08/17/10

I have got to stop this.....something must be terribly wrong with me. You see I ran the O trail again and I suddenly realized that I really like this trail! It doesn't seem to matter how slow I start out, by the time I get to the end I am almost sprinting.

You know what else I realized, the last mile is much easier as far as the terrain goes than the first half. Why did I never notice this before? Perhaps it has something to do with hitting the O after racing 10 miles of tough terrain.

I just hope I feel as good as I have lately during the actual race. Now I didn't actually run it tonite completely fresh, I started by pushing a pretty good pace on some of the single track for a little over three miles before hitting the O, but still the deeper I got into the crazy twists and turns, the better and faster I ran.

In the interest of comparing, I restarted my watch when I entered the O to get a good idea of how well I was running it. I say approximately three miles first but I don't know for sure because the garmen just fails miserably at Bradbury.

The garmen read 2.46 and the nano read 3.48, so I called it three even though I think it was a bit longer than three. In the o trail the garmen read 1.19 and the nano read 3.17, but at least I know that trail is 2.4

Stats:

3 miles @30:21 (10:07pace) heartrate av@141, max@160
2.4 miles @31:10 (12:59pace) av@147, max@157
1 mile cooldown, didn't check pace or even time it, but I surely understand Vs remark about sweating....I was soaked!

"O" Trail Repeats??

Sunday Mike and I headed for Bradbury, our plan was O trail repeats......what? Who is crazy enough to run that trail more than once a day? It seemed innocent enough when we planned it.

So, my thought was do a fairly fast first loop then slow the next two down to simulate the fatigued feeling and match my proposed pace at the end of the Bruiser.
A fourth loop would only happen if we had time and had any energy left after three.

We did about 3/4 mile warm up then jumped on the first loop of the O. At first I felt pretty tired and winded, but as we continued, things came together and I was pushing a fairly good pace....well at least for this trail.

The end came suddenly as I was enjoying the run so much that I lost track of where I was (which is quite easy on this trail). I finished the 2.4 mile in 33:33 so not too bad. I waited a few seconds for Mike and we headed back to the beginning to run the second loop. I wanted to run each loop in the same direction as the race to try and get more familiar with the trail.

On the second loop Mike decided to speed it up and run as fast as he could, but I decided to stay with my plan and start out much slower. In a flash he was gone and I enjoyed the mosey pace for a short while until I realized I was consistently picking up the pace.

Mike finished first at about 28:42, which was a pretty darn good pace and I surprised myself with a 32:26 finish......faster than the first lap, even though I started much slower. This means I ran the last half at a pretty good clip.

Even though the speed of the last half of my second loop felt really good, I still wanted to train closer to my expected pace for the race, so again I decided to start out slow. Mike was on board with that because he was feeling a bit spent from his speed loop.

As we started out slow, we discussed ways to pass on this trail and started practicing methods of passing without using a lot of extra energy. I passed him two or three times and each time he managed to pass me back quickly. Well the fourth time I decide to pass and then add a little sprint to create a separation and make him work much harder to catch me and pass again.

I passed him then hit my sprint. I separated pretty good then used the next corner to turn it on again and see if I could lose him. Right after the corner came a bit of a down hill so I felt compelled to continue with the quicker stride.

My full intent was to slow back down and let him catch up, but I was settling in real good and the longer strides felt comfortable and easy. By the time I hit the end of the O, I was sprinting pretty good and I pulled off a 29:28, which may not sound that fast but given the fact that the first third of the 2.4 miles I was running extremely slow, the last bit was pretty darn fast.

I didn't plan it this way but each loop ended up being faster than the last one and I actually felt stronger each loop. I could have easily done a fourth cool down loop but it was getting quite late and we had to get going.

On our way out, we ran into Ian and Emma,they were with Jim and planning on running the new connector to Pineland. Suddenly Blaine showed up with blood streaks down his face and his head all bandaged up. He fell and hit a stump pretty darn hard and was talking about finding a hospital to get it checked out. It proves that even the best can get hurt on these technical trails and a certain amount of respect is warranted.

