Today was a long and challenging workout. We've been handed a bunch of these ladders to deal with this marathon training season, and each has had its difficulties. I've done okay on them, mind you, but they are both physically and mentally grueling.
Today, you say? After the easy warmup and drills at Zilker, we were sent out for a 3K, 2 x 2K, and 3 x 1K ladder. No real guidelines on pace, but I hoped to improve on my pace as the intervals got shorter, and wanted to have my last interval of each group be the quickest one. There was some confusion at the start, as most of the folks took off when Gilbert asked us to get started, despite his desire to have us go out in groups. I found myself trailing most of my normal peeps, but I started with Carmen, Jenny (or is it Ginny?), and Amy for the 3K loop and a half. I had thought I'd shoot for 8:00/mile pace for the 3K, but we hit the mile marker at something like 7:50, so I just stayed with the gang as we passed through a bunch of the folks who had gone out ahead of us. I was surprised at our 14:14 time for the interval. It clicked out at 1.81 miles, so that's 7:52/mile pace. Nice start. Amy had gone out ahead of us on this lap.
After we strolled across the dewy grass soccer fields to the top of the course, it was a chance to catch our breath. Once we got up there, Amy, Jenny and I matched up again, and hit the first of the 2K loops. I was feeling pretty good, and we took turns leading the way. We hit the mile marker around 7:40, and finished the 1.2 miles in 9:14, or 7:46/mile. So far, so good.
A cup of water and 2 minutes later, we were off again for our second 2K. Amy didn't have to do the second 2K, so it was just Jenny and me from this point on. We pushed each other a bit and finished that one quicker than the first, which was great to see. It had felt a bit faster, but it's good when your perception meets with reality. That one was 1.2 miles at 9:03, or 7:40/mile. Through 7K of the 10K of intervals, I was right on schedule.
Another cup of water and 2 minutes, and it was time for the 3 x 1K "half laps." The first two 1000's were Jenny and me again, and we clicked those off in 4:21 and 4:24, 7:01 and 7:06/mile respectively. On the thousands, we got bonus rest with the walk across the fields again. Still, we were happy when we reached the starting line for the last repeat. We gathered up Renee for that one, and took off. I was hoping for a fast finish, and it turned out great! We snapped across the line in 4:15, or 6:51/mile, for the last repeat.
I was tired, but pretty stoked. 10K (or thereabouts) of repeats done. That's a long day. I helped pick up all the cups around the coolers, and after chatting with Gilbert about the courses for the Saturday and Monday workouts, I headed back to RunTex with a gaggle of folks. Let's see, it was Frank, Larry, Renee, and someone else....gosh, my brain is failing me. Anyway, I was happy that we actually ran back at a true cooldown pace for a change.
Endurox and some good stretching later, and the long day was done. I scored 9.4 miles total running for the day. At least these ladder workouts have been going well. Saturday is, for me, 13-14 miles, and then Monday is the Labor Day Gazelles Pace Race 10 Miler. Yikes!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
EZ Runnin' + Strides
Today, Gilbert gave us an easy day after the hard long run on Saturday. We took a relaxed cruise around the 7 mile loop at Lady Bird Lake, followed by 10 x 100m striders. I started off with a small pack of people, but after about 2 miles, I found myself running alone, and that was okay, I guess. As the run wore on, I actually picked it up a little each mile, and it continued to feel pretty casual. I made a couple of micro-stops for water since we could, and still ended up with a 9:30/mile overall pace, including the water stop time. HR numbers were good, and my legs actually felt great from the start. Often, I'm a bundle of stiff and sore leg muscles on these Monday workouts, but today, no such problems. Cool.
The striders weren't too bad, either. I experienced none of the usual first strider clumsiness, and by the time we were done, I was feeling pretty sporty.
For the day, 7 miles of easy running and probably 800 meters of striders. I got in a quick 15 minute stretching session before scooting off to get Jake on the school bus. The first day of school was not as exciting for Jake and Sarah this year, as they enter 8th and 9th grade, but I think they are secretly happy that another school year is underway. Maybe. :-)
The striders weren't too bad, either. I experienced none of the usual first strider clumsiness, and by the time we were done, I was feeling pretty sporty.
