a slow slide into fall

so much to update. I fell prey to the mind-AND-body snatchers of certain science courses; finished the first round of midterms and started the 2nd (yes, multiple midterms) and I have had a few nights of low sleep, including a bizarrely invigorating 40 minutes (the next day was great, the day after that awful) but now I feel like I have a bit of breathing space. My laptop didn't make it through, though.

I have been running, just not as much. There are multiple culprits, including races (more on the latest), less sunshine (bought cod liver oil this week), studying, and that ccyst which is still on its way out...I prefer this slow deflate to a big bang, but it's been draining in more than one fashion. My total this week is just over 50 km which is low, but I am not feeling like I'm getting much or anything out of running apart from exercising my dog. Runs are not fun. This happens sometimes. So what if November is a down month?

Fortunately, Bodyrock.TV has been a great outlet. I have been doing those workouts 3 times a week--this week, 4! That is a burn I can relate to better nowadays and so I pursue it.

And it has had a positive effect on running. Last week, I ran a 1/2...last minute decision, a friend couldn't use her bib, etc. I was feeling dull but, hey, a race! I showed up and it was cold and there was a lineup for the porta potties, but I had to join it...they delayed the start because I was not the only one, but that extra five minutes of standing around took its toll. My feet were so cold, they didn't seem to be connected to the rest of me properly.

Once the race started, I was able to warm up, but at a price: I knew I was going too fast (just had my watch, but sub 5- min kms are easy math). slowing down was not in the works: I was cold, I was hanging behind some people including someone dressed up as Beetlejuice, and it was a lovely sunny crisp fall day...I was just going to have to see what would happen. The 1/2 is my most natural distance, my strongest PB and my best pacing, etc, etc...time to wrench it out of the comfort zone. I did 5K in 23:30, not sure how fast that was but it was way too fast for the first 5K of a half, but, so what?

I lost much time in the 2nd 5K...the turnaround was at 10.5 km and I was running on unfamiliar paths which was a lot of fun but there was a false turn at one point so I stopped cold for whatever reason and accidentally dropped a gel. i was still breathing hard and had to get used to the idea of doing this for over an hour more...anyway, I hit the turnaround in just over 51 minutes and I was alone. I lost the people I was trailing and I felt like I was going so slowly.

But, somehow, Bodyrocking kicked in and my abs knitted into this painful but solid platform and I was very aware that slowing down would just mean prolonged discomfort. After a few kms, I noticed that they were still sub 5-minutes. I thought that was a fluke, but I started doing math, as long as I got under 1:50, etc, etc, but the kms were still sub 5-min and somehow the math was skittering away but meanwhile, I was still going. It didn't matter that I was alone, I didn't care, I just wanted to get back. There were hills, and the 2nd last one came out of nowhere and ripped up my guts pretty fiercely (honestly, I forgot I was human for a few moments or even a separate entity because everything became a swarm of agony, reddish veil and all--it was a pain similar to the last few reps of weights where I don't know what I'm doing anymore except pushing against pain, which somehow distances itself and lets me go deeper), but once I got to the top of the last hill with less than 1 km to go, I could see the bottom and the end...and then I noticed that the race clock was still under 1:43.

Usually, it's my legs that feel sore, but this time, my guts took the heat! I got a core now.

This was a huge boost, not only because it's so close to my PB which dates from a leaner meaner pre-op time when I was faster at speedwork and about 10 pounds lighter (but now I have 10 more pounds (ok, 5?) of muscle), but ALSO because I went out harder and managed to hang in. I had gotten used to 8 miles of slightly faster than easy pace and 5 miles of more discomfort for a 1/2, I had become too conservative, too scared.

I'm not sure what will happen next year in Kansas (yes, we're moving again) but I have plans for the rest of my time in Ottawa at least. Definitely, I'm going to continue the crosstraining, if only because it's so thrilling making horrendous exercises less so (I actually got three relatively fluid dive bombers in a row). No more races this year, but I have to run an homage to my city of birth before I leave. This is going to be epic and might encompass daylight hours completely, hopefully.

