Health is not valued till sickness comes. Thomas Fuller
I try to be keenly appreciative of my health. I consider it a blessing and a gift that I am nearing 40 with no major health issues yet.
That being said, I often fail in my attempt to offer thanks for my health until I find myself sick. Like today. Right now I'm not feeling 100%. I don't know if it's allergies or a virus, but my throat hurts and I'm generally achy. It's just a speed bump compared to more serious diseases, but if you ask my wife I'm sure she would tell you that I'm unbearable when I'm feeling this way.
So I looked forward to my lunchtime run for a different reason than normal today. I expected the achy feelings to ease after a warm-up and the heart rate to be generally higher at the same pace as non-sick runs. I wanted to analyze the correlation between sickness and heart rate during a run.
My hypothesis of a slower pace for the same HR followed through 3.5 miles -- an 8:03 pace at a HR of 135 BPM. And then something happened like a switch flipping, and I felt perfectly fine. I ran the next 4 miles at 7:41 with the same HR. I'm not sure what to make of that except that perhaps increasing my HR over my resting rate helped to temporarily flush out whatever was causing my ailment.
I never intended to stop blogging, but a week turned into a month, and then three months . . .
It's been a period of relative stagnation. It was difficult to handle being sidelined by the Achilles injury, particularly since it came just as my marathon training miles should have been peaking. I raced the 25K on 11/9/08, and I didn't even try to run again until 11/27/08. That lasted all of one mile. As a last-ditch effort, I tried the Tornado 20M run on 11/30/08 -- the last 20 miles of the marathon route. I only lasted 8 miles. But it was enough to convince me to run the full instead of the half.
Two days later, on 12/2/08, I ran four miles at a 6:30 pace, and it was everything I had in me. It was obvious that I'd lost some conditioning by not running for essentially three weeks. But I still had a few weeks left before tapering, so I was going to give it a go. I ran 35 miles the second week of December, 76 miles the third week of December, and 69 miles the fourth week of December. My heart rate was through the roof and I struggled physically and psychologically during those weeks. But I toughed it out with a 23M run on Christmas morning, and a 20M run two days later.
And then, as luck would have it, I collapsed into bed after that 20M run on December 27th with a fever. I spent the next week in and out of bed without running a single mile. Just as I was coming back from injury, I was sidelined by sickness. And it was the whole nine yards -- nasal infection, fever, achiness, fatigue, lung congestion, coughing of rainbow-colored phlegm.
If you're doing the math at home, you know that the missed week was the last chance to train for the marathon. The next two weeks were spent tapering at 38 miles and then 16 miles.
But STILL, being the hardheaded person that I am, I wanted my 3 hour marathon. I worked so hard in September and October -- so what if November and December were bad to me. I was standing at the starting line, still coughing up fluid as I had ever day since December 27th, right next to the 3:00 pacers in 57 degree weather, ready to go to work.
Well, I didn't get it done. My official time was 3:05:18 -- which is respectable but still disappointing. I fought the good battle -- hitting the half in under 1:30, coughing all the way. I held up through about 21 miles with a 6:53 pace (needed a 6:52), but my next few miles were 7:28, 7:29, 8:02 and 8:11. I found some reserve strength to finish out the race at a 6:12 pace for .86 miles, but it was obviously too little too late. That last boost was due to a remarkable stream of cheers by my friends over the last half mile. I really appreciated (and needed) their support.
I made my way outside of the convention center to look for my family. Thanks go to my mother and Jeff for their support who drove in to track me, and who always had a genuine interest in my training. Thanks also go to my wife, who sacrificed perhaps more than I did by delaying dinners, modifying weekend plans, cutting trips short -- all so I could train. She weathered my emotional roller coaster, carried more than her fair share of the weight, and understood when I wasn't available physically because I was on the road or emotionally due to exhaustion. Without her I could not begin to contemplate, much less achieve, what I have done.
I continued to cough up fluid quite a few more weeks -- into February. Then Julie convinced me to take Zyrtec, the allergy medicine, and I was healed within a week. Who knows if the medicine has a placebo effect I finally kicked it on my own, or if the solution was right in front of me all this time. But as of the past couple of days, I'm starting to feel like I'm back to where I was before the injury. Hence, the title of this post -- The "Phoenix from the Flames".
And other than the fact that the song below uses that phrase, it has no other relevance to this post. However, I should comment that I really like this song, but I'll bet that nobody else does. It never charted, it's not exactly mainstream, and it takes some effort to enjoy. But the emotion that it takes to perform, much less write, wins me over.
