This 'run' lasted 7 hours and 15 minutes. We ran the runnable parts at somewhere around 8.5min/mile average. Here is how it went down. We ran out at 9min/mile on trails until we came upon some great waterfalls. We stopped to eat and take pictures for 30+ minutes which was a great time. There were apparently 13 waterfalls there (from the name on the map of "13 falls") but we saw 4 or 5 really good ones. Then we set out again and it was good for a while and then the trail crossed the stream and started climbing up an old creek/mountain runoff bed. It became less and less apparent that we were on the trail until we started seeing snow with footprints. We followed the footprints until it became extremely apparent that whoever made these footprints were also lost. Luckily we had a gps, map, and knew that the "trail" was supposed to follow a stream. So we ended up bushwacking for about 2 hours before we found the trail again. Then we started running again until we got to the turnoff for the summiting trial for owl's head (another 4000+fter) took that up and back down at which point we were both out of water, 7 miles from the trailhead, and had been out for 6 hours already. Thankfully, it was all slightly downhill from there and we probably never saw an 8min mile again (pretty fast for trails). We continued to pick up the pace till the last mile which was probably under 7min. Then we got water at the car and iced our legs in the creek and washed off which felt great. We both felt pretty strong when running, but mentally and physically brutalized by getting lost. This morning my legs feel great but my whole back aches from the bushwacking and climbing we did.
Recovery. Its finally hot here which is both a blessing and a curse. For easy runs it is nice, but for anything longer than 12 or faster than 7min pace the heat hurts me a lot. In two weeks I'll be in nashville tennessee for the summer which will be blistering. Any advice on how to get quality workouts in in the heat? Liquid is an obvious one, but I just don't think I could ever run as long as hard in 80+ let alone 95+ weather. I may take my tempo runs to the treadmill which will be very sad and boring.
Bought a garmin 405! Tried it out on both of my runs today. Pretty sweet. Have yet to try out the heart rate monitor, but I think I will during my tempo run on thursday. I don't know my max heart rate and am not planning on a VO2max workout for over a month (till after I build my base for marathon training). It would have been smart to buy it a few weeks ago when I was training for the mile Im sure I topped out my HR in tons of workouts.
Felt nausiated for most of the run. I had cereal for lunch and the milk was probably the culprit. I usually can run 3-4 hours after I have milk, but apparently not always. This is just one more reason to run early in the day. I love milk and other dairy products, but I should really have a full night between them and running to make sure. Running with stomach problems can really drain you physically too. But I got it done, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's tempo run. I haven't run fast since the mile race. Admittedly that was only one week ago, but it seems like a lifetime. And I usually do 3 speed workouts or 2 workouts and a race every week. But don't worry, this is a planned break from most speed while building miles.
2 miles up, 5 mile race (at tempo pace - 6:08 avg), 1 down
Felt pretty good except that Bedoukian was feeling better. I know he is gonna say this is the turn of the tide or whatever, but its plain and simple to me--he was more fresh. He correctly took time off to recovery from a slight achilles tendon issue. I felt fine so I stuck to my 70mpw plan. I felt fine and stayed with him until 3.5 at which point he started dropping sub-6's and I wasn't game. I could have stuck with it but I don't think it would have been smart. As it was it was 77 degrees out and I was running faster than I had planned (6:10-6:15 pace). He also is thinking about coming out and trying to break 29 in the 5 mile, but I don't want to all out race anything over a mile in 70+ weather. I am not very concerned that the next time I race 5 miles all out I will break 29.
Now its recovery and then the trail marathon. I am running through this one. No real taper, but probably a good carb load. I am going to run it harder than a training run, but easier than a race for sure. My plan is to stay with sharkey (a 57 year old trail runner who is darn good for his age, but about 5-6 minutes behind me for a trail half marathon) through the half and then re-evaluate. If I am feeling good, I may drop him. If it feels hard then I will just try to hold. I am really only doing this because it sounded like fun. The idea was to not race it. But I hate giving bedoukian something like a 20 min lead on me (which is what it would be if I went fairly easy) because he is planning on racing it. And on top of that, he is better tapered. But there is a time for racing, and that has passed for this season. We took full advantage of it and now it is time to get back to consistent training. I don't think that this will help bedoukian in the long run, but I didn't think we would be getting better so quickly as we have while racing very often. What do you all think? Is it beneficial to race often (say, every week, varying distances everything from the mile to the marathon)?
Easy run w/ bedoukian. At a certain point we saw a girl who looked darn good from behind and was going pretty fast. But we were already past our planned turnoff. So we decided to pick it up to tempo pace to catch her to see if she also had the face. It was stupid because neither of us would have done anything even if she was drop dead gorgeous. And she wasn't at all, so it just added mileage, which is fine. We are so stupid and desperate. All we want is a girlfriend on a college cross country team, lol. Anyway, other than that the run was uneventful. Trail marathon coming up. Im running through, or at least I am just treating it like any other long run and not dropping my weekly mileage for it. I have to keep saying it to convince myself, but I am gonna go slow. Stay with sharkey at least through the half. And I think im just gonna take my camelbak full of nuun with some protein powder because im used to it and I wont have to stop at the aid stations which will most likely be just unopened gallon jugs of water. And on top of that I will have honey and some power bars. I agree with bedoukian that plenty of food is key.
