One of my least favorite days of the year

It’s the day when I come crawling, tail tucked between my legs, back to the gym to signup again for a membership. I think back in such fondness to that day this spring when I was able to cut the cord, not needing the indoor confines to manage to get in my running. Not having sniffed a treadmill in 7 months has been fantastic. But, seeing that it was pitch black at 5 o’clock yesterday, I decided to give in.

The good news is that since we’ve moved, the gym is now just a few minutes from my house. It also is a brand new facility, so new equipment with decent treadmills. The timing also coincides with my realization that my shunning of anything that resembles weightlifting for 2 years probably needs to end. This hamstring issue, although I can’t say for sure, would likely have been prevented if I had incorporated some light lifting into my routine.

If I can only view it as injury prevention, I have no issue with spending 30 minutes 3 times a week getting in some strength training. I don’t expect any miracles here, but it’s probably time to start focusing on more of the details of my training and not just brushing off that sort of stuff because “I run a lot” I don’t have to worry about it nearly as much.

Anyway, back to the gym. I decided that I wanted to get in my first true workout since the marathon, a 4 mile tempo run. Tempo runs always make me a little nervous. I could probably prattle on and on as to why, but the point is I never seem to run them nearly as well as I hoped.

So after a brisk warmup, I stayed conservative for my first mile, 5:45. The pace felt very comfortable, so mile two I picked it up, 5:39. I was really surprised at how easy the pace was. Usually half way through a tempo run I’m second guessing why I’m even running the workout. Mile 3 was again quite comfortable, 5:29. For the last mile I decided to press the pace a little, 5:20. I finished feeling very strong, not breathing that heavy at all. Wow, I have no idea where that came from. My last 5k was around 17 flat, that would be a PR by 45 seconds.

I thought back to nearly two years ago. It was January of 2008, I was on the treadmill after committing to training for my first marathon. I wanted an assessment of my fitness in order to set a goal for my first race. I ran 8 miles that day at 6:15 pace. It was by far the hardest I’d run in 10 years. It was an all out effort. Last night I ran 4 miles at 5:34 pace without much difficulty. It’s amazing how things have changed. Pretty cool, anyway, I digress.

This puts me in a bit of a pickle. Clearly, I’m recovered from my marathon and the hamstring is 100%. So I’m tempted to take advantage of it and get back into race mode and knock out a few PR’s. But should I continue to take it easy? How would that short cycle fit into marathon prep for next spring? I’m not really sure. I’ve got some figuring out to do. Regardless, I’m really pleased with my workout last night; hopefully I can continue the progress as I get back into real training.

The elements of a perfect training run

I'm pretty sure I had one yesterday.

One could argue that there's no such thing as perfection when it comes to running. To apply that term to something as chaotic as traveling by foot for miles on end is ludicrous in reality, but I'm going with it anyway. Even if it may be a stretch to use the term perfection, we occasionally need to feel like our efforts can produce such results.

So what makes a run perfect? First, whatever the distance that was run, you could have gone further and faster without question. You finish with a sense of accomplishment, but not exhaustion. You have a feeling that hard work has been completed, but short of the "glad it's over" relief. Time has passed faster than you could have imagined. You're somewhat amazed to have covered the distance in the time elapsed. Maybe even double checking your watch just to be sure, or to remind yourself of what you indeed just finished.

The run can be long or short, or anywhere in between, but you've probably run it before and have the ability to juxtapose a previous effort against that day's, making it easy to see just how much you've improved.

That's the second part of a perfect run, you have concrete evidence of improvement. Paces that once required strain and concentration, now feel relaxed, borderline casual. As runner's we're constantly trying to improve, every workout has a purpose, and regardless of what kind of run it may be, it's designed to allow for improvement. There can be weeks, sometimes months, when we have no tangible evidence that we've improved. Hundreds of miles have been logged, shoes have come and gone, hell, seasons may have changed, and we're doing this all on faith. When you're out on a run and sonny Jesus actually appears before you, your faith is confirmed, and it's an incredible feeling.

On a perfect run, uphills feel like flat ground, flat ground feels like running down hill, and down hills feel like cheating.