M - Nothing (total rest & recovery from Achilles injury) Tu - Nothing (signed up for UT Medical School gym) W - 15 minutes aqua jogging in the outdoor pool (interrupted by the weather), 45 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes getting acclimated to weights Th - 60 on the bike (pool still closed due to weather), 20 minutes of weights F - 60 minutes aqua jogging, 20 minutes weights Sa - 60 minutes aqua jogging, 30 minutes weights Su - 90 minutes aqua jogging, 60 minutes bike, 0 weights Totals - 3:45 aqua jogging, 2:45 bike, 1:20 weights
Minute Totals: M - 0 minutes Tu - 0 W - 70 Th - 80 F - 80 Sa - 90 Su - 150 Total - 7 hours, 50 minutes
Notes: 1) I figured out that wearing shoes in the pool increases resistance and helps get my heart rate up a bit higher 2) The best I can do (and sustain) is about a 130-135 heart rate on the bike an din the pool. My body might be getting a good workout, but my cardio is lacking. 3) I got sunburned on Sunday. I must be the only bonehead in the contiguous 48 to get a sunburn in the middle of November. 4) I'm using the weights to concentrate on my stomach, my hips (which never get a good workout but are always sore after a long run), and my legs (leg curls and leg extensions.)
It's difficult for me to follow this routine because there is no immediate feedback. I can't see what my time was on the last split, and I can't compare it to prior runs. So, being a numbers junkie, I'm having a hard time coping. I tried to count calories but that got old quickly.
http://caloriecount.about.com is helpful in tracking caloric and nutritional intake if you have the patience to enter your meals. It has lots of common food and serving sizes, plus it allows you to enter custom food. It will grade your diet and give you a nutrition report. Over those three days, plus half of Saturday, my ratios were:
18.0% fat 9.2% protein 72.7% carbohydrates
Looks like I need a little more protein in my diet. This web site recommends a ratio of: Carbs = 40-60% Fat = 20-30% Protein = 10-15%
Typically I like to give a detailed race report, but I won't be doing that this time. I ran this race in a zone and I was more internally focused than any other race I've ever run. I paid close attention to form, stride length, breathing, drafting, endurance, cardiothoracic activity, and running the tangents. Because of that, I was rarely outside of the zone and didn't make any mental notes about my surroundings. I guess that makes for a boring race report.
A fellow runner wrote me about Lea Carruther's performance -- here was my reply:
I ran with Lea for about 6 miles. During that time we had about a 6:26 pace. Jeff Eisele was holding her back, telling her to take the first two easy and hammer the third. But as we rounded the first lap (five miles), Jeff dropped his watch and had to go back to pick it up*. The small group never saw him again. I guess Lea figured it was her get out of jail free card at that time because she started inching forward afterwards. I couldn't hold on (and didn't want to) and she left me in her dust. There was some confusion as to whether she was in first or not -- at least two girls were ahead of us but we weren't sure if they were in the relay or not. I guess they weren't, because I don't recall passing any girls after the first loop**.
Regardless, I don't know what she did to reduce her overall pace to 6:05 after running with me so long, but I wish I could have watched her surge. I'm sure it was a sight to see. I wonder if she was pushing to catch up with a phantom girl ahead of her.
Diana passed me right after we turned around at Shepherd for the last time. I was feeling pretty low at that point and made no point to hold on. My last five were run at 6:35 average -- not much a finishing kick.
As for my time -- I'm pretty happy. I hoped to be no slower than a 6:30 pace, but my 6:31 is good enough to put me where I want to be. Unfortunately my splits were mostly positive, making me think that it will get worse over longer distances. I'll have to be really smart about not going out too fast.
Edits -- * - Jeff was sick that day and it affected his performance. He's on top of his game, and regularly gives me a butt-kicking. He ran a 1:22:34 (6:18 pace) at the Koala/Luke's Half. ** - As it turns out she was in second at that point, behind the person who would eventually finish as the first masters woman.
The big news about the 25K, which isn't so pretty, is that my left Achilles tendon is now seriously injured. I've been feeling some discomfort, so I didn't run at all for the four days prior to the 25K race. I felt good at the starting line, and it didn't bother me much during the race. But after about 20 minutes of inactivity I started on a cool-down run and couldn't take a step without pain.
After referencing my blog for the last time I had issues with my Achilles, I determined that it took four weeks of just about no running before the other leg healed. This time I can tell it's injured a little worse. Hopefully four weeks is enough recovery time, though.
