CIM Long Run #1: 8 Miles

WHEW! That was fun, the first long run of this training cycle, and with it, the end of the first week.

It was tough getting out to run today, I had planned to run early this morning but I was just wiped, so I slept in. Planned to run at 7pm, but as things tend to work out, we didn't even get home until 8. After yesterday morning's run, I left my reflective vest on the table, which got moved sometime later unbeknownst to me. Guess what I couldn't find tonight? So I ran with my headlamp and rear red light, but no vest. At least I was flashing, right?

Ran a different route than I'd run before, out by Edgewater in an area I knew had a long, nicely lit, 1.5-mile stretch of road. It's one of those unfinished housing communities that still has the unfinished areas lit as if they were lived in.

Listened to The Mike O'Meara Show until it ended, then switched to Rush (the band, not Limbaugh). Can you tell by the splits when Rush started?


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - General
Duration:	1:14:08
Distance:	8.00 mi

Splits
Mile 1: 9:22
Mile 2: 9:14
Mile 3: 9:23
Mile 4: 9:24
Mile 5: 9:35
Mile 6: 9:21
Mile 7: 9:20
Mile 8: 8:25

8 miles, 1:14:08, 9:16/mi average, 872 calories burned

Final Weekend Before The Marathon!

Saturday was the Run Drugs Out of Town 5k. It's most definitely spring, we started at 9 and it was already 61 degrees.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - Race
Duration:	0:25:52
Distance:	3.08 mi

Splits
Mile 1: 8:19
Mile 2: 8:30
Mile 3: 8:16
.1 Mi: :46 (8:34/mi)

Garmin time was 25:52, official chip time was 25:56. Not a PR (PR would be 25:06), but given how things have gone as of late, I'm pleased. It certainly made me feel good about Sunday.

Then yesterday was my final long run, 8 miles. That one didn't go near as well. I let myself be lazy and not get up with the 6am alarm, with the brilliant thought that I'd run in the late afternoon. Mmm, the seasons are changing, dude, WHAT was I thinking?

I also decided to take the railroad access road/trail, which I've run on before and is a nice dirt surface. That was a mistake as well, over the winter lots of morons took advantage of the water and mud to have a little fun with their dirt bikes, completely pitting & carving out the trail. Since we had a few days of rain last week, all those holes are now deep puddles.

The far side of the trail was worse, not only did it have the holes, and the puddles, but the weeds are now overgrown across the trail to the point where I was more shuffling & jumping over weeds than running.

Then there was the heat. It was 82 degrees when I started, and I felt every bit of it. So my 8-miler wasn't that great a pace. But I got it done.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - Long Run
Duration:	1:46:24
Distance:	8.56 mi

I also need to share with you what I discovered as I went outside to run. Who says kids aren't influenced by parents?



That's a finish chute. At the fence outside of the picture, they have it labeled START. Written on the step is the word FINISH.

Two Weeks

I had one heck of a week, running wise. It actually started last weekend, if you recall just prior to my 20-miler, my allergies flared and I actually deferred it for a day. I was able to run on Sunday instead, but boy, did I pay.

On Monday, once again I was miserable. At least I didn't have to run, but on Tuesday I was still suffering.

Monday's run was intervals, which I did, but of course my heart rate was elevated and my breathing was just terrible.

I had decided to avoid the gym all week to allow for more healing in my legs, where the calf pain was. Thursday was a 6-mile run, but rather quickly, I realized my calves were in tremendous pain. I ended up walking quite a bit just because they hurt so bad.

I made sure to ice my calves when I got back to my office. I also iced that night and used the stick to massage them. On Friday I did more of the same, along with some evening foam rolling.

Saturday I spent the day with my family, so I got a full two days of rest on my legs. That made a big difference today, when I ran 13 miles.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - General
Duration:	2:21:24
Distance:	12.99 mi

Splits
Mile 1: 9:56
Mile 2: 9:52
Mile 3: 10:24
Mile 4: 10:41
Mile 5: 10:29
Mile 6: 10:21
Mile 7: 11:19
Mile 8: 10:41
Mile 9: 11:02
Mile 10: 11:31
Mile 11: 12:01
Mile 12: 12:18
Mile 13: 10:43

13 miles, 2:21:24, 10:52/mi average, 1408 calories burned

Of course, tonight I'm paying the price for the run. My calves are having as much problems as I had last week, so I've been icing off and on this evening. More foam roller use.

