Sweat

I’ve been working harder at the gym, as I promised – and it feels great, as I expected. I’ve even been reunited with an old flame, burpees. 12 Minute Athlete has been my resource for quick, effective workout routines, which are great for lunchtime gymtime! I get about 25 minutes of quality time after factoring in the walk to and from the gym plus a shower (you’re welcome, coworkers). The routines on 12 Minute Athlete are mostly HIIT (high intensity interval training) with some AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) usually within a 12-minute timeframe (surprise!). She always says “Work HARD!” – which is really the only way to make a short work out yield the most productive results.

I even “discovered” a new workout that heats up my quads like nothing I’ve experienced, short of actual downhill running, which I don’t get much of around here. Pike jumps! These will probably be really useful for attacking long and plentiful downhills that I don’t have much experience with.

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As I write this, I have 308 miles behind me for the year, which is crazy. Last year, I ran 76.08 miles total in January, February, and March. Training for an early spring ultramarathon can really rack up the miles quickly – during some very painful months. I don’t like the cold very much, but it seems like we’re on the other side of that for the most part, here in southern Indiana. This past Saturday, I ran 17 miles under what was apparently direct, unfettered sunshine. I thought it was going to be colder than it was, so I started by running with a long-sleeve shirt, which I shed a few miles in. A few hours later, my face and shoulders were slightly burnt, and I was shamefully pleased. It could maybe not be winter soon!

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A few weeks ago, we ran the Run of Luck 7k, the second race in a three-race series held locally. I needed to get five extra miles in addition to the 7k (which, according to my Garmin, is 4.37 miles). So I raced my heart out in the 7k, pulling out an 8:36 pace, which I felt pretty good about. I paused briefly after the finish line, had some water and a date, and then headed back out to run the same course, much more slowly, with an added mile on the end. I wouldn’t typically start a 10-mile run with an 8:30 pace or anything near it, but it’s hard to not race hard even though I know I need to run extra miles. I get caught up in the excitement of the starting corral and the energy of the runners around me. A few weeks from now, I’ll be running a 10k with an added 10 miles. I’d like to think I could do the 10 miles before the race and be done, but we’ll see what the day brings.

Bound(ed) the Mound

Bound the Mound was certainly an adventure! The race director was working hard all day the day before the race to make sure every racer was safe and informed. The course was changed a little to avoid some of the more hazardous conditions, but there was still plenty of ice, mud, water, and snow to keep it interesting. One of the final e-mails he sent the night before said, “Make no mistake, trail conditions are quite challenging and the footing is as tough as I have ever experienced.”

He also gave us all a sense of as of yet unearned pride by closing with “…once you complete your distance, you can rest assured you will have accomplished one of the most difficult trail races ever held in the area!”

Well, let’s go run, shall we?

Running trails on their own can be pretty difficult. The terrain is a lot less predictable when it hasn’t been paved. Throw a layer of snow and ice on top of those trails, and the variety never ends!

The day after running in all that snow and ice, I ran 11.5 miles on thankfully clear roads, which helped to make up for the clunky trails having their way with my stride on Saturday.

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I’ve been a lazy runner.

All that snow is now gone. A few days of above-freezing temps and a steady drizzle have melted all but the biggest piles. I’m hoping we can say good bye to old man winter and his finicky whims. This week is promising sun and 60 degrees, so you’ll hear no complaining from me.

I feel like I’ve been slacking off these last few weeks. Of course I can always pull the “but the weather has been bad!” excuse out if I start to feel bad about it, but I know that weather was just an enabler. I haven’t been giving it my all, and I’m quite aware of it.

My mantra of “You have what it takes, but it’s going to take all you have” has been more of an accusation of my lazy approach to training than an encouragement to push through uncomfortable things. This is because I haven’t really been doing anything uncomfortable.

So I’m going to be stepping up my efforts at the gym, run harder on the flats, and keep on my quest for finding hills for my daily runs – or at least one of the daily runs. Perhaps the more clement season will bring about new enthusiasm for these things (I hope so!) – but just as I can’t lean on poor weather to excuse my lazy behaviors, I cannot expect the good weather to motivate me to work harder. I need to dig deep and find the strength inside that I know is there.

I have 8 weeks left in my training before I run at Gnaw Bone. I know it’s going to test me mentally and physically, and I need to step up my efforts to meet that challenge head on. Leave it all at the gym, on the roads, and in the woods. I gotta earn my rest days!

Week 11 Ends

Week 11 of 20, can you believe it? I can’t! I’m halfway through training for an ultramarathon. Dudes! That’s intense and rad! Maybe you’re not as surprised as I am because I haven’t talked about my training much. Let me fill you in on what’s been going down.