Loosely following the RICE theory (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), I medicated with ibuprofen, rested, elevated and iced my leg several times over the past couple of days.
Obviously with the Houston Marathon 67 days away, I can't sit idle while I lose all of my conditioning. So I joined the UT Medical School Recreational center to stay in shape.
Yesterday I did 15 minutes of aqua jogging (before they closed the pool due to weather), 45 minutes on a cardio arm cranking machine, and about 10 minutes of weights. Today the pool was closed again, so I did 30 minutes on a bike, 15 minutes on the arm crank, another 15 minutes on the bike, and 20 minutes on weights. I'll keep posting about my workouts, and I'd appreciate any feedback from those of you who may have been in a similar boat.
Comments: 10/30/08 - Viva la Vida - bill said: 100 miles in a week? I'd have to say you are definitely hard core. I think you will probably reap some good benefits if your body holds up. Are you training for the marathon?
How prophetic . . . "if your body holds up". I was dumb to run 100 miles in a week, but even dumber to run it sandwiched between some 70 mile weeks. That's why I'm in this situation, and I'm wondering if I'll be able to bounce back in time for the Houston Marathon. It's just like the blog entry -- one day you're on top of the world, and the next day you're nursing an injury. I guess I flew too close to the sun. Check out Bill's blog at: http://bigrunningengine.blogspot.com. He ran a 1:19:06 at the Koala/Luke's Houston Half Marathon late last month.
Anonymous said: Don't worry, buddy. You've got quite a few years before you wake up with that horrible realization.
LOL. I suppose you're right about the age thing, but I wasn't just talking about age. It's about the inevitable downward spiral, and the relatively small amount of time during our peaks even when we're on the upside. You can't always be on top of your game.
11/9/08 - 2008 HMSA 25K - kayry said - Very nice race Jonathan - quite an improvement since a year ago.
Thanks! I knew an improvement was in the works. I ran that race last year on only eight months of running from scratch. Hopefully I can knock off another 10-20 seconds per mile next year, but that might be too ambitious. Check out John's blog at http://kayry-john.blogspot.com/. Interestingly enough, I was searching for some Houston Marathon routes on motionbased a few weeks ago and stumbled across your id there -- before I even knew about your blog. A few days later I found the blog and I've become a fan. Keep up the excellent work.
I don't know what I did to get a couple of speed demons to read my blog -- certainly not because of my speed, and I can't imagine it's because of my skill with the pen . . .errr, keyboard. But thanks for reading.
I always wanted to see what it was like to run 100 miles in one week, and this week seemed like my best opportunity. It's a while before my next race, giving me plenty of chance to recover in case something happens. I'm in top form, based on recent races, my heart rate during training runs, and the general feeling I have about my fitness level. So I gave it a go, and it wasn't that hard.
The negative stuff first: 1) I should qualify that this is sort of cheating, because I ran my long run on Sunday, and the next long run on Saturday, thereby squeezing two long runs into one week. 2) Top athletes regularly run 140M per week, so I'm under no illusions that I'm doing anything special. 3) This is very time consuming. It took me 14 hours, 43 minutes, 33 seconds to run all of these miles. 4) Most of my easy runs started out REALLY slow for the first mile (9-10 minute miles)
The positive stuff: 1) I felt great. In fact there was never a moment where I was overly tired or slightly injured. In fact, the only thing I had going against me was the unwise decision to descend 58 flights of stairs on Monday, thanks to the fire alarm at my office. This caused burning in my quads at the beginning of runs until Wednesday night. 2) My body could handle this for multiple weeks in a row, although I doubt my schedule could do so. If I did manage to find time, I'd have to dispense with one of my two speed sessions like I did this week. Typically I run fast on Thursdays, but that was out the door. 3) Speaking of speed work, I managed to squeeze a race into the the week (Tuesday's Tour de Bayou) 4) Once upon a time, not so long ago, a "run" meant three miles -- and it wasn't hard but it wasn't easy. Then that three moved to six before I really felt like I was doing a run and felt challenged. Now that's ten. I can run ten miles non-stop at any time now, limited only by my schedule and not by my fitness or fatigue. 5) I actually managed to squeeze a rest day (Friday) into the mix. 6) I was really concerned about doing my Saturday long run on tired legs, but the combination of Friday's rest and my general endurance make Saturday's workout a cake walk, despite finishing the last fourteen at an easy 7:19 pace with only one brief stop.
