Napping and running collide

Lately my 3 y/o daughter has been asking to go with me on a run in the BOB jog stroller. With my weekend training runs it just hasn't worked out lately. Now that I'm tapering there was no reason not to take her up on it. We set out with the rain cover over the stroller just in case the clouds opened up on the run. I dressed for rain and she had her jacket and stuffed dog "Little Genevieve." I planned to run an out and back route toward the freeway and then stop at a local small market for some goodies (one of her conditions). I was thinking that we'd get about 10 - 11 miles out of it. About a mile and a half into the run she stopped talking to me and wasn't responding to anything I said. I slowed down and peeked in to see her conked out.

I kept going past my turn-around point and ran past the cows that she likes to look at when we pass them in the car. I figured I'd just go a little further as if I were going toward Cromwell and then cut back at the first shortcut. No reason to wake her up if we get to the store early. It ended up being a little farther than I thought it was but she kept sleeping so I kept going. I stopped to take a picture mid-run:

She and the dog were both in dreamland and I kept running. She woke up about 30 minutes later as I was heading back toward home and we picked up the conversation right were it left off. She comments on whatever she sees (birds, cyclists, big trucks, trees... ) and asks me question after question.  We came back to 40th ave and down the long descent. I started to feel sluggish and tired from pushing an extra 60lbs (her plus the BOB) for the last 8 miles. I took a gel and that lifted my spirits a bit. The intermittent sprinkling rain had gotten a little more serious at this point which didn't bother either of us really. She was dry and I was just happy to be out running.

We came back near the house and then peeled off to the right toward the market. The only downside about running with the jog stroller is the lack of decent shoulders to run on. I typically run with the flow of traffic and pull off the road and into the nearest driveway when a car is coming up behind  me. Drivers around here are really nice and give a wide birth if traffic permits which is great. We got out to the store which was at the 12.5 mile point and a bit longer than we'd planned to be out. We went in and picked up Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Chocolate milk to share and a Gatorade for me. We stood under cover and enjoyed our treat before packing up and heading for home.

I was a little stiff after the 15 min. stop and the rain had picked up. My running pants were getting heavier and starting to sag. I did my best to pick up the pace but there's only so much I can do with the stroller and traffic. Instead of taking the roads all the way back I turned off to run down the tunnel trail and give my Cascadias a test than. The trail was only muddy in a few places so it wasn't hard to navigate with the BOB. The shoes felt good and had a little bit of extra grip that was nice on the dirt. The trail led out to a private road that heads straight back home. We had both enjoyed the rain enough for one day and were ready to go warm up inside. About 9 minutes later, that's what we did. Me soaked and her dry.


Time: 2:22:31
Dist: 15.35
Avg: 9:17/mi
Alt: 5004 (yeah, right. Maybe half that)


It's fun to run with her. It's not like running with Chris or Mike where we get into good conversations about sports or technology. It's funny answering her questions about what she sees and laughing at some of the goofy things she comes up with.

Back to the Bridle trails

I had to work a little bit later than usual on Friday and with horrible traffic Southbound I decided to hang out a little longer so that I could get a run in at the Bridle Trails. It'd been a while since I last ran a Friday night Bridle Trails run. I was a little excited. I headed to the gym at 6:15 and got changed and out the door in another 15 min. I turned on the Garmin but had trouble getting it to sync so I started the timer and began after waiting a few minutes. It took about 6 minutes for the Garmin to figure out where I was. I'm not sure what's up with that. I wonder if it's getting dying or something.

I tried to take a more conservative pace as I ran out toward the corridor trail, keeping the miles at about 7:30 - 8:00. Once I hit the trail I figured that since my new Cascadias arrived earlier in the day I'd be able to retire the Brooks Adrenalines that I was wearing soon as they were coming up on 400 miles. With that in mind I decided not to avoid the mud that was spotting the trail like I usually do and just run down the center. Usually I'm a wimp about mud when I run, trying to avoid it the best I can in the interest of preserving my shoes. The mud on the corridor trail wasn't bad as he trail has good drainage. When I got to the Bridle Trails a few minutes later, that was another story.

