Confidence Building Run

Today was suppose to be a rest day, but I had a migraine yesterday and couldn't run, so I ran today instead.  I can't quit thinking about the hill at mile 23.  My training plan no longer has me running hills, but I know I need to keep running them so today I hit 'em hard!

7 miles with 815 feet of elevation gain!

The Strava Grade Adjusted Pace:

	Ave HR	Elev Change	Actual Pace	Grade Adjusted Pace
Mile 1	125	47 ft	13:08	10:39
Mile 2	143	-38 ft	11:32	10:42
Mile 3	150	18 ft	11:11	10:23
Mile 4	152	128 ft	12:34	9:06
Mile 5	153	127 ft	11:44	9:24
Mile 6	149	-158 ft	10:48	11:10
Mile 7	147	-126 ft	11:01	10:51

After about a half mile walking warmup, I started running.  I only walked one time, just a portion of mile 4. It felt so good to be able to just keep going.  I know it wasn't 26.2 miles, but it felt good to feel strong again!

7 miles in 1:22:02, 11:43 pace.
Ave HR 145
Max HR 162
Calories burned 690

M2T W15

I really can't believe I'm less than 2 weeks away from Marathon #2!  With all the concerns with my Dad's health (he's doing a lot better as of today) I'm afraid training hasn't been as focused as it should have been for the past 6 weeks.  I'm ready to put this one behind me and take some time to just run for the pure love of it again!

This is week 15 of training. After this week, race day will be one week away.

This week you'll really start to feel the effort drop off, as you have three easy, short runs, a tempo run, and two days of rest, and your long run will be just 12 miles. As tough as it may be, resist the temptation to do more--you've done all the hard work of training to get fit. Now's the time to let your body adapt to the training stresses so that you can show up at the starting line strong, energized, and ready to run your best.

Sunday:  Rest Day
Monday: 5 Miles Easy w/5 Strides (pace 9:46)
Tuesday:  5 Miles w/3 Miles @ Tempo
Wednesday:  Rest
Thursday:  5 Miles Easy (pace 9:46)
Friday:  5 Miles Easy (pace 9:46)
Saturday:  12 Miles LSD (pace 10:04-11:04)

Total planned miles:  32

Write It In Pencil

Hammer Nutrition lists the Top 10 - The biggest mistakes endurance athletes make.  Most are related to fueling and hydration, but number 8 is "Sticking with your game plan even when it's not working."  What to do about it:

It's a good practice to have a game plan that includes a fueling protocol that you have refined during training, but you need to be flexible. Evaluate and adjust accordingly as race pace and weather dictate. Have a game plan, but write it in pencil, not in ink.

My plan for today and tomorrow was 5 miles easy today and 15 miles tomorrow.  Unfortunately, my Dad's health has taken a turn for the worse and I'll be driving to Fresno later today, then on to San Francisco tomorrow.  That meant if I was going to run 15 miles, it needed to happen today.  I didn't sleep much, I'm pretty worried about my Dad right now.  I finally gave up tossing and turning and got up at 4:30.

Remember I mentioned it was windy yesterday?  Gusts of about 15 mph.  Here's what this morning looked like:

When I got home ~ in case you can't read it, winds were gusting up to 35 mph.

My game plan changed about 4 or 5 times while I was out.  First I was going to run 15 miles.  Then I thought I'd go for 13.  Then I thought I'd run a minimum of 2 1/2 hours.  I finally downgraded to 2 hours.  It just wasn't working.  Every corner I turned the wind seemed to get worse.  At one point I was pelted by sand and leaves.  Another time I was whacked in the leg by a branch! 

Really, who else was running in this stuff today?  Not.One.Other.Person.  That's right, I didn't see anyone else running while I was out!  I had leaves in my clothes when I got home and this is what my socks looked like.  I ran on sidewalks the entire time, not a trail!

All in all, it wasn't my worst effort, but it certainly wasn't my best.  I just didn't have the emotional strength either, I felt like I was carrying an extra 50 pounds on my shoulders.  50 pounds called "Worry."