For the day, 7 miles of easy running and probably 800 meters of striders. I got in a quick 15 minute stretching session before scooting off to get Jake on the school bus. The first day of school was not as exciting for Jake and Sarah this year, as they enter 8th and 9th grade, but I think they are secretly happy that another school year is underway. Maybe. :-)
Saturday, August 25, 2007
20 Miles and a Cold Soak [Entered 8/26/07]
I suppose it's time that I get back on the Blog, so here's the lowdown on yesterday's (Saturday's) latest long run. A couple of weeks ago, I struggled a lot with a 20 miler, which was a fairly negative experience. I got through 18 miles okay, and then it was as if I was unplugged from the source of internal energy stores. Demoralized, I walk/jogged it in from there, and that's hard to push out of your mind. I followed that up with a blowup this past Monday on the planned pace run, which I was not able to finish. Yikes! Alex would say that letting those bad workouts stay with me is negative thinking, which would be correct. Still, my naturally sunny disposition was sorely tested by those bookend badly executed runs. I did have two good Wednesdays, though, doing a Zilker and then track-based ladder workout in consecutive weeks (details to perhaps show up in time). So, I faced the Saturday 20 miler with some shaky internal emotional wiring.
After analyzing the last 20 miler, I decided that (a) I was still probably a little tired after my yearly visit to guitar camp, and (b) I did a poor job of eating and hydrating the days leading up to that run. This week, I wasn't at guitar camp, so that was taken care of, and I did a more scientific job of loading up with carbs on Friday and Saturday morning. I used the information in the Monique Ryan nutrition book, and I was much better off this particular Saturday. No loss of power, and except for the usual long-run fatigue in those last miles, I felt pretty darned good.
The weather was the usual. Humid and warm, but it may have been a tiny bit less warm than two weeks ago. The sun stayed away until late in the run, which was a good thing. I dropped coolers at the 20 mile turnaround, and then made my way to the park at Robert E. Lee to meet the peeps for the start of our tour ("a three (and a half) hour tour"). I was ready to go by a little after 5:15am, but stayed around to see who wanted to get going with me. After some wobbling around, we finally got moving at 5:25am. Not as early as I'd hoped, but at least I had some running partners. After an initial leg to Mopac, we stopped briefly for a quick cup or two of water, just in case we were ahead of the first official water stop, wherever that was going to be. After that point, my group quickly turned into Amy, Marty and me. Amy was "just" going 14 miles, but it was great to be able to run with her again for a while. We settled into a nice relaxed groove through the hills of Exposition, and made it to the Shoal Creek water/Accelerade stop feeling pretty good. Alex and his faster people caught us just before that stop, the first of several groups that came by us during the outbound leg of the journey. Alex was exceedingly happy for so early in the morning, but that's all good. :-)
Sean was nice enough to be helping out with the water/Accelerade logistics this morning, and I got a quick chance to chat with him while I took a GU, drank plenty of water, and then moved on. So far, so good. 25% done! I had lost one of my 5 GUs somewhere along the way, so Amy was nice enough to give me one of her extra Vanilla Bean GUs to boost my supply back up. How cool is that?!
Splits, miles 1-5: 10:05, 0.4 miles at 10:10 pace, 1:01 water stop at Mopac, then 9:54, 9:52, 9:46, and 0.75 miles at 9:48. 2:34 water/Accelerade/GU stop at Shoal Creek. Relaxed running pace of 9:55/mile, excluding water stops.
We dropped Amy off at the Hancock turnaround, and she slapped the sign ceremoniously and headed back. Bye, Amy! From there, Marty and I had plenty of time to chat and discuss things of little import. Our pace quickened now that the course had leveled out a bit, and we settled into a nice mid-run effort. There was an unexpected water stop at White Rock, and we grabbed a cup or two there. Going up White Rock and up Great Northern, we were running against the tide of the Rogues as they were doing their "Lab" run. As I understand it, they do multiple loops of a 3.5 mile course. That's convenient for logistics like water, but it would be hard mentally. Anyway, we made it to the turnaround in pretty good shape. My water/Accelerade coolers had magically doubled since I dropped them off earlier in the day (Bernard and Sean put out coolers despite the ones I had left). Oh, well, better to have too much water than not enough!
