Riley's Rumble - Different Course, Same Idea (i.e. HILLS!)

On this weekend's schedule was an 11 mile long run. However, since Riley's Rumble was today, I did not run on Saturday morning as usual and decided to run this race as a training run.

I have run Riley's Rumble the previous three years. It is a low-key race that is free for MCRRC members - which makes it popular for cheapskates like me; however, it is very hilly and always run in late July - which makes it not so popular for most normal, sane runners.

I actually ran my first half marathon here in 2006 - and that time was my half marathon PR until this past spring when I did 2 minutes better at the Run For The Shelter half marathon.

Since this was really a training run and not a race for me, I'm not going to give a whole race report. However, I will share a few notes:

• The new course was very similar to the old one. I kinda thought that since it was starting at the Germantown SoccerPlex, that the course wouldn't be over one-lane country roads with tons of hills. Man I was wrong. I did take a look at the course map and the elevation graph (you'll need to click on "Elevation" on the frame on the left), so I knew it would be hilly...but the graph just didn't compute how steep - and long - some of those hills would be.
• The race had more participants than planned due to race-day registrants. This caused a really long line at the porta-pottys (I know...I was waiting for them too). As a result, the race started 10 minutes late - at 7:10am.
• Around the time of the start, it was cloudy in half of the sky and the sun was peeking out of the clouds in the other half (that we were going to run towards). I wasn't sure if I should wear my sunglasses...I decided to bring them with me.
• The problem with starting the race at 7:10am? It started raining - hard - at 7:11am. It would have been nice to at least have had a mile under our belts (and running on tree-lined country roads) when the rain hit. Instead, we were all soaked by the time we got to the 1-mile marker. Why did I bring my sunglasses again??
• My shoe came untied at around mile 3. WTF??? I can't remember the last time my laces untied during a run (I remember another rainy race - my first ever 10K where I had to stop and re-tie my laces...perhaps it had something to do with the rain?). Actually, I had stopped double-knotting my laces earlier this year - I started to tie them differently after reading this article in Runner's World and never had an issue. I guess I'll start to double-knot my shoes for races and/or long runs...
• By the time the rain was gone and the sun was shining (around mile 7 for me), I had nothing that wasn't soaked to try and dry off my sunglasses. I wore them, but I could not see clearly out of them.
• My Garmin luckily worked this morning (unlike for the 8K I ran with Sherry last weekend). However, it seemed to be off from the mile markers by about 1/4 mile by the end. It's kind of frustrating when the .1 of 13.1 is really .4!!
• I kept my HR reasonably low for the first 5 miles (averages of 156 bpm and lower). After that, the hills really killed me. There was a hill between miles 6 and 7 that I needed to walk up (and my HR was in the high 160s after WALKING up the hill).
• For the first 11 miles, my mile splits were mostly in the 10:50 to 11:20 range. Mile 7 was 11:38 (see hills, above) and mile 9 was 12:10. You can see my splits in my training log.
• After mile 11, I found myself walking most of the hills. I'm not used to going this distance in my training yet (I was only supposed to go 11 miles, right?), and I was running out of steam. If I was running this for a particular time I likely would have pushed it, but for me it was a training run...I just wanted to finish it.

All in all it was a nice morning. I chatted with a few people on the course (including another runner originally from New York who will be running in New York...) and was able to do a long run with other runners and water stations along the way.

My final time was 2:32:33 - an 11:39/mile pace. Average HR 158, max of 182.

New Kicks!

I went over to my neighborhood Fleet Feet yesterday to buy new running shoes. My current pair of Brooks Defyance had over 350 miles in them - and I when my legs were starting to get a bit sore after mile 5 of yesterday's long run, I decided it was time to get new shoes.

They have updated the Defyance - now the Defyance 2. I don't know if they really changed much except for the color (and that was definitely an improvement...I can't say that I'm going to miss the fluorescent yellowish-green mesh)....these shoes fit just like their predecessors.

VS

This morning, I got out of the house a little before 6am and was greeted by a scrumptious morning. 59 degrees, sunny and clear. I wouldn't really call it a crisp morning - although by July standards in this part of the country, it could almost qualify for that.

The plan calls for an easy 3 miles. I was heading out to do my normal lake loop, when I had an idea - let's mix it up a bit. The beginning of my lake loop run is actually part of the Kentlands/Lakelands 5K course - where I set my 5K PR last September. I decided to go for it.

I soon found out that there was a problem here...this was a course that I was used to running all out. I trained for a fast 5K on this course (doing 1 mile and 2 mile speed runs) and the last time I ran this route was for that PR. To my muscle memory, I wanted to fly down these streets - not take it easy. Combine that with the fact that I had Pearl Jam screaming in my iPod this morning, I had a tough time reigning it in.

