Muddy Calves

Expectations

When I was planning my training for Grandma’s Marathon, I wanted to run a few training race for a couple of reasons–first to get some high-quality miles in and secondly, to measure where my fitness was.  When no one came through with a complimentary entry into any of the half marathons I was considering, I went ahead and signed up for the Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon, which I ran last year because I figured it would make for a good comparison.

In the days leading up to the race, I really had no idea how it was going to go. Last Spring, I was training for a half marathon and had been doing some race pace work before this race. This year, however, since I’m training for a full marathon, I’ve done next to nothing at half marathon pace. Also, five days before the race, I tweaked my right knee (think it is my meniscus, which I first injured last year after Bjorklund) while coaching a bunch of grade schoolers. the knee hurt some but not too bad, however, to play it safe, I took several days off and while I was always leaning towards racing, I was prepared to skip the race if the knee complained too much.

Bottom line, I didn’t know what to expect but I figured I would play it conservative and head out with the 1:40 pace group since I ran a 1:39:56 last year.

Preparations

The course is a point-to-point course that requires you to get bussed back to the starting area. Last year the temperatures were winterish and the forecast called for rain this year. As a result, I over-packed the night before–making sure that I had more than enough options. The yellow & white and grey bags had extra gear while the red bag had my post-race clothing in it for the drop box.  Note that I took this picture while wearing my race gear so I definitely had a lot of stuff with me. I think I packed more for this one 13.1 mile race than I packed for my entire 2-month back-packing trip through Europe!

Racing

I started out further back than I normally would–and decided to hang out with the 1:40 pace group for the beginning of the race.  I patiently watched this group from behind for the first mile, hitting the first mile in 7:38, right on 1:40 pace.  Eventually, though, I started to get frustrated at the congestion associated with the pace group and when I heard someone else comment on the congestion, I decided to jump up on the grass and just get ahead of them.  I planned on just staying in front of the group. I followed up with running something like (more on that in a bit) 7:21, 7:22, and 7:12 for the next 3 miles. I was starting to feel a little GI discomfort and I ducked into a port-a-pottie at the mile 5 water stop and had a little success. Mile 5 was in 8:00.

I cruised through miles 6 & 7, in around 7:20 pace. I knew I was I was getting further and further ahead of the 1:40 group and still feeling it.  At mile 7, I did some crude math and realized I was within striking distance of a PR. And I decided to freaking go for it. It was like a switch was turned on, I just bore down and ran hard.

Sorry for the Nip Shot!

My splits dipped under 7:00 with 6:52 being the fastest that I remember (more on that later) and I was flying by people. My mantra, with apologies to the censor-bots, became “this is my fXXXing race”. I ran as aggressively as I have in a long time. One thing I had going for me is that I didn’t care if I crashed and burned–this was just a training race. To show how strong I finished, I beat #2144 (in picture) by just over 2 minutes despite the fact he went through the 8.5 mat about 1:14 before I did.

One last stat–I was the 144th male to go through the 8.5 mat but finished 113th! From memory, no one passed me after mile 7 and only one runner held me off and that was in the final mile.

My final time: 1:34:17, 38 seconds off from my PR of 93:39. I’m pretty sure if I had started out with PR in mind or had avoided the toilet, en course, I would have gotten very close to my PR–I let up a little bit in the final mile (7:00 even) once I realized I wasn’t going to get it. The knee also started to hurt the last two miles so I held back a little bit. I’m in PR shape, even if I didn’t prove it.

I also have to confess this was probably my noisiest race ever–I was grunting & groaning & moaning the final 6 miles, which probably just was more frustrating to those that I passed. It’s one thing to get passed but another to have someone who sounds like they swallowed a goose go by you.

