A Moment of Stillness in a Long Run

Yesterday, with my Achilles again feeling better, I went for my first long run of the year. For me, a long run is anything that lasts longer than 1.5 hours, regardless of distance traveled. This time, I headed down to the Mississippi River Gorge, in the middle of the Twin Cities, to get my dose of wildness for the weekend.

I have avoided the trails for the last two weeks. With the disturbingly warm weather, the trails have been either ice sheets or mud patches, or both. I don't trust my Achilles on ice yet, and I don't like to run in mud because it tears up the trail. So it was with great excitement that I woke to 15 degree weather and frozen dirt trails.

The promised snowpocalypse missed us entirely.

I usually run without pausing on my long runs. That is, after all, the point of the run.

Yesterday, though, I paused. I came to a spot where a small side stream joins the Mississippi, a place where I often see fresh signs that there are beavers living nearby.

Today, with the sudden temperature drop, the stream's mouth was covered in a thin layer of pancake ice.

And it was talking.

As I stopped to look, the ice made cracking, popping noises. Surprisingly, despite being in the middle of a metro area, I couldn't hear anything other than the ice, and a plane passing overhead.

Looking and listening longer, I noticed to my dismay a piece of trash under the ice. But that trash drew my attention to movement under the ice: thousands of minnows were circling in the shallows, their dark, streamlined shapes highlighted by the bright sunlight shining through the ice.

Without the trash, I would not have noticed the life under the ice.

And somehow, after a week of despair about the state of our world, I realized things might just be ok.

Run the Year 2017

A new year, a new, giant challenge for myself.

Somewhat on a whim, I decided to try to run the year: 2017 miles in 2017. Breaking that down, that's around 5.5 miles per day, every day, or 38 miles per week, every week.

Realistically, I'm not going to run every day. Nor am I going to average 38 miles every week. Heck, I hit 30 this past week, and am only hoping for 30-34 this next week. So there is going to be a little bit of long-term planning involved.

At the same time, I can't really think about the whole year, or I get completely overwhelmed. I think I can do this. It's going to take some serious mental focus and more than a little motivation, but I think it's possible.

At the same, I have some other goals for this year. Some I've had before, but I'm approaching with new vigor this year. So here are my goals for 2017:

1. Run 2017 miles. 
2. Run from Lake Superior to Eagle Mountain (I have a route now)
3. Become a certified running coach (RRCA is the plan)
4. "Run" the BRT. 

I think #1 and #4 are the "reach" goals for this year. The others are more in line with past goals and possibilities. 

It should be another good year. 

Winter Running

I think my favorite part about  running in the winter are the picture possibilities.

Turkey Day at the Races.

In what may be at risk of becoming a Thanksgiving tradition, I again ran the 1 mile Tough Turkey race and the 5k Gobble Gallop up in Duluth on Thanksgiving. The difference this year is that I actually intended to run both of them. 

As usual, this is a bit of an off-season time for me, so I’m never quite sure how I will feel or how well the races will go when I sign up for these. I was feeling a bit flat the day before, and had pretty well thrown away any real hope of doing well in either race by the time Thursday morning came around. 

As she did last year, G had signed up for the 5k only, so I took the opportunity provided by staying with my parents and headed down solo to check in and do my mile warm up routine. It was just above freezing this year, with a tiny bit of moisture in the air. Not ideal conditions by any means for a mile race, but better than last year. 

The advantage and disadvantage of racing in your home town, especially when you’re fourth generation in a town of 85,000, is you know a lot of people. There is no hiding in Duluth for me. Prior to the race, I ran into my brother’s best friend and his two kids, as well as his parents and brother (who was also running both races that morning). As I went through my dynamic warm up, I heard an occasional “hi Jamie” from the crowd, not knowing who was saying it. And, of course, I know the RD for this race, so I took a brief second to say hi to him before I finished my warmups. 

G and my parents showed up before race time (I think my dad has been on a bit of a nostalgia trip this year, watching me race for the first time since high school) and in time to watch the 1/4 mile kid’s race at 9AM. This is usually a highlight, as all the kids chase a guy dressed up in a turkey costume down the road, and many of them run with their parents. And since it’s a children’s race, they all get to wear bibs with the number “1” on them. 

The mile went off at 9:10 on the dot. As usual, it was a much smaller field than the 5k, with only 100 or so runners on the start line. The mile usually has a large number of kids and, as they do, they all took off at an almost absurd pace. I let them sprint their hearts out, taking it out in a quick pace (4:45 or so according to my watch). I don’t know that I could have done anything near a 4:45, but I wanted to see if anybody would make a race of it. 

Nobody did, and I eased off to about 5:30 pace or so, and, looking back every hundred meters to make sure nobody was closing, crossed the line in a surprisingly easy 5:40 to win by eight seconds. Unless I am forgetting something, this may be my first overall win since I was a sprinter in high school.  The fact that if I had run the 5k at that pace, I would still have been 3 minutes out of first place diminished the elation not one bit. That was the first time I feel like I’ve executed a solid race strategy in a long time. 

Of course, the start time of 9:30 for the 5k meant that I now had less than 15 minutes before the start of my next race. I had just enough time to catch my breath (while running to my car), swap out my number, and say hi to my parents before the 5k started. I missed seeing G between the races. And due to apparent blindness on my part, I missed seeing her finish the 5k as well. 

