so the thing about trail races with serious elevation changes is... no, there are two things.
one is that running uphill, sometimes, is actually worse for your time than power walking. the other one is that if you have run uphill, you gotta run down, which means those "screaming" descents mentioned in a previous post about this race series.
both of these things were very relevant to today's race. the ups were -- ok, they were patently crazy. there is this one big hill, just a damn dirt cliff, that the trail went up and then immediately down THREE times. like the race director had gotten a trail stutter. and in the last 4k, there was a ton of short very steep ups and downs. and by the time we got there (well, when i did) the rain had started and the downhills were sliiiick. twice i literally had to grab onto a tree and spin around to a stop, or i would have mudslid to a twisted ankle (at least). (if those first three cliffs had been similarly muddy, i think they would have had to stop the race. it had no trees.)
and the thing about the power walking is that after having to choose this route for those early cliffs (they were around 4 to 6k, and the whole thing was 13.5)... it was really hard to get my head back into the game for running up other hills. i did more of it than many other people in my cohort, but it was still definitely more walking than two years ago on this course. ... is that good? i feel like i barely worked right now, but maybe tomorrow my legs will fall off?
results will be up ina couple days, but i think it must have taken me more than an hour and a half, maybe 1:40 or 1:45, which should tell you a lot about the mud and the hills. it was damn hard, but i am fairly pleased with my perseverance. less with my downhill running, which is pretty pathetic -- i run up those hills beating much stronger men, and then we get to the top of a cliff and they somehow pound/fly past me down it!
k, so. back soon with more training thoughts.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
tomorrow!
i am running a race.
turns out it starts at 10am not 9am. excellent.
turns out it's 13k not 12. whatever.
turns out it's not going to be too hot. excellent.
turns out it's probably gonna rain. whatever.
i looked over the course again, and it's definitely going to kick my ass. the hills, the hills the hills. and of course i've been sleeping pretty minimally the last three nights, after getting back into town for a random heatwave and being out of practice at sleep without AC.
well, i've got willpower on my side. and this time i don't have incipient strep throat (see: april race.)
so, i have eaten pasta. i have given up on working anymore tonight. i am going to pick out all the possible relevant clothes, assemble food and equipment, write down the directions and set my alarm for an unpleasant time (the course is 100k from here.)
onwards. upwards. racewards. woo! report to follow.
turns out it starts at 10am not 9am. excellent.
turns out it's 13k not 12. whatever.
turns out it's not going to be too hot. excellent.
turns out it's probably gonna rain. whatever.
i looked over the course again, and it's definitely going to kick my ass. the hills, the hills the hills. and of course i've been sleeping pretty minimally the last three nights, after getting back into town for a random heatwave and being out of practice at sleep without AC.
well, i've got willpower on my side. and this time i don't have incipient strep throat (see: april race.)
so, i have eaten pasta. i have given up on working anymore tonight. i am going to pick out all the possible relevant clothes, assemble food and equipment, write down the directions and set my alarm for an unpleasant time (the course is 100k from here.)
onwards. upwards. racewards. woo! report to follow.
Monday, July 7, 2014
in which the runner makes a small announcement
are you ready for this?
i have decided to run another marathon.
... yeah, did you see that coming?
i decided this in the shower today. wait i didn't take a shower today. i think i decided... while deciding not to take a shower, actually. (this is not as bad as it sounds. i went swimming today, which makes showering complicated... i'll do it before i go to bed, i promise. the gentleman in my household is very understanding. ok, this is getting us off track.)
in case you missed it (HOW COULD YOU) i ran my first marathon in october 2013. it was pretty rad.
then -- i wasn't into racing for a while. i did other stuff. i did run, but i also did other exercises and things and maybe sometimes didn't even run (although rather seldomly). anyway, i wasn't into racing in particular for a few months, and then on and off for a few months after that, and all of it was cool.
but in the last month or six weeks, running is back to being my number one favourite way to endorphinize. i ran half marathons in late april and early june and though they were each rather hard in their own ways (the archive will tell you) i'm still pretty happy i ran both of them. (ok, no, wrong. i'm NOT happy i ran the first one, because i was sick and actually way sicker than i thought and it was probably partly responsible for all the illness i suffered in may. the actual point is that i'm pretty proud of how i *managed* that race mentally, despite my suffering, even though i know now it was dumbass stupid and i hope i learn not to do that again.)
and anyway: since then i've been reading running blogs again, and thinking more about runs and signing up for races (one in july, one in october; not yet signed up for the one in september i can't decide on a distance for...). i am going to baltimore for like 3 days in august to visit a friend, and i almost signed up for a 12 miler while i'm there until i thought through the look of (justified) bafflement i was going to get from said friend.