9.02 miles in 2:03:11, 13:39 pace.
Ave HR 133
Max HR 154
Calories burned 798

Today's Run = Wind and Hills

Today's run called for 7 miles easy. Someone needed to let Mother Nature know about that!  We're got Santa Ana winds blowing around here.  Gusts of about 15 mph do not make for an easy run.  Since yesterday was a rest day, I decided to push through the wind and add hills to the mix.  After running the  climb that is at mile 23 of my marathon, I know I can't back off hills now.

Here's what Strava had to say:

	Ave HR	Elev   Change	Actual Pace	Grade Adjusted Pace
Mile 1	133	37 ft	12:16	10:12
Mile 2	143	102 ft	12:01	9:28
Mile 3	140	-94 ft	11:07	10:52
Mile 4	149	174 ft	12:44	9:09
Mile 5	141	-48 ft	11:52	11:02
Mile 6	147	2 ft	11:12	10:31
Mile 7	142	-177 ft	11:07	10:46
0.12 mi	139	4 ft	10:49	10:14

I wore my clear lenses today to protect my eyes from blowing debris.  Quite the fashion statement, but they did the job.

7.12 miles in 1:23:41, 11:45 pace.  866 feet elevation gain.

Ave HR 142
Max HR 157
Calories burned 700

M2T W14

This is week 14 of training. After this week, race day will be two weeks away. Your taper officially begins.

You’ll have three easy runs, two days of rest, and a tempo run, which will be shorter, but faster than the tempo work you did a few weeks ago. Your long run will drop back to 15 miles.

Sunday:  Rest Day
Monday: 8 Miles Easy w/8 Strides (pace 9:46)
Tuesday:  8 Miles w/4 Miles @ Tempo
Wednesday:  Rest
Thursday:  7 Miles Easy (pace 9:46)
Friday:  7 Miles Easy (pace 9:46)
Saturday:  15 Miles LSD (pace 10:04-11:04)

Total planned miles:  45

Race for the Cure Report

I ran less than 10 miles this week leading up to the Race for the Cure. Lucky for me it was a 5K and not a marathon!  I didn't have a t-shirt with Mom's picture, so I put one in a name tag and wore it.

This is my favorite picture of Mom.  Pre-cancer, she's holding her three grandchildren.  Ryan was born in January and Krysten and Lauren were born in March of 1987.  I don't know anyone who was happier to be a grandma!

It was a beautiful morning here in Fresno. 58 degrees when I made my way to Fresno State. Lots of pink everywhere. I pulled in at the same time as Caroline and Rob, so we didn't spend anytime looking for each other!

We wandered around a little while, made a few pit stops, then watched the men take off. About 14 minutes later, the winner came back! The volunteer cheer team wasn't even in place when he rounded the corner. At 8:00 the horn went off and it was the ladies turn to run.

The route was a quick out and back on very flat roads. SO different to what I'm use to. Caroline and I talked the entire time!

The volunteers were great! Cheering everyone on and handing out water. We finished in 39:38. This was Caroline's fastest run!

And she had a great guy waiting for her at the finish line. Actually three great guys and one great girl!

My legs felt great the entire time for the first time in over a week!  As much as I didn't want to cut back last week, I'm so glad I did.  I'm feeling a lot better about lining up in Santa Barbara in three weeks! Nothing like a race to fire you up for another race!!

Central Valley Race for the Cure

I'll be running the Susan G. Komen Central Valley Race for the Cure with Caroline on Saturday morning.  It's a 5K, so I'm thinking about running to it from my Dad's house (about 3 miles), running the race, then running home.  My legs are finally feeling better.  They were dead all week.

This is my first Race for the Cure, although I have supported this and many other cancer causes for years.  I'm sitting here wishing I had made a shirt with a picture of my Mom on it, but too late now.  It's been fourteen years this month since we lost her to breast cancer.  I've done my share of crying while out running, and I imagine this will be pretty emotional for me.

If you're in Fresno with nothing to do on Saturday morning, come cheer us on!  And if you can't do that, eat some pink M&Ms for me.

