Sunday, August 25, 2013

16 miles turns into 18 (well, 17.84)

Once again I wound up running further than I intended.  And in this case also faster than I intended.  I had gone  up to the C&O Trail (MD side of the Potomac) for my "16 miler" and around mile 3 wound up running with "Mike" who was putting in 18 miles. We had started from almost the same place, so his turn around spot on the trail was just a little bit further than mine would have been, so I figured what the heck, I don't have any problem doing the extra couple of miles.

Quick aside: The C&O trail is a great place to run - I really enjoy it, particularly very early in the morning before people start to arrive.  Today I saw a young buck (maybe a 6 pointer?)  and came within 20 feet of him. Pretty cool. Something that I don't see everyday.

And BTW, while I prefer to finish my runs on whole numbers, my spot to get off the trail happened to be at 17.84 miles...  I would have run that extra 0.16 miles except that a) I didn't realize how close I was to my mile marker, b) I was tired, c) it would have required me to run uphill, and d) I was tired! I'd had enough...  but I would have done it had I known...

The other little issue of having run with Mike was that he was running a little bit of a faster pace than I was intending to run, more or less 8:45-8:50 minute miles, whereas I was thinking of keeping it to somewhere around 9:00 to 9:10 pace.  But I was actually looking for some company for this run and figured that extra effort on my part would be worth it - and it was.  It was a great work out and I wound up averaging a 9:00 min/mile pace overall, which puts me right on target for reaching my 4 hour marathon - assuming of course that I can run the next 8 miles at a 9 min pace (not so sure about that).... My right quad was starting to fire around mile 16 and I fought it off by changing my gait until I found something that relieved the stress or tension on it and I didn't think about it at all during the last mile.

While I wasn't sore, and didn't cramp, I was definitely tired by the time I was done.  The temptation to just lay down in the grass in the parking lot was incredible... but I didn't do it!!! Instead I walked around the parking area for a bit, did some stretching, then drove home and took my dog for a mile walk. I was feeling really tired, but that mile walk was wonders for my legs. Then a nice cold bath... ahh heaven...

All in all, I'm getting more confident about being able to do reasonably well in the MCM.  Even more happy about the fact that I've staved off any cramping issues this year - I've come close... but I've avoided them. Big win for me. I believe that the reason is simply that I am paying more attention to my fueling and my endurance level is substantially improved.

Next week is 18 miles (again) - going to try to work on my negative split strategy.
63 days to the MCM !!  (9 very short weeks)

Monday, August 19, 2013

Leesburg 20K - great run, great event

I probably had the best race event of my very short running career.  Somehow or another I managed to eat right the day before, rest enough, fuel myself in the AM, not drink too much fluids before hand, not start out too fast, manage my fuel and fluid intake during the race, and had enough juice to finish strong.  The net result is that I averaged an 8:39m/m pace, well under my 8:59m/m goal.  And the bonus is that I had a lot of fun doing it. Best of all, I had a great "event test" run with my new Newton's and I am pleased that they didn't let me down!

Up through around mile 4 I can claim all of the credit, but then I managed to hook up with some good company that was compatible with the pace that I wanted to set, we had good conversation, and we able to encourage ourselves to a strong finish.  I’m not sure that I would have run as strong as I did without them. It was a lot of fun and it felt really good to run with them.

My goal had been to do my first mile at somewhere around a 9:30 pace, which I did, then steadily but slowly improve on that as I felt stronger, start running harder after mile 8, with hopefully a nice kick during the last mile. And things turned out pretty much according to plan:
Mile 8: 8:46
Mile 9: 7:46
Mile 10: 7:45
Mile 11: 8:03 (ran into some traffic)
Mile 12: 7:38
Last 4/10 of a mile: 7:59 pace

Somewhere around mile 4 I connected with “Sarah”, a 40-something woman who it turns out is a very accomplished runner, having already run the MCM twice.  We seemed to share the same goals for the event so it was easy to run with her.  Then around mile 7 I became aware of 2 guys that were drafting us and at first I started asking them if we were holding them back, but they insisted that it was more like we were pulling them along and we were  doing fine setting the pace.  As soon as we finished mile 8 I started kicking it up a bit, helped somewhat by the slight downhill  that we had and as soon as we finished that mile I was almost afraid to let my companions know that we just did a 7:46 split. But they were cool with it and ok to continue at that pace, and so we did. By the time we got to mile 12 with 4/10 of a mile to go, I wanted to see if I could push to the finish, and everyone started humping it up a bit more.

