Trails and Travails

Just catching up here Mike. Some great looking training...especially that ridiculous looking hill the other day!
I'm glad to see the hamstring was nothing much.
Enjoy the upcoming easy week.

Mike, great 16M. I love when I don't want to do the run, not feeling great, and then end up nailing it. It's always awesome when that happens.

Seth - Thanks for stopping by. The niggle is definitely a lot better, but it was reminding me during my first few steps today that I forgot to stretch it yesterday... Oops.
Alex - Funny you should mention that...

---

Quickly before the run: swam 30 laps (750 yards) yesterday afternoon in 3 sets of 10. Actually felt like I was gliding really smoothly through the water for about 5 of them. I think I finally found the perfect head position or something, since I normally feel like I'm fighting the water rather than just pushing through it. Anyway, that was enough for me, and after I went to the other pool to join Aileen.

---

I've decided that Wednesdays and Thursdays are my good days. Wednesdays start a little slow, but the fatigue of the weekend wears off within a couple miles and I feel fresh. That carries over to Thursdays. So, I take advantage of it.

Went for an easy 7 today and decided to try a new (not completely new, just haven't done it in a long while) variation on one of my normal out and backs. Mainly because I realized I needed a restroom within the first mile of the run and knew there was a gas station in another mile, but that would require me turning the out-and-back into a loop. But hey, it worked out. And some guy at the gas station asked me if I run a lot (I wanted to ask if 90 miles/week is considered a lot, but I didn't) and asked if I knew what to do for heat stroke. Apparently he got it (one?) Monday and still hadn't recovered. I said rest, water, and electrolytes. Hope I was right.

The first 3.5ish miles were just easy, little/no effort. Barely sub-8s but a net downhill of 150 feet. That put me at the low point, elevation-wise, so I turned the steady slog back uphill into a progression run. First mile (actually 1.14) was at MP effort, which showed in the NGP of 6:44. Second mile (1.01) was at HMP effort, NGP of 6:28. Last mile (.88) was at LT effort, NGP of 6:03. Didn't think I was going THAT hard, but there was a good 75' climb in that section that I powered up, so maybe it was that. Ended with a quarter mile recovery for 7.26 miles total. Feeling great.

Since I've been mentioning NGP a lot lately and I generally start getting the "What is NGP?" question after doing that...
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/running/what-is-normalized-graded-pace.aspx
It's basically the equivalent of power on a bike, but for running.

4 easy this afternoon.

Catching up Mike - love the story of the approaching runner! You are doing great - I'm proud of you for sticking to everything - when I was that age I couldn't stop chasing, well, you know, long enough to focus on much of anything! You are just crazy fast anymore!

John - Without some sort of self-imposed structure, I rapidly start going crazy. As much as I'd have loved to chase tail and drink myself into obliteration in college, I never did. And even when I'm doing the latter now, it doesn't stop me from doing my run the next morning

---

Did the 4 yesterday afternoon, earlier than normal: 4:30. I think it was in the mid-high 80s and decently humid. By West Coast standards, anyway. Wasn't bad, but I can't imagine doing runs in the weather a lot of you are talking about. The first few steps, the back of my left knee was killing me. It's that hamstring niggle that's now moved to whatever the connective tissue is on the outside (still on the back; it's not my ITB). After an embarrassing minute or two shuffling, I was able to get a stride and loosen it up.

After that, drove over the mountains to pick up some fish from a guy - my age or a little older - who's basically got a fish store in his garage. Love meeting people who have that sort of dedication to the hobby. Ah, dreams. By the time I got back home, it was almost 8, and I had the weekly Deaf meet-up about 40 minutes away. So, after close to 3.5 hours of total driving, I arrived at Brea and was extremely grateful for the gentleman that let me borrow his lighter and to Aileen for letting me steal a cigarette. I know, tsk tsk.

---

Same thing happened today with the back of the knee, even though I stretched it (somewhat) thoroughly yesterday. So, more stretching to come today. Again, it went away within a couple minutes and the run went really well. 5 miles @ 8:13 pace, and this was recovery effort. Meaning, none. Love it when that happens.

No double today, since it's my recovery day, but it'll still be busy: more packing, going to the DMV to get my motorcycle permit ( ), and helping Aileen find a laptop. Sheesh, responsibilities.

Easy on the back of that knee, Mike. I wonder if it's an after-effect of your Grand Canyon adventure? That was a lot of downhill you did..

Good luck on laptop hunting. Mac or PeeCee?