I decided to run a clockwise loop instead of my usually CCW loop knowing that hitting the SE side of the trails first would be a mud fest. It had rained enough lately that there were plenty of gooey shoe-sucking mud puddles and standing water that I was in for a treat. I sloshed my way around the perimeter of the forest doing my best to curb my mud-avoidance instincts. I found that my shoes and socks get soaked pretty easily but the water either drains well or I get used to it pretty fast because it didn't bother  me. My legs, shorts, and back were generously splashed with muddy water by the time I was half way around the trail near the horse arena. It got a little worse in the last two miles and I almost lost my shoe twice in deep mud. The only thing I was avoiding at this point were the frequent piles of horse crap. I guess I'm not quite that comfortable yet.

The trails were fantastic and as usual I really enjoyed the peaceful calm of the empty forest that I shared with my iPod and it's playlist. I left the forest sooner than I would have liked and headed back toward the gym. I started trying something odd on the way back down the corridor trail. On all of the descents (probably 4 of them) I started really stretching my stride out and sort of leaping on the bottom 1/3 of the descent and over the next 100 meters of flat. I was trying to almost hover briefly for each long stride. I was doing it pretty fast so my pace got down into the low - mid 5:00/mi range. Not sustainable for more than a few hundred meters but interesting how easy it was to take the giant floating strides so quickly.

As I got closer to the gym I saw that with a fast final (slightly uphill) mile I could break 1hr for the ~8 mile run. I picked up the pace and ran pretty well (6:52) but missed the hour by 10 seconds. Oh well. Good run anyway. I walked up to the entrance to the gym and used their shoe-scrubber thing the best I could but ended up taking my shoes off and beating them together and on the curb before carrying them in rather than tracking mud through the lobby. 

Good times.

Dist: 8:00
Time: 1:00:10
Avg: 7:31/mi

semi-recovery run and a sweet find

I got caught up at work yesterday and almost missed my run. I headed out for a late lunchtime run at 1pm. The weather was mid 60s and sunny. I would have kicked myself if I had stayed inside yesterday. I'm still recovering from Saturday's accidental marathon so I didn't shoot for hard tempo today. I ran smoothly and at what felt like a comfortable, not too fast pace.

I ran the standard work loop clockwise and still dipped below 6:00/mi on a few of the descents briefly. I ended up keeping a pretty good pace and wasn't gasping for breath at any point like I usually am when I run this route as a tempo run. The trails were dry and it was great to be out running in the nice weather. I look forward to the sun setting even later this summer so that I can get back to doing a run here and there in the Bridle Trails after work again like I did almost every Friday evening last year.

Even though I wasn't trying to run fast by any means I still wound up running the 6mi loop fairly quick:

Time: 42:25
Dist: 6.0
Avg: 7:04/mi

That surprised me.

In other news, last summer I participated in a health screening event at work and as a reward got an AmEx gift card. I promptly forgot about it until I found it the other night while cleaning my desk at home so I figured I should spend it. Unfortunately the list of places where the card was accepted (mostly online) wasn't very attractive... women's clothing stores, rental car agencies, eyeglass stores, power tools, etc… I saw that Zappos.com was one of the merchants so I looked at what they had in the way of running shoes. Their prices weren't very good (same as retail) but their selection was decent so I did some research and ordered a pair of these:

I've been curious about the Brooks Cascadias for a while. I'd seen people wearing them at the Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival and on a few of the Ultra runner blogs that I read. They sound like a beginning trail shoe that's good on pavement as well. I probably run on about 30% roads, 50% trails / dirt shoulders, and the rest sidewalks. I hope these end up working out for me. They were almost free with the gift card plus free next-day shipping from Zappos (sweet!) so I won't be bummed if I just don't like them.

My hope is that they'll be good enough that I can wear them to the Mt. Si 50K in 2.5 weeks.

Recovery wheel

I forgot to write about my 5 mile slow recovery run on the hamster wheel yesterday. I just set it to an 8:30 pace and hit 'start'.

My legs feel fine when I'm not running and my bad knee is a little more twitchy than usual when I run. I don't think I'll be doing any speedwork or tempo this week. I'm 3 weeks out from my 'A' race and I'm tapering until race day. I might try for some short hill repeats this weekend and a fast run next week but I'll cut mileage otherwise.

Yesterday's run put me over 100 for the month for the first time in probably a year. Serious ultra runners do that in a week but I'm happy to have enough time to get out and run this much.

