I hate running in the wind. I thought running in the rain would be also sucky. I have been able to avoid it since I started running, the one thing a drought is good for.
With the increased precipitation in California I knew it would soon be time to face the unknown. For my 1 hour runs I can wimp out and go use the treadmill, but the longer runs would be tougher.
Finally, rains and Sunday long run coincide. Actually, I thought I was safe, with rains predicted for 1 pm and me heading out at 8 am. Nevertheless, not more than 15 minutes into the run, it starts to rain.
Fortunately, I knew better than to trust forecasters. I had my Gore-tex hat. There was no wind and the rain was a steady drizzle. Since it wasn't heavy I was able to avoid the small puddles. I actually found the experience to be quite pleasant.
Sweet Lies
So one of the facts that I discovered about my Garmin watch and Footpod is that they have been telling me sweet lies. They told me the Monterey half-marathon was 13.9 miles and that I had maintained a 9:09 minute/mile pace.
My run time for the Monterey half-marathon therefore was quite exceptional for me. I've tried re-calibrating my Garmin, but it changes with any alteration in my stride. I am still experimenting in stride in an effort to find a more energy efficient one and so this is frustrating.
Is it time to get a GPS watch?
Culinary
My wife found another use for copious amounts of peppers:
So you would think, having just finished putting my all out for the Monterey Half, that I would take it easy the following week. You would think.
I took Monday off. I was sore and Monday is my usual rest day.
Once you have an official time you can enter that time into any number of websites and they will tell you things like predicted finish times for other races, pace time for training, and how to assemble an engine - uh, perhaps not that last one. I went to the Jack Daniels running calculator.
I kept looking for the Whiskey links so I could order something.
So Tuesday I go for an "Easy" 60 minute run.
Wednesday I do repetition work but ignore Jack's advice and break into 7 and even high 6 minute miles. I did a second "Easy" run for 6.3 miles. It wasn't easy, my legs were tired.
Thursday is my day off, but I ignored that and ran on the Treadmill intervals, with 11:32 and 8:57 splits. I held the faster sub-9 time for 10 minutes during one interval.
I did my usual 2 hour run on Friday.
Saturday I put in 7.3 miles meaning...that is I ran 16 miles or more on Sunday I would hit 60 miles for the week.
I decided to put in a 3 hour run today. I hadn't done one in awhile. The last time I ran for 3 hours I clocked more than 17 miles. My secondary goal was to run it at my "Marathon" pace above which should net me 18+miles.
To put this amount of running into perspective let us consider much faster runners than me. Tia Stone is an amazing amateur runner who can hold sub-6 minute miles in a 5 kilometer race and a personal record (PR) of just under 3 hours for a marathon. Based on her Half Marathon PR, Jack says her easy pace is around 8 minute miles. If she ran the ~10.5 hours just using easy pace (unlikely as she would mix in speedwork and tempo runs), she would run at least 80 miles. Elite runners running 6 minute "Easy" miles would run over 100 miles a week, although they often actually train in the 120-140 mile per week range. Still, I think this will be my time limit on running.
So at the end of the day I hit 18.09 miles in 3 hours and 4 minutes, more distance then I had ever run before in a single run. I was unable to hold my Marathon pace due to the excessive wind. I was hoping that since my running path was a loop that I would make the time up by running half the time with the wind. However, the dehydration or exertion kicked the stuffing out of me. My total miles for the week exceed 62 miles, another milestone (pun).
My legs hurt - I'm definitely taking it easy next week.
Culinary
My wife made tomato sauce from this summer's tomatoes and froze it:
We always get a bolus of peppers at the end of the growing season:
We often take bones from various dinners like, smoked chicken, smoked pork, and ribs from rib roasts to save for making beans. It is usually proceeded with a: "this will be good in beans!"
The accumulation was getting out of hand, so I took all of these bits from the freezer and cooked them all day long. The broth was thick with gelatin. I saw a pork meniscus, but sadly took no photos. I cooked some pintos in this broth. They must be old pintos because they take 4 hours to become tender.
