Sunday Long Run

Winter Running: It was 32* and sunny today  Excellent weather for running outside.  Everyone else thought so too. 

Goals for the run: Warm up properly.  Keep my heart rate below 153.  I'm back on the heart rate training bandwagon. 

Route: I headed to the downtown gym.  It has better trail access than my house.  Trails are preferable to relying on people to actually shovel their sidewalks at this time of year.  I ran past the Sculpture Garden, onto Cedar Lake Trail, around Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake, and then back the way I started.  The beginning of the run was a bit hairy.  There was ice in some places that had probably been puddles yesterday, and would be again later today.

Execution: I started with a five minute walk to warm up, then kept my heart rate in the low 140s for the first couple of miles.  After that, I went by feel.  This entire run was great. I was not discouraged when the first couple of miles were very slow.  I picked it up in the middle and towards the end, but nothing too crazy.  My heart rate was dialed in right where I wanted it, and it felt good to move. 

Bonus: Totally took all the pictures.

Running and heart rate training

After my brief and failed flirtation with online training plans I felt off and very slow for a long time.  Too long.  Whenever I would run outside, I'd ignore my heart rate monitor (because I couldn't see it under my 85 layers of clothes).  On the treadmill, I'd just get frustrated because I was soooo slow.

I've moved my Zone 2 workouts to the elliptical.  This has ended the frustration and made me feel less like I want to punch people.  For outdoor running I've moved my focus away from Z2 and back into Z3 where it belongs.  It's gotten slightly (and pleasantly) warmer outside, enough to leave my wrist bare and look at my watch during runs. 

Last week on the coldest day ever I did an hour on the treadmill next to my walking buddy.  I was doing a running pace and had my heart rate dialed in.  Best workout ever.  On Monday I had a painfully slow (but in the correct HR zone) outdoor run.  Today I had another outdoor run that was both in the correct zone and at a pace I recognized from this summer.  Things are moving along slowly, but I'm seeing some positive signs.

Bonus: still bringing the phone on some outdoor runs for pictures.

Before and After

Two pictures, taken from roughly the same spot on Medicine Lake.
One if from January 2016.  The other is from March 2015.  See if you can tell which is which.

Trail Thursday - A Surprise Winter Run

Trail: French Park/Medicine Lake Loop.  I have run here before but never done a 'trail review' because normally the thing is properly paved and not an off road trail. Today, however, felt like a true off road adventure, so I'm doing a proper trail report.

Hills: The hills here are hard.  I run this loop counter clockwise because it gets most of the hills out of the way right off the bat.  That last hill absolutely owned me today.  I let myself walk up most of it because I knew my heart rate was already way too high.  Whatever, I was cold.

Ease of Running: This trail was varying degrees of plowed.  Not sure what happened on the west side of the lake but it was not great.

• Inside French Park - totally plowed down to the black top.
• Path along Northwest Blvd - well plowed, packed snow, very runnable
• Path along Medicine Lake Blvd - has seen a plow at least once this year. Opposite of fun.
• Path near Medicine Lake Park -completely not plowed.  Absolutely off roading.
• Luce Line, the path around the east side of the lake, and 36th Ave - well plowed, packed snow, very runnable

How cold is cold: My face froze during this run.  Literally.  I wore shorts under my sweat pants, wool socks, and two shirts under my running sweat shirt.  I had a band over my ears and gloves on my hands.  It wasn't that it was soooo cold, it was that I was out in it for a long time.  I wished I'd worn tights under my sweat pants instead. Everything else was fine.

Animals: I saw other runners and walkers and maybe a dog.  Also, lots and lots of ice fishers.

Will I come back: I like this route very much.  It's a challenging distance and the hills are legit.  Bonus is that it has a place for me to park and change my clothes after work, so I've always liked it.  But I may wait until the snow melts off and I can see the pavement again. 

My one track workout for the winter

Today, I accomplished what I hope is one of very few track workouts this winter.  My main gym has a fantastic track.  6 laps is a mile.  It's so fantastic everyone knows it's fantastic.  And everyone comes to play.  It's not a ton of fun for me to be on the track in the winter.  It's so crowded it becomes un-fun.  I view it as more of an "I can't do every single run on the treadmill" kind of thing.  Today, I wanted to run longer than the -20* wind chills would've allowed outside, and I'd been on the treadmill a ton in the past few days.  So I put on my Patient Pants and headed to the track with everyone else.

My mental prep really helped, because I hated being on the track much less than usual at first.  At first I was enjoying being with so many other runners.  After a while the runners mostly dispersed and I was left with walkers which was significantly less fun.  Why must you walk in the running lane?!?  But by then, I was deep into the workout and set on finishing.

