Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Objective: progression on mostly flat terrain

7:10 AM:  Low 40sF, rising to low 60s, mostly sunny, variable wind 0-15 mph

I made some big mistakes today.  The first was wearing my Camelbak fanny pack for hydration.  Venturing out of my nice, drinking-fountain-endowed neighborhood,  I knew it would get warm today and smugly filled up the little bladder, figuring I was all set!  The fanny pack was awful. Oh yeah, this is why I stopped wearing it. It chafed and bounced, unless I cinched it up so tightly that it interfered with my belly breathing, sometimes even producing side stitches.  So I did my best with that.  

(Before I describe the second mistake, lest you think I had a miserable time today, I should note that it was mostly a really fun run with some beautiful moments, and a good workout.)

Would it have taken that much time to look at a map with regard to distance and topography?  I did take the trouble to call the City of North Bend to inquire about the construction over the bridge on Boalch Ave, but even that did not completely keep me out of trouble.  It was morning service at the Church of the Unwarranted Assumption, as I went trotting off on what I thought would be a) flat, and b) 8-9 miles each direction.  Neither was true.  For your amusement, here is the blow by blow....

Mile 1 & 2 (11:34, 11:02) Warm up, starting from my parked car down in old Snoqualmie.  Took stupid wrong turn and went the long way around the high school, into 40 mph traffic.  Found my way back, and noticed a lot of people at Centennial Park. Maybe it's always this way?  (no) Some guy says to me in a cranky tone, "You better save it for later!"  huh?  whatever.  (Later, all is explained.)

(10:30, 10:31, 10:59) I head down Boalch, finding it to be so deserted that I might as well be on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, but everything feels good except that I'm running into a stiff headwind all of a sudden.  I get to the bridge, where the aforementioned construction work is blocking car traffic, and I find the "scaffolding that you can cross on."  I guess I was expecting something a little bit wider and more stable?  It was about 20 inches wide, 12 feet long,  crossing a deep chasm. Dead stop. Oh my goodness I was frightened. Turn back? No, I can do this.  Slowly, easy...  Funny, because I just watched the movie "Man on Wire" a couple of nights ago.  Further down Boalch I had to run on Hwy 202 (cars 50 mph), where the shoulder seemed a lot smaller than it always has from my car.  After going through part of North Bend, I decided to get on the SV trail after all.  Ug- gravel.  How I hate it.  It saps my energy and I feel every pebble underfoot.

(10:43, 10:47, 11:29) Some time during mile 5 I started up the Mt. Si road.  Last night this seemed like such a fun idea. And in many ways it was.  But it is not flat.  I found myself surprised by the incline, partly because it gets steeper as you go up and I underestimated how far I would have to go up to get the miles.  Maps, Snoqualmie, maps! They're incredibly useful, and easy to find on this very computer in front of you.   The cars were whizzing by, so I had to keep going into the gravel on the shoulder (more gravel - ug) and the headwind was worse than ever here.  As slow as that mile 8 pace looks, it was worse on the Garmin. I can laugh now, but the wooded road blocked the signal so much that at one point it said pace = 18:35!  And the % grade read minus 37%!  Crazy Garmin.

(9:44, 9:41, 10:16)  The turnaround was a welcome change as I now headed downhill, with the tailwind, and fewer cars in this direction.  I intentionally slowed a couple of times, once to look at the river through the woods - gorgeous! - and once to jog up the short driveway to the horse barn where my daughter rides. I thought I'd say hello but no one was around.  At the bottom of Mt. Si Road I learned the reason for the weird comment of that guy at mile 2.   A huge crowd of runners with bib #s was coming out of the SV trail as I was going in.  I asked a volunteer at the street crossing -- it  was the "Mt Si Relay and 50K."  It was fun to run "against" them and see their faces. Lots of Marathon Maniac singlets, lots of friendly greetings.  But I was back on the gravel, and it was time to kick into a higher gear. :(

(9:21, 9:13, 9:54 (oops), 9:03)  About 1.5 miles on the gravel before I could break free back onto the roads since I didn't want to "walk the plank" again.  But the new route shortened the run too.  :(   Maps, Snoqualmie!   When I got back onto the asphalt it was such a relief, but I was definitely tiring and the warm air was affecting me a lot.  I am so unaccustomed to running in anything above 45F; Eugene could be a real disaster if it's warm.  I don't know why that 14th mile (the oops) got slower; I wasn't looking at the Garmin very much here.  The last half mile of the 15th was positively anaerobic.  And I'm supposed to do that for 26.2?  I don't know, I don't know.  

(11:54) Cooldown for a few minutes by going around the block at my car.  Feet hurt. (gravel?)  I feel too hot.   

Well, I don't know why I had to make this so long, but I learned a lot and I hope it was a workout that will help me on race day, two weeks from today.  I now enter my taper.  Oh! My eyes teared up when I typed that.  I wonder what my brain can be up to.  Although I'm kicking myself for not consulting a map before going out, I might not have picked this route at all if I had. And I would have missed a good adventure. 

Objective: recovery/easy

5:40 AM: 43F, breeze 3-9 mph, mostly clear, light enough to go out w/out headlamp!

I reached a little milestone in that my paper blog (which is where I keep all the really juicy secrets; just kidding) filled up with yesterday's entry.  I now begin a new book, purchased way back in December.  This is my 4th book now. The 3rd book was started 12-3-06. It is so much fun to look through old entries and race reports. 