Another decent water/Accelerade/GU stop later, it was time to head back south. So far, so good, even though we weren't halfway yet due to a quirk of the course layout.
Splits miles 6-9.3: 9:30, 9:20, 0.37 at 9:41/mile, 1:24 water/Accelerade stop, then 9:11 and 0.77 miles at 9:37/mile. Longer 2:32 water/Accelerade/GU stop at the turnaround. Running pace dropped to 9:42/mile overall.
Marty and I passed some more people heading to the turnaround, so we found that we weren't the last Gazelles out there. The faster folks were mostly doing 22 miles, so we had an opportunity to finish before most of them came back by us. It became a goal somewhere back in my subconscious brain. We caught Laura on Great Northern, and saw Brad and Jan coming north as we were heading back. That's always good to see your fellow Gazelles. Now that we were retracing our steps, it was a matter of watching the mileage count down as we passed the halfway point of the day's planned mileage. We hit that White Rock water/Accelerade stop on the way back, chatting briefly with Dennis, and then did the shady Shoal Creek portion on to the stop right before 38th Street. This was pretty uneventful (which, truthfully, is the way most of these long runs go), but we kept chugging along nicely through here. There was a long traffic stop at 2222, but we just enjoyed that brief respite. We laughed about how, as runners starting out many years ago, we'd jog in place at stoplights while waiting. Now, we just take those as divine intervention, and catch our breath a bit.
The 38th/Shoal Creek water/Accelerade/GU stop was briefly amusing because the cups had run out. With no new cups, we resorted to several techniques, including holding up the coolers to pour them into our mouths, using an empty ClifBlox bag as a nifty reusable cup, and finally, resorting to picking a relatively clean cup from the trash sack and reusing it. Maybe that bothers some folks, but it worked for us. Sean showed up before we left, and we actually got to use new cups, too. That was a pretty long stop, as several small pace pods passed each other, but we were ready to finish this thing. Onward!
Splits miles 10-13.4: 9:12, 0.76 miles at 9:15/mile, 1:57 water/Accelerade stop, then 0.34 miles at 8:58/mile, an 0:34 traffic light delay, then 9:02 and 9:06 to the water/Accelerade/GU stop. That was a long 4:22 stop, but what the heck. Running pace down to 9:31/mile, not including all that stoppage time. Don't worry, I'll account for it at the end!!
Renee and Leslie were just ahead of Marty and me going up and over the bridge on 35th Street, so we sort of used the old mental "elastic band" trick with them. I envisioned that I had lassoed them with an elastic band, and even though they were slightly pulling away, the tension in that imaginary band was pulling me along. I hope that they didn't feel an actual physical pull from my invisible cord! Marty stayed with me to the dry cleaners, where we grabbed a quick drink of water and doused our heads with a little water, as well. At that point, Marty told me to go on, that he needed to back it down a bit for the homestretch. After thanking him for helping me to get that far, I was off to do the Scenic route "backwards."
I stayed in the shade as much as possible, and shifted into my climbing gear for any uphill bumps, and made pretty good progress during those hilly miles. I came upon another Gazelles water/Accelerade aid station along Scenic Dr., and stopped very briefly there for two cups of refreshment. I passed up Renee and Leslie there, but they'd catch me again, later. Anthony passed me on his bike as I eased down the little hill near River Dr., and then as I made the two turns to take me along the Lake Austin portion of the route, I heard Alex's happy voice way behind me. I was making my way up that long hill when he caught and passed me, but he gave me some encouraging words as he went by, and I was doing well enough that I was able to accept those encouraging words without getting grumpy about it. That's not always the case, of course, but today, I was still hanging in there pretty strong. I managed to keep Alex in sight for most of the last bit of the Scenic route to the last official water/Accelerade/GU stop at Lake Austin Blvd., and that made me feel pretty good, as well. Finally done with the hilly stuff, all I had to do now was fight off any mental demons in the last couple of miles.