The body knows

I haven't run much since Wednesday, just about two miles a day. My minimum pre-morning shower distance, I guess. I'm not injured so much as slightly bored. An unexpected effect of the monstrous mileage on Sunday is dissatisfaction with daily shorter runs this week. Doesn't help that the last couple of days have been rather warmer than what I expect of fall. I ran through a few months of feeling like I was tucked under someone's armpit,I embraced summer to the point of feeling comfortable running a marathon in 30C, but now I'm done with that and am craving the invigorating contrast of a 6C breeze.

I've gotten a few good non-running workouts in this week, though: bodyrocking!

distance and speed

Sunday was a cold drizzly day; I have been longing for that cool fall weather, but not the rain. Fortunately, Gaz showed up at my door at 8 am. I had no choice but to go. We had a wonderful run. I hadn't had enough, though: that afternoon, I grabbed the dog and went back out. We got drenched but otherwise had a great run. Total that day was just over 30 miles. It's hard to believe. It was actually reasonable. That's the longest I've ever run in a day. I really should have written about it earlier, while the feelings were still fresh...there was definitely something different about covering that much distance in a day. Extra endorphins?

I also had a really good run on Tuesday, almost eight miles. (Monday was four kind of stiff and definitely slow miles).

This morning was two easy miles. Tonight was speedwork. I felt sleepy all day for some reason and considered staying home, but I put on running clothes, dashed my dog's hopes by leaving him behind, and went to run club.

The workout was 1200-800-600, 2-3 repeats. I'm coming back after a hiatus, perfect reason to do just the two!

5:18/ 7:06/mile
3:30/ 7:02/mile
2:34/ 6:56/mile

5:26/ 7:17/mile
3:35/ 7:12/mile
2:32/ 6:47/mile

The first one, I was alone, but I caught up with two other women and we stuck together for the other repeats. I was really grateful to have company because I'm not quite sure I can feel a good pace on my own. We slowed down a bit but that was probably due to dusk. It was dark when we finished.

I have run nearly 50 miles this week already. (!!!)

rejoining run club

I picked a nice humid day to return to run club! I was a bit nervous about doing this because I'd been away for so long, but I'm hoping that I can be a regular until we move (and I return to my run club of 2: me and the dog).

It was 2000M repeats:

8:59
8:59
9:32...the woman I was running with mentioned going slower, and I quite agreed, because it was gross! The first two felt ok but the air dampened morale, I guess. It was going to rain, there were thick clouds overhead, but nothing was breaking and the air was a soggy sponge. Going 30 seconds slower didn't seem to make things much easier anyway. UGH!!!!

Still, it was great to rejoin the group! Sadly, I'll have to miss Friday's workout, I think, because we're going to Oktoberfest, but being with the group pushed me more than my dog does, and it was great to catch up with people whom I haven't seen in a while. Small group, too, which made it feel a little cozy in a way.

And I didn't really know what my pace was at the time...well, I would have been happy with my final interval pace because that is roughly my tempo run pace these days (7:40/mile). 7:13/mile for the first two, now that I've looked it up, takes me by surprise. nice!

Army Run

The Army Run was actually a week ago. It went better than expected. My legs recovered quickly from the marathon but my iron levels didn't. My iron was probably lowered during the summer illnesses to begin with, and I have not been consistent about taking iron pills since then. So, two days before the Army Run, the old foot glitch came back, the same thing which happened last summer shortly after I went off the iron pills completely and suddenly. I was having trouble walking on Friday. Saturday was better, but I still wasn't quite sure what would happen during the race. Last time, the foot glitch permitted me to run around 8:00/mile quite nicely, which meant that if I had the fitness to pull that off, I could perhaps get close to 1:50 this year after all.

