My Journey to 50 miles (2nd attempt)... (comments welcome)

[disneygpa]

Weekend update.

Friday's run didn't really happen because my Garmin decided to run out of battery. 2 miles with Donna + 30min EA. Nice easy run!

Saturday was 5.5 miles run/walk with Donna. I love hearing her talk about how nervous she is whenever distance or speed is added and how she manages to do whatever it is without much problem! She's doing great! Proud of her!

Sunday was 9 miles at LR and 2 miles at M. One thing is clear after this run. I'm no where close to ready to run a 50k and if I decide to do it, I'm going to have to get a lot more serious about my core/stretching routines. The run itself started off a little rough. About a mile from the house I realized I had forgotten my water and fuel. Fortunately for me, the route I was running would lead me back to the house at about 4 miles. I ran in and quickly hit the restroom, had a GU, grabbed one for later and filled my water bottle. Back out the door in just a minute or two. At just about 9 miles I could really feel the LR pace and was happy to go a little faster! Definitely felt this one. Really really need to do more stretching!!


@DopeyBadger Billy, Wednesday's run is [6 min of HM Tempo + 2 min of CV + 1 min of 5k + 2 min RI + 0.5 mi CD]

Is the last 2 min interval supposed to be R pace or resting interval? Obviously those are vastly different and I just want to get it right.

 

[DopeyBadger]

@DopeyBadger Billy, Wednesday's run is [6 min of HM Tempo + 2 min of CV + 1 min of 5k + 2 min RI + 0.5 mi CD]

Is the last 2 min interval supposed to be R pace or resting interval? Obviously those are vastly different and I just want to get it right.

Definitely a Resting Interval. This is known as a primer workout. So a short but progressively faster workout. Usually 10 days out I would have scheduled another one of these where it was 3 sets of (6 min of HM Tempo + 2 min of CV + 1 min of 5k + 2 min RI), so then the 2 min RI would have made more sense. But in the week of the race, I usually only schedule 1 set. So the RI is more just a carry over than anything. But absolutely not R pace.

 

[disneygpa]

Definitely a Resting Interval. This is known as a primer workout. So a short but progressively faster workout. Usually 10 days out I would have scheduled another one of these where it was 3 sets of (6 min of HM Tempo + 2 min of CV + 1 min of 5k + 2 min RI), so then the 2 min RI would have made more sense. But in the week of the race, I usually only schedule 1 set. So the RI is more just a carry over than anything. But absolutely not R pace.

Thanks Billy! That was actually a lot of fun last night! Totally enjoyed going "faster" and "faster".

Monday - EA run with Donna, all went well.

Wednesday - Did the primer workout. Totally enjoyed it!

Billy, I was looking back at Dopey training and at it's peak I as doing 40ish miles/week and a little less than 9ish hours. If I decide to shoot for the 50k run in March, do you have any idea how much miles/time I'll need to commit per week? Will it end up being similar to Dopey? Or am I looking at a significantly larger commitment? This won't be a deal breaker in my decision, I'm just curious if you have any idea?

BTW - that decision will be made early next week after the 10k run on Sunday.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Billy, I was looking back at Dopey training and at it's peak I as doing 40ish miles/week and a little less than 9ish hours. If I decide to shoot for the 50k run in March, do you have any idea how much miles/time I'll need to commit per week? Will it end up being similar to Dopey? Or am I looking at a significantly larger commitment? This won't be a deal breaker in my decision, I'm just curious if you have any idea?

The answer is it depends on how much time you've got. The training volume doesn't necessarily need to be excessively different between the marathon and the 50k. It looks like you peaked around 7:37 hrs the week of 12/16. A 5/6 day rotating schedule with peak weeks having 1x45 min, 2x60min, 3x90 min, and 150 min. That balance is good at 31%. I could see possibly trying to push Thursday's workout to Wednesday and making it 120 min. Then I could be convinced to stretch Sunday to 180 min. The alternative is we plan to run slower than LR pace on Sundays. Then you could do more than 180 min potentially without causing as much damage.

Race day execution of proper pacing will probably play a much larger role than anything else.