The workout itself was one I've talked about before.  It's a descending ladder.  Run 7 laps, walk 1, run 6 laps, walk 1.  Etc. Each set winds up being a slightly faster pace than the one before.  I'm calling this my Race Pace workout for the week.  (Side note, Race Pace workouts may have been the missing ingredient in the 'what should I do besides long runs' question.) This is my heart rate for the workout.  I was nice and aerobic for 1 of the 7 intervals.  Oh well.  Something to shoot for in the future.

There were three ingredients to success in this workout.

First - I told myself that I absolutely had to run the 7 lap interval because that would be mile, and I should give the 6 laps one a try too, and after that if the track was insane or I felt bad I could stop.  Since I never had any pressure to finish, I focused on running in a way that felt good and got to the end nicely.

Second - I'd planned a trip to Seward Co-op afterwards and promised myself a Latte for post run fueling.  It's half milk which is good protein and sugar.

Third - I had a dinner date at Revival.  I knew I'd feel better about eating all the fried chicken and cheesy grits if I had a good workout under my belt today.  I feel so much less guilt about food on days I've worked out hard.  That's probably a post all it's own.  For the locals, the secret to Revival is have your entire party present and ready to be seated by 5pm.  Otherwise, plan to wait at least an hour.  I am not joking.

January Running

Running in January is always hard because:

• It's cold.  Very cold.
• Now it's icy too.
• The sun is never out.  (Sunrise today was 7:45am and sunset was 4:57pm) 
• The track at the gym is full of all of the people.
• I can only run on a treadmill so often. 

Given those barriers, running has been going surprisingly well so far this year.  I've made a point of getting out and running any time the weather is halfway decent.  I've made a point of getting to the gym at not busy times, and my mileage is staying where it should be.

One of my goals for the year was to take more pictures.  (Picture taking fell off dramatically when I got my Garmin and stopped taking my phone on runs with me.)  I've made more of a point to have my phone with me on runs, and to get some snaps from time to time.

The Mississippi River from St Paul.  It was around 11* when I started that run, but remarkably ice free.

Minnehaha Creek, earlier in the month. It took a long time for the creek to freeze over.

The creek today. Almost totally frozen over.

For my 1 mile days, I'll go outside in just about any weather.  This day was about 5* and had some kind of wind chill or another.  Still easier than fighting on the track at the gym. 

Mouse Battles: Part II

All the mice love my apartment.  Remember when I met the first one around Thanksgiving?  I thought maybe I saw a tail the other day, and then today it was absolutely confirmed, the mouse is real.  And brazen.  The thing was just out, running around while I was sitting trying to finish up my work.

As I looked up and stared into his little beady eyes, decisions were made.

Outcome: I'm calling it a draw.  I heard the trap go off just as BiteSquad was delivering my food.  When I went to go check the trap, I see the mouse is very much alive and freaking out because only it's leg got trapped.  Well fuck.  A dead mouse with a broken neck is one thing.  A live mouse with a broken leg is a whole other ball of wax.  That I don't want to deal with.

Ultimately I put on gloves and got a dish towel which I was willing to sacrifice for this endeavor and went over to address the situation.  Mouse and trap covered with towel, taken outside, and mouse freed.  It ran away, probably with a broken leg.  I was having a conversation with a friend via text and she was impressed that I could deal with a live mouse at all. I was a bit impressed with myself too really.

2016 Training Update

Early training update from 2016: I realized I have some things nailed down but some room for improvement, and some solid goals.

Training log - nailed down: I was explaining my training log to a friend. It's kind of nutty and I track a lot of information.  Special bonus, the graphs will work for the whole year (assuming I don't add any fields) without any extra work.

Weight lifting - sort of nailed down I think: I've been doing this TRX/Kettlebell class at my gym for about six months and I've really enjoyed it.  It costs extra and so far it's been worth the cash.  I'm registered for another 6 weeks. I hope I keep it up. 

Step back weeks - nailed down: Step back weeks are always 25 mile weeks with no runs more than 6 miles long.  As a bonus, I have them timed to go with, um, nature.

Long runs - nailed down: I've had the 'long run' concept down for a while.  For Half Marathons, I will try to run at least one 13-15 mile run, and several 10-12 mile runs before the race.  For 10-miler, I will run several 10 milers with some runs over 10 miles.

Heart rate training - both 'nailed down' and not: I tried adding all these Z2 runs and I got nothing but frustrated.  In some ways winter solves this all on it's own because I can't see my heart rate monitor underneath all the layers.  Ongoing plan: Z2 works on the elliptical so that will be the focus of those workouts.  Z3 works very well on runs and I will try to keep that going as well. 

