Run to Remember 11k Race Strategy

This Sunday is the 15th annual Run to Remember 11k/5k. I've signed up for the 11k and am really looking forward to it. I don't remember if they've always done the two race distances or if this is something they started recently, but I like it. I've run the 5k a couple of times in the past, and have enjoyed it. I'll write up a full race report after the fact on Sunday or Monday, but the main thing I wanted to outline was my general plan for the weekend and for Sunday.

After jetting over to pick up my race packet after work, I'm going to slog through the heat and humidity to get a 5 mile "easy" run in this evening. I took yesterday off, and intend to take tomorrow as a rest day as well, so even though it's awful outside (feels more like mid-July than early September), I got to get that run done. That's the bad news.

The good news is that it is supposed to cool off considerably by Sunday, but I'm willing to bet the forecast will be slightly off, and it'll still be really humid and steamy come race morning. This may actually be advantageous, as I've been running outside in this horrible soup for a couple months now, while a lot of the runners on Sunday will have been indoors on the treadmill, making for a very terrible wake up call. The race doesn't even start until 8:45, so it will likely be in the high 70's by then and should feel like the mid 80's with the humidity.

My plan is to go out slower than I think is fair, at least for the first 2-3 miles, for a couple reasons. First, this will ensure I don't flame out by mile 5 or 6 so I can finish strong. Second, it'll be very

Labor Day Long Weekend Run Plan

The Labor Day long weekend is upon us, and I've got a fairly aggressive (for me) plan for running this weekend. To begin with, I'm taking Friday off so I'll have a nice extra-long weekend with four days away from the office. That gives me plenty of time to get some good running in, I think.

One variable that I hadn't considered (or really, that I HAD to consider) until yesterday, was Tropical Storm Hermine, which is right now battering Florida, but which will eventually make its way up the coast and reach eastern and central Maryland. It's still kind of uncertain as to just how far west the storm will track; farther east and we may only get some showers on Sunday; farther west and we'll get drenched. 

But, the forecast right now is calling for Sunday to be the rainiest day of the weekend, with Friday being great, Saturday less so, and Monday being fine. But the entire program here is built around my long run this Saturday, which will be my first 10 miler. I've hit 9.5 miles a couple times now, so I think I can do 10, albeit slowly. So, below, I've outlined my ideal running schedule for the weekend. 

Thursday (e.g. Earlier this evening): Easy 5 miles. Nothing crazy and it felt good overall. Kind of an introductory run for the weekend. 

Friday: 3 miles, SUPER easy. Nothing special, but I do want

2012 Freedom's Run Half Marathon Race Report

Mission accomplished, as someone once prematurely said. But in this case, it's true. We successfully completed the Freedom's Run Half Marathon on Saturday morning, despite what I would call a very challenging course and frigid temperatures. We'll take it in chronological order. To wit:

A. and I arrived at my parents' house around 6 PM Friday night after dropping off the dog at the kennel and picking up our race packets. Our packets were really just our shirts and bibs, as all the local racing stuff didn't really apply to us, being from out of town and all. We went out to dinner at a local Italian food place, where I feasted on spaghetti and meatballs and A. had veal parmigiana. Temperatures are generally anywhere from 5 to 10 degrees cooler out in the mountains than in Baltimore, and by the time we were done dinner around 8, it was already dipping into the high 40s. The region west of DC and Baltimore was under a freeze warning that night.

When we got up around 6:30 AM the next morning, it was cold and dark...temps were hovering around freezing and nice frost had coated the lawn and fields around my parents' house. We bundled up, ate a little bit, and were on our way to Shepherdstown, WV (the starting line) by 7 AM.

The race was well organized and we easily found the starting line (Shepherdstown isn't very big, being some neighborhoods, a downtown and then Shepherd University). We donated three pairs of old running shoes to be recycled or donated, which was awesome because we'd been waiting for that opportunity to get rid of those old shoes, and checked my backpack about 10 minutes before the race began.

The field was fairly small...I'd say there were no more than 700 half marathoners. Compare that to the 11,000 who ran the Baltimore Half Marathon on Saturday! We made our way to the starting pack after a quick visit to the port-o-potties (plenty of them around, which was great), and waited in the 32 degree air. Luckily, it was crystal clear and sunny with little wind.

