avondale training journal, starting Dec. 2018 (comments welcome)

[WillRunForPizza]

In the last mile, I had just started down a fairly steep and rutted descent when the Sun came out at a low angle and blasted right in my eyes. I was just thinking, "Oh, that's going to make it hard to see my footing..."and BAM I tripped forward landed in the dirt. It really scraped up my left shin and made for hugely dramatic bleeding, but it was only a flesh wound.

Glad you're okay!

 

[GollyGadget]

But seriously, glad you’re okay! That could have turned out much worse.

 

[avondale]

Finally someone has recognized the reference! I used the "only a flesh wound" line on Garmin and it didn't seem like anyone noticed, LOL. Not my favorite type of comedy, but that's a great line.

 

[GollyGadget]

Finally someone has recognized the reference! I used the "only a flesh wound" line on Garmin and it didn't seem like anyone noticed, LOL. Not my favorite type of comedy, but that's a great line.

Tbh, I’m not even sure I’ve seen the entire movie…

 

[striker1064]

Tbh, I’m not even sure I’ve seen the entire movie…

GO WATCH THAT MOVIE

 

[lookingforsunshine]

Tbh, I’m not even sure I’ve seen the entire movie…

GO WATCH THAT MOVIE

& then watch And Now For Something Completely Different!

 

[avondale]

Like I said, Monty Python is not my favorite style of humor, but the movie is pretty iconic. I'd rather go for Airplane! or the sequel...my husband and I quote lines from that all the time.

 

[avondale]

Week of Nov. 14 - 20, 2022

This week is the sixteenth week of my training plan for the Lake Norman 30k trail race that is on Dec. 3, 2022. This was my first taper week.

I missed one mid-week run this week. Tuesday after work was temperatures in the high 30s F and pouring rain - maybe an inch fell during the time I would have run. That's just a bit too much cold rain for me. I couldn't move the run to Monday or Friday because I had tennis. So it is what it is. My LR went very well again this week.

Monday

• Before breakfast: foam rolling and stretching
• Evening: 2-hr tennis doubles round-robin

Tuesday

• Before breakfast: core workout
  • 1 60-sec plank
  • 20 starfish
  • 20 dead bugs
  • 20 slo-mo mountain climbers
  • 20 each side flutter kicks
  • 20 bicycle crunches with hold
  • 5 10-sec hollow-body holds
  • 2 30-sec side planks
  • 20 double leg lift/lowers
  • 20 each side running high knees
• After work: walk on treadmill
  • time: 1:25:48
  • distance: 4.8 mi
  • average pace: 17:52
  • incline: mostly 4%, but I did some ladders up and down 6% and 8% so that it was 20 min at 6% and 10 min at 8%

Wednesday

• Before breakfast: Workout 1 - cut short for time
  • 3 x 5 squats with 20-lb vest + 65 lb
  • 3 x 1 unassisted pull-ups
  • 3 x 5 lat pull-downs with 42-lb band
  • 3 x 5 bench presses with 67.5 lb
• After work:
  • 50 min easy
    • T+D 73, no effect, T 45 F, WC 35 F
    • time: 50:01
    • distance: 4.13 mi
    • average pace: 12:06
    • splits: 11:38, 12:18, 11:56, 12:37, 11:24
    • ave HR: 136 BPM - within my target range
    • elevation gain: 278 ft (corrected)
    • route: old loop around the neighborhood
    • comments: I am having trouble keeping motivated to do this runs around the neighborhood in the dark. I did better with it last year.

Thursday after work:

• 50 min tempo ramps
  • T+D 53, no effect, T 39 F, WC 29 F
  • time: 50:01
  • distance: 4.65 mi
  • average pace: 10:45
  • splits: 11:08, 10:29, 10:46, 10:33, 10:52
  • elevation gain: 363 ft (corrected)
  • route: new loop around the neighborhood

Friday

• Before breakfast: foam rolling and stretching
• Evening: 2-hr tennis doubles match - my partner and I won 3-6, 6-3, 1-0!

