Twelve-Mile Taper Run

Actually mostly a walk, but it felt like a run.  In accordance with recent custom I did 4-mile loops, three different ones,

Starting the third 4-mile loop

each beginning and ending at our house, so the problems of nature breaks and water refills are entirely solved.  I love that our new house is just 60 yards from a trail!  (One of the several reasons why we chose it.)

I did very little running, except for a 20-second jaunt at the beginning and end of each 4-mile loop, and a few more short jaunts in the last quarter mile of the last loop.  I feel like I could keep up that pace all day.

As you can see it is a lovely day, about 70 degrees, bright and sunny, breezy toward the end when I needed cooling the most.  I started at 6:05 am, because I have a lot to do today, and finished at about 9:00 am.  I stopped my watch when I took nature breaks and fetched water - the split times and pace are shown below.

Whining:  none!

2-mile splits: 26:40, 28:24, 28:36, 29:01, 27:25, 28:12, total 2:48:18, pace 14:02.

Walk with Steve

Saturday, August 8, 2015:

We went east instead of west on the new Zephyr trail this morning - haven't done that before.  We turned around at the Mile One marker, about 1.8 miles from the park where we start, making the round trip about 3.6 miles.  I clicked my watch at 50:59, so the pace was about 14:10.

Steve & I sort of pushed each other I think, walking just as fast as we could.  Great walk, good company, no running, no pains!

Splits: 25:04 (down hill), 25:55 (up hill), total 50:59, pace 14:10

Tartan Terrible 2015

This is a fun 4.3-mile evening race, advertised as "A non-certified, non-boring, non-conforming, non-exact 4 mile run over grass, sand and asphalt...and through water, weeds and mud."  I just love this race!  It's two loops, mostly on grass or dirt, mostly along the edges of a non-flat golf course.  Definitely non-boring.  Indeed there is a water hazard as well, a bit of a swamp in fact, and this year the water was calf-high if you stayed to the right on the "path" through the weeds, otherwise if you slid to the left, anything in your shorts pockets was at risk!

With a marathon coming up I mostly walked, but ran some of it, probably more than I should have,

At the Start

considering the risk of injury.  Nevertheless I got away with it, nothing hurts, I had a great time.  I do this race every year and this was certainly my slowest, but I was careful and finished in about 57 minutes I think.  (I forgot to click my watch at the finish and results aren't up yet.)  The first loop took 30:31, but I ran a lot more of the time in the second.  If 57 is close, then I did the 4.3 miles at a pace of about 13:15, faster than I have been training for the upcoming marathon.

I had decided NOT to run, just walk, but that's very hard to do when there are runners just ahead.  Inevitably, in the last half of the race, I start to catch up to some runners who went out too fast.  That's fun - I just have to pass them!.  This year I was concerned about finishing last, but other people took care of that for me.

Shoes, sox, shorts, & shirt went right in the wash, Don went in the shower, now all cleaned up.

20 Miles & Plenty Left

Monday, August 3, 2015:

Pace 14:21 - not bad.  If I never needed to stop, and could go just another 6 miles at that pace, I would finish a marathon in 6:17, a little faster than my last one!  

Of course I do need to stop for a nature break now and then, and the last 6 miles are the toughest, but I felt good at the end of this walk/run.  It was a perfect 20-mile training run - even the weather was perfect, 55 and calm at the start, 72 and breezy at the finish, mostly sunny.

The course consisted of five different 4-mile routes, each starting and ending at our house, making nature breaks and water refills easy.  I ran very little of it - just 15 or 20 seconds at the beginning and end of each route, and slightly more than that in the last quarter mile.  The pace was consistent - every mile was slightly faster than 15 minutes.  I stopped my watch during nature breaks, and can't do that in a real race, but still finished the 20 miles in just five hours elapsed time, 6:00 am to 11:00 am.

I took five Clif Shot gels along the way, several salt tablets, and 16 ounces of water every four miles except the first four.

Whining:  My right hamstring hurt a little after mile 3, a feeling which reminded me of a time in 2004 when a part of that hamstring actually did break during the Twin Cities Marathon, requiring me to walk to the finish.  Today it got better as I went along, though, and by the end I didn't feel it at all.  I think if I actually DO the stretches that I know how to do, every day for the next three weeks, that hamstring will be fine in the walking marathon.

2-mile splits:  26:23, 28:51, 28:57, 29:20, 29:28, 27:36, 28:50, 28:48, 29:59, 28:47, 4:46:57, pace 14:21 

Saturday, August 1:

Today we policed one mile of the new Zephyr trail, walking at a modest pace and picking up trash along the way.  We found very little trash!  We went a little beyond our scheduled turnaround, probably walking 2.5 miles total.  Easy.

Thursday, July 30:

Four miles, no problems.  Pace 14:01.  Two-mile splits: 28:10, 27:53, 56:02

Monday, July 27:

Twelve miles.  No problems.  Two-mile splits:  27:08, 29:27, 29:36, 31:07, 29:19, 29:32, total 2:56:10, pace 14:41.