Sarah’s young son had joined us around mile 11.5 told us that we had this little bridge go over, then a 90 degree turn to the finish.  But unbeknownst to me, as soon as we turned that corner we had a bit of a hill…  Ok, it was not much of a hill, but I was pretty close to running out of gas and dealing with a hill was not something that I was looking forward to.  As soon as we hit that corner, one of the guys that I was sprinting with at time just took off on me.  It’s like he fired a new engine and just took off up that hill.  I started to take off after him, thinking that yeah it would be fun to finish with him, but as I started to amp it up, discretion took over – I wanted to finish the race…. not fall flat short of the finish line, or worse yet, hurt myself.  So I finished, strong, albeit not as strong as he did – but hey, I can play the “age” card; I probably have 10 years on that guy.

My right Achilles was somewhat tight the rest of the day and today (the day after), so I’ve been icing it after walking Reece (my dog), and wrapping it from time to time for support and warmth.  No stretching or serious exertion.  The running group (Potomac River Running, a group that I’ve gotten to know) invited me to join them on Tuesday afternoon for a group run, but I’m not sure that I should.  We’ll see come Tuesday PM.  I want to do 16 miles this weekend, so I need my feet, ankles, calves, Achilles,hams, quads, etc., to all be in good shape!

I do want to send a shout out to the Potomac River Running (website: www.prraces.com) group that organized this event. I haven’t run that many events, but the Leesburg 20K was one that I thought was one of the best managed events that I have participated in.  The sign-in at 6:00AM was seemless, plenty of porta johns,  a well organized start, a nicely marshaled route, lots of hydration, and a well managed finish line.  Best of all, I had a great time (both figuratively and literally).


69 more days to the MCM !!!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

568 miles on a pair of Newtons

After putting 568 miles on a pair of Newton Motion running shoes, it was time to replace them.  I almost feel like I could get another 100 miles or so out of them, but my feet were starting to feel a little weird and I am sure that it was due to the shoes wearing out.

From the pictures you can probably see that I pretty much wore the nubs off the mid-foot area and the area just in front of (towards the toes) is completely slick (when new there were some grooves and a bit of a raised area – all gone now).  And in the event you can’t tell….  the new shoe is on the left…

I switched from the “Motion” model that provided something that they called “medial posting” to offset pronation, to the “Gravity” model, which is supposed to be a neutral shoe.  I really don’t know that I have a pronation problem, so if I go back to “neutral” perhaps I might learn something.  When I made my original purchase, the helpful store clerk recommended the Motion model because it provided a bit more “support”, something that might be helpful to me since at the time I was complaining about dealing with Plantar Fasciitis – I’m not sure where that support is provided, but it’s supposed to be there somewhere.

With the recent arrival of my new shoes and a 20K event this weekend (Leesburg 20K – Virginia), I have spent some walking time in them, then a short 2 miler, and today a hillier 6 miler. The new shoes feel great! And after this last run, I can definitely feel the different shoe symmetry in my calves. This may also be due to the fact that the new shoes are “new and unused” vs the “old and worn out” ones that I’ve been in for a while.  I’ll do more walking and run at least another 6 to 10 miles in the new shoes over the next 4-5 days before the event.

I’m looking forward to seeing how I do in the event itself – I didn’t have a chance to run any events in my previous Newtons so I’m looking forward to see how I feel after 20K and what kind of time I can post.

4 days to the Leesburg 20K  [UPDATE:  here is a link to the Leesburg event:  http://runningthrutime.blogspot.com/2013/08/leesburg-20k-great-run-great-event.html  ]

74 days to the MCM

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Why do we run marathons? I did a survey

It occurred to me that people that run marathons might actually be certifiable nuts...  So I did a survey few weeks ago to attempt to find out why we do it. Why do we run marathons?

As I go through my own training for my second marathon, I find that I keep asking myself the question "why am I doing this?" Not because I have doubts or lack of desire, but simply because I have become very interested in why it is that we put ourselves through what we do. There is a lot of training, lots of miles, lots of time, tons of discomfort, it costs money, injuries happen, and so on. And we do it just to run 26.2 miles with 100's if not 1,000's of other running nuts. What drives us to do it?

I hosted the survey at http://whydowerunmarathons.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-do-we-do-it.html which asked 4 basic questions:
1) an open ended question: What drives you to want to run a marathon?
2) How many have you already run (options are 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4+)
3) What is your age group,
4) and Are you Male or Female.

If would like to contribute your thoughts, just go to http://whydowerunmarathons.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-do-we-do-it.html.
  - 4 questions, totally anonymous, take you 60 seconds.