Strava's GAP Feature

There is a really cool feature on Strava called GAP.  

Grade Adjusted Pace estimates an equivalent pace when running on flat land. Because running up hill requires extra effort, the Grade Adjusted Pace will be faster than the actual pace you ran. When running down hill, the Grade Adjusted Pace will be slower than the actual pace. The steeper the grade, the larger the adjustment. Now you can see the effort and compare hilly and flat runs more easily. The calculation of Grade Adjusted Pace was inspired by work done by C.T.M. Davies studying environmental effects on running.

Since all my running  has hills, this is really interesting to me.  Below is a 13 mile training run I did earlier this year.  The elevation chart looks like this:

Lots and lots of hills!  I'm not completely convinced with some of the adjustments.  Mile 5 had 170 feet of climbing, so an adjusted pace of 8:11 from 10:37 might be right.  I don't understand how mile 7 with a loss of 79 feet adjusted downward, although there was some climbing at the beginning of that mile.  Mile 8 had 188 feet of climbing, but I've never run a 6:32 mile, so again I have some doubts!

	Elevation	GAP	Actual Pace
Mile 1	78 ft	9:05	10:36
Mile 2	-68 ft	10:56	11:11
Mile 3	65 ft	8:43	10:07
Mile 4	-90 ft	9:51	9:39
Mile 5	170 ft	8:11	10:37
Mile 6	20 ft	9:07	11:04
Mile 7	-79 ft	8:12	10:19
Mile 8	188 ft	6:32	12:03
Mile 9	-104 ft	8:41	10:29
Mile 10	-160 ft	9:27	9:11
Mile 11	42 ft	11:16	13:25
Mile 12	40 ft	11:19	13:47
Mile 13	-78 ft	12:09	13:01
0.56 mi	-24 ft	10:42	11:46

I guess I just find this very interesting since I do so many hills on any given run!  It might also explain why I'm so tired at the end of 15 or 20 miles.

Sidestep Injuries

The November 2012 edition of Runner's World is packed with lots of good reads.  My favorite so far is "The Life of a Runner" by Amby Burfoot.  Amby has been running for 50 years. That's right, FIFTY years!  I'll be 50 in about 18 months, so running that many years is amazing to me. The article touches on many aspects of running:  "Start.Don't Stop,"  "Train Your Brain,"  "Enjoy the Good, Endure the Bad," "Sidestep Injuries,"  "Sample Alternative Exercises," "Control Your Weight," and "Set High Standards."

After Saturday's poor run, I needed to read what he said about injuries.  20 to 80 percent of runners are injured per year.  There are as many remedies as there are injuries.  Amby says there is only one method almost guaranteed to work:

Stop running.  This has been the hardest lesson I've had to absorb in 50 years, and the one I wish I had learned better many decades ago.  When your feet, ankles, calf muscles, shins, knees, quads, hamstrings, or hips hurt, stop running.  Now.  Not the day after tomorrow, next week, or next month.  Get real.  Take time off immediately.

Stop running!?!?  Is that possible?  The article goes on:

Here's why:  The vast majority of the "20 to 80 percent" of injured runners have soft-tissue problems - that is, sore muscles, strained tendons, joint inflammation, and the like.  These are not broken bones or ACL tears.  You don't need a splint or a surgeon.  You just need to give you body time to repair itself.

He suggests three days off might be sufficient for sore muscles and as much as a week is needed for joint pains...

You know how much fitness you lose in a week?  Nothing.  That's why we taper before races.

And finally:

The one thing that's absolutely, positively known about running injuries is that old injuries lead to future injuries.  The key, then, is to avoid injury the first time around.  Today you might have a tender spot on your shin.  Keep running, and it could become a full-fledged injury that leads to chronic problems or to other counter-balance injuries.  You could spend a lifetime regretting the days when you continued running; you'll never regret the three to seven days of rest.

