October 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

Realized I haven't posted a mileage update in quite a few days and we are leaving in the morning for another short trip so wanted to get it done. Dh will be busy catching up with all his buddies (Navy reunion) so Hobbes and I will be getting in some quality hiking and running at the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve overlooking the ocean. I am pretty excited!
Hobbes the Vizsla update... He will have surgery the Tuesday after we return. Some of the lumps they are confident are fatty tumors but not 100%. Two others are very questionable. I am hoping none are a MCT return!
Date........Miles.......Total
10/01......0.00........0.00
10/02......4.70........4.70
10/03......0.00........4.70 - + Strength Training
10/04......4.34........9.04
10/05......5.63......14.67
10/06......3.92......18.59
10/07......5.71......24.30
10/08......0.00......24.30 - + Strength Training



2019 Planned and Completed Races
02/03/19 - Surf City Half Marathon - Deferred to 2020
05/11/19 - Santa Barbara Wine Country HM - Complete
09/15/19 - Jack and Jill Downhill HM - Boise - HM #25 Complete
11/23/19 - USA Women's HM
02/02/20 - Surf City Half Marathon

5 miles today on the Greenline, so beautiful! It’s so nice not to be tortured by weather.

Race report from last Saturday’s Left Bank Festival 5k:

This is stupidly long.  There's a TL:DR at the end if you want to skip it. I promise to be more concise for my next report.

Race Report

Medtronic TC 10 Mile
Sunday, October 6th, 2019

Weather:Near perfect - 48F, clear skies, quite gusty at race start but didn't notice much wind after that

Race Description
This is the 4th largest 10 mile race in the country with over 11,000 participants.  It's also the National 10 Mile Championship.  It's held on "Marathon Weekend" along with a 5K and 10K on Saturday (canceled due to lightning this year) and the much loved TC Marathon (6700 runners) which starts an hour after the 10 Mile race.  The two races share start and finish lines, and share the last 7 miles of the course.   They both start in Minneapolis, next to US Bank Stadium where the Minnesota Vikings play and end on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol.  The Marathon course is a beautiful route through downtown Minneapolis, then winds along four lakes, a parkway along a creek, then up along the Mississippi River on the Minneapolis side, across a bridge, down the Mississippi River on the St. Paul side, along Summit Avenue which is full of gorgeous historical homes and mansions, including our Governor's mansion, past the St. Paul Cathedral and finally ending at the state capitol.  If you want to run a well-organized, beautiful marathon, this is it.

The 10 mile course is billed as "The Shortcut to the Capitol".  It skips the four lakes and parkway along the creek and instead runs downtown, along the Mississippi on the Minneapolis side then meets the marathon course at the bridge crossing. 

Training
I did very little training specifically for this race as all my training has been focused on getting longer in my distances in preparation for my 12 hour race this weekend.  I didn't even know I was running this race until 2 weeks prior when a friend, who had a stress fracture in his foot asked me if I was interested and transferred the bib on the last day possible.  I struggled with the decision on whether to run the race as a training run or race it.  I have a 12 hour trail race scheduled this Sunday with a stretch goal of 50 miles so racing hard for the 10 mile race might not be the best idea.  I also had 26 miles planned for the weekend, including an 18 mile run.  In the end I decided to race hard and cut back a little bit on the total miles.  Instead of the 18 mile run I'd race the 10 mile, recover for a couple of hours as I walked the course backwards, then run back to my truck at the start, which ended up being a 7.5 mile run.

I did have two short training runs where I experimented with different paces to see what I thought I could hold.  The paces ranged from 8:00 to 8:45.  8:30 seemed to be the sweet spot.  I then remembered I had the Daniel's Tables spreadsheet at work so I plugged in my numbers fro my recent 5K and it predicted a pace of 8:20 with an HR of 158.  I decided to target the 158 HR and let the pace fall where it might.  The night before the race I had a 4 mile run with Kody and it felt awesome so I was pretty stoked.