The happy news is that Week 1 of the taper is completed. Two weeks until the Avenue of the Giants Marathon. TWO WEEKS!

Sunday Long Run: 21.4 Miles

Wow. It was supposed to rain, but holy cow, man. I think I personally soaked up half the rainfall in California.

This run was originally scheduled for Saturday. My wife had wanted to go to Denio's Farmer's Market in Roseville, so I agreed, but what I hadn't counted on was how cold it was. We didn't last long there, and ended up eating lunch at Brookfield's. I do like that place, especially since they have sweet potato pancakes.

As I ate, my sinus headache got worse and worse, and by the time I got home, I was ready to go to bed. Yet, I was still supposed to run 20 miles, and the Zoo Zoom 10k was scheduled for Sunday!

After much procrastination I finally resigned myself to the fact that I needed rest. I decided to forego the Zoo Zoom, spend the rest of the day around the house, and running the 20 on Sunday instead.

Sunday morning I did feel much better, so at 11am I headed out the door. It wasn't raining at the beginning, in fact the sun kept threatening to come out of the clouds. At the 2 mile mark, I saw a stray dog ahead of me, and I talked to it as I ran. "Hey, buddy, what are you doing out of your yard? Oh, you're going to follow me? Okay." 1/4 mile later, I stopped to check if he had a tag, but all he had was a leash collar. He kept following.

Suddenly a big, white pitbull came running out of a fence, barking like mad! Three people were running after it, shouting at him, "MOTHERF-ER!!!" I'm not sure if that was its name, but it was obvious immediately that it wasn't chasing ME, it was chasing the dog that had been running with me.

I watched as the pitbull chased after this dog, who was doing pretty well getting away, while its owners chased the pitbull. After a few minutes, they were able to catch the animal. It made me wonder though: why would anyone A) keep a dog that's capable of great harm to another animal, much less a person, B) leave their gate open with a dog such as that, and C) not have him tied up, given that their gate was open? The only possible answer I could come up with was "Olivehurst".

Then the rain started.

Now, I can deal with rain, I've run quite a bit in it. I also know from experience that while I do well in rain at first, long distances (10 miles or more) sort of get to me after a while. How could it not? I was prepared, I have a supposedly waterproof ultralight jacket I use for backpacking, and was wearing tights & a longsleeve comperssion shirt. I had the cap of the jacket over my head, with my running hat to hold it in place. I was wearing my Brooks running vest for visibility.

The thing I didn't count on was the fact that the backroads I run on were extremely uneven. Not so uneven that you can't run on them, but uneven to the point where after a short time they became miles and miles of puddles. Not quite a lake, but it was a challenge not to run in an inch of water. The side of the road I normally run on was really more of a water-filled trench, so I had to run towards the center of the road. This road, of course, becoming a highway once outside of town.

Needless to say, I did my share of running, and my share of peeing. I made sure I was hydrated though, I had my 1.5 liter hydration pack, combined with my newly-purchased Ultimate Direction 24-ounce bottle filled with Nuun. I'd almost emptied the Nuun by the 12-mile marker, but my plan was always to go into the Plumas Lake Walgreen's for some water and sustinance. I refilled my bottle, added the Nuun, and ate a protein bar & apple.

I can't say I wasn't tempted to cut the trip short. Had I turned onto Plumas/Arboga Road, I could have been home in 16 miles instead of 20, but I was on a mission. I had to earn my taper!

The wind blew my hat off at Mile 14, and as luck would have it, two or three cars were coming so I had to wait for them to pass before I could retrieve it. Meh.

Then I headed out to the Sleep Train Amphitheater. Running out there is a strange experience, with no concerts going on and with the rain, it's quite deserted. The occasional car doing 85 mph would always tear water up something fierce, which would then blow onto me. Meh.

I also wonder as I run out in places like that what people must think. Hey, there's a guy out here, and what... he's running? What a moron!

What helped was listening to podcasts. By this time I was knee deep in Running Stupid, and when someone's talking about ultramarathons, mile 17 in the rain doesn't seem all that bad!

As I passed the amphitheater, I saw a porta potty and thought wow, I could sure use a break... oh wait, it's behind barbed wire. I wasn't quite prepared to cross it, so I took the next stop behind a stack of hay bales and managed to get my shoes nice and muddy. By the time I got home, my shoes were clean. :)

I couldn't think about my muddy shoes though, because I still had miles to complete. As Running Stupid ended, I attempted to put on some music, only to find that the phone was just acting wacky. It just wouldn't do what I wanted it to do, so I finally gave up and turned it off.

