October 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

Just a short 4 miles this evening. Legs feel like I'm running on matchsticks that are going to snap at any moment. This happens every year, right around this same time, every year since I started running. I haven't increased mileage more than 10% per week. Following different training plans every year.
So taking it slow and easy the next week or so. From past years, complete rest doesn't help. So have to just gut it out until it passes I suppose. It will all be ok, it will be ok......

I skipped my run tonight. It was an easy run to skip. My son's high school soccer team played in the state semifinals tonight and WON! They play in the finals on Thursday and my son will get the start as goalkeeper. What a way to end his soccer career! Anyway, I skipped the run so I could be home when he got home.

Now, to finish the RR.

Race Report - Part 2

Glacier Hills 50K
Newton Hills State Park
Canton, SD (just south of Sioux Falls)
October 26, 2019, 6:00 AM Start

First let me back up and mention the sky. I will never get tired of seeing billions of stars on a clear night or morning out in the country away from city lights. This was taken by one of the race staff. It greeted me when I arrived Friday night and was there when I woke Saturday morning
The Race - FINALLY!

Loop 1 of 5
With a 6AM start, headlamps were required. I lined up towards the back as I was planning on a some fast walking to start the race and warm up. We get the "GO!" and we're off. I go into fast walk across the field, past the shelter were family and friends of other runners cheers as they stayed warm next to bonfires, past the aid station lit with festive string lights where volunteers continued to get ready to serve us in two miles, and onto the trail for the 2 mile portion of the loop. The air of pre-race nerves gives way to relief that we're finally moving, the bobbing headlamps creating a life-like stream of light as we entered the single track.

Soon after we entered the woods, I start hearing "whoa!" and other exclamations of surprise. The trail ran along the edge of a 20' deep ravine and apparently recent erosion had been eating the edges of the trail. It was flagged off and would be no danger later in the race when there was sunlight, but with headlamps on and everyone looking at the ground just in front of them it came as a surprise to most and I'm surprised they didn't' mention it in the pre-race announcements. Here's a photo I took after the race. The trail is on the left of the flags. I'm glad no one fell off the edge!
We get past that and now we're starting the steepest climb of the course, but the trail on this 2 mile portion portion are great and power hiking makes quick work of it. At the top of the hill my right calf muscle started to hurt which both surprised me and concerned me. It hadn't been bothering me at all lately and we were only a mile in. Thankfully this pain was gone by the end of the first loop. The other side of the hill was steep and fast, but with headlamps and not knowing the trail, we were cautious and took it slower than I wanted.

By now I'm in a group of 8 runners and I'm bringing up the rear, using those in front to keep me from going out too fast. I'm warming up fast and stash my buff in my pocket and my wind layer in my belt. I shouldn't have even bothered with my wind layer, but it doesn't weigh much so no big deal.

Done with the 2 mile portion, which was all in great shape, our group of 8 arrived back at the aid station where I slam a few glasses of Scratch hydration beverage and then find....NUTELLA WRAPS! Hell YAZZZ! I stuff one in my pocket and one in my hand, refill my speed cup one last time and start power hiking out of there on to the 4 mile portion of the loop.

About 4 of our group of 8 were still with me on this portion but since I was stuffing my mouth with nutella wraps and trying not to spill my drink, they moved out ahead. The first half mile of this section was a very runnable, flat dirt road going past the horse campsites and horse camp parking lot. I made a mental note not to use this part of the course to eat and drink. I needed to run all flats and downhills. The time to eat would be at the start of the 2 mile portion on the uphill when I had to hike anyway.

Finally we turn off the road and onto horse trail. Climbing up again on dry trail, down a short ways, then back up again for the third major accent. This uphill section was a quagmire of mud. There was no running, and there was no power hiking, and in the dark you either sucked it up and plowed through it or wasted time on the fruitless task of trying to find something a bit dryer than the rest to step on. I plowed through and passed a couple more people. This is why I call mud pits passing lanes. You're going to get muddy. Your feet are going to get wet. Accept it, deal with it, and embrace it. Learn to love it and use it to your advantage.