I also found some sausage left overs that I made.? This got cooked in a skillet with onions, garlic, basil, rosemary, sage, oregano, cumin, white pepper, "New Mexico" hot chilipowder, and some left over tomato sauce that smelled of chicken cacciatore. I then added the frozen tomato sauce and meat bits from the bone.
Our journey begins on a bright and sunny morning, Saturday, November 15, 2014. I'm pretty excited. My wife is wonderfully supportive. This will be my first race with actual chip timers. So we drink our caffeinated drinks, pack for an overnighter and head out the door. Not having had breakfast, we stop in San Juan Bautista.
I looked for a happy Rooster...
Who knew roosters liked orchids?
The restaurant was supposed to be Italian, but having no prosciutto, I went with the chorizo with eggs.
We continued on and found our hotel.
Clean, serviceable and walking distance to the race start (15 minutes), fisherman's wharf (10 minutes), and the fun part of town. I wouldn't choose it again, and there will be an again.
We checked in and then started walking to find the race start, and time ourselves. We also identified the local caffeinated beverage supply that will be open in time for the race.
I was hoping to support local business, but none of them opened early enough. All that walking required refueling.
I also picked up my bib number and swag bag.
I had hoped to surprise my wife with reservations to dinner that I made weeks earlier when I booked the room, but the restaurant called me while we were walking and she heard. Still she didn't know where we were having dinner. I told her it was on fisherman's wharf. She then tried to guess which restaurant it was as we strolled the wharf and watched these mammals for a bit.
The sunset was also quite pleasing.
We went to dinner at Old Fisherman's Grotto. My wife went with local fish (Sea Bass?).
I had a cup of their famous clam chowder - it was quite good. I carb loaded in style with a seafood combo linguine plate.
In the evening I added the bib number to my running shirt.
The morning started at 5 am. I set my phone alarm, but also arranged for a wake up call. I always try to have a back-up, and it paid off as my phone did not go off. I forget to set it for Sunday, instead it was set to go off on Monday. For breakfast I had a bagel with cream cheese and a cup of English breakfast tea. I'm used to loose leaf tea steeped using a stainless steel strainer. The Starbuck"s tea tasted like the cardboard and paper it was served in. Last call at the restroom.
We arrive at the race start and I find my corral.
I'm not sure how they assign corrals. Was it based on my reported expected finish time (2 hours and 30 minutes)? Or was it based on when I registered? If it was based on finish time, then I will do better next time.
The start horn sounds.
My wife did a great job of getting running photos. They charge crazy prices for the ones the half marathon photo people take.
My wife amuses herself while I'm running.
She makes it over to Cannery row as the slow finishers are coming in.
I really did this race just for the sea otter medal, the oatmeal cookie and the beef jerky.
2 hours, 7 minutes, and 4 seconds.
114th out of 282 in my age-gender group
1286 out of 2987 for gender
2553 out of 8905 in race
That puts me firmly in the first 50% of the pack, which was a goal.
Also my time goal was a sub 2 hour 10 minute, so I'm good there. Next year I hope I can nail a sub 2 hour marathon. I really appreciated all of the cheering people of Monterey, and beyond. I thought the aid stations were well placed to supply us with water. However, drinking out of a cup while running was a bit of a challenge.
I am most grateful to my wife for supporting this new craze of mine that I'm not actually that good at. Still, I love running!
So I need to record an event. I ran 15,2 miles in 1 hour and 28 minutes.
Why does this matter? I averaged a sub 10 minute mile.
So? You did that with the 12.7 mile run. Yes, but this was longer and...
My right hip and my left leg have been troublesome since the sub 10 minute pace, 12.7 mile run. I started asking myself: "Why are you wearing a hydration belt with two water bottles when there are drinking fountains on my route?" The belt was aggravating my hip. So I ran the 15.2 miles without my hydration belt, stopping to get drinks of water. So even with stopping I managed an average sub 10 minute pace. I also discovered a new stride, where by leaning forward I could hit an hold a sub 9 minute mile pace for awhile. I got my first sub 9 minute/mile pace (8:50) during mile 13. I ended those 15.2 miles feeling pretty strong and like I could run more miles.