Time: 42:21
Dist: 5.0



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Accidental Marathon or compounded mistakes

With two sick kids I was worried that I'd be able to slip away for my long run. It's my last one in this training cycle and I'd planned for 24 miles. A window of opportunity opened up and I got dressed and went for it. I planned to be out for a little over 3 hours. As my runs get longer I have to start carrying more food and even though I have the awesome Race Ready shorts with 5 or 6 pockets in the back I'm almost out of space back there. I brought 5 gels, a packet of Power Bar Energy Bites, course directions, Nuun tablets, S-Caps, my iPod and money. That left me one pocket to put the empty gel packets in. If my training runs get any longer I'll have to just plan to eat at the stores I pass and hope they have energy bars or something.

I wanted to try out the Energy Bites as a potential food source for future races. They were tasty and didn't bother my stomach at all but they're really hard. They're almost the consistency of a frozen caramel only not so chewy when you finally work them in. My jaw was sore after eating the first 3! I guess I need to see about whipping up a batch of the Perpetuem / gel slurry mixture that worked so well for me when I was cycling. Today I tried to be smart about my food intake, eating something every 30 minutes regardless of hunger. I alternated gels and Energy Bites. I should have been taking in a few more calories every hour but it worked out to 200 - 210 cal/hr. That's probably the minimum I can get away with, so I'll have to rework my food for future long runs.

It was sunny and warm out today (low 60s). When I left on the run at 1pm it felt a little chilly. I got some advice as I was leaving in the form of "It's kind of cold out, are you really going to wear short sleeves?" I made the mistake of second guessing and then changing to a long sleeve tech shirt and heading out on my run. I felt good for the first few miles and then started to overheat. I followed the first 15 miles from my last long run which went fairly well. It was nice to see it during the day after running the first 12 miles before sunrise on my last long run.

My splits were in the 7:20 - 7:40 range with a few low 8's thrown in on the hilly miles. I was moving well and feeling good. By mile 15 the wheels started to come off the wagon and I had to stop and walk up one of the short hills. I was way too hot and trying to conserve the water (Nuun) that I was carrying in my two UD FastDraw bottles as I had been all day. I planned for two bottles to last me ~12 miles but with the temps in the low 60s that was not nearly enough. When it's cold out I have to remind myself to drink every mile. Today I was drinking every half mile and trying to limit myself. That's never a good idea during a run.

There are so few stores out in the sticks where we live that I have to plan my routes around them so I can stop every 10 - 12 miles to refill. The bottles get pretty warm by that point anyway so I'm more than ready for some new cold water.  Dehydration started to affect me about 13 miles in and by mile 15 when I took my first walk (to coincide with a 30 min feed time) I had to take my shirt off and expose my fish-belly to the passing motorists. I'll just say that it's hard to get a tan in the Pacific Northwest. I had a long way to go before I'd be anywhere near another store. I kept running and tried to ignore the increasing soreness in my psoas muscles and the top of my Quads.

Taking the shirt off cooled  me down a bit but I was still trying to make the bottles last another 9 miles. I was breathing hard and working much harder than I should have been at my slowing pace. I started walking up the steep hills and also when it was time to eat. I wasn't happy with this but still had every intention of finishing. When I got back up from the edge of the water in Cromwell and around to Warren dr and past Fox Island I started to realize that I just wasn't going to make it back home without at least 2 - 3 miles with dry bottles. I ran by the Arletta fire station to see if I could bum some water from them but it was completely empty. No cars in the lot, doors and blinds closed.  I knew that I'd pass within about a mile and a half of a small market in Rosedale but going there for water was an out and back, and would add 3 miles to my day. This was a better option than running out empty with a few miles to go.

I bit the bullet and turned off at Artondale dr and headed down Ray Nash dr to the store. I bought a big water and an ice cream sandwich. I didn't know how my stomach would handle it (easily) but it looked really good to me. When my body is depleted, sweets reach another level. I fondly recall eating a few donuts after bonking on the way home from work on my bike back in CA after a 60 mi R/T commute.

My pace at this point was slowing to the 9:30 - 10:00 range with increasing walking breaks. Two bottles of fresh cold water helped me get some focus back and reel the pace in a little bit but the damage was done to my legs and neck/shoulders, they were really sore. I headed back down the tunnel trail and onto the road toward home. I saw into my wife with the kids and dog out for a walk. I was almost an hour later than I'd estimated when I stopped to chat. They were glad that I was still moving and encouraged me to keep going while they headed the other way on their walk.

Just before getting home I hit the 26.2 mile mark for a 3:49 marathon. Not too bad for something so hilly on a dehydrated body. I plodded the rest of the way home and finished up with 26.5 miles on the day. That's about 3 more than the planned route. Maybe it'll better prepare me for the race. I realized when I got home that I hadn't peed at all the entire run. Bad sign and I'm glad that it's over. I hope I plan my race better than today's long run.