Saturday

• Before lunch:
  • 70 min easy on trail
    • T+D 56, no effect, T 37 F, WC 33 F
    • time: 1:10:01
    • distance: 5.07 mi
    • average pace: 13:48
    • splits: 13:51, 15:07, 13:27, 14:19, 12:24, 12:09
    • ave HR: 130 BPM - within my target range
    • elevation gain: 692 ft (corrected)
    • route: Western Ridge Trail, Rock Creek National Park
• Before dinner: walk on treadmill
  • time: 1:27:18
  • distance: 4.89 mi
  • average pace: 17:51
  • incline: 4%

Sunday before dinner:

• 160 min LR on trail
  • T+D 37, no effect, T 36 F, WC 25 F
  • time: 2:40:01
  • distance: 11.94 mi
  • average pace: 13:24
  • splits: 13:11, 13:06, 13:29, 12:38, 13:57, 13:01, 13:15, 13:29, 13:52, 14:08, 13:39
  • ave HR: 140 BPM - below my target range
  • elevation gain: 836 ft (corrected)
  • route: Seneca Greenway Trail
  • comments: I took 1.5 L water + Nuun and 0.5 L water; I drank about 3/4 of it. I ate one Honey Stinger waffle, one serving of Swedish Fish, and one sleeve of GU Chews.
  • comments: This run went very well! I tried to pick up the pace since the cold weather was good for me, and it did not cause any problems.

Heath

The headache has been continuing. I had an appointment with my neurologist on Thursday. He changed some of my meds. It will probably take awhile to see if that is helpful.


Weight

I really need to lose vacation weight and pandemic weight, so I'm hoping making my goal and result somewhat public here will make me more accountable to actually doing so. I've broken my goal into three 5-lb stages, and I'm currently tracking the first stage. Clearly my body doesn't feel like going below its current level. This week work was really busy and stressful and so I ate more chocolate than usual.

• Monday: +0.6 lb
• Tuesday: +1.4 lb
• Wednesday: +1.2 lb
• Thursday: +0.6 lb
• Friday: +0.8 lb
• Saturday: 0 lb
• Sunday: +0.8 lb
• average: +1.0 lb - up a bit
• average Week Nov. 7 - 13: +0.6 lb - same!
• average Week Oct. 31 - Nov. 6: +0.6 lb - same as the previous week, but probably a win considering extra Halloween candy around...
• average Week Oct. 24 - 30: +0.6 lb - another slight improvement
• average Week Oct. 17 - 23: +0.9 lb - well, this is a bit of an improvement
• average Weeks Oct. 3 - 16: +1.2 lb - week before I was in Pittsburgh + Pittsburgh week
• average Week Sep. 26 - Oct. 2: +1.0 lb - even more backwards!
• average Week Sep. 19 - 25: +0.6 lb - backwards!
• average Week Sep. 12 - 18: +0.2 lb
• average Week Sep. 5 - 11: -0.4 lb
• average Week Aug. 29 - Sep. 4: +1.8 lb
• average Week Aug. 22 - 28: +0.5 lb
• average Week Aug. 16 - 21: +0.7 lb
• average Week Aug. 8 - 14: +1.3 lb
• average Week Aug. 1 - 7: +1.2 lb
• average Week July 25 - 31: +2.3 lb
• average Week July 18 - 24: +3.1 lb

 

[GollyGadget]

Welcome to the taper!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Like I said, Monty Python is not my favorite style of humor, but the movie is pretty iconic. I'd rather go for Airplane! or the sequel...my husband and I quote lines from that all the time.

ahhh, do I go for the low hanging fruit and say, "surely, you must be joking!" ?

 

[avondale]

Don't call my Shirley! LOL

 

[avondale]

Week of Nov. 21-27, 2022

This week is the seventeenth week of my training plan for the Lake Norman 30k trail race that is on Dec. 3, 2022. This was my second taper week.

My schedule was mixed up this week because of Thanksgiving break. I got an extra run this week in order to hit my step goal each day.

Monday

• Before breakfast: foam rolling and stretching
• Evening: 2-hr tennis doubles round-robin

Tuesday

• Before breakfast: core workout
  • 1 60-sec plank
  • 20 starfish
  • 20 dead bugs
  • 20 slo-mo mountain climbers
  • 20 each side flutter kicks
  • 20 bicycle crunches with hold
  • 5 10-sec hollow-body holds
  • 2 30-sec side planks
  • 20 double leg lift/lowers
  • 20 each side running high knees
  • Added:
    • 100-up, marching version
    • 100 pawbacks, stationary version
• After work:
  • 40 min tempo ramps
    • T+D 70, no effect, T 52 F
    • time: 40:01
    • distance: 3.86 mi
    • average pace: 10:23
    • splits: 10:52, 10:16, 10:19, 10:01
    • elevation gain: 292 ft (corrected)
    • route: new loop around the neighborhood
    • comments: This was the fastest that I've done this workout, I think. Although I really don't like doing it, like I said in the last training cycle, I think it helps so much when running trails.