Okay, but what about the left leg? Yeah, my left extensor digitorum longus has been barking at me even on slower runs. It cramps up and I even almost fell during one of these episodes. I thought maybe I would try to do speedwork all the way until 10 days before the Monterey half marathon. My left calf convinced me otherwise and I stuck with the original decision to run the 2 weeks before the race using slow Maffetone miles (where I keep my heart rate below 135). Even on these miles my calf was complaining.
Me: "Hey, why are you cramping up? It's only mile 2 and I'm running really slow here."
Left Leg: "Don't want to run."
Me: "Sorry, we need to run."
Left Leg: "And what will you do if I decide to quit on you?"
Me; "Oh please, just settle down and run, it really isn't that fast."
Left Leg: "Run slower."
Me: "How about that?"
Left Leg: "Slower"
Me: "Okay, how about now...Hey! We're walking."
Left Leg: "Finally, you get the picture."
Me: "No way, back to running."
After, about mile 3-5, my left leg settles into a grumpy, resentful, truculent, reasonable pace. Running this slow is very boring, but I am determined to be in good shape for the race. I am very tempted to explore that sub-9 pace, but that will have to wait for afterwords and maybe become my goal for the Santa Cruz half marathon.
Culinary
I bought a "Dry British Ale Yeast." After a summer of sweet under attenuated Belgian beers, I'm ready for something lighter. I brewed a bitter.
Please don't boil over.
Bitters aren't actually bitter. They are characterized as "Session" beers that are quite easy to drink. I bought 8 ounces of Kent Golding hops to make a traditional British bitter. The next beer in the series will be an American style, almost pale ale like as I showcase Simcoe hops.
Cordless drills are so useful for taking hose clamps off and putting them back on. The white pill is "Whirlfloc" for removing cloudiness. It lies on top of the finishing hops and next to the flavor hops, all Kent Golding. The efficiency for sugar conversion was greater than 85% just as I predicted.
Hmmm, phone taking random picture of drive way.
Bucket with spoon and volume measuring stick. I put the spent grains in the green waste, or my own compost bin. The hose is connected to my counter current wort chiller from Blichmann.
Ahh, pure, cooled and clean wort being added to the yeast starter.
I found this 2000 Barolo Reserva sitting in my wine rack, it was full when I opened it, but not for long.
Ever since I started this running thing I've been thinking that if I could just find the right way to stride that I would suddenly knock a minute or more off my minute per mile pace.
Time has moved on and I have mostly seen improvements in how far I can run and how long I can hold my 10K pace in longer runs.
This is an improvement. It used to be that I had two paces, running and walking. I read all these articles about tempo paces, interval paces, 5k pace, 10 k pace, marathon pace, and I had to laugh because I had only two paces. Then I evolved as a runner to have a 9:16 minute/mile 5k pace, 10:16 minute/mile 10k pace and a 11:16 minute/ mile half marathon pace.
Then one day I ran 13.5 miles with a 10:12 pace. That's significant improvement. However, I managed it with an unsteady interval type racing, where I would speed up into the 9+ minute/mile range and then slow down to 12+ minute/mile range. For 2 of those miles I managed to average a high 9 minute/mile pace.
I came to accept that improvement would be slow and measured in a few seconds, not in sudden major gains in pace. Nevertheless I continued to experiment with strides.
I found two stride exercises both online and in my new books. The first are called butt kicks and emphasize the "kick" of running when the leg pushes back. The second is simply skipping with an emphasis on getting the knee higher. You do them for about a 100 yards, trying not to feel stupid (because a 50 year old male can't help but look stupid doing them). Then you run immediately after for the same distance to try and lock it into your stride. Of the two, kicking back has given me the most gains in my stride. Focusing on the kick back in the run has put my pace into the 8-9 minute range with the least amount of effort. Increasing foot strikes per minute, stride length, and bringing knees higher have all felt like more effort in terms of endurance. However, kicking back puts a lot of strain on certain leg muscles and I have not been able to maintain it.