The perfect run comes along very rarely, at least how I define it, but that's even better. You can't have Christmas everyday. So these are days to be remembered, even if no one was there to witness and attempting to describe it to anyone would fail to portray it's subtle significance.

I'll head out tonight, in the pouring rain, knowing it might be a long time before I get to experience that feeling again, but that's just fine. Work has to be done to produce another day like yesterday, they don't happen by accident, and I'm happy to put in the work.

I ran today! (with pics to prove it)

My first few steps out the door today, the first in nearly 2 weeks, felt great, and then, within seconds, the hamstring tightened up on me. I immediately thought of stopping and shutting it down for yet another week. Wow, I really didn’t think this thing would be such an issue. Sure I’ve had muscle strains before, but come on, it’s been 2 weeks of no running, I should absolutely be 100% at this point. What the hell?

Much like where I found myself in the marathon two weeks ago, in that sort of no-man’s land between clearly needing to stop running and creating a mental mountain out of a mole hill, I just kept running. Lo and behold, another 5 minutes into the run it loosened up for me. Not completely pain free, but enough to put my mind at ease that I’d be able to get through my run. Phew.

Since it was just about a perfect fall day, actually, check that, it was a perfect fall day, I brought my camera along. Here’s a few shots of the trail that I jump on about 200 yards from my driveway.

So a nice easy 6 miles today, about 7:10 pace. Not too bad I guess. Although if you would’ve told me I’d actually been in a coma and hadn’t run in 6 months, I probably would have believed you. It wasn’t exactly effortless running. No worries though, most importantly the hamstring felt pretty good for the rest of my time out there.

This week should be around 40 miles, I’m going to guess. It’ll be a day by day thing with my leg, barring a miracle I’ve pretty much conceded the racing season to be over, so there’s no hurry at this point.

It’s good to be back though.

I’ve run 0 miles this week, and haven’t really loved it.

I’m ready to start running again, but have decided to continue to take it easy and rest. Like I’ve mentioned before, it’s been at least a year since I’ve taken more than a couple of days off. Unlike last week, I’m getting tired of being a lazy ass. Not working out, much less running is starting to wear thin.

Fortunately, since moving into our new house about 4 weeks ago, I’ve had more than enough projects to keep me occupied. A new coat rack, rewiring some fixtures, staining a handrail, putting up house numbers and patching/painting some walls to name a few. I’d post pictures but it’s nothing exciting enough to bother.

Anyway, back to running. Today might just be another day off. Despite picking up new shoes and a fancy pair of running pants yesterday, I have to remind myself that once I get back out there, it’s training to get ready for the next major race. Once I put it in that perspective, I don’t mind enjoying another day or two of mental rest as much as physical.

So in the mean time, it’s back to This Old House. I believe new carpet on the stairs to the basement could be in order.

I ran 3 miles last week, and I loved it.

After formally injuring my hamstring on Wednesday, I took the rest of the week off. That gave me a whopping three miles for the week. Nice. Obviously I needed to take it easy with the hamstring, but the fact it coincided with what should be some scheduled downtime after TCM made for “perfect” timing if you could use that word while being injured.

I should also not get too over the top by saying that I’m “injured”. Yeah, running would be stupid right now, but if this were the middle of another marathon training cycle I would be out there getting in the miles as best I could, as long as I wasn’t in pain. If I had to guess, I could probably go run for an hour today without major issues but I won’t. Until I go 48 hours without feeling any pain or even tightness I’m staying in. There’s just no reason to not let this thing be 100% before starting to gear up for another race.

It’s been since January that I haven’t been pounding pretty hard, so I’m due for a real break. So off again today, tomorrow and most likely Wednesday. Towards the end of the week I’ll probably head out for a few easy runs just to test the hamstring, and look to spend the following two weeks just running 40-60 miles. At that point I should be fully recovered from Twin Cities and ready to really start working back from a date next year, planning the training cycle.

Speaking of the next cycle, could I possibly finish my fourth marathon by striding down the historic grid-iron of Lambeau Field, home to the rival Green Bay Packers? It’s got a lot of upsides I’m looking for. Good timing for training, mid May, right between Boston and Grandma’s. Fairly competitive, about 15 guys under 2:40 and a relatively fast course. It’s one to keep an eye on for sure.

