Stony Creek Metropark - 18 Mile Training Run

Ugh.

I did a long run today and it was miserable. I figured I should post my thoughts on it so maybe I can learn from my failures. Though now that I think about it, this run wasn't really a failure. I did complete an 18 mile training run in hot weather. How many people can do that? :-) Now I feel better.

Stony Creek Metropark 18-mile training run - 3 loops on the paved hike/bike path around the lake.

First loop went pretty well. First mile was 8:20ish and second was 7:40ish. The next two were in the 7:30s, but I still felt good. Finished that loop okay. The only problem was the Fuel Belt bugging my GI system. I took off the belt, consumed a gel (Accel) and drank some Gatorade. I decided to simply hold one of my small Fuel Belt bottles for the next loop which I wanted to do at around 7:15s.

I started out loop 2 feeling pretty good and feeling pretty fast. I finished the first mile in 7:20-something, slower than I thought I was going. The second mile was also in the 7:20s but included the big hill. Kept up the effort into mile 3 but crashed hard in the middle of it. Ugh. Tried slowing the pace, but that didn't help. I ended up walking. I continued to run/walk until I reached Babylon (the brook). I was feeling icky - my hands were sticky, my face was sticky and I needed chapstick. At the brook I washed my hands and face in the water and rinsed off the sticky bottle. There was nothing I could do about my lips, but I still felt a lot better. I sat down and rested a little while - maybe 5 minutes at most. I then continued on at a slow run and was able to finish the loop.

I contemplated stopping after those 12 miles, but realized I shouldn't. Even walking the final loop would be better than quitting. I downed a LOT of Gatorade (I must have been very dehydrated even though I was drinking regularly), took another gel and rested a bit. I swapped out the small Fuel Belt bottle for a large Camelbak bottle once I realized how dehydrated I had become. I took off at a walk.

I didn't think I'd be able to run for a while since I drank so much, but the fluids absorbed super quickly! I made myself walk the entire first mile and then started running again - slowly. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would! I was able to continue running until I got to the new drinking fountain at about mile 3.5. I was almost out of Gatorade anyway, so I dumped out what was left and refilled with water. I ended up squirting about half the bottle on my back, so had to refill again! I drank a LOT of water (it was nice and cold!!) and so had to walk again when I took off. I walked for about another mile and then started running again and finished the loop feeling pretty good!

This was a TOUGH run. I'm glad I pushed through and at least did 18 of 20 miles I had originally intended. The heat got me. I wonder if running my "easy" run two days ago MUCH too quickly (big surprise) also left me with too little energy for such a hard training run. I also think I may not have drank enough yesterday while sitting around in the heat at Lumberjack. Lots of factors. Who knows what really happened. May also have just been a bad day.

Stony Creek 20

First 20 miler of the year. GREAT! 3 GUs and 30 oz of Gatorade later, I'm feeling pretty good. Hip flexor did get a bit bothersome out there, so I'll hold off a few days before calling this run a total success, but I'm hopeful.  Matty and I headed out to Stony Creek Metropark and did 2 loops including the nature center out-and-back portion. That put us at 18.75 miles so we just kept going until our Garmins said 20. It was sunny and only slightly breezy with temps in the 30s. Not too bad! Finished in 2:45.

Pre-Storm Long Run - We did it!

Matt and I wanted to get a nice, long run in before the storm. It was great! We drove just a few miles away from the downtown area and parked at Bald Mountain. Then we ran 10ish miles and looped back to the car. We fueled up and then headed out for another 7.5ish miles. It was nice to not have to carry anything with us and still get a long run in on the awesome Orion back roads. It is so hilly around here that long runs turn into hill runs, so we got a great strength workout for our legs along with the endurance workout from a long run. Perfect! Now we can relax and watch the snow fall...

Lumberjack 100 registration in 6 hours! Ahhh!!! The countdown has begun. I'm already nervous.

Running with the RUTsters!

I was so looking forward to today's run with my new RUT (Running Fit's Ultramarathon Team) friends, that thunderstorms on the drive to the park didn't even dampen (haha!) my spirits.  It stopped raining by the time we got there, but the rain left plenty of mud for us on the trails. It was great!