Race Prep
After my evening run I prepped for my race, putting everything in a pile on our table, then stayed up much later than I should have.  I had my alarm set for 4:15AM and I think I went to bed at 11PM.  I must have been excited for the race because I felt like I was up half the night.  I had no trouble getting up for my alarms (I set two).  For breakfast I had just a single slice of toast with peanut butter and strong cup of coffee.  As I waited for the coffee to do it's magic, I finished prepping my gear and my drop bag.  One wrinkle in this was planning for a return back to my truck and the two hours between runs where I might get cold.  I packed a dry running shirt, a long sleeved shirt, and light sweat pants in a string bag along with a few other items.  I'd just have to carry this gear on my return run.

5:30 rolled around and I had to get going. I didn't have to pick up the packet because @MegaMooseEsq was kind enough to pick it up for me.  Using a parking app on my phone, I had already reserved a spot in a ramp just two blocks from race start and two block from where @MegaMooseEsq and her husband were parking.  

Because of road construction I missed my exit and had to follow a circuitous path back around.  I was worried Google was going to try take me through some roads closed for the races but there was no issue.  Parking was super easy and I arrived just 5 minutes after I planned.  I did my final prep in my truck (put on GPS, HR strap, buff, gloves, arm sleeves, wind breaker, sent a message to @MegaMooseEsq and headed out. 

I met @MegaMooseEsq and her husband, got my race packet, chatted a bit and headed back to pin my bib to my shorts and put the my shirt and buff in my truck.  I wish I could have spent more time talking to @MegaMooseEsq and her husband but I was angsty to get to the start. We walked together until we got to my ramp, took a quick photo and parted ways.  I was hoping to catch her again at the finish.

All my angst about parking hassles, logistics, and getting to the start line was much ado about nothing.  As large as the race was, it could not have been easier.  

Pre-Race
The start area had a festival type atmosphere.  There was electricity in the pre-dawn light.  There were race volunteers all over the place who's sole purpose was just to be available for the racer's and their questions.  As huge as the start area was, it was very easy to find my way around and get to where I needed to be.  I found my corral, then found the drop bag area.  UPS is one of the sponsors of the race so of course they had several brown trucks for the drop bags and there were no lines.  

Sometimes I feel there is no limit to stupidity.  I had my spare gear in a string bag but for "security" reasons, you had to put all of your gear in a clear plastic bag that they provide.  So I put my string bag inside the clear plastic bag and they took it.  Let me get this straight...My gear in a string bag is not acceptable because I could be hiding something nefarious, but as soon as I put that bag inside of your clear bag, now we all have a nice warm fuzzy feeling that I'm not a bad guy.  Ooooooh-kaaaaaaay........  Sad to say this is not the first time I've come across that.

I still had 25 minutes to race start so I spent the next 10 minutes walking around, doing short jogs, and soaking it all in.   Runners everywhere going through their pre-race warmup, stretching, or jogging up and down the sidewalks.  At 6:45 the MC started urging folks to get to their corrals so I made my way.  Since they placed me in the first of four large corrals I had planned on lining up at the back , but the corral was less than half full when I got there so I slowly moved up into the empty space. 

I found the 8:30/mi pacer (1:25:00), decided that fit with my goal and lined up near her.  I'm glad I did.  She dispensed two bits of wisdom that helped me on the race.  First, she told us that she starts her watch with the gun not when she crosses the start.  The reasoning is that runners near the front may drop back and decide to stay with the pace group, and runners behind us may catch up with us and want to stick with us.  Using the gun start gives everyone the same starting reference point. It makes sense but I had never heard that before.  Since we crossed 2 minutes after the gun, I knew her finish would actually be a 1:23 finish for me if I stuck with her.   

The second bit of wisdom was how to handle the two or three very sharp turns on the course.  Since every one wants to take the best tangent the inside lanes get very congested and you get knocked out of your rhythm.  She suggested taking an outer route to keep the pace and rhythm going.  I did that, and it worked well.
I had thrown my gloves in the drop bag and when the wind picked up, I was wishing I had them with me.  Just before the gun, I stashed my buff and Patagonia windbreaker. 

