Showing posts with label 17 miles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 17 miles. Show all posts

Monday, April 19, 2010

17 miles

What a busy weekend! I'm surprised I had any time or energy to get in my 17 miles but I did!

Friday night had me going up to Madison for a concert of my favourite indie band with a good friend of mine. Getting home at 3:30a and finally passing out a little after 4a.

Saturday night had me waking up at 8a to leave by 9a to get to Chicago so I can park at the same friends house and taking a bus up to Wrigley Field to catch a Cubs game. I was freezing my buns off in the upper deck and in the shade with a strong wind blowing in from the lake. OUCH!

Came back to my friends house to get some rest (no sleeping, just chilling) to get ready for another concert off the same band with the same friend! Finally caught up with my sleep a little that night. Going to bed around 3a and waking up at 9:40a.

I left relatively soon after that to head back out to DeKalb to hopefully start my 16 mile run. I decided to do it on the path around DeKalb instead of the Great Western Trail.

I got home and my apartment was 54 degrees! It was 50 outside! I ate a bagel and got dressed with shorts & a long-sleeve shirt. Yep, I did that. I only had one knee band and I put that around my left knee. I have to look tonight to see if I can find the other one.

I knew right away I was going slow and that's how I wanted it. With not running for a week, it was going to be interesting to see if I can get 16 miles in at all.

Nothing really to report from the first half. I was reaching a road crossing and I thought I saw a guy's car I knew. I was surprised to see him in town but I remembered that I had let him borrow 2 books last JUNE and he never read them but I still hadn't picked them up from his mother's house. So I was thinking I need to get down there that day and pick them up.

When I reached the end of the DeKalb Nature Trail, I had only hit 6 miles. I knew his mother lived on the same road and wondered if I could run down there and get 8 miles. So I attempted it. That first mile was THE longest mile EVER. I couldn't believe it. But I made it to his mother's house with his car outside and knocked on the door. 7.69 miles. Booo.

My friend asked if I was going to run back with those 2 books, I told him it was the only way, I ran here. Plus, I knew that he was never going to drop them off to me. I ate some PowerBar Gel Blasts, asked if I could fill up my water bottle and with 2 books in hand, I took off again.

Even within that first mile, it was tough going. I was constantly switching hands back & forth. Putting one book in each hand. My forearms were starting to burn. Wasn't fun. And that's when the times started to slow down.

At one point, right around 11.5 miles, I had to drop the books and I just stood there shaking out my arms for a bit. I knew I couldnt' keep it up for too much longer. That and I knew that I had a hill coming up soon and I didn't know if I would be able to trudge those books up that hill. So I started looking for a drop point and I found one just after 12 miles. I dumped them under a dumpster at the NPR station at NIU. I just knew i had to remember to get them before the day was over.

I felt a lot better after that. My running did seem a little bit easier. I did the math with what I knew of my normal path and the distance left. If I ran the same path, I would have just over 15 and that wasn't cool with me. If I added the other part of the path I would have nearly 16.5. So decided to just go with it. I was starting to hurt and I kept saying "just get to the next ______."

I tried filling it up at spigets that these pillars out in front of a condo place but alas, they weren't turned on yet. I finally ran out of water with less than 1 mile to go. Saw 16.5 come and go and decided to keep on going. At my normal start/stop point, I had 16.8. Well, I couldn't leave it at that distance so I continued to 17. Good enough.

My legs weren't cramping at all either. My left knee felt OK. I was surprised. I do have to remember to not wear a long-sleeved shirt in 50 degree weather. That wasn't a smart move at all.

Luke came over about an hour later and after just hanging out and telling him about my run, we went on a bike ride. Well, I went on a bike ride, he went rollerblading. He actually said that he didn't think he would be able to keep up with me. As I carried my bike down the stairs, I felt my calves a bit, I giggled and said "I don't think you need to worry about keeping up with me! I did run 17 miles a few hours ago!" And sure enough, we were able to go about the same speed. So that was good.

However by about mile 4, I started to feel my left knee have some pain. He suggested that we go back but I declined saying that we might as well go as far as he wanted to go. And we did. All together it was 11.6 miles (according to my bike computer, while the Garmin got started late because of stupid satellites). And we were both freezing by the time we got back. Especially him since he was wearing a short sleeve shirt & shorts!

I was walking around my apartment afterwards and I felt tightness & pain in my left knee. Luke kept telling me to ice it but alas, I couldn't just sit for a while since I am expecting company tonight and had to clean up my place. And I never did ice for the rest of the night either.

