Eat Drink Run Woman

My goodness, where has the time gone? I must apologize to you, dear readers, for I have been remiss. I know you wait with bated breath to read about the minutiae of my training, and I have failed you. As punishment, I will roll my IT band on the foam roller for a full hour.

Even though Pfitz is kicking my booty, dare I say it’s getting easier manageable. The weekday long runs are still a bitch, but my speed is increasing. My cross-training has primarily been limited to yoga and my weight/conditioning routine at the gym since I tend to get bored with laps at the pool and the weather hasn’t been conducive to biking. (As I write this I’m watching the snow fall — yes SNOW, on April 20; WTF? My poor tulips and daffodils are shivering). But hopefully I’ll be able to dust the Felt off soon and take it for a spin.

Week 10 recap (37.25 miles):

Sunday: Actually made it to the pool for 30 minutes of laps. I always feel great after a pool routine, but I never look forward to the “pool people.” They’re difficult to explain other than to say they’re “odd ducks.” You definitely know ’em when you see ’em. This week it was the guy who, rather than stand to the side at the shallow end while resting (as you’re supposed to), decides to stand about 10 feet out in the lane while gabbing with his friend. Both my darling and I would shoot our elbows out at him as we passed, hoping he’d get the hint and move.

Monday: 8-mile general aerobic run with an 8:57 average pace.

Tuesday: ran my first VO2 max run, or — as I believe it should be called — the “barf up a lung” run. The schedule called for an 8-mile VO2 max run with five 600-meter sprints at 5K pace. However, because I’d be running the Mt. Si Relay on Sunday I switched up my mileage a bit, increasing certain runs this week and decreasing others for next. Instead, my goal was to run 12 miles with the five 600-meter sprints at an 8 min/mile pace. I ran a 4-mile warm-up then hit the track. I went WAY too fast for the first one — 7:38 min/mile pace — but hit my target for the other four. I slowly jogged 90 seconds between each one. When I finished I still had about 5.25 miles to go to make up the 12 miles; UGH! By now I was running on dead legs so I decided I’d cut the run a mile short.

Wednesday: I was scheduled to do a 5-mile recovery run but was still rather wiped from the prior days’ speed work. I opted instead to walk to Trophy Cupcakes with my darling for a treat.

Thursday: I not only made up for the 5-mile recovery run, I tacked on another mile to make up for Tuesday’s shortcoming. Overall pace: 8:54.

Friday: Had a glorious 12.25-mile run around Seward Park and Lake Washington. The sun was shining and the smell of grass was in the air — from the freshly cut lawns to the more pungent odor wafting out of the cars at Colman Park.

Saturday: Rest day in preparation for the Mt. Si Relay.

Week 11 (54.25 miles)

Sunday: Mt. Si Relay. I was going to write up a separate race report, but, well, it didn’t happen. So here’s a condensed version: The race is a 57.9-mile, 5-person relay along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail to Rattlesnake Lake and the Iron Horse Trail. I ran this last year as a fill-in but wanted to form my own team this year. My darling and I managed to rope in another couple, and they coaxed a member of their bootcamp to join us. My darling and I reassured everyone we’d be able to make up for any mileage they weren’t capable of running. Then my darling rolled his ankle and one of our other teammates got a severe IT band strain. We should have renamed ourselves Team Gimpy.

This year I ran the same legs as last year, only in reverse. So instead of getting some great downhill runs, I had to run uphill. We had an ungodly start of 6:30 a.m., so we met our friends at their house a little after 6 (they live just a few minutes from the start). They hadn’t heard from our 5th teammate, so we assumed she’d be meeting us at the start. We arrived at the elementary school, but no Melinda. We all signed in and my darling took off for the first leg. The three of us waited around for another 15-20 minutes, hoping Melinda would show up (unfortunately we didn’t have her contact info). We then headed to the first exchange and I geared up for my leg. We had to walk about 1/2 mile from the parking lot to the exchange; since my darling was gimped up I thought I’d have a bit more time, but we were at the exchange for only a couple of minutes when I heard our number being called. D’oh! I was barely warmed up, yet had to start my leg with a 3/4 mile uphill.

