11.29.2008
Measly mileage in 2008.
I have somehow run 10 races this year, including 2 FULL MARATHONS and 3 halves, and my annual total at the end of the 11th month is 347 miles. 347! No wonder running has felt so sucky this year. I only do enough of it to be able to keep doing it, but not for it to be enjoyable or for me to improve very much. If I started doing 20 miles a week today until the end of the year, I would still not even clear 500 miles in 2008 and most runners who do as many races as I do usually cover double that. Sad, sad, sad.
Now that I have big plans to become a Marine in the next year, I had better get my act together. Running fast is already ten times the suck of nice, easy distance running so I need to do everything in my power to pump up the juice and quit sucking wind. You know, that VO2 max stuff. I’ll bone up during my holiday break and be like butter all over that bread when I get back to college and the Mid-Atlantic winter at the end of January. I just ordered Run Less Run Faster on Amazon for airplane reading.
My sister called on Thanksgiving and said that she has started running 1.5 miles on weekdays with her neighbors, one of whom is also a beginner and another a marathoner who is trying to get more people into it so she can have buddies to train with. This is probably the best news I have gotten all year. While I don’t get to be with my sisters more than the one or two times a year I come home for holiday family time, it is really nice to look forward to actually being able to do something like this together. In the past few winters, I have gone running with my brother-in-law and sometimes also one of my brothers, but the sisters were never runners. I mentioned several times that neither was I, but you know how that goes. People do things on their own time.
This news comes on the heels of my other sister (the one married to the runner) telling me that she has been training to run races like the Muddy Buddy with her husband. She is really impatient and stubborn (as in stubbornly refusing to stretch after workouts because she is not flexible… which makes her less flexible and want to stretch less…) and she runs too fast for a beginner so she feels like she is done after about a minute of running. About a month ago, I talked to her about my marathon training group (for probably the millionth time) and how beginners like me often use a run-walk program to get through the mileage and build endurance gradually. That time she listened and reported back a couple days later that it was a huge success. I hope she is still running, too.
Just think, my dream finally coming true. When your siblings are between a decade and two decades older than you, it is a big deal to be able to play with them. I am imagining running with not just a sister but BOTH my sisters this winter and the idea alone is almost enough to make up for all the times none of those grown-up bastards wanted to play Scrabble or Stratego with their kid sister. HAH! Finally.
10.26.2008
Marine Corps Marathon 2008
Clock Time: 5:43:08
Chip Time: 5:37:41
Average Pace: 12:53
I am effing exhausted and the mile 14 Tourette's is still in full force, but I did a pretty good job today (not the best, but decent) so here are the splits:
5K - 00:40:50, 13:08 pace, predicted finish: 5:44:20
10K - 1:16:21, 12:17 pace, predicted finish: 5:22:03
15K - 1:51:01, 11:54 pace, predicted finish: 5:12:00
20K - 2:39:46, 12:51 pace, predicted finish: 5:36:54
1/2 - 2:48:32, 12:51 pace, predicted finish: 5:36:54
25K - 3:17:41, 12:43 pace, predicted finish: 5:33:25
30K - 3:59:46, 13:08 pace, predicted finish: 5:44:20
40K - 5:25:13, 13:05 pace, predicted finish: 5:43:01
This is the race I should have run last year. I was hoping I could skip it and go right on to a big improvement. The first three splits had me coming in easily at 5:15, but then I really needed to use the portajohn right before mile 10 and I couldn't just keep running until I got to one without a line (that didn't happen until mile 20). So I waited TWELVE WHOLE MINUTES to use one, though I was at least clever enough to do it at the orange station so I could enjoy my little frozen slice of orange while waiting in line. Between the actual time wasted there and the rough start I had after standing still for 12 minutes, I could have easily made my realistic goal of 5:30. In fact, the 5:30 pace group caught up to me around mile 22 when I started to feel really bad, and I tried to stay motivated and keep pace with them for a while. That lasted all of a mile. Mile 23 rolled around and I realized that while they were doing run-walk like I had resorted to by that point, they were not doing 4/1s like me. They were doing something longer like 5/1 or 6/1, which might as well have been 60/1 or 300/1 considering the shape I was in. It couldn't have been too far off of my own system, but it was just enough to really, really hurt.
