14 miles becomes 15.3 miles…

Ok – so my goal for today was a simple 14 mile run, and to make my life interesting (and ideally simpler), I was going to run from my house to Great Falls Park and back. Seven miles out, seven miles back. A few hills, some ups and downs, and a nice 150ft hill over the last ½ mile to finish with. I figured that the last hill would be good training for the MCM since it finishes with a hill and I wanted to see just how well I handled a hill after running a long way. But it turned out to be 7 miles out and 8 and a half back…

So I get myself up well before dawn, feed and walk the dog, to my stretching, etc., and head out as the sun comes up. This was actually important since I was going to be running on roads that had virtually no shoulder and I wanted to be done before traffic woke up. As it was, there were a few times when I had to step into the ditch to avoid cars – it was not the safest route I’ve ever run. But what it lacked for in safety it made up with beauty. Tons of tree’s and lots of greenery. Since it was so early I got to run undisturbed from traffic for some good stretches and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Clean air is so nice!

 My plan was to run into the park until I hit my 7 mile mark and then turn around. But once I was in there I started thinking about re-routing myself to bounce out onto another road for the return trip. This led me to take a trail that I’d never been on before and had no real idea where it went except that it sort of started out “westwards”…. And if you’ve ever been on a trail in the woods, they never go straight for very long, and this one was no exception.

This particular trail wound up being a somewhat difficult and technical trail to run – steep, rocky, and muddy. Dark too… There was so much under and over growth that there was little light (plus it was cloudy). This particular picture was in one of the rare "clearer" areas.  Making matter worse, there was no cellular signal so the map function on my handy smart phone was useless. The GPS knew where I was, but there was no map data – somewhat aggravating…

Nevertheless, I had a fair idea of where I was and where I wanted to go and ultimately arrived at a modestly level gravel trail that afforded me some respite. But that trail detour took a lot out of me – I was pretty tired and I was not even half way through my run. The gravel trail ran north-south which I knew would intersect with a road and once at that road I was able to figure out where I was and how to get home.

Taking a lesson from my last long run, I took a 5hour energy shot at the 7 mile point and the jolt of B12 did wonders. I was able to keep a fairly good pace all the way through to the end of mile 13 where I suddenly started to sag. I started to get that “hit the wall” and out of juice feeling, so I sucked down my last GU, and trudged my way forward. Incredibly, by the time I hit mile 14.5 I was back in rhythm and finished (even doing the hill nicely) strong. That last hill was difficult but I kept on truck’n – it wasn’t my fastest pace, but I was running.

The great news is that I did the entire run without experiencing any cramping. It was very humid (97%) and I was sweating profusely. I had done a reasonably good job of managing my fuel and Gatorade intake (half a cup of watered down Gatorade every 2 miles), GU at miles 4, 9, and 13, and the 5hr at mile 7. I let myself walk while drinking so that I could deliberately savor it and swallow (ahhh nice!). Even with the slow 2 miles on that trail I averaged a 9:26 pace. After my run I did a mile walk with my dog, relaxed with an ice bath, and then an ice compress for my Achilles tendon. I was tired, but not horribly. Next week I’d like to do 16 miles and then do a little taper prior to a 20K race on Aug 18.