Other runs - room for improvement:  I realized I'm great at the 'long runs' but that's only one day per week.  What do I do the other 6 days?!?  This year, I may try to have some additional focus on these other workouts, since there are so many.  Hill runs and trail runs are near impossible to plan in the winter.  Elliptical workouts are easier to plan at this time.

Hill runs - room for improvement: I have always imagined myself doing more hill runs.  I have like 80 ideas for how to accomplish this goal, but no real plan.  My brain keeps saying "this will be so much easier when the trails aren't covered in snow and you can run there". 

Elliptical - goal for this year: I want to add at least one workout per week on the elliptical, for 60 minutes in Z2. I did one today.  My legs hurt.

Pictures - goal for this year: I want to take my phone on at least all of my long runs.  I'm very missing the pictures from long runs that I've had in years past. Special bonus, ducks from my run earlier this week.

2015 Fitness in Review

Biggest surprises: 
I did not blog a ton this year.  I loved writing the trail reviews but got less interested in other stuff. 
I bought a Garmin (when my heart rate monitor broke 1 week before a big race), and as a follow up, I stopped bringing my phone/camera on as many runs.
Trail Running was a bit of a revelation.  I don't have William O'Brien or Trail Mix on my race list yet, but I hope I keep up with the trails and get some of those races on my list too. 

Miles:
I did lots of running, a fair amount of walking, and spent some time on the elliptical as well.  I rode my bike some in the summer, more for transportation than fitness.  I flirted with swimming but that never really took off. 

Cross Training:
Spinning kind of took a back seat after a huge January.  Yoga and stretching were big in June, when I did some 30 day challenge.  And as the year went on, I started lifting more and more.

Tentative Plan for 2016:
February - Valentines Day 5K
March - Hot Dash  I think I need to find flannel for this oneMay - not sure about Flying Pig but I may do a walking half marathon with a friend.
June - I want to do Lola's Half Marathon, but this may be a little much
July - Red White and Boom Half Marathon
September - I want to try Running of the Bays Half Marathon which looks awesome.  My Pooky Bear had also mentioned a half marathon in Duluth which could be fun.
October - TCM 10 Miler
Bonus Goal - I really want to run the Flying Pig Full Marathon in 2017. 

Training Plans - That did NOT work

It may be a surprise to me and only me that my whole "let's use the 2-per-day Garmin training plan" was a spectacular fail.  If it had been less of a surprise I probably would've stopped after week 1.  But I had high hopes and pressed on into week 2 before acknowledging some serious issues.

Let's start with what went well:

• I acknowledge that running in Z2 is probably beneficial.  It definitely helps me keep easy days easy.  Even if I feel like I'm so slow I'm going backwards.
• Using the Elliptical for some 'recovery runs' was also a good idea.  Especially the longer Z2 efforts.  It made me want to punch people less than if I'd been on the track or treadmill. 
• The tempo/hill runs were surprisingly fun.  I think it was a good idea that those occurred as part of shorter workouts. I found them challenging and I found myself looking forward to them.  Even though I only completed 1.
• I finally worked out a 3 mile route I can live with.  It's technically 2.96 miles so it's not perfect.  But I can deal.

What did not go well:

• 2 Per Day workouts - I don't know what I was thinking but this was NOT a good idea.  Some days I can't get up in the morning. 
• Long runs in Z2 - just, no.  I refer to the 'so slow I feel like I'm going backwards' comment above.
• Workouts by minutes versus miles - I really thought I was going to be able to cope with this one even more than the 2 per day thing and it turned out to be the biggest sticking point.  Even though I was supposedly working out more, I found myself with fewer miles.  And I found my body feeling like crap.  Not even the good "I've worked out and now I'm sore" feeling.  The "I'm so lazy I can feel the fat cells conquering my underused muscle tissue" crappy feelings.
• Step back weeks - in all previous training plans I've timed my step back weeks to match with my cycle.  It was surprisingly helpful to do so and I couldn't figure out how to do it with this plan.   Thus, I failed in week 2. 

Plan going forward: 

• I will make my own training schedule, focusing on long runs like I have in the past, and also adding in at least one tempo workout.
• I will continue to train for the 10 Mile in March, somewhat ignoring the existence of a 5K on my race schedule in February.
• I will try to keep the tempo workouts once/week.  It may be the only nod to the 5K that I make.
• Long runs will be done with a warm up and then in Z3 and then a cool down.  I can't handle this Z2 nonsense.
• I want to get back to running trails.  Unfortunately, it's harder to do in the winter.  Seems like I'll be spending a lot of Mondays at French Park and Medicine Lake where the trails will hopefully be cleared. 
• Keep doing the TRX/Kettlebell class because I like it.
• Maybe start doing Zumba more again?  I've been absent from that class a lot lately.

