On point and a 16 miler in the bag!! (AND A LIST!)

Its not often I get to say this but today was major break through.  I managed to run an extra mile this week in 8 minutes less than last week.  I felt strong, fast, and my biggest issue was remembering to slow down.  I am ecstatic!

Turning back to my OCDness with my running I have to question what was different?  My legs weren't in any better shape than the week before, and it could be argued that they were considerably more tired as I'm at the last week before my rest week being on a 4 week cycle.  Looking back at my splits I can't help question how in the world I was been able to post a 8:50 mile at mile 10 (by mistake!), and then do a fast finish of 8:01.  It really boggles the mind, but if I can't walk tomorrow and this is the last post for another year you'll all know why.

Their are four things I can attribute today's success and with my old time training partners recently confessed obsession with lists here we go:

#1  I ditched the heavy clunky camel bag for a hydration belt.  I noticed the previous week as soon as I put that massive bag on my times instantly dropped by a minute or more and at the end I still had half a pouch weighing me down.  While yesterdays trial run with the belt proved it wasn't weightless, today's proved that it is by far the best option and at the end of the 2 and a half hour run I barely knew it was there. 

#2  For the first time ever I cut a Gatorade prime with water and used that mix to fill my 28 ounces of (4)

Fuel!!

water bottles.  On top of that I kept to my new routine of sipping and swishing rather than chuggle-lugging and I think it made another big difference.  If I was a betting man I'd now say a lot of problems I had in the past resulted from a condition known as Hyponatremia (too much water and not enough salt) but more to come on that in a future post on "Fuel."  For anyone attempting this be careful though:  changing fuel for runs too drastically can cause great stomach discomfort (PG version) and nobody wants to do impromptu strides to the closest available bathroom/discreet location.  That's why I used to skip the Gatorade myself but it worked today and I plan to stick with it.

#3  Today I got up at the same time as last week before the sun crested the ocean, but it was noticeably colder and I made sure to hit the road quicker providing an added bonus.   I'm now beginning to closely monitor my sleep as recovery is a vital part of training (or so smart people say) I used to somewhat ignore, but can't afford to at this point.  Again while this doesn't necessarily equal cooler temps or less humidity thanks to the beautiful tropical conditions here in SoFlo, it definitely feels better and will be a continuing trend for my long runs.  The one drawback about this:  bed time on Saturday nights at 10:30 or better but if it helps then it helps.

#4  Confidence:  I knew I could do it.  Didn't know I could do it that fast but I knew.  For any runner out their struggling to build confidence just remember:  If 70 year olds can complete marathons and ultras quicker then most then so can you!  Their is no magical difference between them or anyone else, and if you can come to terms with the truly awesome power our bodies can put out and endure, then its in the bag for you too.

So I think that's all for today's success tips.  I've got 4 more grueling long runs of 18 or more miles before race day coming up really delving into marathon mileage so I'm sure every post won't be as up beat as this one.  But if you're a runner you know there's always going to be ups and downs with training.  Today I'll be riding my up all day long:  Victory is mine!!


Best long run this season:  16 miles in 2:35. 

So much for the dry season!  Missed it by an hour though!

Week 7: 1 Wall Down, 1 to Go

Pic to See (Creative right?)

Lacing up my shoes this morning before the sun reached out over the bay I really wasn't sure just what to expect.  For a few days my calves and knees had hurt, and I was finding myself with less and less motivation to push on.  Today I was approaching a wall (see pic).  Okay not exactly "the wall" at around 18-20 miles, not there yet, but a mental wall I had from 7 weeks ago when I was defeated and had to walk the remaining two miles home in total agony after attempting a 15 miler I was totally unprepared for.

The good part was I felt ready.  I'd iced what needed to be iced, rested what needed to rested, and petroleum jellied what needed to be jellied and after failing to find the GPS after the first go around my watch finally found it.  With a shot, (or more of a shuffle) I started out one foot at a time trying to ignore the looming wall in my mind ahead of (reference pic again if need be) and repeating my mantra over and over again in my head:  "I ain't everybody."