At mile 19, I stopped at the Tower Mart to use the restroom and honestly, buy some sugar in the form of yellow Zingers. I would have preferred raspberry, but they were sold out. Meh.

Then I ran into someone I know. Here's how the conversation went.

"What are you running from?"
"Not from, to. I'm ready to get out of this rain, home will be 20 miles."
"Nonstop?"

Yeah, dude. When was the last time you ran 20 miles in the rain, does it not count if I don't run nonstop? Meh.

As I was into the last mile, the rain decided that it had been too nice to me, so the clouds opened up and suddenly I was in a hurricane. Or at least, it felt like it, the wind was blowing, the rain was now 3x as hard as before, and being back in civilization, there were lots of cars going by. Can I have another meh?

When I finally made it home, the shower was quite welcome. We went to pick up the kids, who had spent the weekend in Fort Bragg with grandma & grampa. For dinner I had a nice rib eye and made no apologies for it.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - General
Duration:	5:02:14
Distance:	21.36 mi

So after my peak week of 37 miles, I can happily report that I'm officially in taper mode! Of course you wouldn't think so, given tomorrow's 6x800m intervals scheduled, but thinking about taper does make me happy. Only three more weeks until the Avenue of the Giants marathon, where I'm not expecting a PR, but should certainly beat last year's 6:21 time.

Easter 10-Mile Long Run

Happy Easter! One of my favorite holidays, primarily because it commemorates the rising of our savior, Jesus Christ, who conquered death itself! Praise the Lord.

And what better way to celebrate Easter than with a long run? 10 miles, and while it was windy, I felt great. My ankle gave a little bit of trouble, but not so bad that I couldn't finish the run.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - General
Duration:	1:46:25
Distance:	9.99 mi

Splits
Mile 1: 9:58
Mile 2: 9:59
Mile 3: 10:58
Mile 4: 10:00
Mile 5: 10:01
Mile 6: 13:21
Mile 7: 9:46
Mile 8: 11:15
Mile 9: 11:17
Mile 10: 9:45

10 miles, 1:46:25, 10:39/mi average, 1076 calories burned

Unfortunately, with this being Easter weekend, there was all sorts of crap to eat, and sure enough, I blew it the whole time. I'm back up to 175, so now I get to crack down and eat properly.

There's only 4 weeks left until the Avenue of the Giants Marathon, and one week until the taper. Next weekend is my 20-mile long run.

Saturday's 18-Mile Long Run

There are races, wonderful races, where everything just comes together for not only the perfect day, but a PR. There are runs that are the same way, you get out there and everything conspires to provide heaven.

This was not one of those days.

No, this was one of those training runs that when you finally get to the goal, look back on and realize that without a doubt, you EARNED your time as you've crossed the finish line.

Only 2 miles in, I found myself walking, thinking of walking the 2 miles back home with my tail between my legs. I kept going.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ...He said to me, "...my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Through the difficulty, there were quite a few positives. I ran on the levees that circle Marysville, and as a result, got to run and see a route I barely even knew existed.



As I ran behind the Bok Kai Temple and Silver Dollar Saloon, I started feeling abit better. Not completely, but enough so that I wasn't ready to stop running any longer. Then I stumbled on a piece of artwork on the levee path.



Meanwhile, I kept going. The view of Marysville from back here was different, seeing the standard landmarks from above and behind. After crossing Simpson Lane, the levee road towards the dump started degrading. Lots of cracks, grass growing through them, and I found myself tripping every hundred feet or so. To my credit, I never once fell, although I thought I would!

At the dump entrance, I crossed Highway 20. As I did, a woman pushed a stroller across the highway coming from the other side. This wasn't exactly the safest thing to be doing, as the dump entrance is where people start accellerating out of town in one direction and decellerating into town!

The levee on the other side was another area I'd never been. Houses on one side, farms on the other, it was blocked so motor vehicles couldn't drive on it. It's a good thing, because there were spots in the road where the ground beneath the asphalt had given way and you could see holes going feet down to the dirt underneath.

Once I reached the Marysville High School baseball park, I was able to cross Highway 20 again on the railroad crossing and meet up at Binney Junction, where I started to feel the hint of restroom need.