I really needed this!  I have been running, practically injury free, for about 16 years now.  Many times I have scaled back.   This year has been much tougher because of marathon training.  I've struggled with allowing myself enough rest, trying to get in every training run.  The paragraph about soft-tissue problems makes so much sense to me.  For the past few days I've been hurting, a lot.  Feet, quads, hamstrings, IT band.  I really feel that soft-tissue problems is all I have, so I'm taking a couple days off to do my best to make sure that's how it stays!

M2T W13

I'll have to tweak my plan some this week since I'll be running the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Saturday.

This is week 13 of training. After this week, race day will be just three weeks away. You'll have three easy days of running and two days of rest, plus your last session of Yasso 800s. Your long run will be 22 miles.

This is your final intense push before the taper; do some planning now so you have the energy to give these quality workouts your all. Try to get eight hours of sleep each night.
Try to run early in the morning, before the sun gets above the horizon, so the heat doesn't sap your performance or your resolve. Stay hydrated and well-fueled for each of your runs. Kick start your recovery by having a healthy snack with a 3:1 carbs-to-protein ratio within 30 minutes of finishing your workouts.


Sunday:  Rest Day
Monday: 6 Miles Easy w/6 Strides (pace 9:46)
Tuesday:  Yasso 800s
Wednesday:  Rest
Thursday:  7 Miles Easy (pace 9:46)
Friday:  5 Miles Easy (pace 9:46)
Saturday:  22 Miles LSD (pace 10:04-11:04)

Total planned miles:  50

Today's Run = Blah and Weekly Report

I am just four weeks from my second marathon and I've started to have doubts.  I just haven't felt like my running has been that great.  I spent some time last night rereading my posts from earlier this year and realized I'm not that far off from last time.  I remembered lots of long runs, but had forgotten several that got cut short.  I remembered running fast, but there were a bunch of slow days in the mix, too.

I felt really strong Monday and Tuesday.  The schedule had only one rest day and that was a mistake.  I ran Wednesday and had nothing but a blister! On a brighter note, our weather took a turn for the better this week with much cooler temps.  We even got a little rain on Thursday and Friday.  I've added links to my Strava posts for each run in case you need even more details.

Sunday:  Rest Day
Result:  Rested

Monday: 7 Miles Easy (pace 9:52)
Result:  7.38 miles in 1:23:46, 11:21 pace

Tuesday:  9 Miles w/5 miles at Tempo (pace 9:52)
Result:  7.51 miles in Santa Barbara in 1:27:44, 11:41 pace

Wednesday:  6 Miles Easy (pace 9:52)
Result:  4.98 miles in 1:11:42, 14:23 pace.
My muscles were tight and sore, but the blister on my right foot is what really did me in.

Thursday:  Time Trial
Result:  Rested

Friday:  5 Miles Easy (pace 9:52)
Result:  5.07 miles in 1:02:31, 12:20 pace

Saturday:  15 (but I'm planning 22) Miles LSD (pace 10:04-11:04)
Result:  8.7 miles in 2:10:19, 14:59 pace.
I headed out with great intentions this morning, but I knew something was wrong as soon as I started running.  LEAD.LEGS.  I did a mix of running and walking in the first mile hoping to warm up, but I had nothing.  I kept walking, running, walking, running until about mile 5 when I realized I was walking, hobbling.  I really couldn't put my finger on any specific injury, but I just felt off.  My form completely fell apart and that's when I decided to cut this one short.  I walked the last 3 miles and even that hurt.  I know I wasn't well rested, we went to bed about 2 1/2 hours later than usual.  I think my biggest disappointment with today's run was that the weather was perfect.  53 degrees when I got up. Much better than the past few weeks.

Okay, whine-fest is over.  Tomorrow starts a new week!

Total planned miles: 49
Totals miles:  33.64

10:52 Edit:  I'm reading the latest edition of Runner's World magazine.  There is an article by Editor-at-Large, Amby Burfoot, that I really needed to read.  I'll share more next week, but I love this quote:

Life requires us to make adjustments.
Less is still something.

I struggle mentally when I don't finish all my miles for the day.  I need to learn that less is still something.