Race
The race started at 7:00 AM sharp.  My friend told me to expect it to take several minutes to be cross the start line but because I was in the first corral, it only took 2 minutes to cross.  Sunrise wasn't for another 20 minutes so we were treated to the beautiful glow of a pre-dawn sky as we wound our way through the urban downtown towards the river.  While I was using the pacer for reference, I wasn't intentionally trying to stay with her, except for the first mile or so.  I thought she would keep me from going out too fast, but it actually seemed like I was being pulled to go faster than I otherwise might.  My Garmin tried to tell me my HR was spiking up as high as 222 in that first mile but I've learned not to believe Garmin's HR reading in the first mile unless I've had a proper warm up first.  My HR does spike, by my best estimation based on 5K data my max HR might be 185 to 189.  

At 0.7 miles we left the urban portion and started dropping into the river valley and along the Minneapolis side of the Mississippi River.  Now we were running through the extensive, beautiful Minneapolis park system.  Running along the river made me realize how long it's been since I've run in the metro area and reminded me what a beautiful city we have for running. I made a note to get some long runs in here in the not too distant future.  My HR finally settled down after a mile and when I looked I was running right on target at 154.  

This first part of the course was not on the marathon course so there wasn't a huge crowd of spectators but more than I expected.  The dawn glow increased in intensity and in a very happy running zone.  I felt great, the weather was great, my body was moving great, and I just knew it was going to be a good day.  We ran about 1.5 miles along the river then it was time to make the first big climb out of the river valley, ending in that very tight turn the pacer warned us about and up to the bridge to get us into St. Paul.  I followed the pacer's advice, stayed about halfway out and avoid the elbows and shoulders bumping in the sharp tangent.  I run up hills with a goal of maintaining effort, not pace and the pacer must been going for even pace because she and her entourage put some distance between us going up that twisty hill.  During that climb my HR did go up to 166 but was not a problem.  At the top of the hill I took it easy long enough to let my HR drop back down and eventually caught up to the pacer.  As we crossed over the river on the Franklin Avenue Bridge, and made another turn, the sun poked up over the trees and right into my eyes.  I was regretting not bringing sunglasses and squinted against the glare, but the course was so full of trees and shade that the sun wasn't too much of a problem.

We were now on the part of the course shared with the TC Marathon and the number of spectators increased greatly.  Mile 3 put us on the St. Paul side and we again ran along the beautiful, tree-lined river parkway, this time from up high where we could only see the river in glimpses.  I must have zoned out because suddenly I found myself caught up in water stop congestion and nearly tripped over someone walking who stepped out right in front of me.  I adjusted course to avoid the masses and got back in the zone.

The crowd, the excitement, the encouragement of the volunteers, the fellow runners, the cool crisp morning air, the autumn colors, the wonderful feeling of moving along the road under my own power, working hard and effortless at the same time...I took time to relish this gift we, to thank God and to appreciate the moment.
At 4.5 miles we approached another water stop and this time I moved away from it to avoid the crowds.  I wasn't planning on stopping for anything.  My HR had been drifting up from averaging upper 150's to averaging lower 160's.  I tried to ease up but it wasn't working.  Something just wasn't reconciling and though the number was slightly higher than I wanted but the effort was right on target so I gave up on 158 and just went with perceived effort.  

At 5 miles we left the parkway along the river and turned east onto Summit Avenue.  Summit Avenue is one of the best known roads in St. Paul.  Lined with gorgeous historic homes and mansions, just about any of the founders of Minnesota and the Twin Cities seemed to have lived here and built a mansion worthy of their name.  You can tour many of the mansions and if you're ever in town, it's a gorgeous run.  

Soon after we turned east my running became a bit more labored and my HR crept further up to the upper 160's.  Not by a lot, but enough that I felt I was starting to run lower on energy.  The feeling you get when you realize you've gone out too fast.  Except for the first mile of the race, though, I didn't feel I was going too fast so this feeling was frustrating.  Though I normally havent' taken any nutrition for half marathons or less, I did bring one gel with me and decided to suck it down.  I've been experimenting with a different type of gel. This one was from Science In Sports (SiS) and these are isotonic, which means that they are the right concentration of carbs to be absorbed right into your bloodstream.  No additional water is necessary.  Consequently, they are not nearly as sickly sweet as a gel like GU and are much easier to get out of the packet.  The only downside is that they are about twice the size.  Well worth the trade off, I think.  The mocha flavored gel went down easy.  I don't know that it ever helped, but it certainly didn't hurt.