Splits:

1st loop 2.4 miles@33:33 141-156 heart rate

2nd loop 2.4 miles @32:26 139-160 heart rate

3rd loop 2.4 miles @29:28 150-161 heart rate

In the end, the best part was driving the old jeep CJ7 home as we were pretty hot and sweaty and the fresh cool air felt great!

Broken Plans...Confusing Results

One would think, upon reading my title, that I had an undesirable experience with my training. Of course that is exactly what we humans normally write about, it is in our nature to complain and I know I have done my fair share.

I plan a run, it doesn't go as planned, I complain and ramble on for ever it seems and then I find a way to rationalize my experience into some type of good training thing. Perhaps everyone does that, but they leave out the complaining part so it sounds more positive than whining.

My plan was to do an easy run on Bradbury East side trails last night.......well let me backtrack a bit, Saturday I ran the Beach to Beacon 10k, then Sunday I raced the Bradbury Mountain Breaker 9 miler.

Now I do not normally run back to back races and even though I didn't all out race the Beacon, I did run the race when I should have been resting for my mountain race. All in all I had a plan for the Breaker and I followed it quite well.

In the end I had a respectable time that gave me PR of about three minutes and though I felt sluggish during most of it, I think I accomplished a pretty good race. OK...so I suspect this whole piece is getting a bit boring as I already wrote about my race.....but the background is important as it leads up to my latest run.

Sunday afternoon I was dead tired and decided to take at least one maybe two days off before I ran again. For sure my Achilles needed to calm down after the hills of the 9 miler.

I spent Monday and Tuesday just swimming laps and water running. It actually felt good and it didn't allow my muscles to get too stiff. At the same time my brain wasn't thinking that I was lazing it.

I knew Wednesdays run would feel sluggish and decided to just hit Bradbury and do an easy three or fours miles on the Bruiser course just to work the body back into running trails. It was quite hot out when I left work and I almost canned the whole idea of running and hit the pool again instead.

For some reason I did end up at Bradbury but assured myself I would take it real easy and felt my body would demand it anyway, so I actually had no say in the matter.
When I first started running down the link trail, I felt tired and sluggish and my legs were not too solid......every thing I expected.

Once I turned onto the single track of the Lanzo trail, I just kept running faster and faster. Suddenly I was breathing near the top of my capability, hitting extremely high heart rate numbers that averaging up to 154(89%HR) with peaks at 162(93%hr) for the first three miles...... surprising because these are my normal racing numbers.

Funny thing is, I didn't feel like I was racing, I felt more like I was running comfortably hard and it actually felt extremely fast and doable. Usually when racing hard I feel like I can't go on and have to convince myself not to quit.

I stopped at the 5k mark just to double check my watch and my monitor to be sure I was reading it right. After 20 or 30 seconds I continued at what was going to be a cooldown pace, but before long I was running fast again...OK..well fast for me anyway.

I ran the next two miles faster than the first three and topped it off with a great kick. Though my average heart rate was a bit lower because of the slower start, my kick peaked my hear rate up to 173.......I haven't reach the 170s since last year.

What the hell happened? I somehow flicked some hidden switch and now I want to know how to do it again......in slight disbelief, I rechecked my stats on both the Garmen and the Nano to be sure there was not something wrong and I found everything to be normal.

I wish I could put this run in the bank and make a withdrawal for my next race. It sure is funny how perceived effort and condition is totally relative to factors that seem way beyond our comprehension and control.

Stats:
5.2 miles @49:07(running time)9:30 pace

avHR,147.....max,173

10:21...143-159
9:58...150-162
9:44...154-162
9:33...144-156
9:00...148-165
8:24...173 (for .2 miles)

BtoB and Bradbury B

It may not be a fair statement to say I raced the quad B this weekend as I really didn't race the B to B as much as I paced a very important beginner. It does however qualify as a strain on my racing freshness for the Breaker, so I have a semi excuse for not doing as well as I would on rested legs.

That being said, I had a fantastic time running the Beacon as a run instead of a race. I actually was hardly sweating at the end. My wife raced it for the second time and it was her second race ever.

I went in with a plan to use my expertise to help here push her limits at just the right times to hopefully gain her a PR. It worked! She PRed by four minutes so I guess I proved I do know something about race stradegy and pacing.

