Skipping the long slow weekend run...kind of...plus: 10k-a-day!

Yep - Chicago is coming up on 5 weeks away and I am skipping my long run this weekend. Why? Because I am doing it on Friday morning (tomorrow) instead. I'm heading to Atlanta Saturday morning, returning Sunday evening visiting with my sister (lives there) and my wife's sister (there from Colorado) - and running will not happen.
So my alarm is set for 3:30am and this will be the longest weekday run before work. I've done 11 a few times, including yesterday and last week. I'm not looking forward to getting up, but with a pace 5-10 secs per mile slower than my 11 miler, it doesn't seem that hard on paper (of course tomorrow may turn out to be terrible...you never know).
My work is doing a "step" thing again, where they give you a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps a day (10k-a-day). I've worn it this week to test it out. (We did this last year, starting just before I ran Chattooga. Was that really only a year ago?!?). The 11 miler was about 15000 steps, but using their calculations based on the type of exercising you're doing - it would equate to around 27000.  My run tomorrow will get me started on the right foot with about 40000. Too bad 25000 is the max you can "earn" in a day - I think it is biased against marathoners.
One more long run (20mi) while I'm in DC the following weekend, the Asheville Half-Marathon after that - then 2 easy weekends until it's time to go race!

20 miler

Didn't start off feeling that great this past Sunday. Not necessarily tired, or have weak legs - just didn't feel "on" like I have on some of more recent longer runs. I still tried to keep my intended pace of 7:40/lap. I was only able to keep that pace for 14 miles. That was when I stopped to refill my water bottle and took too long to get back going. Few miles later, my right groin/thigh got pretty sore. That lasted until lap 21 or so, when my calf tightened up. That only stuck around a mile or so. By that point, I was burned out. My run became a shuffle and I felt like a zombie. I ended up just shy of 20 miles at 19.8 at 3:06.
I knew my friend Dan and cousin Becky were running the Chicago Marathon that day, so maybe my energy was keeping them going. Who knows. My MCM prediction is now about a 4:10-4:15.

Night and day; Blue Ridge Relay

I thought drastic differences in long runs 3 weeks apart was something. Amazing the difference one week can be. Too bad this was in the wrong direction. Was just starting to feel better when I woke up Sunday for my planned 20 miler, but it didn't show. I am blaming my head cold, but really, it could be anything. I like creating reasons just to make myself feel better. And that's what it's all about anyway, right? :-)
I knew from the start my legs weren't into it. They never really felt up for it. Not exactly heavy or tired. Maybe just weak? Even with taking Friday off from running (Friday was pretty miserable), my legs didn't feel "recovered".
I made it thru 14 miles or so before I let myself slow down. I had already dropped my pace after 2 miles to about 10 seconds slower than my planned pace, but at this point, I dropped it even more. I split each lap walking/running (5 min each). I trudged along though and completed 18.7 miles in 3 hours and 10 minutes. Ugh - that was rough. No real pains though, so I'll take that good news.

Blue Ridge Relay starts Friday...recap next week!

Comparing two runs, 3 weeks apart

3 weeks ago, I ran 17.9 miles on my loop course (21 loops of 0.85mi each). It was Hot. 74° and 97% humidity, and that was at 5am. I did ok until the last 3 miles, where my feet were sore and just ran out of energy. 2:55 minutes. Fastest lap was 7:40, and that was my 2nd lap. Legs were getting heavy as the week progressed and I skipped a long run the following week while on vacation in Kiawah.
Fast forward ahead to this morning.
60° at the start (I didn't have to start super early either - 6:10am) and low humidity. Was quite cool - coolest it's been in many months. Even after a long day Saturday (5am wake up and all day in Atlanta, coming home at 10:30pm), I still felt rested as I started off. My plan called for a 9:10/mi pace (or 7:53/lap). I think I went over that twice - both times when I stopped to refill my water bottle. Other than that, it was typically around 7:30, with my fastest lap being my Last at 7:05! Legs felt Great. Only started feeling my hips the last 2-3 laps. Was tempted to add on a mile or two, but was so satisfied, I stopped when I was supposed to. My finish time: 2:42. Only 13 minutes faster than 3 weeks ago! Looking back - it was the exact time I ran back in March, but still 5 minutes Slower than just before my PR in the Spinx Half Marathon. Still, I like where I am right now.

