Had a little time so went up to the Fleet Feet store to pick up my shirt and number for Saturday's race. It is a hike from the parking lot to the race start, so it's good to get this done ahead of time. Things I will complain about:
1) They just don't give out all the freebies like they used to. Remember the year when they gave us the full-sized bottles of John Frieda shampoo and conditioner? This year it is just the shirt. Bummer.
2) The shirt as displayed in the recent emails was an olive green color that was sort of interesting. They were raving about how it was the best shirt yet. The shirt as delivered is a neon green. I don't care, but it is funny that it was so different from the picture. It is a little longer than previous editions (is that the style now?) and the sleeves are a little longer too, I think.
3) Nothing worth buying in the store. Nothing on sale, and not much merchandise overall even for browsing through. So it goes these days.
4) And this, of course, is the most irritating thing. The disgustingly skinny woman at the registration table asked me if I was a walker. And then, when I did not pick up any pins---because I do not need any more pins for my race number, thank you, I have a huge collection of them already at home and I am trying to be green---she felt the need to tell me, twice, that I should take four pins and pin all four corners of my race number.
I guess I should have asked her if the number went on the front or the back. Geez.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Monday, August 01, 2011
How I do an 18-miler
I managed to eke out an 18-mile "run" yesterday (gotta put "run" in quotes because if you saw me out there you really would say I didn't look like a runner!). Actually, it was 18.15. Woohoo for me. But this is the first time since the fall of 2002 (when I qualified for Boston) that I did a "training run" that was over 18 miles. So I'm pleased.
It's true, I have finished a number of marathons since 2002. But since my aim is simply to finish, I really don't need to go over 15 miles on a training run. You do enough marathons, you get to know that completing one is mostly a mental game. Yes, to finish fast or comfortably, you need to train more appropriately. But if you've done enough of them, and you just want to finish, you hardly need to train at all.
Maybe it is not so surprising that I can get by on minimal mileage. I did manage to qualify for Boston while averaging just 25 miles a week. If I can do that, it's not a stretch to aim to merely finish these races with even less mileage.
The knee injury in 2003 forced me into the operating room and was followed by a determined, somewhat frantic rehabilitation that would enable me to finish Boston under the 6-hour cutoff. My longest runs before that one were back-to-back ten milers on a weekend a month before the race, and a horrible half-marathon two weeks before. But one thing I learned is that I could still finish a marathon off that. It would be painful, but I could finish, and actually feel pretty normal the next day, too.
I'd like to do more, of course. But every year, various roadblocks have popped up in the way of me getting those long runs (for me, that would be over 15 miles) accomplished. In 2004, we added a third dog (Maggie). Then Logan got sick. Dog training and dog care began to take up more of my leisure time. And then I started spending more weekends at dog shows---ironically, the cause of the knee injury, and the recurrent bouts of plantar fasciatis---which meant less time to get the long runs done.
I always had the best intentions, and would map out a traditional training schedule that had me building steadily up to a couple of 20 mile runs, even if I did have to fit them in around the dog shows. But my plans never had any margin for recovery if I had a sudden injury flare-up, or caught a cold that kept me from running for a week or more.
Occasionally, I would use a marathon as a long training run for another marathon. The biggest success I had with that was when I ran the Indianapolis Monumental race in the fall of 2009 and two weeks later, ran Chickamauga Battlefield at just about the same pace, to become a member of the Marathon Maniacs club. Since I once again had only managed to get up to about 15 before the Indy race, I started thinking that, wow, imagine if I trained properly, maybe I could qualify for Boston again.
Alas, when my next race (Delaware) rolled around, I was no better trained than I had been since 2002, and I have not been able to get a solid block of training in since. I did get up to 16 while training for Little Rock last March, just before I slipped on the ice while walking the dogs.
And all of this is to say that it is a rare thing for me to get an 18-miler in when I don't have a number pinned on my chest and a finisher's medal waiting at the other end.