Mark - I think it's combination of the following:
1. The Grand Canyon trip.
2. The subsequent addition of (frequent) doubles into my training.
3. Three straight weeks of double longs with one being a 3-hour run, plus 6 more 15+ mile runs in that time frame.
4. Tempos/MP/HMP runs.

Yeah, I'm glad my body warns before it revolts. I'm heeding the warning.

---

Oh, and Class M permit acquired. Woot!

Hope you rest up well and come back with fresh legs!

Kenny B. wrote:Hope you rest up well and come back with fresh legs!

What Kenny says!

I realized on my run today that a "rest week," at this point, is around 60 miles. That's 10 off my peak last marathon cycle and higher than my overall average. Wow. Then again, I'm completely willing to go even lower and make it a huge cutback that doubles as a mini-taper for a 30k I have in 2 weeks.

---

Today's run started a bit later than usual - 9:40 or so - due to a bit of revelry (what's new?) last night... Late dinner, then drinks, then Black Swan with my parents and Aileen. Weird fucking movie, but I really like how it was done. Ended slightly abruptly for me, and I'm not sure if I like how much was left as a "wait, did that REALLY happen?" thing. Aaaaanyway, that led to a pretty lazy morning and thus I got out the door late. Fortunately, the August Gray/Gloom (carryover from May and June, I guess) had just burned off, so it was pretty cool and probably only peaked in the low 80s during my run.

The plan was 2 hours and/or 15-16 miles. I decided to go by time and hit the trails - the loop I did about a month and a half ago. As reference, I did that loop twice in 1:59 for a total of 13.91 miles (8:33 pace). Added another little hill to the loop today, as well as an extra .4 miles in my neighborhood to bookend the run. Overall, time was just seconds over 2:00 and mileage was 14.94 (8:03 pace). 2400' gain/loss on the course, too. And it was a hell of a lot easier than last time. I'll take it.

I've got 3.5 hours on the schedule for tomorrow. If I average 8:00 miles, that'd be a marathon. Considering the course will be flat, like last Sunday's... Hm...

Mike MacLellan wrote:I realized on my run today that a "rest week," at this point, is around 60 miles. That's 10 off my peak last marathon cycle and higher than my overall average. Wow. Then again, I'm completely willing to go even lower and make it a huge cutback that doubles as a mini-taper for a 30k I have in 2 weeks.

I know this feeling well! I averaged 52 last cycle and my step back last week was 54. Weird how that happens when you stay consistent with running nearly every day!

This morning's mantra: one more day, one more day, one more day. C'mon, Mike, get this run in the bag. I am NOT motivated.

The mantra became: Next bridge, next bridge, next bridge... As there are lots along the river path I ran on today. I guess they're technically overpasses. Whatever.

26.26 @ 7:53 average pace. Plus a minute or two for a potty stop. The run itself wasn't anything super pretty, and there was definitely a fair bit of moaning and groaning and "harden the fuck up" moments, but it's in the books. Those of you who have been following from the beginning and just did some quick math will already know that today's run was faster than my first marathon ever.

That's a heckuva run.

Next bridge!

Wow, that's some great long workout Mike. No points lost for moaning and groaning.

Thanks guys. I know I'll eventually reap the benefits from runs like this. For now, they still hurt like a bitch. But hey, I can walk, which is a lot more than I can say about the entire three days following my first marathon.

A little more detail about the run:

As per usual, the story starts with last night. Last night was the birthday party of a guy who frequents the same Deaf events I do. Since his house was much closer to Aileen's than mine and I wanted a flat course for today's run (and where she lives is MUCH cooler than where I live until about noon), I finagled my way into being able to spend the night. Not really much finagling, but I did promise to be DD so she could enjoy the party sufficiently.

I sufficiently enjoyed the rice-cake-with-carmelized-coconut-and-brown-sugar-topping. Like, half the pan of it. It was that fucking good.

Got out the door around 8am this morning. Cool but windless and humid. The excessive quantity of rice cake was taking its revenge on me, but that was easily taken care of thanks to the myriad public parks with bathrooms along the San Gabriel River bike path.

I broke the run into 4 major sections of 6 miles, bookended by a <1 mile jaunt from Aileen's house to the bike path itself. This helped me mentally, as I could concentrate on each section without thinking (too much) about the entire run. Still, within the first few steps of the run, I muttered a, "Oh, fuck you," to my legs, as they were tight and sore - as they should be - from yesterday and the last two weeks.

