20 miles

Well, I completed yet another 20 mile run, this time with a new PR. View Garmin Activity here.

Yes, that's right. I've still been running. Not only running but also training for a marathon. I realised that coming back from India, I would not be able to train for a fall marathon around these parts. However, I would be able to train for a winter marathon in the south! So after some researching, I found one in Jackson, Mississippi in January. So I've been training for that marathon since September. I've been doing most of my runs in Rockford, as that's where I've been going every weekend.

Luke has been great as usual. He drops me off at the starting point and then picks me up at the ending point after a certain amount of time. And of course as my runs get longer and longer, I've been doing out and backs. Luckily, there's a good path that I run on and it's about 9 miles one way so doing today's 20 mile took a bit of finagling and adding other paths to get it expanded to 20.

I've been good at hitting the distance of my training this time. I don't travel during the winter time it seems. So much so, that I may run two 20 milers this time around as the training plan from Runner's World recommends. Shall be interesting especially after today's 20 miler. I can't imagine running yet another one!

I did today's run in 3:18:34. A personal record for me. I did a search for the other 20 mile runs that I've done in Garmin and last one was 3:34 and 3:23. This is only my third completed 20 miler and I'm training for my fifth marathon. My other two 20 mile attempts were fails at 18 and 13 miles.

I noticed that Bones in Motion (the cool website that I used to post all my stats & map) have been sold to adidas (lame-o!) so I guess I won't be using that any longer. So the link to Garmin activity is at the top.

I was a little hesitant doing this run because of the cold weather visiting us. I didn't bring enough clothes for my legs. Luke let me borrow his running pants so I was able to go out and run. Tomorrow looks like better weather but now that I've done the run, I get to enjoy the rest of my holiday weekend with this run out of the way.

Oh and Shot Bloks SUCK. They were frozen on my run and would not melt in my mouth and chewing them got all over my teeth and messed with my breathing trying to get it off my teeth. I'm throwing the other package away. Sticking with Gel Blasts from now on!

Categories: 20 mile run, Guilford Forest Preserve, Rock Cut State Park

20 mile run

I suppose I should talk about this run, just for accountability sake.

I ran 20 miles on Saturday. I ran it over on the Fox River Trail for a change of pace, plus, I wouldn't be on sand & limestone.

I got started around 9a, even though I was awake at 6. But when I saw that it felt like 31 degrees, I decided I was not going out in that. Figured that when the 9am hour said 45, I'll be good to go. That was mistake #1. Also wore a long-sleeved shirt, thinking that I was going to be a bit chilly. I even started the run with pants on. Mistake #2.

Ate around 7:45a but all I had was a banana & a bowl of cereal. That was mistake #3. I did bring some coconut water (peach mango) and 2 bottles of water with me and my PowerBar Gel Blasts.

6 miles north on a new path made the mileage go by kinda slow since I didn't know when the next mile was going to hit. At one point, I even was running on a road (I guess the trail & road merged) and I got yelled at by someone since I was running on the left side of the road, facing traffic (heading north). Needless to say, I turned around then.

I got back to my car and dropped off my pants and thought for a second of only doing 16 or so since it was warm and I'll do my 20 next weekend and then it won't be that long (5 weeks) between my 20 and my marathon. But I decided to forge ahead. Mistake #4.

By that time, it was near 11am and quite warm out. I knew I didn't have my short sleeve shirt with me in the car so I left on my long-sleeve but by this time I had pulled up the sleeves to my elbows. And I was getting warm. My socks were also causing me some discomfort and I kept checking on them and adjusting them.

I knew that I had to go to mile 16 and then turn around. At mile 15.5, I reached a break-off point and stopped for quite a bit. by this time I ran out of water in my 2 bottles and only had a little left of the coconut water but I couldn't bring myself to drink it warm.

I finally relented to the warmth and took off my long-sleeved shirt, tied it around my waist and put my 4 water bottle belt around that so I wouldn't get chafing. So for the other few miles, I ran in just a sports bra. Classy.