Half Marathon Training Plan

This is my first date with one of those "let us design your training plan for your next race" things.  It's day 3 of week 1.  Of a 16 week process.

The Plan: Level III Half Marathon Training by Heart Rate. Since my Garmin 225 is my new boyfriend, I used one of the training plans off the Garmin website.  Helfpully they have plans based on both time and heart rate, so I picked the "Level III Heart Rate" plan.  It involves 8 workouts a week.  Not only is this my first date with a training plan, it's my first date with 2-per-day workouts.  Here's a peak at the first week.

Thoughts before trying: 

• "This is totally reasonable, I can do the 2-per-day workouts when I have TRX or Zumba because I'll be at the gym anyways".  I don't think I was drunk at the time I chose this.  
• Threshold/Hill/Tempo workouts have to be in the morning and the recovery workouts have to be in the afternoon, opposite how they are listed on this plan. 
• This will only work in the winter.  Anything that involves working out in the afternoon in the summer will not work because the heat alone jacks up my heart rate too much.  If I like this training plan I will try the "Level 2 heart rate" plan for the summer because it involves only 5 workouts per week and no doubles.

Thoughts so far: 

•  2-per-days only work if you get up in the morning for the first one.  And if you don't have other stuff going on in the evening.  So far, Monday's second work out got moved to Tuesday (and I actually did it) and Wednesdays second workout got moved to the one blank Thursday.  Rest days are for sissies.  
• Recovery runs inside: Today I did the 'recovery run' on the elliptical and that worked surprisingly well.  It kept me honest about my pace and effort and was less frustrating than running on a treadmill as fast as some people walk.
• Recovery runs outside:  I'm still terribly slow running in Zone 2, like "oh look at that snail zooming by my ass".  These runs are tolerable outside with no other runners to watch me. Better than inside with people on the track or treadmills observing my slowness and making me feel grumpy.
• That whole "90 minutes of Z2 running" coming up this Saturday?  That's going to suck.  So far, I can really only stay in Z2 for 30-40 minutes so they'll be some walking. 

Operation Mickey

As I mentioned yesterday, at least one mouse was visiting my home.  Being not at all cool with those arrangements, I'd set a bunch of traps to remove said visitors.  Late last night as I was falling asleep I heard one of the traps fire.  That didn't take long.  But no way was I going to go deal with the situation at that exact moment.  I'll just dream about it instead.

So I had this dream...
I woke up to a big black rat in the trap.  The mouse trap wasn't quite strong enough to kill the rat, but the rap was quite trapped.  So when I came into the living room to turn on the television the rat made eye contact with me and rolled it's eyes as if to say "this is ridiculous, can I go now?"  Because I had no desire to address a live trapped rat I just left it there.  In walks a live possum.  That thing looked at me too, before it sat on top of the rat in an attempt to keep it warm and comforted.  I got an eye roll from the possum too.  And I'm all "how did a possum get in here?!?" and "what is going on?!?" 
So I start chasing the possum.  It's not in a trap, it can run.  And it runs into some door that I didn't know existed that leads to the stairs and the people who live upstairs, but also to a window in the stair well.  The window is notable because everything else in the house is nice, but this window is in disrepair.  It's opened and the screen is straight up torn out.  Which leads to a discussion with my roommates about getting the house fixed.
To recap - I had a dream where I made it someone else job to fix the house but never delegated emptying the rat from the trap. Priorities?

Back in real life, this dream kind of woke me up.  Shortly after I woke up, I decided to go face Mickey.  I reasoned it was early enough, my brain was probably still too tired to figure out what was going on so that would make it less awful. Why?  I think the big black rat comes from the imagery in this video which I watched yesterday to figure out how to load the traps.  It's one degree less obvious than you'd think.  For reference, the rat in my dream was slightly larger and less plastic than "Mister Mouse" but roughly the same in all other aspects.

The internet also tells me that rats are about evaluating the clutter around you, relevant because I spent so much time last night cleaning.  Possums are about taking a passive stance in things that are happening around me.  I love the imagery of my dream of the Possum coming in and laying on top of the rat.  Trumped.

Productivity Saturday

So, late last night I swear I saw a mouse run across the floor.  I don't think it was the wine.  This event helped me plan my day today.