The Long Run

4:10am - alarm goes off and I slowly get out of bed, get into my running clothes and meander downstairs to toast a bagel. Add some butter and grape jelly and eat while I catch up on the computer.
4:45am - out the door and drive 10 minutes to my spot, Oak Grove Lake, 0.85 miles around. It's dark, hazy, 74° and 97% humidity and I am alone. No music and not a soul out except for the paper delivery guy I see often. Quick stretching of the legs.
5:00am - Hit start on my Ironman watch and start off trying to do 8:00min/lap as indicated by my chosen FIRST 3 day a week marathon training plan. After one lap, back by my car, I hit 7:45 and toss aside my shirt. It will do me no good today. I grab my handheld water bottle, walk for 20 seconds, and continue on. 3rd lap I finally get close enough to my goal and try to hold that pace - taking in water each lap as I walk some. (I plan and walk every lap). I count my laps upward and spend the time out there thinking about my pace, past races, friends who ran the Laurel Valley 34 miler yesterday. So much time to just be. Hear the geese/ducks in the water and the muffled early traffic on I-85 nearby. I had divided the 21 laps into 7 lap segments. After the 1st segment, switched to Gatorade for my drink as I also needed to refill my 20oz bottle. That 2 minute break got me right on my planned pace. Next lap - Gu. Pace was consistent and feeling fine. Decided not to wear my heart rate monitor, but felt it was in the low 140's (low 160's seems to be my max) based on my effort. 2nd segment, saw a few more people out, mostly walkers and an older gentleman on a bike. I always say hello as I see many of them week in and week out, going back years. Pace stayed constant as I considered the Blue Ridge Relay and the following week's decision: the Salem Lake 30k or the River Bound Trail Half Marathon. 20 is on the schedule for that weekend, but I finally decided I would have more fun at the 1/2 and could get the rest of my mileage in some other time that weekend.
Lap 9, get that familiar "twinge" in my right, then my left hamstring, that lasts 2 seconds then disappears for the duration of the run.
Lap 10 - just about halfway, but still going to count up. It's easier for me to keep track and even though I have plenty of time to do the math in my head if I do lose count, I'd rather not put forth the effort.
Lap 12 - time to refill my water bottle again, drink another 1/3rd of my 20oz Gatorade (Lime) and I am still on pace.
Lap 15 - can tell it's going to get a little more difficult as I get closer to finishing. Not looking forward to what's coming. Take another Gu (still vanilla, but a Hammer sample from another race).
Lap 19 - feel a rock in my shoe, slowly get down to the ground to get it out and find nothing. Feels better once I get going, but may have tied my laces a bit too tight. Did not use vaseline as I typically would do on my long runs, and now wonder if that was a mistake. Pace fades a bit with that 30 second break, but am Exactly on my desired pace. Need one more refill of the water bottle as I finish off the Gatorade.
Lap 20 - thighs heavy. Feet want to shuffle along and are getting sore after about 2 hours and 34 minutes on my feet. Decide I am about done. Feet seem more sore than they should be - especially where my "bone bruise" was/is. Stop caring about my intended pace and walk/run the whole lap. 10:30min lap.
Lap 21 - the last one. Body is spent. Shorts have been beyond soaked for hours. Shoes too. Sweat on my body has flakes of dirt intermixed with it. Another walk/run episode and call it quits at 2:55 and 21 laps complete. Sun is trying to peek out from around the clouds. It's always good to finish before the sun really shows itself.
Looking back at the last 2 summers of training logs, "normal" temps for my early morning runs were 66°, 68° and an occasional 70°.  This year - they have ALL been at least 73°. Hope the punishment rewards me somewhere down the line!
After 2-Gu's, a 20oz Gatorade, 60oz of water - I had lost 3 pounds. Think I may have to have some more Ben & Jerry's this afternoon.
3 hours later (after carrying my daughter around the grocery store on our weekely trip), I feel all right. Legs slightly tired, and I am sleepy, but feel like I'll be back on track for my speedwork Tuesday.

