St Croix Valley Runners

You can see the oatmeal this time,
with raisins in it.  All organic.

We three took a grandchild and his dog to run with the St Croix Valley Runners today.  I especially wanted to hear Mary’s stories about running a marathon in Mongolia, and was able to run at her speed for much of the five miles, though I did have to drop back in the last mile or so.  I finished in 47 or 48 minutes, I think - I forgot to click my watch at the end.

The run felt good - legs were a little tired, but that’s no surprise just a week after a marathon.  Nothing hurt.  It’s a masterpiece.

Recovery Run

Salad, all organic

Three days after a marathon I like a short run to get the muscles moving again.  This morning I ran on the grass trails in the park, almost completely free of dew because of the warm overnight temperatures.

I had planned to run three miles slowly, without walking, but my legs told me right away that it would be more fun to walk a bit.  So I walked about 20 seconds of each minute, finishing the three miles in 32:34, for a pace of 10:39.  Plenty good enough for a recovery run.

Whining: None!  That’s wonderful, three days after a marathon.

Timmy’s Challenge, Parker’s Marathon

This completes my 66th marathon in the 47th state since the myeloma diagnosis.  West Virginia probably shouldn’t host a marathon in August, but it worked out OK today.  The predicted high was near ninety, but the marathon started at 6:30 and by the time I was done at 11:40 the temperature had just reached 80.

My Marathon:

This was the fastest marathon of my last twelve, 5:09:51, and I finished fourth of 13 in my age group of 65 - 72.  I’m a happy runner!  I had gone out fairly fast in the beginning, to take advantage of the cool start, thinking that I’d slow toward the end if necessary.  Sure enough, my calves started to cramp in the last two miles and I had to walk in, but I’m fine with the total time.  Only one person passed me in the last half of the marathon and I passed several.  The warm weather got to everyone.  I took six Clif Shot gels and plenty of Thermotab salt tablets during the run.

Trail, aid station, and tunnel entrance

North Bend Rail Trail:

All but about a mile and a half of the marathon is on the North Bend Rail Trail.  It is wide, straight (mostly), and the hills are long and gradual.  Best of all, it is just scrumptious, mostly wooded and shaded, cut through the hills of West Virginia as a railroad right-of-way would be, with 15 or 20 bridges, and through one 1300-foot tunnel (flashlights required).  It's an out-and-back, so we did all of that twice.   I would run on this trail again in a heartbeat.  It’s not a place for a personal best, though.  The surface is rough gravel, with some stones large enough to be worth dodging.  Every step crunched on the gravel. Combined with the miles-long upward (and downward) slopes and the warm temperatures, it was more tiring than a nice, level, cool marathon course.  But I’m very happy with it!

Whining:

The right hip flexors (hernia-repair side) started to hurt at about mile six and kept right on to the end, though it wasn’t a limiting factor.  I suspect that they wouldn’t have been any problem if only I had done my hip-flexor stretches regularly.  Tsk.  The hernia repair itself hurt just a little, especially if I poked it.  So don’t poke it.  Duh.  Otherwise no problems at all, and none afterward, not even a cramp during our six-hour drive after the marathon was over.

Parker’s Marathon:

All in all, Parker’s Marathon was well enough organized and I had a good time.  At the finish we all enjoyed a marvelous repast with every kind of picnic food one can imagine, all still available for late-finishers like myself.  Enroute, aid stations were almost sufficient in number, but the distance between them varied widely, from a mile and a half to four and a half.  The web site did not suggest that runners should carry water to fill in the longer intervals, but anyone who wasn’t carrying water could have been pretty dry at times.  I carried water.  Next year this race will be three weeks later, in a different city, and on a different rail trail, so this and other similar suggestions are probably irrelevant.

We were disappointed that the half marathon did not give out finishers’ medals.  Every one of the 36 half marathons that my gals have run before have provided medals for the finishers.  It’s true that the web site did not promise finishers’ medals among the “What’s Included” list, but neither did the marathon, and the marathoners did get finishers’ medals.  Happily, the post-race volunteers found a way to make it good for my gals, because my gals asked about it, but most half-marathon finishers went home empty.  That’s not good.

Splits: 22:22 (2 mi), 10:43, 23:09 (2 mi), 11:44, 13:18, 10:30, 10:11, 10:43, 14:03 (nature break), 10:42, 24:23 (2 mi), 12:00, 23:08 (2 mi), 12:03, 12:07, 33:57 (3 mi), 23:34 (2 mi), 14:03, 17:19 (1.2 mi), total 5:09:57, overall pace 11:49.  Great. I know I can do better, but it’s a masterpiece!

Recovered

This morning’s run was as energetic as Saturday’s was lethargic.  I ran marathon pace, only 30 seconds of each minute, but felt good the whole way and finished with a little extra.  5 miles in 54:00 minutes for a pace of 10:48, admittedly much slower than Saturday, but I’m confident now that I can run a marathon this weekend.

Don't you love fresh-fruit season?