5am: Wake up, it's dark but I have to pee.  All I can think is "I hope the mice are hiding right now".  
5:01am - think "I should turn off my alarm.  I don't want to wake up for real in 2 hours" and then do so.
9:45am - Mo starts to vacuum and wakes me up for real.  God bless vacation.
10:00 - 6 Mile run.  I'm still not totally loving heart rate training.  I'm back into trying to keep lower heart rates and moving so slow it hurts.
12:45 - meet friends for lunch.  Hello Biscuits and Gravy. 
2:00pm - So this is why we don't go to Home Depot on Saturday.  PS - Home Depot does not have compost pails but they do have mouse traps.
2:30pm - Walgreen's does not have my shampoo/conditioner.  I hate shopping on Saturdays all together.
3:00pm - I think I met the girl who has been responsible for several police calls to my building.  Her name is Laura.  She was perfectly nice to me, and let me know she was only using one washing machine, the other four were open.
3:01pm - Let the cleaning begin.  First I did the kitchen.  Because mice.  I didn't find any mice nor any poo nor other signs of varmints.  I put away the dish washer, got the counter top totally clean and everything put away, did all the dishes, cleaned the stove and toaster oven, etc.  As I was starting to do the floor I had to change out the laundry.  I got basically the whole house clean, and it was lovely. I also got all the laundry hung/folded/put away. 
5:00pm - Operation Mouse Trap begins.  I used moldy mozzarella as my bait.  The instructions said peanut butter.  All I have is almond butter and I refuse to use something that costs $10/jar for rodent bait. 
5:30pm - I sat down on the couch.
6:00pm - I do not want to cook food in the kitchen.  The dishes are clean, the counters are clean, the floor is clean.  I must go out to seek food.
7:00pm - Himself and I head out to Sober Fish and had a lovely dinner.  We agreed that we had an excellent server tonight.  If we go back I hope we get her again.
9:00 - Got home.  Nothing in the traps.  Not sure if happy or sad.
10:30 - Blog.  Plan tomorrow.  Not sure when to run.  Because it's cold outside now, but cold is still sometimes better than Treadmill.  

Tuesdays on the Run

Trying something new, thanks to this site for the prompt:

Do you run with music? 
Outdoors - typically not. Here's a brief history.  There was a point where I never thought I'd do any runs without music, so the progression has been quite shocking.  The best part is not having to make so many playlists to keep myself interested and not frustrated by music.
Indoors on the track or treadmill - Hell yes.  Music is essential to my sanity.  There has never been a moment when I was all "maybe I'll try to give up the music completely".  When I'm inside, it's on and it's loud.

What’s on your playlist?
Pandora Latin Workout Playlist is important.  This is only usable when I workout with my phone, and when there's signal.  There's a part of my gym that is like a cave and gets no signal of any kind.  Long time favorites include Bad Romance - Lady Gaga and Echa Pa'lla - Pitbull ft Papayo.  Newest addition is Bring it Back - Shy Carter ft Aleon Craft. 

Heart Rate Training - Again

Did you know you can biomechanically be running and only moving at a 15:00 mile?  I do.  Because Z2 running is awful.  I was looking back at this blog to find encouraging stories of improvement from my first round of heart rate training.  I'm disappointed that I never wrote how utterly frustrating it is, and how slow it forces me to to run.  I should've said that before.  I keep trying to remind myself there was a time I couldn't run a 15:00 mile with a heart rate below 150, so keeping it around 135 is a good thing.  But some days, I just want to go. 

Mio Alpha: Last April I got my first heart rate monitor.  It was a plain watch that paired to my iPhone.  It had some downsides, particularly that it didn't work with any apps that tracked indoor running, but I thought it worked quite well and I was happy with it.  Until it broke 1 week before my A race this year.  Sigh.  The wrist band is the part that broke, but the monitor won't work without being strapped tightly to my wrist.  Sigh

Garmin 225: The day the first thing broke, I got myself over to REI and bought a Garmin.  I can't believe I never owned one of these before.  This thing is way more sophisticated than the original heart rate monitor and I enjoyed putting it through its paces.  One of my favorite features is the display of 'heart rate zones' complete with pretty colors. 
One the other available features are in depth training plans on Garmin Connect.  (I have yet to decide if I like this feature.) There are training plans that are heart rate based (vs a traditional distance/speed based plan).  I was checking them out in advance of my 2016 races, and all the plans have significant amounts of time running in zone 2.  Z2 is not an intensity to which I'm accustomed.  And it's slow.  Like, I mean, SLOOOOOOW.

I haven't started the actual training program yet, but it's clear to me the Z2 runs will be my Achilles heel so I'm trying to practice them now.  I'm still seeing this as part of my race recovery time.  As Z2 runs are considered "recovery runs" it seems appropriate.  Hopefully this time around I post more about the heart rate training progress.  And hopefully it becomes less frustrating this time around, as it did last time. 