All in all the run was epic.  It definitely wasn't my fastest, something I think having to do with the massive camel bag full of water on my back (which I'll revisit later), but it felt great.  Not easy, but not hard either, and just around 2 hours and 45 minutes later I was done and felt truly accomplished. Even better in less than 30 minutes after having my remaining pop tart (new running fuel [more  to come on this also]) and my post run protein shake I felt completely recovered even enough to head down to the beach for a quick swim.

So what did I do differently?  For one thing the 7 extra weeks of ramped up mileage certainly helped.  Another thing was getting out before the sun got up for most of it.  While the temperature and humidity don't really change down here too much, being out of the sun for 90% of my run certainly seemed to make a big difference.  Lastly, I had some pretty intense motivation.  Last night I watched the Desert Runners.  An epic story of a group of amateur runners attempting to do the 4 big desert Ultra's all in one year.  For anyone dipping a little low in the motivation department I can't recommend this movie enough and if you don't shed a tear anywhere in it, then your heart must be made of stone as my eyes were barely dry at all during the whole thing.

The moral of today's story?  Confidence.  Confidence in knowing you've trained to do this, knowing you can really rock it, and the best part: knowing your not trying to complete 4 ultras over some of the hardest desert courses on the planet.  I truly believe confidence makes all the difference.  For me today I made the 15 miler mine, and I now own it.  It isn't a world record or anything anyone will ever make a movie about but its mine.  Now having that little gem swimming around in the back of my mind how hard can next Sunday's 16 really be?  Either way the first wall is down, and its time to go find the next.

Week 7 of 16:  COMPLETE.  

Week 9 Preview:  Got my eye on you!

Lost in a world of walking, biking, and weight lifting... BUT NO RUNNING!

Suggest to almost any non-runner (OK not any but a lot!) that they should lace up the shoes and take a few laps around the track, and more often then not you'll be faced with a whole myriad of excuses or possible injuries they could immediately be facing just short of spontaneous combustion.  "It's bad for your knees... I have asthma... it kills my back... your ovaries could fall out!"  Okay maybe that ones a little old but still these are just a few of the possible claimed repercussions from running even a bit or jogging.  For years I've shrugged these off knowing that by far the most dangerous thing for a runner is their own ambitions to beat the clock.  Yes the possibility of getting hurt is their and always present, but is it the next dangerous thing behind down hill barefoot alpine helmet-less skiing?  No of course not.

Unfortunately, now though I'm on the other side of the fence and the view isn't so pretty.   More likely than not no one has noticed the long glaring lapse between posts and perhaps from the introduction you've put 2 in 2 together in which case I applaud you, but with deep despair:  I'm injured.

Weeks into my training schedule I began to notice a pain in my calves that wasn't going away.  Sure, when you start running again you have to ease into it, and their is no doubt going to be some aches and pains along the way. However, what I didn't expect was still having the same calf pain a full 8 weeks in.  Both sides were tight almost constantly, stretching seemed to do nothing for them, and the right side that had also experienced some minor Achilles heal problems in the beginning was definitely much worse off.  Then during a bleak Friday stint on the treadmill it all came to a head and one minute I was in only moderately uncomfortable, and the next I was in real pain forced to walk.

On the surface it felt like a pulled muscle, but the troubling thing is it won't go away!  I took two weeks off, got a gym membership so I could ride the stationary bike and lift hoping to improve my core, but after the waiting period as soon as I got back on the treadmill the pain came right back.  I can't help but wonder now if my deer accident on the motorcycle last summer had something to do with it.  It broke the smaller bone in my lower leg right were my calf now hurts, and to the unhappy questioning of my girlfriend I never returned to the doctor to have it checked out.

So where does that leave me?  Set back for sure, but not totally out.  Thankfully I work at a college that has a pretty great athletic training staff so first chance I get I'll pop in there to see where I should go from here.  I'm walking as much around campus as I can in these frigid temps and I've got a membership to the local gym so I'm taking the advice ignored for so long to try and strengthen my core by working on my abs (hehehe more like ab) and my total fitness (not just logging miles) in the hopes that in the end it will all help.  I've spent a good number of hours on the stationary bike as well and though its definitely not the same as running, it does excite me to try a triathlon this year.  Maybe for now I'll prepare for the biking and swimming sections first, but more to come...