Just after 8:05, the horn sounded and we were off! A. and I started in the back of the small pack but we separated quickly as we settled into our race strategies. The course (see below) took us across the Potomac River, along the C&O Canal Tow Path, then up into the countryside to Antietam Battlefield National Park, through the park, then back down Sharpsburg Pike across the river back into Shepherdstown and finishing in Rams Stadium.

 

The course was incredibly beautiful thanks to the brillant blue sky, bright sunshine, crisp(!) clean air, and golds, reds, browns and greens of the mountains surrounding us. As we crossed the river into Maryland, you could look down to the river and see fog rising off the water as well. Like I told A. later, this time of year always reminds me why I like coming back to my home state to visit.

 

I kept my pace deliberately slow the first three flat miles of the race because I knew that at mile 3, we'd hit the first of several steep hills that would destroy me if I went out too hard. The hills were the worst part of the course. The worst is the monster at mile 3 (see below), but you also hit successive hills between miles 5 through 10, climbing in elevation overall. That final climb at mile 10 was really just awful.

 

 

I resolved, as I started to climb that first monster at mile 3, to at least jog all the hills, no matter how much it hurt, and that's exactly what I did. I used the hills to pass a lot of people, although some of them would catch up to me when I stopped at two water stations to eat my gel blocks. But I can't eat and run, so there really was no other option. Most of them I ended up passing for good though in the final few miles.

 

By the time I was on Sharpsburg Pike coming back towards Shepherdstown, I was hurting. The gel blocks saved me, for certain, as they gave me extra fuel to make it those last several miles. And of course seeing the bridge back across the river gave me a final push to 13.1.

 

I knew after hitting that big hill on mile 3, that a fast time (for me) was likely not going to happen, so I wasn't too bummed about the final time of 2:17:17 (according to my watch). I didn't flame out, I ran all the hills, I followed my fueling strategy, and I didn't kill myself, so like I said at the beginning, mission accomplished.

 

So what's next? We'll probably do a Thanksgiving Day race as we did last year in Cincinnati. Although this year we're spending the holiday with my family, down in Charleston on the beach. There's a 5K Thanksgiving morning we'll sign up for shortly. Other than that, my immediate goals are to maintain and continue to improve my fitness with several weekday morning runs and a long run on the weekends. Ideally I'll do some shorter distances over the winter and then another half in March or April.









Ending Training on a Strong Note

With work being incredibly hectic the last week or so, I haven't had much time to sit down and craft my usual Homeric-poem-level post. But I have a lull in the storm now, so thought I'd put a few words together.

This past Sunday was the final long run before the half marathon. I had started out the week with the intention of going 12 miles, a recent high for a run. But as the week wore on, I started thinking it would make more sense, and be less onerous, to scale it back a bit and maybe do 9 miles. When Sunday rolled around, it was cold and rainy here in the East, so I didn't get out the door until nearly noon.

But it turned into a perfect running day: mid-50s, dry, cloudy with a breeze. The later start actually helped a lot, I think, because I had time to eat breakfast before heading out. I went with a wheat bagel, PB and honey, along with some water. I went with that after reading an interesting (and timely!) article in the recent Runner's World (can't find it online, for some reason) about pre-race, race and post-race nutrition. It suggests eating several hours before your race and focusing on carbs, to a degree. They suggested the bagel, so I thought I'd try it. And they cautioned against coffee, as it can lead to "distress" while on the course.

I think it really helped me, as I ate maybe 90 minutes before my run, so I had time to digest. I went out with the goal of 9 miles and running at a pace that felt slower than what I thought was reasonable. My route was down to Ft. McHenry, around the Seawall Trail and then back.

 

 

By the time I got to the fort, my legs still felt really fresh. I thought, "you know, I bet I could go 10 instead of nine." That's only an extra loop around the fort, give or take. I ate four gel blocks after the first loop around the fort, along with some water, although the foolish part of my mind was saying I didn't feel like I needed them. But the rational part of me knew I was lucky to feel that way now; that by the time I got back into Federal Hill, I'd be bonking if I didn't get those new carbs in my system now. And, the Tropical Punch flavor tastes like Gushers, so it was like I was in 4th grade again. The second loop felt fine, and I was keeping a good handle on my tempo, focusing on going slow so I could run the whole time and not walk, other than stopping at the water fountain.