Summary of results so far:

First the demographics
  • 48% of the respondents have run 4 or more marathons, 
  • 15% are thinking about running their first, 
  • 15% have previously only run one marathon, and 
  • the remaining 12% have run between 2 & 3 marathons. 
  • *What might be key here is that 60% have run two or more!! 
  • 33% are in the 40-49 year old range,  25% in the 30-39 age group,   19% are 50-59,   10% are over 60 years old, and the remaining 13% are under 30.
  • 62% male, 38% female  (I believe this number is a little skewed, since my personal observations is that at least half the runners in my marathons have been women, if not more)

At a very top level, it seems that we run marathons for a sense of accomplishment; it is a challenge, and we want to see if we can do it. It is a difficult enough of a challenge to not be taken casually, thus providing the sense of accomplishment upon its completion, and for some people, the need to do it again.

To paraphrase some of the general themes that I’ve received:  I want to see if I do it.  I gave birth to a child, can I run a marathon? I’m the only one in my office that will run 26.2 miles. I ran one marathon, can I do better in another one? If I run a marathon (or more than one) I will impress my friends… and so on in that vein.  

The “Can I do it?” trend was typical for first timers or it was a “bucket list” thing along the lines of “several people in my social circle have done it, therefore I need to do it too”.  But for the 15% that have only run one marathon, the phrase “I did it, I survived, I’ll never do it again” was pretty consistent.

There was also a secondary thread that was goal oriented (similar to “accomplishment”, yet different); by scheduling to run a marathon, the goal was to train and exercise accordingly with the net goal of staying fit.  In other words, the marathon itself was the reward, the party, for all of the training. By having the implied obligation to run the event, it became compulsory to train for it, and therefore lead a reasonably healthy lifestyle.  This may be what leads runners to participate in multiple marathons. It may also be that the event (the marathon itself) provides a sense of purpose in one's life.  This was implied, but not specifically stated, (I am grossly paraphrasing and reading between lines here): "I am going to run a marathon and I will surround my everyday life with those things that support achieving that goal".

Some respondents are naturally competitive (and obviously naturally athletic) and their reason for running a marathon is continuous improvement. Can they do better. This group just loves running, is good and accomplished at distance running, and in general loves the atmosphere of a marathon. One respondent wrote to me about the mystery of the event, i.e. there is no telling what is going to happen between the starting line and the finish line (and it’s true – 26.2 miles is a long enough of a distance that anything can happen, be it weather, event organization, personal fitness or injury, and so on).

Another thought that seemed to be streaming in was that everyone enjoyed the buzz and activity surrounding a marathon.  Runners all seem to like the excitement before the start of the race, the support during the event, and of course, the finish line events.  In large marathons there is a carnival atmosphere that just amps up the buzz and excitement.  Obviously, many smaller marathons have little, if any buzz, and is targeted to the serious and hard core athletes.

One response that struck home with me (because we are in the same age group and apparently share the same thought) discussed the desire to run because people that he’s known are now dead or very unhealthy due to life style choices and his goal was simply to live a healthy life right up to the day that he keels over during a run. (I know that sounds morbid, but I agree – I’d rather drop on a trail or a road during a run than in a nursing home….)

But the striking result of this survey was the number of repeat marathoners. 60% of the respondents have run two or more marathons (48% have run 4 or more!!).  This flies in the face of the fact that running a marathon is very hard and sucks so much out of your body, plus it demands so much attention to training.  Obviously, there are exceptions for those individuals who are naturally athletic and have the right genes. 

30 years ago the average finish time was 3 hrs 30 minutes. Today it is at least 60 minutes longer, if not a bit more.  Any runner that is out there hoofing it along for over 4 hours (and I am one of those) is in danger of doing damage to their body – there is so much that can go wrong.  The prevailing wisdom is that after 3 hours of running we are starting to significantly break our body down.  I suspect that those runners that are repeat marathoners are running sub 3:30 events. In hindsight, I should have asked that kind of question in the survey...

But my overall conclusion from the responses that I've received is that the key reason that so many people are drawn to running a marathon is because it is hard, but it is doable, and when you succeed and cross that finish line, there is a tremendous feeling of self accomplishment.  And apparently that leads to the wanting to run another one…

My own reasons have changed a bit, but not by much.  My first marathon was simply a personal call to a challenge.  My running level had amped up enough for me to consider that yes, I would like to attempt to run a marathon.  At a physical and mental level, a marathon is a difficult, yet reachable objective that forces me to train for it, i.e. exercise, and to eat sensibly. I get to apply a level of "mind over matter" to get through the tough spots (of which I have many) and succeeding in that, I believe, makes me a better person.