TCM - Loony Challenge Year 2

Goals for year 2: I had no idea what to expect this year.  It's been a solid year of heart rate training.  But as soon as I got to racing season I was all "how do I set goals for this?!?"  Should my goals be based on pace?  Heart rate?  A mix of both?  I knew I badly wanted to go sub-2hrs in the 10 mile, but I had no idea if that was realistic or not.  I had no idea what I wanted for the 10K and the 5K.

Packet Pickup: Olive volunteered in packet pick up and reported there were some issues.  TCM mails out some pretty sweet Runner Guides well ahead of the race.  Among other things, it shows my bib number for the 10 Mile race.  Since I am a genius, I left it at home.  When I got to Packet Pickup I had to go to the "find my number" table, showed my ID and told the helpful volunteer I'd registered for Loony Challenge.  She printed off two slips for me, one with my Saturday events number and one with my Sunday events number.  I went to the two different tables and collected my things.  Olive was at Saturday events packet pick up and reports that most Loony runners only knew their 10 Mile bib number from having their guide mailed to them.  I reviewed and nothing I was sent ahead of time had my bib number for Saturday events.  I guess forgetting to write down my bib numbers saved me time in the end.
Goal: Find Olive.  Thank all the volunteers I saw.
Outcome: Done
Bonus Goal: Get a new race belt.
Outcome: Also done.  I wore it for all three races and I was tremendously happy with it.

This year,  I found myself wishing I'd written down what I wore last year.  I was having a hard time with the logistics. 
Outfit - Day 1:
Skora PhaseX (blue - yes, I have more than one pair of these shoes); Injinji Socks; Saucony Running Tights (full length, not lined), Short sleeve technical shirt and long sleeve technical shirt.  New race belt.  Sunglasses for part of the race.  Temps around 40* for the start of the 10K, slightly warmer for the 5K but I was still freezing my tail off.

TC 10K: I went easy up the first hill and about 500 people passed me in the first quarter mile. I passed many of them back later so it was all good.  I had a very hard time at the beginning of this race.  It was partly nerves and partly standing in the corral and not being able to warm up properly, and partly literally being cold.  My shoes are very thin and my socks were thin, and my feet felt like ice cubes for a solid mile.
Goal: Be back in time for the 5K
Outcome: Done
Bonus Goal: Run under a 12:00/mile pace
Outcome: 11:19/mile, that really shocked me

TC 5K: I'd warmed up after the 10K, but I got really cold again, waiting for the 5K to start.  Olive did not run this year with me and that made me sad. I started off heading back up this stupid hill again, happy that I got turn around much sooner in this race than the first one.  This race was packed with kids.  No matter how high up I seed myself, they're always there.  I think TCM needs to have the kind of corrals that were in the Flying Pig's 5K last year because that worked really well.  The end of this race was really tough.  I kept running and feeling like, I cannot kick.  What is the deal?!?  And then I checked my run data and saw how fast my final mile was, and felt much better about myself.
Goal: Finish
Outcome: Done
Bonus Goal: Another sub 12:00/mile pace would be nice
Outcome: 11:19/mile.  Weird right?

Day 2 Outfit:
Skora Phase X shoes; Smart Wool Running socks with high cuffs; Fleece lined tights; Smart wool long sleeve shirt; "Liz shirt" over top.  On Summit Ave I ran with a guy who'd been racing for years, and when people were all "go Liz" he's like "I'm going to do that to my shirt next year".   Temps around 40* for the start.

TCM 10 Mile: I was really looking forward to another crack at this course, hopefully routed correctly this time.  I found myself back in Corral 4 again.  I wonder what it takes to move to Corral 3. The day before, the strategy that worked was for me to feel my body going hard and strong.  Hard, but not hurting. Since I was surprised and pleased by the outcomes of both the 10K and the 5K I decided it was quite a sound strategy and went with it. 
Early on I was quite frustrated.  There is a huge bottle neck in this course where the runners go through a narrow tunnel.  It happens just before Mile 1 so the runners are still fairly bunched up.  This year, the bottle neck was so bad I had to walk and got almost completely stopped.  WTF?!?  This was not an issue last year.
My goal for the hills in the middle miles of the course was to challenge myself but also to stay within myself.  These were comparatively slower miles, but I was pleased when I saw how things worked out.
On Summit Ave I met this dude who was a race walker straight up walking an 11:30 mile, or so he told me.  I made it my mission in life to stay with him, since he'd walk me right into my own goal of going sub-2hrs.  We talked and it made that part of the course go really quickly. He also kept me challenged and focused on the up hills in that section.  He dropped me in the last mile on the flats but I almost totally caught him back on the down hill.
Goal: Sub 2 hrs
Outcome: 1:55:52, 11:36/mile pace.