 

[disneygpa]

Today's update is all about Donna!!

She did her first 10k yesterday! So freaking proud of her!

First her stats according to my Garmin
6.23 miles, 1:18:44 time, 12:39 avg pace.

Today she feels pretty good about the run. Yesterday.... not so much.
She struggled with her breathing. The combination of going longer and harder was definitely challenging.
She says her legs felt great! No fatigue in them. A little tightness in her back that I feel we can address with stretching and some core workouts.
There were a few times I'm sure she wanted to call it a day. But she didn't. We took a few longer walk breaks.
I would let her catch her breath and get it back under control. Kind of let her dictate how she was feeling but at the same time encouraging her to push herself.

She was disappointed that she wasn't able to get her time to equal the training plan. But I pointed out that it was really just a guess given very little data to make that guess with and that the real accomplishment was that she did the distance and pushed herself harder than even she thought was possible.

The bib I found online and was able to customize it with Grandma, the medal I got off of Amazon. I feel she deserved it for putting in all the work!

 

[disneygpa]

Sunday "race" update.

Long day at work. Pretty sure I've mentioned before that I'm getting too old to work so many weekends. I really wish the younger members of our crew were a tad more motivated.

Came home, had a snack of peanut butter & jelly on Dave's killer bread toasted. Took a 20 min siesta in the tanning bed. Got up and stretched. Nerves were starting to kick in and along with that came the doubt.

Took a slow warm up jog around the block. I didn't record it, something near .7 miles with a couple of strides towards the end.

Felt pretty good, still a little bit of nerves.

T + D = 57 + 52

First mile has a slight downhill right at the beginning and boy did I take advantage of that for 20 seconds. First mile down @ 9:10.
Second mile begins a long uphill, not super steep, but still long. I was happy to get up to the relative flatness at the end of this.
From then until mile 4.5 it's rolling inclines and declines through the neighborhoods. At 4.5 the trend begins to go downhill and then flattens out toward the end.



I ended up walking a few times to catch my breath. Not for overly long stretches but maybe for 30 sec or so at a time. Ultimately, this definitely hurt me being able to maintain my goal of 9:14/mile.

I kind of feel like, if this had been a real race, with crowds and other racers, I might have been able to do a little better. Don't get me wrong, I was absolutely spent at the end. I had a block or so to walk back to the house after I finished and more than once I thought about grabbing a seat on the curb.

Went home and rested, had a bunch of water and some dinner tried to puzzle with Donna but I really was too tired to search for puzzle pieces.
Slept like a rock last night. A little sore today, but nothing too terrible. Hope to do some stretching tonight but we have to go to the running store. Donna's new shoes have arrived!

Overall, I'd say there was more good than bad to take away from this run. I didn't reach my goal of 57:24 but I did set a new PR of 59:08!! I shaved 1:55 off my previous best from Dec of last year(during a training run) and 2:02 off from April 2019. And I did crack an hour which was my ultimate goal.



Going to do a couple EA runs probably Tuesday and Thursday of this week and something a little longer Saturday and Sunday.

Princess challenge training will begin next week.

The big decision I have to make is whether to try the 50k in March. I'm like 90% sure I'm going to try it. The distance itself isn't what is intimidating me. It's the 5000ft of elevation gain that is concerning.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Congrats on the new PR!

 

[disneygpa]

And so it begins..... (Theoden)

Yesterday was the first day of what might be my craziest idea ever. At least that's what everyone I've mentioned it to has told me.

I reached out to Billy for a 50k training plan and this is the first of what I hope will be almost daily updates on how that plan is going.
This is no ordinary plan, it not only encompasses MY 50k plan but also includes me running all of DW's run/walk training for Princess.
No easy task to weave all of this together I'm sure! The plan looks doable, though challenging on some days. I think the toughest part will be the Sundays that I have to work. I'm hoping there won't be many of those.

I've also decided that I need more core and strength training as well as more stretching in my life.
So, I'm back to 0325 alarm clocks. This might move to 0315 as I add more sets and continue to run in the evenings.
Got up early, stretched and did one round of core exercises.
After work came home, took a 20 min siesta, stretched and ran. I'm not sure if anyone else naps, but dang that feels good! I do it almost daily and I feel like its helped me immensely.