Wednesday before dinner:

• 50 min easy
  • T+D 84, no effect, T 61 F
  • time: 50:01
  • distance: 4.45 mi
  • average pace: 11:14
  • splits: 11:30, 11:29, 11:09, 10:54, 11:07
  • elevation gain: 153 ft (corrected)
  • average HR: 135 BPM - within my target range
  • route: Sligo Creek Trail
  • comments: This run felt so nice and easy.

Thursday before breakfast:

• 40 min easy
  • T+D 59, no effect, T 28 F
  • time: 40:02
  • distance: 3.34 mi
  • average pace: 11:59
  • splits: 12:00, 12:01, 11:40, 12:40
  • elevation gain: 226 ft (corrected)
  • average HR: 132 BPM - within my target range
  • route: old neighborhood loop
  • comments: I started this at 5:30am (in the dark) so that we could leave for our drive to my family for Thanksgiving. I was not really motivated, but the sky was so clear and pretty with so many constellations and Mars (!) that it ended up being good.

Friday before breakfast:

• 40 min easy
  • T+D 86, no effect, T 43 F; 100% humidity because it had just rained, but it didn't rain on me.
  • time: 40:01
  • distance: 3.43 mi
  • average pace: 11:39
  • splits: 11:52, 11:48, 11:23, 11:30
  • elevation gain: 329 ft (corrected) - I don't buy this for a second, and I don't know what Garmin is smoking. This was an out-and-back on a paved trail that used to be railroad tracks. No way there was this much elevation gain, and the elevation map on my run doesn't support it.
  • average HR: 128 BPM - within my target range
  • route: Allegheny River Trail
  • comments: Definitely not motivated for this run.

Saturday before dinner:

• 60 min easy on trail
  • T+D 86, no effect, T 59 F
  • time: 1:00:01
  • distance: 4.75 mi
  • average pace: 12:38
  • splits: 12:50, 13:06, 12:29, 12:17, 12:26
  • elevation gain: 332 ft (corrected)
  • average HR: 137 BPM - within my target range
  • route: Northwest Branch Trail
  • comments: I haven't run on this trail for awhile because it's too short for my weekend runs during my main training cycle. But good for this!

Sunday before dinner:

• 100 min LR on trail
  • T+D 104, 0.5% effect, T 52 F - it misted the whole time, with some sprinkles - very muddy
  • time: 1:40:03
  • distance: 7.32 mi
  • average pace: 13:39
  • splits: 12:22, 12:27, 13:54, 17:07, 14:35, 12:59, 12:38, 12:20
  • elevation gain: 481 ft (corrected)
  • average HR: 134 BPM - below my target range
  • route: Valley Trail, Rock Creek National Park

Health

My headache continues. It's been a bit worse lately. My initial feeling is that the changes in my medications haven't helped.


Weight

I'm going to hold off for awhile on continuing to track this because my work is really busy and stressful right now, and so my eating isn't great. I really thought I would have hit my goal by now, so this is very frustrating.

 

[GollyGadget]

Good luck with your race this weekend!

 

[Baloo in MI]

Have a great race this weekend!

 

[avondale]

Week of Nov. 28 - Dec. 4, 2022

This week is the eighteenth week of my training plan for the Lake Norman 30k trail race that is on Dec. 3, 2022. It is race week! I talk about the race in the next post.

This week was about getting as much sleep as I could before the race because I had tennis on three evenings. Not the best scheduling.

Monday evening: 2-hr tennis doubles round-robin

Tuesday evening: 2-hr tennis doubles match - my partner and I lost 6-7, 5-3 in a match that timed out.

Wednesday evening: 2-hr tennis doubles match - my partner and I won 6-2, 4-6, 1-0!

Thursday after work:

• 30 min easy
  • T+D 60, no effect, T 41 F
  • time: 30:01
  • distance: 2.51 mi
  • average pace: 11:59
  • splits: 11:51, 11:57, 12:19
  • elevation gain: 165 ft (corrected)
  • average HR: 130 BPM - within my target range
  • route: old loop around the neighborhood
  • comments: Felt easy!

Friday afternoon: walking at Lake Norman State Park in North Carolina

• time: 46:01
• distance: 1.8 mi
• elevation gain: 348 ft (corrected)
• comments: just checking out where I would have to go the net morning and making sure I would get my 10,000 steps for the day!