There was a bottle in the middle of the path. I kicked it. It had water in it. I debated for a split second if I wanted to pick it up. I did. Poured it over my head, down my back and then poured it into my mouth. Yes, I did.

Couldn't just leave an empty plastic bottle so I carried it around to the next garbage place where I recycled it but noticed that the water fountain was still covered. I was devasted. Bathroom didn't even have a sink either.

So I kept going on. Then I found it. My saviour. I screamed in joy when I saw that the next fountain was uncovered. I nearly started crying. No seriously. I did. And when I hit that button and water came out of it's spout, I was ecstatic more than I can describe. I drank so much, I filled up my water bottles and I dumped water on my arms, neck, head, face. Unfortunately, I had 2 miles left.

I finished. Disappointment washed over me when I looked at my watch. Oh well. I started walking, a lot to calm the cramps in my calves. I was in so much pain. I didn't want to get in my car and drive. I blame the warm weather and also, I had a really crappy personal week so that can be to blame as well.

But when I did, I was able to get in a cold water bath and my legs felt so much better after I got out of it. I did start having problems with my left knee though. Well, technically I have had difficulties with it for a few weeks now. I tried jogging to my car in a parking lot and it was just not happening.

So I iced all day on Sunday. And on Monday. And today. I haven't ran since Saturday. I got 16 miles on Saturday. Should be interesting. I'm trying to see if it could be a tear or ligament injury. I have knee/leg movements to try out from the about.com pages.

I haven't done any weight lifting in over a week now. When you're depressed you really don't feel like doing anything. So I'm losing the gun shows I acquired. Boo! I'll get back to it in a few weeks, I hope.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 687 ft Location: Geneva, IL Elev. Gain: +4 ft Date: 04/10/10 Up/Downhill: [+561/-557] Time: 08:58 AM Difficulty: 3.9 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 68 F temp; 38% humidity 68 F heat index; winds S 18 G 25 Performance Distance: 20.00 miles Time: 3:34:36 Speed: 5.6 mph Pace: 10' 44 /mi Calories: 2129 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 20 -1' 24 6.4 +0.8 +3 ft 2 9' 35 -1' 09 6.3 +0.7 0 ft 3 12' 49 +2' 05 4.7 -0.9 +69 ft 4 9' 42 -1' 02 6.2 +0.6 -69 ft 5 9' 54 -0' 50 6.1 +0.5 +3 ft 6 10' 08 -0' 36 5.9 +0.3 +23 ft 7 10' 09 -0' 35 5.9 +0.3 -27 ft 8 10' 19 -0' 25 5.8 +0.2 +17 ft 9 11' 02 +0' 18 5.4 -0.2 -17 ft 10 12' 05 +1' 21 5.0 -0.6 -10 ft 11 10' 37 -0' 07 5.7 +0.1 +4 ft 12 14' 55 +4' 11 4.0 -1.6 -14 ft 13 10' 46 +0' 02 5.6 -0.0 +3 ft 14 16' 18 +5' 34 3.7 -1.9 +9 ft 15 13' 27 +2' 43 4.5 -1.1 -17 ft 16 15' 23 +4' 39 3.9 -1.7 -3 ft 17 12' 37 +1' 53 4.8 -0.8 +17 ft 18 12' 34 +1' 50 4.8 -0.8 -3 ft 19 11' 21 +0' 37 5.3 -0.3 -6 ft end 12' 45 +2' 01 4.7 -0.9 +6 ft Versus average of 10' 44 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 20 mile run, Fox River Trail, hyperextended knee

Rejoice, she conquers!!

A leaf I saw on the very beginning of my run. Drops of water were so pretty!!

So I've now attempted three 20 mile training runs. If you want, you can read my other fails HERE and HERE. Today was the first one that I've ever successfully completed. And I'm incredibly happy about that!! The weather finally worked in my favour on these tries.

Follow this link to see an animated version of my run using Garmin's Player feature. Pretty sweet! Kinda even puts in my pauses too.