Saturday, July 25:

Best four miles.  Two-mile splits: 27:34, 27:58, total 55:33, pace 13:53, sub-14!  I walked with Charley on the Zephyr Trail this morning, and we pushed it.  Thanks Charley.

Wednesday, July 22:

Better than last week.  This is DEX day, the day after I take my dexamethasone.  Last week on DEX day I did a longish run (walk) of 14 miles and experienced a lot of pep, a known DEX feature, but tired muscles.  Today I had the pep but muscles were fine, despite the 16-miler two days ago.  Go figger.

No problems.  Time 56:27, distance 4.00 miles, pace 14:07.  Not bad at all, since I'm shooting for sub-14.  Might get there!

What was different?

• Shorter run of course, but last week even the first two miles were slower than they should have been.
• I did start out from the house with a short run this time - maybe that stretches ligaments & things.
• I took my DEX later in the evening last night - maybe that makes some kind of a difference.

Sixteen Easy

Monday, July 20, 2015

All walking except for three little runs in the last quarter mile.  No pains at all.  Zero whining, and the last 4-mile loop was almost as fast as any of the other three.  This is a good thing.  Maybe my problems with the right hamstring are behind me (*wink), though I'm close enough to the next marathon now that I'll just keep walking, with very little running, to avoid an injury.  

Maybe 18 miles next week?  Maybe shorter than 18 but longer during the week?  Then 20 the week after.  That should do it.

Splits: 29:52, 29:39, 29:02, 29:12, 29:33, 29:15, 30:03, 29:30, total 3:56:05, for 16.04 miles, pace 14:43.  I'd like to get to sub-14, but I'll take what I can get.

Never Again

Will I do a long run on DEX day!  I took my 40 mg of dexamethasone last night, as part of the new weekly myeloma treatment regimen.  DEX makes a person feel peppy all day the next day, as if seriously over-caffeinated.  That feeling is misleading, though, because DEX actually interferes with the transfer of glucose into muscles, so my legs felt weak and tired after the first mile. 

Result: I can usually walk faster than 15 minutes per mile, but today the pace was 16:01, even though I tried to go as fast as usual and it felt like I was.  True - there were some distractions; I stopped three times to chat briefly or pet a sweet dog, and was on the phone (possibly walking slower) for 15 minutes, but those don't account for the 14-minute difference.  I walked all but the last 60 meters, which I ran just to see if I could.  A little stiff, and yup I could, but I'm glad I didn't run any more than that because the right thigh was feeling it.

Whining:

• Back:  No problem with the usual place on the right side, but I did feel a little pain on the left side, a little higher up.  It's a familiar pain from long runs and marathons, though, so I'm not concerned about it. 
• Thigh:  The right thigh that usually gives trouble lately didn't bother much.  At about mile 7.5 I felt a sharp pain toward the inside, perhaps in an adductor muscle or ligament, but that went away.  Yay!

Based on today's walk I believe that I can run the next marathon at a 15- or 16-minute pace and finish it within the time limit.  I'd prefer to do a 14-minute pace, with a little running, but I'll make that judgment on race morning.

Saturday, July 11:

Another 4-Mile Walk   With the St Croix Valley Runners.  Out two miles on the Zephyr Trail, then back.  It's a very pleasant walk on an old railbed, now nicely blacktopped, with a lovely bridge over the only busy road that the trail crosses.  It's the kind of trail that a person could do every morning without getting tired of it.  Four miles in 56:30, pace 14:08, all walking, no running.  

My back didn't hurt during the walk, though it did hurt a little afterward.  The right thigh bothered a little, but not too much and it didn't get worse.

Easy Day

Just joking.  At 7:00 am four miles of walking in 56 minutes, then two hours of lawn mowing and another hour prepping a wall for painting, and in the afternoon 12 miles on the bike in 60 minutes.  

• Walking: I can't run right now.  The original hamstring injury may be mostly healed now, but another has appeared in the same right thigh over the next few days, more toward the adductors.  This feels familiar - a pain that I have experienced in marathons if not in training.  It's not a stopper, but for now it's best to try to heal it.  I tried running once today and decided not to run any more.  14-minute miles is not bad, though.
• Mowing and wall prep: Oh I wish we could sell our sweet house on the lake.  We're comfortably ensconced in our new townhouse now - I'd love to be done with the ongoing work and expense of our previous home of 36 years.  The mower is a walk-behind btw.
• Bike: Riding is continuous work, mostly on paved trails with a steady grade, rarely downhill steeply enough to coast for a bit.  Very good for the leg muscles - entirely apart from running, the dexamethasone that I take tends to disassemble the leg muscles, especially the quads, and biking will help to reduce that damage.

My back hurt a little after all that work.

I slept well Saturday night.

Last Wednesday & Thursday: Two more 4-mile walk/runs, running not more than 20 seconds of each 5 minutes, and on both days I did feel the new pain in the right thigh.  Sigh.