91 days to the MCM….
 3 weeks to the Leesburg 20K

Achilles issues

In early June I strained my right Achilles while running in a pair of trial shoes during a group run. It was weird that it happened since the shoe actually had a higher heal to toe ratio than my current Newtons. Nevertheless, I have been babying this thing ever since, but now I’m worried. Immediately after it happened I stayed off running for 2 days and then did only light runs for a while, icing it after each run. It usually felt stiff at the start of the run, but after a half mile or less I was fine and was able to run with no discomfort at all. It even felt good enough to do long runs including a couple of 13 and 14 mile runs. I seemed to be ok. But then one very hot and humid day I wisely chose to work out in the gym instead of running outdoors; I did some sessions on the treadmill, some core work, more treadmill – it was a great workout and I felt great. I had a lot to do, so I skipped icing my Achilles (not so wise). To make matters worse, the next day I was confined to a car for an 8 hour road trip. I ran an easy 3 miles the following day and realized that my Achilles was not happy. And I see the decision to not ice after the treadmill workout as the culprit. It’s tight, but not horrible; i.e. I can walk just fine. I just limp a little when I first get out of a chair. I notice that going down stairs gives me a bit of a sharp pain, so I’m very careful with that. But it seems that after I’ve warmed it up (blood flowing) that I’m more or less ok. I’ve rested it for a couple of days since that 3 mile run and today I did an easy run. The run was great, but I don’t like the way it feels now. Arg. I need this to get better quick! 96 days to the MCM (that’s like 13 weeks….)

Negotiating my way through 14 miles

I find it interesting how sometimes I negotiate my way through a long run.  But don’t misunderstand me, I love to run, I like the feeling of running, I love the exertion. But sometimes on a long run I get bored and it’s not enough to just be running – There is the long term view of why I am where I am in my training program, i.e. this long run fits here in my endurance training program, but sometimes it does get monotonous.

Yesterday I did 14 miles on the Mt Vernon Trail (runs along the Potomac, across from DC) on a simple 7 mile out-and-back route.  Around mile 4 I started thinking “3 more miles and I get to turn around”, then at mile 7, the turn-around point, it was “Yipee, I’m heading back!”, at mile 12 it was “17-18 minutes or less and I’ll be done!”, and at mile 13 it was “if I run faster I’ll be done sooner”….  You get the drift.  I wonder what other runners do to talk their way through the run...

I have no idea how people run without music… at a minimum the music is entertaining.  More importantly to me, the beat provides me with inspiration. Sometimes I’ll even listen to a podcast, but that tends to not help me with my cadence.  I know this woman in Michigan who recently ran the JFK 50 miler, and one of their rules is no earbuds or headphones.  She told me that she tried singing to herself, talking to whomever she could, but after 8-10 hours of running it has to get very tough.  It is not only a physical endurance test, but also a mental one.

Running on the Mt Vernon Trail was ok – it’s safe traffic-wise, reasonably runner friendly (except for all of the bicycles), no major hills, paved, and you can go a long way.  The downside however is that it follows the GW Parkway for the most part on which there is a lot of traffic.  And lots of traffic means lots of vehicular exhaust in the air, and I don’t think that’s real good for lungs, especially when you are running and sucking in lots of air. 

Even at 6:30AM on a Saturday there was what I would consider as significant traffic.  If it was windy, or even just breezy, that would help a lot. But yesterday morning was still and hot and humid.  I would have preferred to run the C&O canal path, but there has been a lot of rain and I wanted to avoid the mud.  Also, knowing that it was going to be a still and humid morning, I was hoping that the more wider-open area next to the Potomac would have been a bit cooler.  Maybe starting earlier in the AM or on a Sunday would be better.

But all good – It was a solid run, I averaged a 9:07 pace which (I think) I could easily have sucked below 9.  At mile 7, the turn-around point, I took a few minutes to pull some nutrition out of my camel-back and that process squandered some time, even though I was still moving, something that I would not have done in a timed event.  Regardless, I managed a slight negative split. 

One of the new things that I experimented with was slugging down a 5HR shot at mile 7, and I very positively felt its effects during the next few miles. My intent was to see if the B12 (the primary component of 5HR) would help me. I did the whole shot, but it’s likely that I only needed maybe half.  I did GU at miles 4, 9, and 12.  I also sipped on my watered-down Gatorade throughout the run. For tracking purposes, I went through almost 48oz of fluid (6 cups).  I felt no cramping or major fatiguing – I was tired at the end, but I could have gone another mile or so if necessary.  So far so good.

105 days (15 weeks) to the MCM!!  

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