 

Another lap around and back through Fed Hill and my legs actually felt stronger and less tired than when I had started out. By the time I got back up Calvert Street, I was feeling it, because that's basically a mile and a half uphill climb, but I wasn't cooked or anything.

 

Basically, it was a solid long run and by the time I stopped, at about 10.4 miles, I felt confident that, had that been the half, I could have gone 13.1 without too much trouble. I was glad to get such a strong end to my long run training...I'm hoping that translates well to next Saturday. What was also encouraging was that after the run, my legs didn't feel as trashed as they have in the past. Maybe that's a combination of the deliberately slower pace and cooler weather, but I'd like to think having enough fuel from the breakfast and gels and sodium from the GU drink helped things as well. Overall, I just felt less beaten up after this run than in weeks past...maybe my body is finally adapting to the longer mileage? 



End of Crazy Two Weeks

Ed.: I totally forgot about the Blue Moon Run back on the 31st. Mainly because we left town the next morning for a wedding in DC. I'll make my next post a race report. Promise.

By today, the craziness of the last two weeks or so will, with any luck, abate somewhat, and allow me to breathe a bit. I've essentially been doing three jobs (mine, and two other guys who have been on vacation or who have left our group) since last week, which doesn't sound all that hard. But I was in the office only two days last week, which meant I was doing five days' worth of work in two. Multiply that by three jobs and you see why the posting has been sporadic. Truth be told, I spend a little time at the office taking a break and writing posts, so that spare time was the first to go when things picked up. It was hectic, to say the least, and I was thrilled when the weekend arrived and we got out of town for a few days.

But, that hasn't really impacted my training, for the most part. We were in DC for a wedding for Labor Day weekend and I was able to get my 7 miler in before the ceremony. It was really humid that weekend, which made the run very tough going, much less the outdoor wedding ceremony later that afternoon. But it was a scenic run down the Rock Creek Park Trail, to the Lincoln Memorial and back again.



Red balloon marks the start and end points



We spent this past weekend at The Homestead resort in Hot Springs, VA. It's an old resort out in the mountains that's all about old-school Southern luxury and it was really nice. We had planned to go canoeing on Saturday, but it was rainy much of the day, which actually worked out better. A. and I both went to the fitness center and did our long runs instead. I generally hate doing long runs on a treadmill, but there really wasn't any other option. The resort is literally off a state road in the mountains of southern Virginia, so there are no sidewalks to speak of. And the trails, while beautiful, are steep and not ideal for a slow 8 mile run. For instance, we hiked to the top of a mountain hill overlooking the resort on Friday evening after we arrived. I'll post our pictures from the hike later, as they're on our desktop at home.

So, the treadmill it was. But I got it done without too much trouble, and am on track to hit a nine miler this weekend. And afterward, we changed and relaxed in the heated indoor pool while it rained and temps dropped into the high 50s outside. Then we hit afternoon tea (free hot or iced tea, sandwiches and sweets!) and then went back to the room and chilled until dinner. So, not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

The weather here in Baltimore has broken, at least for the time being, and temps are barely reaching 80 with reasonable humidity. A. wants to go up to the NCR Trail this weekend to do our long runs, so the weather should be ideal for that. We're done traveling for a bit, which is good because we've spent the past three weekends out of town and I'm ready for a weekend at home, frankly.

Everyone is Running Downhill Except Me

So, turns out that the men's Olympic marathon was on Sunday and not Saturday...who knew? In the back of my mind, I thought Saturday was not the right day, but I plowed ahead anyway. And within maybe an hour I realized I was wrong, but really didn't feel like logging in to Blogger and changing the post, etc. So, my bad. Somehow I doubt it made much of a difference.

But, for those who didn't blindly follow my post and not visit any other Olympics-related website the entire weekend, Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich won the gold medal, claiming that country's first gold in the marathon in 2:08:01. Silver and bronze were claimed by Kenyans Abel Kirui (2:08:27) and Wilson Kipsang (2:09:37).


However, American Meb Keflezighi came in fourth after being as far back as 19th around the halfway point in the race. That's a fantastic finish for Meb, who is 37 and was the silver medalist in Athens in 2004. He covered 26 miles, 385 yards in 2:11:06. Here's an article on Runner's World about his race. These were his final Olympics, and I'm happy to see he went out on such a positive note.