Normally this doesn't happen to me 10 miles in, and I thought perhaps the problem was the Gu or Cytomax. I stopped at Mountain Mike's Pizza to use the restroom and while there, had some garlic bread and soda.

When I got back to the last portion of Arboga Road and the infamous Furneaux Road, I came to the realization that I was going to be short for miles. I knew this ahead of time, but for some reason it hadn't sunk in: the Marysville Loop is 8 miles, while the trip to the levee is 4 miles in and 4 miles out, making a total of 16 miles round trip. I was 2 miles short!

I took Furneaux Road, which loops and added a half mile. I also ran into the airport and found out that that barely adds a half mile. With my additions, I managed 17.45 miles, still short of the 18 originally planned. I could have made up the rest, but just didn't have the energy.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - General
Duration:	3:55:09
Distance:	17.45 mi

This is the point where I would normally type out all my splits, but these ones are just too depressing. :P

Meanwhile, next week's supposed to be rainy! I was hoping the rain would be gone. At least next Saturday's long run is a step-back at only 10 miles, hopefully my 20-miler the following Saturday will have as nice weather as this one did.

Oh, and thanks for putting up with my whining. Only two weeks before the taper...

Sunday's 16-Mile Long Run

I just realized I didn't blog Sunday's run!

Since it's been a few days and the mind is getting hazy, I'll be brief. The time changed Sunday morning (spring forward and all), which meant there was extra time in the evening. I took advantage of the situation and started running at 4.

Due to some phone technical difficulties and waiting for not one, but two trains, I was gone a bit longer than I'd hoped.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - Long Run
Duration:	3:12:12
Distance:	16.02 mi

Overall it was a great run. I didn't took it easy and didn't push it, although I was more than a little bit annoyed at the fact that I forgot my gels. I tried out my CamelBak for the first time, and also carried the water bottle I normally do. I've said it many times, if I have it, I'll drink it, and that's what happened: I drank all 70 ounces in the CamelBak as well as half the water bottle.

Next week's run is a step-back at 13 miles, but after that we're onto bigger and better things. We're getting close!

Long Run - 14 miles

This weekend was a rough one, run-wise. Late Friday night, Palm released webOS 1.4 for the Pre, which I downloaded shortly after release at 11:30pm. By the time I was finished playing with the phone I went to bed, but that didn't happen until around 2am. Saturday morning, I just didn't want to get out of bed.

I finally got up at 9am, but I was just exhausted the rest of the day, and didn't feel like running at all. In fact, I ended up taking a 2-hour nap in the afternoon, which helped a bit, but I was still tired. I finally got to bed at 10.

This morning, my plan was to run early enough to still make it to church, but when the alarm went off at 5:30, it was pretty obvious I wasn't going to get out of bed. After much consideration, I finally got up at 7.

It was 34 degrees outside! I reluctantly got into my cold weather gear and headed out the door, only to find the gate was open. I didn't think much of it because I expected the dog to be inside the house, so I closed the gate and started running down the street.

About halfway down, there was Honey Bear, in the middle of the road. She jumped to her feet and started running towards me, so I ran back to the house with her and let everyone know what had happened.

By this time it was almost 8am! I needed 3 hours to make sure there was enough buffer for my 14-miler. Church would start at 11, so there wasn't enough time to actually run.

Over the next hour or so, it became obvious the family was feeling about the same way I was. Gregory was coughing, Joy was stuffy, and I was still feeling tired. We mutually decided to stay home from church, and I sat around the rest of the morning. We watched TV for most of the morning, but spent it as a family.

At 1pm I left for my long run, and the weather was wonderful! The temperature was nice, the sky was clear, and there was a nice breeze. During the course of the run, I ran into all sorts of people taking advantage of the nice weather. One homeless person on a bicycle asked for a cigarette, which I found humorous. Another woman I saw on the trail asked, "So you like jogging?"

When I was almost back at my house, I saw something that I don't think I've ever seen before. Like a dog that runs to chase you as you run by his fenced in yard, a chicken did the same thing, behind a fence, as I ran along. Too cute for words!