The Finisher Area: beyond insane.  (There was a significant stretch of spectating area between the Cathedral and the finish line that was reserved this year for a protest.  Typically it is filled with spectators and runners who've already finished.)  Olive had race credentials so she came in there to meet me after I grabbed my medal and food.  Bag check was super fast but finisher t shirts had lines that stretched back to bag check.  Olive stood in line for my shirt while I changed.  I was going to try to connect with another friend who was race walking, but things were so cramped in there we just made a run for it. 

Marathon: On the way home, Olive and I decided we wanted to cheer for the marathon runners.  We found our way to about mile 14 on the course.  We'd only been there a few minutes when the 5:00:00 pace group came by.  We made sure we stayed for the 5:30:00 pace group.  These are my people.  And then we stayed after.  I was really surprised how many people were behind the 5:30:00 pacer at mile 14.  About three people looked good and strong and like they knew what they were doing.  Everyone else looked like they were suffering.  Hard.  Olive and I went for Donuts and watched a bit.  Finally Olive was like "I don't want to watch anymore." 

Loony Challenge: I'm glad I did it a second year.  I don't know if I'll do it again next year because of the timing of another race I want to try. If I don't do it again next year, I'm going to volunteer with Olive so I get Race Official Credentials and Clothing.  No joke.
Goal: Go faster than last year
Outcome: Mission completely accomplished

Suggestions for next year:

• Corrals for the 5K and the 10K - look at how Flying Pig does them because it actually works
• Two bag check bags, one for Saturday and one for Sunday - mine always rips the first day
• Last year, Loony Challenge and Summit Challenge people had back tags. Not this year.  Any chance of bringing them back?

What I liked:

• The Volunteers: No race is complete without volunteers.  Thank you! 
• The Expo: I thought it was really good this year. 
• Get the 10K and 5K medals after both races are done.  Thank you!  Flying Pig didn't do it that way this year and it severely annoyed me.
• One bib for 10K and 5K.  Again, thank you for simplifying the logistics of my race life.
• Corporate Team Challenge: My employer participates in the 10K, 5K and Marathon corporate team challenge.  That means on Saturday we got a special tent with a special changing area and our own potties.  The tent was heated.

Trail Monday: WIlliam O'Brien 10 Mile Trail Race

It's race day, the reason I made sure I ran on trails at least once a week with pretty good regularity all summer. William O'Brien 10 Mile Race and 10 miles is a very sensible trail race distance.

Trail: We ran parts of the lower park and the camp ground by Lake Alice, and parts of the upper park which was mostly prairie and some woods.  The course was very well marked.  We had aid stations at mile 3, and then at the loop by miles 5.5 and 6.5.  I was happy for the water and Gatorade because I didn't carry any of my own. 

Hills: The hills are for real.  To recap, Pike Island has 144 feet of gain, all at the end up that big hill.  Baker has 178 feet of gain, and I whine about it a lot. Elm Creek actually has the most gain at 211 feet. For reference the Flying Pig Half Marathon clocks in at 696 feet of gain.  This trail had a whopping 709 feet of elevation gain.   Lesson for next time: I need to run more hills. 

Ease of Running: Absolute pleasure.  The only single track is up and down that ginormous hill at miles 1 and 3.  The rest of it is a mix of cinder trail and wide grass track.  I was so happy the grass was mown and fairly beat down by the time I got to it.

Nature: I did not see many animals.  I'm going to guess the 200 runners in the woods scared them off. My parents said they saw some butterflies.  I did see lots of flowers.  The course is straight up gorgeous.

Will I come back: FrontRunner put on a great race, and the course was great.  I would run this trail race again in a minute, if I keep up with the trial running next year.  My training plans for next year are definitely the wild card.

About the race: My parents were in town for the race and told me to only run trail races from now on.  Another friend joined us today, and they three were together spectating. While I was running, they had a visitors center to walk in, and they checked out some of the trails themselves.  At the end of the race there were leftover shirts and my parents scored them as out of town spectators.  Park entry, parking and packet pick up were all super easy.  The course was very well marked.  The volunteers were awesome (shock!).  I met some people who seemed to be running about my pace and wound up sticking with them.  I knew I would be slower than them on the up hills something to practice for next year.  I was really surprised how much faster I was than them on the down hills.  Something I should keep practicing for next time, because it earns me time on the courses. I was both crazy hungry and not wanting any food by the time the race was over. 

Special thanks to my crew: Mom, Dad, and Lucinda!

