Week Ending 3/9/2014

Any of you who read my post last week will know that I was feeling a little down on myself, not getting the mileage I had wanted to, not getting a long run in, and in fact not running at all on the weekend. I was feeling discouraged particularly because I did not feel as though I had been pushing the mileage all that much overall in the past couple months, and yet I was still not progressing the way I had hoped or had expected based on past experiences.

There are likely several underlying causes for this, for lack of a better word, malaise. First and foremost, I moved to a new place in December. While moving can be a great inspiration, it is also mentally and physically exhausting. That move triggered two other differences that I believe are making more difficult for me to increase mileage. It's been a rough winter for everybody here in Minnesota. By many counts it's been the coldest winter in over a decade. By some other counts it's been the coldest winter since records have been kept. It is a constant mental game to get yourself out and running in this sort of winter: the daily grind of psyching yourself up for the cold each run is wearing on anybody. Thoughts creep in: "I don't want to layer up again\" or "I just don't want to be cold today."

Because, if you're dressing correctly for a run in below-zero temperatures, there is no way to avoid being cold for the first several minutes. If you're not cold then, you will be overheating later, which leads to sweating, which in turn leads to, you guessed it, being even colder later on in the run.  That initial shock of getting out the door and breathing that first breath of frigid air is a mental challenge each and every day. I count getting out the door a victory many days.

The second underlying cause is that, while there are a large number of trails in the Twin Cities area, there are very few that I can reach from my doorstep. To somebody coming from Boulder, where trails lead up into the mountains a mile from my office door, this is a major adjustment. I either have to drive to a trailhead, which I avoid doing, or run a fair amount on roads, which I prefer to avoid doing. Because of this I have done the majority of my training on the roads for the first time in 5 years.

This takes adjustment.

But after this past week, I am more confident that I am adjusting to the new situation. I am also confident that my body is adjusting to the demands I'm placing on it.

The fact that spring is finally breaking the grip of winter, with actual puddles on the roads and sidewalks, helps more than I can say.

Weekly Summary:

Monday: 3 miles, 24 minutes. Easing back into it after the two days off.

Tuesday: 6 miles, 50 minutes, easy on trails. Decided that I should drive down to the River Gorge, my go-to trail, to get some quality off-road miles in. Much needed nature (ish) break.

Wednesday: 7 miles, 54 minutes. 1.5 mile warm up, 4 miles of Fartlek No idea how many up-tempo sessions, or how long/far they were. By the last interval, though, I was grimacing, so the effort level was high.

Thursday: Off. Decided to go to the Science Museum in St Paul in the afternoon rather than run. Excellent choice.

Friday: 4 miles, 34 minutes. Slipped a quick run in after a trip to the Waterpark of America in the early afternoon. I need to visit the pool more often now that I have a fitness club membership. I think it helps my muscles loosen up.

Saturday: 13.5 miles, 1:50. Took two laps of the River Gorge loop, first in 0:48:30, second in 0:47:30, plus an extra 14 minute add on. There was some other training group out there doing a long run on the bike path either side of the river. It was good to see so many out enjoying the weather, which that morning ranged from 15 degrees to 30 in the course of my run. All in all, for pushing myself a good three miles farther than I had so far this year, I felt strong.

Sunday: 4 miles, 34 minutes. One of my goals for this year is to always run the day after my long run for the week. I would like to get to the point where I'm running more on the two days of the weekend than I will be in the 50k in May. Ideally I will hit this mark the last weekend in April, to give myself ample time to sharpen and recover before the race.

I finally feel on track again. I got one quality workout in, and one long workout in, and while my legs were tired at the end of the week, I was able to take Monday off and run Tuesday and Wednesday of this week (with a progression run on Wednesday). Hopefully this pattern continues and I can run long this weekend as well.

There is one more ingredient to my recovery that I believe was critical: I left my watch at home for all but the long run, and only looked at it then to keep aware of what time it was. I have always found that I tend to run best when I run by feel rather than by a clock. With a watch, I inevitably find myself checking it more often than I probably should, comparing myself against other runs and, far too often, pushing myself to keep up with where I think I should be running.

Sometimes that's a great thing, but most of my runs are easy or recovery runs, when pushing yourself is highly counterproductive. Without the watch, I let go of my drive to compete against myself and actually give myself a chance to recover.

For some time I was considering replacing my GPS watch, but with that added information, I find I check myself yet more often, leading to yet more difficulties. Instead, if I really feel the need to keep track of my progress, I will use my phone, which is harder to access on the run. In the meantime, I will run by feel.