This week I'll come back down from those heights and post about 50 or 60 miles total. I was originally going to run a 30K race in Dallas on 11/16, but I think that's going to change in lieu of the 25K on 11/9. The 52-38 thrashing of LSU by UGA convinced me not to drive into Baton Rouge for the Alabama game on 11/8, leaving me free to run the HMSA 25K on 11/9. If all goes well it will be my last proving ground before the Houston Marathon.
Health note -- I briefly complained about my right foot. A tendon running from my big toe to the heel has a small bump on it, causing it to be sore to the touch but not painful when running. It also causes symptoms similar to plantar fasciitis, but I'm ok once I stretch my feet out in bed before I get up. I'll monitor this over the next couple of weeks, but I have a strong suspicion that it's because of my shoes. I'm cycling through about five pairs of shoes right now -- none have less than 300 miles and some have more than 500 miles on them.
Totals: 105.21M, 14:43:33, under 8:30 pace overall
The morning run was slow on purpose to recover from a string of high mileage days and to save my energy for the race later that day.
The race went well. I saw Joe at the starting line (he won stage 2), and he told me he'd be taking it easy today because of his upcoming Marine Corps Marathon this weekend. I already had my plans to take it easy because I'm tired, and because of a certain incident at work on Monday.
The fire alarm went off, disabling the elevators and trapping me 58 flights above a lunch date with my wife. I took the stairs down. It was easy while I was doing it, but I felt it in the quads all day today. They were screaming during the warm up but managed to be replaced by a general feeling of weakness by the time the race started.
Even so, I ran a good race. I came in fourth overall, behind a man and his two (high school aged?) sons. The family kicked my butt, but I'm still pretty happy with my work today. The out-and-back course was somewhat hilly, but the overall elevation gain on the out was only about 15 feet. So this gives me the opportunity to compare my out split with my back split.
Out: 2.16M in 14:44 (6:49 pace)
Back: 2.15M in 14:14 (6:37 pace)
So I managed to pick up the pace in the second lap. I'm not sure if I'm happy or upset that I kept my heart rate out of zone five. I didn't enter the race wanting to hurt -- I'm trying to save my legs. But to give less than a zone five effort on a race is disappointing. I just need to remember this isn't the goal race -- just a speed workout for the goal race.
Notes: 1) Jon Warren's group was doing their workout along our course, so it was nice to hear their cheers. Thanks to Jeff, Shon and Matt for the encouragement. At one point I merged with Katherine as she did her speed work, and running with her helped me to pick up my pace. Otherwise I ran pretty much by myself after the first mile. Thanks to Katherine for her post-race encouragement as well. 2) This is the longest Tour de Bayou race I've ever run. 3) The course that most closely corresponds to the second TDB race I did in the Spring. My pace was the same, although today I ran an extra .8M and my heart rate was significantly lower. I guess that qualifies as improvement. This is the blog entry from that race. 4) The post-run warm-down was a beating. I ran out of energy (similar to my PM run on this blog entry). I get to a point that I feel like I desperately need food and can't run another step. I'm a little lightheaded as well. My kingdom for a Gatorade! I mustered myself and trotted back to the car, but I absolutely have to do a better job of taking some calories before workouts. We shall see how this breakdown affects tomorrow's planned 6M morning run, and PM PIM session. 5) I ran most of the final 2/3 of the run with a feeling that there was a stick or rock in my right shoe. Mid-way through the warm down I finally decided to investigate it, and discovered a bloody sock thanks to an untrimmed toe nail. I hope I learn my lesson -- you can do all the preparation in the world for a marathon, but if you forget the simple detail of cutting your toe nails before the race then your goal can be sacrificed. I added a "clip toenails" reminder to my outlook calendar set for 24 hours before the marathon.
And if you're wondering why I'm sharing all of these gory details, you should know that I'm wondering why you're reading them!
We ran W's today, which is essentially a route that looks like a W when viewed from above. Each pen strike is a hill. The agenda called for 23 straight minutes, but I bowed out at 20 minutes and walked the mile back to the car because my Achilles started acting up. I think it was a wise decision, because it is now 1:47PM and I don't feel any pain.
I think this will be my strategy from now on: don't run long distances on back-to-back days, ice/ibuprofen when it hurts, and quit the intense workouts as soon as I start to feel the pain. Who needs a doctor!?
----- TDLY - 6/13/07 - Kenyan Way 8x300 and 800, no watch. Blog Entry.
I didn't wear my watch today, which makes me feel half naked. Perhaps it's a good think to free myself from the watch from time to time, but I'm not convinced that's true.