Here is how it went Sunday: I got up at 5:30. Had my coffee, used the bathroom, got dressed. Over my vasoline-coated body, I wore royal blue compression shorts, a bright yellow sportsbra, an ancient and rather discolored performance singlet, a fairly thick pair of ankle socks (because my Nike Pegasus shoes are a little big in the toe box) and my black hat from the Milwaukee marathon.
For my route, I had decided on a series of three loops of approximately six miles each. I would wear my old fanny pack with the 20 oz. water bottle, which is just barely enough for me over six miles in this weather. I would stop home after loops one and two, so I could refill the water bottle and take care of whatever else I might need to do to get myself back out there.
Tommy had kindly agreed to feed and walk the dogs for me today. Maybe this is only fair, since he spent all day yesterday shopping at Camp Perry (it's a gun-nut thing). But I am grateful, because I don't think I could get the 18 done if I had to walk the dogs, too.
Ok, first loop: I am out the door about 6:35. It's overcast and very foggy. This loop is my regular 6 mile run, which covers part of the Flying Pig and Hyde Park Blast courses, albeit mostly in the opposite direction of the race. I am doing this loop first so I can run through the square before the farmers' market opens.
I see a surprising number of other people out running. Or maybe it's not so surprising, since this is Hyde Park. I think about how I probably live in the absolute best spot for a runner in Cincinnati, right alongside a park trail, and with multiple pleasant residential routes just outside my front door.
People are friendlier than I've observed lately, as well. It seems like people have gotten out of the habit of saying hello as they pass by on their runs. So many of them stare straight ahead zombie-like, hypnotized by their iPods. But on this morning run, everybody I pass says hello. Even the woman talking on her phone looks at me and says hello. Maybe people are more alert in the morning? It's been a long time since I've run this early on a Sunday morning.
Have a sip of water every mile, and one GU at mile 3.
I finish the first loop, about 6.25 miles, in 1:07-ish. Tommy is just leaving the house to walk the dogs. I wash my face and change clothes, because I can't stand how sweaty I am. I put on black compression shorts, a green sportsbra, a very old performance singlet (maybe one of the first ones ever manfactured?) and a generic white running hat. I don't change my shoes and socks. I have some Chomps and refill my water bottle and am back out the door around 8 am.
It's still foggy, and that is a good thing. For this loop, I head into the park. I follow a hybrid of my regular 3-mile loop around the park and the Kilgour 5k route. Continue sipping water every mile and have another GU at mile 9. As I exit the park and head toward the square, the fog is lifting and it's heating up. I turn away from the square a few blocks before the farmer's market and head back for home. This loop is about 6.5 miles and it takes me about 1:20. I'm slowing down.
Tommy is home and outside working in the yard. I am not looking forward to going back out for this third loop. The good news is I only have to cover 5.25 miles now to get to 18. I don't bother changing clothes or washing my face this time. I have some more water and Chomps. My left achilles is bothering me a bit, so I do change to the Nike Structures, which have a little more stability.
On this loop, I run (using this term very loosely as I am pretty much crawling at this point) down Erie Ave. towards Madisonville. This is a route I use to go anywhere from 3 to 10 miles. I cross Erie Ave. and run down past Hyde Park Country Club. Then I take a little jog uphill through a pleasant residential area (Broadview) for about a half mile. Then I cross back over Erie for an out-and-back on the Murray Ave. bike trail. Well, that is the plan for today. But as I leave Broadview, I remember that there is no shade on the bike trail. It's heating up and I am not feeling so fabulous. I start out on the bike trail anyway but I'm beginning to think that maybe I'm not really doing myself much good any longer. It's mid-morning and I'm worrying about heat stroke, and suddenly it doesn't seem to make sense to keep running farther away from home.
In retrospect, this was a poor choice for the last loop.
So, instead of going out to my regular turnaround point at Settle Ave., I turn early at Germania and start heading home. It's uphill, but at least there is plenty of shade along Erie. Have one last GU at mile 15. When I get home, I do the last mile on the treadmill. It isn't going to benefit me much physically, but psychologically I know it will help me to be able to tell myself that I did 18.