My current theory is that I was dehydrated Saturday.  The loratadine dried me out Friday night, I didn’t know that, and I failed to rehydrate before the Saturday run -  I’m convinced that was the problem.  I felt good at the beginning of Saturday’s run, but totally exhausted at the end.  I’m very impressed that a little dehydration could have such an effect, but that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.  The lesson:  I can't trust my thirst impulse, and have to hydrate even when I'm not thirsty.

Whining: Quads felt strained today, as they might if I had abused them a few days before.  I think this goes back to Saturday’s Run.

Splits (loops of 5.01 mi each): 27:35, 26:23, total 53:58.

Plumb Out of Gas

Saturday, August 18, 2012:

What an unusual run with the St Croix Valley Runners.  Like last week I ran the whole five miles with no walking, but this time I was almost completely out of energy at the finish.  The run took me three and a half minutes longer than it did last week, 49:26 for the five miles, and when I stopped I could barely stand or walk a straight line, as if I'd run a marathon.  I don’t know what’s going on - I do have a cold plus a sinus infection,and had taken loratadine and bactrim the night before, but research on those doesn’t suggest this kind of side effect. Oh well, I have a Mayo visit coming up, with plenty of blood tests to tell me if anything is really wrong.

Another five miles on Monday.  I will run marathon pace, not continuously, and we’ll see.

Three Miles

Wild Alaskan Sockeye salmon, cheese,
organic broccolini, organic beets.

Monday I felt strong right from the start of the run, and today was the opposite. For whatever reasons, my legs felt heavy today and I had trouble running continuously, without walking, which I had intended to do because the run was short, just three miles or so.  After six minutes of running, however, I went into my marathon pace, running just half of each minute.  I ran (and walked) for 34:30, and I’m sure I was doing at least 11 minutes per mile, so I certainly ran at least three miles.  It’ll do for today.  Another day will be better.

Whining: Nothing hurt.

Llamas, goats, horses, & cows

Oh my.  We live quite near the Twin Cities, just 25 minutes from the Humphrey Dome, but far enough out that our short drive to the Gateway Trail takes us past quite a few farms.  I’m glad to say that the crops are looking pretty good too, far better than those pictures of drought areas that we’ve seen on the news lately.  From the trail itself we also see farms with horses and cattle plus, of course, abundant wild birds and animals, not to mention people on regular bikes, recumbent bikes, skis (roller skis?), roller blades, and any other non-motorized conveyance you can imagine.  It’s fun to just sit and watch, actually, and there are park benches for people to do just that.  We don’t - we run.

This is taper time, for a marathon in West Virginia a couple of weeks from now.  I went 10 miles, running 30 seconds of each minute, took two gels along the way (you do have to train your innards to accept those gels, else you may need a porta-potty rather badly right when there isn’t one), and plenty of water.  I carried water, as I will in the upcoming marathon.  No salt, though, and I did feel the beginning of a cramp at about mile six, so maybe I should have brought some salt along.  Happily, the cramp went away.

For whatever reason, I felt strong this morning, right off the bat, and could have gone faster.  In fact I did ramp up the speed a bit in the last mile or so, running without any walking.  I can’t do that in a marathon, but the traditional wisdom about taper time is "reduce the distance, but don’t let up on the intensity."  Today's run met those criteria.

Whining:  The right knee with PFS mumbled off and on, but never spoke loudly.  The hernia repair was totally silent!

Splits:  10:37, 10:05, 10:28, 9:54, 10:00, 10:24, 10:27, 11:02, 9:42, 9:19, total 1:41:58 for 10 miles, pace 10:12.

Baby rabbit - sort of ugly, actually,
but probably not to its mother.

After the run I went out to mow the lawn and accidentally uncovered a little nest of four baby rabbits, still without their eyes open and with very little power to move, let alone run away.  They could squirm, and squirm they did, but they were otherwise entirely defenseless.  I don’t like rabbits, they eat our flowers and serve no purpose except as food for the eagles, coyotes, and other predators, but I left them there on the edge of the woods to live or die according to the rules of the wilderness.  I suppose their mom will come back for them, but if not, perhaps they will provide sustenance for one of the predators.

Saturday, August 11, 2012:

Six of us met for the St Croix Valley Runners Saturday morning, our numbers reduced by the Gopher to Badger half marathon that starts in Stillwater and which several of our members like to run.  We took the Lake McKusick route, the faster runners slowing for those others of us, until they thought they knew the rest of the route home (they didn't).  I ran with Jim after the first two miles or so, and of course he pushed me without really knowing it.  He wanted to run an easy fat-burning 8:30 pace, easy for him, but I couldn't go quite that fast.  I like to be pushed like that though.

No walking this time, but we finished the 5 miles in 46 minutes, for a pace of 9:12, not so bad actually.  I wonder how long it would take me to do a 5k these days, with no injuries to worry about.  I’ll find out one of these days - at this time of year there is a 5k within 20 miles of us every weekend, probably several.

Friday, August 10, 2012:

Paved trails in the park today, 2.2 miles in 22:36, pace  10:16.  This completed 30.5 miles for the week.  My goal is 30, except when tapering or recovering, so this is fine.  Most of the time I’m tapering or recovering though!