I attended a Kane County Cougar game last night for a friend's birthday. We then went back to her parents house for some more celebrating. I kept the beer drinking to a minimum. Went back to the hotel around 1 am. I immediately went to sleep but decided that I was going to let my body wake me up whenever. I knew that my friends were going to come out to DeKalb sometime for lunch and hopefully I'll be able to meet up with them but I knew and they understood that I must get my 20 mile run in.

I got back to DeKalb around 10:30 am. Got dressed and when checking my email, I saw that a runner in NITRO sent out an email saying that he was going to run my regular route for his 20 miles, between 1st Street and Rt. 23. He figured 8 times for doing so. On the way to DeKalb, I figured it was a 2.5 mile jaunt one way and that's why he figured 8 times. But when I got to running it, I stopped and took a picture of the map that they have. One way is only 1.29 miles. So I figured out quickly that I'll do my regular route which is about 5 miles and do that 4 times.

The great thing about this is that I got some "hills" in. It's not exactly the flatest route like Great Western Trail. But it's not exactly hills either. More like slight elevation change. It really happened once I went off my trail and onto the sidewalks of the neighbourhood loop. Going down the sidewalks, crossing any roads and then back up hurt. Especially on the 3rd loop. The entire loop was actually 5.2 miles.

On the final loop, I decided to skip the neighbourhood run since the sidewalks stopping at the roads were hard on my legs. It didn't hurt my mileage though. I still was able to get 20 miles out of it, mainly becasue of the .2 miles that the route was from start to end.

I had Jelly Belly Watermelon on the route. Had my first Gu gel, Triberry which wasn't too bad. I really don't think I like any gels now that I've had the bloks. I also had PowerBar Gel Blasts, cola flavoured and they are great!! I loved them! Tasted great and wasn't as sticky on the teeth as the ClifBar Shot Bloks. I can't wait to find more of them! I also had my 4 bottle water belt. I was really good about limiting my drinking near the beginning because of the overcast weather. But then the sun came out and I started drinking more. Luckily, on the start of my final loop, I saw a hose hooked up to a facuet in front of some condos. I turned it on and filled up my 3 empty water bottles. I knew I would need them in final 4 miles.

My friends Rob, Chris and Melissa met up for lunch in Sycamore (a town bordering DeKalb) but were done while I was just on my 4th loop. I stopped at 18.34 miles to look at a text message Rob sent and stretch a bit. I asked if Rob could meet me at my place in 20 minutes as he was leaving for Missouri soon. I started cramping pretty bad while stretching; calves, thighs, hamstrings. He agreed to meet me and was sending me text messages how I was a superstar and telling me that I can do it. As I was coming up to the end, I sent a text back saying that I was crossing Bethany. He sent one back to me saying that he thinks he sees me. As I just crossed Bethany, I saw him and waved my arms. The cars probably thought I was stupid but they didn't know how close I was to the end. I started tearing up. Rob was running towards me and then he ran back to me and we ran the last .2 miles together.

And so I did it. My first successful 20 mile run. I've never hurt so bad after a run as this before. Rob and I went upstairs to my apartment but I couldn't stay up there, not enough room to walk. So back out we went. On the second loop of my parking lot, I started cramping. I think that's from not having enough salt in my body. I wasn't drinking any Gatorade. I'll need to buy a few bottles I guess.

Rob soon left and I hopped into a cold water bath. Didn't stay cold for too long though. My body was just so warm. I stayed in for quite a bit of time, enjoying this new feeling of accomplishment! Rob pointed out that I should order a pizza. And as I'm typing this, I ordered a medium pizza with onions, green peppers and red peppers and now chewing down. 3 slices left! Will I eat it all or should I wait for later?

Either way, I'm sitting here trying to keep my legs moving whilst typing this out. I do plan on going out this evening and celebrating!! I can't wait. I'll have a slight limp but shall be OK anyway. And then sleeping in tomorrow! Just hope I won't hurt too bad when getting up!