So what’s next?

I think most runners when asked what’s the next marathon they’re doing and claim, “I haven’t even thought about it” are bald faced liars. Not me, I swear! I really hadn’t given it much thought before TCM. Well, now that it’s past, time to look into the crystal ball and see what is coming next.

Probably the obvious option is Boston. The upside is that it’s early in the year, giving me a full training cycle for fall, something I didn’t have the pleasure of this year. The downside of the early April race, is our two week trip to Kenya at the end of the year would fall right at the beginning of the training program. I really don’t want the pressure of trying to get in 100 miles a week while I’m taking the vacation of a lifetime.

That doesn’t rule Boston out, I hear some decent runners find ways to train in Kenya, but I would have to compromise my training for sure. I guess that’s a little inaccurate, I wouldn’t have to, but would choose to.

On the complete other end of the spectrum, is Grandma’s. After the heat this year I’d probably consider myself somewhat disturbed to want to line up in Two Harbors in late June again. There are lots of intangibles that make this race attractive outside of the timing and course itself though. It’s been by far the best all around experience I’ve had in my short marathoning career thus far. PR’s are still most important, but Duluth puts on a great event.

Option number three? No spring marathon. If this is the case, I’d run the Grandma’s half marathon as well as another early spring half. This would give me the chance to really focus on speed and shorter distances for a significant amount of time, laying the groundwork for a fall marathon.

Honestly, option three sounds the least attractive. After a good, but not great performance at TCM, I have a hard time waiting to race again until June, much less October. I can pretty much cross that one off the list. Of course, there are other opportunities in spring to race, well after Boston but before Grandma’s. I’ll need to do some investigating before I make any decisions, but at first blush, the idea of running one of the two hilly marathons we have in May around here sounds like no fun, and spending a bunch of money to travel to someplace other than Boston doesn’t sound like much fun either.

First things first, I’m putting in my first training run today for whatever that next race is. It’ll hopefully be a boring, meaning not painful, 4-6 miles, my first since Sunday. It’s a beautiful day, I hope I can enjoy it, and the hamstring is feeling pretty good as of now.

Twin Cities Race Report

I arrived at the Dome about 6:45 for the 8:00 start. Plenty of time to chill, use the facilities, and get ready to race. It was chilly to start the morning, mid 40’s, but relatively light winds, pretty much out of the west. Which was good, the finish is about 9 mile east of the start as the crow flies.

I wasn’t real early to the start, I didn’t want to spend a ton of time just standing around. But I finally ventured into corral 1 and soon saw Runners World forumites MNRunnerguy who pointed out 5bororunner and ZiggyNH, we chatted for a while, it’s always cool to have some people you “know” at the start of a race.

First mile was nice and easy. My Garmin had me at 5:58, but I knew that was off because of the large buildings around the start line, I passed the clock at about 6:25 gun time, so 6:20ish for the first. Miles 2 and 3 (6:17, 6:11) made a little more sense time wise. This part of the course was pretty much into the wind and had a significant hill about mile 2.5, so I wasn’t at all concerned about being a little off the pace.

We turned south and started with a little downhill for mile 4 (5:56). The course leveled off for the next few miles and I fell into a great rhythm. Breathing, arm swing and stride just clicked, effortless running at this point and my splits for the next few miles showed.

Miles 5 (6:01), 6 (6:02) 7 (6:03)

I popped my first gel during mile 7. I didn’t feel like I needed it, but obviously trying to stay ahead of the game I took it anyway. The next section of the course had some rolling hills. Nothing severe, but I could tell they were cutting into that rhythm I’d developed. It wasn’t making the work difficult, by I had to turn off auto-pilot and focus on racing smart, I think I did that.

Miles 8 (6:10), 9 (6:11), 10 (6:00)

The pace was fairly comfortable, and the splits from the 10 mile mark were pretty consistent. The course is relatively amiable here, out of the wind, an occasional moderate hill and overpass, just cruising along to the half mark.

Miles 11 (6:11), 12 (6:04), 13 (6:10)

I hit the half point (1:20:50) feeling as confident as I ever have in a marathon. Problem is that really isn’t saying much. None the less, I felt, although I was a bit off the pace I wanted to go out in, I was exactly where I should have been. Not working at all to hold pace and feeling relatively relaxed. My splits continued to come easily over the next few miles.