The workout was a 2M warm up followed by 3x4:30 with three minutes of rest between reps. 4:30 was chosen because it equates to a quarter mile at a 6:00 pace. And since people of various paces were running, stopping after a certain time keeps us all on the same clock.
That being said, I don't know how far I went but I'm pretty sure I was running a bit faster than a 6:00 pace, and I think I did a fair job running all three at about the same speed.
(After elevating and icing my twisted ankle last night, and sleeping with four tight socks on (for compression), it didn't bother me on this run. I wouldn't have been good for the lateral movement require by soccer, but I was fine to run.)
I ran through the trails of Hogg Park for the first time since the Tour de Bayou,and twisted my left ankle pretty badly at the onset of my run. I seldom run with my iphone, but I did today thank goodness, because I called Julie to come pick me up. I iced the ankle and took some ibuprofen. I expect to be ok by tomorrow, but you never know. (This is the opposite ankle than my achilles issue.)
Speaking of the Tour de Bayou, I never reported on the results. My cumulative time over all five races was 2:04:33. That places me at sixth overall out of 28 men and 12 women on non-adjusted times. However, these races are age-graded, which attempts to equalize the disadvantage older athletes have. My time isn't adjusted because I'm in my "prime", but older athletes have seconds and minutes removed from their time. On an age graded basis I finished eleventh overall (behind two women).
Congratulations to Adam Jackson (44) who was the overall winner on an adjusted and non-adjusted basis.
Will's instructions for the day were for those racing tomorrow to take it easy and run only one lap of hills before jogging around the bayou. I didn't get much of a workout, but that worked out well for me. I'm still trying to favor my leg and I didn't want to expend too much energy before my race tomorrow.
It was nice to take this at a leisurely pace and not worry about work, since today is my day off.
The leg feels OK, but I can tell something is wrong. There is a small bump where a bump shouldn't be -- kinda scary. Things aren't looking good for my race tomorrow. But if I can't run a good race, at least I'll try to host a good post-race party. Yes, I'm a proud Heights resident and I'm excited about inviting over dozens of my sweaty friends over to my house after the race for some post-race refreshments and stories. I'm cooking enough to feed 50 people, based on the response from my evite. I only hope my supply can keep up with the real-time demand. (I hope I can cook the burgers fast enough.)
I know this subject is tiresome, but I'm officially hurt once again. I guess it would be more accurate to say that I never fully repaired from my Achilles issue. After running with Stephanie's group on 5/31, I limped around most of the day and skipped the Sunday Tornado long run that I planned in an attempt to heal. I also skipped Monday's Will's Hills.
I guess skipping Monday threw me off, because Monday night I set my alarm clock in time to get up for Will's Hills the next day -- 5AM. I crawled out of bed and drove over to the meeting spot, only to discover that it was indeed Tuesday, and we only meet on MWF. What was I thinking?
I drove back home but my spirit was broken and I only managed to go one block before determining that I wouldn't be running today.
Thus I produced my shortest ever recorded run today. And even at that really slow pace, my leg hurt. What to do . . .?!
I didn't intend to run today, since I can't gain any fitness by running at this juncture and the worst case scenario is that I could re-strain my Achilles. But I've been trying to get Jacques to run with me for several weeks, and when he asked me to join him today I couldn't say no. We sit side-by-side at work, so there is plenty of talk about running.
He's like a bunch of us who find ourselves out of shape after a lifetime of relative athleticism, so I didn't expect he would push me too hard. But right out of the gate we hit a 7:12 mile and I started to wonder if it was a good idea to accept his offer. Mile two brought us a 7:15 mile, but my fears of re-straining my leg disappeared because it felt better than it has in many weeks. The remaining .87 of our run was at a 7:42 pace. Jacques could have pushed faster, but he was holding out for a round of tennis on the heels of his run.
Overall he impressed me. There is no way I could have kept up with him one year ago.
The big story is that my Achilles didn't bother me, which validated my decision to drastically reduce my mileage and intensity over the past two weeks. I probably didn't need any further confirmation after last Saturday's long run, but it still feels good knowing that I'm going to be ok for the Ogden Marathon in four days.
Other notes: I rode my bike with Julie on 5/11/08 and 5/12/08 for some leisurely miles.