Snakes were well represented on the trails today. They weren't exactly moving very fast to get out of our way either! It wasn't even cold out! Slackers.

Matt and I decided to do as close to 15 miles as we could. Four of us had Garmins. None of them matched.  LOL!!! Also, none of them were even close to the mileage on the map. My Garmin said 14.4 miles, Matt's was 14.0, Mark had us at 14.8 and I can't remember what Andrew said. The map said we did 15.9 miles!! I just uploaded my Garmin and called it an estimate. heh! Considering we ran 2 hrs 45 mins on a hilly, technical (muddy!) trail, I know I got in what I needed to get in, regardless of time or distance. I'll take it! Great run!

One of the best parts were the cookies Farra baked for us. Mmmm.... She's one of those "artistic" bakers who works sans recipe, so there's no way to duplicate. 

This was a great mental run for me as well. I was getting pretty tired being on my feet so long, even if we weren't moving that fast. Granted it was faster than I anticipated! They were not slow pokes!  However, I needed to push past the fatigue and just keep going. That's the kind of training I need for a 50 miler. Part of the reason for the fatigue was due to leaving my GU in the car. I thought we'd be back at the car about halfway through. We ended up staying out on the trail longer, and I needed to refuel! I had Accelerade in my hydropack, but it wasn't enough. I know better now! Take the GU whether you think you need it or not!

I had such a blast today, I'm already looking forward to next week. Can't wait! 

Lazy red did a 22-miler

I've become considerably lazy lately. Since I always do my training log entry first, I've started copying and pasting my notes to my blogs. At least I make pretty good notes. :-) The first line only makes sense if you know I checked the box for "rain". Here's how my 22 miler went today:

Okay, so there were only a few sprinkles of rain that stopped before I finished my first mile. It actually turned into a great day, for running that is. I froze at Matt's MTB race, even after changing into dry clothes with three layers on top!! Also, it was VERY breezy once I got to Stony!

The run was superb. Couldn't have gone any better. Felt so good I picked up the pace considerably at around mile 1.5 in the Stony Loop. Let's see... that's at about 17.5ish miles for today's route. Last few mile splits were:
7:46
7:22
7:19
7:15
7:01!!!!!!!!

WAAAAHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Milestone - first 60+ mile running week!

Didn't get all the splits because I wasn't on a trail that had contiguous mile markers the whole time. I'm willing to bet most of my miles were between 7:45 - 7:55. Also, I didn't mention in the log that today's run was very flat as most of the run was on Rails to Trails routes. All my other long runs to date have been on Oakland County's roller coaster back roads. No wonder today's run seemed so easy!

Killer 19-Miler

Finished my first 19-miler a few hours ago. Just now have the energy to write about it.

Wow. That was hard. Felt great for the first 10 miles. Somewhere between miles 11-12, I started getting tired. By mile 15, I was dead tired. The final 2 miles were killer. But I did it!!!!

Now I'm going to take a nap.

No More Same Old

My mission today was to explore strange, new running routes and get my 14 mile long run in at the same time. The idea of stepping out my door and running on my old standard and good friend, the Paint Creek Trail, just didn't seem appealing today. I feel like a traitor even admitting it. The trail has served me well. But today I was feeling bold and adventurous.

So I got in my car and drove to downtown Rochester. From there I took the safety path to the Clinton River Trail. I got a bit of a nasty surprise at this point - two miles of wet, shoe-sucking clay! At times it was possible to run on the far side of the trail and avoid the worst of the muck, but sometimes I had to just suck it up (literally and figuratively) and run right through it. I was splattered with Michigan clay in no time. I suppose I should have worn it proudly. When trail running, the slime doesn't bother me. I think it is mostly because I am expecting it and prepared for it. This was a surprise. Gah!

Once I hit the county line, the Clinton River Trail magically transformed into the Macomb Orchard Trail which is paved. Usually I prefer my trails to remain unpaved, but I was quite relieved to see pavement today! I soon realized there were no half mile markers, so I was either going to run 13 miles or 15 miles. If I tried for 14, I would have to guess at the halfway point. I decided on 15 and ran on the paved part of the trail for 5 wonderful, muck-free miles, sucked down my delish minty chocolate GU, then turned around and headed back. I was not looking forward to another 2 miles of wet clay, but it seemed to go by faster this time through.