So then Friday comes along. Since I had made Thursday a rest day, my legs felt really strong. It's funny because all day Thursday my legs kept cramping up and hurting. Maybe they missed running? Friday is my 2 hour run day. I decided Wednesday would be my 90 minute run day and I would run intervals on Wednesday. Wednesday intervals both last week and this week went really well. Maybe I would finally shave a few seconds off of my pace?
I decided Friday would be a Tempo day, and just for yucks I would try to hold a 10 minute/mile pace. Trying this the previous week was epic fail due to the gastroenteritis. I was lucky to hold a sub 11 minute pace.
The first three miles of this run I couldn't,get my average pace below 10, and then I tried the kicking back. For the rest of my run I stayed under, not at, but under a 10:00 minute/mile pace. I averaged a 9:40 moving pace, a full 32 seconds off of my previous pace record for this distance. One of those miles was 9:05 (I actually thought I might finally break 9 on that mile), better then any mile run I had to date. I covered 12.75 miles in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 15 seconds, firmly putting a sub 2 hour 10 minute half marathon within reach.
Paced stayed relatively steady, not interval like:
Most of improved pace came from increased stride length, not so much from foot strikes per minute.
Finally, all of the intervals, long runs, weekly miles have allowed me to break a plateau. I feel like further improvements are within reach, including breaking a 9 minute mile, which was a 5 year goal. Perhaps I can achieve this sooner? It's one of the things I love about running. I can never be sure what the next day will bring, or the limits to my improvement. Will I stop at 9 minute miles? 8 minute? Dare I wish for 7 minute miles? Friday was supposed to be just another tempo run, but it became something extraordinary, it felt almost miraculous. And later I found out my son got accepted to a 4 year college - Woot!
A week of running: October 13th through October 19th.
Monday
Rest day, no running just upper body workout.
Tuesday
In the morning I went to the gym and worked on leg muscles, focusing on exercises that specifically worked on running strength. I bought a new book:
It's pretty cool, with lots of good workouts and a real effort at trying to explain why they work along with a mixture of mostly good and some bad science. Its training programs focus on time running, not distance, and of course I'm all about the time now.
I also picked up this book:
No I'm not planning on running a marathon. It had the word "Renegade" in the pre-title. I'm sucker for that kind of pitch. Their focus is distance in their training, but I forgive them because the longest distance that they ask you to run is 16 miles which I could do in a little less than 3 hours at a 11 minute/mile pace. I think I could hold that pace for three hours, I think. This book also has realistic guide lines for pace, even for somebody as slow as me.
In the evening I ran for one hour on the treadmill at the gym while watching the Avengers on my phone. I'm tired of music. I'm tired of audible books. I downloaded the Netflix app onto my phone. I didn't want to watch anything too intense (the gym is public). I had my Yurbuds and bluetooth device. The guy on the treadmill next too me even watched, no sound for him - weird.
My son cooked dinner and I was late getting home. He had to go to class but was kind enough to leave some food out for me. I felt bad because Tuesdays and Thursdays are his dinner nights. Those are the nights he is usually around to chat with. I decided to make Tuesday night a fend-for-ourselves night and Thursday my rest day, in the future, so that I would for sure be around to hang out with my son.
Wednesday
I ran twice. In the morning I ran an interval run successfully outside. I had to approximate distance because I only allow my Garmin watch to show me time and pace. Upon returning home I found I had run half mile (~800 meter) intervals with half mile recoveries for about 90 minutes.
Five of them with a little Progression run at the end. They look fairly consistent too, which is good for me. Interval pace averaged in the 8 minute/mile range which is really good for me. In the evening I did another 1 hour treadmill while watching the Avengers. I had to race home from work to get this run in and then dash off to meet my wife at an "event" which included dinner and speeches. Hanging out with my wife was the best part.
Thursday
I ran 1 hour in the morning skipping my usual strength building so that I would be home in the evening to visit with my son. Next week it will be a rest day. My son made scones and they were very good.