----- TDLY - 5/11/07 - rest - Blog Entry Last Year. 5/12/07 - Run to Onion Creek for Breakfast, 6.03 miles, 53:49, 8:55 pace, max HR = 177, avg HR = 158, 14% Z5, 59% Z4, 22% Z2. I can remember this run like it was yesterday. Julie and I headed out from our apartment in the Museum District and ran to the Heights for breakfast, where we left a car. It was a daunting task to think about going six miles in one direction, without a safety net of a place to stop if I couldn't make it. I figured I could cover the distance, but I wouldn't have tried it without Julie as company because I KNEW she could make it. The worst case scenario would be that she could leave me behind and drive back to pick me up. It got tough at the end, particularly after mile 4, but that was one of the sweetest beers I've ever had on the patio of Onion Creek afterwards. Blog Entry Last Year. 5/13/07 - Negative Splits around Rice, 2.87 miles, 24:24, 8:30 pace, max HR = 176, Avg HR = 156, 19% Z5, 34% Z4, 31% Z3 This run is proof positive that Jacques in in better shape than I was one year ago. For roughly the same distance run, I averaged more than a minute per mile slower and I red lined on my heart rate (Zone 5) for more than a quarter of the run. But the positive takeaway from this run is that I ran almost every quarter mile with negative splits and the last .86 miles was a 7:25 pace. Even though I wasn't in shape, I was showing toughness that day. Blog Entry Last Year.
Today is my birthday, and by coincidence it was also my 9/80 day off. So I spent the day goofing off. I watched some TV, including a movie called Red River starring John Wayne (good one.)
About the only thing "productive" that I've done, other than one load of dishes, is going for a 12 mile leisurely bike ride. I would have preferred to go on a 12 mile run instead, but I'm saving that up for tomorrow as a do-or-die run with Cory. Either I can run without pain or else I have to take another week off before trying again.
During these last ten days I've gained at least five pounds and probably added fifteen seconds to my best mile pace over any distance. I'm upset that I was running my best and now I'm looking at the possibility of not running at all for two or more weeks. Don't get me wrong, I'm hopeful that everything will be ok tomorrow, but I'm not willing to push through that kind of pain because a rupture in the Achilles Tendon could sideline me for a long time.
No Will's hills, no tempo runs, no long runs, no training runs with the Tornados. It's killing me, but I'm also aware that until now, I've been extremely lucky that I never had to take more than a couple of days off due to injury. Every runner gets injured. The thing that's killing me is that I'm not really injured . . . I'm just flirting with injury and I know my best shot to avoid injury is to take a break.
I know all three of my readers don't want to hear all of these complaints, but I'm really interested in documenting this for personal (and historical) reasons. One of these days I'll reference back to this to try to get an idea how I coped with injury, so thanks for bearing with me.
My predominant emotion is guilt. A true athlete in my situation would do core exercises, swim often (I swam only once, 10x50 sprints after a warm up for 30 mins total), hit the weights, go to a doctor, ice it regularly, use compression, take Advil religiously, curtail the diet. The only thing I really committed to was resting; because it was easy. I don't understand why I will push so incredibly hard while I'm running, but not give even 10% of that kind of effort toward getting better and keeping up my shape while I heal.
The bright spot is that the race season is over now that the heat is here, and it's too early to start training for the Houston marathon. But I still need to be there for Cory at the Ogden Marathon -- I only wish it was a month away instead of eight days from now.
Today's Power in Motion theme was "Where to from Here?"
Coach Ted organized a great mystery run in which the Batons finished second. We followed clues to our next destination, answered riddles and exercised our power of observation along the way. A good time was had by all.
Afterwards we gathered at the starting point for two kegs of beer and snacks. The coaches talked about their running clubs and the PIMsters talked about future goals. It was a great way to end the season, and it left me looking forward to the fall session of PIM.
-----
Unfortunately the minimal exertion required for today's run was still enough to make my Achilles very sore. I ran one mile at Will's Hills (probably 7:30ish) and it still bothers me. It's been one complete week since I've run (PIM exlcuded), and I don't think I'm getting any better. I fear my marathon trip is in jeopardy. I'll stay off of my feet for the next couple of days and hit the ibuprophen regularly. If I'm not in good enough shape for a long run on Saturday then I might have to drop out of the marathon.
(I swam for about 30 minutes on May 6 . . . Warm up of about 500M plus 10x50M sprints with about 20 seconds recovery. I did all of that without a watch so I didn't measure my splits or recovery time.)
Today we were scheduled for a 2.5 mile Indian Run. That's running in a single file line, and having the person in the back run to the front and say something about themselves as they're passing everyone. But our Batons have a wide variety of paces, so an Indian Run didn't seem feasible since the entire group has to run at about the same pace.