After all, I did beat my personal best half time without a watch.

Week Ending 3/2/2014

This week has been tough. I had high hopes for increasing mileage and a little intensity, but a combination of factors led to that not being the case. In the end, I only managed to run four days for a total of 22 miles.

The week started out cold, and only got colder from there. I will admit, even as a northern Minnesota boy, born and raised, this winter is beginning to get me down. It's the second-coldest winter I can remember, with snow to go with the temperatures, and I am getting tired of psyching myself up each day to get outside and run on icy sidewalks in the single digits above and below zero. On that horizon, there's hope: the weather forecast calls for rising temperatures this next week, although it still won't get up to the average (35 or so degree) temperatures for this time of year.

I had intended a long run today, on the order of 13 miles today, which would have pushed me to 35 for the week, but on Saturday I woke up with a cold, and legs that did not really feel recovered from my hill repeats on Wednesday. So opted to take the day off.

Today's day off was less planned, but I think it will ultimately be good for me. I wonder if I did not give myself enough recovery from the Frozen River Run, and my legs had not yet caught up. Either way, I had planned all day to go for a run once it got a little warmer out (something I am also tired of doing. I prefer to run an hour or two after breakfast).

Again, this did not happen. I still feel a bit sick, and I am not particularly psyched to run in single degree, not digit, but degree, weather. And again, my legs feel tired.

This last has me worried, because I can never remember it being this difficult to build up my mileage. But looking back at my running logs for the past several years, I have always had low weeks, and buildup periods, and illnesses. And I tend to bounce back well from them. Last year, this happened in the two months prior to my 50k, and I ended up with no real long runs prior to the race. I think that ultimately is what made the race so difficult for me.

So I am taking two things out of this week. First, I need to let myself rest and not get discouraged when I have a few days off. My run on the river two weeks ago was phenomenal. And I got three hours on my feet out of the deal, which is a solid long run even if the distance was not extreme. That is money in the bank.

Second, I need to focus on the long run. Not only will that help my overall fitness and accumulating mileage, it will help me gain confidence for the longer races. So I will try for two "focus" workouts each week, one speed or hill and one long, and the other five days will be doing my best to take care of my legs. Whether this requires taking days off, easy, or cross training (I splurged on a pass to a local fitness center), I will take care of my legs.

Finally, and I know I said I was taking two things out of the week so forgive me, I am going to take an OCD break. What I mean by that is this: running distances takes a certain amount of obsession. You need to be focused and get out the door every day (except your rest days!). You need to have a plan and try to stick to it. You need to be a bit obsessed by mileage.

But taking it too far is never a good idea. And when your body says take a break, you take a break. So that's what I did.

Week Ending 2/23/2014

This week saw an intentional reduction in mileage after three weeks of increased mileage and intensity.

Monday: Off due to cold.

Tuesday: 5 miles, 40 minutes easy down Summit.

Wednesday: 6 miles, 46 minutes, easy down Summit.

Thursday: 6 miles, 42 minutes. Easy out, tempo back on Summit. Snowy, windy, and slushy.

Friday: 3 miles. Easy as it could be in the cold snap after the snow.

Saturday: 3 miles of walking, to and from the Red Bull Crashed Ice event.

Sunday: 6 miles, 750 feet, 56 minutes. A much needed trail run in the River Gorge.

There's not too much to say about this week. It was a bit of a week off, so I stuck to the basics. The tempo on Thursday was unplanned. I just love running fast when snow is falling.

I was, however, feeling flat all week. I was understandably tired from the run on Saturday/Sunday, which closed in on a race effort, and needed a break. Despite this, I had thought to do a long run on Sunday. When it came to it, though, my legs still felt a bit flat, and I didn't feel like running for hours on end.

Man did I need that run. I got on the trail, and to my surprise, despite the recent storm, the trail was well packed down. My legs immediately felt better. In places, trees had been iced enough that they bowed over the trail, making for a sparking tunnel to run through. I wish I had thought to bring my camera.

All other things being equal, trails trump roads any day of the week.

"Race" Report: Full Moon Frozen River Run

The view back, halfway home from the first turnaround. 

This was not a race, per se, but rather one of the breed of "Fat Ass" runs that have sprung up around the country in the past several years. As you can see in the post about the run here, this was a minimally supported, adventure type run taking place at night. The general idea is to run around a half-marathon distance in two legs, at night, on a frozen river.

