A setback not requiring a comeback

After a good week of focusing on my task of building up mileage to lay the groundwork for fitness, I spent a few days on the couch with a nasty head cold. It didn't help that I stayed up too late and drank too much beer while we had visitors from out of town for vikes game last weekend. My planned two days off from training stretched into 5 days off. I'm still spitting lugies and coughing up stuff but it's been easier to sleep the last few nights.

Finally on Thursday of this week I was able to hit the roads, and I was able to salvage 4 days from this week. It was rejuvenating to trot around at the Griak invite yesterday and see some familiar faces from my running past (and also some unfamiliar ladies with great legs!). The meet was a perfect opportunity to get a long run in on some great terrain as well as some cruise-type intervals while darting around the course watching all the races.

I didn't realize how much I miss cross country, as I turned into more of a track trotter in my college days. Run hard, turn left...over and over again. Yesterday confirmed that fall in MN is definitely my favorite season; cool mornings that stretch all afternoon while you're running around a golf course so long you miss lunch. The course is just another opponent you have to read while your body is screaming for you to stop. Lately, I've been hearing those screams at much slower paces and much lower mileage than I'm used to hearing them. It's got me wondering if I'm really durable enough to withstand the long haul ahead. We'll see...

So a stretch of 5 days off is a setback, but there really isn't a feeling that I've lost ground at this point in the game. There's a lot of time and hard work I plan on putting in before expecting real, measurable progress. Plans are getting back on track in the later days this week so I'll be able to run with some rhythm at next week's TC10 miler. The weather outlook is good with start temps in the mid 50's and virtually no chance of inclement weather or wind. The course will be challenging enough itself; after all, it follows the last 7 miles of the marathon course where I fell apart in 2005. I imagine that the hills in the closing miles will make this feel more like a half marathon or 25k than a 10 miler. Tentative race plans have miles 1&2 around 6:00-6:10 pace before settling in at about 5:45 pace. I would love to scoot just under 58 minutes and feel comfortable like tempo training. With that said, here's how the last two weeks of running has gone:

9/15 7.5 (51:25)
9/16 10 (1:06:26) Ran with the RnF Team around St. Paul
9/17 10 (1:11:35) recovery run
9/18 5 (36:02)
9/19 14.5 (1:42:28) Long run around Bald Eagle lake from home
9/20 rest
9/21 rest (vikings game, probably the only win of the season)

Total 47 miles in 5 sessions

9/22 sick, tired, didn't run
9/23 sick again
9/24 sick again, headache, sinus problems, lugies everywhere
9/25 6 (43:27) felt sluggish and couldn't breath through my nose at all...
9/26 10 (1:12:43) easy longer run to nearby nature center loop
9/27 13+ (over 90-100 minutes) solid 70 minutes running the griak course before warming up with former teammate, then did a fair amount of darting around the course watching the races. Felt pretty good but the hills may have caused some mild left calf tenderness that I've been icing, massaging, and stretching a few times a day.
9/28 5.5 (42:12) EASY loops at the nature center, nice soft grass trails

Total 35-ish miles in 4 days. Still getting over this head cold thing.
Month to date total 167 miles

Taking inventory and setting sights...

Another productive week on the roads and it feels pretty good. Aside from some slight fatigue a few mornings and mild tenderness in my left inner shin, I feel like I'm making some progress. My heart rate monitor was fixed and functioning briefly but no longer fits thanks to a worn out elastic band(am I losing a bit of baby fat?). I checked my pulse manually at the end of a few runs and felt comfortable with the readings in this phase of training, but I would have liked to have my info from the 5k I ran yesterday. The chest strap of my Polar HR monitor slid down to my waist & I ended up finishing with the damn thing in my hand. My goal was to hit 45+ miles this week without going over 80minutes for a single run. Just keeping within what I think are conservative limits while setting up for everyday training for the months ahead. Here's the shakedown:

9/8 6 miles (41:57) HR 130
9/9 10.5 miles(1:13:46)
9/10 5 miles (36:37)
9/11 8-ish miles (59:29), Rain felt great
9/12 am 5 miles (35:49) HR 136
pm 4 miles (28:46) HR avg 127
9/13 2 mi w/u 5k race (17:23) 3 mi c/d for a total of 8 miles
9/14 5 miles (35:58)

Total ~51 miles in 8 sessions

The 5k was put on by the local YMCA and was around a familiar 2 mile loop of Golden Lake where we used to do VO2 max workouts in HS. The road was torn up and a bit muddy from the overnight rain showers so the course was a bit soft. I had to dodge a frickin cement truck about a half mile in but still managed 5:34 for the first mile. I settled in at this pace and went through the 2 mile in 11:12 (5:38). The last 1.1 miles were an out and back loop on a gravel trail that unfortunately had parents and kids taking part in the 'family fun run mile' which isn't the full cause of my slowing in the last mile but definitely played a role. Overall, I wanted to see if I could hold a comfortable tempo around 5:40 pace without building up lactic acid. Mission accomplished.

