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.