The Breaker race was perfect from a participents point of view as Ian and Ryan did another outstanding job. It really made me proud to wear my trail Monsters shirt for all those out of staters to see.

As far as my race goes, I am very satisfied with my effort, my race plan and my results. Reguardless of of my freshness, I ran smart, stayed with my plan and actually PRed by 3 minutes. Not only a PR but I felt so much better this year.

The other exciting thing is that there were a bunch of places, I could have tweeked the pace a little and even done better. This was not the time or place though to push the envelope.....I am saving that for the Bruiser. This race was all about sticking to the plan and proving to myself I have some of the answers.

The only draw back to the day was that my son, who was heavy into training for this race and others, ran into a tough knee injury and had to pull from the race after a disapointing warm up run. I know it was a tough decision for him as we headed for the start line, but overall health and having a great fall of races was much more important.

One last thing........don't you just love that 3/4 mile downhill finish!!! This has got to be the most fun finish of any of my races.

Breaker course complete

8/01/10
Sunday

Went to Bradbury with the intent to run the whole breaker course as a training exercise for next weeks race. The plan was to take it easy the first loop and then try to finish strong. I decided to speed walk instead of trying to run the two times up the Summit trail to help keep my energy level up.

The run felt great.....even though I was passed by a couple much faster runners (Alan and Andy) By the time I finished, they were all cooled down and relaxed at one of the picnic tables.

The first loop was quite comfortable except for the switchback coming down the mountain,I just couldn't seem to get into any type of rhythm on the downhill.
I finished the first loop in 1:01:36, I figured I would have to really speed up to beat 2 hours at this point.

The second loop started out good but I found myself a bit tired in mile two and really winded on the summit trail. As I was climbing the Summit trail, Alan passed me like a mountain goat heading for supper, I felt I should have been able to run at this point, walking was all I had though.

Once I crested and crossed the rock ledge, I suddenly felt pretty good. This is when I realized that I was looking at this course all wrong. It seems we all talk about the tough uphill climbs yet each one give us a huge reward after climbing.......a reward of a nice downhill. Something I sure could have used at Mt Washington.

My last two miles went well and I felt quite strong. This was good considering it was miles 8 and 9 of a pretty tough course. The second loop I ran @55:53 which was considerably faster than the first loop. I was pretty happy with the whole run.

total run 9.2 miles @1:57:29
Heart rate av..130, max..154
splits:

12:18....128-144
12:13....138-150
14:45....134-152(summit trail)
12:59....135-149
10:20....131-142(first half 1:01:36)
13:39....138-147
15:45....137-149(summit trail)
9:42....142-152
9:27....147-154 (second half 55:53)

Tired as Hell....

I ran one loop of the Breaker course again last night and though my time was not that much faster than last Saturday, I felt a lot better and ran most of the time other than the last bit of the summit trail and a few spots on other hills.

I have been drinking a protein mix of some type of Whey product to help keep my energy level in the muscles stay up to par. I was told this would make a huge difference in how I feel running and recovering. Not sure it is helping but I guess I can be hopeful...right?

Anyway, today I am tired as hell and I don't know if the frequency of the hilly mountain course is catching up to me, the daily swim workout or if the fact that I don't do very well getting the required sleep is more the culprit.

I am thinking I should get a different job that allows me to run mountains at night and then catch up on my sleep during work. The problem is finding a job that somehow incorporates sleeping. I am seriously looking....any leads?

7/28/10
Tuesday

Bradbury 1/2 breaker 5 miles @58:35 (11:43 p)

splits:
11:03....132-152
12:42....136-150
10:38....136-146
12:15....144-157
10:39....157-158

Where Did That come From?

Friday afternoon I had to go down to my son's in Boston to pick up some furniture and give him a ride to Maine. We decided to run the Winchester trails after loading up and heading home.

We actually got there quite late and it was raining pretty good. Of course the rain was actually welcome as we both prefer it to humidity. The 6.6 mile loop that we chose is fairly difficult, a little rockier than Bradbury east side, the hills a bit tougher but still very similar.

I am still not sure what happened, but I had a great run! I actually ran a faster pace than the Scuffle race a couple weeks ago and I was getting stronger as the run went on. I felt like I was on top of my game and even though I was running pretty much race pace, it didn't bother me that much.