For the first two miles, I prevailed holding back. Mile 3 was a bit faster (10:00 pace with 157 average HR) which was a bit ironic because it has the steepest hills of the course. I guess I didn't realize and started to attack those hills instead of take it easy.

The final stats for this run - 3.25 miles in 34:19; a 10:34/mile pace with an average HR of 150.

New Shoes and New Treadmill To Keep Me Honest

I got 8 hours of sleep last night - hooray! I was exhausted after my schedule over the past two days, so I went to bed early last night - lights out at 9pm. My younger son woke us up a little after 5am again, but I had already slept 8 consecutive hours - Woo hoo!

I hit the gym this morning for 4 easy miles on the treadmill. It was the first time I was at the Fitness First closest to me in a few weeks, and they finally opened their new treadmill room. It is really nice! The got rid of all of their older Life Fitness 9500 machines, they moved their 8-10 newer Life Fitness treadmills over (from the website it looks like they have the Premium Club model with the Engage console) and purchased 8-10 new TechnoGym treadmills. Most of the Life Fitness treadmills were taken, so I jumped on one of the newer TechnoGym ones.

Wow. This thing was pretty cool. There is a dock connection for the iPod (I had my iPod shuffle, but I will likely bring my 3G iPod with me next time to see how it works). There was a little fan built-in at the top of the console - it wasn't very strong, but it helps. There is a TV and Radio tuner built in - the angle of the screen was a bit too low for me to be trying to watch television while running, but this could come in handy if there is a good game on one day.

This treadmill has tons of different workout options - I was wearing my old Polar HRM strap so I decided to try out one of the heart rate programs. This program ran through a series of questions: age, weight, time, Run/Walk, Light/Moderate/Strong, etc. and then starts you out. It determines your goal HR from how you answered the questions (it started me out at 138 bpm, based on Moderate Run - I quickly upped this to 145 and then to 147 after the first mile). You can adjust the time and goal HR - the treadmill smoothly adjusts the pace to keep you in line with your goal heart rate.

I must say, this treadmill kept me honest. Over my past few runs, I have run at a heart rate faster than I should (my past two "easy runs" had avg HR of 155 and 160 respectively). Although it was painful to run slower than normal, this treadmill kept me right around 147 bpm the entire run. And the nice thing was that the treadmill speed was located towards the bottom of the screen - not calling attention to itself when the speed adjusted.

The old Life Fitness model's HR programs were a bit different. First of all, you chose your goal HR and pace and then the treadmill adjusted the incline to keep you close to your goal HR. However, if it was too fast (or if the incline got your HR up too far), the Life Fitness brought the pace down - with a loud beeping sound and a message going across the screen "Lowering Speed". It may as well shout "Hey Loser, Why Can't You Keep Up???". And the current Life Fitness models that they have are programmed to not let you do the heart rate programs with a pace greater than 4.5 mph - I guess they had too many people trying to run while holding on to the HR sensors???

Anyhow, it's hard to get jazzed up about a treadmill - especially since I recently got my Garmin Forerunner and I'm still very excited to run outside with hit. Just not in 14 degree weather (and negative wind chills) like it was this morning. However, I am actually a little excited to get back to the gym and run on this machine again - with my bigger iPod next time. Plus this will keep me running slower, until my body works itself back into the shape that I was in a few months ago.

One other thing that was new on my run this morning. I broke out a new pair of Brooks Defyance shoes. I actually purchased these babies in mid-Decmeber when I thought I'd be picking up the mileage to hit 1,000 miles for 2008. Instead I got sick and stopped running. My current pair of Brooks Defyance has 367 miles on them. It's my first pair of this type of shoe, so I'm not sure how long it will last, but I'm thinking it's a good idea to start working in a second pair even though I'm not getting any knee or foot pain yet.

Scheduled Rest Day and Push Ups

Luckily today was a scheduled rest day.  First of all it was cold and rainy - YUCK!  (although 2 of the 3 runs I have done this week have been indoors on a treadmill, so I guess that can't be too much of an excuse, right?).  Second of all, I hurt my knee during Israeli Dance rehearsal last night.  I was standing in for one of the dancers who could not be there last night - there's a part where the dancers all go down on one knee, and I took it a little too fast on the hard floor.  Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm no longer a teenager...

Anyhow, I did get my push-ups in.  Sets of 25, 25, 25, 24 and 21 - 120 in all.  Woo Hoo!!!!  Again, it was a bunch less than I was "supposed" to do (set 2 was supposed to be 29, set 4 was 25 and the last set was to be 36 or more...yeah right!) but I shattered my previous high of 108 by 12.  Nice.