My joints seem okay, but my muscles are KILLING me. My calves and IT bands are the worst. I've never had to stop and stretch so much and even sitting still is agonizing with my IT bands wigging out on me. It's most certainly time for some vitamin I. I can't believe I thought I was going to do a speed workout this week. Like, did I smoke some crack when I planned on that and just not remember that I did? Seriously. A marathon is no joke. I take back what I said about 20-milers. Those babies are totally doable. Marathons are the ones that are like plane wrecks. Plain and simple, yo. The human body does NOT want to run that far. Ever. And when we make them do that anyway, they ruthlessly make us pay.
Two-word summary race report: OUCH! BOO-ya.
Labels: blue powerade, caffeine, great weather, GU, MCM, P.R., sport beans
9.22.2008
So close I can taste it.
This weekend's 20-miler really highlighted how far I have come since last year at this time. The first indicator of the difference was my ability to walk around, squat, and ride my bike without an extraordinary amount of pain. I didn't even take any NSAIDS to kill the swollen knees! (And they didn't even swell until after I stopped running!) The cold shower took care of that in a jiffy.
Despite not putting as many miles in the bank in preparation for the big marathon withdrawal, my fitness level has been far above where it was at any other time in my life - with the single possible exception of when I was studying karate. I did some mean stuff in those three months, strength-wise, but even then I had nothing close to the endurance I have now. Aside from being in a general fitness arc that's on the rise, I believe I can thank riding fixie all over town since the end of last semester, working for the park service in a job where I had to hike around the sides of the highway carrying a GPS unit on my back, and continuing to run even if it wasn't as regularly as I would have liked. All of this really showed during every step of those 20 miles I ran on Saturday morning.
For one thing, I didn't feel significantly different in the second ten miles than I did in the first. That is pretty unusual for me, with the last five often feeling worlds worse than the first five. Yet it felt to me like a steady forward effort from beginning to end, instead of the game where I guess at which mile my nice day in the park degenerates into never-ending torture. (Yes, it really used to feel that way.) As I have always known about the marathon but perhaps not kept in mind nearly enough, running 26.2 miles is more of a mind game than anything.
The mind game of which I speak is not magic shoes or what do you think will happen if I put my foot in this blender. I am talking about the challenge of getting into the right mindset, of arming yourself with the right tools to succeed. The first step is always to begin with the end in mind (hat tip to Stephen Covey). I think this is where I really let myself down last year (and again in LA). My only goals were to have a good time (what does that even mean in a marathon?) and to finish. Finishing is a worthy goal, but why not finish and also push your limits? Why not see what you are capable of? This never occurred to me while training for MCM'07 because I think the idea of running a marathon was still sort of untouchable to me, and I inexplicably clung to the image of concerts and ball games where the people in the very back are having the best time despite having the worst seats in the house.
This year, my goal is pretty clear. I want to run it a lot faster than last year. Exactly how much faster is not as important because I have a second goal - to cover the distance with more or less a continuous effort. I'm not deluded, because I know things are going to get progressively harder and more painful as the miles add up, but I know that there is a vast difference between last Saturday and one year ago. I want this marathon to be more like last Saturday.
I am going on at length about all of this because I wasted a lot of time on unimportant things during this run, but I did manage to maintain a steady sense of forward momentum while I was running and avoid excessive walking. This was reflected quite accurately by the numbers. I had once again forgotten to turn off the auto-pause function so the timer stopped for every pit stop and loss of satellite reception, and that conveniently separated my short GU breaks (walking) from my getting lost and waiting for people breaks (standing). Leaving out all of the map checking and waiting for people fluff, I finished in 4:07:48 with an average pace of 12:23. This is a pace I can not only live with, but be quite happy about for a marathon finish. That would mean breaking 5:30, which is a significant improvement over my first two marathons.
The really encouraging news is that the actual time for this 20 (when I factor all of that wasted time back into the equation) is 4:40:14, which is a 14:13 pace. (As a reminder, my average pace at MCM'07 was ~14:35.) That means that the worst case scenario is that I continue to waste lots of time by hanging around at the aid stations for way too long and still I am better off than last year! Of course, I am NOT planning to waste so much time again, and am instead figuring out the best way to run with people who are slightly faster than me. There is one candidate in the group this year (my saint from the 18-miler), but she may turn out to be too fast on race day when she has no incentive to wait around for me. My other alternative is to sign up with a pace group. Either way, there are options. I am trying to con some friends from school into showing up on course to pace me for a while, too. This feels like a recipe for success.