Success...sort of.

Went out at 6am Sunday morning for a hopeful 4 hr/24 mile run. I mixed things up a bit and instead of going to Oak Grove Lake (the 0.85 mile loop I repeat forever), I ran out my door. Only a quarter-mile to sidewalks where I ran and out and back 5 miles (originally thought it was 6 each way). Then I did it again. Then I added a 1.5 mile out and back to total 23 miles. I'll cut to the chase and say I did it just under 4 hours, but it sure didn't feel good. No pains though which is excellent. I thought the spot behind my left knee would twinge every now and then, but it never escalated into anything. My quads were the issue - had no energy. I was having to force myself (after 18 miles) to move at a slightly more than a sluggish shuffle even on the flat sections. The soles of my feet were starting to get a little sore, but I expect the trails will be much more gentle on them. Looking back - it had been four weeks since my last "long" run over 13.1 miles, and that was the Chattooga training run. With the Palmetto 200 relay next weekend and only 4 free weekends until the race, taking into account my taper - that leaves only 3 more possible long runs. Right now my plans are for an 18/7, 12/24 and 7/17 (that would be two consecutive days mileage). Those may change. I feel good today though. No lingering affects from yesterday which may be a sign of strength even though I was weak during the run. It certainly did not make me feel like thinking about another ultra - that 3 day a week marathon training program sounds downright easy right now. I feel my speed is disappearing every day and doing Zero speedwork isn't helping, but I am not going to start now. Was going to take tomorrow off, but since I feel up for it, I'll do an easy 4-5, and the same on Wednesday.
P200 update:
Been fiddling with our race spreadsheet and making mental pack plans. I'm anxious to get started. Getting picked up at 6:15am Friday to go meet the rest of the crew and do the obligatory group photo at the start line. Maybe I'll add my pack list in here at some point...

Back to the Long run...

No mention of the switch to Daylight Savings after this sentence. :-)
Moved my Sat. long run to Sunday on account of a late night Friday, so got up at 4:50am this morning for an 18 miler. Will post more (hopefully) on this soon, but let's say it went great! 2:42 - No pains and ran comfortably with the 2nd half a bit faster than the first half. Only saw 2 cars the entire time, and only 1 person until the last 2 miles, so it was just me out there doing loops, watching the slow sunrise and the geese/ducks on the lake.
Hit 36.7 miles this week (my 3rd most ever) but "should" beat that next week, staring with 6.8 tomorrow. If my schedule holds - I will end up with ~41 next week (or ~59 over a 7 day period! eek!)

Another unsatisfying long run.

Sunday morning's run was 18 miles, and again - it wasn't great. I hit my expected splits every mile, had no pain/soreness to deal with, and my last mile was by far my fastest, but it still wasn't great. Legs felt heavy as I began and never had the "spring" in them that I am looking for. Ran hills every other mile, but only thru 12 miles and had no issues with them. The temps were cool - 40 degrees at the start, but it got very windy the last 8 miles or so.
Am I expecting too much? That this should be getting easy ? (at least easier?!). OK - maybe I shouldn't have my hopes that high. I'm starting to think ahead to the 50k...and it seems impossible. Running another 13 miles (a half-marathon?!) after what I had just run? Come on...seriously? I still think this will get easier...it's just got to!
20 miler next weekend. Hope I feel better. My throat started not feeling great last night, plus I am traveling this week to PA, and I woke up this morning with some soreness in my lower left leg. Just a bit of a strain, but why did it wait almost a full day to become sore? I am planning on working out while I'm up in PA, so we'll see how that goes!

lost post. Long run. Chicago.