Just to tease myself, I went ahead and calculated how fast I would run a marathon if I did a 10:11 min/mi pace in it. That would end up being a 4:26!! I would finally have my under 4:30 marathon! While I don't think I could keep that pace up, it would be great to finally get that.

Beside the usual muscle soreness, the bottoms of my feet were burning. Specifically the pad under my big toe. I'm starting to think that the shoes are too wide for me? Supposedly these are narrow. But my feet keep sliding around and causing rubbing? Not sure. I do have a blister on the side of my big toe. That came from my 16 mile run and 3rd run in these shoes. Now it'll go down and then I run and it'll come right back. But I don't feel this particular blister on my run. Today it was just the rubbing of the bottom of my feet that hurt me pretty bad. And actually it was almost making me want to stop. I've got to fix this problem fast!! I'm thinking of popping this blister and getting it done and over with.

My lovely blister that keeps coming back!! :(

Below are my Garmin stats. Not too shabby. :)

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 859 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 08/29/09 Up/Downhill: [+734/-738] Time: 11:14 AM Difficulty: 3.9 / 5.0 Weather: Mostly Cloudy 64 F temp; 69% humidity 64 F heat index; winds W 12 G 22 Performance Distance: 20.00 miles Time: 3:23:43 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 11 /mi Calories: 2143 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 23 -0' 48 6.4 +0.5 +36 ft 2 9' 52 -0' 19 6.1 +0.2 -17 ft 3 9' 33 -0' 38 6.3 +0.4 -7 ft 4 9' 55 -0' 16 6.0 +0.2 +3 ft 5 9' 54 -0' 17 6.1 +0.2 +3 ft 6 9' 53 -0' 18 6.1 +0.2 +6 ft 7 10' 16 +0' 05 5.8 -0.1 -10 ft 8 9' 45 -0' 26 6.2 +0.3 -6 ft 9 10' 02 -0' 09 6.0 +0.1 +3 ft 10 9' 53 -0' 18 6.1 +0.2 +16 ft 11 9' 52 -0' 19 6.1 +0.2 0 ft 12 10' 07 -0' 04 5.9 +0.0 -3 ft 13 10' 09 -0' 02 5.9 +0.0 -23 ft 14 12' 05 +1' 54 5.0 -0.9 -17 ft 15 10' 29 +0' 18 5.7 -0.2 +42 ft 16 10' 21 +0' 10 5.8 -0.1 -3 ft 17 12' 05 +1' 54 5.0 -0.9 +7 ft 18 10' 03 -0' 08 6.0 +0.1 -23 ft 19 14' 23 +4' 12 4.2 -1.7 +36 ft end 9' 53 -0' 18 6.1 +0.2 -23 ft Versus average of 10' 11 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 20 mile run, DeKalb Nature Trail, pictures

20 mile FAIL: Mental or Physical?

I swear my 20 mile runs never go the way I planned. The last one I attempted was November 19. I understand the cold in November. Today is March 28. I don't understand the 30F degree weather & brutal cold wind today.

This morning I stated on Twitter that I already knew the run was not going to go well. I just wasn't feeling it. It was 28 with a wind chill of 19, 17 mph ENE winds, my mind was already full of negative thoughts. I just wanted to stay in bed and sleep.

I got ready anyway. Ate a bowl of oatmeal and a PowerBar Harvest. Dressed like it was February and not the end of March. I drove up to the start of the Great Western Bike Path. Got all situated and took off.

The first 1/2 mile was fine, I was in woods and didn't feel the wind. After that though, it was all downhill. I swear to you, I wanted to walk within the first 2 miles. I stopped at some point early on and took out the rocks that I could feel in my shoes. I let the guy running behind me pass. He was the same one I saw a few weeks ago. I stayed with him for quite a bit. Then we came up to 6 miles. I was debating in my head at 5.5 of just going the extra mile to 7 miles and then I'll turn around but once I got to 6 miles, I stopped and just couldn't go on anymore.