Labels: blue powerade, GU, knees
9.13.2008
VHTRC Women's Half Marathon Trail Run
Official Time: 3:16:47
Average Pace: 15:06
I don't have a lot to say about this, except that it was a bloodbath. By itself, it is a challenge and I fully expected to finish in the neighborhood of three hours since my PR is around 2:43 and my first half was Riley's (what I thought was the hilliest of the hilly races), which I did in 3:02. Trail running is new to me and I have been told time and again to expect a much slower time because of the extra effort it takes to cover the terrain. Granted, I had a pretty easy time of the actual terrain thanks to all those day hikes Michele and Keith took me on in my teenage years, but the constant and rapid elevation change was definitely a killer. Not to mention the single track dirt "path" that made it pretty harsh to pass people who are going slower than you or who decide to start walking when you're not ready to do the same. It seemed like every time I got to the bottom of another hill, I'd have just enough energy to keep jogging up with the same effort I was using on my approach but not enough to go faster than that. This cost me many precious minutes as I'd often get stuck behind some walkers without the necessary juice to pass them.
So, I'd say 15 of those 30 extra minutes above PR were because of the race conditions, most of which I knew about in advance. (Next time, I'll quit thinking it's rude to pass nice ladies who start walking in front of me on a narrow, single-wide trail and make sure to save energy to get past them and stay past them.) The other 15 minutes I attribute to all manner of stupidity.
Bobo move #1: donating blood three days before the race after having spent the last 4 months accidentally losing weight because you haven't had time to eat as much as you used to.
Bobo move #2: going through with your blood donation three days before the race even though your period decided to start in the minutes it took you to make your way over to the building with the blood drive.
Bobo move #3: drinking less water than usual for the entire week preceding the race because your nalgene is smelly and heavy, and you don't want to make your bike commute to school more unpleasant than it has to be.
Bobo move #4: leaving your fuel belt at home and not being able to carry any fluids with you on a race through the woods with less than ample course support.
I guess the bright side is that the race premium was a sweet v-neck, short-sleeve performance shirt that happened to match my kicks. While this experience left a bitter taste in my mouth regarding my ability to perform adequately when I fail to plan properly, it did light a fire under my seat about trail running. I like all the muscles that were sore the next day and I particularly like that I didn't have to spend a single moment inside a gym to make them sore. Me and ol' Fountainhead are going to butt heads a few more times this winter and see if we can't be better friends.
Here are my photos at the two deceptively flat sections of the race:
Labels: blood donation, curse of womanhood, fountainhead, GU, half marathon, mountain trail, race, swollen hands
9.08.2008
Color me wet.
There may be a piece of my brain missing, but I sure do love a good long run in the rain. Last Sunday, I spent three and a half hours slogging through puddles and wiping Tropical Storm Hanna out of my eyes to keep my contacts in. I am fairly certain I complained a lot (at least in my head), and felt like giving up just about every other second. But then I felt guilty for promising to keep a newcomer from getting lost so I did my best to stay with her despite my internal protestations. I was watching her heels and jumping over (or through) enormous puddles most of the time, so my mind was sufficiently occupied. I am thinking they should create a new track & field event - the marathon steeplechase.
The highlights of the run were the ridiculously steep hills at the turn around (miles 8-10) and a group of fellow runners' reactions to a sign warning not to touch the water because the creek was a sewage overflow area. I decided to just keep it to myself that the sign was referring to the water in the ditch about 10 feet below and not to the stuff that was coming out of the sky. I guess that's a little bit evil, but if you don't have enough sense to know that sewage overflow doesn't come from the clouds, then you probably deserve to feel a little icky from thinking that the rain falling on you contains urine. If there were actual human waste getting on them somehow, you can be sure I would not stay silent.
In any case, I am very grateful to the saint who slowed down to run 18 miles with me in order not to get lost because I surely got the better end of that deal. I am also glad to have passed the test I made for myself today! I increased my mileage by 50% in one week, which is generally not advisable, but I didn't injure anything and even made record time. MCM, here I come!
Labels: blisters, GU, long run, purple gatorade, rain