I tried to keep my pace slow since this was a replacement for my long run, but of course my competitive nature took over. After the first 3/4 mile the trail levels off for a couple of miles, then starts a very gradual downhill. As I hit mile 4 I noticed my overall pace was about 9:14; I then decided I wanted to finish with an overall pace equal to or less than my marathon goal pace, so I picked up speed. As I saw my team members cheering me on at the exchange I finished at a sprint. Overall pace: 9:01 for 5.65 miles.

By now we resigned ourselves to finishing the relay with just four members. My darling and our friend Steve split up the 5th leg, adding 2.5 miles to Steve’s and 3.5 to my darling’s (Steve’s wife Kelly was the one suffering from a strained IT band, so there was no way we were going to make her run more). I would then run the 3.4-mile 10th leg. We got some major props from the other runners when they realized we were one person short.

My next leg was a little over 7 miles — 5 of which were uphill to Rattlesnake Lake. I remembered from last year it didn’t seem very steep, but then again I was running downhill. My pace was considerably slower this time — about 9:45-9:50 for the first few miles. But as I got to the uphill portion I was pleased to see it was a very gradual incline. By mile 6 I found myself speeding up, and when I saw a banner marking 1 mile to go, I picked up the pace (the trail had leveled off by now). I ran the last mile in 9:09; my overall pace was 9:33.

I was surprised how much the run took out of me. I had run less than 13 miles between the two legs, but I was absolutely exhausted. My darling offered to break up the last leg — I’d run the first 2 miles, he’d run the remaining 1.4. A half hour later we switched it — he’d run the first 2 miles, I’d finish the race. With a half hour to go before we’d start that leg I was still exhausted, so when my darling offered to run the entire leg, I took him up on it. I did, however, run the final few hundred feet with him. Our final time was 8 hours, 49 minutes, 45 seconds (we were 86th out of 101). And no, we STILL don’t know what happened to our 5th team member!

Monday: rest day, although I did do a condensed arm weight routine.

Tuesday: lactate threshold 8-mile run with 6 miles @ 8:30 pace.

Wednesday: 6.4 miles @ 9:19 pace. (And an update on my plank goals: I’m up to 81 seconds for the front and 50 seconds for the sides!)

Thursday: I should have run an 8-miler, but decided to put it off until Friday, despite having to cater a party that evening. Bad Betsy.

Friday: I came SOOO close to canceling the run — I wanted to be fully prepared for the party — but I was able to get everything done in time. As I headed out it started to hail (snow was in the forecast), but fortunately it didn’t last long. I decided to cut the run to 7 miles, but ran it rather fast (8:40 overall pace). And the weatherman’s prediction came true — the snow started falling about 5:30 p.m. and continued to fall steadily for several hours.

Saturday: woke up to see some lingering snow on the ground, but fortunately it stopped falling. What makes this particularly crazy (other than it being the MIDDLE OF APRIL) is that a week ago we had temps in the low 80s. Criminy!

I was scheduled to do a 20-miler, and my darling was going to run a portion of it with me. Given his work schedule and his injuries, he’s had to readjust his goals. He probably won’t be going for a BQ at North Olympic, but he may still give it a shot. We consulted Weatherground for the day’s forecast, only to see there was a 60% chance of precipitation, compared to only 30% for Sunday. I toyed with postponing the run a day, but given I have another “barf up a lung” workout on Monday, I decided to gut it out. My darling reluctantly agreed to join me.

My intention was to run another Freakin’ Hard Ass Hill run, adding five miles (and two more hills) to the last one. But given the uncertainty of the weather, I decided to cut back on some of the hills (one can only be so miserable, after all). First to go was Discovery Park; with the crappy weather we’ve been having, I figured it would be a cold, muddy slog. As the wind started whipping our faces along Shilshole, I decided I’d forego the Elliott Bay/Myrtle Edwards Park portion as the trail runs along the water. This also eliminated the steep Broad Street hill and Westlake Avenue. After crossing over the locks we headed south on Commodore, then headed north over the Ballard Bridge, eventually making our way to the Burke-Gilman.

We exited the trail at Stone Way, our last hill. As we neared Greenlake we hit the half marathon mark. I planned on continuing around Greenlake for a couple of loops to make up the 20 miles, while my darling ran a partial loop for a total of 15 miles. By now I was very tired, but there was something comforting about running a trail with which you’re so familiar. Whereas my average pace for the first 13 miles was 10:12, I sped up to an average 9:41 for the 7 miles around Greenlake. Overall pace for 20.08 miles: 10:01.