You see part of the reason I ran so well is that I enjoy running with my son Kev and he seems to pull the best of of me, we had points during the run that I was more sprinting with long strides than running and it really felt great..............having said that lets move on to the Saturday run.

Perhaps it was the difficult climb of the Summit trail but I suspect it was just muscle fatigue. We went to Bradbury to show Kev the Breaker course (we ran the second loop because I love the Terrace trail down hill finish) The first mile was no problem partly because we started off quite easy.

Mile two was a total different story......my legs turned to jello and they just plain died. I mean they could not perform for me and even though my heart rate was normal, I couldn't seem to get in enough oxygen.

I was ok after the inclines and it seemed I could run fairly normal though slow. I sent kev ahead so he could experience running up these steep inclines and then I would catch up to him at the top. This is the first time that I ended up walking the whole summit trail to the top and actually my body was complaining even while walking.

I also found that I apparently was not lifting my feet high enough and tripped quite a few times. One time it caught me by surprise and I went down hard! Yeah I drew some blood by luckily no serious injuries other than a pretty sore toe.

I suspect I was just plain too fatigued from Fridays fantastic run to handle the hills of Bradbury mountain. Kev on the other hand ran it with ease and didn't seem to upset that I slowed him down so much.

Friday Winchester 6.6 miles @1:03:31 (9:38 pace)
Splits:
9:11
10:02
9:55
7:36 (this was a fun and fast mile)
9:32
9:56
7:28 (kick @6:58)

Saturday Bradbury (breaker 2nd loop)
4.8 miles@ 56:55 (11:52 pace)
Splits:
11:48
12:18
13:17
11:02
9:16

It's Summer, I'm Not Complaining!

Some people are complaining.......I am determined not to, though it was hard during my run Sunday to disregard the heat.


I began to understand how a piece of bacon feels when thrown in the frying pan. That sizzling noise seemed pretty loud as I attempted to run my planned 8 miler. I found myself thinking, "isn't it time to flip me over?"







In my mind, as I got dressed to begin my run, I could see visions of a grand long run (combo road/trail/hill) and hitting my planned paces.....even perhaps surprising myself with some fast splits. I felt pretty rested and strong......for about 5 minutes!

Once the heat slapped me across the face I suddenly realized that this could be a long difficult run and it was. I was again disappointed and I realize I have to learn to accept each workout or training run for what it is.

I didn't hit my planned splits and I struggled to maintain the slow speed I was running. About three miles into my run, I was crying and complaining to myself and desperately trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

The heat was stifling my breath and the horse flies apparently called all their relatives and neighbors and invited them to run with me. I swear there were 50 buzzing around my head and the trick I used at Bradbury didn't work today.....they were not fooled at all.

I did out run them once for about 200 feet but I got so winded that I had to slow down........I was sucking wind so hard that I pulled one right into my mouth and before I could spit it back out, I swallowed it.

I was glad to think that there was one less to bother me but at the same time I started thinking about where that fly had been before it started bothering me. Had to push that thought out of my head quickly!

If I disregard the split times and concentrate on the heart rate and effort, I guess I can see the value of my run. I put in the effort of a faster workout but did not receive the results because of the weather. I have to keep reminding myself that the perceived effort is more of a factor than mile pace.

Sunday;
8.1 miles @ 1:20:13 (9:55 pace)
splits;

(garmen) Nano
(9:30)===9:49....131-140
(9:41)===9:50....144-157 (pit loop hill)
(9:54)===9:40....147-158
(11:13)==10:03...142-153 (oakhill)
(12:48)==10:45...140-153 (town forest trail hill)
(11:42)==9:42....149-160
(10:04)==10:02...143-153
(8:52)===9:59....154-158 (sweetser hills)
(7:32)===8:49....147-162 (.1 kick)

The garmen and nano was very close in mileage today but the splits don't make sense.
Finished with a great workout in the pool, did laps and pool running...sure felt good after this run.

I Like The "Feeling Good" Feeling

Wednesday night I decided to run Bradbury to spend some time on the breaker course. After my disappointment at the scuffle (too much walking and gasping for oxygen) I needed a workout to give give me that "feeling good" feeling.

