Training Log Archive: Ari-o

So that happened.

If you've been following along, a month ago I decided to run a marathon. Because, uh, I'm not particularly bright. I ran 17.5 one weekend, 10 miles in 67 minutes and then 24 miles two days later the next, raced 25 trail miles the next weekend, signed up, ran the Billygoat last weekend, and then took some resting time this week in the lead up.

The race was Sugarloaf. The course: mostly downhill, with beautiful mountain views. The weather? Damn near perfect, dry, cool, a light breeze (mostly a tailwind) with temperatures starting around 45 and rising to around 60.

I'd convinced my friend George (FKT on the Hut Traverse, although it's not posted to the FKT boards) to come and pace me. His first marathon. My second, but my first was run in a 27 degrees and on packed snow in 3:16, so it doesn't really count. In 2009. I didn't specifically train for it. Da ladna.

Came up to Maine yesterday, and went up to get bibs. Probably could have saved the drive, but I wanted to get things squared away. However, it had poured rain earlier in the day and the Carrabassett River was 10 feet above normal flow, so it was pretty fun to watch. My sister was running the 15k and her boyfriend chauffered us to the start. Since it was a 7 a.m. start that saved us close to an hour of sleep. Still a 4:30 wake up, probably the earliest anyone has ever woken up at the camp here. We hit the road by 5, George having forgotten his bib (but they gave him a replacement) and had some time to warm up and eat goos.

The race started at 7. The weather, which had at times looked to be rainy, turned out to be nice. 45˚, high clouds, dry, cool, light breeze. The plan: 6:50s to the hills. Strong up the hills. Fast down the hills. And then, well, whatever the rest of the way. Goal of 3:05, reach of sub-3.

We started out well. We were in the second pack; there were a couple of rabbits off the front (who finished in 2:45) and we had a nice rhythm. George and I chatted, we saw a fellow NPer, we sang some songs (sorry, fellow runners) and ran the first eight miles between 6:45 and 6:58. The scenery was gorgeous. You're in a wide valley with Flagstaff Lake to your left and the Bigelows rising 3000 feet up in front of you. It's splendid.

From miles 7 to 10 there was a climb, broken in to five manageable sections. We slowed down a bit for them—running 9 and 10 about 7:18 and 7:05 up the climb (gaining a total of more than 300 feet, including 180 in a mile). It leveled off around mile 10. I had a goo here, and they had hydration every two miles so I made sure to keep drinking (I actually had to pee a bit, which is better than dehydration). Then it was a steep downhill (6:35, 6:26 mile) and then some appreciable downhills the rest of the way. (6:50s, with a 6:20 where the road follows the steeper part of the Carrabassett.)

According to my watch (Oh, I got a new Garmin, which was wicked helpful to keep me doing splits. I didn't use the HRM or any other fancy stuff, but will learn how to use it soon. Splits were fantastic, though), we ran the first half in 1:30. Could we hold it together? Well, around mile 16 George peeled off to pee in the woods, but caught back up. I was fueling well, and hydrating well, but my legs were taking a pounding.

At around mile 18, I went in to my first pain room. The grade slackened and we were running around 6:50s, but not below. We had a lot of BQ time banked, but not much sub-3 time. It wasn't too bad, but full body cramping. I could run through it, but we ran our first over-7 (7:01) mile since mile 10. I felt a bit better, but the gradual downhill meant that my legs were really getting hit hard—I actually liked the short uphills since they used different muscles. They were short, though. A guy and woman we were running with had a bicycle escort for the last few miles (not really allowed, but whatever) and that helped them along. They made sub-3, barely.

Around 22, my legs really started giving me trouble. There were two 7:09 miles in there, which put about a minute on sub-3 for me. George had dropped off a few seconds and I had a BQ in the bag: I needed to run 8:15s to make 3:05. Sub-3 was slipping away a bit, but I ran a couple 6:55s, but not quite enough (still, it felt good to run sub-7s after 25 miles). Plus, my watch was about 0.1 miles behind the signs, so I had an extra 30 seconds or so to run at the end—it's possible the course was 100 yards long (says my watch and Google Maps). I passed a few people, but even with a kick couldn't muster much speed. My endurance was fine, but my legs hurt something awful. I was saying to myself: "hold it together for 20 minutes. 15 minutes. 8 minutes." I made the turn to the end and sprinted in: 3:01:16. 20th overall.

Very happy with that. With one month of training, one 20 mile run, and two months removed from mostly skiing (and a pretty lazy March) it's really not bad. Oh, and it's a BQ. So next year, I'll have to ski the Birkie and pretty quickly transition in to running. My friend Jakob said that if I can run a 3:01 without training, I should be able to swing a sub-3 with some. So, hopefully Boston is cool next year.

Learned:

Marathons are fun. Perhaps more fun if you train for them.
Garmin watch = amazing. It's a good way to spend the money. (I'm doing a survey for a credit card and they're paying me $350. New Garmin!)
I don't know how to download my Garmin. Will figure that out when my head is working more. (update: synched with Strava!)
Sad to miss some O, and Porchfest, and the Urban Adventure Run. Alex: next year (or in the fall) we should push out the UAR to November Project people, that would be up their alley.
My legs hurt.
I want to run more. And I'm really excited for some trail running. My engine is there.

C • Most impressive 2

Ha. So, this happened. Took the train out to O with Brendan and someone else, talked about Tiomila all the way out, which was fun. Walked to O. I was planning not to go hard (marathon Sunday) but my head just wasn't screwed on straight. Forgot to start Strava. Missed the first control by a little, spiked the second, and then oy, #3.

First, I remembered that last year the marshes were pretty runnable. Of course, last year it hadn't rained for a month. This year the marshes were "crossable" but I didn't want to kill my feet. So I navigated to 3, got to the marsh, and turned to run around it, running straight in to a major league thorn bush.

I picked the thorns out of my pants and went around, right to 11. Whoops. Back to 3.

4-8 weren't bad, I goofed on one when I just messed up the scale (my brain still on Billygoat scale) and then went out for the second loop. Along this time I realized there was a thorn in my shoe, and it was beginning to migrate in to my toe. Normally this would be of no concern, but I am running this marathon thing on Sunday and don't really want a gaping hole in my foot. Also, normally, I would just take my shoe off and take the thorn out, but my shoes were covered in poison ivy. Covered. The fields were full of it about 3" high. So I took off my shirt and tried to take out my daisy-chained laces, swatted the swarming mosquitos, finally did get the shoe undone, worked the thorn out of my foot, put back my shoe (untied) and walked the rest of the course.

Yay, orienteering?

We'll see how I do with the poison ivy. I've now been doing O for three years and haven't gotten a lick of it. I hiked the AT in shorts and didn't get any. In fact, the only time I've ever had any poison ivy/oak/sumac was in California, and the rest of my family broke out while I had one little patch. So this will be a decent test; if I am immune it will probably show up.

Then I was all sweaty but didn't want to take off my pants and socks and such. So I went running down to catch the 70 bus. I had four minutes and spent that time in lush, landscaped grass, trying to wipe the urushiol off my shoes and legs. Or looking like a crazy person. Then a straight shot on the 70 home, which stops two blocks from my house. The operator had to wake some guy up in Waltham who had fallen asleep (I told her to let him sleep in to Cambridge) and then watched as she fell 2 minutes behind but made the time up and was a minute early rolling down River Street.

$1.50 is not a bad deal for that kind of entertainment.

Cat Rock - Splits

40 sections at Harvard. Trying not to go too hard.

Squeezing a quick tempo run in between things.