Last night was 4 miles at LR and 1 mile at M tempo. Felt GOOD to get out last night. Been kinda slacking since running the 10k.

At some point yesterday, I tweaked my back. It's freaking sore today. Nothing that stretching can't fix. I've been sore there before.

One other thing to note. I think I've talked my niece into doing this 50k with me! I figure what the heck, misery loves company.
Actually she jumped at the chance! She's a USN Chief corpsman, so I'll have my own medic just in case things go south!
She's in far better shape than me and 25 years younger, so hopefully I don't slow her down too much. Either way she'll make it fun!
Plan right now is to try and get together on Sunday's for the long runs. She lives about an hour away, so there's some logistics that will have to be figured out. But hopefully she can come over for the trail runs.

 

[disneygpa]

DW suggested we go run around Lake Padden this afternoon. It is one of my favorite places to run or walk. We figured given that it was a Thursday around 1600 that it wouldn't be very crowded. Boy were we wrong. Even though it was cloudy and 55 it was almost as busy as if it were sunny and 75. Crazy how many people were out.

Run/walk was nice! The North and East side of the lake are mostly flat, but the South and West sides are rolling hilly. I was surprised when she said she wanted to go run there. She's looking for ways to challenge herself and the hills provided her that challenge. Even though she struggled a bit with the longer hills she never gave up and walked during a run. She's come so dang far in the last few months and I'm super proud of her.

Six months ago if I had even joked about doing a full marathon with her, she would have said absolutely not! But recently she seems to be softening her hard line stance. We'll see how it goes. But, maybe there's a glimmer of hope that she'll do marathon weekend with me someday.


After our run/walk we grabbed some Hawaiian BBQ from this little hole in the wall place that has the best macaroni salad ever! Pretty sure that was Donna's ulterior motive to go to Lake Padden in the first place!

 

[disneygpa]

Dang, been a few days since I updated. All has been going pretty well. Gotten all my runs in, not always easy this past weekend as I had to work and we had other scheduling issues.

Saturday 3 miles with Donna. Nice day for a run! At least for October in the PNW. I don't remember anything that stood out.


Sunday.... Now this is a different story from Saturday. We decided to go and run the first 3 miles of the Chuckanut 50k route. It looks relatively flat on the elevation profile. And compared to further on in the race, I guess it's not bad. First mile is very flat, then it goes downhill for about half a mile. Then things get interesting. You cross a small bridge over a creek and start to go uphill. We only made it a little ways up this hill and Donna called it a day. She's definitely not going to be a trail runner. No worries, we ran back to where we started and then made up the distance by running the flat part again. Clearly at some point my Garmin decided to do some crack and got lost for a few intervals. I had a good time running the trail. I'm going to enjoy this new challenge I think!


Monday is a ME run day, 5 miles at EA. Nice pleasant run. Nothing really to note other than my shoes are really dirty after the trail run! Gotta get some trail shoes soon.


Tuesday. 2.5 miles with Donna. Fun times! I really love running with her. Ever since I totaled the Camaro we've been getting by with just one car. Didn't really need a second car because the daughters were around to take Mom wherever she needed to go. Anyway, with all the kids gone we decided to see about a car for her. Did a bunch of online shopping and finally settled on a Nissan Juke. She's in love. It's older, a 2013 but she's super excited because it has a CD player and since she refuses to join in the newer technology this was important! Final important note for today. Donna has gone from "I hate running" to "running is ok" to "I like running"!!! Love watching this transition. The fun and interesting training plans are really the key!! Thanks for those Billy!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Sunday.... Now this is a different story from Saturday. We decided to go and run the first 3 miles of the Chuckanut 50k route. It looks relatively flat on the elevation profile. And compared to further on in the race, I guess it's not bad. First mile is very flat, then it goes downhill for about half a mile. Then things get interesting. You cross a small bridge over a creek and start to go uphill. We only made it a little ways up this hill and Donna called it a day.