Splits
Mile 1: 9:35/mi
Mile 2: 10:01/mi
Mile 3: 10:12/mi
Mile 4: 10:54/mi
Mile 5: 11:03/mi
Mile 6: 10:39/mi
Mile 7: 10:40/mi
Mile 8: 12:23/mi
Mile 9: 15:46/mi
Mile 10: 12:46/mi
Mile 11: 11:17/mi
Mile 12: 11:05/mi
Mile 13: 12:18/mi
Mile 14: 13:04/mi

I walked the last .3 miles back home. 14.3 miles, 2:47:55, 11:46/mi average, 1549 calories burned.

Long Run - 16 Miles

Well, look at that. I totally blew that opportunity. The 1000th post to this blog wasn't a workout report, wasn't a long essay on blogging, and wasn't a run report. Sadly, it was just a collection of tweets, the first of which was just a link to the previous day's tweets!

My apologies.

That said, I had a pretty darn good long run. I was scheduled for 13 miles, but I had a slight dilemma: the Men's Breakfast was at 8:30. Did I want to go there, then run in the afternoon, or should I run there and then run back? Mapping it out online, it was 8 miles one way, making 16 mile round trip. I finally decided to run there and back.

I didn't want two separate tracks created in the Garmin, so I paused the workout and let it stay on until I was going to leave. This would create more problems than the two separate tracks; more on that later.

Along the way, I did a long run video, but tried something different this time around: I stopped at various fast food places along the way, and talked about the typical lunch orders I'd make from those places back before I was eating right. In the final video, I'll edit in the calories those meals consisted of. It's pretty enlightening how a person can become obese.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - General
Duration:	3:02:40
Distance:	15.86 mi

On the way back, rather than run through Marysville between the 5th Street Bridge and the E Street Bridge, I across the old railroad trestle across the Feather River, then around the levees to the E Street Bridge. The trestle itself is a little too rickety to run across regularly (some of those wooden walkways are unstable), but I found running on the levee to be much better than running through Marysville. No stops at lights, no traffic, much smoother! So I'll be using that route from now on.



Splits
Mile 1: 9:48
Mile 2: 9:50
Mile 3: 10:09
Mile 4: 12:09
Mile 5: 11:37
Mile 6: 10:05
Mile 7: 12:31
Mile 8: 9:38
Mile 9: 9:32
Mile 10: 10:39
Mile 11: 12:20
Mile 12: 14:36
Mile 13: 12:23
Mile 14: 13:10
Mile 15: 13:18
Mile 16: 12:59 (.84 mile)

15.84 miles, 3:02:40, 11:32/mi average, 1754 calories burned

I mentioned there was an issue with pausing the Garmin. Typically, when I load my runs into Sporttracks, I do an elevation correction, the calculate a powertrack based on the elevation. After the powertrack is calculated, the calories burned will be corrected, which the Garmin will always miscalculate due to not using heart rate as a variable.

Normally when the recalculation is finished, the calories listed are much lower. It should be somewhere in the range of 100 to 120 calories per mile, so a 16-mile run should be anywhere from 1600 to 1800 calories. After calculation, Sporttracks reported 3300! I don't even burn that many calories in a full marathon.

I started playing around with the settings, looking at different things, but nothing worked until I started splitting up the run. Come to find out, what was happening was Sporttracks was taking into consideration the time (2 hours) between the first half and the second half of the run. So it said ok, he's burning this many calories by not being in motion, and arbitrarily added 1500 calories to account for those 2 hours!

I finally had to start splitting up the run in order to find where the 2 hours of standing still was. After splitting it in half about 6 times, I removed a hundredth of a mile segment, then used a plug-in called Apply Route to merge them back together. 1754 seemed a lot more reasonable than 3200.

Long Run - 12 miles

Another Saturday, another long run down, and with it, week 7 of training. After last Sunday's race and the fabulous week I had, I decided to take it easy and not try to push the pace.

The weather was great, 60 degrees at the start. There were a few clouds in the sky, but for the most part it was all blue. The town came alive with people, everyone realized we should be taking advantage of the beautiful day.

I didn't walk at all during the first half. I gave Orange Gu Roctane a try, but found that it was a little too sweet for my tastes. This is the time to be trying new things like that, right?


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - Long Run
Duration:	2:14:02
Distance:	11.99 mi

Splits
Mile 1: 10:00
Mile 2: 10:04
Mile 3: 10:22
Mile 4: 10:53
Mile 5: 10:53
Mile 6: 10:36
Mile 7: 15:05
Mile 8: 9:39
Mile 9: 11:28
Mile 10: 12:20
Mile 11: 12:58
Mile 12: 9:34

12 miles, 2:14:02, 11:10/mi average, 1278 calories burned

I punched it a little in the last mile. Things are going great, now it's time to make all these runs count.