Health

My headache had been really bad throughout this week, especially in the morning, and I was having some digestive system problems that seemed to start with one of the new meds. So on Thursday, I notified my neurologist about the issue and let him know I was changing back to the previous med. Since then, my headache and digestive system have gone back to relative normality.

 

[avondale]

Lake Norman 30k Trail Run
Dec. 3, 2022

The race start was at Lake Norman State Park at 8:00am. It only took me about 25 minutes to drive there from my hotel.

I got up at 5:30am and had breakfast in my room. I had filled my 0.5-L soft flasks with water the night before and put them in the freezer section of my minifridge. They got frozen in the middle but not completely through - just about perfect, actually. I filled my 1.5-L hydration reservoir with a Nuun tablet, ice from the hotel, and water to top it all off.

I took two Honey Stinger waffles, two servings of Swedish Fish, and one sleeve of GU Chews to eat at six times during my race, starting at 40 minutes into the race and every 35 minutes after that. I pretty much followed that plan.

Bib pick-up was 7 - 7:30am at the race start. Then we had a pre-race briefing from the race director (RD) with reminders about the trail markers. For the first time in a race I've done, there were three "punch stops" - places on the course where you had to stop and punch your bib to prove you've been to all parts of the course. This is really only important if you're in the running (ha ha) for an award.

The RD also said that because of all the twists and switchbacks in the trail (we were following mountain-bike trails, which are almost fractal in how much trail they pack into a certain amount of area), our GPSs would be about 2 miles short by the end of the race. He assured us that the course had been measured by one of those wheelie thingamabobs, and the 30k was really 30k and the 50k really was 50k.

Both the 30k and 50k races started at the same time. I estimated there were maybe 150 runners in total. (Turns out it was only about 115.) We had all "real" toilets before the start and no lines, since we were at the start park headquarters building. Perks of small races!

The temperature at the start was overcast, high 40s F and humid, so T+D in the 90s. The weather forecast said it was supposed to start raining at about 9:00am. I work a tank top and shorts. I had a baseball cap with a brim for the rain, but fortunately it fits in one of my hydration vest pockets when I don't need it because I hate wearing it if it's not raining. Between the hydration vest and the pockets on my shorts, I could carry all of my liquids and food, no problem.

The RD and staff encouraged faster folks to line up first and slower folks toward the back, which I think people did try to do. The RD emphasized that the course got onto single-track pretty quickly, so there might be a bottleneck there.

We started within a few minutes of 8:00am. Sure enough, the single-track came less than 1/4-mi into the race, and sure enough, there was a bottleneck. We got sorted onto the path, and it turns out that I'm not actually as slow as I thought I was....I ended up getting behind a few people that were really going a bit too slow for me, but we had enough uphill that I didn't want to burn myself out passing on an uphill. But within the first mile I got out of the traffic jam and could get more into my rhythm. Mile 1: 15:20.

Generally for trails, I walk the uphills and run the downhills and flats. Depending on how I'm feeling and where I am in the race, I might run shallow uphills. So I got into that groove. What I didn't expect was that I apparently run downhills quite a bit faster than other people at my approximate trail running level. I kept catching up with a group of three on the downhills because they would be so conservative on them. I did finally pass them and get a decent lead on them. They were also very chatty and I didn't care to hear them. (There's nothing wrong with chatting with friends during a race, but if I'm not you're friend, I don't care to hear it.) Mile 2: 14:43.

It started sprinkling on and off. Not a problem. Miles 3 and 4: 13:51, 14:10.

Sure enough, between 9 and 9:15am, it started to rain continuously. A light rain, but it did start to make things muddy. It rained for maybe 2 hours, all told, because it stopped well before I finished. Honestly, it was not a problem. With my hat, the rain stayed out of my face, and I was moving enough to stay warm. The trail did get muddier and muddier - some parts worse than others. With my trail shoes, I never really slipped in the mud. Miles 5 and 6: 14:47, 15:24.

The first aid station was supposed to be at about 6.3 miles. When I got there, my Garmin read about 6.45 miles; it's not usually ahead of the mark. I did do a quick stop at the porto-potty. I was still feeling quite good. Miles 7 and 8: 15:10, 14:19.

Somewhere around this time, I encountered a few other runners in the race who were stopped and some even running back the way we came. The race was organized so that there was no "two-way traffic" except in some very short intersecting areas. Several of them asked me if I had seen the first punch stop. Well, no, I hadn't. I had been wondering when I would encounter one, but I figured if I missed it, it wouldn't matter too much because I wasn't in contention for a prize. I found out later that the first punch stop was maybe a 1/4-mile before the aid station. I still don't know how I missed it because the other two were really obvious. Miles 9 and 10: 14:28, 15:24.