This little misadventure up and down the hill takes me almost 58 minutes, so I really was crawling. I hop on the treadmill in the nice, cool basement and very slowly bring it up to jogging speed, where I stay for a couple of minutes before hitting the cool down button for a nice slow five minute walk. That's a total of 17 minutes to cover less than a mile.
Final total is 18.15 miles in 3:41:44. When I was finishing up outside, I was thinking about taking an ice bath, but after the cool down in the basement I can't bring myself to climb in the tub for that. I don't stretch, I don't ice. I eat. And I eat some more. I don't accomplish a whole lot the rest of the day, but by evening I am feeling pretty much okay, and this morning I was ready for a 3-miler around the park. But I had to switch to my New Balance 1064s, because both pairs of Nikes are still damp from running in the humidity yesterday!
It's true, I have finished a number of marathons since 2002. But since my aim is simply to finish, I really don't need to go over 15 miles on a training run. You do enough marathons, you get to know that completing one is mostly a mental game. Yes, to finish fast or comfortably, you need to train more appropriately. But if you've done enough of them, and you just want to finish, you hardly need to train at all.
Maybe it is not so surprising that I can get by on minimal mileage. I did manage to qualify for Boston while averaging just 25 miles a week. If I can do that, it's not a stretch to aim to merely finish these races with even less mileage.
The knee injury in 2003 forced me into the operating room and was followed by a determined, somewhat frantic rehabilitation that would enable me to finish Boston under the 6-hour cutoff. My longest runs before that one were back-to-back ten milers on a weekend a month before the race, and a horrible half-marathon two weeks before. But one thing I learned is that I could still finish a marathon off that. It would be painful, but I could finish, and actually feel pretty normal the next day, too.
I'd like to do more, of course. But every year, various roadblocks have popped up in the way of me getting those long runs (for me, that would be over 15 miles) accomplished. In 2004, we added a third dog (Maggie). Then Logan got sick. Dog training and dog care began to take up more of my leisure time. And then I started spending more weekends at dog shows---ironically, the cause of the knee injury, and the recurrent bouts of plantar fasciatis---which meant less time to get the long runs done.
I always had the best intentions, and would map out a traditional training schedule that had me building steadily up to a couple of 20 mile runs, even if I did have to fit them in around the dog shows. But my plans never had any margin for recovery if I had a sudden injury flare-up, or caught a cold that kept me from running for a week or more.
Occasionally, I would use a marathon as a long training run for another marathon. The biggest success I had with that was when I ran the Indianapolis Monumental race in the fall of 2009 and two weeks later, ran Chickamauga Battlefield at just about the same pace, to become a member of the Marathon Maniacs club. Since I once again had only managed to get up to about 15 before the Indy race, I started thinking that, wow, imagine if I trained properly, maybe I could qualify for Boston again.
Alas, when my next race (Delaware) rolled around, I was no better trained than I had been since 2002, and I have not been able to get a solid block of training in since. I did get up to 16 while training for Little Rock last March, just before I slipped on the ice while walking the dogs.
And all of this is to say that it is a rare thing for me to get an 18-miler in when I don't have a number pinned on my chest and a finisher's medal waiting at the other end.
Here is how it went Sunday: I got up at 5:30. Had my coffee, used the bathroom, got dressed. Over my vasoline-coated body, I wore royal blue compression shorts, a bright yellow sportsbra, an ancient and rather discolored performance singlet, a fairly thick pair of ankle socks (because my Nike Pegasus shoes are a little big in the toe box) and my black hat from the Milwaukee marathon.
For my route, I had decided on a series of three loops of approximately six miles each. I would wear my old fanny pack with the 20 oz. water bottle, which is just barely enough for me over six miles in this weather. I would stop home after loops one and two, so I could refill the water bottle and take care of whatever else I might need to do to get myself back out there.
Tommy had kindly agreed to feed and walk the dogs for me today. Maybe this is only fair, since he spent all day yesterday shopping at Camp Perry (it's a gun-nut thing). But I am grateful, because I don't think I could get the 18 done if I had to walk the dogs, too.