Post-Mortem

The only down side to the race happened afterwards while I was wading in Lake Minnetonka.  I was going to review my splits and somehow while messing around with the bezel on my Garmin 405, it asked if I wanted to delete the activity & I rushed to hit “No” and, as you can guess, I somehow hit Yes! So I lost all my data.   I was ecstatic enough with how I ran that I didn’t really care but I would really like to have had those splits–and especially the heart rate data.

I also cut my toe on the rocks in the lake.

The knee hurt a bit after but the soak in the lake and a poor-man’s ice pack helped out:

Peas on the Knees

Race Review

Last year, I had a couple significant complaints about the race organization–the start was messed up, they stages us 200 meters or so from the actual starting line and really didn’t indicate what was going on, so we ran an extra 200 meters before the race started. The finishing line was also a muddy mess, which normally I would be all in for but at the end of 13.1 on roads, was a bit uncalled for.

This year, though, they fixed those both right up and my only complaint would be that they serve red gatorade, which I personally dislike, but can’t really blame them for. They also reportedly had no race-day race packet pick-up, I think because the shopping mall they had it in last year got demolished but also I think one of the sponsors wanted to get everyone into their building. A bit of a hassle but nothing major although a detail I almost over looked.

The race shirt was a nice technical one & the medal was big & heavy, albeit not a design I’m thrilled about. I’ve actually already lost it–brought it to show the kids I’m coaching & somehow it disappeared.

One small bonus I’ve never had before was a personalized video of you at the start (although i can’t see myself) at the 8.5 mat, and at the Finish.  If you watch, you might notice the announcer mentions “Matt Rantala from Lambeau, Minnesota” and then makes a comment. I signed up for this race & Grandma’s as being from Lambeau Minnesota just for kicks (I live on the wild side, huh?).

Overall, a race I’ll strongly consider doing again next year–unless the timing is off or I decided to try something new, this will probably serve as my tune-up race again next spring.

What others say:

• The Right Fits was disappointed in her personal performance but at least she got a great picture of wiping her nose on her singlet! (In case you think I mock, let me just say, I love the way running allows me to publicly do/talk about certain bodily functions as naturally as they are).
• Nora, AKA BitterHag, Kicked Ass! and PRed in both Lake Minnetonka AND the day before in a 5 miler!!! That’s crazy, man!
• Jared, who just ran an ultra two week before, met his goal at LM to qualify for Corral 1 in the Twin Cities Marathon this fall! Dude really kicks at the end–go watch his video!
• Anna had tough time but “battled to the bitter end” & showed a lot of guts!

One of the great benefits of being a member of the Minnesota Distance Runners Association (MDRA) is that they put on some great races including the MDRA Ron Daws 25K which is an old-school, low-key race. It reminds me of many of the races I ran in the 80s–registration is in the basement of a gym, there’s no fancy chip timing, there’s no T-shirt, and the cost is only $5.

Wayne’s Photography

Now, I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a huge Ron Daws fan. Daws was a Minnesota runner who described himself as having average talent but was stubborn enough to make it to the 1968 Olympic marathon through had training.  Daws later wrote two books, Self-Made Olympian and Running Your Best: The Committed Runner’s Guide to Training and Racing.

I found Daws’ books at an impressionable time–it was when I started running again in college after a few years of Not Running (AKA The Dark Period). While my high school coach had been very good about including everyone, I think I could have been pushed harder. Or maybe I just wasn’t very coachable. Anyhow, in high school, I never trained over 6 miles.

When I got back into running, two thing inspired me to go beyond the limits I had learned through my previous training.  First, I had my sister, who now was running in high school but with a different coach, her training schedule and it included runs of at least 9 miles, maybe more.  And I read Daws’ books where he raised my expectations.

One sad note, sometimes I’m a letter-writer. If someone inspires me, I like to let them know. I sent Daws a letter a couple of months before he died. Because I only had his publisher’s address, I doubt he ever received it.

Daws used Athur Lydriad’s training, especially emphasizing the hill work.  In  Running Your Best, he wrote,  that “(hills are) so much better, in fact,  may be that shortcut or gimmick every runner wants.”