It's a good thing I went running in the morning, because that afternoon and evening (before scones) I had a pretty serious case of gastroenteritis. Fortunately it wasn't so bad that I had to call in sick at work.
Friday
Still feeling the effects of my upset intestinal tract I didn't go for my morning 2 hour run. This made me sad because even though I'm not running for distance, my Garmin told me I was on track for a 60 mile week if I could stick with the training plan of two runs on Friday.
I ran for two hours when I got home from work, but was not able to squeeze in the second one hour run. I thought maybe I could manage that Saturday and get back on track. My Friday afternoon run was supposed to be a tempo run at goal pace, but my beleaguered intestine was having none of that. I was fortunate to run the time without interruption at the porta potty.
Saturday
I did a full body workout at the gym with an emphasis on strength training (weight lifting). While I was lifting a woman came over and asked how many hours did I run on Sunday? I see lots of people on my long Sunday morning runs, but didn't recall seeing her. Nevertheless, I told her it depended on which week it was, but typically 2-3 hours. In truth I had only managed one 3 hour run and that was mostly recovery pace with walking breaks. I think I managed 12.8 miles.
After weight lifting I went up to the dreaded treadmill and knocked out an hour run time. I never did manage that second run.
Sunday - The Three Hour Tour
For this, my second three hour run I had a mission. I wanted to maintain a minimum of an 11 minute/mile pace. If I could do this I could manage 16 miles, the most that the Hanson Marathon method called for. Three hours is really the recognized time limit for any physiological gains in running. I may have read one article that said 3.5 hours, but another said 2.5 hours. Three hours seemed like a good compromise.
I took my water belt and 3 gels, including 1 Roctane to serve as my opening carb salvo. I preloaded with toast and lardo followed by a banana shake. I had my tunes set on my Fleetwood Mac Pandora channel.
I went through all of my water and had to stop to refill both. I almost finished off the refills also. I didn't bonk, or hit the wall, but my hips were definitely feeling like cramping as I came in the final mile. I even manage to sprint the last 200 yards. My average pace was 10:35 minute/mile and I ran 17.22 miles.
I still don't want to run a marathon. I probably could with a little more training, maybe managing a sub-5hour effort, but nah. I definitely feel prepared for the half-marathon.
Culinary
Bottomless Pit from the night before, a blend of chocolate and coffee in a beer tipping the scales at 12% abv. Served chilled, decanted and using a small sipping wine glass. It was divine.
Some cured salmon. You can see the cure I used in the pan above. It took the moisture right out of that salmon. I removed the skin on this attempt. I like how it allows for an even cure all around.
I didn't have bagels. But I had whole grain sesame seed bread, toasted, with a veneer of sour cream and thin slices of the cured salmon. My new favorite pre-running breakfast.
So I've been running in both the Rides and the Ghosts using the Currexsoles and I've come to a conclusion. I like the Ghosts better. I now wear the Rides (shoes with green) to work. Overall the Rides feel too cushy for running and give too much room in the toe box while rubbing up against my right little toe when running. I don't really notice on runs less than an hour, but most of my runs these days are an hour or more
I think I like them better than the Cumulus shoes.
I set a new PR for my half marathon.
Using the 10:12 average, I ran the half marathon distance in 2 hours 13 minutes and 36 seconds, which puts me about 4 minutes better than my previous time. It's unofficial, but since I hadn't run this distance for awhile, I wanted to give it a go one more time before Monterey. Total miles for the week, counting elliptical 57, 52 without elliptical.
I'm going to try a 3 hour run at 11 minute pace this Sunday to see if I can hit 16 miles for a new long run personal distance record.
Culinary
My wife made some great beans using the Berkshire pork. She also took the carcass of the smoked turkey and made a fantastic turkey soup. I myself haven't really done much other than cook steaks.
I'm getting low on running energy gels, so I ordered some GU energy gels. So far I like them better than the Cliff shots I had been using. Toast with lardo is still my staple before long run food. I also like making a small banana shake to chase it down with.