As usual, the start of a 5k with 2,200 runners was chaotic. I put myself in the front line, and in the dash from the line got caught heading out a little faster than I intended. This time, though, I quickly sorted myself out and slowed to what I thought would be a sustainable pace. 

I actually felt really good throughout this race, countering my feeling at the beginning of the day. I looked at my watch less often than I sometimes do during races, running more by feel than by the watch, and that seemed to work really well. I found myself running with a group of maybe 5 runners taking a similar pace, which made the whole experience easier. 

When I did check my watch, for the most part I was surprised by how fast I was running. I was consistently between 6:05 and 6:15 pace throughout the race, only slipping lower than that on the uphill from downtown Duluth up to Fitger’s. Despite the faster pace than last year, I ended up with a lot of gas left in the last half mile, and pushed it in a little faster 

I’m actually a little disappointed that I didn’t look at my watch a little more often for the actual time I was running. I finished the race in 19:05 for 27th place over all, and 4th in my age group, but I am quite sure that I could have run a good deal faster if I had pushed a little more. I think in this case I just didn’t have enough faith in my fitness. 

I am quite happy over all with the result of these two races. I finished each race faster than I did last year, and finished 40 second up on my combined 1 mile and 5k times from last year. 

That said, I got left in the dust by G, who improved on her time by a full 10 minutes. She improved so much that I missed her finish, thinking I would have to run back in the pack a ways to see her . . .

Bucket List Race

Well, it happened.

A couple weeks back, I signed up for the lottery to get into the Garry Bjorklund half marathon. I'd tried once before, and didn't make it in, so I'm happy to make it in this time.

I grew up watching this and Grandma's Marathon every year, walking down the hill four blocks from my house to cheer on the runners at the top of the largest "hill" (Lemondrop) on the course. I always figured that if I ever ran a half or a full on roads, this would be the one to choose. I will pass my sister's house at exactly the halfway point, and pass my parents at Lemondrop, and see from there how I can finish.

It will be interesting to see what I can do on a road at sea level. My fastest half to date was run up near Boulder on the trails, so as long as I pace myself reasonably well I can pretty well bank on a PR.

It will be interesting. I hope it's fun as well.

Back on the Wagon

The training plan wagon that is. As ever, I am already feeling more fit than I was before (even though I'm only on week three). There are a few things I'd forgotten about jumping on a training plan, though.

1. The metabolic implication: I eat constantly again. 
2. Physically, I am more tired on a training plan than off of it. I sleep better, but am occasionally tired at odd times. 
3. Mentally, I find it easier to get out for a run if I have the raw numbers of a training plan staring me in the face. 
4. It's a whole lot easier going off of somebody else's training plan (I"m using Eric Orton's plan from "The Cool Impossible" again. It has worked for me in the past.), than trying to create my own. This one offers enough flexibility that I can easily alter it to my own needs. 
5. Training by heart rate works well for me. 

I also found that my breathing methods (mentioned in my last post) match pretty well to my heart rate zones. If anything, I was running faster than I should have been when I was using rhythmic breathing alone. 

A Focus on Breath

In my race report for the Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon, I went on a bit about my strategy of focusing on my breath for the race. I didn't go into much detail, but it definitely helped me out during the really difficult portions of the race (read, the last 15 miles).

Since the relative success of that race, despite the cramping, I have been continuing my experiments in rhythmic breathing, and I thought it worthwhile to write a post about it.

First, a general primer on rhythmic breathing, as I learned it. I believe I read about it first in an article on Competitor.com or a similar website. The basic theory is this: your core naturally contracts and activates on an inhalation, and relaxes and collapses on an exhalation. Most people run in an even pattern (2 steps in, 2 steps out, or a 3-3 or 4-4 pattern). This leads to the collapse always happening on the same foot, which can cause greater fatigue.

If, instead, you run on an odd pattern (3-2 or 4-3, or even 2-1 if you're running particularly quickly), you can even out the fatigue a little bit. It also provides a rough gauge of how hard you're working.

Additionally, the theory suggests that you should be breathing from your stomach and diaphragm rather than your lungs, as that gives you a fuller breath.

After a month or so of this, I have found quite a few advantages, and one disadvantage to this technique.

Advantages

1. Fatigue: I have not gotten a single side stitch since trying, and sticking with this technique. 
2. Focus: as I said in my Eugene Curnow report, I found that this technique gave me a focus on when I was tired and cramping, and my mind was going dark places. I could focus on my breath and, despite my fatigue and cramping, I could still maintain a solid running pace. 
3. Meditation: On another note, I have found that I enter a more meditative state, since focusing on your breath is a central tenant of meditation, a practice I have recently taken up. I often end the run feeling much more mentally refreshed than I have in the past. 
4. Pacing: breath gives you an idea of where your pace is. 4/3 is generally very easy. 3/2 is getting into a harder, but sustainable pace. 2/1, well, that's hard.

Disadvantages

1. I find it hard to actually get 4 steps on my inhale. And I sometimes have difficulty fully expelling on the exhale. It is something that's getting easer the more I practice, but it is a disadvantage. 
2. I know only 1 song with a 7/4 (or 7/8) beat. And I know 1 song with a 5/4 beat. This is an issue. 

Has anybody else tried rhythmic breathing? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts and/or advice.