Ten Mile Long Run

Ten miles! I was scheduled for 12, but seeing as next weekend is the Kaiser Half Marathon, and I'm scheduled for 10 next week, I figured I'd swap the two. I also got Tony Bevis to join me (or did I join him) which was nice. It's always nice to have a running partner, definitely makes the time go by faster.

I started where he usually runs from, making along both levees, heading towards the 5th Street Bridge, across it, then north on the opposite levee. At 5 miles, we doubled back.

I'm sure it's because of the injuries I've had, but I feel totally out of shape. I was exhausted at 5 miles, and while a 1/4-mile walk break helped, I was still hurting. I know there's plenty of gains to be had over the next few months, but I'm not in near the shape I was this time last year.







Splits
Mile 1: 10:26
Mile 2: 10:30
Mile 3: 10:37
Mile 4: 10:27
Mile 5: 14:44
Mile 6: 12:25
Mile 7: 11:04
Mile 8: 12:09
Mile 9: 11:05
Mile 10: 11:02

10 miles, 1:55:58, 11:27/mi, 1043 calories burned

Running Vlog #25: Ave Training Weeks 3-4

Long Run - ~13 miles

This morning's long run was scheduled to be 11 miles. Early in the week, I'd talked to Tony Bevis about meeting up during long runs to have a running partner at least part of the way. With his run requirements and starting point, my distance would have ended up being 14 miles.

The idea was to run to the 5th Street Bridge, meet there, then run to 2 miles beyond the 10th Street Bridge. I told Tony that if I didn't see him when I arrived at the 5th, I'd run on the levee towards his starting point.

I never did see Tony, but I got to run in an area I not only had never run before, but never knew existed. That was kind of neat, and on the way back, didn't see Tony, so I just ran the rest of the way home, making 12.9 miles total.





Splits
Mile 1: 9:50
Mile 2: 9:55
Mile 3: 14:54
Mile 4: 11:02
Mile 5: 12:06
Mile 6: 11:07
Mile 7: 14:03
Mile 8: 15:23
Mile 9: 12:20
Mile 10: 14:53
Mile 11: 16:00
Mile 12: 15:08
.9 mi: 8:47 (9:52/mi)

2:45:34, 12:50/mi average, 1519 calories burned

Ave Training Week 2, Day 6: 9-Mile Long Run

Last week was the first training week (out of 18), but due to running 4 miles with Pastor Rob and the Rivers Get Out group, I didn't make a video. That was ok with me though, we had a great time. I made up for it this week.

Last Saturday was also supposed to be an 8-mile long run, but I only ran the 4. Today was a 9-miler, and honestly, I was dreading it. This is the furthest I've run since the marathon a litle over a month ago. As it turns out, there was no need for dread.

The best way I can explain it is that the run just worked. The weather was great (for running anyway), I felt great. In fact, it felt like some of the runs I had last year prior to hurting my ankle.





Splits
Mile 1: 9:47
Mile 2: 9:54
Mile 3: 9:58
Mile 4: 10:25
Mile 5: 12:14
Mile 6: 10:31
Mile 7: 11:22
Mile 8: 11:45
Mile 9: 10:42

9 miles, 1:36:46, 10:46/mi, 949 calories burned

I did great at the beginning, but once I started walking at 4.5 miles, I just kept walking off and on the rest of the way. It's obvious that I need to work on running without walking.

CIM Training Week 5, Day 7: 20 Miles

Today was the 20-miler that I built into my revised, post-injury training schedule. It's not been an easy road.

There are 18 weeks in the Hal Higdon Intermediate I training program. I timed it to coincide with 18 weeks prior to the California International Marathon, including the taper. Then, 4 weeks into training, I was running a 6-miler when I twisted my ankle slightly and landed on my knees & hands.

At first, I thought my knees were the worst of it. Indeed, my left knee still isn't completely healed and has a nasty scar on it. Later that day, however, I found I was hurt more than I first expected, so I took a week off. For good measure, I had it x-rayed and was told nothing was broken.

Almost a week later I was walking in the yard when I stepped in a hole that was dug by the dog. Within seconds, my ankle swelled up to about 4 times its size. My first thought was, "No! CIM!"