Another glitch was another cyst..this is still being investigated but I had an infection and fever for a couple of days in the week before the Army Run and I ended up not running much that week. A mini-taper!

We (my husband, my brother and I) were late getting to the race start even though it was maybe a 10 minute walk from our house. LOL. Classic chip-timing lassitude. We hopped in somewhere after the 2 hr bunnies and then walked to the start--the crowd was very thick. I quickly lost my husband and brother and realized that I was still wearing my watch. I'd decided to go entirely by feel for my foot's sake, so I switched the watch setting to the alarm or whatever, so I wouldn't be tempted to look at it. This worked well and I didn't look at it once.

Well, I was too far back. The crowd slowed down unbearably on the first hill and there were too many ipod-zombies veering into my path--I got tired of saying "on your left" in vain and I didn't want to get too worked up, but I had to go a certain pace and so I had to find the holes to get by. My legs had a mind of their own. At times, I felt like I was going too fast, but I couldn't slow down. This has happened on previous 1/2s with success, and I ceded control to my legs.

I passed the 2:00 bunnies and then the 1:55 bunnies...I saw one of the 1:50 bunnies about 9-10 miles in and decided that I would catch up to him/her by the time we got to Pretoria Bridge, about a mile from the finish.

This didn't quite happen, and I never caught the bunny, but I honestly didn't slack on pace. Mentally, I felt very strong, and negative feelings about discomfort and so forth were quickly banished; at times, I thought about slowing down, but then I reminded myself that 1:50 would be a PB for the year, how grand, and if I had pretty much caught up to the 1:50 bunny, I could finish the job. And if I didn't, I would feel terrible; I owed it to myself to get a result that I would be proud of; I deserved a good result, etc, etc. This mental talk worked.

I was about six seconds behind the bunny; I narrowed his/her lead in the final 300M or so but my efforts weren't quite enough. Still, it was great to see 1:50:xx on the clock. We'd started late: my chip time was just under 1:48. Not a PB, but my old plateau! Very encouraging. I felt so thrilled after the race; it was one of my highest post-race highs, I think. The rest of the day was woefully unproductive because I wasn't on the planet.

It was also swell to finally run the Army Run with my husband there, even though we lost each other! The first year, 2008, he was in Iraq. The second year, I had the cath surgery 3 days before so my "race" was shuffling 400m to the end to hand in my chip (I still picked up the race shirt; figured I'd earned it). Last year, we were out of town.

He and my brother ran 1:51:XX, which they were both thrilled with. I was impressed!

I think I will do at least one more 1/2 this year...I will rejoin run club too but basically run by feel. I've been concentrating a lot on form recently and this seems to be paying off. The bodyrock routines have helped a lot too with tightening my core. I'm trying to do 3 routines per week.

I haven't run much this past week: didn't feel like it. I've been taking an iron pill every day and my foot feels almost normal now. I actually jogged today! This is good because the dog hasn't had enough exercise these past three weeks. Oh, yeah, I got an ingrown toenail after the race (I've been treating it and it's almost back to normal too)...I guess running a full and a 1/2 within two weeks of each other wasn't the best idea!

steam and endophins and steam

I got into a zone; I was disappointed with my result on the one hand but happy about the zone.

My first looped marathon, Winterman 2009, turned out to be mind-melting drift without The Wall, and I was hoping to enjoy a repeat of that by signing up for another looped marathon. Early September is usually warmer than late February but the average high is about 20C, which seemed manageable.

Plus this marathon was an evening run! How rare is that?

I woke up feeling a little ill, just nerves, and I ate what usually goes down smoothly, but the rice noodles sent me into a 2-hour nap. That was a relief: two fewer hours of clicking on the weather and seeing the numbers roll past 30C. Oh, yes. I think it got up to 32C for a bit, then started to drop...the humidex was 35C. This is ok for casual running, but a full marathon?

My husband dropped me off at the start...I decided to go mainly to see how many other crazy people would be there. IT was surprisingly crowded.