I turned around and headed on back. The wind was finally at my back, kinda. It was coming from the East/Northeast and I was heading west. But I still wasn't feeling like the wind was helping any. From this point on, I pretty much stopped for a short break after every mile. Until mile 10. After that, it was pretty often.

I got back to the start just after 12 miles. I decided to run back out til I was out of the woods and then it got windy so I turned around, that gave me over 13 and I stopped again. Decided to go back out a little ways and try to get around 13.5. I finished with 13.6 miles. Oh well. I was also a snotty mess and didn't bring my snot rag with me. When I got back tot he car I noticed that I had snot all over my balaclava and of course I used my jacket to blow my nose. Ick ick ick. I didn't have my running jacket (zipper got stuck so it's a seamstress getting fixed so I was wearing one that was cotton but I didn't get overheated or anything) and this jacket was way too big but the bigness came in handy when it came to blowing my nose!

The mental fail part was because I knew it was 20 miles. Even just the sound of it is daunting. Let alone doing it. I tried to think of it as a 3:20 minute run instead but even that didn't help. The weather of course affected my thoughts too. It's the last Saturday in March, it should be nice weather! Average high is 44, average low is 26. The winds also got to me. I compared last weeks run weather conditions to that of northern Illinois. It was 12 mph winds and only like 4 or 5 mph in southern Illinois.

The physical aspects of today's run came from the fact that I think I'm overtrained. Since February I have been adding mileage to my long runs without a step back week. And I have been adding 2 miles at a time to the long run. My legs are tired. So with that, this will be the start of my taper. My race is in 3 weeks now anyway.

Next Saturday, has me running with Erin. I'm looking forward to it! She's in her taper for the Illinois Half Marathon in 2 weeks. We'll be running together on her path, which looks great after seenig the pictures she's posted.

I'm tired. I actually feel napping and I haven't felt like in a while! Overall, I just hope that I'll be able to run 26 miles and I won't have this feeling again. Maybe this marathon will be my last.

Someone's Gatorade stash. It was actually under the grass a bit so I have a feeling it's been there a while.

Not a very good shot, but you can see the green buds starting to come out on the bushes/trees!

This is the beginning of my path. See the woods. Oh so very nice!

And this is after 1/2 mile into it. It opens up and then you get nothing but wind. Grr., not fun.

My Garmin stats. If you notice, I was keeping a pretty even pace. Which I didn't know until I saw this. I wasn't looking at my Garmin, I was afraid of what I would see! However, they don't count the stops I had to make. So if you want to count those, then go with my Bones in Motion stats.

Stats:

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 870 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 03/28/09 Up/Downhill: [+203/-203] Time: 08:15 AM Difficulty: 3.9 / 5.0 Weather: Fair and Breezy 33 F temp; 75% humidity 33 F heat index; winds NE 23 G 28 Performance Distance: 13.60 miles Time: 2:15:43 Speed: 6.0 mph Pace: 9' 59 /mi Heart Rate: 175 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1452 185 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 07 +0' 08 5.9 -0.1 165 +23 ft 2 9' 59 +0' 00 6.0 -0.0 178 +7 ft 3 10' 12 +0' 13 5.9 -0.1 176 -10 ft 4 10' 09 +0' 10 5.9 -0.1 180 +9 ft 5 10' 12 +0' 13 5.9 -0.1 179 -13 ft 6 10' 18 +0' 19 5.8 -0.2 182 +3 ft 7 10' 02 +0' 03 6.0 -0.0 173 -4 ft 8 11' 00 +1' 01 5.5 -0.6 173 +13 ft 9 12' 05 +2' 06 5.0 -1.1 171 -9 ft 10 11' 14 +1' 15 5.3 -0.7 175 +10 ft 11 10' 45 +0' 46 5.6 -0.4 172 -7 ft 12 9' 39 -0' 20 6.2 +0.2 171 -23 ft 13 10' 54 +0' 55 5.5 -0.5 173 0 ft end 9' 32 -0' 27 6.3 +0.3 176 0 ft Versus average of 9' 59 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 13 miles, 20 mile run, Great Western Trail, mental, overtraining, pictures