I think it was somewhere around this time that I did encounter the second punch stop. It had a pink 8.5x11 sign on the tree at eye-level - don't know how I missed that before, but apparently I wasn't the only one. Miles 11 and 12: 15:15, 14:05.

Somewhere around this time, I reached the third punch stop. Miles 13 and 14: 14:43, 15:24.

The second aid station (which was just the first aid station in the reverse direction) was supposedly at 14.3 miles. By this point, my GPS was reading about 14.1 miles - a bit off, but not an unexpected amount.

There were parts of the trail that definitely let you know that you were on a mountain bike trail. There were gratuitous numbers of curves. There were also at least two sections with clever plans: the section of the woods had a long, low section with banks on either sides, almost like there had been an old road bed there. The trail would go down the bank, across the bottom, up the other side, and then turn to the right and immediately go back - down the bank, across the bottom, and up the other side, turn left and repeat. This would happen maybe four or fives times in a row. The uphill was short but steep enough to really bring you to almost a stop going up it. Fun for mountain bikers, but not so much for runners.

I was getting very happy with the second half of the race because I was still feeling like I was running well within my ability, and I was starting to pass other runners. It's such a small race that it's not like we had hordes of people, but I would definitely slowly catch up with people and then pass. I passed maybe a half-dozen people (who might have been 30k or 50k). Mile 15: 15:20.

I was getting toward the end of the race, so I was starting to think about when I would start to push to the end - I didn't want to burn out before the end. And I thought I still had 3.6 miles left. Or so I thought. Mile 16: 14:18.

I had passed a group of three young men and got a pretty good lead, but then one of them was working hard and catching up. I thought he might do it, but then he ran out of steam. I passed another woman and turned a couple corners and then it said...finish line ahead. Yay for that! Best surprise ever! Sure enough, there it was! My GPS read 18.61 miles. Last 0.61 miles: 13:15.

My official time was 4:06:20. I had been hoping to finish in about 4 hours, so I was quite happy with that time. Especially since I thought I had another two miles to do, so I'd be finishing a lot later!

I haven't really figured out what happened with my GPS. When I compare my GPS track to the online trail map, they seem to match up quite well. I would say that it's just a little bit here and a little bit there and it add up, but I thought I was pretty close to the correct mileage at the aid stations. I can't think that I lost two miles out of the last four!

At any rate, with a mileage of 18.6 miles, my average pace was about 13:15, which is very reasonable for me. It also is similar to my long-run pace on trails, which seems appropriate. Given the cool weather (ending temperature was mid 50s F and T+D between 100 and 110), I should have performed well, and I felt quite good. This average pace makes me feel better than the 14s and 15s I thought I was getting, ha.

I finished in 35th place out of 56 runners in the 30k. I was the 12th woman out of 24 in the 30k, and 5th out of 8 in my age group (40-49). Again, I hope I'll improve in the future, but I think those are pretty good finishing stats for my longest trail race yet. Also, the elevation gain (corrected on Garmin Connect) was 2140 feet. This was a pretty easy trail race in terms of the vert, but that was what I wanted.

There were made-on-the-spot cheese quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches, along with pizza and soup, plus other snacks. I got some food but didn't stay too long because my late checkout at my hotel was at 2pm. I was totally filthy from the mud on the course, so I definitely had to shower.

While I was eating, I chatted with a couple other runners who had finished. One woman was on the phone and said, "Just a moment, I'm talking to my friend who is out running in circles". I asked, "Figuratively or literally?" It was literally - she had missed the turn off of one of the trail loops and was going around it again. The other runner and I both agreed that the trail was very well marked, including the turns, so we didn't know how she had missed it.

That aside, this was a very well-organized race. The trails were in good condition and very well-marked. The surface was not overly technical, but definitely rolling. I'm going to keep it in mind for my first 50k race, which I hope to do next fall.

After the race, I got back to the hotel and cleaned up. Then I headed about 45 minutes away to visit my aunt and her family. I stayed overnight with them and flew home Sunday evening. It was a good side trip.

One photo from the race, which I find pretty funny because either I have a huge hat or a tiny head:


After the race:



And how dirty was I?

 

[azrivest]

Congratulations!

 

[Naomeri]

Great job!

 

[GollyGadget]

Simply amazing!

 

[SheHulk]

You trail runners amaze me! Congrats on a great effort!