The first 6 mile interval I averaged an 8:09 pace and HR of 138bpm. Not bad, but I felt like I could step it up a little bit, so I did. Second interval was 7:44 with a HR of 140bpm. Really liked those numbers, and I'm wondering how much the granola bar I shoved in my mouth at mile 8 helped. Since I'd decided to go 6mi south, 12mi north, 6mi south, the end of this segment put me at the entry to the bike path. I was simultaneously "only" and "already" halfway done. I tried to concentrate on the latter.

The next 6 I let myself slow down a bit so as to not blow up. At one point, a female cyclist rode by, smiled at me, and yelled, "Looking strong!" I can't tell if I really looked awful or if she had maybe passed me way earlier and therefore knew I had been on the road for almost two and a half hours. Now, I haven't mentioned the gnats yet, because they didn't get excessively irritating until this segment. I had already wiped off probably about 100 from my face/arms/next/shirt in the previous 12 miles, but they got thick here. Like, swarms every few minutes thick. Ugh. 7:53 average pace with a HR of 143bpm for this part.

The last 6 were kind of like the last 6 of an actual marathon. My feet were smashed to pancakes, my legs were completely shredded, but I was just fresh enough to not be in that robot-trance pain-cave thing. So I was fully conscious of every footstrike. Which probably helped. I noticed that if I pulled my stride back and brought my cadence up, concentrated on running from the hips and having a strong leg lift, I was running in the 7:25-7:45 range. If I stopped concentrating on this, my stride opened, I started to heelstrike more, and my pace dropped to 8:00+. Pretty interesting. My HR also DROPPED when I was concentrating and running faster. The sun came out at the beginning of this interval, and my HR started to drift almost immediately. I was overjoyed to see the last bridge. 7:42 average pace with a HR of 152bpm.

Got back to Aileen's house at 25.72 miles. Walked in the door, tried to look alive and happy about it while saying hi to her family, then pointed at her and told her to come outside. Yes, I dragged my girlfriend outside to run the last half mile of my third marathon ever with me. In her bright pink, fuzzy pajama shorts and one of my old t-shirts. Without shoes.

So, the first marathon-distance training run of this cycle is in the bag. There will likely be quite a few more, and I'm hoping they get easier as time goes on. Either way, overcoming that mental barrier of 26.2 miles/3.5 hours definitely feels good.

I rewarded myself with tons of pancakes and the purchase of an albino Protomelas "Steveni Taiwan" male. And a nap.

Great job on the run, Mike!

Nice work on the extra-extra-long training run, Mike. That will pay off over time... once your body starts talking to you again.

Great job Mike. A solo marathon will help physically and mentally. Congrats.

Mike MacLellan wrote:The mantra became: Next bridge, next bridge, next bridge... As there are lots along the river path I ran on today. I guess they're technically overpasses. Whatever.

26.26 @ 7:53 average pace. Plus a minute or two for a potty stop. The run itself wasn't anything super pretty, and there was definitely a fair bit of moaning and groaning and "harden the fuck up" moments, but it's in the books. Those of you who have been following from the beginning and just did some quick math will already know that today's run was faster than my first marathon ever.

Good God! That was a hell of a solo marathon buddy. I'm sort of speechless (typeless?), but you continue to amaze. That must of been some kind of cake!!! Great job and it must be really rewarding to see things getting easier.

You know, John, I don't think you're that far off about the cake. Rice + sugar + coconut basically boils down to tons of glycogen and topped off fat stores...

---

4 @ 8:28 this morning, 3 @ 8:40 this afternoon. The morning was great; felt really fresh, actually. The afternoon was not.

Way to pound out a double today. I could see why the second one may have been a little rough after the 26er that you put in. Keep up the good work Mike!!

Mmmm. Cake. Yummy energy sources!

Which I must now try to avoid until I can take this %$#@! walking boot off.

Nice job on the double so soon after your marathon-in-training, BTW. Strong!

Great job on that run!! Even a better job from the girlfriend for running a half a mile barefoot. You got yourself a good one!



Really though, you rocked a hard run, mentally and physically. You should be really proud of yourself! I am!

You are tough! Great solo marathon/training run, really I can't imagine but that is awesome. I've almost cried during the last few miles of one or more of my marathons and I think it's all good, if that's what it takes to keep you going.

Cake probably is a good carb loading food, right? I made chocolate cake Friday, accidentally doubled the cocoa powder but it was really good. Too good, didn't last long in our house.