Anyway, this weekend saw some wonderful weather here (for August, of course), and I completed my 5.5 miler under a cloudless sky in high 70s temperatures and low humidity. The sun was intense and it was definitely toasty in the sunlight versus the shade, but compared to some runs earlier in the summer, it was nice. I ran around the harbor and down into Federal Hill/Locust Point before turning around and coming back up into Mt. Vernon.



As you can see from the elevation chart above, the route has some decent elevation changes and the final mile or so is all uphill as you climb from sea level at the harbor up into Mt. Vernon. But I swear every time I ran uphill, I passed several other runners going downhill. But then when I was running downhill, I never once saw anyone else running uphill in the opposite direction. More than once I was trudging uphill only to be passed by another runner cruising downhill at warp speed. They ran almost effortlessly as I seemed to drag myself up the side of a mountain. Yet I never got the reward of feeling (mistakenly) athletically superior to those poor saps heading uphill as I glided, as if on two little clouds instead of shoes, downhill. "Well, everyone's a freaking Olympic marathoner when running downhill," I kept thinking to myself. Yet that didn't take away the indignity.

OK, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, but still, when you run up a hill, you want SOME form of instant reward. "This will pay off in October" only does so much to take away the burn of the lactic acid in one's legs, you know. At some point, one needs to see someone else suffering a little to take away that sting. Yet on Sunday, it seemed I was stuck in some sort of runner's punishment where I run uphill and a.) it always feels awful and b.) never run downhill and feel satisfied that someone else is suffering too, which makes the next uphill feel more awful.

But, them's the breaks, I suppose. And really, it will all be worth it come October. Right?

Impromptu Tempo Run and Friday Misc.

My battle with myself over sleep schedules continued this week and impacted my running. I did well with getting enough sleep early in the week, but faltered on Wednesday night, going to bed after 11 PM with the intention of waking up at 6 for a run Thursday morning. Needless to say, it didn't happen. So, I needed to wake up this morning to make up for it.

Unfortunately, I awoke to a sky that was as dark as night...I got dressed and walked outside to see dark clouds rolling in overhead. I looked on the radar back inside and sure enough, a mass of heavy rain was moving in at 6:15 in the morning. I don't mind running in bad weather, so long as I don't start my run in bad weather. For instance, beginning a run with cloudiness that turns into rain a few miles in is no big deal. But it's demoralizing to begin a run when it's raining. By the time I did all that, it was nearly 6:30, so I decided t bag the outdoor run and hit the gym for a short tempo run. My 2 mile run got me finished about 7. Just in time to head back in pouring rain. Hooray! So, my tempo run was a little longer, as I ran home, getting soaked along the way.

An interesting side story: there were two people (one man, one woman) working out with a trainer while I was there. They were downstairs at first, but then ran up the stairs and did a jogging circuit around the gym. Then they came upstairs to the treadmills. At one point, they got on the treadmill and proceeded to run way faster than they were capable of running. The woman was beside me and I could tell she was going faster than her legs could carry her because her feet were pounding on the treadmill as the mill took her feet out from under her. Luckily, the trainer was there and slowed it down for her. Otherwise...well, you've seen the YouTube videos of people getting swept off treadmills.

This sort of thing continued for about 10 minutes and the woman would speed back up, only to start grunting, gasping, crying out and wailing until the trainer slowed it back down. Then she'd keep saying, "It's too hard! I can't do this!" and so forth as she walked to catch her breath. Then they chatted about preseason football and the Real Housewives show on Bravo. Then he'd speed her back up and the weird cycle would begin again. I kept thinking the woman would realize how much energy and breath she was wasting with the melodrama and chatting, but it never happened. Eventually, the shenanigans ended and they moved on to some other part of the gym.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

In other news, tomorrow is my bi-weekly comics run, and I'm looking forward to picking up this month's Batman issue, which has gotten strong reviews all around. I found the first trade paperback combining the first seven issues of the comic (this month is issue #12) at the local library, so I now only need to read issues #8 and #9 to be fully caught up. All the issues are strong, but I think issue #5 is perhaps one of my favorite comics ever. Full stop.