My intent was to run about 4 miles up and down the mountain with no walking at all. Pace and heart rate had no relevance as my only goal was to run continuously.

I started by running up the South trail and though I expected to feel horrible, I actually felt pretty darn strong and found myself attacking the climb. I felt for sure this would be short lived because the memory of the Scuffle was still burning bright in my mind.

Unlike the race, I found myself looking for more hill, when presented with a choice of direction where I could easily pick a downhill trail, I found myself looking for the climb instead.

In the end, I ran 4 miles and enjoyed every step of it. Crazy huh? I had fun and I felt great. I ended the run with the Terrace trail downhill finish and reached a pretty speedy (for me) pace of 7:30.

The best part was I only stopped because I had to get going, not because I was spent and wanted to give up. I felt like I was working comfortably hard and I could have easily run a couple more miles.

It wasn't an overly fast run but it was fun and I kept the legs moving which is a huge improvement over my last race.

4.1 miles @49:27....12:04 pace
Stats:

14:24....134-152 (southern trail uphill)
11:04....134-153 (boundary trail down)
12:09....146-157 (boundary up)
7:28....148-156 (terrace trail to finish)
6:52....160 .1 kick

Scuffle-N- Me

The Bradbury Scuffle course and I met face to face yesterday. We squared off like two fighters in a prize fight. Problem is I got the crap kicked out of me. I was not ready for the challenge and actually I knew it but thought my determination would carry me through.

Contrary to my normal start, which is usually conservative, my intent was to push hard on the first mile and see how long I could maintain the pace. I decided to make myself work and see if I could dig deep enough to pull off a decent time.

As it turned out, I had a pretty good 5K race in me. I threw my estimated 9:30 pace out the window and banged out an 8:25 first mile. Even though miles two and three were said to be the toughest on the course (other than the last 1/2 mile hill), I did pretty darn good on two with a 8:52.

Mile three is when I started feeling the accumulative effect of the humidity, the difficulty of the terrain and of course my lack of training. The first big punch came from the hill in mile three.....even though I told myself before the race I would not walk at all, I just plain ran out of oxygen and reluctantly had to slow to a walk on that hill.

A lot of runners passed me at this point and that was the two part of the one two punch. Hey, it was only a 6 mile race and I was falling apart at 3 miles? I started questioning my motives for starting out fast. Not only that, but my heart rate monitor was not working and other than feeling like I was at the end of my zone, I had no idea where I was at.

I honestly thought about stopping but reminded myself that I planned this and should expect a physical breakdown of sorts. Not only that but as a rule of thumb, one never makes a quiting decision while going uphill. It is funny how fast we tend to cave when adversity hits us.

I felt a bit better after cresting and ran pretty good until the hill at 3.5 miles. This one wasn't quite as bad on me psychologically because I knew the water stop was at the top and I would have the chance to dump some on my head to cool down.

The rest of mile four and most of five felt pretty good, even though I was running slower, at least I was moving forward. Of course a big part of this was downhill snowmobile trail and that helped a lot.

Mile six totally sucked, I had no fight left in me and the course was slamming me at will. I had to force my legs to keep running and was discouraged when I realized how slow my time would be. To help, I kept my focus on the guy in front of me and tried to reel him in enough to allow a finishing kick strong enough to pass him.

At about 1/4 mile to the finish, I started my kick and it actually felt great. I am not sure where the energy or speed came from but it was surely the best part of the race for me. I thought I passed the guy but we ended up stepping across the line at exactly the same time (according to the timers).

In the fight game, they say you sometimes learn more when losing a fight than winning and I believe that happened here. Yeah, I got the crap kicked out of me, but I planned it that way and I can honestly say I learned some valuable things.

Now that the whining and complaining is over, I again have to commend Ian and crew for a fantastic race. They did an excellent job (as usual) to bring us a well organized race and I especially liked the flags lined in such a way as to convince all runners to trudge strait through the puddles. I actually thought about dunking my head into the big one but worried about getting run over.

My son, running his first Scuffle, had little trouble showing the course who was boss and pulled off a fantastic time. I wish I could say he learned it from me, but he didn't. The fact that we have the same name probably confused a few and created some ohhs and ahhs when they thought I ran so well. I can only dream of a time that fast.