February 2017 Running Challenge

2/1 6.3r 4.4w
2/2 5.2r 5.3w
2/3 0.0r 7.25w
2/4 7.0r 0.5w (so far)
Total so far = 18.5r +17.45w = 35.95 miles

Fabulous 7 mile run today in my mom's area. Felt that weird twinge in my right glute at the start and was like, oh crap, but it went away quickly and I was able to have a nice long run and try out my new windproof and waterproof burgundy running jacket that I picked up for $50 at Target. Definitely worked at keeping the wind out -- that wind was pretty tough (and luckily not in my face during the last leg like usual). It may have been almost too warm for the 30F temps... I was pretty moist at the end of the run... my ear warmer headband was soaked! Good to know that this jacket will be good for below 20 temps. And of course, now that I have a jacket for below 20, it will stay above 30 for the rest of the winter, just watch.

Ended up having my smallest month in a year and a half in January (130 miles running, 540 biking) as I decided I needed a 3rd consecutive stepback month after ending my 2016 season w. IM Florida in November. Still, now that I'm 3 months out from my next Marathon (Pittsburgh - hoping to crack 3) and 4 out from my first A-Race (IM Raleigh 70.3), I figure I probably should jump back in the group to commit myself to a bit more mileage.

Even though I stepped back on distance in January, I did keep up the intensity w. more speedwork than usual and an interesting off season duathlon race, but the reduced mileage on my legs & bike let my weight creep up a few pounds.

Aiming for 180 miles this month as I ramp things back up to 45 miles/week..

Spent this morning as a pacer for an awesome local Half Marathon (Best Damn Race Safety Harbor), and managed to keep all of my mile splits within 8 seconds of my target pace. The RD had suggested coming in at 1:49, so I ended up averaging an 8:18 pace to bring in the group at that mark (8:10, 8:21, 8:20, 8:23, 8:11, 8:13, 8:22, 8:16, 8:15, 8:12, 8:20, 8:19, 8:17). As it was my first time pacing a big group, I ended up digging up 57 running related jokes to tell one per quarter-mile, and practiced delivering them on the treadmill at the assigned pacer speed for the past 2 weeks. There were a few groaners, but I had a group of 10 stick with me through 10 miles until a late hill split things up (I stayed in the middle for) so I didn't scare all of them away early.

2/1 - 5 miles
2/4 - 13.1 mile (paced best damn race 1:50 group)

Total: 18 miles
Goal: 180 miles
Remaining: 162 miles

Recent Races:
Oct - Chicago Marathon (3:04:57)
Nov - Ironman Florida (10:21:27)
Dec - Chase the D 5K (18:13 - 1st overall)
Jan - Chilly Willy Duathlon 5K/10M/5K (1:07:48 - 1/23 AG)

Upcoming Races:
May 7 - Pittsburgh Marathon
June 4 - Ironman Raleigh 70.3
Aug 27 - Ironman Coeur D'Alene

February Running Totals (miles)
2/1 – 7.00 easy
2/2 – 2.63 easy shakedown run
2/3 – travel day, didn't get a run in
2/4 – 7.99 warm up on road + 8K cross country

February total to date – 17.62

Nominal Challenge Goal – 225 miles
Real Goals: Survive travel to and from Bend. Train well toward Boston. Avoid injury.

Today's notes – Travel has really messed up getting miles in, and it's kept me from keeping up with this thread. So here's the saga of my first race at altitude.

Thursday morning I got up in the middle of the night to drive to the airport on snow covered roads with lake effect snow coming down. Then I parked my car where more snow will accumulate on it while I'm gone. If I had sensibly stayed home, I could have remained parked in my garage and not taken the car out till the roads were cleared.

The long flight Thursday wasn't that big a deal. Got to Portland, met up with my team mates, and the team captain had us do an easy shake down run, target 20-30 minutes. He knew some nice running paths near the hotel in Portland. My only regret is that I didn't stay out for more miles, because of Friday.