This weekend is Wizard's World in Chicago, which is their comic-con. Here is an interview with Greg Capullo (lead artist of Batman) from the Chicago Sun Times.

I'm also picking up The Massive #3. The jury is still out on this book, and the third issue will be pivotal in determining whether I continue to read the book or not. It got a good review on Comic Book Resources, but I feel they engage in grade inflation to maintain access to creators and artists, so I will see for myself.

Weekend Training Schedule: July 7-8, 2012

Since I ran yesterday, and am committed to not over-training in the early days of the Second Age of Morning Running, I did not run this morning. But to make up for that, I want to run both Saturday and Sunday.

The forecast for this weekend hasn’t changed all that much. All three days are supposed to see triple digit highs with high humidity. As a result, my running this weekend will take place early in the mornings, which is not conducive for sleeping in, but very conducive for avoiding heat stroke.

I plan on getting three miles in tomorrow morning around 7AM, followed by a “long” run of 3.5 to 4 miles Sunday morning around the same time. I put long in quotation marks because obviously that’s not long in the “My long run this weekend will be my final 20 miler before the marathon,” sense of long. But hey, I’m recently back to running and don’t wish to try to crank out 6 miles and shatter my knee.

And I need to get up and out the door early because my 3.5 mile run last Sunday morning devolved into a death march right around mile three. I waited until after 9AM to head out, which may sound early chronologically speaking, but climatologically speaking it really wasn’t. It was already well above 80 and humid by the time I got going and by the time I staggered home, it was nearly 90.

And with that, I’m off for lunch out in the fetid oven that is downtown Baltimore in July.

Running in Geologic Time

Nobody reading this blog, whether on purpose, after losing a bet, or through the black-box algorithms of a misguided Google search, will be surprised to learn that running in the early morning or late at night during the summer is the way to go. Baltimore and Washington in the summer tend to become roiling concrete kilns with oppressive humidity mixed in for good measure. Of course, folks living in Florida or Arizona or elsewhere in the Deep South or Southwest will say, "You think you're hot? Just try living in Orlando/New Orleans/Jackson/Flagstaff in July!" To which I say, you're probably right that it's worse there than here on any given day from June through mid-September. But that's the point, right? Many of us have to deal with the heat and running in some fashion. Really, when the temperature goes above 85 (arbitrary number), you're dying on your run whether it's in Boston or Birmingham.

To that end, I present this screenshot of the Weather Channel's forecast for Baltimore for the next five days:

For Baltimore, that's absurd. The 108 high on Saturday is particularly crazy, because the tropical humidity has arrived, which could make the heat index go somewhere around 115. 

All this is by way of saying that running early in the morning is a must for me these days. There was a time, a brief time, an Age of Lunch Running (in the geological meaning...as in shorter than an epoch, period, era or eon), when I thought running during my lunch hour would work great for my schedule. Wrong! Turns out it takes more than an hour to change into running clothes, get outside of a skyscraper, run, cool down, come back to the gym in the office, change, shower, put work clothes back on and get back to my desk. Which didn't work.

Moreover, while lunch running is fine for winter months, once you hit May, it's terrible until late September around here. Much of Baltimore, you'll be shocked to learn, lacks decent tree cover, especially downtown. So you're in the direct sun at the hottest part of the day. At first, it was a bit of a badge of honor to run in such hot conditions. Nobody else was out running and it felt like the summer corrollary to running in a snow storm in January or a downpour in April: you're a hard ass! Right?!

Wrong. Stupid. And wrong.

The hottest day I ever ran in reached 97 degrees (gross of the heat index); it took me a day to rehydrate and my body was sluggish for two days. Terrible idea and it was the beginning of the end of the Age of Lunch Running.

Now, I prefer to run before work for both climatological and scheduling reasons. I prefer to be done with my exercise early so I don't have to motivate myself at 5:30 PM after working all day to do it. The Age of Evening Running was even shorter than the Age of Lunch Running and never really got off the ground. I much prefer the quiet, largely car- and pedestrian-free streets of Baltimore at 6AM, in addition to the cooler temperatures.

Currently, I am in the early years of the Second Age of Morning Running. If I can maintain consistent running, I think I have a real chance to get it to an epoch eventually. 108 degree days will certainly help me keep motivated to wake up at 6AM when it's a cool 80 degrees, as it was this morning.