When I read about this on the Upper Midwest Trail Runners Facebook page, I knew I had to do it. So after driving up to Duluth to visit the ice caves the day prior, we drove back on Saturday, February 15th and, while G went to babysit for a friend, I prepared everything I thought I'd need for a 9-12PM (I figured I was being generous on time, you'll see whether I was later on) run on a frozen river. I will share the gear list at the end of this post.

I realized, as I drove in the dark and light snow, that I did not remember ever going to Stillwater before. I have been many places in Minnesota, but unless my parents are reading this and will correct me, I do not believe I've been to that area along the St Croix River. Arriving in the town for the first time, I emerged from my car at the same time as another runner (Ben, who it turns out is trying his hardest to move to Boulder) and we joined a third runner in looking for Joel's office. This turned out to be a beautiful loft in an old brick building, where around a dozen other runners had already gathered.

As it got closer to the 8:35 (not 8:30) briefing, more runners trickled in, until the total of 37 runners, more than twice as many as the year before, were packed into the conference room. Joel proceeded, and there's no other way to put it, to warn us about the myriad difficulties we would encounter. It had warmed up, then snowed, leaving a semi-crust of 4-8" of snow on top of the previously clear snowmobile "highway." He warned us repeatedly not to go out too fast, and told us stories from last year about a major bonk by a road runner who had gone out too quickly. He also repeated his early statement that running on the river was like "riding a trike with one wheel the shape of an egg and one the shape of a triangle."

With some trepidation, we proceeded to head out the door, out to the aid station (and bonfire!). From here, we proceeded to run out over the lift bridge to the Wisconsin side of the river (where we would run for the rest of the night) and took a right, heading south out on to the frozen ice for the first 6-mile out and back. We immediately found out just how hard this was going to be. The snowmobile highway was difficult, but if you slipped off it, which was easy to do, it was more like running in 4-6" of mashed potatoes.

I was consciously keeping the pace really slow at this point, having been suitably warned about taking it out too quickly. Nevertheless, I was near the front of the pack and, when another runner stopped to adjust a piece of gear, I ran up to the frontrunner, a guy named Dave, and we proceeded to run together. Around the halfway point, the piers of an unfinished bridge rose up to either side, and we found a truck track on the ice (I would have liked to see the truck that made it), and while it wasn't easy running per se, it was easier than no track at all. We followed it almost the whole way to the point of land where we turned around, increasing both our pace and distance run by doing so.

The turnaround took us through an ice fishing camp, and the sounds of drinking and music, with the sight of lights through the cracks in the doors, tempted us to stop, but we turned around and headed back the way we came. Back into the night and the narrow illumination of our headlamps.

It was about this time that I realized that it was no harder for me to go a little faster, and I started leaving everybody behind. Runners passed me on their way out, cheering each other on and generally laughing and having a good time, while I pointed out a more direct route to the turnaround.

Running easy still, or as easy as you can on the river, I left the other runners farther and farther behind as I made my way back towards the lantern that marked the turn into the aid station. The left turn at the lantern, across to the Minnesota side of the river, and up the bank was easily the hardest part of the course, with deep, unconsolidated snow sucking your shoes down at each step.

I did not exactly rush the aid station, as this wasn't an official race. I probably took 5+ minutes chatting, drinking some broth, and having a couple snacks while the volunteers filled my water bottles and helped the other runners. Kudos to them for putting on a great aid station, complete with bonfire, and taking their Saturday night to help a bunch of freeloading runners! That was awesome!

Since I didn't really know where to go next (it was an unmarked course), I waited for Dave again before we took of on the Northward leg of our trip. Avoiding the slush under the roadway (the road salt tends to melt the ice under the bridge), we made our way under the lift bridge and onwards.

The footing was immediately worse. Clearly there had not been as much snowmobile traffic this side of the bridge, or the wind was worse, or something. But regardless, the footing took a decided turn to the mushy. At the same time, I started getting the hang of running on the river. Joel had warned us that it would be impossible to get into a groove on the river. I found differently. It's impossible to get into a groove if you run by sight, but if you run by feel, finding the firm sections with your feet and following them as long as they led, it was possible for me to get into a groove for 100 yards or more at a time, before the firm snow inevitably disappeared and I had to find another "groove."

I had to hold myself back a bit here, as I didn't want to outdistance Dave, who was carrying the marker glowstick to mark the turnaround, and was planning to run a full 2 miles farther than I was out on the river. Two or so miles in, we ran into a pack of snowshoers who had headed north instead of south at the outset, who informed us that the ice fall was about half a mile away, and also solved the mystery of whose tracks we had been following the whole way north.

