From the beginning of this year, I had this week slated as the week to do the longest run of this training cycle. Not only that, I had already chosen where I would do the long run. Of course, this was my favorite River Gorge loop. I thought that, if my training progressed as I hoped, I would be able to do 4-5 laps of the 5.5+ mile loop (it is likely around 5.6, but I'm not entirely sure). So going in to this week, I planned to take it mostly easy, only doing one hill fartlek on Wednesday, taking Friday off, and then seeing where I was on Sunday.
I found out last weekend that there was a race planned on the roads circling the River Gorge: the Get in Gear 5k, 10k, and Half Marathon. I worried that it might interfere with my run, or worse, that my run might somehow interfere with the race (how? I'm not sure). In the end, though, I decided to press ahead with the planned run.
Read on to see how it went.
Monday: 4 miles, 32 minutes (or so) easy.
Tuesday: 5 miles, 39 minutes easy.
Wednesday: 8 miles, 56 minutes. Hill/Fartlek. I added on yet another hill repeat. This was much more of a tempo run than past iterations, as I didn't ease up quite as much on the downhills or on the flats. In the midst of a tough workout, I still managed to set a PR on Ramsey Hill of 1:30. Taking a solid 5 seconds off my previous best was a big boost of confidence.
Thursday: 5.5 miles, 43 minutes easy. I had to restrain myself in order to keep the mileage low. I figured I would need my legs to be as fresh as reasonably possible for Saturday.
Friday: Off.
Saturday: 29 miles, 4:07. 3500' of vertical. The longest training run, and second-longest run, of my life. (See below for full description).
Sunday: Off. Well, I wandered around the Mall of America for a couple hours, but I did zero running. My legs, however, felt (and feel) much better than I anticipated.
Totals: 51.5 miles, almost exactly 7 hours.
As I intended, I did 5 laps of the River Gorge loop (alternating CCW, CW each time). I parked my car on Summit, making it an Aid Station. My goal with this run was to make it as similar as possible to the race situation. The Superior 50k will have 2 aid stations on an out and back course, at 7.5 and 13 miles, approximately, which we will hit twice. By doing 5 loops and stopping at my car to refill my Jurek Endure each lap, I could come close to simulating race conditions (albeit at a slower pace) and test whether the belt would be sufficient for the course.
As it turns out, I did not pack enough water in my car, but as long as I'm at the pointy end of the field (and I intend to be. There, I said it) I anticipate that the aid stations will have ample water for all runners.
Lap 1: 51:55. I took it intentionally very easy on this lap. A secondary goal to just finishing the run was to try and keep even splits if possible, and ideally make the last lap the fastest. I took off about 45 minutes before the start of the 5k, and so completed it shortly after the first race started. While my legs felt ok on this lap, by no means did they feel fully rested, which again was part of the goal.
With the river higher again than it was last week, I did do a bit of trail-searching here, and one small stretch of bushwhacking, but I do not think that added significantly to my overall distance or time for this lap. The one annoyance was my shoelace: the outer casing had broken earlier in the morning, which required me to retie it once on each of the first two laps.
Lap 2: 48:30. After a quick stop at the car to refill water bottles, I turned back the way I had just come for a reverse of the first lap. This one was pretty much a blur. My legs settled in easily to a faster, run-for-the-duration pace, and the lap sped by. I corrected my navigation error from the first lap, and now lahad the route down pat for the rest of the run. This involved me dropping down a series of limestone ledges, which I would have to scramble up the opposite direction for two additional laps. I was rewarded after dropping in, though, with the glimpse of a Pileated Woodpecker that I roused while running by.
At the tail end, after crossing the Lake Street Bridge, I ran into the only other runner I would see all day. I would run into her two more times over the course of the run.
Lap 3: 47:40. Lap three I was fortunate enough to be bolstered on by the Half Marathon and 10k runners heading the opposite direction on each bridge. After overtaking the young female runner I had passed coming back to the car a few minutes before, I hit the Lake Street Bridge, and saw the lead 10k men taking the turn onto Mississippi Boulevard.
On my way across the bridge, I made sure to regularly cheer the runners coming towards me. I actually saw a friend of mine from Colby chasing down the lead women in the 10k. Sadly, I only realized who it was in time to cheer at her back, but that's better than nothing!
In my turn, I got a big mental boost seeing so many other runners working so hard. Bolstered again by the runners on the Ford Parkway bridge, Lap 3 was my fastest of the 5 laps. I felt bad overtaking the same runner again as I closed in on my car for the third "aid station," but I was not going to slow down.
Lap 4: 48:41. Surprising myself, lap four still felt pretty good. I began to feel the mileage somewhere around halfway through this clockwise lap, heading up one of the steeper hills of the lap. I still managed to push it hard up the hill to hit the Lake Street bridge for the fourth time. But I knew there that I was venturing into unknown territory on the next lap.
Lap 5: 50:34. Early in this lap, I got another big boost: students from St Thomas were out cleaning the garbage from the woods in the area. The exchange went something like this.
"How's it goin?"
"Lap 5, mile 23, I'm hurtin."
"You go!" "Usaiiiiiiiiiiin."
I assume he meant Usain Bolt? I don't know that he's ever run 23 miles in a row. I doubt it.
I needed that boost, as I was now in uncharted territory for me on a training run. Surprisingly, though, I felt good for most of my 5th lap, through the marathon or so. On the last straightaway upriver from the Ford bridge. I started to really feel it. I must not have slipped off the pace too badly, though, since I still managed a faster lap than my first.
As I said, this run was a huge confidence boost for me. With the runs back and forth to the car, this may have been close to 30 miles. And I felt good for most of it. Sure, I got tired at the end, but I managed to keep a relatively even pace (approximately 8:30) throughout the run. I matched aid stations to the race as closely as I could, and my nutrition worked out well.
I ran out of water on the last lap, because I did not quite have enough in my car. I anticipate this not being a problem during the race, as I certainly hope the aid stations won't run out of water.
Things are looking good for the race. Training has gone exactly according to plan, and better than I could have hoped.
The only problem now is that I have no excuses.
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