Woke up this morning and felt great muscle wise but then I sat for quite a while at my desk at work. I got up and my legs hurt, especially my hip area. I swear I want to go work at a place where I can be moving. I hate having officechairitis.

Not running again until Wednesday, to give my knee sometime off and also cause I have stuff going on on Monday & Tuesday. I'm almost in taper mode. 6 miles on Saturday, followed by 13.1 (Illinois half Marathon in Champaign) and then another 8 miles and then my marathon. Gah. 4 weekends left!


Activity
Route:--Elev. Avg:856 ft
Location:DeKalb, ILElev. Gain:-3 ft
Date:04/18/10Up/Downhill: [+387/-390]
Time:12:41 PMDifficulty:3.5 / 5.0
Weather:Fair
58 F temp; 31% humidity
58 F heat index; winds N 10
Performance

Distance: 17.00 miles
Time:2:47:09
Speed:6.1 mph
Pace:9' 50 /mi
Calories:1818
Map
Elevation (ft)
Pace (min/mile)
Splits
MilePace (min/mile)Speed (mph)Elevation
Gain
actual+/- avgactual+/- avg
19' 35-0' 156.3+0.2+20 ft
29' 25-0' 256.4+0.3-6 ft
39' 11-0' 396.5+0.4-13 ft
49' 18-0' 326.5+0.30 ft
59' 31-0' 196.3+0.20 ft
69' 24-0' 266.4+0.3+7 ft
79' 29-0' 216.3+0.2+43 ft
89' 35-0' 156.3+0.20 ft
99' 45-0' 056.2+0.0-29 ft
109' 52+0' 026.1-0.0-10 ft
1110' 17+0' 275.8-0.3-6 ft
1212' 50+3' 004.7-1.40 ft
1310' 07+0' 175.9-0.20 ft
1410' 21+0' 315.8-0.3+33 ft
1510' 18+0' 285.8-0.3-23 ft
1611' 00+1' 105.5-0.7+19 ft
end10' 16+0' 265.8-0.3-33 ft
Versus average of 9' 50 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Monday, August 24, 2009

Corn Fest and a long run


The free corn from Del Monte at Corn Fest!

So this weekend was DeKalb's annual festival called Corn Fest. I've been on the board for 3 years and volunteered the year before that. I'm in charge of gathering all the volunteers and assigning them to places around the fest and then checking them in and directing them to how to do their job, etc. This mean that I even have volunteers that help me with set-up on Friday morning. So here was the final outcome of my hours at Corn Fest:
Friday: 8am to 11:11pm
Saturday: 9:00am to 11:50pm
Sunday: 9:30am to 9pm

So full days. Walking around (it's held an airport so quite an extensive ground coverage), some running, LOADS of standing! After last years experience out there at the airport, I could hardly walk on Monday. So I kinda knew what to expect with my body. Sunday morning, I felt my first pain in my calves and thighs. I knew that Sunday was also going to be our most hectic day. It did not disappoint.

Now let me get my running talk in here. Last year I had just started training for a marathon, so missing my run was no big deal. In fact, I was still able to get my run in because I had a complimentary registration to the Corn Fest 10k on Saturday morning at 8:30am. I had an assistant last year who said that she could check in the volunteers while I ran the race. So I ran the 6.2 miles and it counted towards my marathon training. I arrived around 10:30a last year. But this year, I really had no assistant to help so I had to forego it plus, my schedule had me running 18 miles. I didn't want to 2 run day, do 6 on Saturday and then 12 on Sunday or Monday. I don't think it would have been helpful to me.

What my boss allowed me to do is take Monday off, because I would be sore and I have loads of errands to run as well. Plus, I figured I could run my 18 miles. And that I did. Well, kinda.

I went to be around 10:30p or so and had the alarm go off at 6am. I ignored it. Went off again at 7am, I ignored it. Again at 8am and started to stir at that time. I heard that the temp was still 55 so I thought that it would be good. I finally got out of bed and my thighs hurt soooo bad. I was worried about whether or not I should even do this run! But it had warmed up to 70 by that time. Hmm, oh well. I live and learn right?

But decided (with the help of @bhop7 on Twitter) I would do 15 and see how I feel for another 3. Finally got to the trailhead at 10:22am. How did I know that so specifically? There was a vagabond with his tent at the mile marker and he had asked me. Odd...