We ended up running just a bit too far north. Since neither of us had a GPS (oops), we weren't sure exactly how far we'd run. But after running by a point of land jutting out from the Wisconsin side, which I thought had to be the turnaround, we took a look at the map, and sure enough, we'd gone a quarter mile too far. As Dave ran on to mark the rest of the course (fruitlessly, as everybody else decided to turn around at the falls), I took a glowstick and ran back to the turnaround point, and from there headed back towards the finish.

I didn't see anybody else for almost ten minutes on my way back (meaning I was at least two miles ahead at this point), and I ran into only three groups of runners, totaling about 7 more people, on the way back. It seems everybody else had decided 6 miles was enough for the night, and gone back to the potluck earlier. It was only in the last half mile or so that fatigue really set in, and I was glad to be able to see the lift bridge, and its accompanying lantern, from a good ways away, guiding me in after a long night on the river.

I finished in 3:06 total elapsed time, 2:36 running time, for an average pace of almost exactly 12 minutes per mile running. While it wasn't officially a race, I pushed reasonably hard: it probably would have been race pace had the distance been ~18-20 miles rather than 12 or so.

The after-party was well under way when I finally got back up to the loft/office. People had come loaded with meatballs, pulled pork, chips and salsa, and all sorts of adult beverages. I milled around for a while, settling down after the night's effort, and to my surprise one of the snowshoe pack turned out to work for the Star Tribune and wanted to do a quick interview.

That was a first for me.

My hope in this is that I came off well, and didn't seem like a jerk for hitting the pace so hard. As I mentioned, once I realized it didn't seem any harder to run a bit faster, I opted to go at my comfortable pace and be out for a little less time. I made a point of stopping to chat with the three groups I met on the way back for a minute or two each time, and all in all enjoyed myself thoroughly.

After all, how often do you get to join a group of 36 other people for a 6-16 mile run on a frozen river at night?

An adventure for sure.

Week Ending 2/16/2014

This was to be a volume week for me, the plan being to add more volume without doing any intensity. It worked fairly well, and given how difficult it seemed to get in ample running the week before, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was this week.

Monday: Off.

Tuesday: 4 miles. 32 minutes. Opted out of the Tuesday night run, since it tends to be fast-paced, and this week was all about going slowly.

Wednesday: 7 miles, 56 minutes. From home, went down Summit to the Mississippi and back. Nice and easy today, though my legs still seemed overly tired.

Thursday: 4 miles. 32 minutes. Went for a quick run before heading up to Duluth for the next couple days.

Friday: 5 miles. 1:30 (or so). Drove to Wisconsin with the 'rents to go see the ice caves. I will plan to write posts about both this outing, and why I consider walking to be a part of training.

Saturday/Sunday: 12.5 miles. 2:36. The Full Moon Frozen River Run. Again, I'll write another post about this run as well. It was at the same time the most difficult run I've had since coming to Minnesota and the most fun I've had on a run since moving.

Totals:  34 miles, 6hr 13m.

I would consider this a successful week. I intended to add mileage without much intensity, and over all I succeeded. While I only added a couple of miles to the total distance for the week, I added two full hours of time on my feet, which in the end is likely more valuable in any case.  I would also consider Saturday/Sunday to be my first race of the year, and I happened to be the first runner in, both at the aid station and at the finish.

More of that will come in the run report.

Week Ending 2/9/2014

This was an interesting week. I'll start with the mileage.

Monday: 4 miles, 32 minutes. Easy on Summit.

Tuesday: 10 miles, 1:11. Went out with the Run'n'Fun crew again. Fairly aggressive pace for me, though for the race team it was a recovery day after doing 1200m repeats the day before. I was still feeling the pace a bit, but it was decidedly easier this time than the time before.

Wednesday: 4 miles, 32 minutes. Easy on Summit.

Thursday: Off.

Friday: 7 miles, 49 minutes. Fartlek along Summit. I wasn't sure I was going to go for a hard workout at first, but, oddly enough, since I was planning to race the next day and I felt good, I went for a true Fartlek. I made this into a proper Fartlek, not looking at my watch and going entirely by feel. I'm not sure how many times I picked up the pace, how long I kept it, or how long I rested, but I blew out the tanks in this workout. Even with the rest periods, I ended up with a 7:05 pace.