At mile 6, right after I took the gel, was another water stop and just to wash down the flavor I did grab a glass of water and drank half of it. Unless most of the crowd, I skipped the first half dozen tables and grabbed from one of the last tables where there was much less of a crowd.  The 1:25 pacer was slowly getting away from me.  From time to time I could see her in the distance.  I wasn't too concerned since she said she was going for 1:25 gun time and I was going chip time.  A 1:25 gun time would be a 1:23 chip time.  

The Summit Avenue crowd kept growing as we continued east and the energy grew along with it.  Families, kids, neighbors, all were having a great time.  Many home along the course clearly were making a party of it and there were tables of donuts, pastries, bagels, coffee and of course, bloody mary's and mimosas.  

This extra effort I seem to be expending continued until mile 7.  It was only after the race was over and I was looking at my Strava data that I figured out why.  From Mile 5 to 7 there was a steady but mild incline.  Not enough to see on the road, but enough to feel.  I hadn't seen the pacer in a while and didn't much care at that point.  
From mile 7 to 9 the road overall was flat but with occasional swells.  I felt an uptick in my energy and a corresponding uptick in my pace.  The run felt easier as if I got a second wind.  Was it the gel or was it the fact that I was no longer running uphill?  Don't know, don't care.  I was back in my zone, the crowd continued to increase, it was fan-TAS-tic day and I was back to feeling great.  There were water stops at 7, 8 and 9 and I ignored them all.

At Mile 8 there was the Twin Cities Running Company "cheer station".  TCRC is my favorite local running store because, most importantly, they're a great store, but they also are HUGE supporters of the local trail running community.  The general manager is known as the Godfather of Trail Running and recently had a nice write-up in Trail Runner magazine.  As I passed their cheer station I saw a bunch of friends from the trail running community and that gave me a huge boost.  In fact I noticed my HR spike 10 points going past them.  

At Mile 9 Summit Avenue takes a turn and heads towards the St. Paul Cathedral at Mile 9.7, sitting high on Cathedral Hill, overlooking downtown St. Paul.  It's a beautiful, stately cathedral and is the third largest church in the United States.  The Cathedral marks the final sprint to the finish.  Since it is up on a hill, the last 0.3 miles is all downhill.  I practice downhills and I love down hills.  I went into final sprint mode.  There was a timing mat at the Cathedral and the race results shows my pace for the last 0.3 miles as 6:34/mile!  I was flying down that hill.  Ahead I saw two large fire department ladder trucks, one on each side of the road, with a huge US flag hung over the road between them. I assumed that was the finish and ran hard.  As I got closer I saw I was mistaken, the finish was actually another tenth of a mile paste that.  Not a huge deal but at the time it was and I may have let out a bit of an F'inheimer.  I was able to keep up my strong finish, however, passing well over a dozen other runners to the finish.  

Other than having a target HR and my last minute decision to keep track of the 1:25 pacer, I wasn't going to track anything else.  I set my GPS to HR reading and never looked at any other data on my watch the entire race.  I didn't look at distance and I didn't look at pace.  There were cues, of course, such as mile markers from time to time, but once the 1:25 pacer was out of site I didn't know where I stood, other than I hadn't see the 1:30 pacer yet.

As I approached the finish I saw the clock and knew I hit my goal time.  My official time was 1:24:24, better than my goal by over half a minute.  I was stoked!  It's my first 10 Mile race so it's automatically a PR.   I placed 2203 out of 11048 overall (top 20%), 1331 out of 3883 males, and 99 out of 357 M50-54.  I damn near hit even splits too, with a 42:09 first half and a 42:15 second half.   I made up some serious time on that final sprint because that pacer finished just 3 seconds ahead of me!  I didn't realize that until I was watching video of the finish and noticed that I almost ran into her. 