It's funny. During the week on my city path, I can't run a 10 min pace. But out there on my limestone trail, I can keep a 10 minute pace just fine. I didn't even start out fast, I started out with a 9:52 first mile! And that was the plan and that I did, except for towards the end. In fact, my breathing was quite easy even at mile 3 & 4. I was amazed.

I was sick of running to music, so I threw on a few Steve Runner podcasts. He always helped the miles go by. I think it's because it's talking and not so much monotonous music all the time. I decided that at 8.5 to turn around. Not sure why I picked that spot but it was in the shade and I stopped. That first half was very consistent and was done at a 9:57 min/mi pace. Just what I wanted.

I ate my first Clif Shot on this run. Strawberry. And it was nasty. Won't be eating those again. I like my PowerBar gels instead. Now the Clif Shot Bloks I love. Had a few of those too. I had my 4 water bottles with me in my waist pack. I made sure to ration those carefully. As in no dumping over my head. I did run out out of the water in 3 bottles so as I ran past the Sycamore Speedway, I thought about going in there to fill up in a bathroom. Unfortunately it was closed. However, the Winner's Circle bar next to it, looked open! So I ran over and sure enough it was! I asked for the restroom and filled up my bottles. Soooo good! I went outside and nearly guzzled one down and then dumped a little over my head. I only had 3 miles at that point, so I was safe.

I did a lot of walking in that second half. Well, twice I walked for a minute or so, but paused a lot. It was tough. The Sun was hotter and a lot warmer out. I kept at it though and soon said that if I could keep going to the end then I'll stop at 17. And stop I did. The vagabond was gone, he had passed me on his motorised bike (that pedaled??) with this kid bike pull-along that I guess he put his tent in. I was running slower miles but my average pace was still around the 10 min/mi which is fine.

So I ended at 17.1 miles. Not too shabby for being as sore as I am. I turned on my car and the AC in it, waited for it to cool down while I walked around some. Drove the 4 miles home and my muscles locked up. I grrrr'ed in agony getting out of the car. Came inside, took a cold water bath for 10 minutes, then a hot shower. Now I'm writing this up and will be doing some errands just to keep the muscles moving and then going up to Rockford for some grub. I'm even more sore now. Especially my thighs. Getting to the standing position after sitting in the tub was quite an ordeal.

Here are a few pics of corn Fest and I'll include 2 that I took on my run today.
I got to ride on an open-air biplane! One of the best perks from this weekend!

It rained pretty bad on Friday night.

Another option of Corn Fest, a car show.

The free corn!!

A crowd in one of the vendor aisles.

The sponsor tent/hanger area.

The clouds and the crowds!

The crowds all together! Holy moly!


Soundstage crowd inside the beer garden.

Still more crowds!

And now the aftermath!


Pictures from my run:
Gorgeous, isn't it?

Activity
Route:--Elev. Avg:873 ft
Location:Sycamore, ILElev. Gain:+0 ft
Date:08/24/09Up/Downhill: [+236/-236]
Time:10:22 AMDifficulty:3.2 / 5.0
Weather:Partly Cloudy
73 F temp; 61% humidity
73 F heat index; winds S 9
Performance

Distance: 17.10 miles
Time:2:53:41
Speed:5.9 mph
Pace:10' 09 /mi
Calories:1832
Map
Elevation (ft)
Pace (min/mile)
Splits
MilePace (min/mile)Speed (mph)Elevation
Gain
actual+/- avgactual+/- avg
19' 52-0' 176.1+0.2+23 ft
29' 54-0' 156.1+0.1+7 ft
39' 50-0' 196.1+0.2-10 ft
49' 58-0' 116.0+0.1+9 ft
59' 53-0' 166.1+0.2-16 ft
610' 02-0' 076.0+0.1+6 ft
710' 01-0' 086.0+0.10 ft
810' 02-0' 076.0+0.1+10 ft
910' 06-0' 035.9+0.0-4 ft
1010' 17+0' 085.8-0.1-6 ft
119' 56-0' 136.0+0.10 ft
1210' 29+0' 205.7-0.2-3 ft
1310' 33+0' 245.7-0.2+13 ft
1413' 45+3' 364.4-1.6-10 ft
1510' 44+0' 355.6-0.3+10 ft
1610' 44+0' 355.6-0.3-10 ft
1710' 16+0' 075.8-0.1-20 ft
Versus average of 10' 09 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com