Miles 14 (6:10) 15 (6:06) 16 (6:10)

In the midst of mile 17 things started to get a bit squirrelly. It started with a twinge in my left hamstring. I ignored it and made sure to get in my tablets immediately. A few strides would go by, wouldn’t feel a thing, and then another twinge, this time a little deeper and more concerning. I continued to ignore it.

Miles 17 (6:17), 18 (6:24)

By the end of mile 18 the twinges were replaced by a continued strain on my hamstring. I could tell something wasn’t right, obviously, but I didn’t know exactly what the problem was. But whatever it was, it wasn’t good. At first I was absolutely crushed. The training was excellent, the weather perfect, and now my f’ing hamstring is gonna derail this fantastic day.

As you know, you’ve got a lot of time to go through a lot of different emotions on race day, and it absolutely crossed my mind to just bail. I had the most challenging part of the course right ahead of me, how the hell was I get through it without embarrassing myself yet again but having to walk, stretch, walk, repeat for 7 miles? Or better yet, have this hamstring thing be an actual injury, not just a cramp, and kick myself for not bailing when I should have after actually hurting myself?

To be honest, I don’t really know how I resolved the situation in my head. It’s one of those things where you don’t even make a decision, you just find yourself still running, and doing the best you can. I guess I just decided to manage the pain (albeit minor, I don’t want to oversell this, I hadn’t lost my leg in the war) but more importantly manage the risk. That meant, slowing down, shortening my stride and just getting home in one piece.

Miles 19 (6:33), 20 (6:25) 21 (6:28)

The downside to have a gimpy hamstring at this point of the race, among others, is that the next 3 miles have one severe hill, and is all in an uphill direction. Not the kind of grade you’re looking for with that sort of problem. It definitely exacerbated the issue. At one point along Summit, I can’t remember exactly where, I actually had a bleeping armchair quarterback yell at me “Lengthen your stride! Lengthen your stride!” I wanted to yell “asshole! I’m doing this on purpose!” but just shot him a seriously dirty look instead.

Pretty brutal splits here, but all the wheels were on the bus, and that made me happy.

Miles 22 (6:47), 23 (6:57), 24 (6:47)

Two freakin’ miles to go, and I can finally feel it. I’m gonna have a great day, not perfect, I clearly had lost too much time for an “A” goal today, but close enough to be called a great day.. Then, the side stitch from hell pops up. This thing just came out of nowhere in what felt like and instant. I’m sure everyone has had one like it, the kind where you want to check the bushes to find the a-hole who fired the blow dart into your side. The same damn thing happened at Grandma’s. It’s what killed my chance at a mildly respectable time there, even considering the heat. Ugh.

I stopped, walked for 20 or 30 seconds, trying to stretch it out. No luck. Grrrr. With a slight hitch in my stride and a shortened one at that, the miles of a very erratic rhythm had caught up with me. The good news, if you could consider this good news, is that my pace wasn’t stressing my breathing very much at all. I buckled down and just focused on one deep breath in, two steps, a deep breath out, two steps. Sucking in as much wind as possible to stretch the stitch, and keeping everything in perfect rhythm. After about 3 minutes it was nearly gone. I couldn’t believe it.

Miles 25 (7:12), 26 (6:33)

I turned the corner and there was the Capitol. No more uphills, if the hamstring blew I could roll to the finish if I had to. I let it loose it that point, covering the last .52 at 5:56 pace. A subpar performance never felt so good, 2:47:37, about a 15 minute PR.

Right now the hamstring hurts like a b/tch. The pain is quite sharp, so I really think the issue was more strain than cramp, but who really knows, or cares for that matter. If it’s not better in a couple of days, then I’ll give a crap. I’ve got so many good things to take away from this race.

First, despite some issues, I still ran strong. I found a way to get it done. That is something that simply cannot be said for my marathoning career thus far. Secondly, I don’t think 2:39 was gonna happen on my best day today, maybe 2:40-41, but either way I don’t feel I was limited by my fitness today, which has given me all the more motivation to keep at it, another big PR is still out there.

Thanks for reading…