More good news came this week too. Thanks to my good buddy P-a-t-r-ick, I successfully got accepted into the elite field at TC 10 mile in 3 weeks. I'll be treating that as a similar tempo-type measure of fitness with little preparation besides maybe a couple runs between 12-14 miles in the weeks ahead. At most I may throw in a few cruise intervals. I'm looking at TC10 as a control test. I know I'll feel like running faster in that situation, but it would be foolish to do so because it wouldn't really benefit me to race myself into fatigue or injury before ramping up mileage this winter.

Setting my sights right now on Fargo Marathon as the most likely spring 'thon to focus my efforts on. My half there in 2006 (1:14:36) lead me to like the mix of great competition and a potentially fast course for me if I run with brains and keep fit. After TC10, I'll be out of racing until perhaps another fitness test in January (winter carnival half marathon?) from which I'd base more precise marathon goals. Today, I'd throw out a goal of 2:35 on a moderate course in favorable conditions. This matches up more closely with where my fitness was this past June when I went 1:13:59 at Kona half.


I had a goal of 2:40 in my mind for my first marathon, Twin Cities 2005, but didn't use my head and went out much faster than planned. I paid the price around 21 miles, just as the course bears its teeth down Summit ave. I was on pace for a 2:35-ish finish, but blew up and limped across the line in 2:46:01. Though I was pleased I beat the time of 48 year old woman J-B-Samuelson I was frustrated that my race plan was never in writing. That was a mistake that I almost couldn't recover from; it took a solid 4-5 months before I felt strong on a run again. Now my hindsight is 20/20 and I don't wanna go back there. This blog is a tool I may need as a crutch at times to keep up training to safely reach my goals. Hopefully I'll get some helpful feedback as well...

Working out the kinks

I was expecting to feel a bit like the tin man this week as I awaken old movement patterns and workloads that have somehow become foreign to me again. The old familiar feelings of re-starting training after a hiatus were all there, plus a few new observations. My calves and achilles were continually sore despite NSAIDS and icing along with my aggressive return to stretching. My rhythm is still missing. I have terrible posture (as I could tell from looking at my shadow). My hips need to be popped before I start running and then stretched like gumby afterwards. The new developments include: a tightness in my upper back only relieved with neck cracking, and I am requiring an enormous amount of sleep. I feel like 9 hours is enough, but my body doesn't want to get out of bed until I've been out for 10 hours! That's probably the only good part about still being unemployed...

The weather has turned to fall, which makes it beautiful for running. Temps have dipped into the 60's and 70's and even one morning run in the 50's! Sure beats humid and 80's. Towards the end of the week I was starting to feel my body turn too, towards that fluidity I'm seeking. Still, I had to keep it to 5 days of running totalling just 34 miles. Here's the breakdown:

9/1 Rest
9/2 7 miles (49:16)
9/3 6 miles (42:49)
9/4 5 miles (36:18) legs felt pretty heavy...
9/5 9.5 miles (1:07.23) longest run since starting up again!
9/6 6.5 miles (47:12)
9/7 Rest

Now the task is to gradually build over the next few weeks to 50-60mpw by mid-late October while staying healthy. If all goes as planned, I should hit my highest mileage week ever in mid-December (85) and keep on clicking off the miles from there.

So far this week I've been feeling pretty decent with only 2 runs under my belt but I'm feeling more rhythm and the times are showing it. I passed a lady on a bike while circling White Bear Lake this morning. She said it was 'humiliating' and I laughed.

9/8 6 miles (41:57)
9/9 10.5 miles (1:13.46) felt pretty good although only planned to do 6-8.

Weekend Test

Small test but a test indeed for me. I've been traveling all summer long and have shrugged off many runs citing 'I'm on vacation'. I went to northern MN with my family. They are great about tolerating my running but are more the golf/boat/bocce/beer all day, gin & tonics in the evening types. Well I guess I'm one those too, so I have to will my way through and get business done in the mornings. The first of many tests for my training is a little victory for me. Here's how it went:

8/30 5 miles (35:28)

Early morning run before heading up north to Lake Ada for the weekend. I felt pretty good throughout the run and felt better at the end. It was one of those mornings that runners can never really explain to non-runners. “You got up at what time and ran how far? The sun wasn’t too bright when it came up…I just rolled over in bed so it wasn’t shining in my face!” It was a beautiful morning complete with orange dawn and fog over the marshes.

8/31 8 miles (56:45)

I debated with myself (and the few too many beers from yesterday that I couldn’t sleep off) whether or not I should turn around at 20 minutes and settle for 5.5 miles, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it while I had a seemingly endless stretch of dirt road all to myself. So I ended up going 8 with the second half getting away from me (came back 3 minutes faster). Another nice morning run although it was starting to heat up pretty quickly. The headwind felt great on the way back.

Week total: 43 miles. Overall a good first full week back.

Still can't decide if I want to drag my but out the door yet today...I went 7 consecutive for my first whole week back in the shoes.