Saturday: 3 miles, 25 minutes. I intended to run the Twin Cities Valentines Day 5k with G and some friends. No real racing in this one, just for fun. However, once we got to the lake, we stepped out of the car to -5 temperatures with a decent wind and just weren't feeling it.

Quite literally, our toes were not feeling it, or anything.

So we opted out, and I ran a few miles later in the day just to get some miles in for the day.

Sunday: 4 miles. 32 minutes. After Saturday,

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As I said, before my cat sat on the keyboard, after Saturday I had already passed up my mileage from the previous week, so anything I got on Sunday was my additional mileage for the week. And I had put in a hard week with a ten mile tempo and a half-hour fartlek session. So I screwed up my Hokas and ran a few miles around the neighborhood.

Totals:  32 miles, 4 hours even.

This was a solid week. I not only upped the mileage, I put in two really solid workouts.

That said, I did not get a long run in this week. Or rather, I did not get a long, easy run in this week. So, at the risk of throwing my plan off a bit, I think I'm going to switch things up a little bit this next week. I will still plan to run the Tuesday night run with the Run'n'Fun group, but the rest of the week (after an off day Monday) I'll plan to focus more on adding volume and not doing as much speed.

All in all, I think my training is progressing. Naturally I'd love to suddenly be able to run 50+ mile weeks, but I think I am gradually and safely getting my fitness back.

One side note: there are many who recommend against adding in speedwork and more difficult workouts so early in a training cycle. My current theory is that, since I have a fair amount of base fitness, adding in a few speed, strength, and endurance workouts in so early may help me boost my fitness without losing too much speed. And it may just boost my schedule.

I am having something in the way of second thoughts, but rather than toss the theory out, I am going to try alternating weeks where I focus on speed with those where I focus on getting a good long run in.

As I seem to end so many of these: we shall see.

Week Ending 2/2/2014

This week I finally felt like I was getting back into some real running. I did not end up with a much higher total than previous weeks, but the miles I did get in were higher quality (at least somewhat). I added in two more specific workouts, the long run and the hill workout, and this week hope to add a tempo(ish) run to that. Without further ado:

Monday: Off due to frigid weather. 

Tuesday: 2 miles, 15 minutes. And I would not have gone even that far had I not needed to drop off my rent at a nearby blue box. It was again frigid. While the thermometer said zero, it felt far colder than that with a 15-20mph wind blowing the whole time. But I got out!

Wednesday: 5.5 miles, 43 minutes. 4x400m hill repeats up Ramsey Hill in Saint Paul. This hill has roughly 125 feet of gain over about 400 meters, making it a 10% grade. Hills came in at 1:41, 1:40, 1:50, and 1:48. Once I hit them all around 1:45 or so, I'll start adding reps until, well, race day I guess.  I hope to make this a regular part of my routine. 

Thursday: 4.5 miles, 39 minutes. Easy effort after the hills the prior day. My legs felt surprisingly good after my first real workout in a while. That is, they felt good until I went to Parkour class that night and spent an hour practicing rolls. This led to:

Friday: Off. 

Saturday: 5 miles, 40 minutes. Another easy effort. I had thought to do a long run, but did not get my act together. This run reminded me that Parkour Soreness does not necessarily translate over to running Soreness. They overlap, but not as much as one might think. 

Sunday: 10 miles, 1:23. Ran down Summit to the river and followed that south on snowy trails for a further 15 minutes before turning around to head back. For the fun of it, I added in a bit of up-tempo running for the last 3.5 miles. The "up-tempo" resulted in a rather slow 7 minute pace. To be fair, I was not gunning it, but I was consciously upping the effort. 

Total: 27 miles.

As I said, I finally felt this past week that I was getting my training into a higher gear. Despite the forced off/short days due to the impressively cold temperatures, and one day off after Parkour, I managed to hit 27 miles. The addition of specific workouts always helps my motivation. My motto so far this year has been "Focus on the process, not the goal." 

What that means to me is that, rather than see ever workout, or missed workout, as an indication of how I will do in my goal race in May, I see each one as part of the overall process of getting in shape. I focus more on what each day brings me rather than worrying about my race so far in the future. Sure, I have a general training plan in mind, and it is getting more focused all the time. But what really matters is getting out the door each day, or taking a rest when necessary. I have pretty much decided that I"ll plan to take Fridays off for the time being, though that may change as my training progresses. If I move Parkour to Wednesday, I may take an off day Thursdays and push the hills to Fridays. 

As I said, it's the process that counts. That way, each step I take at a run is a fulfillment of a minute goal.