Training has gong well. I’m still really excited about Gnaw Bone, and that excitement has been fueling my runs as well as medjool dates, salads, and coffee have. These last few weeks have been trying weeks, though, and here’s why: the weather decided to be all the kinds of awful it could be all at once. Two or three weeks ago I ran 16 amazing miles on the trails of Hoosier National Forest, and I was elated. The weather was spring-like, the trails were solid and aggressive, and I rose to their challenge. I demolished nearly 2,000 feet of elevation gain, which is more than I typically get by far.

Then it snowed and snowed, melted, iced, rained, just plain awfuled. That horrendous weather put me inside on the treadmill for a week. I didn’t really care for it. The snow took more than a week to melt away, which is unusual for the area. I ran outside in the cold and rain, but I loved it – I was outside! Then the rain turned to ice and then to snow…a few feet of it.

Yes, this looks like weather in a sane world.

The running!

I’ve been on my feet a lot lately.

I finished off February having run 135.47 miles. This is by far the most I’ve run in a month – my previous record was around 87 miles.

My most recent run took me along the crescent of the Ohio River upon which my fair city was founded. I ran 21 miles from my house far out into the country and straight back home. I planned to go a certain way where I knew there were some great hills I could run on – but this was ultimately not going to happen because train was parked on the tracks, and I couldn’t get across.

A second train was parked on the next intersection as well, so I just kept on running out into the river bottoms where there is nary a hill to be found. My pace was excellent, though. The last 10 miles were significantly faster than the first 11, which helps to make up for the lack of hills. I managed an overall 10:52 pace, which I think is the fastest I’ve run that distance.

The races!

Trail conditions are questionable.
(Photo from the Bound the Mound Facebook page)

I ran my first race of the year on Valentine’s Day. It was a 5k, but I got there early and ran four miles before the race started. This did affect my racing speed, but I was still able to pull out an 8:32 pace, so I felt pretty good about that.

My second race is a trail half marathon this weekend at Angel Mounds. I’ve run a ton of 5ks, a 10k, and a 15k on this course, so I’m really familiar with it. But this time will be a little different. The trails are going to be mush. It gets worse because the half marathon runners go on the 5k course four times. There will also be 5k and 10k runners out there. The trails will be churned up pretty good. I may be swallowed by the trails – we’ll see!

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So yeah, running has been great. I’m looking forward to fair weather and more daylight – but I have gotten some quality miles in over the last few weeks despite the inclementicy (made up a word). Once the weather is a little nicer, I’ll take my gym routine out to the yard, which is one of my favorite things. Yay bare feet in the grass!

Missing the clement weather.

Despite having spent some years living in northern Maine, experiencing eight of the harshest winters I’ll likely ever experience again (hopefully), I have little tolerance for the cold. After just writing those words, I hear my Maine-native (Maniac) mother telling me to quit being a baby. As a kid, I’d play outside in the snow when the temperature was well below zero. Now, I don’t want to be outside when it’s 20.

I’ve lived here for more than twice the time I lived in Maine, so I’ve embraced the sweltering heat that southern Indiana can throw at us in the summer. I trained for my most recent marathon almost entirely outside through the dog days of summer. I just got used to carrying plenty of water and wearing sweat-absorbing or displacing material.

The other night I had a really nice dream about riding my bike with the group I used to ride with. We all met in a parking lot and hit the road. I felt like a million bucks! When I woke up and realized that I wouldn’t be riding with them any time soon, and that the weather isn’t all that nice, I got bummed. It made me miss all the organized rides I’ve participated in the last few years.

I even miss the long port-a-john lines.

After a week off from running, I took it relatively easy last week. I got all my miles in, and ran a sluggish 13 miles on Saturday. After coming off several weeks of solid training that felt amazing, this week was a bit of a struggle. The cold and wind just weren’t doing it for me, and I had to convince myself every day to go outside. But I did it, and that’s what matters, right? It doesn’t have to feel good, I just have to get it done.

Saturday’s 13 miles is a pretty good example of this. Even as I was getting out of my car to go run an out-and-back on Evansville’s lovely Greenway path, I muttered to myself, “I really don’t want to do this.” But I did it. At around mile 11, I was really ready to be finished running. But I had to get back to my car…so I kept going.

There’s some pretty common advice that floats around on the running blogs: some of the most important miles you’ll cover are the ones that are hard, when you’re tired or having to push harder to get through it. I was telling myself this when I decided to do four sets of fartleks (see Training Details for info about fartleks). I finally finished my run with 13.01 miles. I typically go over the distance I’m scheduled for, but I was more than happy to finish up and drink my smoothie.

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Now it’s a new week – and a new month! – and it’s freezing and windy outside. I think I’m back to my regularly scheduled runs, which will lead to a 16-miler this weekend. Woo hoo!

What are some of the ways you try to stay motivated when the weather isn’t in your favor?