Once I got back to the car, I was quite pleased to discover I had just covered 15 miles in less than 2 hours. I was quite happy with my time. I was hardly tired at all. I keep reminding myself that a marathon is another 10 miles further than I have ever gone (my longest long run so far is 16 miles). I don't want to lose respect for the distance. That has kind of been my mantra throughout my training. "Respect the distance." I am quite sure I do!

Coooold Hands.... And Longest Long Run to Date!

16 miles!!!!!!!! Longest long run to date! Yay! It was fantastic! Did it in 2:12! I even got a bit emotional at the end. I always do when I go longer than I've ever gone before. It was almost perfect, but 2 miles of extremely painful frozen hands put a blemish on it. Also, had a tiny bit of indigestion, but fortunately didn't have to make a pit stop. The frozen hand thing was weird. I stopped at my car after the first loop (6 miles) for my GU, Gatorade, tissues and Chapstick. I had everything laid out, so it took me less than 2 minutes to finish my ritual and hit the trail again. I didn't even take my gloves off! But in that time, my fingers started to get very cold and a half mile back into my run, they froze up painfully. How can such a brief stop with gloves still on make such a big difference??? I was planning on stopping again after my second loop, but decided I'd rather get a little fatigued from lack of calories, liquid and/or electrolytes than endure the nearly unbearable ache in my hands again. I finished very strong despite no fuel or liquid during the last 10 miles! Go figure.


Though I've taken a little time off from blogging (was not getting enough sleep!), I have still been running. The temps have dipped into single digits up here in Michigan and windchills have pushed the temps well below zero. Most of the past week's runs have been on the treadmill. I got a few really good workouts on them. I tried one of the treadmill workouts I found on Runner's World - one of the hill workouts. It was only so-so -- didn't quite work me hard enough. I think I'll add another repeat to each set and see how it works next time. I also did a tempo run one day. That was a great workout! And being on a treadmill, I was able to stick to a predetermined pace the entire time. Being fairly new to this sport, I'm still having a hard time with pacing.


Yesterday I earned my Silver Award in the Presidential Champions program! Yay!

Progression of Fatigue

Did a 14-miler today. I was intrigued by the progression of fatigue my body experienced. I felt great for the first 10 miles. Over the next 2 1/2 miles I could feel fatigue creeping into me more and more. At about mile 12 1/2, I passed some kind of invisible fatigue barrier and I was able to allow my legs to go into "autopilot" mode while I put most of my focus into keeping my upper body straight. In that mode, I actually felt better even though I wasn't any less fatigued, but I could keep going indefinitely. I finished my 14 miles with my head up and feeling pretty good about the run.

Since I am doing most of my winter training on a paved 6 mile loop around a lake (which gets plowed and salted regularly - yay!), I keep my Gator/Powerade, GU and/or soft candy/chews in my car. When I finish a loop at the parking lot, I refuel and take off again. It is nice to not have to carry anything with me! Once the winter snows pass, I will again do a lot of training on our local Rails to Trails, which means a Fuel Belt or equivalent will be purchased in the near future. The times I've used a hand-held water bottle (ugh) and taken a few swallows every few miles, I feel a lot better. At this time, my arms are too sore to carry a bottle due to beginning a strength training program recently. At least that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it! I hate that hand-held thing, even though I do better!

Yay for Rails to Trails!!!!

I see swans all the time. The vast majority of the time they are paddling around slowly in a lake or pond. I'm quite sure I had not seen one in flight before today. I only say this because, now that I have, I'm sure I would have remembered it! Anyway, there is only one spot on Stony Lake where the water is not frozen. This spot is right below a dam that constantly allows a wall of water to spill into the lower lake, keeping a small area from freezing until the temps get very, very low. So this is the area where all the water fowl congregate - mostly Canada Geese and swans. Today, I heard a ruckus just as I finished passing the birds. I looked back and saw three huge swans flying low over the frozen lake. It was so amazing to see these enormous birds in flight! They really dwarf the geese! And then, about a mile later, I was lucky enough to have a beautiful hawk circling just above me for several minutes. This is one of many reasons I don't run in town!