I later solved the mystery of the my HR creeping up. It turns out I was using the wrong target. I went back to my Daniel's Tables spreadsheet and discovered that I had been playing around with the numbers and was using the wrong Max HR value for me. When I correct that, it told me I should have been targeting an HR of 166, which was right in line with my HR for the race.

Post Race
After getting out of the way and catching my breath I just stood there and soaked it all in.  My previous race, the trail HM, did not go well and I let myself get a bad attitude.  This race turned it completely around.  Nothing really went wrong and I finished strong and love the result.  I probably could have pushed it harder and shaved some more time off, but I still had to get back to my truck and I have a 12 hour race this weekend so my level of effort was probably right on.

I went though the food and water line and I was starving.  Two bottles of Gatorade, a bottle of water, some chocolate covered nuts, potato chips, a banana, cups of diced fruit, and I started feeling normal again.  I checked my race app to see how @MegaMooseEsq was doing and decided I had time to get my drop bag.  I was starting to get cold in my sweat soaked clothes.  I took off my sweaty shirt and put on a new running shirt, then a long sleeve shirt and then my wind breaker.  

I check the race app again and decide I need to get back to the finish so I can see @MegaMooseEsq finish the race but as soon as I neared the finish line, nature called in a big way and I had to bolt to the porta-potty.  Amazingly it wasn't nasty, which is good because I spent some time in it.  Unfortunately I spent too much time and not only missed her finish the race but missed my next door neighbor as well.

From there I went to the beer garden to get my free can of IPA, finally met my neighbor and then walked the course backwards for 2 miles stopping to cheer on runners from time to time.  I missed the top marathon runners come through but did see some pretty fast runners and the back of the pack of the 10 milers.  Most were struggling some in clear pain. It was these runners who impressed me the most.  I cheered loudest for them.
My plan was to walk back to the TCRC cheer zone, visit with friends and then run the last 8 miles back to my truck.  I loved the festive atmosphere of the crowd.  The parties had grown in size and intensity and kegs of beer next to the curb were not uncommon.  Runners seem to be welcome to enjoy the beer and I know some who run the marathon every year and always stop for the beer.  

After chatting with friends it was time to run again.  I was feeling good but carrying a big pack with my extra clothes was a pain in the *kitten*.  There was just no comfortable way to run with it but I managed.  My first 5 miles were mostly along the marathon route.  First going the opposite way, then going with them.  When going with them, they were in the road, I was on the path beside the road.  They were on mile 18 and many of them were having a hard time.  Finally I broke away in another direction.  One mile from my truck I saw a Jimmy John's sub shop and had a major craving so I bought a sub put it in my bag and continued to my truck where I grabbed a beer and had a little picnic in the parking ramp while sitting in the bed of my truck.

As I'm pretty sure I made clear, this race was awesome.  I had no interest in this race, other than someday running the marathon, until this opportunity came up.  It's now my intent to run this race every year, or at least apply for the lottery.  The only time I wouldn't is if I was planning on the marathon.

All told, I ran 17.5 miles on the day. Currently at 26 out of my 150 mile goal for October.

TL:DR
I didn't train specifically for this race, but the opportunity came up last minute and I jumped on it.  I was apprehensive about the large crowd, parking, etc, but it turned out to be a non issue.  The race was awesome, the weather was awesome, and I finished at 1:24:24, over a half minute faster than my goal of 1:25:00 and ahead of 80% of the field.  I'll definitely be signing up for this race again.

Some race changes.
I'm skipping the trail half marathon this Saturday. Too much to run before my 12 hour race Sunday, and too expensive to switch to the 5K
I'm no longer going to pace a friend for 17 miles of her 100 mile race on October 20th. I need to drop that to keep peace in the house, though I still plan on a long run that day, so I'm not sure what's to gain for her if I skip pacing.
Discussion of the Glacier Hills 50K start the argument but in the process I managed to go from a 25% chance to a 50% chance!
I added the Icebox 480, an 8 hour trail race. My wife is flying to Sanibel Island with a friend for 5 days, so I think I'll be able to sneak away for that. I signed up for it last year but foot surgery prevent me from going.
January 25th I'm debating between a 50K in Kansas, where I'll be able to visit my daughter, or a HM in St. Paul...I wish I could do them both.