Quote of the Day

From Runner's World:

We all have bad days and bad workouts, when running gets ugly, when split times seem slow, when you wonder why you started. It will pass.
~Hal Higdon, author and runner

My split times have really seemed slow lately.  I'm ready for them to pass!

Santa Barbara Reconnaissance Run

Les needed to work in Santa Barbara yesterday and today, so I tagged along.  It's one of my favorite cities, but this trip had a special purpose:  run part of the Santa Barbara Marathon course, including the "most significant hill on the course... a half-mile segment between miles 23 and 24, climbing an elevation of approximately 170 feet."

That significant hill is no joke!  It's 0.71 of a mile that does not let up.  Today I parked at Shoreline Park and ran about two miles before I started up the climb (I ran down it first.)  One month from tomorrow I'll hit that climb at the 23 mile mark.  It's gonna hurt, no doubt!

My run profile for today:

Mile 2 to about mile 5 are the final miles of the marathon.  Just before mile 7, I took a dip in the ocean according to my Garmin - looks like I was sinking fast as it shows me going more than 40 feet below sea level!

My total run was 7.5.  My plan was 9, but I started getting a blister about 1.5 miles from the car and decided to turn around.  This cruise ship was pulling in just as I was driving away.

 

I came home and uploaded my run to Strava.  I was surprised to see that I placed 3rd female overall on the Cooper Rd. Climb - the hill!  I didn't feel fast, but I just kept running, sometimes that the best thing to do! 

W2T W12

My sister and I visited my Dad in the hospital in San Francisco this weekend.  He has a long way to go, but we are starting to see improvement.  He will require surgery in the future, and that could mess with my training, but I know what my priorities are (family first!)  I didn't post last week's miles, they weren't much to write home about!  My plan for this week is to run my 22 miler on Saturday, it's scheduled for the following week but I'm running the Race for the Cure that Saturday and don't want to worry about getting the extra miles in that weekend.

This is week 12 of training. After this week, race day will be one month away.

You'll have three easy runs and a tempo run. Your long run will drop back to 15 miles so that you can recover from the monster mileage that you've done in recent weeks.

This is a good week to check your fitness with a time trial. You’ll get a sense of how much fitness you’ve gained during training and be much better equipped to set realistic race goals.

Sunday:  Rest Day
Monday: 7 Miles Easy (pace 9:52)
Tuesday:  9 Miles w/5 miles at Tempo (pace 9:52)
Wednesday:  6 Miles Easy
Thursday:  Time Trial
Friday:  5 Miles Easy
Saturday:  15 (but I'm planning 22) Miles LSD (pace 10:04-11:04)

Total planned miles: 49

This Morning

We woke to this...
 

And this...

It gives me hope that summer will end eventually!

Training with Les and Strava

About a month ago I received an email advertising the New Year's Race Los Angeles.  There is a 5K and a half marathon.  It's on January 5th and the really cool part is it starts at 9:00 p.m.  Running the streets of LA at night?  Very cool!  Doing it by myself?  No way! 

I forwarded the email to Les and am doing my best to convince him that he can do this.  The guy who logs hundreds of miles on his bike is not a runner, but he is intrigued by this race.  We ran together while we were in Nashville, and we ran again yesterday morning.  My plan was 5 miles, we did about 3 together, then I did another 2.  His longer legs actually make me run a little faster, which is good.

When Les got home, he logged on to Strava and posted his run.  He called it "A Run: Am I really going to run a half-marathon in 3 months?"  This brought many comments from his cycling friends, including this picture:

Les has been using Strava to share his rides with friends for over a year.  After our run, he said there was some really cool analysis for runners, so I decided to sign up.  I was surprised to see I own some CRs (course records) until I saw that some of the segments had only been run by me!  I don't know who created the segments, but thanks!

Some of the data that Strava provides is best 1 mile, 2 miles, 5K, 10K, 10 miles, and half marathon.  It's interesting to see when I was at my fastest!  I've now embedded the Strava Widget on my sidebar, so you can check out any of my runs.  Anyone else ever tried Strava?