Snow!

I think it is safe to say that today is the first official "snow storm" of the season. It is beautiful yet treacherous out. Beautiful when one is sitting safely in her living room staring out at the lovely whiteness. Treacherous when one contemplates driving (or having a loved one drive) in it. I got my AWD Subaru just in time. Make me proud, Cricket.

I ran with Matty this morning. He ran to work (10.5 miles) and I turned around at the six mile mark which totaled a 12-mile long run today. I got in minutes before the snow started. Not sure how Matty will get home tonight. Maybe his Grand Cherokee is at the store and he can drive home. If not, I hope he gets a ride or calls me.

Could this little red-head have exercise-induced asthma. Coughing and wheezing have been a slight problem upon finishing runs. It used to occur occasionally during the warmer months but now happens regularly. It also is happening during random times during the day, especially when the white-trash smoker lights up inside the condo below us (he's too wimpy to go outside now that it is cold out) and the smell permeates our walls. I really hate this condo. I love Lake Orion, but I would give most anything for a house! Sharing walls with people who have no concept of common courtesy is driving me to madness.

Matty's Gift!

I got Matty's Christmas gift today! He's going to LOVE it!!! Too bad I can't post about it cuz I know he reads my blog. Haha! Nice try, Bear! But believe me, it is WAY cool!

I am very close to winning my Bronze Award in the Presidential Champions program. If you're unfamiliar with the program, see my list of links on the right side of the webpage about halfway down (President's Challenge). It's a great program that I wish they promoted more! I just happened across it one day online and decided to check it out.

Another awesomely awesome long run today. A new distance record for the redster - 15 miles! Woo! I did it in 2:05. Not too shabby! If I can keep up that pace, I'll end up with a Boston Qualifier at my first marathon. Now, that'd be cool! I still absolutely refuse to make that an "official" goal for my first marathon. Too much pressure. I just wanna have fun!

Registration for the Bayshore Marathon starts December 1st. My credit card is ready!

Great Long Run Today!

Awesome long run today! I ran later in the day than usual since we stayed the night at my mom's last night due to too much wine on hubby's part! :-) I took my water bottle (w/ hand strap) with me filled about halfway. I also took a package of Luna Moons (yum!) and had them at about mile 7. I felt SO much better on this long run than I did last week when I stupidly didn't take any water or fuel. That water bottle does tend to bug my shoulder after about 8-9 miles, so I'd still like to try a fuel belt especially as my long runs get loooonger.

My Luna Moons got very cold and extra chewy by the time I ate them! It was about 38 degrees and snowing just slightly today. The temperature was perfect, except when it came to my poor moons. It took too long to chew them. I absolutely can't stand Clif or Power Gels. Someone mentioned Honey Stingers which I may try. I love honey. If they taste anything like honey, they may be workable. Really a gel would be more practical during a race, so I hope the Honey Stingers work.

New York Marathon - go Paula!

Just finished watching Paula Radcliffe win her 3rd New York City Marathon. Go women named Paula!! :-) What an inspiration. And not just because she has a cool name. She has suffered recently from numerous injuries including a broken leg, a stress fracture, an Olympic letdown and giving birth to her daughter, yet she comes back from all that and kicks butt in New York!

We just won't mention that 2005 London incident.

Today I did my longest, long-run yet at 14 miles. It took over 2 hours! (just) It got really hard after about 11 miles. Considering I've done 2 half-marathons recently and didn't get tired during either one, it seems strange that I would start getting tired during a training run after just 11 miles. I know there are good days and bad days, but still... Probably a healthy dose of adrenaline helped in the competitions. Also, I do need to get a fuel belt to try out during long runs since my hand-strap bottle just gets annoying after about 8 or so miles and I need to drink during these longer runs. I'm sure that played a part in my fatigue too.

Anyway, now that the long run is over and I'm stretched and showered I feel great!