Here's the full GAP I calculated:



Mile 3 is a doozy relatively speaking. A +80 second is no joke.

 

[disneygpa]

Mile 3 is a doozy relatively speaking. A +80 second is no joke.

Thanks Billy! I wanted to keep going, but at that point between the narrowness of the trail, the rain making things muddy and the incline Donna had had enough. Probably for the best as I'm not really sure I'm fully prepared for trail running yet. I feel that I need to tighten up my core a bit more. I'm still going to try bits of the trail until the actual trail running starts, I'll just be doing it by myself. No worries though, she's still up for running on the sidewalks!!

Last nights run was nice! Weather was perfect 5 miles with 2 of them at M tempo.

I find it somewhat difficult to run at my WU/CD pace and it shows. Apparently I just can't slow down another 25 secs.

Pretty happy with the M tempo paces. Was a little fast on both of them, but they were both slightly downhill for the most part.

I've been having some tightness in my lower back. Not in the surgically repaired area. A little lower, just above my left hip. I'm hoping its from the added core/strength training I've started. Just something I need to pay attention to and continue to stretch when needed.

 

[disneygpa]

Weekend update.

Thursday R paces with Donna. This was fun! She really likes the short faster runs.



Saturday. Had to get up bright and early for this run and boy was it brisk!! Garmin shows 36 but my phone said 28. Either way it was a chilly morning!!



Sunday, another brisk run. Had to go get new shoes so we decided to take our stuff up with us and run at an old cemetery that DW used to ride her bike in as a kid. Some creepy statues up there. I wouldn't run there after dark!!!



Overall a nice weekend.

My niece that I suckered into running the 50k with me stopped by for a visit and she is planning on coming up for Sunday runs. That should make them more interesting. Hopefully she won't get bored with my old man paces. It was the first time I've seen her in several months. It was sure nice to catch up with her. She's been working on bodybuilding and is planning on doing some upcoming competitions. I'm wondering if she will tell her coach about he running or not. He might not be thrilled with her running a bunch of miles as well as bodybuilding. Guess we'll see how that goes.

Lower back is feeling better. Stretching helps for sure.

Going into week 3 of training, I'm feeling pretty good. No major aches and pains, still getting my core/strength training in and still very excited for the upcoming miles!

Went by the running store yesterday and ordered new street shoes. Getting another pair of Brooks Glycerin 18s. I really want to try something different because the Glycerins never come in cool colors. But I come back to them every time because they feel so good to me. I also purchased my first pair of trail shoes. I tried on Saucony, NB, Nike and Brooks. All of them felt good but ultimately I chose the Brooks Caldera. They fit just like my Glycerins. Wore them around the house for an hour last night. Felt some pressure from the laces on top of my foot. Might have had them laced too tight. I'll do a couple short runs in them. Maybe Tue and Thur on Donna's runs and see how they do.

 

[disneygpa]

@DopeyBadger Billy, Tuesday's run looks like this.

1 mi @ WU + 3 sets of (30s R + 2 min RI + 60s R + 3 min RI) + 0.5 mi @
CD

I think I know the answer to this and maybe it doesn't really matter. But I'm gonna ask for clarification.

Is this
Interval 1 - 30s R + 2 min RI + 60s R + 3 min RI
Interval 2 - 30s R + 2 min RI + 60s R + 3 min RI
Interval 3 - 30s R + 2 min RI + 60s R + 3 min RI

Or is it
30s R + 2 min RI - repeat 3 times
followed by
60s R + 3 min RI - repeat 3 times

I'm thinking it's the first option. But I wanted to double check.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Is this
Interval 1 - 30s R + 2 min RI + 60s R + 3 min RI
Interval 2 - 30s R + 2 min RI + 60s R + 3 min RI
Interval 3 - 30s R + 2 min RI + 60s R + 3 min RI

This. But it wouldn't hurt to have done the workout the other way. I think option #2 is harder because of 3 straight 60s. But she gets something like that the next week with the 5x60 R. Generally speaking, option #1 is an easier way to introduce a longer interval without overwhelming someone.