and it's worse. are you ready for this confession? i'm not just reading marathoner blogs. i'm reading ULTRAmarathoner blogs. ok, this is just sick. WHO DOES THAT. i've only run more than 20 miles ONCE and it was kind of a thing. so, no no no no no.
i try to remember what i felt like at mile 22? i was really hot and i had just run off an island and i had just seen a pace group pass me and i was pretty angry at the universe. there were a bunch of people cheering but they seemed to me very stupid people, cheering very stupidly. and i still had 4 miles to go. doesn't that seem like something to avoid?
and yet.
i've decided to run another marathon.
next step: which one?
for personal, meterological and logistical reasons, i think it will have to be late april or early may. it will have to be in north america, because i won't have too much time for the traveling and jet lag is not kind to the digestive system. and probably it should be in the western half of the continent, but not somewhere too hot because i will be completely out of practice at heat from training on the tundra.
this still leaves me with several options: BC, washington state, oregon (which is insanely full of runners)... is there an alaska marathon? OK FOCUS.
the point is.
i'm gonna do it again.
... ok, back to real life. i'll be back here soon to talk myself out of it, or something.
(small voice: i bet not.)
i have decided to run another marathon.
... yeah, did you see that coming?
i decided this in the shower today. wait i didn't take a shower today. i think i decided... while deciding not to take a shower, actually. (this is not as bad as it sounds. i went swimming today, which makes showering complicated... i'll do it before i go to bed, i promise. the gentleman in my household is very understanding. ok, this is getting us off track.)
in case you missed it (HOW COULD YOU) i ran my first marathon in october 2013. it was pretty rad.
then -- i wasn't into racing for a while. i did other stuff. i did run, but i also did other exercises and things and maybe sometimes didn't even run (although rather seldomly). anyway, i wasn't into racing in particular for a few months, and then on and off for a few months after that, and all of it was cool.
but in the last month or six weeks, running is back to being my number one favourite way to endorphinize. i ran half marathons in late april and early june and though they were each rather hard in their own ways (the archive will tell you) i'm still pretty happy i ran both of them. (ok, no, wrong. i'm NOT happy i ran the first one, because i was sick and actually way sicker than i thought and it was probably partly responsible for all the illness i suffered in may. the actual point is that i'm pretty proud of how i *managed* that race mentally, despite my suffering, even though i know now it was dumbass stupid and i hope i learn not to do that again.)
and anyway: since then i've been reading running blogs again, and thinking more about runs and signing up for races (one in july, one in october; not yet signed up for the one in september i can't decide on a distance for...). i am going to baltimore for like 3 days in august to visit a friend, and i almost signed up for a 12 miler while i'm there until i thought through the look of (justified) bafflement i was going to get from said friend.
and it's worse. are you ready for this confession? i'm not just reading marathoner blogs. i'm reading ULTRAmarathoner blogs. ok, this is just sick. WHO DOES THAT. i've only run more than 20 miles ONCE and it was kind of a thing. so, no no no no no.
i try to remember what i felt like at mile 22? i was really hot and i had just run off an island and i had just seen a pace group pass me and i was pretty angry at the universe. there were a bunch of people cheering but they seemed to me very stupid people, cheering very stupidly. and i still had 4 miles to go. doesn't that seem like something to avoid?
and yet.
i've decided to run another marathon.
next step: which one?
for personal, meterological and logistical reasons, i think it will have to be late april or early may. it will have to be in north america, because i won't have too much time for the traveling and jet lag is not kind to the digestive system. and probably it should be in the western half of the continent, but not somewhere too hot because i will be completely out of practice at heat from training on the tundra.
this still leaves me with several options: BC, washington state, oregon (which is insanely full of runners)... is there an alaska marathon? OK FOCUS.
the point is.
i'm gonna do it again.
... ok, back to real life. i'll be back here soon to talk myself out of it, or something.