Given Daws’ belief in hill training, it is only fitting that the course for this race is on a “VERY hilly course“.

Just like last year, I wanted to use this 25k as a training race as I train for a June race.  I’ve been dealing with a couple of problems–first it was a groin probably caused by compensating for a muscle imbalance. I’ve seen a physical therapist (Margi at Viverant) who diagnosed the root problem as lazy glutes. After my first session with her, I went out too fast on a cold day and strained my calf which has become the bigger problem.

But even though I came into this race feeling out of sorts because these problems have affect my consistency–especially my weekday runs–and nervous about making these worse.

But, as this Tweet shows, the day started off good in one aspect.

Even though temps were mild–upper 40s at the start, I wore my tights to make sure my legs were warm.  The start was a bit tight as the ~170 runners had to run along a sidewalk so I just hung back taking the first mile easy. Eventually we turned onto a road and things spread out from there. I spent most of the rest of the race slowly reeling in the runners.

Originally I had planned to just try to run consistent 8:00 (marathon goal pace) effort–running even splits was unlikely given the topography of the course. But at some point during the race I decided to try to go through 10 miles at a 8:00 average pace and then speed up from there.  Basically, that is what I did as shown by my 5k splits:

25:01 (8:04)

24:41 (7:58)

24:01 (7:45)

23:49 (7:41)

22:20 (7:59, 2.8 miles,hilly finish)

The groin was fine but the left calf complained, especially climbing the hills.  The race went pretty smooth, can’t complain about anything. I though I was going to be able to extend it to 20 miles but after I finished, my left calf & hamstring said they were done.

I’ve worn my compression socks for 24 hours straight now, only taking them off for a cold-water bath (I haven’t worked up to ice, yet) and actually legs feel great other than the top of my left calf which is still bothered but I am walking fine so it’s not too bad.

My average pace (via Garmin) was 7:53 this year–on a different course last year, it was 8:1o so I’m happy with the improvement.

Last week I posted my running goals for 2012 without much explanation.

Well, I can either sit around in my underwear and watch The Big Bang Theory or I can actually write something for this blog (also while sitting around in my underwear). While the goals themselves are pretty straight-forward, I want to explain my motivations.

First, I’m gonna man-up and take ownership. I was pussy-footing around about running a marathon. Well that’s bull-shit. I am going to run Grandma’s Marathon on June 16th, 2012. There, I said it.

I hesitated to actually commit to this because I was not sure if I was willing to properly training for it. I have run one marathon before–Grandma’s 2000–and while I didn’t die, I went into it under-trained and struggled in the second half–I went through mile 16 in about 2:14:29 (8:24 pace). From there on, though, I struggled and ran/walked the final 10.2 at 10:22 pace, finishing in 4:00:14 (watch time).

To confess, while I was happy and proud that I finished, it was not a life-changing accomplishment for me. I guess having started running at 14, I just assumed that I would be able to do it if I tried–I had run as far as 16 miles before I started training for the marathon so I just had the mentality that I just needed to run longer.

I was not even disappointed in how the second half went–I knew I was under-trained. I had some more important things going on in my life (we were expecting our first child and my mother-in-law, who lived 5 hours away, was dying of cancer) and battled a cranky ITB during training so I did not have extremely unrealistic expectations. Although when I went through the half in about 1:50, I started to think I might run a 3:40-ish.  Ha!

And while those final 14 seconds lingered in the back of my mind, I did not care enough to do anything about them. Although every time I told another runner I had run a marathon, I had to confess that those 14 blasted seconds existed.

But I thought I was content running 10 to 13.1 milers–those are great distances to race. They are long enough to be an endurance event but short enough that I can, if I want, jump into one if I’m in any sort of shape and not have to worry about being able to finish.