I will hopefully find the time to run tomorrow.  I don't think I'll be waking up early to hit the gym (it's already getting kinda late and I'm not in bed yet...).  I had lunch plans for tomorrow that cancelled, so perhaps I'll be able to do another lunch time run.  I'm currently 6 miles behind the 1,000 mile pace bunny - I know I can catch that rodent by the end of this week :-)

One other thing that I need to start monitoring - my shoe mileage.  I'm up to 268 miles in my current shoes.  I haven't worn this model before - the Brooks Defyance - however, they are similar to the Brooks Glycerins which ended their active running life with 333 and 358 miles on them.  If I'm planning to run another 60 miles before the end of the year, I may be purchasing a new pair of kicks to finish that mileage in...

Early (No-So) Rainy Run

My younger son was up in the middle of the night again. So when I couldn't get back to sleep and the clock was showing 4:50 on it, I decided to just brush my teeth and get into my running clothes already (my alarm was going off in 25 minutes anyway...what's the difference???)

I hemmed and hawed about my first big decision of the morning. To run outside or at the gym. Over the past 24 hours, the weather here has been much cooler and it started to rain yesterday afternoon and continued through the night. At 4am I could hear the wind swooshing around outside and the drizzle hitting the windows. Cold rain - YUCK! Treadmill at 5am - BORING! What's a guy to do????

I decided to grab my reflector vest and go outside. It ended up being an excellent choice :-)

I got outside at 5:15am and noticed that it had stopped raining. It also was not as cold as I was expecting (it ended up being in the high-50s at that time, not the low 50s/high 40s). I had put a bunch of Led Zeppelin albums on my iPod shuffle last night - I turned it on and the song that popped up was "The Rain Song" - whoa!

It ended up being a really nice run. It ended up raining lightly on me for about 10 minutes - but it was a refreshing drizzle - not the bone-chilling downpour that I was dreading. I just wish it would get lighter a bit earlier. Running for a full hour in the darkness is a downer. I mean, at least give me the sunrise as an incentive for exercising on the early side!

Today's stats - 5.51 miles in 57:53. 10:31/mile pace. 147 avg HR, 161 max HR. This put me at 20 miles for the week and 782 miles for the year (yes...I am still on pace for 1,000 miles this year!). The Brooks Defyance shoes I bought 5 weeks ago now have 111 miles on them...at this rate, I'll need another pair by Chanukah!

No more running this week. And probably no more blogging. I'll be heading up to Ann Arbor for tomorrow's UofM vs Wisconsin football game. GO BLUE!!!!

So...I'm Stubborn

As I wrote both yesterday and today, I went out for morning runs both days and they were cut short due to some cramping-type pains in my left arch.

I decided to take action today.  At every opportunity I stretched my calf muscle and foot.  I drank a lot less soda and coffee and a lot more water.  Most importantly, I went to Fleet Feet and bought a new pair of shoes.

This time I went with the new Brooks Defyance.  It's a neutral shoe, just like the Brooks Glycerin that I was wearing for the past year - however, it's $30 less expensive.

I decided that after work I was going to get a workout in.  I would try to do the 2 x 1600 interval workout (the one that I could not start during the past two days...) on the treadmill.  If my foot started to hurt or cramp up, I would go to the eliptical or rower or stationary bike instead.

I started out with more stretching.  Then I got on the treadmill and did a fast walk for 1/4 mile, and then a slow jog for 1/2 mile.  So far, so good.  I turned the speed on the treadmill up to 7.5mph (8:00/mile pace) and crossed my fingers that I could go the full mile without pain.

Good news.  I was able to finish both mile intervals at the 8:00/mile pace.  I felt like I had some steam left afterwards as well - which was good as my 2 mile run on Saturday morning really drained me by the end.

However, overall I felt tired.  I'm not sure I could have kept up the pace without the treadmill keeping it for me.  It's been a tiring few days.  My younger son has been sick.  I have been going to sleep later than I have wanted to on a nightly basis.  My project at work has ramped up and I have a lot less downtime during the day.  I didn't realize that my running would suffer much, but I guess it has.  Hopefully I can get some more rest during the weekend.

Random Thoughts on a Thursday

This morning was a 5 mile run.  I usually run very well the day after speedwork, so I was looking forward to running this morning.  I checked the weather last night and it was supposed to be in the high 20s overnight - so I laid out my running jacket and some gloves with my running clothes.  Unfortunately I got to bed much later than I wanted to (around 11:30pm) so when my alarm went off it was a battle of "should I go back to sleep" or "should I run".

I convinced myself to get out of bed.  The kicker was when I started to consider my weekly mileage.  Next week I'm peaking at 40 miles - along with a 20 mile run on the weekend.  I didn't want to log less than 30 this week as that would be too drastic of a jump in my mind.  It's funny what things will get a crazy runner out of bed.