Friday I drove through a Winter Storm Warning to get from Portland to Bend. I was scared of snow in the mountains, so I chose a longer route along the Columbia River to get past the mountains. I saw an awful lot of freezing rain. Once past the mountains, the driving was better; but it was long, and a lot of the early miles weren't very fast. Ended up arriving in Bend around 4 PM, mentally exhausted. Didn't get out to the course for a preview because I couldn't handle rushing to arrive there at dusk. So I ended up with no running miles on Friday.

Today went mostly as planned. Got up, grabbed breakfast at the hotel, the team took our two rental cars to the shuttle stop, rode the shuttle to the site. By now it was close to 40º F (4º C), with 15-16 mph SW wind. The snow and ice was melting, creating a lot of slop under foot in the waiting areas. Volunteers had cleared the 2K route on the golf course, so there was no losing track of where to go; 3 feet of snow on either side clearly marked the race route. No warm ups were allowed on the course, so I went and ran about 5K on the roads for a warm up. Found that I can do easy running at altitude. Racing at altitude would come later.

The course has some hills, and some rolling waves like many golf courses. Looking at the elevation chart Garmin produced, it looks like we went up about 100 feet and back down twice per loop, for 4 loops. Garmin shows elevation from 3743 feet to 3839 feet for the race. I normally run at 400-600 feet of elevation, and the highest elevation I had run at before was in the 1200-1300 foot range. Yeah, you see it coming.

Near the top of the second hill on the 3rd loop, I had to slow to a walk. This could have crushed me emotionally, but the team captain had discussed the effects of running at elevation; we would be totally whipped from a cardio perspective going up the hill, but would recover quickly going down hill. So I took the walking break, sucked wind, and started running again. On the 4th loop, I took a walking break getting up the first hill, and another near the top of the second hill. I heard footsteps behind me, and started running again.

Garmin reports my effort as 4.83 miles in 35:40. Official distance is 8K, official time was 35:39. All of my mile splits were slower than 7 minutes, but the walk breaks didn't bring any of the splits over 8 minutes. I ended up finishing 61st overall in the Masters race, 5th in my age division. That turned out to matter. My team, the Genesee Valley Harriers, finished 1-4-5 in the Supervet category to win the team championship with 10 points. The second place team, San Diego, finished 2-3-6 for 11 points.

Running cross country sucks, but making a difference to the team results and winning a team championship feels great.

Miscellaneous notes: Our other car took a better route to Bend, and the people in that car previewed the course. Base on what they saw of course conditions, our team captain had us go buy half inch spikes, which replaced the 3/8 inch spikes in my shoes. With the longer spikes, I saw a lot of places where I had to be careful, but none where I should fall. The team that we thought would be our toughest competition made some poor shoe choices and fell several times. They ended up finishing 3rd in the team competition. Sometimes, minding the details makes a big difference.

I don't know whether I'll get any running miles in at all tomorrow. I need to get a team mate to Redmond, OR by noon and get myself back to Portland for a red eye flight back home. When I should have time to run, I don't think I'll have access to shower facilities, and I certainly don't want to wear unshowered running stink on a 9+ hour flight home. Oh, well. I'll survive. This week's mileage came in 10 miles under the marathon training plan. Next week could also come in below target, given travel messing up my Sunday and Monday.

And now I'm getting some pressure from team mates to run an 8K road race in Virginia Beach on March 18. I'll have to think about that travel (nowhere near as bad as this trip) and what it does to marathon training.

Question of the weekend: What kind of idiot gets up in the middle of the night in Rochester, NY to drive through lake effect snow to the airport, leave his car parked there to accumulate more snow, and fly all the way across the country in order to drive through a Winter Storm Warning to get to an 8K race?

I may need one of those "Embrace the Suck" shirts.

2017 races:
January 1, 2017 Freezeroo #2 (Resolution Run 7.5 mile) (Mendon, NY) Finished in 50:45
January 7, 2017 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) Finished in 1:32:40
January 14, 2017 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds Park 5 mile) (Spencerport, NY) Finished in 33:42
January 28, 2017 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victor, NY) short course, finished 4.88 miles in 32:50
February 4, 2017 USATF Cross Country National Championship Masters 8K (Bend, OR) Finished in 35:39, team won the 60+ Men's cross country championship
February 11, 2017 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY) will sit out due to training schedule
February 25, 2017 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY)
March 11, 2017 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY)
April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)