Wrote for a good 30 minutes solid on my run today and lost it.
(recovered it, here it is:

Last weekend I ran for 3 hrs and 15 minutes on trails. A 30K race the weekend before that that was on the comfortable side. 17.7 the weekend before that. This would be my fourth week in a row at more than 30 miles (assuming I ran 16+ miles today) - my 4 week highest total Ever. I was thinking this 15-16 miler would be relatively easy, I could even get a little bit of a workout by adding some hills into it. With the Chicago Marathon going on today - had a little motivation going as well. Was I overconfident?? You bet!

With the Charlotte Marathon being a somewhat hilly course, I added my hill loop into the first 5 laps and decided that was enough of hills for a while. My pace was fine, but little nagging things made me worry a little bit - and that wasn't enjoyable. My left heel had been bothering me at times the last few days. The 30 minutes on the stationary bike Friday made my knee a little sore in one spot that afternoon. 8 or 9 miles in or so - my left quad has some soreness...that went away mostly. I decided ahead of time that the planned 15 miler wasn't enough, because I missed that one cool down mile earlier this week and I wanted to hit 30, so I was going to add in another mile today. Not knowing exactly how much I was adding (distance wise) for the hill loop, I ended up adding it in one more time on my last lap - my fastest of the day. My pacing was good for the whole run, but it just wasn't that good of a run, you know? Ended up doing 16.8 (May not be exactly right - my mileage for that hill loop may still be off), but I did hit over 30 for the week!

Came home and watched the online coverage of the Chicago Marathon. No World Record as thought possible for the males, but a 10 yr. Event record was broken by 3 seconds! Very exciting. Was glued at the computer for ~2 hours (watched the females finish too - Deena didn't quite stick around, but it was a tight race until the last mile).

Not repeating it right now.
The gist of it: Ran 17+ miles each of the last 3 weekends expecting this 15-16 to be easy. Was never fun, maybe due to adding hills into the first 5 laps. One thing or another nagged on and off - my pace was fine but just not a good, satisfying run.
Still hit over 30 miles for the week - that's 4 in a row. I've Never done that before and my most mileage ever in a 4 week span.
Also - Watched the Chicago Marathon online coverage today - exciting to see the course record set by 3 seconds! Too bad Deena faded the last half - I've always liked her. Maybe I'll be up there next year.

Trails - Long run!

Doing the 30k last weekend on trails made me want more, so I headed out to Paris Mountain this morning for a long run. I was scheduled for 20 miles, but after browsing an old Runner's World magazine, I remembered about running for time, not distance for long runs. This takes into account terrain/hills, etc, so my new goal was to run for 3 hours. After going thru different routes, I finally settled on the following: Starting at the Upper parking lot, I'd run Brissy Ridge to Kanuga, do the North Lake Loop to Pipsissewa and return back on Brissy Ridge (the way I came). Then down Sulphur Springs, taking Mountain Creek to the office/lake, turn around, Mountain Creek back Up Sulphur Springs to the upper parking lot. Nope - not done - then do the North Lake loop again! I have that at about 18.1 miles, so close enough to the 20 I was needing.
Started at about 8am when the park officially opened and headed down Brissy Ridge. It's pretty gentle thru here and a couple of very nice spots to look out over the northeastern side of Greenville. Fog had it mostly covered this early though. The 2 mile long Kanuga trail makes it a little tough in spots, but there are some downhills to keep you moving. The North Lake is just plain nice! Nothing strenuous and the sun started to come out in places - the lake was beautiful!! Only went around to get on Pipsissewa to take me back to Brissy. Only a mile, but seems longer. Got back to my car after the 1st 6 miles in 56 minutes and refilled my water bottle, took my 1st (of 2) Gu. Time to head Down Sulphur Springs. Decided to do this section only once because it would be too dangerous with tired legs - it's steep and fast! 9 minutes to the bottom and then somewhat flat all the way to the office/lake. I have old times for some sections of the mountain - I'll have to look them up.
http://www.sctrails.net/Trails/MAPS/ParisMt%20map.html
Cutting this one short, but will finish the post soon!
(October 7)
I'm back.
The flatter section back to the start of SS was fine, but I knew the test would be once I started climbing back up. Sure enough - I walked. Quite a bit - heart rate increased to what had to have been its max (seemed ridiculously high). I eventually started running at the top and pushed to get back to my car. It was a 2hr 10min run at that point, so I knew I was going to be longer than 3 hrs as I refueled and headed back out to do the North Lake Loop. Still ran out of gas and ran that 6 miles 8 minutes slower than the first time. Still - a 3 hour and 15 minute run for me, my longest training run (and only ran longer in my 3 marathons!). I was beat afterwards, but luckily took no falls. I did leave my water bottle at the upper parking lot though - not sure where else it could have gotten to, but I haven't seen it since. Guess I'll go get a new one at Fleet Feet this week.