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I put on my older running shoes.  I have used the new ones for both runs this week and they feel good, but I believed that my old shoes still have some life in them so I was going to alternate between the two pairs for the first two weeks.  Well...about two miles into my run I decided that this would be the last one for this pair of shoes.  The newer ones felt so much softer and springier...it's no wonder I hurt so much after last weekend's 18.8 mile run (OK...most of the hurt was related to the fact that I ran close to 19 miles - not the shoes - let's get real).

So move over Brooksie G5 Sr.  Here comes Brooksie G5 Jr.  You're being retired at 334 miles.

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I didn't get out the door until 6am.  It was still dark, but the sun started to set very soon afterwards.  So, most of my run was not in the dark this morning.  Hooray!

Actually, I started to think about this week's long run of 14 miles.  The latest I can start the run and be home by 9am is 6:30am.  So I can potentially run a full long run in natural light.  Hallelujah!

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I actually overdressed this morning.  I probably did not need the gloves (they came off about 2.5 miles into my run) and I would have done fine with a baseball cap instead of a winter hat.  I was definitely compensating for yesterday's run where I underdressed and was frozen!

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I crossed paths with a good number of runners this morning.  I'm a friendly runner who normally gives a wave, a nod or a "good morning" to fellow runners - even though I don't know these people.  To my surprise, I waved to one of these anonymous fellow runners and then did a double-take (she did as well) as this was someone that I know from synagogue :-)  After our double-takes we both did a quick "oh, hi!" but neither of us stopped.  We'll probably talk more on Saturday morning.

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I wore my iPod this morning (I didn't take it for my speedwork yesterday...I probably wouldn't have been able to hear anything with the wind whistling in my headphones).  I had two early albums by Seal (both named Seal - one from 1991 and the other from 1994) on in Shuffle mode.  I hadn't listened to these albums in a while so it was nice to hear them again.

My Foot Is Feeling Better

This morning was a 5 miler - in the gym on the treadmill. I could have run outside - there was a misty rain and it wasn't too cold - but by 5:20am I already had dressed for the gym and was on my way out, so I decided to go with it. I also was going to wear the new shoes, and didn't want to soak them on my first run...

My foot was still a bit tender, so I started off slow. The first 5 minutes of the workout were tough, but then I got in a groove. Everything started to feel really good - including my foot.

At around 3 miles, I started to get some pain in my foot again. Darn! I said to myself, "I'll run another mile and if the pain is still there I'll stop...I'm not going to run less than 4 miles." A few minutes later the pain was gone. Hooray!

At around 3.5 miles into the run I needed to slow down to keep my heart rate down. I believe I may have started to overheat a bit. One thing I hate about Bally Total Fitness is that they keep the gym soooo hot! At Fitness First (my previous gym) they kept the temperatures a lot cooler and had fans situated near the cardio equipment. I was soaked after my 5 mile run this morning - and it wasn't due to the rain outside. It's probably good that I'm training in this environment just in case the marathon is on a hot day. I already have the cold weather running down - that's for sure.

I finished the 5 miles in 55:41 - an 11:09/mile pace with an average HR of 149. I'm going to do some speedwork tomorrow and hope to gain back some of the pace that I have lost over the past few weeks (I believe it started after I gave blood).

One other note - it is now April. My marathon is officially next month. WOW!!!!

Call Me Tenderfoot

My right foot is still hurting. I'm still not calling it an "injury" yet, but I'm afraid that just plain soreness and inflammation should have gotten better by now.

I'll be icing the foot again today and hope that I'll be ready for a 5 mile easy run tomorrow. Luckily today is a rest day.

I also have a difficult decision regarding tomorrow - I was planning to wear my new shoes, but the weather will be rainy. I don't really want to have my first run in the shoes be in the rain. I guess if it is really rainy, I may hit the treadmill at the gym which would be fine to break in a new pair of shoes.

Is It The Shoes???

My feet are still a bit sore after yesterday's run. Luckily it is just soreness and not an injury, but it is definitely limiting how much I can get around today.

This morning it hit me - how many miles do my shoes have? I checked my running log, and my shoes have 328 miles in them right now. My shoes are usually retired after 350 to 400 miles, so I'm getting close.

So - it's time to start breaking in a new pair of shoes! Luckily, I have them already.

Brooks updated their model of shoe that I wear - from the Glycerin 5 to the Glycerin 6. I really didn't want to switch shoes in the middle of my marathon training plan, so a few weeks ago I checked around at a few stores to see if anyone still had a Glycerin 5 in my size that they were discounting. Metro Run & Walk had one and discounted it 20% for me. I usually like to shop at my neighborhood Fleet Feet, but they were all out of my size on this shoe.

This week, I'll start to do some of my runs in the newer shoes, but I'll do next week's long run in the current pair. By the 20 mile run the week after next, I should be completely in the new shoes.