Mercifully the top fourth of this uphill section was dry but out of breath, it was slog to the top.

Now we're on the first of two flats and I push harder. Someone wanted to pass me so I moved to my right, right into a fallen branch pointed back at me, poking me hard in my right shin, scraping off skin and drawing blood.

Here and there are pockets of leaf covered mud and as I'm either ahead of or behind the group I was once in I had no warning and came close to wiping out several times. I get to the end of the second flat and come to the final downhill into the aid station to finish my first loop. I'm feeling more confident about my footing and make up some time on this beautiful decline.

The end of the loop has a false finish. As I ran behind the tents I click the lap button my my Garmin only to find out we had to run past the tents a bit, make a sharp turn and THEN finish the loop. This had a useful feature as I would come to find out too late to use it.

During this lap I ran mostly by feel. At the pace I was going, in the dark with a headlamp and often close on someone's heels, I did want to risk looking at my Garmin.

Loop 1 Time: 1:08:09
Loop 1 Pace: 11:00 !!!
6.2 miles down


Loop 2 of 5

My Garmin measured each loop as 6.0 miles, not 6.2 miles. The loop times I'm reporting are as timed by the race volunteers. The loop paces are based on 6.2 miles. Since my Garmin was measuring short (not unusual on a wood course with many sharp turns), the paces I was actually seeing were slower than I'm reporting. I also did a very poor job being consistent when I pressed the lap button. My intent was to press it when I crossed the loop finish each time but I often forget for a few minutes. Of course in the moment, my watch data is all I have to judge my progress.

Now the loop pace I saw at the end of the first loop was 11:39. I remembered I wanted something in the 11's, but I couldn't remember any more precisely than that. My brain is mush when I run. I decided 11:39 was good though, so I was happy.

I've learned that on a long trail race, watch reported pace is not very accurate anyway, but on a loop it does have relative accuracy loop to loop. What I now do for a multi loop course is to try to remember to manually set a new lap every loop. I have one screen on my Garmin show lap pace and overall pace. After I click the lap button, the lap pace resets and the overall pace continues to take into account the entire run.

Because I set a new loop when crossing the line and before I stop at station, when I finally get back on the course I have a very high lap pace showing because the time stuffing my face is included. As I run, the lap pace comes down, but starting out high give me something to work for during the lap...getting the lap pace to equal or become lower than the overall pace. Got it?

One thing I didn't for the first four loops is look at the watch reported distance. I was focused on pace, knowing it wouldn't be accurate, but pushing to keep the loop to loop pace as close as I could

This time at the aid station I grabbed some homemade cookies before heading out. M&M cookies and snicker doodles. I love this race. It was still dark enough for the two mile portion that I still needed a headlamp. By now the field was spread out enough that I rarely ran with more than one person, and usually I was running alone. The 30K runners had started at the an hour after we did and I saw a few of them running the opposite direction on the start of this loop.

While the pain in my calf was gone, I now started getting pain in my right foot and my right hip, right at the joint. The hip pain has been a minor issue for several weeks now but it hasn't been to bad. Today though the level of pain and the early onset concerned me. The foot pain I had felt two weeks prior during my 12 hour race. I chalk that up to the number of miles that day, but again, the early onset at this race concerned me.

The 2 mile section completed, it was no light enough to turn off my headlamp.

On the 4 mile section, I could now see well enough to judiciously pick my footfalls through the mud pits and not loose too much time, but with just a mile and a half left of the loop, the mud pit was big enough that I just tried to run right through it. Tried. My left shoe sunk deep into the mud and when my foot lifted up, my shoe was no longer on it and the pull of the mud caused me to fall on my hands and knees. Knees caked in mud and my gloves turned form light green to a brownish black, I looked back and it took a bit the find just the rim of my shoe barely poking above the mud. It took a long steady pull to get it out. Two girls behind me asked if I was ok and I assure them I was.