But then as I started to re-connect with other runners and I heard about their marathon experiences, I got the itch to try 26.2 again. Not sure when the I gave in-in August I was still saying I did not plan on running a marathon. But since September, I have run a 10-miler nearly every weekend “in case” I decided to train for a marathon. I am not only going to train for & finish a marathon but I’m going to run a marathon.

So I am starting my training. I have sketched out my plan, I have penciled-in a couple of practice races and I am going to do it. This coming weekend, I up my long run to 12 miles. I plan on doing 16 by the end of February.

And I am setting an aggressive time goal, 3:29:59. That is about what the race predictors say I should be able to run but considering I am a recycled Marathon Virgin, it should be pretty difficult.

Not sure how these old legs are gonna hold up, but I’m hoping for the best. And I’m sure I’ll bore you with some of the boring specifics.

(Originally posted on the Motley Fools message board)

This was the first running of this 13.1/5k race and I didn’t know what to expect from the organizers—they seemed to be thinking big, as the brochure promised long-sleeve performance Ts to the first 1,000 people to register. Considering the largest local race—the 25th Buckshot 5 & 2 Miler that was run over Labor Day weekend drew around 1,500 people, I thought this new event might have trouble drawing as much as they hoped.

As it turned out, they fell just a couple dozen short of their goal and, even better yet, they delivered a good race. Course was well marked and manned (although I would have liked cones on the inside of the corners), decent number of water/Gatorade stops, and better spectator support than I had hoped for.

Also going into the race, I didn’t know what to expect from myself—while having run everyday this year, I can not exactly say I’ve been doing a lot of workouts. I’ve only done two 10-milers+ all year and no workouts other than some tempo work during longer runs. Even setting a target goal was somewhat tough because my race this year—a 10k in February, a trail 10K in July that I took a wrong turn on, and a 1 miler in July really didn’t provide good data points to project to 13.1 miles. My PR was 95:39, so I settled on 1:40 as a target, which worked out to 7:38 miles. I Sharpied 95:39 and 7:38 on my hand to help me remember my PR and my goal pace.

The weather on race day was awesome—low-to-mid 50s and cloudy when I got up. Rain seemed possible but never came. Was pretty nervous at the start—definitely had the juices flowing. The first mile was through some residential streets and finished on a slight uphill but I almost cussed when I hit the first marker in 6:54. I tried to settle down but hit the second mile in a split of 6:4x despite having the largest hill on the course. I end up running scared for the next 7miles—hitting between 6:55 and 7:10 each time, but dreading the eventual crash. At each split, I tried to calculate how much ahead of my target I am and what I could crash down to and still hit my goal.

As I ticked off each mile, the fear transformed into confidence. One odd detail that I noticed that really boosted me was that I was saying “Thanks” to just about everyone out on the course cheering, and while I wasn’t fresh, I wasn’t laboring too much with my breathing.

By the end of mile 9, I had accepted the fact that only a complete crash would prevent me from hitting my goal of 1:40 and that I was still ahead of PR pace did the fear completely go away. Whether it was the lack of fear, the comfort of running the next 1.5 miles along a dirt road I frequent often, or getting to the 10-mile area that I haven’t been too much this year (only twice, actually) my pace sagged to 7:15 for mile 10 and then 7:30ish for the final three miles. During the final stretch, I felt pretty spent and had no response to the one person passing me. Finishing time was 93:39, a nice symmetric PR that should be easy to remember.

I was totally surprised by my performance, although this race has followed that pattern of most of my PRs—start out faster than I think I should be going but hold pace, running scare for the bulk of the race, with a bit of fade at the end. Looking back in my log, I probably should have expected more than I did, I ran a 7:17 pace 8.8-mile time trail a couple weeks before so with a bit of race day magic, the effort looks more probable. Part of the credit, definitely has to go to the ideal weather we had—there was a bit of wind but except for a couple spots, we were pretty shielded from it. Anyhow, it’s a PR & I’ll take it.

-O

ORN: 1 dreadmile to keep my consecutive day streak going