Totals:
Dist: 26.5
Time: 3:52:12
Avg: 8:46/mi
Alt: Garmin: 8333 so 4000?

Now I have 3 weeks until the Mt Si 50K to taper and figure out my race day plan. Let's hope I learned something today.

slow recovery run

My legs were still sore from the fast treadmill 10K on Tuesday so I just went out today with the goal of a slow run on the trails. I started at the gym and headed down to the corridor trail which took me out to the Bridle Trails. I popped into the park/forest and enjoyed the soft trails until I hit 2.5 miles and then turned around and headed back.

I was trying to keep my HR under 140 and did almost the whole run except the 3 short steep hills on the way to the Bridle Trails. My pace was around 9:00/mile for the most part. I took the Garmin but forgot to turn it off after my run and recorded my drive home in traffic. All together: 63.14mi in 6h 55m 04s (that's a sweet 6:34/mile pace!) I only burned 3500 calories and my max speed was 329.1mph (!?)

When I take out all of the "junk" miles that I drove I get something more reasonable:

Time: ~44:00
Dist: 4.95mi
Avg: 8:53/mi

I stretched, used the foam roller, used The Stick, and did some core work. My legs are still sore.  They should be a little better by Saturday for my long run.

10K PR* and GWMA virtual race redo

The weather is finally warming up in the Pacific Nortthwest. It was in the mid 50s and overcast today, perfect weather for a run outside. Running outside was never in the plan for today though. I headed over to the gym at lunch for some time on the hamster wheel. Why subject myself to this? Glad you asked. I have my last long run coming up this weekend (24 mi) and I wanted to run something that wasn't too hard and didn't wear my legs out. So instead of running my standard work loop with all of it's climbing and descending, I ran a 10K PR* at the gym. As long as I was running 10K, I figured I'd really put the hammer down and see how fast I could have run the Global Warming, My Ass 6.66mi. virtual race as well. What's another 0.45mi, right?

I hopped on a treadmill and started my warm-up at a moderate pace to get the sinovial fluid moving in my knees. After 5 minutes I turned the treadmill off so that I could reset the numbers. I turned it back on and set the speed to a 6:00/mi pace. It felt fine even after my hard hill repeat workout on Sunday. I guess stretching and the foam roller every night are working. I knew that it wouldn't feel good for too long so I upped the speed while the legs still had some spring. I hit the first mile in 5:58. I held the pace steady and still felt pretty good after cruising through mile 2 in 5:54. I bumped the speed up a tad and tried to keep my mind off the fatigue that was creeping into my quads.

I didn't catch the next few mile splits but I did see my time for 5K: 18:21 which is 15 seconds faster than my 17 year old PR on the roads. Not that it's fair comparing the two however. I cruised through 4 miles feeling okay but really trying to convince myself to keep going. I was breathing harder and just sweating buckets into my towel. By 5 miles my form was coming apart and I had to seriously slow my pace for 30 seconds at 5.5 miles. I couldn't keep the pace up and needed to seriously back off from the 5:50 pace I'd been holding for the last few miles. I recovered a bit and went back to a 6:00/mi pace knowing that I had just over a mile to go. I ran through 10K in 36:20* which is two minutes faster than my previous treadmill PR.  (The PR-shattering performance will become clear shortly). I wanted to stop at 6.21 miles but also wanted to see how I'd do for 6.66 miles. I ran it on the roads/trails in 46:15 at work last week but today I hit that mark in 39:20 and immediately dropped to a slow cool-down jog.

*  So, what's my secret? Why the asterisks after the times and mention of PR? Well, the treadmills I use at the gym are pretty fancy and not only have an incline function but can also be configured for up to a 3% _decline_ so I ran the whole thing on a smooth downhill road essentially. I can't find anything about what an equivalent effort would be running outdoors but I'd estimate it'd be about a 6:40/mi pace.

So... I cheated. It's good to cheat on rare occasions. I think I'm capable of a sub 38 min 10K with some focus and a flat course. I'll shoot for that later in the year if I can find a flat course anywhere around here. It was good to get an idea of how fast I'd have to keep the legs moving to hold that kind of pace. I think I'll try a downhill 5K at 5:30 pace some time, you know...  for fun. :)

Overall (incl warmup/cooldown)
Time: 47:00
Dist: 7.6 miles
Avg: 6.11/mile
Dopamine production: very high