Trail Monday: Trail Sunday

Today was the final trail run before my only trail race of the year.  The most important thing this run did was help me make a decision about which shoes to wear on race day. It's not the ones I wore today.

Trail: Ft Snelling's Pike Island.  I've run here several times before this summer.  The loop around the island is roughly 3 miles, so it's the shortest of all the trails I've found acceptable.  The Anoka Preserve is technically shorter, but I'm divorcing that trail.

Hills: The island itself is fairly flat.  The run on the mainland from where I park my bike to the island is another story. This is the hill I use to identify my "max heart rate" for heart rate training.  174BPM may be a new record for me.  Is that good or bad?

Ease of Running: There was more gravel on the island than there has been in the past, and that's what hurts me in my itty-bitty minimal trail shoes.  It's clear gravel was added to some parts of the trail that had been flooded for a while, probably as a way to improve drainage. And it was those moments it was clear to me I needed different shoes for the race.  Shoe choice aside, this path is an absolute pleasure.  It's wide and clear and most runners don't even bother with trail shoes on it because it's so well done.

Nature: I saw road kill on the bike path.  I can't imagine being the biker who managed to run over a squirrel.  How does that happen? 

Will I come back: Likely.  I've liked this path for several reasons.  It's by far the closest to my house and the only trail that doesn't require me to drive to it.  I also like the excuse to add biking to the workouts.  The trail is short enough that I can easily do it, even when I cut back miles for the post-race season.

Bonus Trail Friday: Baker Park Reserve Part II

I found myself badly wanting to break in my new trail shoes.  I'd tested them on the rather tame Lake Minnetonka LRT Trail but I badly wanted to know how they'd be on grass and rougher trails.  I knew I'd be around Baker Park Reserve at the end of the day, and it seemed like I could make a 6 mile run work in my schedule this week, so I jumped on the chance.   I'd been here once before and was looking forward to the rematch.

Trail: I ran the horse trail around Lake Katrina, though I don't think I saw that lake once.  The horse trails are largely grass.  Long long grass.

Hills: These hills do not stop.  That hill at mile 4 is hard, but I 'ran' up most of up.  That hill at Mile 5 is awful and I walked.  Bombing down the other side was an absolute blast though.   I found myself thinking that the rolling hills on the Baker paved trail would actually be good training for the Flying Pig. 

Ease of Running: Awful.  And then wonderful for moments, before it goes back to awful.  The first time I was here, I knew nothing about trail running and just thought "running in grass is hard".  Then I ran at Elm Creek and thought "this grass is way shorter than Baker, and that makes things much easier".  Today I just thought, "this grass is too long, this is no fun".  The grass is crazy long and the footing is jacked in some places.  I know the course is groomed for horses and it's probably a great trail for that.  But running it is slow and hard.  The parts of the course that run through the woods are a pleasure and I lived for them.

Animals: This was not a big animal day.  I saw butterflies and dragonflies and not much else.

Will I come back: I find myself torn. I like Baker, and the location is sometimes convenient for post-work runs. But it's not so fun running on the horse trails.  I think if I do come back, I will check out the paved trails and see if I'm any happier there.

Trail Monday: Lake Minnetonka LRT Trail

I had many many needs today.  They included a long run, breaking in new shoes, not getting the new shoes muddy, and avoiding horse trails as much as possible.  I'd been thinking about the Lake Minnetonka LRT Trail for a while, and it met all my conditions.  I've run this trail twice before, slightly different parts.  Once last summer and one other time last winter when my phone died.  It was winter and it was cold. 

Trail: Lake Minnetonka LRT Trail.  Similar to River Bluffs, this is a crushed limestone trail.  The surface is interesting enough to call it a trail, but tends to drain well and be utterly non-technical.  I started in Excelsior, and ran a 5 mile out, 5 mile back route.  I picked this particular spot on the trial because I thought it would offer the best views of the lake.  I was so right.

Hills: No lie.  I felt like I was running up hill all of the time.  You know those days when flat ground looks like it's up hill?  Turns out there may have been some truth to my feelings, given the elevation profile, but probably nowhere near how I felt.

Ease of Running: Absolute pleasure.  Have I mentioned the crushed limestone?  The trail was actually packed today, and the hardest part of running when when the trail got narrow, and there were bikers and runners and walkers.  Oh my.

Animals: I saw birds of prey, ducks in the ponds and dogs on leashes.  There were way too many people out to expect to see a deer.

Will I come back: I think so, but sporadically.  This trail is crazy scenic with all of the bays on Lake Minnetonka.  This trail is also crazy far away, and on not the funnest route in the world to traverse, so I pick my moments sparingly on this course.