To me a marathon is a very individual event; oh sure, there are people that cheer me on towards my endeavor, run with me, and so on, but on marathon day only me, my endurance, and my legs will carry me from the starting line to the finish line - it's all me - no one else can run it for me. And being able to cross that finish line is a very personal achievement.

And guess what?  I'm going to run my second marathon on Oct 27 - the Marine Corp Marathon, and I am very excited about it! And I'm totally expecting to run a third marathon at some point after that.

(If you would like to leave a comment I've been told that it may be necessary for you to temporarily allow 3rd Party Cookies - it's not my thing... it's seems to be a Google Blogger thing... For example, if you use Chrome as a browser, go to "Settings", scroll down to the bottom and select "Show Advanced Settings", select "Content Settings" in the Privacy section, and then un-select "Block 3rd Party cookies...".   I would not recommend leaving your settings that way, so be sure to reset it back to block 3rd party cookies.)

Monday, August 5, 2013

Tough week

This was a tough week for me – I did a two-fer (two runs in a day) on Tuesday, hill repeats on Thursday, then a very hilly 7 mile trail run on Friday, and capped it with a 15 miler on Sunday. In total it was 33 miles for the week, which I know pales in comparison to what serious runners put in, but it is was I was comfortable doing.  I usually run 5 days a week, but this week was only 4 – my right Achilles has been a little tight, so I am trying to exercise some measure of level headedness and not overdo it to the point of not being able to run.  My mantra this year has been to stay uninjured.  Besides, the runs that I did were very productive and touched on all the elements that I wanted.

The mistake I made however was on Saturday.  Feeling the need to do something physical, I went down to the gym with the thought of doing some light upper body work – which led to also doing some leg work (leg curls, leg presses, calf presses), and because I felt so empowered, it led to a more rigorous workout that I ought to have considering that I was going to run 15 miles the next day.

I did the run, but it was so very much not my best run by a long shot.  My legs were totally toast after mile 10.  I started to feel the effects of my legs  not having the juice as soon as I hit my first significant hill around mile 7.  My legs just did not have it to run up that hill – so I sucked on a Gu and walked up most of it.  The Gu helped and I seemed to be ok of the next series of modest hills.



I had run up from my apartment into Great Falls Park and then up a trail into River Bend Park.  The trails were beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the run.  I was on trails that I had mostly not been on before, was navigating by dead reckoning, and it was a blast.  At one point, knowing that I was heading towards the Potomac River I wound up on the trail that switch-backed its way down a reasonably high ridge (probably a 200 ft drop in elevation).  I remember thinking that if this trail didn’t drop me where I thought it was going to that I was going to have to run back up that switch-back, something that I did not think my legs were going to appreciate.  But fortunately I did wind up at a trail that runs along the river that would take me back to Great Falls Park.  The first picture is looking back upstream on the trail I was running, and the second is in the direction that I'm going. (yes, that is the edge of my finger on the left frame - I could crop that out, but...)

I like running on trails for a variety of reasons, but I am learning that trail running is very different than road running.  First of all you have to pay attention to the ground and what is in front of you.  Secondly, you have to make sure that 
you pick up your feet.  There is no such thing as “gliding” like I try to do on hard packed surfaces.  And finally, it is really hard to appreciate your surroundings.  So as a result, my times on trails suck because I’m enjoying where I am and I’m still learning how to run on uneven trails.

The route back home involved a lot of uphill…  coming out of the park there is a 200 ft elevation uplift over a bit more than a mile.  I’m on an asphalt road at this point and it is just a smooth grind up and out of the park area.  I just chugged up the road at a steady pace, somewhere around a 9:45m/m pace and felt ok.  I got a bit of relief for the next couple miles and then had an uphill challenge for the next 4 miles, with the last ½ mile being the steepest. I sucked another Gu down at mile 12 and that helped some, but on that last ½ mile I was suffering (a very slow 11m/m plod).  At one point I almost fell on my face as I tripped on the edge of sidewalk slab.  I managed to catch myself, but I had the thought that if for some reason that I hadn’t, I would have just laid there for a while to rest up some….

I walked Reece for a mile after I got home, took an ice bath, did my protein shake, hydrated, iced my Achilles, etc… and all is good.  I was a little sore, but not horribly.  Achilles ok the next day – maybe we’re going to be ok.  We went to a pool party later that afternoon and someone asked me if I could run a marathon this week if I had to…  My first inclination was to say no, but oddly enough as I was finishing up my 15 miles and evaluating how tired I really was, I wondered if I had another 11 miles left in me, and I thought that yes, if I had to do it, I could.  So my answer to the question was yes… but I’d rather not, just yet… 

83 more days to the MCM!   (12 weeks)

2 weeks to the Leesburg 20K