I got sorted out and lined up, ready to go. Oh, wait, I needed the chip ankle-band thingy...I got back just as the gun went off, which was totally fine because I let pretty much everyone go ahead. What was the rush?

The race was six laps. The first two were surprisingly comfortable. I settled into a good pace, about 38-39 minutes per 4.38 miles...I'd decided that anything below 40 minutes per loop would be great, but I wasn't going to worry about it because the main thing was to find the pace that my body could sustain. I didn't wear a watch or timer, but there was a timer at the start/finish of the loops. I was happy, I was in a good zone. I was running alone, but there were friendly volunteers, and there were runners on the other side going back after a while (I was still near the back), plus there were the ironman competitors. I decided to tell them "Good job!"

After a couple of loops, my stomach started to churn. It got worse.

I was not expecting this, but I figured it out pretty quickly: blood was being redirected to surface capillaries (for cooling), as well as to my legs (for locomotion)...my poor digestive system, always a bit of a maroon during endurance events, was being left especially high and dry (or in this case, stagnant). The thought of another gel disgusted me.

Fortunately, a couple of friends had come down to spectate--seeing them on the 2nd and 3rd laps helped a lot!

I felt like quitting at the halfway mark, which I reached in 1:58, I think. I was starting to slow down at this point but that didn't matter so much as the stomach issue. I had planned to take six gels total, one at the start of each lap, but after the first three during the first half, it took about a lap and a half to stomach another. The only gel I took during the second half was fortunately perfect: cherry-lime roctane. It was a delicate, cooling, and not too sweet flavour. I opened it, gagged, but the freshness quelled that reflex and I was able to finish it.

Apart from the GI distress, however, the rest of the race went well. I was moving slower, about 41-42 minutes per lap, which was a bit disappointing, but I was catching up to and passing people, one here, one there. My legs were starting to go leaden but I could still move them fine. I wasn't feeling too hot. And apparently, I was still smiling.

It got dark, and cooler; after the fourth lap, I was on automatic. I wasn't talking to the other competitors anymore; I couldn't really see them until it was too late (there were some other people on the path too). I finished the fourth lap feeling tired, but stopping was a foreign decision, and I went back out. Mentally, the loops were very easy because going out was a bit downhill: all I had to do was get embraced and swept along by gravity. Going back was easy too because the uphill gave some muscles a rest, plus once it got dark, it seemed easier to see going back.

The fifth lap was a blur. I honestly don't recall much of it. I was feeling some discomfort, my stomach and my legs, but it passed. It didn't seem endless at any point. That's the benefit to loops: you know where you are, you know that it'll take x minutes to get to such and such a point, which you've run to before after the first lap. There is no crushing uncertainty: how long is this hill and where the heck did it come from? Am I there yet? Instead, there is a machine-like efficiency that squashes the usual marathon doubts: I've run this before, I can run it again, what's the worry? It makes the distance so much easier.

The sixth lap, being the last, went pretty easy. I was trying not to stop; I broke the course into bits and coaxed myself through...and then I started to feel a bit of an acceleration. This is what happened during the last looped marathon though at a larger scale: pretty much each successive loop was faster. This did not occur this time, except that I think the last half of the last loop was faster. However, I passed several women during the last two laps, and NOBODY passed me except for some half marathoners who had started later. I was very happy about this.

At the second last drink station, I stopped to walk (as I had done for each water station)...I drank some water and a volunteer asked me if it was my last loop. Yes, it was, thank goodness. He asked again, I confirmed. Then he told me that I'd better get going. It seemed like an odd sort of attitude, almost as if he was shooing me away. It was too dark to see if he was smiling. "Go on, finish it up." I almost got annoyed, but I got going, and am now extremely grateful that he was that direct. I picked up my pace, passed another woman with less than 1 km to go (we both skipped the last water station, but I was rolling and she was fading), and I finished it. It felt great going up the last little hill onto the track. It was a strong finish.