My Salomons have a quick lace system which is great when they're clean and your hands are dry. Hands and shoes caked in mud, I could not release that lacing system at all. I wiped the mud off my sock and out of my shoe as best I could and jammed my foot in the still tied shoe and had to work the folded over heel around my foot. It was a wet, sloppy run to the finish of the second loop.

Loop 2 Time: 1:08:11
Loop 2 Pace: 11:00
Cumulative Time: 2:16:20
Cumulative Pace: 11:00
12.4 miles down

Only 2 seconds separated my loop 1 time with my loop 2 time WOW! While Loop 2 included more aid station time, Loop 1 included my walking warmup. Again, my watch reported cumulative pace was 11:39, which I deemed to be good.

Loop 3 of 5

At the bag drop this time I dropped off my jacket and swapped my muddy gloves for clean gloves. This time at the aid station I find...breakfast burritos! I love this race! And they are warm and good. A volunteer asked what she could do to help me and I give her my soft flask to fill with Scratch. I stuffed it in my belt to drink on the trail. I grab two breakfast burritos and a glass of Scratch drink (every single stop at the aid station I drank this carb and electrolyte filled beverage. It's very similar to Tailwind, but a bit sweeter.) and started loop 3.

I wasn't long before I was wishing I had changed my socks. I had chunks of mud or something floating around in there irritating me. I could have changed shoes after the 2 mile portion but I was set on keeping that stop as short as possible and didn't do it.

The pain in my hip was getting worse and the pain in my right foot moved to my left. That pain would continue to move back and forth. My guess is that as it increase on one side I'd compensate for it which would cause pain on the other side.

Though I was making good progress, I found it hard to keep up my pace on this loop. I recall my overall garmin-reported pace toward the end of the loop was getting close to 12:00. I had bad thoughts creeping into in my head that my PR goal was starting to slip away. I wanted to start walking more but I forced myself to run through the pain and fatigue on the flats and especially the downhills. By this time the pain had quit getting worse and as long as that was the case, I wasn't going to let it stop me.

I was still on target for a PR, but could I hold up for two more loops?

Loop 3 Time: 1:12:55
Loop 3 Pace: 11:46
Cumulative Time: 3:29:15
Cumulative Pace: 11:15
18.6 miles down

Loop 4 of 5

I finally was smart enough to chance socks. I should have changed shoes too, but I didn't. My hands weren't moving well and that damn quick lace system was still being a *kitten* and it took me 4 minutes to change but I got it done. Volunteers came over to help but I couldn't have them deal with my nasty wet socks so I declined.

Back on my feet I ditched the gloves, grabbed another breakfast burrito and a few more cookies and was on my way.

Now the pain started to increase to the point I started backing off. My overall pace was registering around 12:10 or 12:15...close to what I need for PR, I think. Not very promising with over a loop to go. My PR is lost and I start thinking about backing way off to save something for my 8 hour race the following weekend. I'm not too put out by not getting a PR but dammit, I really wanted it. I occupied myself for a few miles by letting my brain argue with itself one just how much more I should push to get it, or should I forget it and just coast in. I never really came to a conclusion so I kept forcing myself to run the flats and downhills, though it was going slower on the uphills and taking longer to recover at the top.

I try to do math towards the end of the loop, trying to figure out what I need for to hit for the final loop but my brain is not cooperating at all. I come to the last downhill into the loop finish and pushed hard, ignoring the pain. Strava says my pace in this downhill section was between 8:15 and 9:00!

Loop 4 Time: 1:18:01
Loop 4 Pace: 12:35
Cumulative Time: 4:47:16
Cumulative Pace: 11:35
24.8 miles down

Loop 5 of 5

Final loop! There are a few hills I'll be glad to say good bye to for the final time. But before I do I load up on more food at the aid station. I think it was two big handfuls of clementines this time. I usually grab whatever food calls me and those juice citrus wedges and their sultry voices could not be ignored.

