continue to run.

The crazy thing is that not too long after I get this feeling I seem to get a second wind, like new-found strength and I’m fine for a while longer.

I would be kidding you if I didn't tell you that there was a mental part to this.  When I get that "I'm tired" feeling, I'm instantly evaluating if my body is really trying to tell me something or not.  At 56, I'm scanning all of my vital signs like a pilot does his instruments - am I in trouble or am I ok?  99.9% of the time I am ok, and I have to find the mental strength to get past it. And sometimes it is hard, really hard, to do - but it feels so good when I do, when I push past being tired and keep rolling.  I have no idea where that comes from and I wish that I could find a way to bottle it up.

The really hard part is towards the end of a long run, particularly if that last bit is uphill.  The tiredness becomes very heavy, and all I think about is “keep running and just finish”. I use any number of little mental tricks to keep me going: I’ll tell myself that I’m on mile 25 of a marathon and I’m going to finish and I will do it running. Or I’ll think about other people who have actually had to run for their lives or someone else’s and giving up was not an option.  I’ll also imagine a wire attached to the middle of my hips that is pulling me to the finish (or up the hill) – that last one works to keep me pumping. 

I’ve never been so tired that I literally felt like I was going to collapse (that’s a line that I won’t fret with).  I think that instinctively I’ve always kept a reasonable buffer in the tank, so to speak, so that bad or weird things don’t happen.

The hard part is that when I start to get really tired, I mean really tired, I start to not process thoughts very well, and as a result I have to be extra careful that I don’t make stupid decisions.  I’ve learned that this is likely caused by the flood of lactic acid in my system. Hot conditions will do that also, but for different reasons.

But the even crazier thing is that finishing a run tired seems to better condition me for the next run. Which makes sense of course; I am pushing the envelope a little bit, expanding my ability by a bit more every time.  It turns out that there is actual science to this:  As I endurance train, I am increasing the amount of blood that is being delivered to my muscles.  But note that it is not my blood volume that is increasing, but rather the ability for the blood to reach the muscles that need the nutrition.  It turns out that I am increasing the number and size of the capillaries that deliver blood.  In addition, I am becoming more efficient at burning fuel (glycogen and fat).

One very telling symptom of this cardio improvement is that I’ve noticed that my resting heart rate is in the 45-50 bpm range. An emergency room doctor that I happened to run with one day told me that if I ever had the misfortune to wind up in an ER to be sure to tell the attending nurses/docs that I was a runner, or else they would start giving me drugs to raise my heart rate!  I thought that was pretty crazy..

Of course, after “pushing the envelope” the trick is to recover adequately and properly so that my body can take advantage of that new endurance.  By that I mean, refueling properly (water, electrolyte replenishment, carbs and proteins), taking care of my muscles (stretching, rolling), and some rest (but not too much).

The more I get into running (all 4 years of it so far), the more I can see how deeply engaged and involved one can get.  It all depends on how deep you want to go and how much time you have to spend on it.  Overall, I think it’s pretty interesting!  I’m just hoping that I can keep my body healthy enough to continue.

148 days to the MCM!