 

[disneygpa]

This. But it wouldn't hurt to have done the workout the other way. I think option #2 is harder because of 3 straight 60s. But she gets something like that the next week with the 5x60 R. Generally speaking, option #1 is an easier way to introduce a longer interval without overwhelming someone.

Thanks! And thanks for the explanation! I haven't mentioned the 5x60 to her yet. She'll be nervous that she can't do it!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Thanks! And thanks for the explanation! I haven't mentioned the 5x60 to her yet. She'll be nervous that she can't do it!

Being nervous would be normal. But I'm confident she can do it. There is a difference between 30 seconds and 60 seconds. The 30 seconds shouldn't challenge her breathing ability all that much. But around 40-45 seconds is when she's going to start to notice a bit of losslessness on her breathing. So make sure she forces that rhythm breathing right from the start of the intervals. She won't feel as if she needs it at the outset. But, it'll pay off towards the end of them when she really does need it. Also, keep that jaw loose like a bowl of jelly. Not tension, but relaxation during these hard intervals.

 

[disneygpa]

Monday easy 5 miles.
All went well, knot in my back is still annoying me.



Got up early Tuesday, stretched and did core workout.
Either need to get up 10 min earlier or take a little less rest between sets.
Ran out of time to get in 3 sets of each exercise. Why does 0315 seem ridiculous when I'm already getting up at 0325...

 

[disneygpa]

Tuesday afternoon, nap, stretch, run with Donna.

Run was
1 mi @ WU + 3 sets of (30s R + 2 min RI + 60s R + 3 min RI) + 0.5 mi @
CD

Donna was a little concerned about the 60s runs. We took coach's advice about working on her breathing. She did awesome!!! Only a little out of breath after the 60s runs. Able to recover very quickly! Other than me thinking we had 1.5 mi WU and running the first 30s interval too slow everything went about as good as could be expected. She really nailed her paces! Proud of her!



Another note. I ran for the first time in my Brooks Calderas. They are definitely different than the Glycerins. Had them laced a little tight at the beginning, but I stopped, loosened them and went on. I can't say they were great, but they weren't bad. I'll give them another run on Thursday and then decide if they are the ones or I may have to go exchange them.

Got up early again this morning and stretched. Spent a lot of quality time with my foam roller working on the knot in my back. Feels pretty good right now.

 

[disneygpa]

Wow! I have been busy busy. Apparently too busy to update my journal.

Since all the kids moved out, I've been working on organizing my garage. When the grandkids were here it was kind of our hide out when the weather was sucky and we needed to escape the parents! There were tons of half finished projects, arts and craft supplies strung everywhere, a bunch of old circuit boards, wiring, motors etc. Anyway, it was quite the mess. Got it mostly done this past weekend. I've almost got enough room to get two cars in there now!! Going to put Bodie's Dad's truck in there and see if I can get it running a little better before shipping it to FL for the kids to take over the project.

Back to running.

Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. What can I say besides WOW! We have had a phenomenal stretch of nice weather for this time of year. Mid 50s and sunny! All three runs were pretty nice. Nothing of note that stands out except that Donna did 6.75 miles on Sunday!! That's her longest distance so far and she did great! She did mention that her knees were feeling a bit fatigued by the end of the run. She said it wasn't like so tired she couldn't keep going, just that she could feel them tiring.

Sunday was also a nutrition run. She had 3 ginger ale Clif bloks before we took off, then 3 at 45 min and 3 at 75 min with plenty of water. @DopeyBadger Billy, I'm not really sure how to figure out Donna's nutrition. I just had her take in fuel like I would. That seem ok?

Sunday we did a section of the Centennial trail that I haven't run since last year training for Dopey. It was a beautiful fall day, leaves on the trail, sunshine and some nice views of the farmland along the trail. You also get to go across an old rail bridge that's been paved over. It's still cool to run over the river though.




Should get one more really nice run in tonight and then it looks like the real fall weather will be back starting tomorrow.

I've also been getting in my stretching and core workouts. I slacked off on the leg routine after my back started knotting up. I'll be up early tomorrow though to get that leg workout done!