2019 Races
02/23/2019 - Psycho Wyco 20M w/ Kody - Kansas City, KS - 5:39:36 (41/65 OA, Kody 4/9 Canine)
04/27/2019 - Tillamook Burn 50M - Tillamook Forest, OR DNF at 31.6 Miles
05/18/2019 - Superior Spring 50K - Lutsen, MN - 7:52:09 (171/204 OA, 15/18 M50-59)
07/13/2019 - Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon - Carlton, MN - 7:00:49 (236/308 OA, 29/37 M50-59)
09/14/2019 - Outrun Homelessness 5K - Savage, MN - 23:57 (7/72 OA, 6/24 M, 1/4 M50-59)
09/21/2019 - Surly Trail Loppet HM - Minneapolis, MN - 2:31:19 (318/514 OA, 229/313 M, 28/40 M50-59)
10/06/2019 - TC 10 Mile - Minneapolis to St. Paul, MN - 1:24:24 (2203/11044 OA, 1333/3883 M, 98/357 M50-54)
10/13/2019 - Loopet Loppet 12 HR Trail Race - Minneapolis, MN
10/26/2019 - Glacier Hills 50K - Sioux Falls, SD
11/02/2019 - Icebox 480 8HR Trail Race - River Falls, WI
11/16/2019 - Luce Line 64M Run (Solo Endeavor)
12/07/2019 - Alternate Chili Trail Run 10M w/ Kody - Kansas City, KS

2020 Races
St Croix Winter Ultra (Volunteer)
01/25/2020 - Securian Half Marathon - St. Paul, MN
01/25/2020 - Rock On Lake Perry 50K - Meriden, KS
02/22/2020 - Pyscho Wyco 50K - Kansas City, MO

Registered
Tentative

Great race report @7lenny7! Glad you enjoyed that race and distance. You did awesome!
Also a great race report from @rheddmobile. That was a fantastic race, and winning the female master award is just super impressive!!! Cool award being a 45 record!

Got in 7.4 miles today. Another beautiful morning, and less windy than Monday. Speed work called for 1.25mi WU, 5x 5:00 @ 7:56/mi with 3:00 recoveries, 1.25mi CD. The speed intervals ended up being between 7:32 and 6:58 with the last one as the fastest one. So the awkwardness on Monday felt like Jerry Lewis running, and today was more like Carl Lewis 😉

polskagirl01 wrote: »

7lenny7 wrote: »

I'm no longer going to pace a friend for 17 miles of her 100 mile race on October 20th. I need to drop that to keep peace in the house, though I still plan on a long run that day, so I'm not sure what's to gain for her if I skip pacing.

I may be way off here, but as a wife, one major gain would be knowing you weren't running with another woman that day. Even if I didn't run myself, even if there's no question that it's really a friend and nothing more, and even if I didn't know about the connection that happens between any 2 humans who are out there running together. I'd probably even know in my head that it's not that big a deal and there are many other males pacing females and it's totally fine, there are plenty of other people out on the trail as well, I'm being irrational, etc... but I still wouldn't like it.
But whatever the reason, I think it's a good thing to make the compromise and not do the pacing that one day if it's a big deal to your spouse.

That's not the issue here, it's all about it being a "race" because she see races as something that take up so much time to train for and she has things in the yard that she wants me to get done before winter and she's worried I won't get it done. I've gone running with other female runners before with no issue. She has her guy friends that she hangs out with. It's just not something she or I worry about. Ever since we've known each other back in high school she's always had good guy friends and I've always had good gal friends. I don't think I even told her that this friend is female in this instance.

The good news is I think she's going to drop her objection to the South Dakota 50K the following week. It's at a state park near Sioux Falls and I have a cabin already reserved.

Morning, all!

My goal was to run 1 outdoor run and 1 indoor run each week since I have so little time to do much more.

Last week I was on track - 1 indoor and 1 out door
This week so far so good - 1 outdoor yesterday and I am on track to do another outdoor on Thursday or Friday and then an indoor on Saturday.

This is great!