Ok, first loop: I am out the door about 6:35. It's overcast and very foggy. This loop is my regular 6 mile run, which covers part of the Flying Pig and Hyde Park Blast courses, albeit mostly in the opposite direction of the race. I am doing this loop first so I can run through the square before the farmers' market opens.
I see a surprising number of other people out running. Or maybe it's not so surprising, since this is Hyde Park. I think about how I probably live in the absolute best spot for a runner in Cincinnati, right alongside a park trail, and with multiple pleasant residential routes just outside my front door.
People are friendlier than I've observed lately, as well. It seems like people have gotten out of the habit of saying hello as they pass by on their runs. So many of them stare straight ahead zombie-like, hypnotized by their iPods. But on this morning run, everybody I pass says hello. Even the woman talking on her phone looks at me and says hello. Maybe people are more alert in the morning? It's been a long time since I've run this early on a Sunday morning.
Have a sip of water every mile, and one GU at mile 3.
I finish the first loop, about 6.25 miles, in 1:07-ish. Tommy is just leaving the house to walk the dogs. I wash my face and change clothes, because I can't stand how sweaty I am. I put on black compression shorts, a green sportsbra, a very old performance singlet (maybe one of the first ones ever manfactured?) and a generic white running hat. I don't change my shoes and socks. I have some Chomps and refill my water bottle and am back out the door around 8 am.
It's still foggy, and that is a good thing. For this loop, I head into the park. I follow a hybrid of my regular 3-mile loop around the park and the Kilgour 5k route. Continue sipping water every mile and have another GU at mile 9. As I exit the park and head toward the square, the fog is lifting and it's heating up. I turn away from the square a few blocks before the farmer's market and head back for home. This loop is about 6.5 miles and it takes me about 1:20. I'm slowing down.
Tommy is home and outside working in the yard. I am not looking forward to going back out for this third loop. The good news is I only have to cover 5.25 miles now to get to 18. I don't bother changing clothes or washing my face this time. I have some more water and Chomps. My left achilles is bothering me a bit, so I do change to the Nike Structures, which have a little more stability.
On this loop, I run (using this term very loosely as I am pretty much crawling at this point) down Erie Ave. towards Madisonville. This is a route I use to go anywhere from 3 to 10 miles. I cross Erie Ave. and run down past Hyde Park Country Club. Then I take a little jog uphill through a pleasant residential area (Broadview) for about a half mile. Then I cross back over Erie for an out-and-back on the Murray Ave. bike trail. Well, that is the plan for today. But as I leave Broadview, I remember that there is no shade on the bike trail. It's heating up and I am not feeling so fabulous. I start out on the bike trail anyway but I'm beginning to think that maybe I'm not really doing myself much good any longer. It's mid-morning and I'm worrying about heat stroke, and suddenly it doesn't seem to make sense to keep running farther away from home.
In retrospect, this was a poor choice for the last loop.
So, instead of going out to my regular turnaround point at Settle Ave., I turn early at Germania and start heading home. It's uphill, but at least there is plenty of shade along Erie. Have one last GU at mile 15. When I get home, I do the last mile on the treadmill. It isn't going to benefit me much physically, but psychologically I know it will help me to be able to tell myself that I did 18.
This little misadventure up and down the hill takes me almost 58 minutes, so I really was crawling. I hop on the treadmill in the nice, cool basement and very slowly bring it up to jogging speed, where I stay for a couple of minutes before hitting the cool down button for a nice slow five minute walk. That's a total of 17 minutes to cover less than a mile.
Final total is 18.15 miles in 3:41:44. When I was finishing up outside, I was thinking about taking an ice bath, but after the cool down in the basement I can't bring myself to climb in the tub for that. I don't stretch, I don't ice. I eat. And I eat some more. I don't accomplish a whole lot the rest of the day, but by evening I am feeling pretty much okay, and this morning I was ready for a 3-miler around the park. But I had to switch to my New Balance 1064s, because both pairs of Nikes are still damp from running in the humidity yesterday!
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