Before I took off on the final loop I clicked the field button on my Garmin to see my distance. 24.0 miles...wait a minute...it should be 25.0, shouldn't it?!?! (not correct, but its what I thought at the time. Should have been 24.8). My garmin under measured by a mile. My pace has been better than I've thought! I've got something like 12 more minutes to work with!

Struggling with the math...my previous PR was 6:23 and change. I'm currently at 4:47 something. 13 plus 23 is 36, add an hour, holy crap, I have an hour and thirty-six minutes for my final loop to get a PR!!! *kitten*, more math...1:36 is something like what...100 minutes? No..think, man, think...96 minutes. I have 96 minutes for...dammit, how much distance is left. 6.2. no, 6.0...6.2 in reality, 6.0 as my Garmin measure. Awesome, I can do math with 6.0 but not 6.2. So where are we...100 minutes divided by 6. Wait, no, 96 minutes. I can do this, dangit! 6 goes into 9 once, carry 3 with the 6 equals nine, nope, 36. I think. Start again, reach the same place, finally figure out that 96 minutes divided by 6 miles is 16. I have to average 16 minute miles for the rest of the race to get a PR. AWESOME! I can DO THIS!!!

That convoluted paragraph took me about 10 minutes to work through in my head when running. I'm an engineer and work with numbers all the time but math and running do not mix and this was a big struggle in my head.

Since I've been running something like 12:10 miles overall, I have a big cushion and decide to back off a bit to save something for the following race. I start the power hikes a little sooner, take longer to recover at the top off the hills, navigate the mud a little more cautiously.

After the last 2 mile portion was done, mild panic set it. I remembered I suck at math when I run. I can't trust anything I just figured out. I might be way off base. I was back to pushing the pace. With my renewed focus the sense of pain was pushed away. I had worked to hard to this point to give up a PR because I didn't run as hard I could have. I realized how much I really wanted this damn PR. Maybe not the PR as much as I wanted a definite sign of progress. My last mile, a downhill section, was run in 8:44.

Loop 5 Time: 1:14:47
Loop 5 Pace: 12:04
Cumulative Time: 6:02:03
Cumulative Pace: 11:41

I did it! I set a new 50K PR by over 20 minutes! While I'm thrilled with that, I see the 6:02:03 and think, I had a chance to break 6:00 and missed it. But those thoughts aside, this was a finish I did not expect. I did not think I had built up enough fitness to do this, especially coming off a 47 mile run two weeks prior. Oh hell yeah!

I finished
13th out of 38 overall
10th out of 24 males
4th out of 5 in my AG.
Tough AG! I was 30 minutes away from 3rd place AG.

The relief after crossing the finish was huge. There was no finishers medal but there was some excellent local craft beer and made to order grilled pizzas. I stuffed my face and kept eating more. I was going to leave after I finished eating but was having such a good time I stayed for another 2 hours to watch most of the remaining runners cross the finish line and fit as much pizza into my gut as possible.

That false finish I was talking about... As I was watching other runners come in, I noticed the RD was getting beers to had to the runners as they crossed. I protested, "hey, you didn't do that for me!" Another runner who obviously had been to this race to me that it was my fault because I didn't order for a beer. They do this thing where when you run the trail behind the tents, you can call out "Get me a beer!!" and by the time you come back around to the finish, the RD has one waiting or you. How cool is that! I'm going to come back to this race just for the beer. And the pizza. And the hoodie. And for every other awesome thing about this race. I loved it and I want to do it every single year.

Post Race

Beside the PR, many things went well for me on this race
- I had no quad pain at all during this race. My quads were screaming during the Loopet Loppet, but here, nothign They did hurt the day after and a little today, but a vast improvement over my last race. I hope this is a sign of adapting to these longer distances
- No pain in my Achilles. A frequent issue.
- No pain in my foot where I had surgery. Thank you! I consider this issue now a non-issue.
- Almost no cramping during the race. A little bit of hip adductor cramping when changing my socks and my left shin muscle a time or two, but much less then usual for this distance.
- By far, this is the best I've felt post race in any ultra I've done. Sunday I was able to haul a ton of landscaping rock, rake leaves and mow the lawn without a problem.
- I really like how well I was able to force myself to run the flats and downhills in the later stages of the race. where in the past I would do more walking, I think there was only two times I walked the falts when I should have been running.
- My loops splits were far tighter than I thought possible. That last loops was over 3 minutes faster than the 4th.