We opted for a trip around the park instead. For most of the Batons this was their first time to circumnavigate Memorial Park! The 5K goal race is this weekend, so this was a tremendous confidence builder.
On a personal note, I went to Will's Hills this morning, and my right Achilles still hasn't gotten any better. With the impending marathon, I've decided to take a solid week of rest in order to take the opportunity to heal. This will negatively affect my fitness level, but the possible side-effect of running through this pain is a long term injury. I can handle the pain, but I don't want to even think about sitting out 3-6 months because I was too dumb to take a break and heal.
----- TDLY (This Day Last Year)- 3.39 miles, 29:35, 8:43 pace, Max HR = 174, Avg HR = 155. The bottom dropped out of the sky shortly into this run, and my MP3 player got so wet it quit working. I decided to take the opportunity to run inside of the Hermann Park golf course since nobody was golfing in the rain.
I had a fairly good race today, although things could have gone better. I finished in ninth place overall, which is right in the neighborhood of where I finished for the other three prior legs.
This was my first experience with the Ho Chi Minh Trails, although I've run the Cambodia trail with Coach Audrey from PIM before. What can I say . . . these trails are tough. The elevation change, sharp turns, logs, roots and low-lying branches come together for a very challenging race course. I seriously fought the urge to walk, especially when I got that sick-to-my-stomach feeling that happens when I exert myself for an extended time.
I certainly didn't help myself with my pre-race preparation tactics. I failed to hydrate properly and ate foolishly, I didn't focus my mental capacities on this race, and I showed up with no time to warm up since I couldn't get out of work early enough. It might sound strange, but the mental and dietary preparation during the 24 hours prior to a race is almost as much of a contributing factor to my success (or lack thereof) as the weeks of hard training prior to the race.
But I still did fairly well. The big story is that I didn't have any problems with my right leg, although I did a pretty good job twisting my left ankle about half way into the course. I took a second or two to stop and check out my ankle, and then jogged tenderly for about twenty seconds to make sure I'd be ok. I want to do well at any individual race, but I don't want to sacrifice my opportunity to do well for the next several weeks by failing to quit when I get injured. I gave up a few spots by monitoring my ankle, but I think I gained them back . . . except . . .
After I stopped to nurse my ankle, I followed two girls and a guy for a mile or more. At the end I made my move and passed all three of them over the course of a quarter mile or so. As we cleared the trail I saw the finish line about fifty yards away. I thought I gathered an insurmountable lead, so I picked up the paced but didn't top it out. I was surprised when I was passed with less than five feet to go. The Cisco Kid, as he introduced himself to me after the race when I offered my congratulations, slid by me in a moment of absent-mindedness to take 8th place from me. I can guarantee that won't happen again. If someone outkicks me, it will be because they're faster than me -- not because I didn't notice them in my rear view mirror.
Overall, I had a blast. I love these trail races, and I'll try to do more after the marathon. Gas Light is a trail runner and a HARRA "trustee", so I've been leaning on her advice for each of the legs. Check out her take on the race. She's a competitor.
A note on my pace -- I wouldn't be surprised if I ran an 8:03 pace, but I'm more likely to believe that the Garmin short-changed the route as it tends to do with twisty courses (rounds off corners) and dense brush. The course was probably longer, and my pace was probably a bit quicker.
Mile splits: 7:15, 8:59 (break to check my ankle), 8:19, 1:43 for .26 miles (6:36 pace)
I've been told that League Line Road is where Houston runners go to get their long hills. I get plenty of hill workouts with Will's Hills, but the hills are short and steep. At League Line Road the hills are longer and more gradual. Many local runners use this route for their Boston Marathon training which has some challenging rolling hills during the latter stages of the course.
Today Cory and I made the 45 minute trek out to League Line Road in preparation for the upcoming Ogden Marathon which has an overall drop of about 1100 feet. It's always a pleasure to chat with Cory, and the conversation always seems particularly fluid when it occurs during a long run. And while today's run wasn't particularly long, the shorter "long run" worked out well for both of us since we both have a bit of recovering to do. Cory has been battling knee and ankle problems, whereas my right ankle/Achilles/leg has been acting up.
I'm not really sure what my problem is, but at this stage I'm fairly certain it's not my Achilles. After our run today I could feel a slight burning sensation and sensitivity midway up my Achilles. Hopefully I can get Dr. Bob from PIM to look at it and give me some advice. For now I'm going to take it easy on Sunday and Monday so I don't miss my streak of consecutive Tour De Bayou contests.