Splits miles 14-16.7: 9:19, 0.34 miles at 9:01/mile, 1:01 water stop at the dry cleaners, 0.55 miles at 9:07, 0:37 water/Accelerade stop, then 9:17 and 0.47 miles at 9:09/mile. 2:49 water/Accelerade/GU stop. Running pace 9:28/mile.
Renee and Leslie caught me and left me in the dust at that stop. They later revealed their secret strategy of running along the north side of Lake Austin Blvd., to enjoy a much more shaded running course for a mile or so. I failed to grasp that idea as I ran along by myself, but I was proud that I pushed through that long, straight stretch of sunny road without giving up too much time. After a seemingly endless passage of time, I finally reached Veterans, and was able to enjoy the fact that I was going to have a good finish to this run. My legs were tired, but I felt okay, given that I was over 18 miles into my running day. I took advantage of the outdoor shower at Mopac, and doused my head really quickly for a little extra relief, but didn't take on any more drinking water there. Dodging several groups of walkers and such on the trail didn't even bother me this morning, due to my good mood. I was even able to pick it up a little in the last bit of the run, and was very happy to reach the parking lot at Rbt. E. Lee for the big finish. Done!
Splits miles 17-20: 9:18, 0.71 miles at 9:08/mile, 0:23 water shower stop (Ahhhh...), 9:34 (trail traffic, but who cares?), and 0.43 miles at 9:09/mile. Final totals were 19.85 miles at 9:26/mile running pace. With the voluminous stoppage time included, the overall pace for the day slipped to 10:24/mile, but given the conditions, I'll take that.
After some significant huffing and puffing, I paired up with Renee for some striders (I did 4 of them), and I actually felt okay doing them. My legs felt good, at least. I've felt much worse doing striders after a really long run before, so this was a big improvement! After that, I got on my Endurox IV drip (just kidding!), and led the group in stretching. I continued to feel very good, although tired. Once we got finished with all the stretching, I joined a good crew for the Barton Springs cold soak. That was simply awesome! We had a lot of laughs after the total immersion start to the cold soak (that's just the only way to get in that chilly water), and the 30 minutes of chillin' went by in a flash. It's just amazing how much better you feel after you let the healing waters do their therapeutic thing.
We had various discussions while soaking, which seemed to be fairly focused on food by the end of the soak. Our bodies were starting to feel better, and now that the muscle aches and general fatigue were pushed back by the water, the brain was starting to tell us all to seek food in a big way.
And that's that. It was a good day of running, and it left me in a really good mood. I wasn't able to get that serious nap until the NASCAR race at night, but the soothing sounds of stock cars roaring around the short track at Bristol helped me nod off.
After analyzing the last 20 miler, I decided that (a) I was still probably a little tired after my yearly visit to guitar camp, and (b) I did a poor job of eating and hydrating the days leading up to that run. This week, I wasn't at guitar camp, so that was taken care of, and I did a more scientific job of loading up with carbs on Friday and Saturday morning. I used the information in the Monique Ryan nutrition book, and I was much better off this particular Saturday. No loss of power, and except for the usual long-run fatigue in those last miles, I felt pretty darned good.
The weather was the usual. Humid and warm, but it may have been a tiny bit less warm than two weeks ago. The sun stayed away until late in the run, which was a good thing. I dropped coolers at the 20 mile turnaround, and then made my way to the park at Robert E. Lee to meet the peeps for the start of our tour ("a three (and a half) hour tour"). I was ready to go by a little after 5:15am, but stayed around to see who wanted to get going with me. After some wobbling around, we finally got moving at 5:25am. Not as early as I'd hoped, but at least I had some running partners. After an initial leg to Mopac, we stopped briefly for a quick cup or two of water, just in case we were ahead of the first official water stop, wherever that was going to be. After that point, my group quickly turned into Amy, Marty and me. Amy was "just" going 14 miles, but it was great to be able to run with her again for a while. We settled into a nice relaxed groove through the hills of Exposition, and made it to the Shoal Creek water/Accelerade stop feeling pretty good. Alex and his faster people caught us just before that stop, the first of several groups that came by us during the outbound leg of the journey. Alex was exceedingly happy for so early in the morning, but that's all good. :-)
Sean was nice enough to be helping out with the water/Accelerade logistics this morning, and I got a quick chance to chat with him while I took a GU, drank plenty of water, and then moved on. So far, so good. 25% done! I had lost one of my 5 GUs somewhere along the way, so Amy was nice enough to give me one of her extra Vanilla Bean GUs to boost my supply back up. How cool is that?!