• 1:08:09
• 1:08:11
• 1:12:55
• 1:18:01
• 1:14:47

Of course, there were areas I can improve
- Don't eat when walking the flats. Save eating for the inclines when I'm walking anyway.
- Use the soft flask more often. This was easier to hold than my handheld bottle and not bothersome as my UD vest. When empty I could stuff it in my pocket or run belt. Filling it from the start means I spend less time drinking in the aid station.
- I should have changed socks, and shoes, after the mud incident.
- More hills, more hills, more hills in training. My hill work definitely helped me on Saturday but I want to do more. The front runners lapped me and except for the biggest hills, they were running hills. I don't expect to every challenge them, but running and power hiking hills in training brings huge benefits to any runner, even if you only run flat paved races.

There you have it. Thanks for reading! I'll post the rest of my photos in a separate post.

10-1 7k slow
10-2 7k easy
10-3 rest
10-4 rest
10-5 7k moderate
10-6 7k easy
10-7 rest
10-8 7k moderate
10-9 7k easy
10-10 rest
10-11 4k easy
10-12 rest
10-13 5k race
10-14 rest
10-15 4k slow
10-16 7k slow
10-17 rest
10-18 7k slow
10-19 7k slow
10-20 7k easy
10-21 rest
10-22 rest
10-23 rest
10-24 4k easy
10-25 babysitting
10-26 7k easy
10-27 7k slow
10-28 golf
10-29 7k slow

October Total: 108k
October Goal: 135k

January Total: 131k
February Total: 159.5k
March Total: 183k
April Total: 126k
May Total: 128k
June Total: 161.5k
July Total: 151k
August Total: 133k
September Total: 135k

2019 total: 1,308k / 811m

Monthly average: 145.3k

Next year when you pop in here claiming your December 2019 mileage, what accomplishments will you have made?
Run at least 4 5k races. Completed 8-31
Get under 30:00 and a PR for 5k. Nope...
Average at least 135k per month, which would put me over 1,000 miles for the year.

Run the Year Team: Five for Nineteen - Completed 9-28

Perfect moring to run: 45 degrees F; cloudy; and no wind. Only persistent niggle was right SI joint.
Ran Saturday; ran Sunday; no SI joint pain.
Golfed Monday; ran Tuesday; SI joint pain.
Think I finally figured out where my SI joint pain is coming from.

@7lenny7 You are AWESOME!!! Congratulations on smashing your prior PR!!!!!!!

2019 Races:

4-13 Shine the Light 5K - 31:12 chip time; First Place male 65 and older
6-30 Strides for Starfish 5K - 31:34 chip time; 31/77 overall; second male 65 and older (no official category)
7-27 Solon Home Days 5K - 31:11 chip time; 95/141 overall; 4/6 age group (male)
8-31 Race for Freedom 5k - 31:39 chip time; 32:00 Garmin time; Third Place male 60 and older
9-14 Gift of Life 5k - off the schedule; insufficient recovery time
10-13 Haunted Hustle 5k - 31:22 chip time; 47/74 overall; First Place male 60 and older

saturday was the MKE hot cider hustle. i think, there were close to 1800 people doing the 5k. i do this race for the swag. they always have good stuff. no PR but that wasn't to be expected.
i hate that first mile, mile and a half. but i kept pushing till i hit the comfy phase. the scenery was beautiful. there were lots of inexperienced runners and random walkers blocking the path. the course was mostly flat. one water station.
I was a little stiff when i started for some reason but loosened up and felt comfortable with the three miles. i had plenty of gas left in the tank and no tweaky knees to sprint to the finish.
overall, an uneventful race and that is just fine with me.