Time: 4:01:XX
Temp (humidex): 35-30C.
Wall (apart from GI stuff): not apparent!

I wish the weather had been cooler so that I could have pushed myself more, and it is kind of annoying to see that "4", but having completed this race in this sort of temperature was a big confidence boost. There will be other hot races.

another tempo run

I was dreading the last tough workout: 3X 2miles tempo, then 9-10 miles easy. I even postponed it a day because I was tired. The peak of training made its presence known this past week. Basically, my legs are almost always tired, I sleep more, and like the dead. Yet the tiredness seems to melt away quickly once I've warmed up and it has become easier to run too fast.

This was what I was hoping for. This hasn't been the most regular marathon training cycle (two trips, two bouts of gut illness (mild, fortunately!); I wasn't sure if I'd feel the usual fatigue, the usual sharpening, particularly since I didn't boost mileage like before. I don't feel quite sharp now but I hope to soon, now that the tapering has started.

My tempo workout on Wednesday was more tiring than expected, and so I pushed the last tough workout from Saturday to Sunday. Saturday was hot and humid; it would have been better for acclimatization, but I've had plenty of that already this summer, and excuses were even more plentiful.

The weather on Sunday was anything but punishing. 18C, drizzling, it was amazing. My tempo pace was about 10-15 seconds/mile faster, and the run afterward was easy until the last mile or so. It felt a lot better than last time when it was hotter and I'd cut the workout short.

A curious thing happened, though, shortly after I'd stopped to walk after the last tempo segment. I know I shouldn't stop suddenly, but I wanted to put my shirt back on and get a drink of water, and warm weather actually gives me a bit of leeway by keeping my heart rate elevated. Otherwise, it drops suddenly and could trigger SVT, particularly if I bend down or turn my head while inhaling.

That is what happened. I didn't get to the water fountain; I put on my shirt, walked toward the fountain and, boom! I pressed my neck (as taught) and it went away quickly. Still, it compounded my fatigue and when I got home shortly after, I thought about dropping the rest of the workout. I drank a protein shake, reconsidered, and went out with the dog. The 9ish mile run was great, easy, relaxing. There was a moment where it was incredibly peaceful, perhaps the most tranquil moment I've had in a while. We were running by a willow tree without anyone else around, there was a mist of rain, and the path seemed almost frictionless.

During the rest of the run, I stopped a few times for water, no problem, but when I stopped at the end, I could feel the pressure of the trigger again. It felt urgent to breathe faster than required; it was uncomfortable to hyperventilate slightly but I did that for a minute or two and the feeling went away and everything settled back to normal and there was no SVT.

My interpretation: I've gotten used to 30ishC humidex. Heart rate was raised, but a greater percentage of blood went to surface capillaries and perhaps did not get as deoxygenated (I'm not entirely familiar with this aspect of physiology, but I'm assuming that muscles have greater oxygen demands than skin). When I stopped, my heart rate stayed elevated and oxygen levels rose gradually to normal. Yesterday was considerably colder. More of my blood circulated in my muscles and got deoxygenated further. When I stopped but was anticipating continuing the run, things stayed revved, but when I stopped finally, things dropped suddenly, but there was all this CO2, something has to be done, synapses fire, adrenaline and countless other biochemicals release and, voila! whoops! the 2nd time, the low oxygen levels made me breathe more quickly instead. I might ask my cardiologist about it. It's been ages since I've felt SVT--more than a year, I think--and it seems so bizarre that it should happen on the coldest run in a while, unless the coldness is the cause.

So I guess I will regain some speed as the temps cool; I'd thought that I'd acclimatized well but hadn't realized how underserved my muscles really have been, and that I really should be going faster. Meanwhile, I just have to be careful and coast to a stop gradually, like I had been doing before it got hot.

I jogged six miles this morning. It was hotter and I wore a long-sleeved shirt. No problems, not even a hint.

Reassured, I finally signed up for the marathon.