So I started to play the waiting game. I had the ankle x-rayed yet again, and once again the doctor told me it was just a sprain. A major sprain, but a sprain nonetheless. I started reading up on ankle injuries, how to speed healing, how to get better as quickly as possible. Almost everything I read told me to stay off it and wait until it healed.

So that's what I did for the next 6 weeks. I set a date to start running again, but was deathly afraid of re-injury. Then someone recommended KT Tape. I'd heard about it quite a few times, watched some videos, but had never actually tried it, partly because I thought it would be difficult to find. Come to find out, Big 5 had it, so I picked up a roll and taped myself up.

The KT Tape made a HUGE difference, both with running, and with simply living. I thought it wasn't making a difference until I took it off to find the pain was still there. Honestly, if it weren't for the KT Tape, there's no way I could have trained.

7 weeks after injury and 11 weeks after the start of training, I started back with running. Not only did I feel like I couldn't run, but I was basically starting from scratch. My pace was slow, around 12 minutes per mile. Something I didn't expect was the soreness in my legs. My average heart rate was close to 170, when it should have been around 150. Regardless: I was running again!

I drew up a plan to train in the short time I had before CIM. It was strange though, I had 9 weeks to train from scratch where normally it would take 18.

The first week my primary goal was to build up weekly mileage, while maintaining short runs during the week. My intent was to run 5 miles per day for 6 days, but one of those days I was sick. Total mileage for that week was 25, which interestingly enough was the peak for the training I did for the Avenue of the Giants.

The second week was the first real training week, and again I ran 25 miles. This time though, I shifted the mileage from midweek to include a Saturday run and Sunday long run. From here, I progressed week to week, with the weekend long runs building gradually to where I was today at 20 miles.

The original Hal Higdon plan I was following included two 20-milers and stepbacks every 3 weeks. By removing the stepbacks and extra 20-miler, I was able to build the long runs faster.

I was expecting today's 20-miler to go better than it did, based on last week's 18. I quickly found, however, that I was much more fatigued, much more sore, and less interested in the run than I wanted to be. I had a very difficult time getting into that "groove" where you feel you could run forever at that pace. As a result, I did a lot of walking.

Looking back though, the pace didn't matter. I feel confident that CIM will go just fine, and I'll still beat my Avenue of the Giants finishing time of 6:21:30.





Splits
Mile 1: 10:28
Mile 2: 10:46
Mile 3: 11:23
Mile 4: 13:09
Mile 5: 13:52
Mile 6: 13:38
Mile 7: 13:15
Mile 8: 13:00
Mile 9: 13:17
Mile 10: 18:24
Mile 11: 14:03
Mile 12: 14:55
Mile 13: 12:35
Mile 14: 12:59
Mile 15: 15:49
Mile 16: 13:24
Mile 17: 14:23
Mile 18: 12:59
Mile 19: 12:34
Mile 20: 11:13

20 miles, 4:35:06, 13:17/mi average, 2223 calories burned



Thus ends the actual training, and the beginning of the taper! 3 weeks from today is CIM.

Running Vlog #18: CIM Training Week 4

CIM Training Week 4, Day 6: 7 miles, Day 7: 18 miles

I would have posted yesterday's run last night, except I needed to get to bed early in order to run this morning. Saturday was a scheduled 7-miler, and it went PERFECTLY. The plan was to run to the end of Arboga Road, stop by someone's house on the way to help with their computer, and run the rest of the way home. Pace was great, and I felt just as good, running at about a 9-minute mile the whole way.

Unfortunately, mile 5 ended up with skewed stats because I accidentally started the Garmin again while working on the computer. I removed that mile from the exported chart, but it was about 9 minutes as well.


After that run, I was actually a little nervous about this morning's run, afraid I might not finish strong. I slowed way down, originally planning on running about 10 minutes per mile, but in the end it was closer to 11.

I was also afraid I wouldn't be able to get up early enough to run. With serving at church this month, I need to be there for the 9am service. I also needed to build a buffer into my run, and leave enough time to take a shower and change before church. This meant I'd be heading out the door at 3:30.

I actually got up at 2:30am, and started running at 3:37am, which I was quite proud about. I also ate a Gu at the 1-hour & 2-hour marks. At 9 miles, I stopped to pee, and I must say, when you're in the middle of orchards in total darkness, you don't have to find a tree to go behind. That was nice!