Splits, miles 1-5: 10:05, 0.4 miles at 10:10 pace, 1:01 water stop at Mopac, then 9:54, 9:52, 9:46, and 0.75 miles at 9:48. 2:34 water/Accelerade/GU stop at Shoal Creek. Relaxed running pace of 9:55/mile, excluding water stops.
We dropped Amy off at the Hancock turnaround, and she slapped the sign ceremoniously and headed back. Bye, Amy! From there, Marty and I had plenty of time to chat and discuss things of little import. Our pace quickened now that the course had leveled out a bit, and we settled into a nice mid-run effort. There was an unexpected water stop at White Rock, and we grabbed a cup or two there. Going up White Rock and up Great Northern, we were running against the tide of the Rogues as they were doing their "Lab" run. As I understand it, they do multiple loops of a 3.5 mile course. That's convenient for logistics like water, but it would be hard mentally. Anyway, we made it to the turnaround in pretty good shape. My water/Accelerade coolers had magically doubled since I dropped them off earlier in the day (Bernard and Sean put out coolers despite the ones I had left). Oh, well, better to have too much water than not enough!
Another decent water/Accelerade/GU stop later, it was time to head back south. So far, so good, even though we weren't halfway yet due to a quirk of the course layout.
Splits miles 6-9.3: 9:30, 9:20, 0.37 at 9:41/mile, 1:24 water/Accelerade stop, then 9:11 and 0.77 miles at 9:37/mile. Longer 2:32 water/Accelerade/GU stop at the turnaround. Running pace dropped to 9:42/mile overall.
Marty and I passed some more people heading to the turnaround, so we found that we weren't the last Gazelles out there. The faster folks were mostly doing 22 miles, so we had an opportunity to finish before most of them came back by us. It became a goal somewhere back in my subconscious brain. We caught Laura on Great Northern, and saw Brad and Jan coming north as we were heading back. That's always good to see your fellow Gazelles. Now that we were retracing our steps, it was a matter of watching the mileage count down as we passed the halfway point of the day's planned mileage. We hit that White Rock water/Accelerade stop on the way back, chatting briefly with Dennis, and then did the shady Shoal Creek portion on to the stop right before 38th Street. This was pretty uneventful (which, truthfully, is the way most of these long runs go), but we kept chugging along nicely through here. There was a long traffic stop at 2222, but we just enjoyed that brief respite. We laughed about how, as runners starting out many years ago, we'd jog in place at stoplights while waiting. Now, we just take those as divine intervention, and catch our breath a bit.
The 38th/Shoal Creek water/Accelerade/GU stop was briefly amusing because the cups had run out. With no new cups, we resorted to several techniques, including holding up the coolers to pour them into our mouths, using an empty ClifBlox bag as a nifty reusable cup, and finally, resorting to picking a relatively clean cup from the trash sack and reusing it. Maybe that bothers some folks, but it worked for us. Sean showed up before we left, and we actually got to use new cups, too. That was a pretty long stop, as several small pace pods passed each other, but we were ready to finish this thing. Onward!
Splits miles 10-13.4: 9:12, 0.76 miles at 9:15/mile, 1:57 water/Accelerade stop, then 0.34 miles at 8:58/mile, an 0:34 traffic light delay, then 9:02 and 9:06 to the water/Accelerade/GU stop. That was a long 4:22 stop, but what the heck. Running pace down to 9:31/mile, not including all that stoppage time. Don't worry, I'll account for it at the end!!