But back to League Line Road -- it was a good experience. I had hoped for more challenging hills. Despite a relatively aggressive sub-8 minute pace, my heart rate stayed very low (52% Zone 3, 45% Zone 2) and I never felt affected by the grade. After visiting Austin last weekend and seeing some monster hills, I guess I was expecting and hoping for a bit more. Running along Teaswood was nicer than League Line Road since we didn't have to contend with any traffic. The weather was great (49 degrees average) which contributed to our healty pace. Overall I think I'm in good shape to handle the Ogden course on May 17, with the obvious unknown variable of elevation. I'll tackle that issue when I get there.
Four miles at near top speed was intimidating, but I gutted it out. Kevin, Lee, one other guy (forgot his name) and I took turns leading portions of the workout. As a result I think I pushed myself much harder than I would have if I ran these alone. I'm not sure if I run faster when I'm trying to keep up with someone, or if I'm in the lead trying to keep a good pace for the rest of the crew.
Miles splits(actually measured .95 and .96 on the Garmin): 5:52, 5:52, 5:51, 5:55 (slow start but strong finish on my last mile)
Looking at those times I'd like to say I wish I had a slightly better pace. But I have to remind myself that the elevation change, uneven terrain and darkeness makes this more difficult than a street or track run. Also, I wonder if the painted mile marker is more accurate than my Garmin, meaning I might really be running sub-6 repeats.
I had no Achilles concerns, but I'm not ready to write this off yet. I think I'll talk to my friend from H-Town Runner to get her feedback since she suffered through this injury last year.
I'm really satisfied with this performance because it's the hardest I've ever run in quite some time, including my recent 5K PR this past Saturday. My race strategy was to stay with the lead group as long as I could, and then push really hard at the end. The lead group took it easy over the first mile and then lowered the boom and left me after that.
In general I've been noticing that my average and maximum heart rates over a run have been declining as my times also decline. This is good and bad. It's good because it means my cardiovascular system has adapted and allows me to run more efficiently. It takes less heart pumping for me to go faster than before. But the fact that my max and average heart rate is declining is bad because it means that I'm not trying as hard as I have in the past. I believe heart rate is the best measure of effort. So I'm sad to say that my effort during races has decreased since my early days of running.
With that in mind, I wanted to lay it all out there on the race course today and not allow myself the luxury of coasting. I think I succeeded . . . at least by the heart rate measure. I ran the last half mile in zone 5, which is reserved for maximum intensity. During this time I passed two people. The first finished in the top two last week, but the course destroyed him today and he was walking. The second person I passed took significantly more effort. I trailed him by a long way for at least a mile, but I reeled him in and gutted it out to slide past him with less than 20 yards to go.
(I use my Festival International 5K as a benchmark of effort, because it's the hardest I ever ran as measured by heart rate. 66% of the time was in zone 5, and 31% was in zone 4.)
Back to today: The course was on White Oak Bayou, which is where I run many of my neighborhood miles. But the twist to today's route is that we were ran through wooded trails that caused you to duck under branches and hop over obstacles, interspersed with a fair dosage of hills. It was a challenging and fun course.
And the BEST part is that Julie joined me for this race. She was nervous about the course difficulty, but looked and performed like a champion.
I was worried about my right Achilles tendon since it felt a bit funny, but I didn't notice anything unusual during or after the run. Maybe yesterday's break was all I needed to ward off injury. As mundane as this sounds, I'll probably keep reporting on this for the next few days until I'm sure this is behind me.
It's not easy for me to get a good workout while riding the bike. I think I'm working hard, and my legs are burning (sometimes), but my heart rate doesn't get very high and I find myself slacking off since it's possible to coast. If you coast while you run then you will earn yourself a face full of gravel.
I took today off from running in order to give my right achilles a rest. I want to be able to run stage three of the Tour de Bayou tomorrow, and hills are stressful for the achilles. After two stages I'm in sixth place overall, prior to the age-grading adjustment that this series uses.
Person Total Diff Mark Holland 41:12 Matt Nicol 41:15 0:03 Jorge Alvarado 41:53 0:41 Joe Schwieterman 42:17 1:05 Francisco Garza 43:36 2:24 Jonathan Bennett 44:18 3:06 Nira Flavio 45:18 4:06 Helen Grant 46:17 5:05 Mark Fraser 46:40 5:28 Greg Duvall 46:40 5:28 Phillip Hollacher 47:24 6:12 Jody Berry Rico 47:39 6:27