I had also wanted to stop at Walgreen's originally, but running so early in the morning, they were closed. Interesting the Plumas Lake Walgreen's doesn't open until 7. Podcasts listened to: 2 episodes of the Adam Carolla Podcast, and 2 episodes of Run, Run Live with Chris Russell. I had a little time left at the end, which I filled with the Pandora Yes channel.





Splits
Mile 1: 10:16
Mile 2: 10:19
Mile 3: 10:32
Mile 4: 10:46
Mile 5: 10:45
Mile 6: 10:53
Mile 7: 10:37
Mile 8: 10:33
Mile 9: 10:36
Mile 10: 13:19
Mile 11: 10:13
Mile 12: 11:41
Mile 13: 10:23
Mile 14: 10:30
Mile 15: 11:05
Mile 16: 10:57
Mile 17: 12:58
Mile 18: 9:34

18 miles, 3:16:04, 10:53/mi average, 1906 calories burned

Most of the times I walked were due to either switching podcasts. I also stopped to use the bathroom midway through. When the last podcast ended at mile 17, that's when I switched to Pandora. Mile 18, I decided to see how hard I could push it for a strong finish. It's nice to know I can push it at the end of a long run!



Final weekly mileages were:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 6 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 7 miles
Sunday: 18 miles
Total: 37 miles

Next week is the last week before the taper. Sunday's long run will be on a similar route, at 20 miles long.

CIM Training Week 3: Day 7

With today's 15-miler, CIM Training Week 3 is complete. I slowed down a lot early on with the hopes that it'd make a difference at the end. I still felt a lot of fatigue, but I think overall it helped.

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 6 miles
Sunday: 15 miles
Total: 32 miles

To start, it was 47 degrees outside. My original intent was to get out the door by 4:30, but I woke up without an alarm at 3am. I foolishly thought I'd wait in bed until time to get up, and ended up falling back asleep. In the end, I left at 5am.





Splits
Mile 1: 10:25
Mile 2: 10:24
Mile 3: 10:39
Mile 4: 11:22
Mile 5: 11:13
Mile 6: 11:08
Mile 7: 11:13
Mile 8: 12:56
Mile 9: 11:07
Mile 10: 12:41
Mile 11: 12:19
Mile 12: 10:37
Mile 13: 10:27
Mile 14: 11:26
Mile 15: 12:37

15 miles, 2:50:52, 11:24/mi average, 1616 calories burned

CIM Training Week 2, Day 7: 11.1 miles

Ow. Owie, ow, ow, OW! OUCH! I'm sore!

I expected to be sore, I just needed a chance to whine. Tomorrow's rest day though, and my quads & calves will be thanking me profusely, I'm sure.

The plan was for 12 miles today, but somehow I took a wrong turn and it ended up being a whole lot less. In fact, I had to backtrack a bit just to make it 11, if I'd gone straight home it would have been more like 10.5.

I ran around the airport this time around instead of taking the railroad track shortcut in order to avoid running on the railroad ties. Mile 2 was long because of stopping to take pictures of that jerk Furneaux Road. May my record of its existence put it in its place!

Around 2.5 miles, a loose dog ran with me for a while. I'm not sure what he was trying to do, but I talked to him for a bit. At 3.5, a little kid was in his yard, behind a chain link fence. As I ran by, he said, "Did you know I can run fast?!?!" I said, "No I didn't." He said, "Watch!" and ran across the yard. "Wow, you ARE fast!" I responded. Cute!

I felt really good the first 5 or 6 miles. After that, my calves started screaming at me, but I pushed on. I realized the wrong turn when I could actually see my housing development from the run, only about 3 miles away. At that point I knew it wouldn't finish at 12 miles, so I kept going past my house to complete the last mile.





Splits
Mile 1: 10:25
Mile 2: 13:31
Mile 3: 10:27
Mile 4: 10:52
Mile 5: 11:01
Mile 6: 12:55
Mile 7: 11:16
Mile 8: 10:49
Mile 9: 11:16
Mile 10: 11:08
Mile 11: 11:32
0.12 mi: 1:11 (11:22/mi)

11.12 miles, 2:06:29, 11:22/mi, 1244 calories burned

Then this evening, I was getting out of the car, stepped down and my ankle rolled to the side. My first thought was, "Oh no!" Then I realized I wasn't in pain.



No ankle pain is a very good thing! The blue you see is KT Tape.

Running Vlog #15: CIM Training Week 1.5