Renee and Leslie were just ahead of Marty and me going up and over the bridge on 35th Street, so we sort of used the old mental "elastic band" trick with them. I envisioned that I had lassoed them with an elastic band, and even though they were slightly pulling away, the tension in that imaginary band was pulling me along. I hope that they didn't feel an actual physical pull from my invisible cord! Marty stayed with me to the dry cleaners, where we grabbed a quick drink of water and doused our heads with a little water, as well. At that point, Marty told me to go on, that he needed to back it down a bit for the homestretch. After thanking him for helping me to get that far, I was off to do the Scenic route "backwards."
I stayed in the shade as much as possible, and shifted into my climbing gear for any uphill bumps, and made pretty good progress during those hilly miles. I came upon another Gazelles water/Accelerade aid station along Scenic Dr., and stopped very briefly there for two cups of refreshment. I passed up Renee and Leslie there, but they'd catch me again, later. Anthony passed me on his bike as I eased down the little hill near River Dr., and then as I made the two turns to take me along the Lake Austin portion of the route, I heard Alex's happy voice way behind me. I was making my way up that long hill when he caught and passed me, but he gave me some encouraging words as he went by, and I was doing well enough that I was able to accept those encouraging words without getting grumpy about it. That's not always the case, of course, but today, I was still hanging in there pretty strong. I managed to keep Alex in sight for most of the last bit of the Scenic route to the last official water/Accelerade/GU stop at Lake Austin Blvd., and that made me feel pretty good, as well. Finally done with the hilly stuff, all I had to do now was fight off any mental demons in the last couple of miles.
Splits miles 14-16.7: 9:19, 0.34 miles at 9:01/mile, 1:01 water stop at the dry cleaners, 0.55 miles at 9:07, 0:37 water/Accelerade stop, then 9:17 and 0.47 miles at 9:09/mile. 2:49 water/Accelerade/GU stop. Running pace 9:28/mile.
Renee and Leslie caught me and left me in the dust at that stop. They later revealed their secret strategy of running along the north side of Lake Austin Blvd., to enjoy a much more shaded running course for a mile or so. I failed to grasp that idea as I ran along by myself, but I was proud that I pushed through that long, straight stretch of sunny road without giving up too much time. After a seemingly endless passage of time, I finally reached Veterans, and was able to enjoy the fact that I was going to have a good finish to this run. My legs were tired, but I felt okay, given that I was over 18 miles into my running day. I took advantage of the outdoor shower at Mopac, and doused my head really quickly for a little extra relief, but didn't take on any more drinking water there. Dodging several groups of walkers and such on the trail didn't even bother me this morning, due to my good mood. I was even able to pick it up a little in the last bit of the run, and was very happy to reach the parking lot at Rbt. E. Lee for the big finish. Done!
Splits miles 17-20: 9:18, 0.71 miles at 9:08/mile, 0:23 water shower stop (Ahhhh...), 9:34 (trail traffic, but who cares?), and 0.43 miles at 9:09/mile. Final totals were 19.85 miles at 9:26/mile running pace. With the voluminous stoppage time included, the overall pace for the day slipped to 10:24/mile, but given the conditions, I'll take that.
After some significant huffing and puffing, I paired up with Renee for some striders (I did 4 of them), and I actually felt okay doing them. My legs felt good, at least. I've felt much worse doing striders after a really long run before, so this was a big improvement! After that, I got on my Endurox IV drip (just kidding!), and led the group in stretching. I continued to feel very good, although tired. Once we got finished with all the stretching, I joined a good crew for the Barton Springs cold soak. That was simply awesome! We had a lot of laughs after the total immersion start to the cold soak (that's just the only way to get in that chilly water), and the 30 minutes of chillin' went by in a flash. It's just amazing how much better you feel after you let the healing waters do their therapeutic thing.
We had various discussions while soaking, which seemed to be fairly focused on food by the end of the soak. Our bodies were starting to feel better, and now that the muscle aches and general fatigue were pushed back by the water, the brain was starting to tell us all to seek food in a big way.
And that's that. It was a good day of running, and it left me in a really good mood. I wasn't able to get that serious nap until the NASCAR race at night, but the soothing sounds of stock cars roaring around the short track at Bristol helped me nod off.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)