(small voice: i bet not.)
in which the runner gets cocky
remember how i was supposed to do something short and sweet/hard like hill repeats yesterday?
yeah, well. i didn't. i ran 10k. ... i got ready to go and realized i wanted to spend an hour running. after running an hour and a half two days earlier, the fact that my legs were up for it was nice. so, i went for it.
remember how i thought i was getting smart about timing and speed?
yeah, well. once i'd decided to run for an hour, i thought i should be running easier than i have been. 9 minutes miles was the idea, maybe 8:50 since i've been feeling speedy. and i had my garmin on to keep track of pace... but, no. i ran the warm up mile at 8:50 but then the next two closer to 8:30. so then at mile 3 i was like ugh, what do you mean run 3 more? sweat, humid, gasp, ick.
in actual fact i pulled it together kind of impressively, i think: i ran 6.2 miles in 55:30, so that's about 8:50/mile average. but clearly not a negative split. and not smart! (i also realized, for the first time in 8 years of being in this area, that the route i took which is basically to campus and back, is net downhill on the way and net uphill on the way home. nice work.)
anyway, i felt great afterwards. but i really don't like feel like a rookie idiot at mile 3. careful, woman!
meanwhile, today it was hot and sunny and i swam a kilometre in the lovely outdoor pool. hamstrings just a little sore, but mostly great.
two upshots:
1. i guess i'm still up to a little bit of mileage, which is good since i'm running that 12k trail race in less than two weeks.
2. lately all i want to do is run mid-distances, slightly fast. this is a cool development in that that's not usually been a skill of mine, BUT it cannot pay to run these exclusively. wednesday: WILL DO REPEATS.
ok, and i have one more upshot, but it goes in a different post. in a minute.
yeah, well. i didn't. i ran 10k. ... i got ready to go and realized i wanted to spend an hour running. after running an hour and a half two days earlier, the fact that my legs were up for it was nice. so, i went for it.
remember how i thought i was getting smart about timing and speed?
yeah, well. once i'd decided to run for an hour, i thought i should be running easier than i have been. 9 minutes miles was the idea, maybe 8:50 since i've been feeling speedy. and i had my garmin on to keep track of pace... but, no. i ran the warm up mile at 8:50 but then the next two closer to 8:30. so then at mile 3 i was like ugh, what do you mean run 3 more? sweat, humid, gasp, ick.
in actual fact i pulled it together kind of impressively, i think: i ran 6.2 miles in 55:30, so that's about 8:50/mile average. but clearly not a negative split. and not smart! (i also realized, for the first time in 8 years of being in this area, that the route i took which is basically to campus and back, is net downhill on the way and net uphill on the way home. nice work.)
anyway, i felt great afterwards. but i really don't like feel like a rookie idiot at mile 3. careful, woman!
meanwhile, today it was hot and sunny and i swam a kilometre in the lovely outdoor pool. hamstrings just a little sore, but mostly great.
two upshots:
1. i guess i'm still up to a little bit of mileage, which is good since i'm running that 12k trail race in less than two weeks.
2. lately all i want to do is run mid-distances, slightly fast. this is a cool development in that that's not usually been a skill of mine, BUT it cannot pay to run these exclusively. wednesday: WILL DO REPEATS.
ok, and i have one more upshot, but it goes in a different post. in a minute.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
just a little long run
you may recall i've been doing some actual 'tempo' runs lately -- you know, with some speed in them?
and so last night i thought i should go for a longer slower run.
i didn't really think it through, and then next thing i knew had zoned out, and i'd been running 45 minutes away from home. which, you will realize, meant i had to run at least another 45 back.
in the end, i ran for about 95 minutes, and google maps suggests i ran about 9.5 miles. considering there was a fair bit of stopping for lights, and a couple minutes dedicated to texting home about how my 'maybe an hour' run was going to take a lot longer but don't worry about me dying in a ditch, i figure this was maybe around a 9:45, 9:50 pace -- and it was all very easy and comfortable, and there were distinct hills (a few anyway) and i feel good about this.
today the plan is to cross train, and run again (maybe do some hill repeats, grakr!) tomorrow. however, it is gorgeous out today -- the coolest it's been in months. i'm pretty sure my legs are saying DO NOT RUN so i won't, but i note that i'm totally jealous of everyone who is running this evening, and that makes me feel like a runner, again, which i love.
and so last night i thought i should go for a longer slower run.
i didn't really think it through, and then next thing i knew had zoned out, and i'd been running 45 minutes away from home. which, you will realize, meant i had to run at least another 45 back.
in the end, i ran for about 95 minutes, and google maps suggests i ran about 9.5 miles. considering there was a fair bit of stopping for lights, and a couple minutes dedicated to texting home about how my 'maybe an hour' run was going to take a lot longer but don't worry about me dying in a ditch, i figure this was maybe around a 9:45, 9:50 pace -- and it was all very easy and comfortable, and there were distinct hills (a few anyway) and i feel good about this.
today the plan is to cross train, and run again (maybe do some hill repeats, grakr!) tomorrow. however, it is gorgeous out today -- the coolest it's been in months. i'm pretty sure my legs are saying DO NOT RUN so i won't, but i note that i'm totally jealous of everyone who is running this evening, and that makes me feel like a runner, again, which i love.
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