Long Run & training update

Good weekend so far. Had a good hike with the 25lbs on my back yesterday. Could definitely feel it in my thighs and we didn't even do much climbing. But today was my long run, planned on 12 miles. Had the alarm set for 4:40am. Wanted to get out there 5:30-5:45ish and be done before the sun came out (usually out around 7:15 or so). Our daughter didn't want to sleep at around 2am, so I was up for awhile walking, rocking, bouncing her back to sleep. It didn't take too well that time as I was up again at 3:15 for another 30-45 minutes doing the same. This one worked at least a few hours as she was sleeping peacefully as I left at 5:30am to go over to Oak Grove. As tired as I was, I am thinking this will be decent training/preparation for the Blue Ridge Relay. I expect we will be sleep deprived and very tired for at least 1, possibly 2 of the running legs.
So - as poor as last week's run was, this was quite nice. Never really felt like I wanted to stop. Heck - even thought I should keep going to see how far I could go. I knew better and stopped at 14 laps, or 12 miles. 1:45. At this pace for this time of year, I can't complain. I am trying to prep for the BRR as well as two half marathons in 3 weeks this fall. I may try to really race the first one, while the 2nd one is a run with my brother. We'll run together - he's just not sure of the pace. Expecting between 8:00 and 9:00. As my PR is at an 8:10 pace and I don't expect to be capable of that, I hope it's closer to 8:30's.
Been reading a few BRR blogs that are nice. One is a group of 6, so we're going to seem completely out of shape newbies compared to them. The other I am still catching up on, so not much to say. Supposedly, we're going to be blogging/tweeting or whatever during the event. I'll post info on it when I know more.
With the BRR 6 weeks away now and my mileage around 25 miles/week (very little, if any, PF foot pain the last few days), I'd like to A. start doing some hills, and B. plan on running twice a day in another 2-3 weeks or so. Maybe my normal 6 miles in the morning, then a 3-4 miler at lunch on the treadmill as there is no way I would get out in August in the middle of the day unless I absolutely had to (and this doesn't qualify!).
Hopefully - more soon!

Sunday morning run

Up early at 5:10am for what I had hoped to be 10 miles. 71° when I started at 6am, and warmed up more once the sun came out at 7am. My run was ok though and I did 10.4 miles, ending with a good hill climb. Looks like I am ready to keep the training on for the October 3rd marathon (Triple Lakes Trail Marathon), so that means I need to start getting out to Paris Mountain State Park to run. I believe some members of my BRR team are going out there weekly, so I'll see if they'll be out there this week. Would be good to actually meet them! This week has three runs, then will add a 4th next week. May mix things up with running at work, at Paris Mtn, Oak Grove (my regular spot) and maybe even 5 days a week. Watching some updates from the Western States 100 online got me itching for an ultra. Only a 50k. Long way from there.
By the way, Mike Pastore (I see him every so often at Oak Grove and local races) from Greer finished his 3rd WS100 in 29 hrs 22 minutes...amazing, but then you see the winner finished around 16 hours. How did That guy train??