OMG! Time watch Boston marathon now!   Very exciting race, for both the women and the men!  Amazing athletes - just incredible.  Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher both taking 3rd place - wow. They probably hoped for better, but I am totally impressed by their getting on the podium with that strong field of runners, and both are so young in their marathon careers.  That was only Goucher's second marathon of her life.   They are both just getting started! 

Objective: easy, enjoy the morning, hill sprints on the shorter hills after mile 2 

5:10 AM: 47F, clear, breeze 3-9 mph

20 min. strength afterwards

We're in the midst of a little heat wave, with temperatures up to the 70's by day.  But I've still got a Smartwool layer on for my early morning runs.  Smartwool under my tech top and bare legs! lol  I am enjoying the No Swish running- no jacket, vest, etc.  - just quiet fabric.   Busy day today...

Objective: (Tapering) Practice marathon pace (or effort, as the case was). 3 mi easy, 3 mi MP (adjusted for hills) - ran out of time for the cool down. See below...

5:30 AM:  46F, light rain, breeze ~7 mph

15 min strength work

My 3 MP mile was a little short due to running out of time; last .1 was jogged/walked for a cool down.   Splits: 12:26, 11:14, 11:39 (2 big hills), 9:21, 9:26, 9:11.   I was trying very hard to keep the effort even, beginning the MP section on my little ~400 meters of flat sidewalk on Ridge St.  to dial in the effort level (shooting for 9:10).  But I must say, the pace was actually all over the place, probably because of hills.  A bit distressing was the fact that it really felt kind of hard.  I have run enough marathons to know how different it feels on race day, with that last week of taper (fresh legs!) and the excitement of the race.  But that is an intellectual fact, one that has to work hard to break through the emotional information: "I cannot possibly do this for 4 hours! I am doomed!"  lol :)

Here is a little food for thought about running shoes.   Oh yes, there is definitely a part of me that likes these subversive, fringe, and anti-establishment ideas. ;)  That is the libertarian in me. But I would go even farther off the beaten track than this article (which asserts that high priced running shoes weaken the feet and cause injuries), in that I believe we live in an Injury Culture that actually promotes pain. 

There are constant subliminal messages telling us that injury is inevitable (such as "running hurts your knees," and "high mileage leads not to stronger bodies but rather to injured ones"). The messages appear in magazines (most of which now feature a column on injuries in every issue), blogs and internet forums, and are used by the brain to create credible psychosomatic pains. The physical mechanism for the pain is the closure of capillaries by the brain. The purpose of the pain is to protect us, through distraction, from severe anxiety and anger. But it must seem like a credible injury or the distraction will not work, hence the advantage of "epidemic" type illness or injuries. 

I know I have mentioned this phenomenon on my blog before, but the very interesting article above makes me want to mention it again, because widespread publicity regarding an injury type is crucial to the psychosomatic process.  Years ago, there was a lot of publicity about tennis elbow -- and more people got it.  Carpal tunnel syndrome also had its heyday. 

I am not saying that no one really gets these disorders (or true running injuries), but that many instances of them are actually psychosomatic. I am also not saying that psychosomatic injuries are "all in a person's head."  The pain is totally physical (the closing of capillaries) and very real and horrible, but in these cases it is generated by the brain for psychological reasons and can only be cured through psychological means.  I am not making this up; it is well documented. (Probably the most extensive single bibliography of research reports can be found in this book.) 

Objective: general aerobic

5:15AM:  35F, mostly cloudy, wind 5-10 mph 

A nice run on this surprisingly chilly morning.  Though running a different route, I covered the same mileage as yesterday. The exact same. I find that weird.  The difference in total time for the two workouts was only 1 minute.  

I was going to do 7-8 easy miles, but got a late start.  Then, I was feeliing really good and not looking at my watch, and I seem to have run comparatively fast for an "easy" run.  This is why I find the "average pace" number to be so meaningless.  These were 2 completely different 6 mile workouts with the almost the same average pace.  Yesterday's MP workout: 12:26, 11:14, 11:39, 9:21, 9:26, 9:11.  Today's splits: 11:51, 11:03, 10:08, 10:09, 10:15, 10:39.

ETA: p.s. Today I'm beginning my 10 day Veggie Challenge. Wanna join me?  In the 10 remaining days before Eugene Marathon, I am going to have a serving of vegetables at every meal - even breakfast - and 1 for a snack. Minimum 4 per day.  I am trying to make sure at least 2 of the 4 are raw. 

Objective: easy & slow, break in new shoes. (Tapering)

5:35AM:  35F, wind 5-10, clear.

20 min strength & stretch after

Pleasant run. I need to relace my new pair of Triax 12s.  I am planning to run the marathon in them, though a small rebellious part of my brain still wants to race in my Magic Shoes, the ST3s.  Feel free to yell, "What are you thinking!?!?"  It's just an urge at this point. After wearing racing shoes Wednesday and Thursday, my feet feel clunky and heavy in these trainers, even though they are new. :(

Veggie challenge, so far successful.

Objective: easy

5:45AM: 39F, calm & cloudy

I am supposed to be getting a bit more sleep this week, but at 4:25 my eyes just popped right open and I could not get back to sleep. Not usually a problem for me; sleeping and eating being 2 of my specialties.  This was a crappy little run. My anxiety levels are rising and I felt tired and cranky.  And I must just put this in black and white: large Mexican dinners are not good running the next morning.